NormalizeHEADmain

10 files changed, 17 insertions, 25876 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7b82bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+*.txt text eol=lf
+*.htm text eol=lf
+*.html text eol=lf
+*.md text eol=lf
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a13853
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #51955 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51955)
diff --git a/old/51955-0.txt b/old/51955-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 9f2f7be..0000000
--- a/old/51955-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5831 +0,0 @@
-Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Man of Last Resort
-       Or, The Clients of Randolph Mason
-
-Author: Melville Davisson Post
-
-Release Date: May 2, 2016 [EBook #51955]
-Last Updated: March 16, 2018
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THE MAN OF LAST RESORT
-
-Or, The Clients Of Randolph Mason
-
-By Melville Davisson Post
-
-G. P. Putnam's Sons New York And London
-
-1897
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-IN this _fin-de-sîècle_ time, society has grown liberal, it is said,
-and yet he who thrusts a lever under sage customs, or he who points out
-the vice of institutions long established, may deem himself happy if he
-be permitted to strip against the duellist rather than the mob. Even
-if one come new into the courts of the _literati_ with a cloak dyed a
-different hue from his fellows, he will scarcely have passed the doorway
-ere the taunting challenge, “Do you fight, my lord?”
-
-The author, in a previous volume entitled _The Strange Schemes of
-Randolph Mason_, pointed out certain defects in the criminal law, and
-demonstrated how the skilful rogue could commit not a few of the higher
-crimes in such a manner as to render the law powerless to punish him.
-The suggestion was, it seems, considered startling and the volume has
-provoked large discussion. A few gentlemen of no inconsiderable legal
-learning, and certain others to be classified as moral reformers,
-contended that the book must be dangerous because it explained with
-great detail how one could murder or steal and escape punishment. If the
-laws were to be improved, they said, “would it not be more wisely done
-by influencing a few political leaders?”
-
-While such a criticism does not come from any considerable number of
-authorities, it has been honestly made and is entitled to consideration.
-
-The vice of it lies, it seems to me, in a failure to grasp the actual
-nature of our institutions. It is a maxim of our system that the law
-making power of the state rests in the first instance with the people of
-the state. This power, for the purpose of convenience, is delegated to
-certain selected persons who meet together in order to put into effect
-the will of the people.
-
-The so-called law-makers are therefore not law-makers at all, in the
-sense of being originators of the law; they are rather agents who come
-up from their respective districts under instructions. Such agents are
-simply temporary representatives of the citizens of their respective
-districts, directly responsible to them and charged with no duty other
-than that of putting their will into effect. The agent or delegate
-should therefore approach very conservatively any matter upon which the
-will of his constituency has not been satisfactorily determined. It is,
-then, apparent that the influence which makes or which alters the law
-is a force exerted from without. No change in the law can be properly
-or safely brought about except through the pressure of public sentiment.
-The need for the law must be first felt by the people and the demand for
-it made before the legislator is warranted in acting. The representative
-would otherwise become a presumptive usurper, afflicting the people
-with statutes for which there was no public demand; and such laws, so
-improperly obtained, would be without the support of public sentiment
-and would be liable to repeal.
-
-Hence it is entirely clear that if the existing law prove to be unjust
-or defective, the people must be brought to see and appreciate such
-injustice or inadequacy and to demand the requisite modification.
-
-This contention can, as it seems to me, not be gainsaid. It is
-respectfully urged that no other method of securing wise changes in
-the law can be properly pursued under democratic institutions. To hold
-otherwise is to take issue with the wisdom of democracy itself, and with
-so rash a champion the writer has no spear to break. Indeed, he makes
-this explanation with immense unwillingness, as he feels that he should
-not be required to defend a truth so evident. It is like demonstrating
-gravely that the earth is round and that sun light is an energy.
-
-Yet he is advised that attention should be called to this matter, lest
-the thoughtless condemn upon a hearing _ex-parte_. Indeed, even after
-the punishment of _la peine forte et dure_ is gone out these many
-hundred years, the good citizen will hardly hold that one guiltless who
-stands dumb while hidden evils assail. If men about their affairs were
-passing to and fro across a great bridge, and one should discover that
-certain planks in its flooring were defective, would he do ill if he
-pointed them out to his fellows? If men labored in the shops and traded
-in the market confident in the security of their city's wall, and one
-should perceive that the wall was honeycombed with holes, could he stand
-dumb and escape the stigma of being a traitor? The law makes little
-difference in the degree of moral turpitude between the _suppressio
-veri_ and the _suggestio falsi_. Both are grievous wrongs. The duty
-of the individual to the state is imperative. He cannot evade it and
-continue to regard himself as a worthy citizen.
-
-Is there not in all this criticism a faint suggestion of the men who
-“darken counsel by words without knowledge”?
-
-Lycurgus taught the laws to the people, Solon taught the laws to the
-people. The Roman law provided for a final appeal from the consul to
-the people, and the very essence of republican institutions lies, as
-has been said, in a recognition of the people as the source of the
-law-making power. If the law offers imperfect security and is capable of
-revision, the people must be taught in order that they may revise it. If
-it offers insufficient security and is incapable of revision, then the
-people must be taught in order that they may protect themselves. This
-conclusion is irresistible. To counsel otherwise is to share in the
-odium of that short-sighted ambassador who urged upon Pericles the
-wisdom of reversing the tablet upon which the law was written in order
-that the people might not read the decree.
-
-Surely, then, he who points out the vices of the law to the people
-cannot be said to do evil, unless the law of the land is to be made by
-a narrow patriciate sitting, like the Areopagus of ancient Athens, with
-closed doors.
-
-That yesterday in which the enemies of society plied their craft by
-means of the jimmy and the dark lantern is now almost entirely past. The
-master rogue has discovered, with immense satisfaction, that the labor
-of others may be enjoyed, and the results of their labor seized and
-appropriated to his uses, without thrusting himself within the control
-of criminal tribunals.
-
-Wise magistrates, laboring for the welfare of the race, have been
-pleased to write down what should be done and what should not be done,
-and have called it “law.” The citizen, having no time to inquire, has
-gone about his trade under the impression that these rules were offering
-ample protection to his person and his property. But the law, being
-of human device, is imperfect, and in this fag end of the nineteenth
-century, the evil genius thrusts through and despoils the citizen,
-and the robbery is all the more easy because the victim sleeps in a
-consciousness of perfect security.
-
-The writer has undertaken to point out a few of the more evident
-inadequacies of the law and a few of the simpler methods for evasion
-that are utilized by the skilful villain. It must be borne in mind,
-however, that more gigantic and more intricate methods for evading the
-law and for appropriating the property of the citizen are available.
-The unwritten records of business ventures and the reports of courts
-are crowded with the record of huge schemes having for their ultimate
-purpose the robbery of the citizen. Some of these have been successful
-and some have failed. Enough have brought great fortunes to their daring
-perpetrators to appal that one who looks on with the welfare of human
-society at heart.
-
-The reader must bear in mind that the law herein dealt with is the law
-as it is administered in the legal forms of his country, in no degree
-changed and in no degree colored by the imagination of the author. Every
-legal statement represents an established principle, thoroughly analyzed
-by the courts of last resort. There can be no question as to the
-probable truth of these legal conclusions. They are as certainly
-established as it is possible for the decisions of courts to establish
-any principle of law.
-
-The reader is reminded that the schemes of skilled plotters, resorted
-to for the purpose of defeating the spirit of the law, are, for the most
-part, too elaborate and too intricate to be made the subject of popular
-discussion. An attempt to explain to the but half-interested layman
-plots of this character would be as vain as an attempt to demonstrate
-an abstract problem in analytical mechanics. The knaves who have been
-pleased to devote their energies and their capacities to problems of
-this nature are experts learned and capable, and against these the
-average man of affairs can defend himself but poorly. He may be warned,
-however, and the author will have accomplished his purpose if he
-succeeds in identifying the black flag of such pirate crafts.
-
-In the present volume he has deemed it wise to continue to utilize as
-his central figure the lawyer, Randolph Mason,--a rather mysterious
-legal misanthrope, having no sense of moral obligation, but learned in
-the law, who by virtue of the strange tilt of his mind is pleased to
-strive with the difficulties of his clients as though they were mere
-problems involving no matter of right or equity or common justice.
-
-This emotionless counsellor has already been introduced to the public.
-He has been described as a man in the middle forties. “Tall and
-reasonably broad across the shoulders; muscular, without being either
-stout or lean.” His hair was thin and of a brown color, with erratic
-streaks of gray. His forehead was broad and high and of a faint reddish
-color.
-
-His eyes were restless, inky black, and not over large. The nose was big
-and muscular and bowed. The eyebrows were black and heavy, almost bushy.
-There were heavy furrows, running from the nose downward and outward to
-the comers of the mouth. The mouth was straight, and the jaw was heavy
-and square.
-
-“Looking at the face of Randolph Mason from above, the expression in
-repose was crafty and cynical; viewed from below upward, it was savage
-and vindictive, almost brutal; while from the front, if looked squarely
-in the face, the stranger was fascinated by the animation of the man.
-and at once concluded that his expression was at the same time sneering
-and fearless. He was evidently of Southern extraction and a man of
-unusual power.”
-
-This counsellor, keen, powerful, and yet devoid of any sense of moral
-obligation, is possessed of this one idea---that the difficulties of men
-are problems and that he can solve them; that the law, being of human
-origin, can be evaded; that its servants, being but men like the others,
-may be balked, and thwarted and baffled in their efforts at a proper
-administration of this law.
-
-It is the age of the able rogue, and, in examining his rascally schemes,
-the writer has finally come to believe that the ancient maxim, which
-declares that the law will always find a remedy for a wrong, is, in this
-present time of hasty legislation, not to be accepted as trustworthy.
-
-
-_(See the learned opinion of Mr. Justice Matthews in the case of Irwin
-vs. Williar, no U. S. Reports, 499; the case of Waugh vs. Beck, 114 Pa.
-State, 422; also Williamson vs. Baley, 78 Mo., 636; 15 B. Monroe, Ky.
-Reports, 138. See also, in Virginia, the case of Machir vs. Moore, 2
-Grat., 258.)_
-
-
-
-
-THE GOVERNOR'S MACHINE
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THERE was something on the Governor's mind, and when this condition
-obtained, interesting events had usually followed in the far Southwest.
-This highly mystic mental status had preceded the efforts of a Federal
-Court to compel him to act under a mandamus, and the result was history.
-It had preceded a memorable conflict between the legislature at large
-and His Excellency, the Governor, also at large, and immediately
-thereafter a certain statute had sprung into existence prohibiting the
-massing of State troops within one hundred miles of the Capitol during
-the sitting of the Solons of the Commonwealth; but it was a law after
-the fact. It had preceded also the mercurial efforts of the so-called
-patriotic orders to impeach the Executive for malfeasance, misfeasance,
-and nonfeasance,--an effort that had brought to its instigators only a
-lurid and inglorious rout.
-
-The Governor was standing at the eastern window of his private office
-looking out at the monotonous brown tablelands stretching away to the
-foothills of the blue mountains that marked the outer limits of his
-jurisdiction. He was a young man, this Governor, with the firm, straight
-figure of a soldier and the gracious bearing of important ancestry. His
-eyes were brown, and his hair and Van Dyke beard were brown also--all
-indicative, say the sages, of precisely what the Governor was not.
-He was perfectly groomed. Every morning when he walked down to the
-State-house he was the marvel and the fastidious spotless idol of the
-far Southwest.
-
-One would have imagined that this handsome fellow had just stepped
-out from a smart New York club, could he have forgotten that such
-an institution was almost a continent to eastward. The Governor had
-maintained that it was quite possible to live as a gentleman should
-wherever Providence had provided Chinamen and water, and that the matter
-was not entirely hopeless if the Chinamen were not to be had, so the
-water remained.
-
-It was true indeed that the Executive had maintained his customs with
-no little pain against the divers protests of gods and men, ofttimes
-wrought in silence, but not infrequently urged fiercely in the open.
-But the Governor was not one with whom meddling folk could trifle and
-preserve the peace. This fact certain bad men had learned to their hurt
-west of the Gila, and divers evil-disposed persons regretted and were
-buried, and regretted and remembered south of the Pecos. So that in time
-this matter came to be regarded as a peculiarity, and passed into
-common respect as is the way with the peculiarities of those expeditious
-spirits who shoot first and explain afterwards.
-
-The Governor was aroused from his reverie by his private secretary who
-came in at this moment from the outer office.
-
-“Governor,” said the young man, “there is a strike at the Big Injin.”
-
-“Well,” replied the Executive, “telegraph the sheriff.”
-
-“But,” said the Secretary, “the sheriff has just telegraphed us.”
-
-“Then,” continued the Executive, “send a courier to Colonel Shiraf.”
-
-“But Colonel Shiraf is out on the Ten Mile.”
-
-“In that case,” said the Governor, “you must go up to the mines, and
-if the dignity of the Commonwealth needs to be maintained, you will
-maintain it, Dave. You should find some troops at the post, some herders
-at the cattle ranch, and a very large proportion of the State Guards, by
-this time quite drunk, at a horse fair in Garfield County. If they are
-required, notify me.”
-
-As the secretary turned to leave the room, the Governor called him
-back. “Dave, my boy,” he said, “peace in this Commonwealth is a sacred
-thing--a superlatively sacred thing, so sacred that we are going to
-have it if thereby the word 'census' becomes a meaningless term; and
-remember, my boy, that the State is very expeditious.”
-
-The secretary went out and closed the door behind him, while His
-Excellency, Alfred Capland Randal, forgetting the report, turned back
-to the window. The air from the great brown plain came up dry and hot;
-above the blue mountains the sun looked like a splotch of bloody red,
-and over it all brooded the monotonous--the almost hopeless silence of
-the far Southwest.
-
-The something on the Governor's mind was a something of grave import,
-for which he could evidently find no solution, and presently he began
-to pace the length of his private office with long strides, and with his
-hands thrust deep into his pockets.
-
-Suddenly the door opened and a Chinaman entered with a telegram. The
-Governor looked up sharply, and taking the envelope tore it open with
-evident unconcern. When his eyes ran over the message he drew in a deep
-breath, and, seating himself at a table, spread out the paper before
-him. This was the advent of the unexpected, for which Mr. Randal was not
-quite prepared, and this his manner exhibited to such a degree that
-the stolid Celestial wondered vaguely what was up with the big foreign
-devil.
-
-“Our train stops at El Paso,” ran the telegram, “you will come up, won't
-you?--M. L.”
-
-The Governor stroked his Van Dyke beard, and the fine lines came out on
-his face. “Of all times,” he muttered. Then he turned to the Chinaman.
-“Have my overcoat at the depot at six. I am going to El Paso, and shall
-not return until late.”
-
-The Chinaman vanished, and the Executive crushed the telegram in his
-hands, thrust it into his pocket, and resumed his march up and down the
-private office.
-
-This Governor was the crowning achievement of a machine. He was the
-elder son of an ancient family in Massachusetts, and had been reared and
-educated in an atmosphere of culture. It had been the intention of his
-family to have him succeed his father with the practice of the law,
-but the plans of men are subject to innumerable perils, and it soon
-developed that young Mr. Randal was not at all adapted to the duties of
-a barrister. Indeed it was very early apparent that nature had intended
-this man for the precarious vagaries of a public life. He was magnetic,
-generous, with a splendid presence, and the careless, speculative spirit
-of a gambler. In truth, Alfred Capland Randal was a politician _per
-se_. While in college he had been a restless element, injecting the
-principles of practical policy into everything he touched, from the
-Greek-letter fraternities to the examinations in Tacitus, and all with
-such reckless, jovial abandon that divers sage members of the faculty
-speculated with much wonder as to which particular penal institution
-would be his ultimate domicile.
-
-At times the elder Randal had been summoned to attend these grave
-sittings of the faculty, and straightway thereafter the rigid New
-England lawyer had lectured his son at great length and with bitter
-invective, to which the young man attended in a fashion that was
-amiable, and immediately disregarded in a fashion that was equally
-amiable. Thus in the Puritanic bosom of the father the conclusion grew
-and fattened and matured that the eldest scion of his house was an
-entirely worthless scapegrace, while the son was quite as certain that
-his father was a very sincere, but an entirely misguided old gentleman.
-
-The result of these divergent opinions was that on a certain June
-evening young Randal sat down upon a bench in the park of his father's
-country place with the express purpose of planning his career. Out of
-the confidence of youth he determined upon two ultimate results. One
-was, of course, wealth, and the other was an elaborate and entirely
-proper wedding ceremony with a certain Miss Marion Lanmar. This young
-lady, Randal had met at a football game at Harvard, and afterward in New
-York, where she resided with her aunt, Mrs. Hester Beaufort.
-
-The gigantic confidence of youth is certainly a matter of sublime wonder
-to the gods. One at all familiar with the ways of things would have at
-once pronounced both results quite impossible to the improvident young
-man. But from the standpoint of exuberant youth there seemed to be no
-important obstacles except the possible delay, and this was not very
-material, as the world was young and these were things to be had in the
-farther future.
-
-For the present, Randal determined to organize a political machine and
-transport it into one of the remote Western States. The East offered
-no theatre for his talents; it was closely organized; its political
-machinery was too strong for him to hope to oppose it. He would be
-crushed out in the first skirmish.
-
-Nor could he hope for early recognition by allying himself to any one
-of the established organizations. These were crowded with deserving men,
-and besides, he had no intention of serving as a political apprentice.
-He had ability, he believed, as a political strategist, and he proposed
-to operate free and untrammelled in a big, breezy arena.
-
-Having determined upon a course, young Randal at once proceeded to put
-it into operation. He held a council of war at the Plaza on Fifth Avenue
-with two of his college associates, a stranded gambler, called for
-convenience “Billy the Plunger,” and an old Virginia gentleman named
-Major Culverson. The council sat in secret session for three days,
-and the result was that the machine moved out into the Commonwealth of
-Idaho, and began to operate. But the manners and customs of the West
-were varied and mystic, and with the following summer the machine, badly
-shaken, moved over into Nevada. Here, at Tulasco, on the Central Pacific
-Railroad, the first college man deserted and, helped by his father,
-returned with great penitence to the civilized East.
-
-The machine passed on across the Humbolt River and proceeded to attempt
-to shape the political destinies of Nevada. But disaster was following
-in its wake, and, after an active and turbulent but quite unprofitable
-career of a few months, it moved southward, battered and beaten, but
-unconquered.
-
-On the night of the third of October, the machine tramped into
-Hackberry, on the Southern Pacific, and while men slept, the second
-college man, concealing himself in a freight car, set out for the
-Atlantic coast, cursing with lurid language all that part of the
-continent lying west of the Mississippi.
-
-On the following morning the machine held its second great council, but
-this time it sat in desperate conclave above the Cow-Punchers' Saloon
-in the town of Hackberry, facing a condition and not a theory. But
-three members remained--Randal, the dauntiess Culver-son, and Billy the
-Plunger.
-
-The gambler was for organizing a faro bank, and working the towns down
-the Gila, but as the bank had no funds, and the death rate usually
-attendant upon such ventures in this primitive country was enormous,
-his plan was held impracticable, and at four o'clock in the afternoon he
-ceased to urge the wisdom of his scheme, and after having announced with
-great solemnity that he was game to any limit the gang wanted, he lapsed
-into the capacity of a spectator.
-
-The Major advised moving south into Mexico, but as he seemed to have
-no definite idea of what should be done when Mexico was reached, and it
-finally appearing that moving south was simply a fad with Culverson, the
-plan was likewise abandoned.
-
-Young Randal, fired by his unabated purpose, urged the wisdom of trying
-a round with the political fortunes of Arizona, but it was demonstrated
-that he was considering a major venture, having for its object huge
-honor, while at present there was crying need for some minor venture
-that would probably result in the necessaries of life and a few hundred
-dollars. Accordingly, at three o'clock in the morning, the machine
-decided to assume, for a time, the vocation of the cattle herder, and
-accept employment with a certain stock king of New Mexico.
-
-It was understood, however, that this digression should be temporary,
-and should be abandoned just as soon as the machine should feel able to
-resume its original purpose. It was at this point in the deliberations
-of the conclave that Major Culverson made his famous statement, to wit,
-that the gates of hell could not ultimately prevail against a political
-machine composed of a Massachusetts Yankee, a dead game sport, and an
-old Virginia gentleman.
-
-From this time forth the career of Randal's machine was a concatenation
-of fortunes and misfortunes, principally the latter, quite incredible.
-But the three men clung together, and a single enthusiastic purpose is
-a marvellous motor power, so that when Fate finally lent a helping
-hand, the machine became a something of importance in the affairs of a
-Southwestern Commonwealth. Once on the upward way, the ability of Randal
-and the daring energies of his associates carried it forward with great
-strides, so great that on the evening of the day with which this history
-has to do, the Massachusetts Yankee was the Governor of a State, the
-Major was Auditor, and Billy the Plunger, now known by his signature as
-Ambercrombie Hergan, was Secretary of State.
-
-The sun had gone downward from sight behind the far mountains, now
-changed from blue to a murky gray. The Governor, recalled to a sense
-of the hour, closed his mahogany desk, locked the door of his private
-office, and walked leisurely out through the State-house. As he passed
-down the steps of the Capitol he met the Auditor coming up.
-
-“How are you, Al?” said the Auditor.
-
-“Charmed,” replied the Governor.
-
-“Ah,” said the Major, with great ceremony, “you may be charmed, sir,
-but to me, sir, yuur face wears the haunted look of one who holds three
-nines against what he strongly suspects to be a pat hand.”
-
-“Sage,” said the Governor, bowing, “I tremble for my hidden thoughts.”
-
-“You're a fool,” said the Major, stepping up beside the Executive. “I
-want to know where you are going.”
-
-“I!” said the Governor, “I am going to the southeast. Do you see
-that little railroad? I am even now about to commit myself to its
-irresponsible mercies.”
-
-“You must not go, Al,” continued the Auditor. “Attend, I will nominate
-the reasons. First, there is a julep party at my palatial residence.”
-
-“Insufficient,” said the Governor.
-
-“Second, there is a strike at the Big Injin.”
-
-“Insufficient,” said the Governor.
-
-“And third,” continued the Auditor, lowering his voice, “Honorable
-Ambercrombie Hergan is at this very hour in the second room of Crawley's
-Emporium, playing the taxes of Bolas County, and losing them, sir,
-losing them.”
-
-The Governor's face grew hard, and his remarks for a moment were quite
-unprintable. Then he turned to the Auditor.
-
-“Ned,” he continued, “you must get him out, and take him up to my
-residence. I will be here by ten o'clock. I am compelled to go to El
-Paso. I can't get out of it. I am compelled to go.”
-
-“Compelled?” ejaculated the Major, “who, in the name of all the living
-gods, is compelling you? He must be greater than the railroads, greater
-than the legislature, greater than the Federal Court. Compelling the
-Honorable Alfred Capland Randal? Shade of the blooming Witch of Endor!”
-
-“Ned,” said the Governor slowly, “I will explain it all just as soon
-as I can. In the meantime you must help me. You must get him out. Won't
-you, Ned?”
-
-The Governor put his hand on the Auditor's shoulder, just as he had done
-a thousand times before when he needed the help of this unusual man.
-And, just as he had done a thousand times before, the Major declared
-that the Executive was a “damned rascal” and a “no account youngster,”
- and that he would not do it, when all the time he knew deep down in his
-heart that he loved this straight young fellow better than any other
-thing in the world, and that presently he was going to do exactly what
-he said he would not do.
-
-The Governor knew this also, for he ran down the steps without stopping
-to interrupt the amiable flow of the Auditor's depreciatory remarks.
-
-At the depot he found the Chinaman, Bumgarner, waiting with his coat.
-
-That such a primitive Celestial should be saddled with such a name arose
-entirely from the pious instincts of the Major. It happened that the
-Virginian was standing in a crowd at the corner near Crawley's Emporium
-when the Chinaman first appeared, having tramped from the coast. The
-Major, who was slightly in his cups, called the Chinaman over to the
-corner, and inquired by what appellation he was known, to which the
-foreigner responded that he was called Fu Lun. “Fu Lun!” shouted the
-Major, fiercely, “a name smacking of the devil, and not to be tolerated
-in a Christian State.” And then turning to the crowd, “Gentlemen,” he
-continued, “behold! I do a goodly missionary work. I rebuke the evil
-spirit dwelling in the bosom of this heathen. I give it a Christian
-name. I name it Bumgarner.”
-
-Thus the first evidence of civilization fastened upon the Celestial,
-and, as the Major's mandate was not to be disregarded, as “Bumgarner”
- the Chinaman had gone.
-
-The journey to El Paso was not an idle one for the Governor. In a very
-short time he should be in the presence of Miss Marion Lanmar and
-her aunt Mrs. Beaufort, and, of all times since their first eventful
-meeting, this was the very time he was not prepared for an interview.
-Prior to the notable exodus of the machine to Idaho, Randal had called
-upon Miss Lanmar, who was at that time a very young woman in college.
-The two were quite important, quite enthusiastic, and pitiably ignorant
-of the world's ways.
-
-This last meeting to them seemed big with fate, and was dramatic to the
-limit of a playactor's rehearsal. Youth lent to it all the glamour of
-romance. To Miss Lanmar young Randal was her chivalrous knight-errant,
-on the eve of his departure into a wild and unknown land full of
-mysterious peril, in quest of wealth and fair fame, all for her. To
-Randal she was the Lily Maid of Astolat, whom it was fate that he should
-worship with noble deeds until he won. It was all in strict accord with
-romantic custom in such cases made and provided, and terminated quite in
-keeping with the ideal conventions.
-
-When the door had closed upon the handsome young fellow whom Miss Marion
-Lanmar had promised to love for ever more, that young lady remained
-standing motionless by the mantel shelf, her face very white, and her
-heart very desperate and very true. To the dainty Miss Lanmar it was all
-very real, and by no means the pretty little comedy which the world out
-of its practical wisdom would have known it to be.
-
-To Mr. Alfred Randal, as he passed down the steps of Mrs. Beaufort's
-residence on the avenue, the world was now a vast arena, into which he
-was going, armed and knighted with his lady's colors on his helm. His
-heart beat high in his bosom. He would be a factor in great affairs;
-the hour would come when he would return, famous, wealthy past belief,
-announced by the heralds. He could not know that he was but another
-character in that sweet old fairy story which men and women have striven
-to act over and over again before they learn with dumb horror how
-pitiless and how practical are the ways of Providence.
-
-Yet the wise man who accompanies the youth to the gateway of the arena
-will not say: “To-morrow Circumstance will beat you from your horse
-and tramp you under, and instead of returning victor, you will return a
-cripple.” Although the wise man knows full well that of all results this
-latter is most probable, yet he will not say it, because the enthusiasm
-of youth is a marvellous power, difficult to estimate, and what it may
-accomplish no man can tell.
-
-The Governor had not seen this young woman after that night, but he had
-clung to his intention with the determination of a man who has a single
-object in life. An intermittent correspondence had been maintained, but
-after years this intention to wed Miss Lanmar had become rather an ideal
-something, and in this there was peril. But a few weeks before, he had
-intimated vaguely, that he was now a person of some local importance,
-and with no inconsiderable prospects of wealth, and to this Miss Lanmar
-had intimated quite as vaguely that she was waiting. But in it all
-there, seemed to be a powerful, albeit somewhat indistinct doubt. Years
-had passed, and years had a way of working frightful changes in people.
-The Miss Lanmar of to-day could not be the school-girl whom he had
-known.
-
-The Executive leaned back in a seat of the stuffy little coach and
-speculated with grave concern At any rate, this alliance was now
-quite impossible. Complications had been thrust in; a duty, or what
-he conceived to be a duty, had sprung up, and this duty it was not his
-intention to evade.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-THE Governor walked gravely down the long platform at El Paso, looking
-up at the windows of the Pullmans, wondering, rather indistinctly, how
-he should be able to recognize the irridescent princess of his romantic
-youth. A negro porter touched him on the arm and inquired if he was
-Governor Randal. The Executive replied that he was, whereupon the negro
-with much profound obeisance announced that Miss Lanmar was waiting in
-the drawing-room of the opposite Pullman.
-
-The Governor sprang up the steps of the coach. As he entered, a young
-woman, wearing a dark travelling dress, came forward to meet him. She
-was of medium height, with heavy brown hair, fine eyes, arched brows,
-and quite a faultless nose. But the great charm of the woman was her
-splendid bearing, and her instinctive culture.
-
-Just how this meeting began Alfred Randal could never afterwards quite
-recall. He could remember in vivid details the first picture of this
-superb woman as she arose to greet him, but then, just then, the love
-of his youth that had seemed to sleep under an anaesthetic for so many
-years, suddenly woke into glorious life, and gushed into his heart
-and overran his senses with its marvellous vitality. What transpired
-thereafter was provokingly indistinct. He remembered being presented to
-the aunt, Mrs. Beaufort, and her astonishment, and her incredulous
-query as to whether he lived in this “terrible country” to which he had
-replied that he could not be said to live, but that it was his part to
-exist in this rather primitive land. He remembered that the three sat
-together in the drawing-room of the coach and talked of his return to
-New York, of his ultimate success, and his assured future. He remembered
-also that for the time he had forgotten the grave difficulty in the way
-of such a future and his stern decision made but a few minutes before.
-He remembered also that through it all he had been very foolish and very
-confident and idiotically happy, and how at the parting he had kissed
-Miss Lanmar's hand and blushed like a school-girl, and then jumped down
-from the moving train at the peril of his life.
-
-The Governor stood upon the platform and watched the great train as
-it thundered away in the distance. The interview which had just ended,
-although a thing apparently unreal, had swept him out from under the
-influence of an illusion that had served to make his life in the great
-Southwest bearable, even happy. From this time forth it could never
-be what it had been. The man felt like one who, having been so long a
-captive in a dungeon that he was half content, and his memories of
-the world had become vague and unreal, is suddenly and without warning
-lifted into the sunshine of the great glorious world and held there
-until his heart is filled to drunkenness with the beauty of it all, and
-then, ruthlessly and on the instant, is thrust back into the rayless
-gloom of his dungeon.
-
-Randal stood for a time looking at the rows of dim lights scattered
-about the station like dismal fireflies. Then he crossed to the freight
-train upon which he was to return and climbed up into the cab with the
-driver.
-
-“What time shall we get in?” he asked.
-
-“By the top of the night, Governor, if we have luck,” answered the
-driver, pulling open the throttle.
-
-The engine snorted and pounded along in the dark like some huge beast.
-The Governor sat in the cab window and looked out. The night air was
-sweet and cool, his face was hot. Two hours before he had decided what
-he should do, and dismissed the matter; but new and powerful elements
-had arisen and ordered him to rehear and decide anew.
-
-Ambercrombie Hergan had lost and wasted the money of the State. There
-was now a deficit in his accounts of some fifty thousand dollars. There
-was no way by which this loss could be met unless Randal should pay it,
-and to do this would take everything he had on earth. It would mean the
-sacrifice of his mining stock, which, if held, promised great returns.
-It would be ruin, utter ruin, to make good the loss; yet the gambler,
-although a gambler, was his friend, and two hours before he had not
-hesitated at all.
-
-Motives, mighty, selfish motives, which until this hour he had beaten
-back, now leaped up clamoring to be heard, howling for time against his
-decision, time to show the right of their cause, the wisdom of it, the
-ultimate justice of it. Something asked him roughly what right had he to
-jeopardize the future of this woman who loved him. What right had he to
-deceive, to sacrifice her? Who was Hergan that he should be considered
-against this woman? Who, but a reckless and improvident adventurer? It
-was not his own happiness urged the something; that would be a matter of
-little moment. It was the happiness of another, and that other was true,
-innocent of wrong, superlatively just. What contrast could be drawn
-between the woman and this gambler? Duty? What duty could he owe to
-the irresponsible Hergan that could approach in the slightest part the
-measure of the duty which he owed to the woman who had trusted him for
-so many years, and waited, and loved him?
-
-Yet against all this, certain pictures came up from the past,--vivid,
-proclaiming a mighty truth, a truth which the man knew and acknowledged
-in his heart, the truth that if these positions were reversed, Hergan,
-gambler though he was, would not hesitate for a moment. Had he hesitated
-that morning in the Rio Grande when Randal's horse had fallen and
-was being swept down with the current, carrying his master under him,
-tangled in the stirrup strap? Had he hesitated when it became necessary
-deliberately to steal and burn the bogus ballots in Garfield County,
-when to do so seemed little less than deliberate suicide? Had he
-hesitated that terrible day on the Rio Sonora, when there was no time
-for warning, but time only to spring forward and take the knife in his
-shoulder? Had this man ever hesitated when the welfare of Randal was
-at stake? Would he not gladly, and without comment, give up his life
-to-morrow if the Governor should ask it of him?
-
-The Governor passed his hand across his forehead and closed his eyes.
-When he opened them he had decided, and against this second decision
-there should be now no appeal and no rehearing.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-THE Secretary of State was far removed from the ordinary. He was one of
-those not infrequent persons whom men are quite unable to classify. At
-times he arose far beyond the limits set for him by his associates,
-and at times he dropped far below. There was about the man a sort of
-indefinite reserve that impressed his fellows and inspired confidence
-in those positions requiring rash and apparently impracticable moves.
-Ordinarily, in commonplace affairs, his judgment was not considered
-sound, or even valuable, and at such times no one would have thought for
-a moment of advising with this man. It was only when sound common-sense
-could see no way out that the machine appealed to Hergan, and at such
-times he came forward with some freak venture which was frightfully
-perilous and never ordinary, and never quite a failure.
-
-Success, usually arose, however, not from the ultimate wisdom of
-Hergan's plans, but from the fact that his unique move would throw the
-affair into a sort of convulsion resulting in a new situation, and this
-new situation the sound judgment of his fellows would usually be able to
-control. The counsel of Ambercrombie Hergan was a protean agent.
-
-The grave vice in the character of the Secretary of State lay in the
-fact that he possessed no idea of perspective. He would wager his last
-dollar with the same joyous unconcern with which he had wagered his
-first, and he would have staked the entire Southwest, if he possessed
-it, as readily as a Mexican peso, upon the turn of a card or the result
-of a horse race. As to the antecedents of the Honorable Ambercrombie
-Hergan, even conjecture was silent. He had come up from a mysterious
-substratum of New York,--for what, and by reason of what, no man
-inquired. This mighty new land traced no records and propounded
-no questions. The arena stood open with its doors thrown back. Any
-combatant who pleased could enter. Heralded or unheralded, it mattered
-not. Good or bad, learned or ignorant, of yokel blood or princely
-lineage, it mattered not. If he were fittest, he could win.
-
-From this organic defect of his mental build, and not from evil animus,
-had resulted the sad state of the Secretary's accounts. He had never
-entirely appreciated the important distinction between his own money
-and that which belonged to the Commonwealth. He had been thoughtless,
-reckless, unconcerned, until now he was hopelessly involved. Yet even
-at this stage when his term of office was fast drawing to a close, he
-failed to appreciate the gravity of his position, and treated the matter
-with good-natured unconcern, as of no moment.
-
-The Auditor and Secretary of State sat together in the Governor's
-library awaiting his return. In appearance the Auditor was a muscular
-little man of most marvellous vitality, with a fierce white mustache,
-and a fund of quaint oaths and semi-dramatic phrases hugely expressive
-and at times artistic; while the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan was very
-tall and very broad, with a shock of heavy black hair, wide jaws, and a
-big crooked nose. Far back in his youth this nose had been straight,
-but one night, in a barroom on the Bowery, a difference of opinion had
-arisen over some inconsequential matter, and thereafter the gambler's
-nose had assumed a contour not contemplated in the original design.
-
-The Major was talking, and pounding the table vigorously, when the
-Chinese servant entered with a tray and some glasses. The Virginian drew
-himself up and stepped back from the table.
-
-“Well, Bumgarner,” he said, “I hail your resurrection; I glory in your
-return to life. You have been dead no inconsiderable period, sir.”
-
-The Chinaman replied that he had been engaged in a laborious but
-unsuccessful hunt for the bottle of Angostura bitters.
-
-“Angostura bitters?” cried the Major, “marvellous, inscrutable heathen!
-Will you deign to reveal your reason for requiring the Angostura
-bitters?”
-
-The Celestial responded that he presumed bitters was an element
-requisite to the rather mysterious drink which he had been requested to
-compound.
-
-“Hear him, hear him!” thundered the Major, as though addressing some
-present but invisible avenging demon; “hear the vandal! Bitters in a
-julep! Mighty, intelligent shade of Simple Simon! Attend and observe the
-idiocy of this savage!” Then he crossed to the astonished Chinaman and
-took him gently by the collar.
-
-“Bumgarner,” he said softly, “you are a frightful example of man's
-neglect. You have been trained by a Massachusetts Yankee. Ergo, your
-lack of knowledge is sublime. Bitters you might put in a plebeian gin
-fizz, and be happy thereafter. Bitters you might put in a high ball of
-whiskey, and live thereafter. But bitters in a julep, _magnum sacrum!_
-the gods would crush you! Bumgarner, you are an awful throbbing error,
-and you have had a providential escape from death. Now,” continued the
-Major, seizing the Chinaman by the shoulder and turning him toward the
-door, “you may depart, and burn a few joss sticks, and ponder upon my
-remarks.”
-
-The almond-eyed Celestial vanished, wondering vaguely if it had not been
-better to remain in San Francisco and launder shirts in a cellar than to
-attempt to cater to the depraved taste of such incomprehensible foreign
-devils.
-
-“Now, Bill,” continued the Major, seating himself at the table, “I want
-to know what you are going to do.”
-
-“About what?” asked the gambler.
-
-“About this money which you owe the State,” said the Major. “Do you
-realize, sir, that our stand in the Southwest is just about closing, and
-that we have got to square up and pull out?”
-
-“I reckon so,” replied the gambler, as though it were a matter of no
-importance.
-
-“You reckon so! You irresponsible truck horse! You reckon so!”
- snorted the Major. “You will cease to indulge in the dainty pastime of
-speculation when you get a log-chain on your leg and a striped suit on
-your back.”
-
-The Secretary of State laughed. “Something will turn up,” he said.
-
-“Ambercrombie Hergan,” said the Major, pounding the table with his hand,
-“for a broken, a branded, a long-suffering cow pony of Satan, you have
-the blindest, most stupendous Presbyterian faith in Providence of any
-white creature ambling south of the Central Pacific Railroad; but
-you're sweetening on a bluff this hand, and I am going to call you.”
-
-The gambler's face grew serious. “What are you prodding for, Ned?” he
-asked.
-
-The Auditor leaned forward on the table. “You are planning to slide
-out,” he said, “and it don't go.”
-
-“Would it hurt you or Al?” asked the gambler anxiously.
-
-The Auditor reached over and placed his hand on Hergan's arm. “It would
-not hurt me,” he continued, “and it would be no bones if it did, but
-it would hurt the boy, and he must not be hurt. Don't you know that the
-moment you are gone, Randal will sacrifice everything he possesses and
-pay up the deficit? And that would ruin him.”
-
-The gambler's face lengthened. “I had not thought about that,” he said
-slowly, “but you are right, he would do that. He is that sort of a man.
-I have been a fool, an infernal fool, but I did not think about the boy
-getting hurt, not once.” The man shut his teeth tight together and the
-big muscles swelled out on his jaws.
-
-The Auditor sat and watched the man across the table from him, and
-admired his iron nerve in the terrible struggle to decide between
-himself and the welfare of his friend. The man was evidently suffering.
-His face showed it plainly; the battle must be a bitter one. The Auditor
-wondered how it would result. He pitied the man, and in spite of all,
-half hoped that he would decide to save himself.
-
-Presently the gambler turned slowly and lifted his face, white, haggard,
-ten years older than he had been an hour before.
-
-“I don't see how to keep him from doing it,” he muttered; “I don't see
-how.”
-
-The Auditor started. This man had not been thinking of himself at all.
-
-“You see,” continued Hergan. “I am about fifty thousand short, and there
-is no way to raise that much money,--no way in God's world. If I slide
-over the Rio, Al will pay it to keep them from extraditing me; and if I
-stay here, he will pay it to keep them from sending me to the Pen. It's
-the devil's own trap, and works both ways.”
-
-“Who got the money, Bill?” asked the Auditor.
-
-“Crawley, and old Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining Company. Crawley got
-most of it.”
-
-“A plague of fat old gamblers,” said the Major, solemnly; “they are both
-as rich as they are mean, and as mean as they are crooked.”
-
-At this moment the door opened and the Governor entered.
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-THE Executive stopped for a moment and scrutinized his visitors
-quizzically; then he laughed. “May I inquire, gentlemen, whence arises
-this gloom?”
-
-The Auditor bowed low. “Good sir,” he said, “your Excellency fails to
-distinguish between gloom and the gravity of sages.”
-
-“If the funereal,” replied the Governor, “be a _sine qua non_ of the
-converse of the wise, then there has been here this night great cause
-for envy on the part of Solomon, the Son of David, King of Israel; for
-such gloom I have not met with in a world of evil days.”
-
-“And, sir,” responded the Auditor, waving his hand like a barbaric
-king, “if absence of respect for the dignity of the thoughtful be a
-symptom of organic mental defect, then there is now here, in truth,
-great cause for envy upon the part of Wamba, the Son of Witless, the
-Son of Weatherbrain. For such amiable impudence is marvellous to
-contemplate.”
-
-“Boys,” said the gambler rising, “if you will kindly come down out
-of the clouds, I will be much obliged to you both, because I have got
-something to say, and this is just as good a time to say it as any.”
-
-The Auditor resumed his seat at the table. The Governor took up a chair,
-moved it back deliberately into the shadow of the room and sat down.
-
-“It is like this,” continued the gambler, “we three have stood in for a
-long time, and I guess we know each other pretty well. We did n't take
-no oath to stand by each other when we started, but I reckon that is
-what we calculated to do. Anyway that is what we did do. If we had n't a
-done it, we would n't have been deuce high in this Southwest. I did n't
-have no faith in Al's machine when it started; I thought it was a wild
-goose chase, but I did n't say nothing, because I had nothing to lose.
-I was broke, and anything coming my way was pure velvet, so I joined in
-and come out here.
-
-“Since that time we have had our ups and downs, if God's creatures ever
-had 'em. We have lied a lot, and we've stole some, and we've starved
-most of the time, and we have been poor and miserable and broke, but we
-have played fair with each other, and we have never stacked the pack
-nor dealt from the bottom. Then, one day, the luck turned and we won out
-through the roof, just like it always does if you stay long enough and
-keep doubling the bet. You two were elected, and Al appointed me.
-
-“I reckon none of us are going to forget the hell that appointment
-raised. They said I was an ignorant understrapper, a short card gambler,
-and a leary element; and it was true, every blooming word of it Then the
-newspapers pitched into Al; they said that it was to be hoped that the
-new Governor would now have 'the moral courage to at least suppress
-the shady member of his machine'--them are the very words; I'll never
-forget 'em, and they meant me.
-
-“I guess I went to you boys, and told you I had better keep out, but I
-reckon I did n't put up a very stiff case, because I was hot at the row.
-I would n't have cared if the howlers had been better men than I was,
-but I knew they were all just the same kind of cattle--unbranded,
-straggling steers, gathered up from anywhere but a good place. As for
-being shady, there was n't a man between the Gila and the Pecos white
-enough to pass an Eastern grand jury, and as for being a gambler, there
-was n't a mother's son of the batch that would n't have coppered his
-soul on a black jack if the bank would have cashed it for a dollar.”
-
-Hergan paused for a moment and looked at the Auditor. Then he added,
-“Exceptin' of course, you and Al.”
-
-“Then,” the gambler went on: “I guess Al got mad. He made a little
-speech; we was all there, and it was mighty good talk to hear. He
-said there had n't been no 'invidious distinctions'--them were his
-words,--during all the years when nothing had come our way but just one
-dose of bad luck after another until we reckoned there was n't no God at
-all,--least ways, if there was any, that He did n't operate south of
-the Central Pacific Railroad, and now when we had finally landed on our
-feet, there was n't going to be no 'invidious distinctions.' I am bound
-to say that it seemed mighty good to hear Al talk like he did, and I
-went ahead and let him appoint me.”
-
-The Secretary of State moved a little nearer to the table, and an
-almost imperceptible shadow flitted across his face. “All the time,” he
-continued, “I knowed it was wrong. I knowed that what the mudslingers
-were sayin' was gospel. I knowed that I was n't fit for the job no more
-than a Chinaman is fit for a pope. I knowed that the gambler in me was
-ground in, and the other was just only rubbed on the outside, and that
-the gambler part was going to run things,--and it did.”
-
-The man paused for a moment and turned to the Governor. “Now,” he said,
-“I have come to the point, and it's this: I got into this hole and I am
-going to get out of it; it's my game now; I am not going to stand any
-side bets. You have both got to promise me right here that you will keep
-your hands off this matter,--clear off--unless I say it goes.”
-
-The gambler stopped, rested his arms heavily on the table and looked at
-his companions. The Virginian and the Executive were silent; both men
-realized fully the true import of Hergan's demand. He was seeking to
-prevent any sacrifice on their part; that was all, and if he had been
-the most skilful diplomat in the world, he could not have moved more
-adroitly.
-
-The Governor looked up at the massive face of the gambler, marred by
-evil circumstance and the riot of dissipation, and wondered--as he had
-wondered many a time before,--at the splendid unselfishness of this
-man. From whence could have come this flower of nobility? The life of
-Ambercrombie Hergan had been sterile soil indeed for such a plant as
-this. How could it be in the economy of men that such princely fidelity
-obtained alone even without trace of the common attendant virtues?
-
-For the obligations of the law Ambercrombie Hergan had no regard. For
-the obligations of the citizen he had no regard. Even for the common
-obligations of morality he maintained the most stolid unconcern. Honesty
-was a name to him, and right and duty and honor were merely names to
-him. Yet blooming in the barren garden of this gambler's heart was
-something fairer than them all.
-
-“Well,” asked Hergan, with a trace of anxiety in his voice, “are you
-going to promise?”
-
-The Governor arose. “This is a very serious matter,” he said slowly; “we
-must be given a few minutes in which to decide.”
-
-“That 's fair enough,” replied the gambler. “You two can go into the
-other room. I'll wait.”
-
-The Auditor and the Executive retired, and the Secretary of State
-resumed his seat beside the table, the suggestion of a smile on his
-face, he knew perfectly that if he could secure the promise of his
-companions it would be maintained inviolate.
-
-Presently the door opened and the two men entered. “Bill,” said the
-Governor, “we promise.”
-
-The gambler arose, and stretched his long limbs like one relieved from
-the weight of a crushing burden. Then he turned to his companions.
-“Boys,” he said almost gaily, “I may as well tell you now that I am
-going to New York Saturday night.”
-
-“And I may add,” responded the Governor, “that I am going Friday night.”
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-YOU see,” the Governor was saying,” the failure of this bank in San
-Francisco has wiped out every penny I had in the world. On the fourth
-day of next March I will be poorer than the ordinary drayman. So poor
-that I must begin all over again, and I have no heart to do it.”
-
-Miss Marion Lanmar was silent. Her bands rested upon the great aims of
-the chair in which she was seated. Her face might have been a cast; it
-was so very motionless.
-
-“I should not mind if it were not for you,” the young man went on. “I
-mean,”--he hesitated for a moment,--“if I had never seen you; if I had
-never known you. But now the effort would seem so miserably inadequate,
-if it were not made for you. I have loved you and lived for you too
-long. I have grown accustomed to you as the mighty incentive. Every path
-that I have travelled has had you waiting at the end. Every battle I
-have fought has seemed to hold your happiness in its balance. Even the
-meagre gains of all the weary commonplace days have been to me so much
-or so little added to the kingdom of the queen. So I could have gone on
-to the end, but now, without you I have no heart at all.”
-
-The man leaned over and rested his arm on the mantel-shelf. “I have read
-somewhere,” he continued, “how the evil fiend strove to destroy a man
-whom he hated; how he robbed him of his wealth, of his friends, of his
-fair fame, and how the man worked on, laughing in the demon's face, and
-how it all failed, until one morning the evil fiend reached down into
-the man's heart and plucked the motive out of his life, and then the
-man threw away his tools and came and sat in the doorway of his shop. I
-suppose it is all very cowardly, to talk as I am talking, but it would
-be very much worse, I should think, to deceive myself and you.” The
-woman did not answer. She was looking into the fire. The little blue
-flames in the wide fireplace danced up and down upon their bed of coal
-in impish merriment at all the trouble of men's lives.
-
-Presently the man began again. “Yet a woman cannot wait always,” he
-said, “and I have no right to ask it of you. I must step aside out of
-your life and beg to be forgotten. It is a terrible ordeal for one who
-has gone down into the _melée_ with his lady's colors on his helm to
-return beaten and overthrown and say, 'This quest is not for me.' It is
-hard to have the hope of one's life battered out and to live on in the
-world, and yet men do, and I shall, I presume.
-
-“We are taught in youth that the world is a happy place, and I judge
-that it is a bit of illusion, like the black goblin and the fairies, and
-yet we all try very hard to believe the old housewife tales, and cling
-to them, and give them up grudgingly and with regret. I shall always
-remember how very sorry I was when I first realized that there really
-were no fairies. I was only a child, but it made me unhappy for days.
-It seemed to put all my reckoning out of joint. And so I have always
-believed that happiness existed in the world, and that it came to men
-somewhere in their lives about as the beautiful princess comes in the
-fairy stories. It never occurred to me to doubt its coming. True, it
-never came, but everything that did come seemed only to prepare a way
-for its coming at some day farther on. Now I see that this is just an
-illusion like the others, and I confess that the discovery has jarred me
-frightfully.”
-
-The man's voice wavered for a moment; then it grew stronger. “I don't
-quite see how the world can ever seem a beautiful place after to-night.
-The sky may be very blue indeed, but the man whose eyes ache will not
-look up to see it. The birds may sing gloriously in the trees, but the
-man whose heart is an empty house will not care at all.”
-
-Randal stopped and looked down at the woman. He noticed how very soft
-and heavy her brown hair was, and how delicate and slender her hands
-were. He noted vaguely, too, the artistic effect of the folds of her
-gown and the shadows on her face.
-
-“Marion,” he said, “If I did not love you better than any other thing in
-the world, I would not be urging these bitter arguments against my own
-happiness. I would not be so desperately anxious about your welfare. I
-should not be so fearful of the future. I should take the chance without
-the hesitation of a moment. But the very depth of my love makes me a
-coward. I could not bear to see you subject to all the evil things that
-come with poverty. I know what a frightful plight it is--how it crushes
-out the sweetness and the nobility of one's life, how it squeezes the
-heart, day after day, until it finally becomes a dry husk in one's
-breast.”
-
-Randal's voice was now thick with emotion. “Marion,” he said, “do you
-hear me? Do you believe me?”
-
-The woman's hands tightened on the great arms of the chair, and for a
-moment she was silent; then she began to speak, slowly and distinctly.
-
-“I do not know.” she said. “I must have time to think. Yet I have
-believed you all these years. I must believe you now. Yes, I do believe
-you now. But you are wrong, frightfully wrong. You forget that a woman
-is a human being with a heart. You think I am afraid of the world,
-afraid of poverty, afraid of life as God makes it, as God wills it; that
-I am a fragile something that the rain and the sunlight would ruin if it
-touched; that I am a something more or less than you, a something that
-requires ease and luxury and all the gilded stage-setting of wealth--and
-you are wrong. If I love you, of what value to me are all those other
-things without you? If I love you, it is not all these things I want--it
-is you. I ask you to answer this, and by what is true in your heart,
-know what is true in mine: Would you be happy with all that wealth can
-give you and without me?”
-
-“No,” said the man, “not after to-night. No.”
-
-“No more would I,” added the woman.
-
-The heart, as it is said, speaks clearer to the heart when tongues are
-silent, and it is said that grief and happiness when riding high in
-their meridian have no need for the cumbrous medium of language.
-
-After a long silence, Miss Lanmar began again. “Men cannot understand,”
- she said; “a woman's heart is so miserably strange. Things either slip
-around it, leaving no mark at all, or they sink in and become a very
-part of the woman's heart itself. There is no middle ground; no half
-joy; no middle hurt. So it comes about that if one's image creeps into
-her heart, it must remain. True, the world may never know; the world is
-very stupid. But for all that, the woman's heart will hold its tenant,
-and when she is alone or in the dark, she will know and feel its
-presence. It may be that the woman will pray to be rid of the evil
-thing, or it may be that she will pray to hold it always as a gift of
-good, but be that as it happens, the woman's heart will remain forever
-helpless to evict its tenant.
-
-“Is it strange, then, if I love you, that I should want to go with you
-and live with you, and be with you always, and make your joys and your
-burdens my joys and my burdens, and have a share and an interest in
-everything that comes to you? Is it strange that I should hold wealth or
-place or even honor as nothing against you? Is it strange that I should
-be miserable, thoroughly, utterly miserable with every other thing in
-the world, and you denied?”
-
-The woman's voice faltered and broke; her hands relaxed, and began to
-slip from the great arms of the chair. The man came over, and knelt down
-beside her and put his arms around her.
-
-“Marion, dear heart,” he said, “you do love me. You will trust me a
-little while,--just a little while?”
-
-The woman's head slipped down on his shoulder. “Love you!” she murmured,
-“I have always loved you. Surely I shall always love you. But when you
-are gone, the world is so empty, so miserably empty!”
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-I THOROUGHLY appreciate everything I you have mentioned, Mr. Hergan,”
- said the clerk Parks, “but it is quite impossible. Mr. Mason is entirely
-inaccessible. I should not dare interrupt him.”
-
-“Look here, my friend,” responded the gambler. “I have heard this same
-talk every day for the last week, and it don't go any longer. I have
-got to see this lawyer, and I have got to see him now. Do you understand
-me?”
-
-“Oh, yes,” replied the clerk, with a faint smile, “I understand you
-perfectly, but it is entirely useless to urge the matter any farther.
-The business with which Mr. Mason is at present engaged is of great
-magnitude. He would not permit an interview at all. I am very sorry,
-but, of course, I can do nothing for you.”
-
-The gambler did not respond. For a few moments he was silent. Then he
-put his hands into the inside pocket of his coat and drew forth a rather
-battered leather pocket-book. He held the pocket-book under the table,
-opened it slowly, and selecting a fifty-dollar bill from among a number
-of others, laid it gently on the table.
-
-“There,” he said, “is my ante. I want in the game.”
-
-The eyes of the clerk began to contract slowly at the corners.
-
-“My dear man,” he said, “I should like to do this for you, but I don't
-see how I can. I don't believe Mr. Mason would even listen to me just
-now. I don't----”
-
-“Wait,” responded the gambler; “I sweeten it.”
-
-Thereupon he selected another bill from the pocket-book and spread it
-out carefully beside the other upon the table.
-
-The little bald clerk began to drum on the chair with his fingers. His
-eyes wandered from the money to the door of Mason's private office, and
-back again. Presently he turned to the gambler.
-
-The Hon. Ambercrombie Herman held up two fingers. “Don't call,” he said,
-“I tilt it to one hundred and fifty.” And he added another bill to the
-two, and pushed the money across the table to the clerk. Then he closed
-the pocket-book deliberately and replaced it in his coat.
-
-Parks arose, picked up the money without a word, and passed into
-Randolph Mason's private office, closing the door carefully behind him.
-In a very few moments the clerk returned. He came up dose to the gambler
-and put his hand confidentially on his shoulder.
-
-“My friend,” he said, in a low tone, “you are not a fool. I have told
-some lies to get you this interview. Look sharp, and say as little as
-possible.”
-
-“What lies?” asked the gambler, arising.
-
-“Such as were useful,” responded the clerk. “Quite too tedious to
-enumerate. Please walk into Mr. Mason's office, sir, and remember that
-you are my brother-in-law. Answer the questions which are put to you,
-and don't volunteer talk. It is n't wise.”
-
-The gambler opened the door to Randolph Mason's private office and
-entered.
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-HE Secretary of State came slowly down the steps from Randolph Mason's
-office. At the entrance to the great building he stopped and looked up
-and down the busy, jostling thoroughfare. It had been but a few years
-since he was a grain in this vortex, and now that past seemed ages
-removed. He was not conscious of anything of interest in the very
-familiar scene. Just why he had stopped to look, this man would not
-have been quite able to explain. In truth, he was striving to obtain his
-mental bearings. He had been flung violently upon another view point,
-and he was endeavoring to comprehend the loom of this new land. His
-sensations were not unlike those of one who but an hour before had gone
-into the operating room of a surgeon, walking as he believed to his
-death, and now returned with the tumor dissected out, and the hope of
-life big in his bosom. The world was an entirely different place from
-what it had been some hours before, and the gambler's steps were firmer,
-and his ancient careless spirit had returned.
-
-At this moment, as it pleased Fate, a cab stopped before a broker's
-office on the opposite-side of the street, and the Governor stepped out.
-The gambler darted across and caught his companion by the shoulder. The
-Governor turned suddenly.
-
-“Well,” he said, in astonishment, “is this an assault _vi et armis?_”
-
-“No,” said the gambler. “It's worse than that, Al. It's a mandamus. You
-are not to go in that broker's office.”
-
-“Not to go in?” echoed the Executive. “Why not?”
-
-“Al,” said the gambler, grinning like a Hindoo idol, “I said this here
-was a mandamus. I guess the judge don't ever explain 'why not' in a
-mandamus.”
-
-“Good chancellor,” replied the Governor, with mock gravity, “I resist
-the order.”
-
-“On what ground?” said the lion. Ambercrombie Hergan, with such a sage
-judicial air as might obtain with a truck horse.
-
-“First,” replied the Governor, “that the mandamus was improvidently
-awarded. Second, that the Court issuing the writ was without
-jurisdiction. And, third, that the act sought to be restrained is not
-entirely ministerial, but one largely within the discretion of the
-officer.”
-
-“All them objections,” said the gambler, “this Court overrules.”
-
-“But,” continued the Executive, “in this case the mandamus cannot lie. I
-move to quash the writ.”
-
-“But it does lie,” asserted the powerful devotee of fortune, hooking his
-arm through that of the Executive and turning him down the street, “and
-she can't be squashed.”
-
-The Governor had observed the very great change in the man, and knowing
-the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, he knew that this erratic person
-had chanced upon some solution for his dilemma--strange and but
-half-practical, the Governor had no doubt, but certainly not
-commonplace, and so he made no further offer of resistance.
-
-“Al,” said the gambler, hurrying his companion through the crowded
-street, “do you know where you are going?”
-
-“I have n't the slightest idea,” observed the Governor, with greatest
-unconcern.
-
-“Well, I'll tell you. You are going first to the hotel, then to the
-railroad, then to the Southwest, and you have just fifty-nine minutes
-between you and the train.”
-
-The Governor stopped short. “I can't go, Bill. I must sell these
-stocks.”
-
-“That's just the point,” said the gambler. “You aint going to sell
-them stocks. That's why I issued this here mandamus.” And he seized the
-Executive by the arm and fairly dragged him across the street.
-
-“Bill,” protested the Governor, “Bill, this is all nonsense. It don't
-go.”
-
-“Everything goes,” said the gambler. “Come on. We have lost three of
-them fifty-nine minutes already.”
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-THE Emporium of Crawley was not quite a trading-place as the Greek
-root of the word would indicate, unless transactions in which the
-unwary bartered his gain for experience, and the great unscrubbed of the
-Southwest pitted their wage against the riot of dissipation, could be
-held to partake of the nature of commerce. It was a fad with Crawley to
-assert that his Emporium was a clearinghouse,--a rather grim jest, heavy
-with truth. Indeed, all the currency of this primitive land seemed to
-pass, sooner or later, through the mammoth establishment of First Class
-Crawley, and in season and out of season as the dollar went through, a
-portion paused and remained in the fingers of the proprietor. And for
-this, also,--as the common-law pleader would put it,--truth clung to the
-pet declaration of Crawley.
-
-When the population gathered night after night under the roof of his
-Emporium, their troubles came also; and when the smoke grew thick and
-the tanglefoot whiskey began to assert itself, there were other things
-to clear up beside matters of currency. Matters of consequence and
-matters of no consequence were cleared by the same rapid, drastic
-measures. Bad men here decided who was the worst or the best, as they
-were pleased with the term. The henchmen of rival cattle kings submitted
-the vexatious question of a brand on a stray heifer to this court of
-instant resort and quick decision, and other concerns of the citizen,
-affecting perhaps his truth, or honor, or ability for a vice, were
-determined suddenly and for all time without the wrangling of counsel or
-the tedium of courts.
-
-If a Mexican was so short sighted as to slip his knife into a
-tenderfoot, some one shot the Mexican, and the crowd “lickered up.” If
-the faro dealer killed his man, it was usually because the man needed
-killing, and certainly the faro dealer was the best judge of this.
-On the contrary, if one shot the dealer, this was considered a public
-calamity, demanding an explanation, since the dealer was a _quasi_
-public functionary, and the convenience of the citizen required that the
-game should continue. One's life was perhaps the cheapest thing below
-the Central Pacific Railroad, and it was entirely the duty of the
-individual to see that it was maintained. If one was unsteady on the
-trigger, or caught napping on the draw, one was held to have died by
-virtue of contributory negligence.
-
-To be sure there was law, and machinery for its execution; but the
-machinery was liberal, and had ideas of its own, and the law adhered
-with supreme unconcern to its maxim--_De minimis non curat lex_.
-
-First Class Crawley had been splendidly trained for the duties of his
-position. If Fortune had been moving of design, she could not have
-schooled him better for such a life. Some thirty years before, he had
-been a sutler with the Army of the Potomac--not the sutler of romance,
-but the sutler of reality; following the army bravely, but at such a
-distance to the rear as to be at all times extremely safe, and exacting
-for his valuable public service every gain that human ingenuity could
-discover. It was no wrong in the mind of Crawley to cheat the common
-soldier out of his eyes; belike the soldier would be shot on the
-morrow, and then all opportunity to cheat him would cease, and if prior
-opportunity had not been seized and enjoyed, Crawley would regret.
-
-When the “bitterness of death” had passed, Crawley became a justice
-of the peace in Ohio. Here the field for his talent was broader, and
-Crawley arose and spread like the bay tree of Biblical record. Crawley
-held it as a basic principle that the machinery of human justice could
-not be maintained without ample sinews of war. It was best, to be sure,
-if these sinews could be wrested from the wrong-doer, but, failing that,
-the innocent must contribute. Every litigant was presumed to proceed at
-the peril of costs. The matter of costs was one vital to Crawley, and
-loomed constantly. The right or justice of a cause was never for a
-moment permitted to obscure it. If the plaintiff was impecunious, then
-the decision must be against the defendant, else the costs could not be
-had, and _vice versa_ as it had pleased Providence to place substance.
-
-This was a high conception of human justice; since it passed by the
-trivial controversy of the litigants, and placed the burden of legal
-procedure upon the one best able to support It. First Class Crawley
-maintained further that it was the part of wisdom in a government
-promptly to release the criminal who “shelled out,” since the revenues
-of the State arose largely from the fines imposed upon the evildoer, and
-it was certainly quite useless to retain the criminal at public expense
-after having squeezed him thoroughly, when he could be returned to
-society and squeezed again later on.
-
-Crawley might have been the father of a school, had he not found the
-school in Ohio established to his uses. Consequently his fame was local,
-and his methods being of ancient origin in this Commonwealth, provoked
-no comment, and indeed he might have passed on, with the usual career
-of such ambitious spirits, to a seat in the legislature, had he not
-unwittingly crossed into a neighboring State in order to attend a
-reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic. Here one, smarting from a
-hurt, pounced down upon him with a warrant for a felony, and that same
-night the visiting justice was a guest of the State. But First Class
-Crawley was no man of feeble resources, and two days later he gave a
-straw bond and vanished like a newspaper war cloud.
-
-In the Southwest, Crawley was a person of importance--a court of last
-resort on all matters, barring none. If bets were made, Crawley was
-umpire. If questions w ere argued, Crawley was judge. If one wanted
-advice, one went to him. If one wanted information, one went to him; and
-if one needed money, one went always to First Class Crawley, and put up
-everything but his life. No function was complete without the presence
-of this celebrity, be it bull tight or prize fight, or dog fight, or a
-prearranged resort to the arbitration of the Winchester. Crawley was a
-great man, in counterdistinction to a bad man. Personally, he neither
-quarrelled nor fought, and one would have no more considered shooting at
-Crawley than he would have considered shooting at his grandmother. This
-proprietor of the Emporium maintained his position, not by virtue of
-arms and skill in their use, but by virtue of an interesting something
-which passed with him for an intellect.
-
-Consequently, when he and Hiram Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining
-Company, sat down in the private gambling room of the Emporium to a
-private interview with the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, they were
-expecting to realize from the time expended. They were both attentive
-and interested, since the reckless Secretary of State was known in the
-lingo of the guild as an “easy member.” If he had money, or could obtain
-money, it would eventually fall into their clutches as it had always
-done. Hence their interest was genuine.
-
-“Boys,” said the Secretary of State, “I have a scheme to make a stake,
-and I want you in on it. I have been over in the East, and I have got it
-all figured out, and it's a cinch.”
-
-The owner of the Golden Horn folded his hands over the vast expanse of
-his stomach and smiled benignly. He knew all about the usual combination
-of circumstances set down in the elegant diction of the gambler as a
-“cinch.”
-
-He was an expert upon things of this sort, but he volunteered no
-information, and no comment. He merely smiled and murmured “Yes,” in a
-voice which reminded one of oil being poured from a very full barrel.
-
-“You see,” continued the Honorable Ambercrombie
-
-Hergan, “it's this way. There is a broker in Chicago who is a friend of
-mine. I saved him from the jug when he was a kid, and he never forgot
-it. Well, he went to Chicago, raked together a bunch of money, and
-bought a seat in the Stock Exchange. He was lucky, and now he is away
-up. He is on the inside, and he says that there is going to be a big
-raise in oil stocks; that the Standard Oil Company has been forcing it
-down in order to squeeze out the little dealers, and that they are right
-now at the bottom, and when they let go, it will fly back to a dollar.”
-
-At this point in the narrative, Crawley murmured “Yes,” then leaned back
-in his chair and closed his eyes. He was not quite ready to puncture
-Mr. Hergan's balloon, and it was not his way to offer objections to
-unfinished propositions.
-
-“Now,” said Hergan, leaning over and resting his arms on the table, “the
-plan is to form a big pool and buy oil, and make enough at one haul to
-go back to civilization and live like a king. That is the scheme, boys.
-It's good.” First Class Crawley opened his eyes slowly, and putting out
-his fat hand, began to caress the green cloth on the little round poker
-table.
-
-“Billy,” he said slowly, “I expect that is a good scheme, and I expect
-there is money in it,--may be tubs of money, but me and Martin aint
-speculators; we never so much as saw a ticking machine in our life. We
-don't know anything about new-fangled ways to get rich. We're both old
-fogies,--just common old fogies, and I reckon we had better stay out. Of
-course, I aint knocking on the scheme. It looks good, mighty good, but
-me and Martin aint young any longer; we're getting old and heavy on
-our pins, and we aint got no nerve like we used to have. Still I aint
-knocking. Me and Martin would like to see you make a pile of money,
-would n't we, Martin?”
-
-“Yes,” gurgled the owner of the Golden Horn, “we would that.”
-
-The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan straightened up and thrust his hands
-into his pockets. “Of course, boys,” he said, “it's a gamble, but it's
-a ten-to-one shot better than a faro bank. If it goes our way, we will
-have all kinds of money; if it goes the other way, we are skinned to a
-standstill. I am tired of little gambles, and I am going to make one big
-play if I eat snowballs for the next twenty years. I would like to have
-you boys in, but if you don't believe that the thing is easy to beat,
-you can stay out.”
-
-An inspiration came to First Class Crawley, and he seized it with the
-avidity of a shark. “Billy,” he said, with amiable confidence, “you
-have no better friends in this here country' than me and Martin--has he,
-Martin?”
-
-“No,” muttered the fat owner of the oleaginous voice, “he aint.”
-
-“And me and Martin,” the proprietor went on, “would go in anything
-in the world that you wanted us to go in, and it would n't make no
-difference to us what it was, if you said it was a good thing. But me
-and Martin are pretty nigh sixty, and if we would go broke, we could
-never get on our feet no more. We are skeery, Billy; me and Martin are
-skeery, but we are ready to do anything for you that we can. We are
-ready to help you any way you want to be helped, because you are dead
-game, Billy,--that's what you are--you're dead game.”
-
-The wary Hiram Martin was totally in the dark as to what Crawley was
-probing for, but he had unlimited confidence in the proprietor of the
-Emporium, and he assented blandly. Crawley, he knew, followed no cold
-trail; Crawley worked no salted lead, and if he stooped to “crook the
-pregnant hinges of the knee,” there was something in it for Crawley, and
-at no great distance.
-
-“Well,” responded the Secretary of State,
-
-“I am obliged to you both, but I guess there is nothing I need just now.
-Of course, I, have got to raise a bunch of money for this deal, but I
-sort of arranged that in New York.”
-
-The ulterior motive of Crawley was now quite clear to the owner of the
-Golden Horn. Hergan would require money,--perhaps a large sum for his
-venture. If good security could be given, there was no reason why they
-should not advance the cash at a large and comfortable discount.
-
-The officer of the Commonwealth moved his chair back from the table as
-an indication that the secret conference was at an end. As he did so,
-the proprietor of the Emporium leaned over and spread out his fat hands
-on the green cloth.
-
-“Billy, old man,” he said, in a voice that indicated gentle reproach,
-“there was no necessity for you to go among strangers to raise any money
-you wanted; me and Martin have saved up a little, and me and Martin
-would be glad to let you have it if it is any accommodation, would n't
-we, Martin?”
-
-First Class Crawley failed to add that both he and Martin would require
-the trifling detail of a substantial surety, but they concluded shrewdly
-that if Hergan could raise money in New York, he had obtained some
-first-class support, and if this security were sufficient for an Eastern
-bank, it was amply sufficient for all purposes known to commerce. Hence
-the apparently unconcerned Martin consented most amiably.
-
-The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan settled back in his chair and grew
-thoughtful. “I aint closed the loan,” he said, after some little
-consideration, “and I would just as leave borrow it of you, boys. The
-fact is, I would a little rather borrow it of you. I am paying pretty
-stiff for the money, and I would rather pay my friends than the Yankees
-in the East.”
-
-“Yes,” observed the unctuous mining magnate, although he had not
-intended to speak at all.
-
-“But,” continued the Secretary of State, “I reckon you would n't like to
-put up as much as I need. I am going to crowd the bank this once.”
-
-“Well, Billy,” drawled the proprietor of the Emporium, “I expect me and
-Martin can make it up for you. If we aint got enough, we can get some
-around and piece out. Least ways, we will try. About what sum might you
-need?”
-
-“I reckon,” responded Hergan, “that I shall want about fifty thousand.”
-
-The hands of Hiram Martin tightened over his stomach, and for a moment
-Crawley studied the ceiling with placid indifference. He had turned
-Hergan into his own channel, and the transaction being assured, it was
-now the part of wisdom to affect gravity. Presently he spoke, slowly
-and anxiously: “That's a powerful big wad of money. Still, me and
-Martin----” Here he stopped short and turned to his companion.
-
-“Powerful big,” echoed the mine owner, and volunteered no further
-observation. He understood First Class Crawley as few men are
-understood, and such observations were quite useless between them,
-except for the effect upon the victim at hand.
-
-“Still,” continued the proprietor of the Emporium, “I expect we can
-raise it some way. About what terms do you allow on?”
-
-“I guess thirty days will be long enough,” responded Hergan. “Thirty
-days at twelve per cent, is how I have been figuring it.”
-
-“Yes,” drawled the gambling king, “and the security?”
-
-“Well,” said the Secretary of State, “I have calculated to give the
-Governor and Culverson.”
-
-“They are good, I reckon,” observed the wary Crawley. “Aint they good,
-Martin?”
-
-“Might be worse,” responded the oily owner of the Golden Horn, “but it
-aint that. It's the rate. Seems like mighty little on a short loan.”
-
-“It is mighty little,” continued Crawley, after a silence of some
-moments. “We would have to give more than that for what we borrowed
-'round. There would n't be nothing in it for us, Billy,--not a cent to
-me and Martin.”
-
-“I tell you what I'll do,” put in the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan,
-abruptly, as though the idea was new and sudden in its coming, “I'll
-give you twelve per cent, for the money for a month, and I will enter
-into an agreement to turn over to you two one-eighth of what I win on
-the gamble.”
-
-Crawley was very grave. The proposition pleased him hugely, but emotions
-found no expression with him. To loan fifty thousand dollars on good
-security at an enormous rate of interest, and in addition to have a
-substantial share in a speculation without standing to lose a cent, was
-a condition of affairs not likely to arise with much regularity in the
-span of a gambler's precarious life. Yet Crawley was not anxious. To
-the spectator he was sad and unconcerned. He knew quite well that this
-proposition was Hergan's ultimatum, and he was going to accept, but
-desired to appear to accept rather as a matter of kindly feeling toward
-Hergan than by reason of the fact that the inducement had increased.
-
-“Billy,” he said slowly, almost sadly, “me and Martin don't want to make
-anything off of you, and we will try to fix it any way you want it. If
-you want to arrange the thing that way, why it suits us--it suits me and
-Martin.”
-
-“All right,” responded the Secretary of State, getting up from the
-table. “I'll go over to the Governor's house and have Al fix the papers.
-The sooner I get it, the better chance I'll have to win a stake.”
-
-“Billy,” called the proprietor of the Emporium, as the official of
-the Commonwealth was passing out through the door, “just make the note
-payable to Martin.”
-
-The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan nodded his assent, and departed,
-leaving the fat gambling kings of the Southwest to prolong the secret
-session.
-
-When the door was closed, First Class Crawley turned to his companion,
-his little gray eyes slipping around in their puffy sockets.
-
-“Martin,” he said, “aint he a mark?”
-
-The stomach of the rotund Martin undulated like a rubber bag filled with
-fluid. “Of all damn fools,” he gurgled.
-
-“Were it clear?” inquired the proprietor of the Emporium.
-
-“Plain as a speckled pup,” responded Martin, “except the note.”
-
-“You see,” said First Class Crawley, turning around in his chair, “you
-live in New Mexico, and I wanted the note in your name so that if we had
-to sue we could get it in the United States court. You can't ever tell
-what the State courts are going to do with you, but old Uncle Sam's
-courts don't stand no flim-flam.”
-
-“Crawley,” announced the owner of the Golden Horn, “Crawley, you are
-built like a white man, but you have got a head on you like a Yankee.”
-
-When the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan returned to the Governor's
-residence he found that celebrated official and Major Culverson in the
-library. The irrepressible Major was engaged in presenting a lurid
-and highly dramatic history of how he had straightened the tangled
-exigencies of the Commonwealth during the absence of his associates,
-and how, by virtue of his magnificent personality, the entire Southwest,
-from the borders of lower Utah to the Rio Grande, was now the placid
-abode of peace and fraternal good-will. He stopped short as the
-Secretary of State entered, and bowed. Then thrusting his hand into
-the front of his coat, he exclaimed, with the affected manner of a
-tenth-rate actor, “Good morrow, good gambler.”
-
-“Top chop,” responded the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan. “And a
-favorite.”
-
-“I opine,” continued the Major, “I opine, sir, from your gladsome tone
-that the fat sharks have been successfully harpooned.”
-
-“Gentlemen,” said the Secretary of State, dropping into a chair by the
-table, “the reports of this race will announce that Hiram Martin and
-First Class Crawley 'also ran.'”
-
-“Which being translated,” observed the Governor, “means that these
-gentlemen will advance you the money on the line suggested by your New
-York lawyer.”
-
-“Yes,” said the gambler. “You are to fix up the papers, and I am to go
-down there to-night. Everything turned out just like Randolph Mason
-said it would. If the rest goes through as slick, we will be riding in
-carriages.”
-
-“Produce the sealed orders,” said the Governor, partaking of the mock
-dramatic atmosphere.
-
-The Secretary of State drew a big envelope from his pocket and threw
-it down on the table. The Executive leaned over, opened the paper, and,
-after having examined it carefully, took up a pen and began to write.
-
-Major Culverson wandered over to the window and looked out at the hot,
-monotonous, sterile country. “I wonder,” he murmured, “if this is really
-the passing of the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan?”
-
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-THE audience in the court-room arose and remained standing until the
-judge in his black silk robe had entered and taken his place on the
-bench. Then the audience resumed its seat, and the clerk began to read
-the proceedings for the previous day. The ceremony attendant upon the
-sitting of the Circuit Court of the United States carried with it an
-impressive sense of majestic, imperial authority, and an air of grave,
-judicial deliberation. It was the Government of the United States of
-America, the spirit of supreme order and law moving through its servant,
-and, next to the Great Ruler of Events, it was greatest. It had assumed
-for the good of men the right to sit in judgment, and to say wherein lay
-the justice of their complicated quarrels. Before it, every man's cause
-was of equal import, and every man was of equal stature; bond or free,
-one stood before it naked of influence, and with his shoulder made as
-high as the shoulder of his fellow.
-
-This is the theory. If it fails, it is because the law at best is but a
-human device, and its servants, after all, are but men like the others.
-
-The building in which the Federal Court held its session was a
-substantial, handsome structure, and maintained a strange contrast to
-the town in which it stood. The town was rough, miserable, uncouth;
-the temporary habitation of men, struggling ever with the relentless
-_ananke_ of things; in equal contrast to the officers of this court
-was the audience in the great court-room. They were the pioneers of
-civilization; a motley crowd in which the best and worst of human
-society was mixed and intermixed. They were, for the most part, bronzed,
-bearded, fearless examples of the inexorable law of the survival of the
-fittest, but not all. Some were the reckless advance agents of those
-hardy vices that follow close in the wake of empire,--devils too
-villainous to be tolerated in the cities of the East, and too bold and
-too wary to be stamped out by the deliberate machinery of the law.
-
-Against these the officers of the court bore some evidence of polish.
-They were exact, calculating men, bred to respect order, and obey and
-maintain the customs of law. The contrast was significant, and one
-recalled and understood the constant bitter conflict between the
-judicial tribunals of the State and the judicial tribunals of the
-Federal Government, bitterly waged and as yet undecided. From one
-standpoint, this was the calm tribunal of the supreme power of the
-land, providing the same rights and remedies on the very border of
-its jurisdiction that it provided at the capital itself, favoring no
-condition and acting as even-eyed as nature.
-
-On the other hand, one understood how the remote Commonwealth held this
-court to be the tribunal of a far off imperial government, seeking to
-enforce laws and customs foreign and repugnant to the laws and customs
-of its people. To them the Federal judge was a king's governor,
-travelling with his retinue over a subjugated province, and enforcing
-his edict by virtue of foreign armies quartered convenient to his hand.
-And looking on from this point of view, one understood why the outpost
-State hated this court so bitterly, and whence arose the fierce
-clamor against it. One understood how the far West smarted under its
-injunctions, and denounced them as the royal mandates of an emperor's
-consul, and how the far South collided with this tribunal and cried out
-against it to the Congress of the United States in a memorial clanging
-like a bell.
-
-So the conflict was easy to understand, and it was easy to appreciate
-how large the spectre of discord loomed, and most difficult indeed to
-force the problem to some happy end.
-
-When the clerk had finished, the marshal called the jury, and struggled
-bravely, but at times unsuccessfully, with the marvellous tangle of
-names. Indeed, if the list of this panel had been placed before a
-student of philology, he would have required no further history of the
-civilization of the Southwest. When the marshal had ended, the judge
-directed that the jury should be dismissed until two o'clock, and when
-order was again restored, the judge turned and looked down gravely from
-the bench.
-
-“This court,” he said, “is ready to pass upon the matter taken under
-advisement yesterday afternoon. It seems that one Hiram Martin, a
-citizen of and a resident in the State of New Mexico, brought an action
-in this court against Ambercrombie Hergan and others to recover the sum
-of fifty thousand dollars, money, as it is said, borrowed by the said
-Hergan. The declaration contained the common counts _in assumpsit_, with
-which was filed, in lieu of the bill of particulars, a promissory
-note, made by the said Hergan to the said plaintiff, calling for fifty
-thousand dollars, and endorsed by one Randal and another Culver-son.
-This note, in addition to the matter usually had in such instruments,
-recited that it was given in accord with a certain agreement of even
-date therewith, made and entered into by the parties to the said
-note. The case coming on for trial, the defendants, by their attorney,
-appeared and filed their plea exhibiting the said agreement, maintaining
-that the said note was given for money loaned for the purpose of being
-used in a gambling venture, and was, therefore, void at law. An issue
-being had upon the said plea, the case was put to trial, and the said
-agreement having been admitted, the defendants, by their attorney, moved
-this court to exclude the evidence, and direct the jury to find for the
-defendants; which motion this court took time to consider.
-
-“The facts herewith concerned are involved in no controversy, and
-the agreement being couched in plain terms, admits of no doubtful
-construction. It would seem that the defendant Hergan called at the
-gambling house of one Crawley, a resident of this State, and requested a
-private interview with the said Crawley and the plaintiff; that in this
-interview Hergan explained that he was considering what it pleased him
-to denominate 'a gambling venture in oil,' and solicited the two men to
-join him in the venture. This they declined to do, but suggested
-that they would advance to Hergan such money as he might need upon a
-promissory note with good security.
-
-“It appears that some controversy arose as to the rate of interest to be
-paid; and a division of the profits was suggested in lieu of the larger
-per cent. This matter was finally concluded by the plaintiff and the
-said Crawley advancing the said sum, and taking therefor the note filed
-in this cause, and in addition thereto entering into this agreement in
-writing with the said Hergan, wherein it is set forth that the money
-loaned is to be used by the said Hergan for the express purpose of 'a
-gamble in oil,' and for no other purpose; and that if any profit should
-result from said gambling venture, the said plaintiff and the said
-Crawley were to receive one-eighth of said profits. It seems that the
-money was paid and presumably used by Hergan for the purpose as stated.
-Afterward the note was presented for payment, and being refused, was
-duly protested, and later sued upon in this court.
-
-“It is maintained by the defendants that this transaction was contrary
-to public policy, and that the money, having been loaned for a known
-illegal purpose, cannot be recovered in a judicial tribunal, but falls
-Within the purlieus of those matters which are _par se ex turfe causa_,
-and for which the law provides no remedy. On the contrary, it is urged
-by counsel for the plaintiff that the transaction as between the parties
-to this suit was entirely commercial and innocent; that the plaintiff is
-a mere lender of money in a _bona fide_ transaction, and is in no wise
-a party to any illegal proceeding, and that the mere use to which the
-money was put is a matter of no moment.
-
-“The law, being for the welfare and the protection of human society,
-refuses to recognize and enforce certain contracts had among its
-citizens, when those contracts are founded in moral turpitude or
-inconsistent with the good order or solid interests of society.
-
-“'No people,' declares Chancellor Kent in his _Commentaries_, 'are
-bound or ought to enforce or hold valid in their courts of justice any
-contract which is injurious to the public rights or offends their morals
-or contravenes their policy or violates a public law.' Hence contracts
-having an illegal or immoral consideration, or tending to the violation
-of law or the debauching of public morals, are held to be _contra bonas
-mores_, and are void.
-
-“It is said that the object of all law is to suppress vice, and to
-promote the general welfare of society, and it does not give its
-assistance to persons to enforce a demand originating in their breach or
-violation of its principles and enactments. It is not necessary that the
-law expressly prohibit or enjoin an act. It may impliedly prohibit or
-enjoin it. In either case a contract in violation of its principles is
-void under the wholesome maxim _ex turpi causa non oritur actio_.
-
-“It may happen, and, indeed, frequently does happen, that the individual
-suffers great hurt from this sweeping policy of the law, but it is held
-that the good of the commonwealth rises above the mere benefit of the
-individual citizen, and that where the welfare of the whole of society
-is involved, the law will not pause to consider the injury entailed upon
-the mere unit. Hence the policy of government in the exigencies of
-war, when protection must be had against violence, and the policy of
-government in the peaceful administration of the law, when protection
-must be had against vice.
-
-“Thus gambling, wagering, and all gambling and wagering contracts
-and transactions are illegal as against public policy, since they are
-repugnant to the well-being of society, fraught with vice, pregnant with
-demoralization, and corrupting alike to the youth and to the aged, as
-they inspire a hope of reward without labor.
-
-“It is significant that in matters of this nature human society has been
-progressive. Under the common law of England wagers were not unlawful
-or unenforceable, but the statute of 9th Anne followed and altered the
-common law, and the statutes of 8th and 9th Victoria altered it yet
-farther, and in the United States every separate Commonwealth has its
-respective statute striking at this vice.
-
-“I think it will not at this day be denied that all transactions in
-stocks, by way of margin, settlement of differences, and payment of
-gains or losses, without intending to deliver the stocks, is a gambling
-or wagering operation which the law does not sanction, and will not
-carry into effect; and it has been held in the Supreme Court of the
-United States in the case of Irwin vs. Williar, 'If under the guise of
-a contract to deliver goods at a future day the real intent be to
-speculate in the rise or fall of prices, and the goods are not to be
-delivered, but one party is to pay to the other the difference between
-the contract price and the market price of the goods at the date fixed
-for executing the contract, the whole transaction is nothing more than
-a wager, and is null and void.' And that 'Generally in this country
-wagering contracts are held to be illegal and void as against public
-policy.'
-
-“Indeed the courts of the land have gone to the extremity of denouncing
-in no uncertain terms the dangerous character of these illegal ventures.
-Judge Blauford, in the case of Cunningham vs. The National Bank of
-Augusta, in speaking of these transactions termed 'futures,' declares:
-'If this is not a speculation on chances--a wagering and betting between
-the parties, then we are unable to understand the transaction. A betting
-on a game of faro or poker cannot be more hazardous, dangerous, or
-uncertain. Indeed it may be said that these animals are tame, gentle,
-and submissive compared to this monster. The law has caged them and
-driven them to the den. They have been outlawed; while this ferocious
-beast has been allowed to stalk about in open mid-day with gilded signs
-and flaming advertisements to lure the unhappy victim to its embrace
-of death and destruction. What are some of the consequences of these
-speculations in 'futures'? The faithful chroniclers of the day have
-informed us, as growing directly out of these nefarious practices,
-that there have been bankruptcies, defalcations of public officers,
-embezzlements, forgeries, larcenies, and deaths. Certainly no one
-will contend for a moment that a transaction fraught with such evil
-consequences is not immoral, illegal, and contrary to public policy.'
-
-“In so far as this doctrine is concerned with the case at bar, it is
-certain that the parties understood and intended that the money loaned
-should be used for the purpose of engaging in an illegal speculation in
-oil,--'a gamble in oil,' as it is termed in the agreement, and that such
-gambling transactions are against public policy and the law of the land.
-But it is contended by learned counsel that all this can have no bearing
-upon the case at bar for the reason that in the cases heretofore cited
-announcing these conclusions of law, the litigants were the parties who
-dealt with or for each other, and were the immediate parties engaged in
-an unlawful gambling venture, and the ones to gain or lose directly
-by the venture, and not a mere stranger who loaned money to another to
-engage in such transactions, and having but an undetermined interest in
-the result; and that the law will not lend its aid to a further wrong.
-The defendant having committed one wrong cannot be permitted to use his
-first wrongful act as an instrument whereby to effect a second wrongful
-act.
-
-“The objection is ingenious, but I judge fully met by the declaration
-of Lord Mansfield in Holman's case: 'The objection,' said the learned
-judge, 'that a contract is immoral or illegal as between plaintiff and
-defendant, sounds at all times very ill in the mouth of the defendant.
-It is not for his sake, however, that the objection is allowed, but it
-is founded on the general principle of policy which the defendant has
-the advantage of, contrary to the real justice as between himself and
-plaintiff, by accident, if I may so say. The principle of public policy
-is this: _ex dolo malo non oritur actio_. No court will lend its aid to
-a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act.
-If from the plaintiff's own statement or otherwise the cause of action
-appear to arise _ex turpi causa_, or the transgression of a positive law
-of this country, then the court says he has no right to be assisted. It
-is upon that ground the court goes, not for the sake of the defendant,
-but because it will not lend its aid to such a plaintiff.'
-
-“This claim of the plaintiff to this action is unsound for the further
-reason that any promise, contract, or undertaking the performance of
-which would tend to promote, advance, or carry into effect an object
-or purpose which is unlawful, is itself void and will not maintain
-an action. The law which prohibits the end, will not lend its aid in
-promoting the means assigned to carry it into effect. Nor is it
-possible for an act contrary to law to be made the basis of a contract
-enforceable in courts of law. Hence when one lends money to another for
-the express purpose of enabling him to commit a specific unlawful act,
-and such act be afterwards committed by means of the aid so received,
-the lender is a _particeps criminis_, and the law will not aid him to
-recover money advanced for such a purpose, and much less would it assist
-him, if, as in this case he retained an interest in the result of the
-venture.”
-
-It was very unusual for counsel to interrupt the judge in the delivery
-of his opinion, but at this point the attorney for Martin arose.
-
-“If your honor please,” he said, “this court is taking away the remedy
-of the plaintiff, and permitting the wrong to stand. Does this court
-reverse the ancient doctrine upon which the theory of human justice has
-its eternal basis, the ancient doctrine that the law will always provide
-a remedy for a wrong?”
-
-The faintest shadow of a smile flitted over the judicial face.
-
-“That sage maxim: '_lex semper debit remédiant_,'” answered the judge,
-“is a gigantic error couched in very good law Latin. The motion to
-exclude the evidence is sustained, and the jury will find a verdict for
-the defendants.”
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-THE Governor's machine marched gravely out of the Circuit Court of the
-United States and down the wide steps, the Major leading, the Executive
-following second, and the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan bringing up
-the rear, every man as silent and as solemn as a Japanese diplomat. The
-machine passed through the great arched doorway and directly across the
-street to “The Happy Maria” saloon, an institution with a variegated
-past. The machine filed in through the door and lined up before the bar
-as mysteriously as a country delegation in a caucus.
-
-The Bartender of “The Happy Maria” was a lame actor from St. Louis. When
-he turned and beheld the solemn array, he stepped back and tapped his
-forehead tragically with his fingers.
-
-“Ha!” he muttered, “it is Ulfius and Brastias and Sir Bedivere.”
-
-To this no response was made, except that the Major raised his hand and
-pointed to the bottle of “Dougherty” reposing on the second shelf beside
-the box of “scrap” and the proprietor's pistol-belt. The bartender
-hurried forward, took down the bottle, placed three little glasses on
-the bar and began to fill them. When he came to the third glass, he
-paused and set down the bottle. A puzzled expression gathered on his
-face. He thrust his forefinger into his mouth and began to lisp:
-
-               “Be there two or be there three
-
-                   In our king's companee?”
-
-The Major turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the Governor as he
-vanished in a telegraph office next door; then he swung around toward
-the barkeeper with the dramatic abandon of a professional at a benefit.
-
-“Pour on, good seneschal,” he cried; “it is the man who would be
-married. He hastens with glad tidings to the well beloved. He will
-return.”
-
-
-_(See the famous opinion of Henry St. George Tucker, President of the
-Supreme Court of Virginia, in the leading case of Gallego's Executors
-vs. Attorney General, 3 Leigh, 450; also the opinion of John Marshall,
-Chief Justice of the United States, in the case of the Trustees of
-the Philadelphia Baptist Association el at. vs. Hart's Executors, 4
-Wheaton's U. S. Reports, 330; also Knox vs. Knox's Executors, 9 W. Va.,
-125; 2y W. Va., 109, and cases cited.)_
-
-
-
-
-MRS. VAN BARTON
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-ALL this,” said Randolph Mason,” is the veriest nonsense.”
-
-The younger Mrs. Van Bartan straightened up in her chair and looked
-sharply at the counsellor. She was a woman of magnificent presence,
-with a great fleece of yellow hair, fine eyes, and regular, clear-cut
-features.
-
-“Do you mean that it is not the truth?” she asked.
-
-“Half truth,” responded Mason.
-
-“Then,” said the woman, smiling, “it is only half nonsense.”
-
-“Madam,” said Randolph Mason, “if you desire my aid, you must explain
-this entire matter. I do not choose to guess riddles.”
-
-“I have told you,” began the young woman, slowly, “that my husband and
-myself reside with his mother in a certain city of the Virginias; that
-his father is dead, and, by his will, left his entire property to the
-elder Mrs. Van Bartan--my mother-in-law; that was all true.”
-
-The counsellor nodded.
-
-“The other part,” she went on, “I was trying to put into a 'hypothetical
-case '--is n't that what you call it?”
-
-She hesitated for a moment.
-
-“It is hard to tell, and I was only trying to save myself, but I suppose
-the surgeon is quite useless if the wound is not fully revealed. If you
-will listen to me I will explain. It is hard to tell, and it hurts, but
-everything is at stake, and if I lose now I lose everything. It will
-simply mean that I have made sacrifice after sacrifice for nothing at
-all. One shrinks from putting one's heart upon a dissecting table
-where the valves may be pinned back and pried into with the point of
-a scalpel, and so one struggles with a hurt until it finally aches so
-bitterly that the expert must be had. Then one goes to the surgeon or
-the priest or the lawyer, and takes an anaesthetic while he cuts it
-out.”
-
-“Madam,” said Randolph Mason, “you talk like a diplomat: you say nothing
-at all.”
-
-The younger Mrs. Van Bartan unbuttoned her coat and threw it back with
-the air of one who has ultimately decided to keep nothing in reserve.
-
-“I have been married three years,” she began, “my father's name is
-Summers. In the good days of Virginia our family was wealthy, but of
-late years we have met with one disaster after another until the
-family became very poor, and the effort to maintain an appearance of
-respectability was a nipping struggle indeed.
-
-“About this time the coal industries of West Virginia began to develop,
-and our city became a manufacturing centre. This brought in many Eastern
-capitalists, among them Michael Van Bartan, who established great iron
-mills, out of which he made a vast fortune. Shortly thereafter he died,
-leaving his widow and one son, Gerald Van Bartan.
-
-“This woman I have never quite understood. After the death of her
-husband, she maintained their country place in almost profligate
-magnificence, but she has always seemed terribly disappointed in her
-son. He was a good, easy-going fellow, and his mother, an ambitious,
-restless woman, had great plans for his future. But, failing that, and
-being a person of shrewd instinct, she set about finding for him an
-ambitious wife, who would probably be able to succeed where she had
-failed. But while the mother was striving to select a suitable woman for
-her purpose, the son paid court to me,--and I married him.”
-
-The young woman paused for a moment, and the lines of her mouth
-hardened. Then she went on:
-
-“He was not quite the person with whom I had hoped to spend my life, but
-he had wealth, and we were so miserably poor,--and, I judge after all,
-one is never permitted to do just what one wishes in this weary world.
-This marriage was a bitter disappointment to Mrs. Van Bartan, but she
-was a woman with the resources of an empress. She came at once to me,
-and, with the kindest and most gracious courtesy, welcomed me as her
-daughter, and began at once to shower upon me the most substantial
-evidences of her good will. We were taken to live with her at the
-country place, and everything was done that a shrewd woman could imagine
-to bring me completely under her influence, and, through me, to move
-my husband to the effort which she desired. But it was all an utter
-failure.
-
-“I appreciated thoroughly the incapacity of Gerald Van Bartan, and said
-as much to his mother. I went deliberately to her and pointed out how
-very vain her ambition was, and how certainly it must come to nothing. I
-said how difficult it was for men to lift themselves even the least bit
-higher than their fellows; how it required years of labor and selfdenial
-and courage. I reminded her that my husband had not one of the qualities
-necessary for such work; that he was not industrious, and not ambitious
-she knew well; that the habits of the man had been formed, and this work
-could not be now undone.
-
-“Then I blundered like a fool. I said that wealth had caused these
-habits to become fixed, and that we must accept him as his luxurious
-life had made him; that if he had been thrown out to struggle with
-poverty, some qualities might have been developed, but that he had never
-been forced to feel the necessity for an effort, and consequently he
-had never called his faculties into use, nor could he now since the
-necessity did not arise. I begged her to abandon the effort as vexatious
-and entirely hopeless.
-
-“To all this the elder Mrs. Van Bartan listened attentively and made no
-comment. When I had finished, she laughed, and said that I had entirely
-misapprehended her intentions toward her son; that she had no object
-in life but to make us as happy as it were possible to do, but that one
-could not tell what conditions might arise, and she had wished simply to
-put her son in a position to care for himself and me, if it ever should
-be necessary. Then she stroked my hair, as she might have done to a
-child, and bade me not worry over trifles. I now congratulated myself
-that the matter was finally settled, but I was fearfully wrong. I
-had read this remarkable woman poorly. Although again beaten, she was
-unconquered, and she determined upon a final desperate move. Perhaps
-my foolish prattle, furnished the suggestion, but it is rather more
-probable, I think, that her master mind evolved the plan out of what she
-considered a desperate condition.”
-
-The woman's face was now grave, and she seemed deeply in earnest.
-
-“It was the plan of Mrs. Van Bartan to convince my husband and myself
-that future poverty was impending, but just how to make this impression
-strongly probable, was a matter of great difficulty, and one which she
-appreciated fully. In order to do this effectually, it was necessary for
-her, in some manner, apparently to dispose of her property, and at the
-same time actually to retain it in possession.
-
-“This was a difficult problem, but difficult problems were not appalling
-to Mrs. Van Bartan, and she finally determined upon this shrewd scheme.
-She would make a will, leaving her entire estate at her death to the
-church of which she was a member, and entirely disinheriting my husband.
-This will could have the effect she desired, and at the same time leave
-her unhampered in the use of her property, and free to destroy this
-will or make another at her pleasure. This is now her plan. How I have
-discovered it is not of importance, since it is a part of her plan in
-this matter to have me suspect her intention and finally to have me
-believe that she has decided to cut us off without a dollar. Having
-determined upon this move, she will carry it through with the skill of a
-master strategist. She will have the paper drawn by her legal adviser
-in the presence of witnesses; she will declare her intention to the most
-substantial people of our city, and will take good care to see that her
-act is made known through the most reliable sources. There will be no
-blunder anywhere,--Mrs. Van Rartan does not blunder.”
-
-“Has this will been drafted?” asked Randolph Mason.
-
-“No,” replied the young woman, “but it will be made soon. Mrs. Van
-Bartan is now preparing public opinion for her act. She is far too wise
-to hurry.”
-
-“I see no danger in all this,” said Mason, “since it is not this woman's
-intention to really disinherit her son. Ultimately she will destroy this
-document or make another.”
-
-“But,” said the young woman, bending forward in her chair, “Mrs. Van
-Bartan is afflicted with an aortic aneurism, and may drop dead at any
-moment. This she refuses to believe, and although she has been examined
-by celebrated specialists, she stoutly asserts that her health is as
-good as it ever was in her whole life.
-
-“Now suppose she makes this will and dies suddenly without having an
-opportunity to make another. What then? Her intention will not help us.
-This will holds, and we are left entirely without a dollar in the world.
-Now, what am I to do to save us? It is of no use to go to Mrs. Van
-Bartan. She is an iron woman. She has her plan, and Heaven could not
-change her in the least. I must do something. It all depends on me, and
-I don't know which way to turn. You must show me some way; you must do
-something.”
-
-Randolph Mason turned around in his chair and looked squarely at the
-young woman.
-
-“Madam,” he said, “you have neglected to tell me the most important
-matter.”
-
-“Oh, no, sir,” responded the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, “I have told you
-everything.”
-
-“By no means,” said Mason. “You have said that Mr. Van Bartan is not the
-man with whom you had hoped to spend your life. Who is that man?”
-
-The young woman looked down at the floor and was silent.
-
-“Well,” she said, “I don't know that I meant quite that. I was meaning,
-you know, that there were other considerations moving me to this
-alliance beyond mere affection. I did not say that I loved some one
-else, did I? Did I say I loved some one else?”
-
-“You evade,” said Mason, bluntly. “It is the weakling's method of
-confession, and as well the fool's method.”
-
-The blood came into the face of the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, and she
-looked up resolutely.
-
-“You don't spare me at all,” she said, bitterly. “You pry out
-everything, even the very heart linings. Suppose I did love some one
-else, what has that to do with this matter? That is all over and past
-and gone. Can't I permit it to sleep and be forgotten? Suppose there was
-another man? Suppose there is now? Must I empty out his heart too? Can't
-I spare him? Can't I leave him out of this?”
-
-“I am waiting, madam,” said Mason, quietly.
-
-The young woman passed her hand downward over her face, as though to
-remove something that was clinging to her.
-
-“If you must know,” she said slowly, “his name is Dalton, Robert Dalton,
-a member of the law firm of Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton, of our city. He
-is said to be an able lawyer. He is the elder Mrs. Van Bartan's legal
-adviser, but I have no right to tell you all this. It is unjust to him.
-and unjust to me, and unfair to us all.”
-
-“And he still loves you?” said Mason, with the blunt indifference of a
-surgeon who thrusts his thumb into a wound.
-
-The young woman threw back her head. “You are brutal,” she cried, “to
-ask such a question, and I should be a fool, a miserable, contemptible
-fool if I should answer.”
-
-“But you have answered it, madam,” replied Randolph Mason.
-
-The younger Mrs. Van Bartan covered her face with her hands, and began
-to sob. The counsellor sat and watched her, as an expert might watch an
-intricate piece of machinery that he was testing. There was no emotion
-of any sort visible in his face--nothing at all, except the intense
-interest of the expert.
-
-Presently Mason leaned back in his chair. The result was evidently
-satisfactory.
-
-“Is this man married?” he asked.
-
-The woman did not answer. She simply pressed her hands tighter against
-her face. The counsellor waited for a few moments. Then he repeated:
-
-“Is this man married?”
-
-The woman's hands trembled violently. “No,” she sobbed, “and he never
-will be.” The lines in the face of Randolph Mason grew deep and resolute
-as one has seen the lines in the face of a great physician when, in some
-desperate case, he finally turned from the bedside of the patient in
-order to write the prescription upon which he had decided.
-
-“Madam,” he said, in a voice that was firm and admitted of no protest,
-“this man Dalton is perhaps a person of some learning. Since he is your
-mother-in-law's legal adviser, he will have the matter in his hands. He
-is under your influence. Could a problem be more simple? You have but to
-go to him and say what you have said to me. He will know what to do.”
-
-She dropped her hands in astonishment.
-
-“Go to him? Go to him?” she repeated.
-
-“Yes,” said Mason, “and tell him the truth,--and wait.”
-
-“But,” began the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, “how could he help me? What
-could----”
-
-“Madam,” interrupted Mason, rising, “this is your coat, I believe.
-Permit my clerk to assist you to your carriage.”
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-Robert dalton was of good blood, having descended from colonial
-families of degree. He was perhaps in his middle thirties, in appearance
-no usual man, straight as a spire, with a powerful face in which every
-feature seemed prominent; hair rather prematurely gray, and soft and
-clinging as a woman's, and withal a manner courtly to such a degree that
-the young, and those others unskilled in divining the natures of men,
-associated with Mr. Dalton relations of a so-called romantic nature.
-This conclusion was grossly erroneous, and led to much profitless
-gossip. In fact, Robert Dalton was a stern and practical man of large
-legal acquirements, with no more romance in his composition than a ship
-carpenter. In the practice of his profession he was always cold, clear
-headed, and technical, believing no man, and fearing no man; in truth,
-the wags asserted, his courtesy was in itself a libel, because of
-all members of the bar no one was more rigid, more exacting, or more
-relentless than Robert Dalton, of Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton.
-
-The mental build of young Dalton rendered him especially valuable as
-a chancery lawyer, and this department of the business he gradually
-assumed until it was almost entirely in his hands. For years he drafted
-all difficult pleadings, especially difficult under the rigid practice
-of the common law obtaining in the Virginias. He drafted likewise all
-deeds, wills, and papers of like tenor, with such unusual care and skill
-that he rapidly gained a reputation,--the sort of reputation which it
-usually requires a lifetime to establish, and the value of which is
-above rubies.
-
-When the judges spoke of him they said, “If Mr. Dalton prepared this
-paper it is probably correct.”
-
-It would be unwise to attribute to young Dalton an utter disregard
-for social relations. The error of such an assertion would readily
-be detected by those who knew him. In fact, he was usually present at
-prominent social functions, and largely sought after by reason of his
-magnetic nature and the charm of his vigorous mind.
-
-The father of young Dalton had been a man of improvident habits, and,
-immediately upon the death of his wife, squandered his large estate
-in the riot of dissipation, so that his son inherited nothing but a
-dilapidated manor-house and a single slave. This servant, a pure negro,
-was deeply attached to young Dalton, and the two continued to reside in
-the manor-house near the city suburbs, the negro acting as cook, valet,
-and man-of-all-work. This manor house was one of the first built in
-the Virginias. It was surrounded by a long, ill-kept lawn, in which
-the ancient knotted oaks seemed to stand guard over the memory of some
-departed greatness. The house itself, covered with the green Virginia
-creeper, was little better than a ruin. The plaster had fallen away from
-the great pillars, and the walls were cracked, in places, almost to the
-roof.
-
-Strangely enough, Robert Dalton never attempted to repair the estate,
-taking pride rather in its air of decay. This statement is not entirely
-accurate. He did, indeed, fit up the ancient drawing-room for the
-purposes of a library, thrusting in rows of bookcases beside long
-antique mirrors and mahogany window seats. These bookcases were
-filled entirely with reports of courts, late digests, the decisions of
-tribunals of last resort, and volume after volume on wills, contracts,
-and corporations, but scarcely a volume on standard or current
-literature. For these latter he had no inclination, and, as he
-apologetically explained, no time.
-
-In this library, Dalton did most of his legal work, obtaining here
-freedom from interruption and the quiet which he required.
-
-As the city developed, this neglected suburban street was seized upon
-and assumed as the fashionable quarter by the wealthy Eastern families.
-They paved it far into the country, and ruthlessly wiped out the
-splendid old homesteads, erecting on their ruins ostentatious palaces
-with prim lawns, reminding one not a little of that civilized vandalism
-which would cut out from its frame the superb painting of a landscape
-and replace therein a practical and entirely accurate map of the same
-landscape.
-
-These wealthy families swept out, too, the old social customs of this
-city, setting up elaborate formalities and impoverishing standards of
-dress and entertainment.
-
-The recognized leader was Mrs. LeConte Dean, the wife of a nail
-manufacturer of vast wealth. Her receptions were the society events.
-Indeed, it has been said that recognition by this newly rich importation
-determined one's social status.
-
-The Van Bartans were another of these wealthy families coming directly
-from the city of New York. The father had founded gigantic iron mills
-from which he had gathered a princely revenue. Upon his death, the wife,
-a grim woman of frightful prejudices, had continued to maintain their
-country place in sumptuous, albeit rather frigid, elegance. They had one
-child, Gerald Van Bartan, an utterly worthless young man of extravagant
-habits and wandering aims; nevertheless, a youth of generosity and
-kindly impulses. The boy was a source of ceaseless vexation to his
-mother.
-
-Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton were her solicitors; especially Robert
-Dalton, in whom she reposed the greatest confidence, and not
-infrequently she spoke to him at great length of her difficulties with
-her son, and usually concluded by working herself into a towering rage.
-
-When one morning in the early autumn it was announced that Gerald Van
-Bartan was very shortly to wed Miss Columbia Summers, a young lady of
-great beauty and of aristocratic lineage, but of reduced and nipping
-finances, the city was very justly indignant. Robert Dalton had for
-many years paid court to this young woman, and the self-constituted
-match-makers had long since entered up their decree in this matter and
-dismissed it, and they resented, as almost a personal affront, the going
-afield of their plans.
-
-Thereupon idle folk prattled of the great blow to Dalton, his broken
-heart, and other drivel. There was no evidence that Robert Dalton
-had any other than a passing interest in this matter, and neither his
-partners nor those others intimately acquainted with the man suspected
-that this gossip contained any element of truth Indeed, he had come to
-be regarded as of stoical build.
-
-When this rumor came to the ears of Mrs. Van Rartan, she received it
-with almost suspicious composure, and a few days later sent for Dalton,
-her solicitor, and inquired if she could dispose of her entire property.
-To this Dalton replied that she could, the title to all property having
-passed to her by virtue of her husband's will, of which she was the sole
-beneficiary. Thereupon she smiled, and said that she might require his
-services further on.
-
-The wedding and receptions which followed were great social functions,
-and for three years thereafter Mrs. Van Bartan maintained the two
-young people in the veriest profligate magnificence, the elder woman
-anticipating every wish of the younger, and heaping upon her the
-costliest gowns and jewels to be had.
-
-During this time, Carpenter and Lomax watched Dalton closely, but they
-could detect no change in the man, except perhaps that he was even more
-rigid and exacting in his professional transactions.
-
-Thus matters continued without event until the night set apart for the
-first autumn reception of Mrs. LeConte Dean. These were annual events
-of great revelry, and largely attended. The night was unpropitious, raw,
-and foggy, as October nights usually are in this region, but this in no
-wise interfered with the occasion; indeed, it was long remembered as one
-of startling magnificence.
-
-This reception Robert Dalton determined not to attend, partly because he
-avoided as far as possible every gathering at which he might be thrown
-with the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, but principally because the firm had
-an important case in the Federal Court then sitting, and he had been
-asked to prepare an elaborate decree for the following day.
-
-After determining to remain at home, Robert Dalton went into his
-library, gathered his books of reference from their cases, and began the
-preparation of his legal paper. This decree he found more difficult to
-draft than he had anticipated, and, striving to adjust its intricate
-matters, he became more and more absorbed until he was entirely
-unconscious of his surroundings and of the time that had elapsed.
-
-Finally he arose in order to refer to some report that was not within
-reach of his hand. As he turned to the light he beheld a woman, wrapped
-in the folds of a long party cloak, standing with her hand on the door,
-as though she had just entered. Dalton was so utterly astonished that he
-literally rubbed his eyes to ascertain if he were not the victim of an
-illusion. Whereupon the woman threw back her cloak, and advanced to the
-table, when he perceived to his amazement that it was the younger Mrs.
-Van Bartan. To this man she seemed a daughter of the very gods in the
-full bloom of womanhood. The rich velvet cloak thrown back from her bare
-shoulders, the ball dress clinging like puffy webs to a form that his
-brooding mind had idolized; her eyes illumined, and her splendid hair
-wound in loose coils above her dainty head.
-
-It would all be very weary to set out in detail what occurred on this
-October night; how the younger woman explained that she had finally
-divined the intention of the elder Mrs. Van Bartan, and how she had
-hoped to see Dalton at the LeConte Dean's, and not finding him had
-slipped away, and, availing herself of the foggy night, had been driven
-unattended to his house in order to implore his aid; how she came and
-stood beside him, and pointed out the dread results sure to follow the
-elder Mrs. Van Bartan's unnatural intentions,--results disastrous to
-her and to hers. Gerald Van Bartan was worthless, she knew that; he had
-never been taught to work; he was now too old to learn; it would mean
-poverty, grinding poverty, and shame worse than all; and her father,
-aged and broken in health, and the others of them, all dependent upon
-her, would be thrown out to huddle in beggary, literally, beggary.
-
-How Dalton replied that there was nothing he could do; reminding her
-that the elder Mrs. Van Bartan was a woman of iron will, of stern
-resolve, of relentless determination, and that neither he nor any other
-living man could affect her. And how like a woman she answered that he,
-Dalton, would be sent for to make the will, and that he must save her
-some way, she did not know how,--he would know, he was shrewd, he was
-a great lawyer, he could certainly find some way; this she knew, and he
-must do it.
-
-And how he labored to show her that there was nothing he could
-do--absolutely nothing; that the whole thing was hopeless, thoroughly,
-utterly hopeless; and then how she came to him and put her bare white
-arms around him and looked up into his face, the big tears shining in
-her glorious eyes, and said that if this were true, then she proposed
-to tell him all the truth, the truth that she loved him, him only in all
-the wide world, him always from her very childhood, and that for others
-she had made this sacrifice; and how great, how awful a sacrifice it had
-been, men could not understand. How he coldly loosed her arms, although
-to do it wrenched his very heart loose; although he would have given his
-life gladly to have taken her in his embrace if only for a moment, and
-told her how he understood and how he loved her for it, and how he would
-always love her to the very end of all things; but, instead, how he had
-sternly led her out to the carriage and forced her to leave him, and
-how he turned back into the library with his head swimming and his heart
-pounding like a hammer, and fought the whole thing out through the long
-October night, until the dawn crept in and the birds began to chirp in
-the Virginia creeper.
-
-Some weeks later, as was anticipated, the elder Mrs. Van Bartan summoned
-Robert Dalton to her residence in order to prepare her will. Upon his
-arrival he found Simon Harrison, President of the First National Bank,
-and David Pickney, a steel manufacturer, both prominent citizens of
-unquestioned integrity; also the late Milton South, a most estimable
-physician. At Mrs. Van Bartan's request, Robert Dalton prepared the will
-in the presence of these three persons. When he had finished he handed
-the paper to the testatrix, who thereupon read it aloud in the presence
-of all, declared it entirely correct, and affixed her signature. As is
-customary, Dalton requested the three gentlemen to converse with the
-testatrix and satisfy themselves that she was in proper mental
-condition. This they did at some length, and not unskilfully, all being
-men of good sense. Afterward Harrison and Pickney subscribed their names
-as witnesses in the manner prescribed by the statute. Mrs. Van Bartan
-then placed the will in an envelope, sealed it with her own hand in the
-presence of all, and gave it to Simon Harrison to retain until after her
-death.
-
-On the seventeenth day of December following, Mrs. Van Bartan died
-suddenly, and some days thereafter the will was opened and read at her
-late residence by Simon Harrison, executor. Gerald Van Bartan and his
-young wife were present, as was also Robert Dalton, and those others who
-had been with the deceased when the will was drawn. The elder members
-of the law firm, Carpenter and Lomax, were likewise present, and, at the
-request of Harrison, the Episcopal minister, Rev. Mr. Boreland, and his
-counsel, an obscure practitioner named Gouch.
-
-The will was short, leaving the entire estate, real and personal, naming
-it specifically, for some religious purpose; and, in a spirit of grim
-jest, it would seem, one dollar each to her “beloved children,” Gerald
-Van Bartan and Columbia Van Bartan, his wife.
-
-The effect of this will upon the two young people, as the executor
-slowly read its provisions, would require a dramatist of no little
-stature to describe. The woman's face grew drawn and bloodless. The
-man's knees seemed to give way, and he would have fallen had he not been
-helped to a chair.
-
-Dalton, men did not notice, for he was a skilful actor. When the
-executor had finished, Mr. Lomax plucked Carpenter by the arm, and
-inquired, in a low voice, if he had noticed any defect in the will.
-Carpenter replied that he had not, but that he had paid little attention
-to its form, whereupon Lomax requested him to examine it closely. The
-elder counsellor stepped up beside Harrison and began to go carefully
-over the instrument. Presently he stopped in amazement, and put his
-finger down on the paper.
-
-“This will,” he said, “is utterly void.”
-
-At the word, the blood surged back into Columbia Van Bartan's face. She
-took two steps toward Robert Dalton, then turned and buried her face in
-the folds of a heavy curtain. Dalton was cool and entirely incredulous.
-
-“I think you are very much mistaken, Mr. Carpenter,” he said quietly.
-
-“Mistaken?” answered the counsellor. “Why, this bequest is made simply
-to 'St. Luke's Episcopal Church.' That organization is neither an
-individual nor a corporation; it has no recognized legal existence. And
-this request must fail for want of a devisee.”
-
-At this point Harrison, who was a slow but very careful man, interrupted
-and explained with great accuracy that the will was in every detail
-exactly as the testatrix had desired it; that even the language used was
-her language; that she had said “St. Luke's Episcopal Church,” and
-that Mr. Dalton had written it in the instrument precisely as Mrs. Van
-Bartan had said, and that there could be no possible error either by
-accident or design.
-
-Carpenter was about to reply, when Lomax, noticing his excitement,
-stepped in between Harrison and the elder attorney, and pointed out at
-great length that this was all no doubt true, but that, under the law,
-an indefinite religious organization, could not take a bequest; that
-this was not generally known to those unfamiliar with legal business,
-but that Mr. Dalton should have known that, in order to devise property
-to a religious organization, it must be given to a board of trustees,
-or to a certain person or persons, named in the will, for a specific
-and accurately determined purpose; that this, Mr. Dalton should have
-explained, and that his writing down the exact words of Mrs. Van Bartan
-had defeated her intentions, and rendered this bequest void.
-
-“But, sir,” put in the attorney Gouch, pompously, “the testatrix's
-intention must control. I see no----”
-
-“Come, come, my good man,” cried Carpenter, angrily, “this is what is
-known in Virginia as a 'vague and indefinite charity.' Such bequests
-have been held void for almost a century. Why Silas Hart attempted to
-create such a devise as early as 1790, and John Marshall, Chief Justice
-of the United States, held it void at law. Twenty years later.
-Joseph Gallego attempted to bequeath a similar charity to the Roman
-Catholic Church at Richmond, and Henry St. George Tucker, President of
-the Supreme Court of Virginia, in a famous opinion, held that it must
-fail, and from that time until the present the courts of this country
-have been passing upon this common error of testators and their
-incompetent advisers.”
-
-Robert Dalton looked up anxiously. “In what cases?” he stammered.
-
-“What cases!” almost shouted the elder counsellor, for he had now
-lost his temper completely. “What cases, you bungler! Ask the veriest
-pettyfogger; ask the commonest justice of the peace, but do not
-catechise me.” And after having delivered himself of this venom, he
-seized his hat and cane and stalked out of the house. He was greatly
-enraged to think that a man of Dalton's learning, a member of a firm of
-high standing, should make such a stupendous blunder.
-
-Later in the day Robert Dalton came to the office and requested
-Carpenter and Lomax to join him in his private room. His face showed
-plainly the evidences of a great mental strain. When they were together
-he closed the door, and, turning to them, said that he had examined the
-question which they had raised, in regard to Mrs. Van Bartan's will, and
-he was now satisfied that he had made a prodigious error in drafting
-the instrument; that as his mistake would deprive a powerful church of
-a vast estate, endless criticism of a most acrimonious character would
-follow; that it was not just for any part of this criticism to fall
-upon the shoulders of either Carpenter or Lomax, and, therefore, he
-had determined to publicly withdraw from the firm. To this they made
-scarcely a courteous objection, and Dalton accordingly withdrew,
-publishing an announcement thereof in the daily papers.
-
-The report of a great error in Mrs. Van Bartan's will spread through the
-city with the marvellous rapidity of an evil rumor. The vials of bitter
-criticism were poured out upon the head of Robert Dalton. Men declared
-that they had long suspected that he was a sham, a posing ignoramus, a
-dangerous blunderer.
-
-The executor, Harrison, as was his duty, attempted to execute the
-charitable bequest, but, of course, failed. Whereupon the press of the
-city stood up in the market-place like the selfcomplacent Pharisee and
-declared that in this day mistakes were crimes; that it was not enough
-for an attorney to do the best he knew,--it was his duty to know; it was
-not enough for an attorney to be honest, he must he likewise competent;
-that the law was a learned profession in which the bungler was equally
-as dangerous as the knave; that vast estates were conveyed by will, and
-how easily by mistake or design a lawyer could destroy the testator's
-most sacred wish; he could rob the helpless of his right, the dependent
-of his inheritance, or the charitable institution of its patron's aid,
-and all this without color of criminal wrong. The law, it asserted,
-punished with relentless hand the man who blundered in positions of
-trust; it punished with awful penalties the man who blundered in the
-heat of passion, but it had no censure, no sting, no scourge for the man
-who blundered at the bedside of the dying.
-
-Thus was Robert Dalton's fame as a lawyer damned into the veriest
-blackness.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-ON a certain bleak Thursday of January, Randolph Mason sat in his
-office, absorbed in the study of a great map which was spread out on his
-table. The day was so dark and lowering that the electric light above
-the table had been turned on. Presently the door opened and the little
-clerk Parks looked in. He watched the lawyer for a few moments intently;
-then he withdrew his head. A few minutes later, the door again opened
-and a woman entered, and closed it behind her. She stopped and looked
-at the counsellor, bending over his map. The picture was not a pleasant
-one. The man's streaked, gray hair was rumpled, and his heavy-muscled
-face under the glare of the light was rather more brutal than otherwise.
-Then she crossed to the table and threw a newspaper down on the map.
-
-“Will you kindly read that marked paragraph?” she said.
-
-Randolph Mason looked up. For a moment he did not recall the woman, her
-face was so very white. Then he recognized his client, Mrs. Van Bartan.
-
-“You will pardon me, madam,” he said. “I am deeply engaged. Kindly come
-here tomorrow.”
-
-“I have to regret,” said the woman, “that I ever came here at all. Will
-you please read that paragraph?” And she put her finger down on the
-newspaper.
-
-The counsellor looked at the paper.
-
-“We notice by to-day's _Herald_,” it ran, “that Robert Dalton, Esq., has
-sailed for Japan, where it is said he will become a legal instructor in
-one of the national universities. Mr. Dalton, it will be remembered, is
-the attorney whose stupid blunder invalidated the Van Bartan will, and
-it is to be hoped that he will prove more efficient in the service
-of the Mikado. The bar of the Virginias cannot be said to regret Mr.
-Dalton's departure. He was grossly incompetent, and just such men bring
-the legal profession into disrepute.”
-
-“What of all this?” said Mason. “You obtained what you desired. Why do
-you harass me with this nonsense?”
-
-“I obtained it,” repeated the woman, bitterly. “Yes, thanks to your
-devilish ingenuity, I obtained it, but at what a cost! I have the money,
-but it is daubed over with the blood of a man's heart It has the price
-of a man's honor stamped on the face of every coin. I hate it all.
-Everything I see, every thread that touches me, taunts me with the shame
-of such a sacrifice.”
-
-The woman's voice was firm, but her figure trembled like a tense wire.
-
-“Madam.” said Randolph Mason, “you annoy me. I have no interest in this
-drivel.”
-
-“No interest in it?” cried the woman. “You, you have no interest in it?
-Was it not you who did it? You and the devil himself? You concocted this
-plan. You said go to him, and tell him, and he would know what to do.
-Your fiendish ingenuity saw what would result, but you did not tell me.
-You did not tell me that this man would be compelled to rip his life
-in two like a cloth to save me, and that he would do it. If I had known
-this, do you suppose that I would have gone on for a moment? Do you
-suppose that I wanted wealth, or ease, or luxury, at the cost of a man's
-hope and fame and honor? I tell you, you miserable blunderer, this thing
-cost too much.”
-
-“Chatter,” said Mason, rising.
-
-“Chatter!” cried the woman, beating her hards on the table. “Do you call
-this chatter? I charge you,--do you hear me, I charge you with the ruin
-of this man's life.”
-
-“Madam,” said Randolph Mason, “the vice of your error lies in the fact
-that you should have consulted a priest. I am not concerned with the
-nonsense of emotion.”
-
-Then he turned abruptly and walked out of the room.
-
-_(See Amer, and Eng. Enc of Law. vol. ii., page 926, and the cases
-there discussed; see also State us. Richardson, S.C. 35 Lawyers' Reports
-Annotated, 238, and cases there cited; also Constitution of the United
-States, Art., and the Constitution of West Virginia Art. 3, Sec. 5.)_
-
-
-
-
-ONCE IN JEOPARDY
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE sheriff stopped on the steps of the court-house, pushed his straw
-hat back from his forehead, moved his eyeglasses up a little closer
-to his fat face, and began to contemplate the limits of his official
-jurisdiction, with the air of one about to deduce a law.
-
-The little county seat on Tug River slept in a pocket. Behind it and
-on every side except the river were great mountains, half-hidden by a
-gigantic cloak of fog. On the opposite side, from the great coal plants
-of the Norfolk and Western Railroad a counter-canopy of smoke arose,
-dense and voluminous, and stretched itself like a black hand out over
-the town and across to the fog of the mountain. Man, it seemed, had
-conspired with nature to cover up and hide the town of Welch.
-
-“Strange,” drawled the sheriff, “strange, that a white man should be
-willing to leave a paradise like this, and with river water in his
-stomach too.” Then he chuckled comfortably.
-
-The sheriff of the county of McDowell was all right. He represented the
-entire machinery of the law obtaining south of Tug River, and he carried
-the momentous responsibility with the languid grace of a bank clerk at a
-charity german.
-
-The sheriff was a Virginian. But, marvel of marvels, he was a Virginian
-without a title. He was plain W. M. Carter. The statement is not quite
-accurate. Among the boys he was “White” Carter. But he was no “colonel”
- and no “major,” and he gloried in the distinction and guarded it well.
-The sheriff was a comfortably fat man and most genial. His eyes were
-round, blue, and dreamy, and he never hurried. He was never abrupt or
-a jarring element. He slipped easily into any position and filled it
-up without a ripple, as water slips in and fills up the outlines of a
-vessel.
-
-Still the sheriff was all right. When he looked out of his dreamy blue
-eyes through his rimless nose glasses at a negro miner who had used his
-razor as an adjunct to an argument, and mildly requested the negro to
-accompany him to the confines of the county jail, it was as certain as
-the advent of death that the negro would obey, and obey without comment.
-And when the sheriff mounted his “murky dun” horse and passed up into
-the mountains for the purpose of inducing a moonshiner to come down
-to civilization and submit his rights to the decision of a judicial
-tribunal, it was a matter of familiar history that the moonshiner always
-came.
-
-To the inquiring stranger, no man seemed a native of McDowell.
-
-This impression arose from the fact that the stranger adhered to the
-railroad and the coal towns which sprang up in its wake, and in these
-every man came from somewhere. The railroad had brought in the coal
-companies, and the coal companies had brought in the negroes, and thus
-towns sprang into existence, and the usual rough, expeditious methods
-of civilization began. Then came the politician and the adventurer, and
-mixed in merrily, and from that time forth the county of McDowell was
-industrial and Republican, and everything “went.” But a few years back,
-before the section hands on the Norfolk and Western Railroad cut through
-from the county of Mercer, there was a population in McDowell that was
-not Republican, and that did not “go.” They were long-limbed, indolent,
-and “handy men” in a fight. They made corn whiskey when they pleased,
-and voted the Democratic ticket when they saw fit, and accounted to
-no one. The revenue officer came, and looked up at the great mountains
-covered with the giant oaks of a century, concluded that the laws were
-not being violated, and so reported to the Government. It was vastly
-more comfortable than going up into these same mountains not to come
-down at all, or maybe to come down with a squirrel bullet under the
-ribs. In his day and generation the revenue officer was a wise man.
-
-Here the citizen was born as it happened, lived as he could, and died
-as the necessity arose, and the outside world neither knew nor cared nor
-concerned itself with it. These were not bad people. Morally they were
-as good as the sun warmed. Their life bred no shams. If they loved each
-other, they lived together and were happy, and if they hated each other,
-they fought it out The feud has been usually overdrawn. It existed in
-truth, but it rarely resulted in anything more than a “fist fight” at a
-grist mill, but when it grew serious, it grew very serious indeed. The
-mountaineer always shot to kill. He was no man of half measures; it was
-a free, open, breezy war, and perhaps it was as healthy fighting as any.
-At his worst, the native moonshiner was a better man than the imported
-miner at his best. Up in the fog of the mountains men were killed; down
-in the smoke of the coke ovens they were murdered; and between the two
-words there is a distinction as big as the honor of a people.
-
-The “killer” was common in McDowell, but the suicide was not, perhaps
-because men rarely take their own lives in the mountains. It is a
-trick of jaded civilization obtaining in congested cities, unknown and
-unpractised by the dwellers among the hills. Men died in the mountains,
-but by the hand of others.
-
-So the sheriff was puzzled. That morning the body of Brown Hirst,
-manager of the Octagon Coal Company, had been picked up in the muddy
-waters of Tug River, just below the bridge. Above, on the railing of
-the bridge, his coat and vest had been found, folded and apparently
-laid carefully over a girder. The bridge was very high above the
-rocky stream, and the body of the man was badly crushed--almost beyond
-recognition. The man had evidently jumped from the bridge with the
-deliberate intention of taking his own life. All this the sheriff had
-heard as he rode into the town. But rumors are lurid, the sheriff knew,
-and he concluded to go at once to the prosecuting attorney. He wanted
-the tale straight from some one who could pry the facts free from the
-fiction. On the steps of the court-house the sheriff had paused for a
-moment and made some observations to himself. But a crowd was beginning
-to gather in the street below, and the sheriff, being fully aware that
-this portended a demand for his opinion and not being pleased to express
-one, he turned abruptly and passed into the court-house.
-
-The man of order walked leisurely down the hall to the office of the
-prosecuting attorney and entered. A thin, red-haired girl was pounding
-a typewriter with the energy of a two-horse-power engine.
-Conventionalities were abbreviated in McDowell. The sheriff sauntered
-in.
-
-“Where's Jeb?” he drawled.
-
-The red-haired girl paused for a moment and jerked her thumb over her
-shoulder. “In there,” she said, “busy.” Then she went on.
-
-Miss McFadden was an economist; she wasted no words. The sheriff threw
-open the door, and walked into the private office. The prosecuting
-attorney turned around from the window.
-
-“Hello, White!” he said, “you are the very man I want.”
-
-“Which indicates,” drawled the sheriff, “that you are a young person of
-great discernment.”
-
-“When one needs horse sense,” said the prosecuting attorney, “your
-acquaintance is valuable. At other times it is a luxury.”
-
-“Together,” observed the sheriff, mildly, “we create a sort of
-equoasinus intellectual atmosphere, I suppose.”
-
-The attorney took up a chair and placed it by the window.
-
-“Sit there,” he said, “and listen.” Then he closed the door, and,
-crossing the room, began to open the safe by his desk.
-
-The sheriff sat down meekly and turned his dreamy blue eyes on the young
-lawyer.
-
-The prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell was an imported
-article. Like the ancient wise men, he came from the East, but the
-manner of his coming was not quite that of the early sages. The sheriff
-had come up from the hills of Virginia, while the prosecuting attorney
-had come up from the sea. Not that this young scion of the law' was a
-sailor or the son of a sailor, but on a certain summer afternoon at a
-certain fashionable resort, Fate suddenly threw away the toys with which
-she had been amusing him, and he immediately realized that the world was
-a common treadmill instead of a breezy French drag.
-
-It was a stiff shock, but the spine of young Mr. Huron was good, and
-instead of stepping off the pier, at ten o'clock of that same night
-he was demonstrating to a certain wealthy senator who had large
-coal interests in West Virginia that it would be the part of no
-inconsiderable wisdom to send a bright young fellow with a legal
-education down into this great mining region for the purpose of
-investigating the land titles, and for the purpose of keeping an eye
-on the industries generally, and, as it is said in the law, “for other
-purposes.”
-
-The old senator was by no means blind to the very slight efficiency
-of raw material, but he had a heart hidden away under his coat, and at
-thirty minutes past eleven he was convinced. So J. E. B. Huron came into
-the county of McDowell, nailed up his shingle, and stepped down into the
-_melée_.
-
-The opening chapters of his legal career were blue-tinted histories, but
-the material in the backbone of young Mr. Huron was splendid material,
-and he remained. The perception of this man of the law was no dwarfish
-growth, and he used it like the wise. McDowell was Republican by 1600,
-and “White” Carter was big boss; _post hoc ergo propter hoc_. J. E. B.
-Huron was a Republican of ancient affiliation, and more specifically
-he was right hand man to White Carter. This wisdom was not without its
-reward. The convention that nominated Carter for sheriff, nominated
-Huron for prosecuting attorney, and the big boss pulled his man through
-in spite of splits, and splits, and independent tickets. The prosecuting
-attorney was a handsome young fellow with a good level head. He knew the
-value of the sheriff, and he held to him.
-
-The prosecuting attorney took some papers from the safe, drew up a
-chair, and sat down by the sheriff.
-
-“You have heard of Hirst's suicide?” he said.
-
-The sheriff nodded. “All but the antemortem note,” he drawled.
-
-The prosecuting attorney smiled. “How did you know there was a note?”
-
-“Jeb,” said the sheriff, “it is a part of the etiquette of suicide. No
-man effects his exit without a parting word. It would be bad form, Jeb,
-frightfully bad form.”
-
-“So you guessed it?”
-
-“No,” replied the sheriff, wearily, “my gray matter was allowed me for
-the purpose of utility. I concluded.”
-
-The prosecuting attorney selected a letter from the package of papers
-and passed it over to the sheriff. That official examined the envelope
-carefully, then he slowly opened it and spread the enclosed letter out
-on the desk before him.
-
-“Octagon Coal Company,” he read slowly, “Miners and Shippers of Coal
-and Coke, Welch, West Virginia. Robert Gilmore, President. Brown Hirst,
-Business Manager. All agreements are contingent upon strikes, accidents,
-and other delays unavoidable or beyond our control.”
-
-The sheriff paused for a moment. “Written at the office,” he observed,
-“with a pen, on the company's stationery.”
-
-The guardian of order removed his eyeglasses, wiped them carefully,
-replaced them on his nose, and continued:
-
-“The officers of the law are informed that I, Brown Hirst, have taken my
-own life, deliberately and at a time when I am in the full possession of
-my faculties. My reasons for so doing are of no importance to the law,
-and are accordingly withheld. This statement is made merely for
-the purpose of preventing any inference of murder, and for no other
-purpose.--Brown Hirst.”
-
-The sheriff replaced the letter in its envelope. “That,” he said, “Is a
-sensible communication. By the very highest flame on the altar of folly,
-it is an exceedingly sensible communication. Where did you find it?”
-
-“The coat and vest,” replied the lawyer, “were found lying carefully
-folded over the railing of the bridge. This letter was in the breast
-pocket of the coat. Hirst evidently went about his death with great
-deliberation. Still, I see no motive for suicide.”
-
-“Jeb,” drawled the sheriff, “you are _long_ on motives. Everything must
-have a motive stamped in red ink on its face. Can't you allow an obscure
-citizen to change his permanent residence and retain his reasons? The
-gentleman has said in his communication that his reasons are of no
-moment to the law. Can't you take the gentleman's word for it? It is n't
-courteous, Jeb. By the way, where is the corpse of the decedent?”
-
-“Within the sacred jurisdiction of the coroner.”
-
-“And the medical fraternity?” inquired the sheriff.
-
-“Doctor Hart is over in Jacktown putting the finishing touches, it is
-said, on old Pap Dolan, so the coroner called in a miracle doctor from
-Cincinnati.”
-
-The sheriff chuckled. “Miracle doctor,” he drawled, “is good--is very
-good.”
-
-The prosecuting attorney assumed the air of an instructor.
-
-“Healers,” he began, “may be set down, for the purposes of a proper
-classification, under three great heads or grand divisions, namely,
-'yarb doctors,' 'old-line practitioners,' and 'miracle doctors.' Under
-the first class may be grouped those persons who seek to effect cures
-by means of the virtues of shrubbery, as well as that vast army of rural
-healers known along the watershed of the Alleghanies as 'bleeders' and
-'steamers.' Under the second great division are included those grave
-professional persons supposed to be learned in the mysteries of the
-human economy, who, for a fixed consideration, guess at the ill, and
-thrust in a chemical: while the third and final division is composed of
-those mysterious healers who affect to thwart dissolution by means of
-marvellous knowledge or marvellous skill peculiar to themselves.
-
-“The species of the first grand division infest all that great tract of
-country bounded by a timber line. The second great class obtains in the
-cities and villages, and affect buggies, drugs, and sombre dress.
-The third class is a by-product of congested civilization, and begins
-usually with a patent lotion, and ends usually with a hospital.”
-
-White Carter waved his fat hand. “But, if your honor, please,” he
-interrupted, “what did the miracle doctor say?”
-
-“He said,” replied the prosecuting attorney, “that Brown Hirst was a
-compound fracture from the sustentaculum tali to the tripod of Haller;
-and from the tripod of Haller to the corpus callossum, he was a simple
-fracture.”
-
-“Horrible,” drawled the sheriff.
-
-“And he said further,” continued the man of the law, “that the
-suiciding decedent was probably afflicted with some species of psychical
-neurosis.”
-
-“_Domine miserere!_” murmured the guardian of order. “So the travelling
-Æsculapius testified, and as the coroner was quite unable to spell the
-craft terms, he simply wrote down in the record that Doctor Leon Dupey
-of Cincinnati, after a careful examination, had pronounced Brown Hirst
-dead, which was far less prolix and entirely true.”
-
-“That coroner,” observed White Carter, “should be United States Senator
-from Kansas.”
-
-Huron took up the note and put it with the other papers.
-
-“I judge this to be a plain case of suicide,” he said. “I have carefully
-compared the writing with these letters. It is certainly Brown Hirst's
-writing. Still, men do not act without a motive, and I see no
-justifiable motive.”
-
-“Well,” said the sheriff, “I happen to know that financially the Octagon
-Coal Company is somewhat 'groggy.' How will that answer for a motive _ad
-interim?_ Or, as the sensible would say, in the meantime?”
-
-“Good,” said the prosecuting attorney. Then he took a pencil from
-his pocket, and wrote on the back of the decedent's letter “Suicide.
-Motive--business depression,” and replaced the papers in the safe.
-
-The sheriff arose. “The legend you have subscribed is probably correct,”
- he drawled, “but the ways of Providence are varied and mystic, and I
-think I shall make some observations in my own right.” Then he went out.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-IT is quite plain,” said Randolph Mason, “that you have fallen into
-the usual blunder of the common rogue. If you had wished to rob the
-insurance companies, you could easily have accomplished your end without
-perpetrating this crime, and thus assume the hazard of discovery and
-criminal prosecution.”
-
-Robert Gilmore looked sharply at the counsellor.
-
-“You mean that I am seeking advice late?”
-
-“Precisely,” said Mason. “It is the characteristic error of the
-witless.”
-
-“Well,” observed the coal operator, “in desperate positions one usually
-relies on one's-self; confederates are dangerous, and usually expert
-advice is difficult to obtain.” Then he laughed. “I could not advertise
-for sealed bids on how the thing should be done. I did the best possible
-under the circumstances, and I rather thought that I had made a clean
-job of it.”
-
-“That delusion,” muttered Mason, “is common with the amateur. Indeed, it
-is the mark of him. This killing was useless. You could have gotten on as
-well without it.”
-
-The keen, gray eyes of Robert Gilmore twinkled. “I should be interested
-to know how?” he said.
-
-“At this late hour,” answered Randolph Mason, “my advice upon that
-point can be of no importance. Suggestions after the fact are of little
-interest and of no value. You have now to consider some method by which
-you may place yourself permanently beyond the reach of the law. This is
-no problem of slight moment, and, in order to meet it properly, I must
-know the details of this blundering business.”
-
-The coal operator's face grew grave and thoughtful. “I presume,” he
-began, “that the priest and the attorney are accustomed to require
-details and accurate confessions. I am president of the Octagon Coal
-Company, as I have said, and reside in the city of Philadelphia, where
-I have been engaged in active business for several years. My life beyond
-that time cannot be a matter of any special importance. I may add,
-however, that I had been engaged with a foreign company as a fire
-insurance adjuster for the State of Illinois for some years before
-coming to the East. It was while acting as an adjuster of losses that I
-first met with Brown Hirst.
-
-“An unusually large fire occurred in one of the suburban towns near
-Chicago, destroying almost an entire block, and I was sent out by my
-company to adjust the loss. Upon my arrival in the town I found what I
-believed to be evidence of a gigantic fraud. The block had been leased
-for a year by one John Hall for the purpose of doing a mammoth general
-business with a great number of different departments, and almost before
-Hall had opened his doors to the public this fire occurred. There was
-no explanation of how the fire originated. When first noticed by the
-police, about three o'clock in the morning, the building was blazing
-fiercely in a dozen places, and under such headway as to be impossible
-to control. The local fire department was unable to prevent the loss of
-the building, but fortunately a heavy rainstorm set in and prevented a
-total loss of the stock.
-
-“In conversation with Hall, I discovered that not one domestic company
-had a dollar on the building or its stock, but that the entire insurance
-was carried in my company and a number of London companies usually
-associated with it, and for whom I acted as general adjuster. This was
-of itself a suspicious circumstance, since the insured would not be
-subject to the inquisition of numberless representatives of convenient
-local companies, and in a legal fight would have the prejudice against a
-remote company in his favor, and, further, he would have but one man to
-deal with.
-
-“I observed immediately that Hall was a person of much shrewdness. He
-talked little, but what he had to say was exceedingly free from any
-suggestion of concealment or obscurity. When I came to examine the
-unburned stock, my suspicions were confirmed. It was composed entirely
-of bulky merchandise, evidently selected with a view to a fire.
-
-“The manner of its arrangement in the building was exceedingly
-suspicious. The boxes had been piled up before the windows in such a
-manner as to prevent the firemen from entering the building even after
-the iron bars had been cut, and the arrangement was such that when the
-fire should gain headway and the windows be opened, the position of the
-boxes would act as a sort of flue and thereby greatly assist the fire.
-It was all exceedingly well planned, and if the building had been
-entirely consumed, detection would have been impossible. Nothing could
-have prevented this but the unforeseen storm, and had it not occurred
-just when it did, Hall's scheme would have proved a masterpiece of its
-kind.
-
-“I gave the public no intimation of my conclusions concerning the
-incendiary nature of the fire, but when the investigation was concluded,
-I took Hall to the hotel, and told him frankly that my company would
-not pay the loss, as it was quite evident that it was all a shrewdly
-arranged scheme to defraud. I pointed out the suspicious circumstances,
-and the irresistible conclusion that flowed from them, and said plainly
-that Hall would do well to escape criminal prosecution.
-
-“To my utter astonishment, the man expressed no surprise whatever.
-When I had finished, he asked me a few searching questions intended
-to determine the thoroughness of my investigation, and when he was
-satisfied upon that point, he drew his chair up near to the table at
-which I was seated, and quietly proposed to divide the insurance if I
-would join with him and make the proper sort of report to my company.
-
-“In handling this proposition, Hall was marvellously skilful. He assumed
-to treat the matter purely as a business arrangement. He said that
-the loss, although big to us, was a very small matter to the wealthy
-companies which I represented, and would not be felt by them, and would
-cause no man any appreciable hurt; that he had gone to infinite
-pains and no little expense to perfect his plan, and nothing but the
-unfortunate storm could have prevented its complete success; that he
-had never intended to divide with any one, but accident against which he
-could not guard had placed me in a position to secure a portion of the
-very considerable sum which he had gone to so much trouble and expense
-to obtain, and, appreciating this new necessity, he was quite willing
-to allow me an equal division of the gain. At no time during his entire
-conversation was there any suggestion of danger or any allusion to any
-risk, criminal or otherwise.
-
-“It is unnecessary, I judge, to weary you with further details. Under
-the remarkable handling of this man, the element of substantial wrong
-seemed to disappear from the transaction, and the result was that I
-finally consented to join with him. He claimed two hundred thousand
-dollars. I reported to the company a complete loss, but advised a
-settlement at not more than one half of the sum claimed. This finally
-led to an adjustment at about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars,
-without the least suspicion of a community of interests between us.
-
-“It would not be quite true to assume that I easily fell in with Hall's
-plan, although in point of time it would seem so. Financially, I was
-in a bad way; from childhood I had been poor; always poor. In money
-matters, things invariably went wrong. Every hazard I had taken, every
-speculation in which I had entered, had always lost, no matter how
-substantial it seemed. At this time I was rather desperate, I presume.
-At any rate, I joined with the scheme, and it succeeded without a jar.
-
-“Thus I came to know Brown Hirst under his alias. We divided the money
-and deposited it with a trust company in Philadelphia until such time
-as we might safely join in some one of the numerous ventures which Brown
-Hirst was continually planning. But he was no dreamer, this Hirst. He
-knew fully the great virtue of deliberation, and insisted that I
-remain with the insurance company for at least a year, and then secure
-employment with another company on some reasonable pretext, and then by
-some error be discharged from this company, and if possible join with
-another, until finally I should drift out of the business without being
-subject to speculative comment.
-
-“These suggestions of Hirst I followed to the letter, and they resulted
-as he anticipated. I had now great confidence in the ability of this
-remarkable man. The details of his plans were as accurate as the pieces
-of a machine, and they seemed never capable of failure.”
-
-The coal operator paused and rested his hands on the arms of his chair.
-
-“Even now,” he said, “I consider Brown Hirst to have been the ablest man
-I ever saw.”
-
-Randolph Mason was silent. His face indicated rather more of weariness
-than of interest. Perhaps the story in its substance was very old to
-him.
-
-“On the first day of September, 1893, I joined Brown Hirst in
-Philadelphia, and here he unfolded a number of gigantic plans, among
-others one for defrauding life insurance companies, which we finally
-decided to attempt. I do not now recall that I felt any real repugnance
-to the moral obliquity of these ventures. The mastermind of Hirst seemed
-to sweep out any moral consideration, by simply ignoring it utterly.
-When Hirst planned, it was all business, and, according to the ethics
-of business, quite as right as any. Indeed, the man was so phenomenally
-successful where I had always failed, that I never once dreamed of
-objecting to any plan which he deemed wise.
-
-“As I have said, Brown Hirst was as practical as a blue print. He used
-to assert that of all vices haste was the most abominable, and that
-before seeking to effect our venture it would be the part of wisdom to
-engage in some legitimate business for a few years in order to establish
-a reputation as a substantial business firm. Then our plans would be rid
-of the suggestion of adventurers. Besides, it would give us financial
-rating and substantial standing in the community in which we should
-begin our fraudulent operations, and as well, in the meantime, we could
-prepare our motives, which, Hirst asserted, should always be furnished
-ready-made to the public when investigation began.
-
-“We accordingly determined to purchase and operate a coal plant in West
-Virginia. This business was suited to our purpose rather better than any
-other, because men were continually coming and going in this business.
-Unknown companies were formed in remote cities and operated merely with
-an agent. The firm was rarely investigated to any very great degree, if
-it promptly met its obligations, and there being little opportunity for
-fraud, a good business standing could be easily secured by any manager
-who was reasonably expeditious in his transactions.
-
-“We secured a charter for the Octagon Coal Company, purchased a plant on
-the Norfolk and Western Railroad in the county of McDowell, and began to
-operate with Brown Hirst as manager and myself president of the presumed
-Philadelphia company.
-
-“Hirst was, as I have said, a man of fine business sense, and very
-shortly began to make money. We enlarged the plant, and soon came to
-be considered a firm of importance. When it grew apparent that we could
-succeed at a legitimate business, I began to urge Hirst to abandon his
-dangerous venture entirely, and devote his splendid abilities to the
-development of the coal industry; but he only laughed, and bade me
-remember that all this required work, and it was not his intention to
-spend his life at work.”
-
-“Sir,” said Randolph Mason, interrupting, “you are overlooking the
-important matter in your disclosure. What was this insurance scheme?”
-
-“Oh. yes,” said the coal operator, “I was coming to that. It was our
-plan to secure heavy insurance on the life of Hirst, making his wife the
-beneficiary, and later have him disappear under circumstances indicating
-suicide.”
-
-“That plan,” said Mason, drawing down the heavy muscles of his mouth,
-“is ancient, and infantile, and trite; worthy of blunderers--children
-and blunderers.”
-
-Gilmore looked at the lawyer for a moment critically, then he continued.
-“I presume the scheme is not new, but I rather think Hirst's plan for
-carrying it into effect was somewhat novel and unusually practical. At
-the time Hirst proposed this scheme he was unmarried, and, as a cold
-business proposition, he said that I should select some woman--any woman
-agreeable to me, whom I should like as a wife, then he would marry her,
-insure his life for her benefit, make his exit, and afterwards I should
-marry the woman and send half of the insurance money to him in Spain or
-Italy, where he had determined to take up his permanent residence.
-
-“He urged that it would be best to keep the woman totally ignorant
-of our plan, so that if anything should go wrong, she could not be
-implicated in a conspiracy, and, therefore, could not be prevented from
-obtaining the insurance as, she being the sole beneficiary and no fraud
-on her part being possible, any suspected or even assured fraud on my
-part would not void the policy payable to her, provided he, Hirst, could
-not be found within seven years.
-
-“Hence, two considerations were necessary in selecting the woman. First,
-she must be so situated as to reduce suspicion of her to the minimum.
-And, second, she must be one whom I could marry as Hirst's widow and
-thereby obtain the money. This part of the plan was allotted to me to
-complete. You will now see with what a remarkable man I was associated,
-and how little regard he entertained for the customs of human society.
-
-“In leaguing myself with this man's fortune I blundered fatally.
-My nature was entirely different. I could not shut out the natural
-emotions. I could not crowd out the human in me. I was no calculating
-machine like this man Hirst, and in carrying out my portion of the
-venture I made a frightful mistake.
-
-“I am not now going into the details of that mistake. It will be
-sufficient for the purposes of this interview to say that the woman
-whom Hirst finally married was a good woman, the daughter of a venerable
-churchman residing in one of the suburban towns of Philadelphia,--such
-a good woman that no sooner had the ceremony taken place than I began to
-regret having associated her with such a cold-blooded villain as Brown
-Hirst, and as the days ran by, that regret grew into a very passion of
-remorse.”
-
-The man paused for a moment, raised his elbows up on the arms of his
-chair and locked his fingers.
-
-“I guess it was a sort of Providential judgment,” he continued, “if such
-things are supposed to be in this practical time. I avoided the woman
-as far as possible, and strove to conceal my terrible regret, but it was
-quite useless. Hirst knew almost before I realized the feeling myself,
-and harshly bade me remember that this was business, and no matter of
-maudlin sentiment. He had no feeling whatever for the woman, and if I
-could wait for a little time the plan would very shortly give her to me.
-He warned me against what he was pleased to call 'nonsense,' and I must
-admit that the powerful personality of this man forced me into a sort of
-stolid subjection to his will. But the feeling for the woman remained,
-and I hated Hirst.”
-
-Randolph Mason put out his hand as though to interrupt the speaker, but,
-appearing to reconsider, suddenly withdrew it and nodded to the coal
-operator to continue. The young man took no notice of the interruption.
-
-“Hirst,” he went on, “like the master spirit that he was, proceeded to
-put the details of his plan into operation. From time to time he applied
-to the best companies in the country for insurance, and as he was
-considered a good risk, a man of fine physique, and in charge of a
-substantial business, he presently secured about two hundred thousand
-dollars on his life. These policies he carried for two years in order
-to avoid the suicide clause, and in order to render them as nearly
-incontestable as possible.
-
-“Finally, every arrangement having been completed, the time drew near
-when Brown Hirst determined to make the final movement in his scheme.
-But during these two years my hate of this man had not been idle. I
-don't know just what possessed me. I had no good reason to hate him.
-It was all, as he said, a business matter,--details in a pure business
-matter. But I did hate him, and, unconsciously, one does not know just
-how. I determined to take a part in his plan. I determined to make the
-play real. This determination was no sudden resolve; it seemed rather
-to evolve slowly until it finally became a fixed purpose. The motive
-for the supposed suicide, Hirst had by no means overlooked. It was to be
-impending financial ruin, and during the past year immediately preceding
-his death Brown Hirst drew great sums from the business, and finally
-mortgaged and remortgaged the entire coal plant and applied the money
-to the payment of his heavy insurance, so that at the time of his
-disappearance the business would be in a state of financial collapse,
-and the motive for his rash deed would be adequate and thoroughly
-apparent.
-
-“During all this time, Hirst operated in McDowell near the county seat
-of Welch, his wife remaining for the most part with her father, while I
-maintained a city office in Philadelphia. On the day set apart for the
-disappearance of Brown Hirst, there was a stockholders' meeting of our
-company at its principal office in West Virginia. It was a sham, but it
-was rumored that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss some measure
-that would relieve our business from impending ruin. This was the
-purpose made public. The real purpose was to account for my presence
-in McDowell. It was a part of Hirst's plan that I should remain behind
-after his disappearance in order to see that everything was properly
-arranged, and then take a night train for the East.
-
-“The preliminary details of that night's work were splendidly managed.
-We met together at the office of the company. Here Hirst wrote a letter
-explaining that he was about to take his own life, and placed it in the
-pocket of his coat.
-
-“Then he took a bundle of men's clothing, in which he intended to make
-his escape from the country. This bundle consisted of a grimy coat such
-as the ordinary miner wears, in the pockets of which he had placed a
-package of bank notes, a pocket-book containing a New York draft and a
-memorandum of his insurance policies.
-
-“The trousers, shoes, and other articles of this disguise Hirst wore
-when he left the office, it being his intention to leave his usual coat
-and vest on the bridge over Tug River, as evidence of the suicide, and
-then, assuming the remainder of his disguise, slip out to Cincinnati on
-the night freight.
-
-“From the office we went directly to the bridge over Tug River, for the
-reason, as Brown Hirst always maintained, that in order to leave perfect
-circumstantial evidence it was absolutely necessary to actually do as
-far as possible the things which one desired the public to believe one
-had done.
-
-“It was perhaps two o'clock, and very dark and wet. It had been raining
-for almost a week. This was largely in our favor, since the river
-at flood is deep and rapid, and a body lost in it when the water was
-running high would not probably be recovered at all, as we had noticed
-was the case with lumbermen not infrequently drowned; hence we had
-selected the time of heaviest rains in this region in order that the
-loss of the body should not seem a matter of unusual moment.
-
-“It might be as well to explain that when Tug River is swollen by rains
-its channel beneath the bridge is very deep and rapid nearest its east
-shore, while near the west shore its bed is higher and covered with
-immense bowlders; thus anything thrown into this river on its east
-side would probably be carried away and lost, while if dropped from the
-bridge on the west side it would probably lodge among the bowlders, and
-remain after the high water had subsided.
-
-“As I have said, it was very dark, and the roar of the waters was
-something frightful, but we were quite familiar with the bridge, and,
-becoming accustomed to the darkness, presently came to see sufficiently
-for our purposes.
-
-“Hirst went directly to the span of the bridge nearest the east shore,
-and, removing his coat and vest, placed them across one of the girders.
-Then he began to undo the bundle in order to put on the miner's clothing
-which he had brought with him.
-
-“This was my opportunity, and I suggested that we first walk to the
-other side in order to make sure that the bridge was entirely clear.
-He immediately put down the bundle and came up to me. I do not now know
-whether there was in his mind any trace of suspicion, but I do know that
-at this suggestion the man seized my arm and tried to look into my face,
-and I am certain that had it been light he would have discovered the
-treachery which I was contemplating. But it was dark, and the man said
-nothing except to curse the night. He was exceedingly profane, this
-Hirst, and as we walked the length of the bridge, he holding my arm
-and damning the night in half whispers, I somehow felt that this man
-appreciated in a vague way the doom that was impending. But I presume
-that this was simply an impression arising from the intense strain under
-which I was laboring.
-
-“As we were about to return, I pointed to the white surf, breaking on
-the bowlders below. The man, still holding my arm, stopped, leaned over
-the low railing, and peered down into the water. This was the position
-into which I had hoped to trap him, and, wrenching my arm loose
-suddenly, I struck him heavily between the shoulders. The man plunged
-forward over the railing, clutching wildly at the air, but he uttered no
-cry. and his body whirled downward into the blackness below.
-
-“I clung to the railing and strove to see where the body would strike,
-but it was folly. The bridge was high above the rough stream, and I
-heard only the dull splash that told of his death.”
-
-The eyes of the coal operator seemed to stretch at the corners, and a
-dull gray spread over his face.
-
-“I should like to be rid of that scene,” he continued after a moment.
-“It is frightfully vivid. Every detail of it seems to have been
-photographed on my brain, and it runs before me like the pictures in
-a vitascope. Men sometimes forget such things, it is said, but, in the
-name of Heaven, how? Why, I can see him any moment in the dark. I can
-see his strained white face mad with horror, I can see his clutching
-hands, I can feel in my own throat just how the terror of death choked
-in his, and I know, I know----”
-
-Randolph Mason struck his clenched fist heavily on the table. “Sir,” he
-said sharply, “you will kindly omit this drivel. Give me the facts just
-as they occurred. You may reserve your melodrama for the purposes of a
-copyright.”
-
-Gilmore started and threw up his head as though some one had suddenly
-dashed ice-water in his face. He put his hand up to his forehead and
-pressed his fingers hard against the skin; then he straightened in his
-chair and seemed to gain his self-control.
-
-“Well,” he went on, “I went back to the east side of the bridge, threw
-the bundle over into the river, slipped through to the Chesapeake and
-Ohio on one of the night freights, and by noon of the same day I was in
-Philadelphia.
-
-“That afternoon the city office was advised of Brown Hirst's suicide.
-We immediately wired the prosecuting attorney for details, and were
-informed that he had jumped from the bridge, leaving a note in his
-pocket which explained that he had taken his own life. The body was
-shipped to Philadelphia, as his wife directed. Almost immediately I began
-to close the affairs of the Octagon Coal Company, and very shortly after
-the funeral I called upon Mrs. Hirst in order to take the preliminary
-steps looking toward the collection of her husband's insurance.
-
-“Here my plan struck and went to pieces like a vapor. The wife of Brown
-Hirst was a good woman, and I had failed to foresee what she would
-do under circumstances of this nature. To my utter astonishment, she
-informed me that the representatives of the insurance companies had been
-to see her and had asked time in which to investigate the case, and that
-she had gladly concurred in their request. And then, like a woman, she
-declared that there was no reason why her husband should commit suicide,
-and that she did not believe he had done so, but that, if he had
-deliberately taken his own life, she would not touch one dollar of the
-insurance money; that she would have nothing bought with life. If it
-could be shown that her husband was murdered, as she believed, then she
-saw no reason why she should not claim the insurance; but if, on the
-other hand, it proved true that he had planned to defraud the life
-insurance company for her benefit, and, pursuant to that awful plan,
-had hurled himself into eternity, then she would starve in an almshouse
-before she would touch a penny of the money.
-
-“This statement struck me with the crushing power of an axe stroke. The
-world seemed to pass out from under me. I saw every hope of the future
-vanish. I realized in a flash, as one is said to do at the grave's edge,
-in what a prodigious error I had been engaged.”
-
-There must have been some suggestion of annoyance on the counsellor's
-face, for the coal operator stopped short and moved uneasily in his
-chair.
-
-“I was about to forget your instructions,” he explained, with a shade of
-apology in his voice; “it is rather hard to crowd one's emotions out of
-a desperate, personal narrative like this, although, of course, it is
-all nonsense to rant about it.
-
-“To be brief, I was totally unable to shake this woman's purpose, and I
-returned to the city knowing that a tireless investigation was about to
-begin. I have not waited to see the result of this investigation. I know
-that the insurance companies and this unusual woman will leave no stone
-unturned in order to discover just how Hirst came to his death, and I am
-not fool enough to think that they will eventually fail. I don't believe
-any of the bosh about murder crying from the ground, but I am entirely
-convinced that it is almost impossible to cover a crime so that human
-ingenuity cannot trail down the man who committed it.
-
-“I judge that I was not intended for business of this sort. I cannot
-fight out in good order. With me a retreat is a rout. I have abandoned
-everything. I have thrown away every plan. I am trying now to save
-myself from the hangman, or at least the penitentiary. I have not waited
-to be caught; I have come to you at once.”
-
-The man seemed to relax and settle back in his chair.
-
-“Now,” he added, with the utter dependence of a patient stretched upon
-the table of the surgeon, “you must save me.”
-
-The eyes of Randolph Mason flattened as though they were being pressed
-down from above, and the lines of his face deepened and widened into
-rugged furrows.
-
-“There are two methods of evading the law,” he said. “The escape _ipso
-jure_ planned before the fact; and the escape _ipso jure_ after the
-fact. The first is a matter of no great difficulty, and may easily be
-prepared by any man reasonably conversant with the law of the place of
-his intended act, and if skilfully arranged need contain no element of
-hazard whatever. The latter is far more difficult, and must be handled
-with some care in order to reduce the element of peril to its minimum.
-In the first, one constructs the facts to suit the defects in the law,
-and if executed with any degree of intelligence, the criminal actor has
-nothing whatever to fear, and the law is as harmless as a painted devil.
-
-“In the latter, the expert must take the facts as circumstance and the
-blundering criminal agent have made them, and strive to adapt these
-prepared facts to the law as it stands, which is a far more difficult
-proceeding, and not infrequently attended with disastrous results. Hence
-the skill of certain criminal lawyers, and the long technical legal
-battles with which the books are crowded.
-
-“As for you, sir, the scheme in which you have been an actor was
-abominably planned, and more abominably executed. The most drivelling
-intelligence should have seen peril staring out from every infantile
-move made by you and this stupendous blunderer Hirst. You have taken
-an old, time-worn plan, teeming with dangers, and, not content with its
-frightful hazards, you and this witless Hirst have added one complicated
-peril after another until you have finally constructed a masterpiece of
-idiocy that in its complex nonsense approaches the sublime.
-
-“I wonder, sir, that you have not gone to the authorities and requested
-an execution. It would be a fitting sequel to your atrocious errors.”
-
-The face of the counsellor was ugly with a sneer.
-
-“Your seeking counsel at once stands out as your one intelligent act.
-It is marvellous discretion, Judged by your narrative; marvellous and
-unexpected. Let us hope that your period of mental aberration is past.”
-
-Then he arose and stood looking down at the man who, like many another,
-had striven to throw the machinery of human justice out of its proper
-gear, and had simply succeeded in tangling himself in its complicated
-wheels.
-
-“In order to save you now,” said Randolph Mason, “we must move quickly.
-These great insurance companies have the ablest detective service of the
-world. With such a bungle as you have made, it is merely a question of a
-few weeks until they will succeed in fastening this murder upon you, not
-directly perhaps, but sufficiently to warrant your arrest, and then you
-must take your hazards with a jury. The man who to-day hopes to cover
-his crime well enough to baffle the keen and tireless search of a great
-life insurance company must be governed by something vastly nearer to an
-intelligence than that upon which you and the decedent Hirst depended.
-
-“At this stage of your blunder there are but two ways by which it is
-possible to put you absolutely beyond the reach of the law. Death is one
-way, and we will pass that. The other I am now going to bring to your
-aid. With it the greatest care and haste are vital. At nine to-night you
-must be here prepared to put yourself wholly in my hands. I shall have
-every arrangement complete by that time.”
-
-Mason stopped short, and put his hand down heavily upon the table.
-
-“Now, sir,” he said, bluntly, “it will be entirely useless for me to
-attempt the drastic measures necessary in your case unless you are
-prepared to act under my fingers like a machine. Can you do that?”
-
-“Yes,” said the man, wiping the perspiration from his face.
-
-“Then,” said Randolph Mason, opening the door of his private office, “go
-down to your hotel and sleep; and if you please, sir, do not think, or,
-to be more accurate, do not attempt to think. Your thoughts, as has been
-demonstrated, are of no value to you, and I assure you, sir, they will
-be quite useless to me.”
-
-Then he closed the door after the departing criminal and went back to
-his desk.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-THE sheriff was riding slowly down the narrow mountain road to the ford
-over Tug River,--“Jim's Ford” the natives of McDowell had dubbed this
-crossing far back when the dry ginseng root was a legal tender for all
-debts public and private southwest, as the crow flies, from the county
-of Mercer. Whence the name had come, and by reason of what, tradition
-was silent. No doubt the original Jim had dwelt in this rugged gorge,
-and by accidental hap had given his name to this rocky ford that lived
-on and proclaimed him long after the man had passed out into the hands
-of the Wind.
-
-To the negro miner, seven miles up at the town of Welch, this rugged
-crossing, studded with great bowlders, was respectfully referred to as
-“Hell's Gap,”--respectfully, for no other reason than that the negroes
-were superstitious, and the mammoth gorge, silent as the grave floor,
-and deep and foggy except in the long summer afternoons, was calculated
-to conjure every grim phantom set down in the African catalogue.
-
-The sheriff pulled up his “dun” horse suddenly, and threw his leg over
-the pommel of his saddle. Just below him in the ford of the river was
-a man wading out into the water,--a tall mountaineer, bare-headed, his
-dress indicating a rather equal compromise between the barbarity of the
-village and the barbarity of the mountain. For upper garment he wore the
-red-fringed hunting shirt of his fathers and his grandfathers and on;
-and for nether garment, the blue overalls purchased at the country store
-for a haunch of venison or a bundle of hides. The mountaineer was tall,
-rugged, and powerful,--a proper inhabitant for such a place.
-
-“Spitler Hamrick,” murmured the sheriff.
-
-“By every limping god! The toughest pine knot in the mountains of
-McDowell. I wonder what the old wolf is looking for.”
-
-Then he tightened his knee on the pommel of the saddle and a slow smile
-crept over the features of the sheriff. “By my troth'” he drawled, “it
-is certain that Spitler is no Vere de Vere. Still, if blue blood ran
-to back, and bunches of muscles on the shoulders, Spitler's claim to
-princely lineage would be unquestioned.”
-
-White Carter stopped short, and adjusted his eye-glasses. The
-mountaineer had gathered up a bundle from the river and was turning to
-wade ashore. The man did not at once see the sheriff; he was looking
-down into the water in order to avoid slipping on the smooth stones.
-When he stepped on to the rocky bank of the river, the sheriff called.
-At the sound, the mountaineer dropped the bundle and jerked up a
-Winchester that lay nearby against a bowlder. It was an act after the
-custom of the mountains. One armed himself first, and observed the “lay
-of the land” afterwards.
-
-White Carter remained perfectly motionless. “I would n't shoot,
-Spitler,” he drawled, “it's vulgar.”
-
-The mountaineer dropped the butt of his rifle on the stones, and looked
-up in astonishment. “Smoky hell!” ejaculated the mountaineer, “it air
-the sheriff. Smoky hell!” The refrain was a nervous idiom with Spitler
-Hamrick.
-
-White Carter put his hand into the pocket of his coat, took out a
-pipe, knocked the ashes from the bowl and began to fill it with
-great deliberation. This act, remaining after the red man had passed,
-proclaimed a status of dignified truce.
-
-The play of action faded from Hamrick's face, leaving it stolid, heavy,
-prodigiously indifferent. It was the mountain's stamp on its minion, the
-silence, and the abominable indifference of the rugged earth ground into
-the faces of the men who struggle for life on her stony breast.
-
-“Hot,” observed the sheriff, crowding the bowl of his pipe and thrusting
-the tobacco down with his broad thumb.
-
-The mountaineer folded his arms over the muzzle of his rifle and leaned
-upon it heavily.
-
-“Yas,” he responded, “warmish,”
-
-It was the full measure of salutation, and the full measure of
-introduction to all matters, important or unimportant, on the watershed
-of the Alleghanies. In the mountains no man hurried with his speech.
-There was time to be fully understood, and time to answer fully; then
-what one did afterwards, one was not so likely to regret. In the flat
-lands men are not so wise, perhaps.
-
-The sheriff struck a match on his saddle skirt, lighted his pipe, and
-puffed a cloud of blue smoke rings out over the placid ears of the
-“murky dun.” Presently he took the pipe stem from between his teeth and
-looked down at the solitary proprietor of Jim's Ford.
-
-“Spitler,” he drawled, “what 's in the bundle?”
-
-“Ye kin look,” responded the mountaineer with prodigious unconcern.
-
-The sheriff replaced his pipe and lapsed into silence for a moment. Then
-he said:
-
-“Where did you find it, Spitler?”
-
-“I reckin ye saw,” replied the scion of the house of Hamrick.
-
-The guardian of order looked up at the blue sky over the top of his nose
-glasses. Then he looked down. “Spitler,”--he said softly.
-
-The mountaineer interrupted. “Sheriff,” he growled, “old Spitler Hamrick
-don't stand no shammackin' round the bush. Smoky hell! He aint never
-stood it. Things air goin' to be like this: ye kin mosey' down here and
-git this bundle, air ye kin ride on. But ye can't set on you hoss and
-jaw. Smoky hell! Ye can't set on you hoss and jaw.”
-
-There was no circumlocution, no trick of equivocation, no shadow of
-obscurity in the speech of the denizen of Hell's Gap He used words for
-the purpose of expressing exactly what he believed to be true, and for
-no other purpose. This the sheriff knew, and others had learned and
-remembered by certain long glistening scars, covered afterward with the
-red flannel of their hunting shirts.
-
-White Carter removed his knee from the pommel of his saddle and slipped
-down to the ground. Here he paused for a moment, knocked the ashes from
-his pipe and replaced it in his pocket. Then he clambered down the steep
-bank to the river. The proprietor of Jim's Ford looked on with mighty
-indifference. The sheriff took up the bundle without a word, returned to
-his horse, and unbuckling the “throat latch” of his bridle, strapped the
-bundle to the horn of his saddle. Then he placed his right foot in the
-stirrup and turned to the mountaineer.
-
-“Spitler,” he drawled, “we found a dead man in Tug the other day. I
-think this is his coat.”
-
-The mountaineer looked up from the muzzle of his Winchester. “Were there
-lead in him?” he asked.
-
-The sheriff flung his leg over the saddle and gathered up his bridle
-from the horse's neck.
-
-“No bullet holes,” he answered.
-
-“Then,” said the giant Hamrick, “he were not killed in the hills.”
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-IT was the first Monday of July, and the grand inquisitors of the
-county of McDowell were in laborious session. It was hot in Welch,--so
-hot that the sheriff had purchased a linen coat and departed for
-Atlantic City on a ten-dollar excursion, leaving the deputy, Salathiel
-Jenkins, to swelter with the grand jury. So hot that J. E. B. Huron,
-prosecuting attorney by selection of the Commonwealth, resorted to
-expressions not quite profane but nipping close to the border. So hot
-that the foreman from Charity Fork made continual odious reference
-to that historic locality over which Lazarus passed in the bosom of
-Abraham.
-
-The grand jury was a body mightily out of harmony with its inquisitorial
-affairs, especially on this sweltering Monday when the mercury was
-mounting heavenward. The members of the grand jury had removed their
-coats, they had unbuttoned their shirts, they had rolled up their
-sleeves to the limit over their great brown arms. It was hot--this grand
-jury. But it was jovial and good-natured, sixteen freeholders of the
-bailiwick turning aside for a day to bolster up the peace and dignity of
-the State. The characteristic apparel of the farmer, the hunter, and the
-miner was on this grand jury, but there were no collars; not even the
-“biled shirt” of notorious report. If one had spoken of a haberdasher or
-essayed to enumerate his wares in the land south of Tug River, he would
-have been regarded as a purveyor of “green furrin jabber,” or been
-pitied as a hopeless victim of idiot mutterings.
-
-Thus do men hoot the customs of their fellows when in conflict with
-their own. One looking at this grand jury as an exhibit would have gone
-away regretting that the chief fad of Delilah had not been handed down
-in the county of McDowell, just as the jury would have wondered why the
-funny little man divided his hair in the middle like a woman and wore a
-tight band around his neck and a stiff breastplate of cloth and starch
-over his ribs, when he could dress like a Christian, and be comfortable.
-
-At two o'clock the sage body had concluded its inquisition, and was
-resting ponderously while the foreman. Abe Collister, of Charity
-Fork, was slowly and with infinite pain affixing his signature to the
-indictments. It was no small labor for one whose fingers were thick and
-broad and accustomed to implements little slighter in proportion than
-the handle of an axe or the stock of a Winchester.
-
-The facial contortions of this good freeholder as he strove in a
-clerical capacity would have won for him applause and fortune and wide
-repute in the cast of a comedy. It was Fate's way, better than genius
-could imitate, but no audience to see.
-
-It is the function of bodies of this sort to be severe, and it is their
-way to be most amiable. The prosecuting attorney, it was maintained,
-ought to know what he wanted. He was paid to know. It was his business.
-If he thought it wise to send in witnesses charging one with a crime,
-then the charge should be found. This conclusion was a splendid working
-hypothesis, pregnant with expedition, but not quite in accord with the
-ideal _jus_.
-
-So the grand jury rested as the afternoon grew apace, while the
-scripturian from Charity Fork toiled, and the prosecuting attorney
-went down to his office in order to “see if there was anything else he
-wanted.” It was at this hour of lull, that a nervous little man hurried
-into the office presided over by the industrious daughter of the house
-of McFadden, and inquired for Mr. Huron. The red genius replied that he
-was busy. According to this oracle, young Mr. Huron was always busy. His
-continual status was one of tireless toil,--as continuous as a mortgage,
-and as tireless as a gas meter.
-
-Just then the prosecuting attorney came out on his way to the grand jury
-room. The little man rushed up and demanded an immediate audience. The
-two returned to the private office and closed the door. Here the little
-man looked at his watch and announced that things would have to
-be rushed, and launched into the subject. He explained with almost
-breathless rapidity that he was a detective from New York, representing
-Loomey's Agency. As he talked, he threw back his coat revealing a
-badge which Mr. Huron did not stop to examine. He said that he had been
-working on the case of Brown Hirst; that he had finally discovered
-that Hirst had been murdered, foully murdered by one Robert Gilmore,
-president of the Octagon Coal Company; that he had the case tightened
-around Gilmore beyond the remotest shadow of probability; that Gilmore,
-it seemed, had by some means learned of the damning evidence gathering
-against him, and was attempting to fly from the country; that he had
-left Philadelphia disguised as a cattle drover, and would pass through
-Chares-ton, West Virginia, at midnight on the Chesapeake and Ohio
-Railroad, and if he was not then arrested, he would probably escape
-entirely, or, at the least, subject his trailer to the expense and the
-tedium of an extradition; hence the detective had hurried to Welch in
-order to secure an indictment at once and return to Charleston in a
-position to arrest the man and hold him under a legal warrant that would
-be valid and unquestioned.
-
-He explained that he must leave at three o'clock in order to reach the
-Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in time, and requested that he be permitted
-to go at once before the grand-jury, which he had learned was now in
-session.
-
-The prosecuting attorney listened in astonishment, but he was a man
-familiar with the startling surprises of criminal investigation, and
-he set himself to act with the expedition which the matter required. He
-went at once to the grand jury with the detective, and explained that he
-had just received information tending to the conclusion that Brown
-Hirst had been murdered; that the witness with him was John Bartlett, a
-detective from New York, who had worked up the case and would give full
-information concerning the facts of the crime. He then added that as Mr.
-Bartlett would be compelled to leave within the hour, he would return
-to his office and prepare an indictment for murder. In the meantime the
-grand jury could determine whether the information was sufficient to
-sustain the charge, and, if so, the indictment would be ready and Mr.
-Bartlett could return to Charleston without unnecessary delay.
-
-Then he withdrew, and the grand jury of McDowell, braced by the gust of
-sudden sensation, straightway forgot how very warm it was and began to
-put itself into a state of ponderous bovine expectancy.
-
-The witness Bartlett sat down by the table, took out his watch, looked
-at it anxiously, then snapped the case and returned it to his pocket.
-
-The foreman put down his pen very carefully, mopped his wet face with
-a great red cotton cloth, and strove to assume the gravity of his
-position.
-
-“Your name's Bartlett, stranger?” said the scripturian, feeling that
-it was becoming for him to set the wheels of judicial investigation in
-motion, but not quite certain of the method. “You are a detective man:
-and I 'low you know all about this here little trouble?”
-
-The latter part of the query was a stock question with the foreman. All
-day long, every crime, from homicide to assault and battery, had been
-dubbed by this arch inquisitor as “this here little trouble.” If there
-was any big trouble south of Tug River, it was not deemed to be within
-the purlieus of the _lex scripta_ or the _lex non scripta_ of the county
-of McDowell.
-
-The detective saw the open opportunity to thrust in his testimony as a
-narrative, and seized it. He leaned over on the table, assured himself
-of the attention of the jury, and began to talk.
-
-He told how he had trailed this matter down; how the Octagon Coal
-Company was financially on the verge of ruin, and it was his theory that
-Gilmore, as president, had been stealing largely from the company;
-that Hirst had finally suspected this theft and had summoned Gilmore to
-McDowell; how the dangerous man had obeyed the summons, had quarrelled
-with Hirst in the office, finally killed him, and in order to cover the
-crime had carried the body to the bridge and thrown it over, arranging
-the evidence to appear like a suicide. He painted in lurid colors the
-desperate character of this man Gilmore; he pointed out how fearful of
-arrest the murderer of Hirst was, at that very hour hurrying westward in
-order, as he believed, to put himself beyond the reach of the law.
-
-The witness talked on glib and shrewdly, and while he talked, the jury,
-unfamiliar with the rules of evidence, grew indignant and bitter, and
-fired with a sense of the gigantic outrage.
-
-Presently the door opened and the prosecuting attorney entered with the
-indictment.
-
-“Are you ready to vote on the matter, gentlemen?” he asked.
-
-The foreman nodded slowly. “I guess we are, Jeb,” he answered.
-
-“Then,” responded the prosecuting attorney, “Mr. Bartlett and myself
-will withdraw.”
-
-The witness arose and followed Mr Huron out of the jury room.
-
-When the door had closed, the chief inquisitor from Charity Fork picked
-up the indictment., turned it over curiously in his ponderous hand, and
-then laid it down on the table with the back up. Then he took up his
-pen and jabbed it down into the ink pot.
-
-“Boys,” he observed, cheerily, “the Good Book says, 'None shall escape,
-no not one.' What about this here one?”
-
-“I reckon,” drawled Uriah Coburn, sage and philosopher, and most
-venerable member from Injun Run, “I reckon the Good Book air right, I
-reckon we better flop him.”
-
-“Flop” was an accurate idiom in McDowell, and, being translated, meant,
-“to throw heavily.”
-
-To this the grand jury agreed with many and various methods of assent.
-So the member from Charity Fork took a new grip on his pen, thrust his
-tongue out of the corner of his mouth, and slowly and with great labor
-inscribed on the back of the indictment this legend, big with the
-injured dignity of the Commonwealth: “A True Bill. Abraham Collister,
-Foreman.”
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-AT high noon on the following day Salathiel Jenkins, chief deputy of
-the absent Carter, was a voluble factor in McDowell. He explained with
-many a dash of color just how “me and Bartlett” had taken the fleeing
-Gilmore from a midnight train and transported him to the jail at Welch,
-where he now languished. How brave they had been, how expeditious, and
-how marvellously successful in each of their desperate moves. Salathiel
-Jenkins was a young person who considered himself of huge importance to
-the economy of nature,--an opinion with which the world at large failed
-to concur. The conservative Carter had expressed it all long ago when he
-remarked with immense gravity that Salathiel Jenkins was not wise. But
-the deputy's potential was high, and he talked. He explained that
-the prisoner had employed legal counsel, with whom he had been in
-consultation since his arrival in the town. He explained that Mr.
-Bartlett had advised the prosecuting attorney to force the case to a
-trial at once in order to avoid an application for bail, and in order
-to prevent the prisoner from being unduly assisted by any accomplice he
-might have in the East.
-
-He explained that the evidence against Gilmore was overpowering, that
-there were witnesses who knew something of the matter, and he had the
-subpoenas in his pocket.
-
-He explained that John Bartlett was the greatest detective in the
-Republic, and that the days on earth of Robert Gilmore were growing
-lamentably short. The self-importance of young Mr. Jenkins gushed
-and bubbled and expanded until it threatened to bulge his anatomical
-proportions, and he talked and he talked. He descanted with acrimonious
-criticism upon the fact that Mr. Huron had asked for time in which to
-examine the evidence, and that he and the great Bartlett had labored to
-convince him that the case should be put to trial at once, and that they
-had had a lot of trouble, but that it was all right now, and when court
-convened in the morning the case would be called and pushed, and
-he gloried in the fact that he and Bartlett had assumed large
-responsibility for this splendid expedition.
-
-It thus came about that the court-room was so crowded on the following
-morning that the judge as he came down to his bench had literally
-to elbow his way through. The details of this morning's procedure
-demonstrated that while the deputy Jenkins had talked he had been
-telling the truth. After the docket was called, the prosecuting attorney
-arose and requested that a jury be empanelled for the trial of the case
-of the State vs. Gilmore.
-
-The judge expressed some surprise at this unusual haste, and intimated
-that if an objection was urged he would continue the case to a later day
-of the term. To his surprise, however, counsel for Gilmore replied that
-he was quite ready for trial.
-
-Whereupon a jury was had and the case ordered to proceed. The opening
-statement of the prosecuting attorney was frank. It gave the history of
-the case as he had heard it from Bartlett, admitting freely that he
-had been unable to investigate the matter personally, but upon his
-information he was convinced that the prisoner was guilty.
-
-To this the counsel for Gilmore replied that the State was laboring
-under a stupendous delusion; that Mr. Gilmore was a gentleman of
-standing, and that it would quickly appear that there was no cause for
-subjecting his client to the odium of a criminal prosecution.
-
-The spectators were not a little disgusted with the tame proceedings.
-They had expected a keen and spirited struggle with the startling
-thrusts and parries of a bitter legal affair. They had hoped to hear the
-steel grate, and to see the blades dart forward and bend and fly back,
-as the champion of the State and its enemy strove for some master
-vantage. They hoped for the fierce interests and the quick sharp thrills
-incident to the grim fight of a desperate criminal for his liberty and
-his life, and they were disgusted.
-
-Their strong pugnacious spirit sympathized with Gilmore and damned his
-counsel. In the picturesque speech of an auditor from “Dog Skin,” “The
-lawyer was a quitter.”
-
-The case progressed with almost exasperating insipidity.
-
-The prosecuting attorney proceeded with great deliberation, and with the
-air of one who maintains a thunderbolt in reserve. He proved the death
-of Brown Hirst by the coroner and others; he introduced the books of the
-company showing its financial standing; and put in such other matters of
-unimportant evidence as were easily at hand. To all this the counsel for
-Gilmore made no objection. To the observer, he was stupidly indifferent.
-
-The prosecuting attorney then placed the detective John Bartlett on the
-stand. Bartlett explained with great volubility that he was a member of
-Latency's Detective Agency; that he had learned of the mysterious death
-of Brown Hirst, and hoping to obtain the reward offered by Hirst's
-widow, had gone to her and requested permission to investigate the case.
-He explained that he had learned that the Octagon Coal Company was in
-desperate financial straits; that the president, Robert Gilmore, who
-resided in the city of Philadelphia, had been in the county of McDowell
-on the night of Hirst's death, and from these data he had formulated his
-theory to the effect that Gilmore had been stealing from the company;
-that this fact had been discovered by Hirst, and that they had come
-together in McDowell for the purpose of discussing this matter; that
-there the two men had quarrelled, and the result was that Hirst had been
-killed and his body thrown into the river, and the evidence of suicide
-manufactured by Robert Gilmore.
-
-The detective explained further that being advised that Robert Gilmore
-intended to leave Philadelphia for St. Louis, and fearing that it was
-an attempt on the part of the president of the Octagon Coal Company
-to escape from the country, he had hurried to McDowell and secured an
-indictment.
-
-Upon cross-examination it at once appeared that this detective had no
-knowledge of any fact whatever, but was merely speaking from certain
-conclusions which he was pleased to call his theory. The attorney for
-the defense moved to strike out the evidence of this witness, which was
-accordingly done, much to the chagrin of John Bartlett, detective, and
-Salathiel Jenkins, deputy-in-extraordinary to the sheriff of McDowell.
-
-The prosecuting attorney then proceeded to spring his sensation.
-He announced to the court that during the night Gilmore had made a
-confession to Mr. Jenkins, the deputy, and that he desired to have
-Mr. Jenkins sworn and his testimony introduced. Accordingly the
-irrepressible Jenkins, by virtue of an oath properly administered, was
-transformed into a witness for the State of West Virginia.
-
-Before the witness was permitted to launch into his marvellous story of
-the self-condemnation of Robert Gilmore, the attorney for the defense
-arose and demanded permission to inquire into the circumstances under
-which the alleged confession had been obtained. The judge replied that
-such inquiry was entirely proper, and the attorney for the defense
-began.
-
-The ways of Providence are without premonition. At the first onslaught
-of the attorney for Gilmore, the importance of the testimony of
-Salathiel Jenkins vanished like a New Year's resolution. Yes, he had
-gone to the prisoner together with John Bartlett; he had explained
-that he was the deputy sheriff of the county of McDowell; that he was a
-person of influence; that the prisoner was in grave peril; and that, if
-a full confession were made, he, Jenkins, would induce the authorities
-of the law to deal leniently with the prisoner. He was a person of
-importance, he said, and, in the absence of the sheriff, the first
-guardian of all the law and order in the county of McDowell; if the
-prisoner would confess, he, Salathiel Jenkins, could save him from the
-hangman, and he would do it.
-
-These were the conditions under which the alleged confession was made.
-
-At this point in his narrative, the attorney for the prisoner stopped
-the witness, and objected to the introduction of the confession as
-having been improperly obtained. The court very promptly sustained the
-objection, and directed the witness to stand aside.
-
-The prosecuting attorney arose and asked the court to _nolle_ the
-indictment and permit the case to be dismissed. The judge reminded him
-that the case was at trial, and that such action could not now be taken;
-that the request should have been made before a jury was called; it was
-now too late, since the control of the cause had passed from the hands
-of the State.
-
-Young Mr. Huron, prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell, was
-lost, rudderless, upon an unknown sea. He arose and explained that he
-had not had an opportunity to investigate the evidence; that he had not
-spoken with the witnesses; that he had depended upon John Bartlett
-and the confession made to Salathiel Jenkins in order to convict the
-prisoner, and that, failing with these, he had no further evidence to
-introduce.
-
-The court interrupted this speech of explanation, and reminded the
-attorney that the State could not urge such excuses; that the prisoner,
-having been put to the hazard of a defense, was entitled to have his
-cause legally determined; a _nolle prosequi_ could not now be entered,
-and the case must proceed.
-
-To this the young attorney, having recovered his composure, replied that
-the State had nothing more to offer, and resumed his seat.
-
-The counsel for Gilmore at once moved the court to direct a verdict of
-not guilty, which was accordingly done and the prisoner discharged.
-
-Mystic, and varied, and without premonition are the ways of Providence.
-When the negro miner went down into the sunless temples of the earth on
-this Wednesday of July, Salathiel Jenkins was a person of high estate,
-crowding mightily the orbit of his employer. And when the negro miner
-came up at evening, this same Salathiel Jenkins was a crestfallen
-underling, shrinking like a rotten value. The ordeal was frightful. The
-pride of young Mr. Jenkins had gone through a process of sublimation
-most excruciating. And yet how abominably indifferent nature was. The
-books in the office of the sheriff were the same. The trees, the river,
-and indeed the entire outside world were quite as large as they had
-been. Only the importance of the deputy had shrunk, and was shrinking.
-Master of folly! Would it stop short of microscopic? The vice of his
-yesterday loomed clear-cut like the angles of a wall. He had talked,
-talked. It was the deadliest error. In the name of that notorious Simon
-of infantile record, was there no God to save the witless from himself?
-
-The crowd passed out of the court-room, and, sauntering down by the
-office of the miserable deputy, paused to harpoon him as it drifted
-by. The weather was fine for scaffold building, it observed. Would the
-deputy spring the trap in the absence of his chief? it was interested
-to know. Could he tie a hangman's knot? Would he be pleased to have the
-gracious assistance of his fellows? And more ingenious proddings, while
-the weary Jenkins perspired and shrunk, but was silent. This he had
-learned: like as the great lessons of life by hap learned too late.
-
-And that same night John Bartlett and Robert Gilmore hurrying eastward
-in a Pullman car on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad remarked with large
-favorable comment that the ancient doctrine of _lex vigilantibus non
-dormientums subvenit_ was marvellously true in this practical time.
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-ON the night of the seventeenth day of July the judge of the criminal
-court of McDowell walked into the office of the sheriff. He was in no
-altruistic mood, this jurist. Since his fortunate political affiliations
-had thrust him into a high estate his dignity sat upon him heavy as a
-fog. He had been sent for. It was thoughtlessness approaching near to
-disrespect. When the tall jurist entered, the crowd in the office of
-White Carter arose.
-
-“Judge,” drawled the sheriff, coming forward, “you must pardon the
-centurion for taking this liberty with the tribune, but we were holding
-a secret war council, and presently required the fountain of law. I am
-sure you won't mind, Judge.”
-
-The fountain of law flung aside his injured feeling with a wave of his
-slim hand.
-
-“It is all right, Carter,” he observed. “But why the conclave? Good men
-should be abed.”
-
-“'Day unto day uttereth speech,'” drawled the sheriff, “and night unto
-night showeth knowledge. And just here the hurt lies. The boys have been
-crowding the day and shirking the night turn.”
-
-Then he stepped back by his companions and added: “Young Mr. Huron we
-will overlook as familiar in your honor's forum. The other gentleman is
-Mr. Hartmyer Belfast, in the secret service of the New York life
-insurance companies.”
-
-The judge nodded cordially and sat down by the table. The others also
-resumed their seats, while the sheriff removed his eye-glasses, placed
-them carefully on the forefinger of his fat right hand, and began to
-explain.
-
-“While I was absent, I believe, one Robert Gilmore was indicted here and
-tried for murder, which trial resulted in a verdict of not guilty, the
-evidence being insufficient to sustain the charge. It now appears
-that Gilmore did kill Hirst, and that he can now be convicted with the
-evidence in the possession of Mr. Belfast and myself.”
-
-The judge elevated his eyebrows, but volunteered no comment.
-
-The sheriff continued. “At the time of Hirst's death I was not quite
-certain that it was suicide. The coat and vest found on the bridge did
-not correspond to the trousers and shoes of the deceased, which were the
-ordinary rough articles worn by the miners. There was no explanation for
-such dress on the part of Hirst. Later I found a miner's coat at Jim's
-Ford which corresponded to the other clothing of Hirst. This coat had
-been tied in a bundle and thrown into the river above--probably at the
-bridge. Stitched in the lining was a pocket book belonging to Brown
-Hirst containing some money and a draft on New York, together with a
-memorandum of a number of life insurance policies. These matters led me
-to believe that Hirst had planned to secure the insurance on his life by
-arranging a counterfeit suicide, but by some means the plan had failed
-after the evidence had been prepared and he had come to a violent death,
-probably by the hand of another.
-
-“But the matter was involved in mystery, and I deemed it best to retain
-my conclusions until further developments should appear. I wrote to the
-various companies with which Hirst was insured, explaining the facts
-which I had determined. They replied that the matter was in the hands of
-Hartmyer Belfast, their secret agent, and that I would be advised when
-the investigation was complete.
-
-“A few days since the companies wired me that Mr. Belfast might be
-expected to appear in my county at any time, and yesterday he called
-upon me.”
-
-The sheriff moved a little closer to the table, and the drawl seemed to
-slip out of his speech.
-
-“It can now be shown that Robert Gilmore came to McDowell for the
-purpose of assisting Hirst to manufacture evidence of a suicide; that he
-went with him upon the bridge, and after enticing Hirst to the rail of
-the bridge, suddenly threw him over into the river. The train men can
-be produced who saw Gilmore when he arrived and when he departed on the
-night of the murder. All of this evidence has been carefully prepared.
-In addition, it can be shown that immediately after his trial, for some
-mysterious reason Gilmore went directly to Philadelphia and arranged
-for a conference with the widow of Brown Hirst. Of this Mr. Belfast had
-notice, and, by request of Mrs. Hirst, he was present, concealed in
-an adjoining room. This conference between Gilmore and Mrs. Hirst was
-remarkable. The man was deeply affected, and said that he had come to
-tell her the entire history of his villainy, because he loved her, had
-loved her always, and now knew that he could never have her. Whereupon
-he explained that Hirst and himself had planned to rob the insurance
-companies; that Hirst's marriage to her was part of the scheme, but
-that he, Gilmore, had grown to love her, and to regret his action in
-procuring the marriage, and so frightfully had this grown upon him that
-finally he had killed Hirst.
-
-“He then explained the minute circumstances of the death, adding that he
-had been tried and acquitted, and would now leave the country, but that
-something in his bosom would not rest until he had told her the entire
-truth. So we have now, I judge, a complete case, together with the
-confession, which, I am told, will be quite proper evidence, and
-with such a case there can now be nothing in the way of Gilmore's
-conviction.”
-
-“Nothing at all,” observed the judge, dryly, “except the Constitution of
-the United States of America.”
-
-The sheriff sat down suddenly and replaced the eye-glasses on his fat
-nose.
-
-“You mean,” said the prosecuting attorney, “that the prisoner cannot be
-put twice in jeopardy for the same offense?”
-
-“Unless,” responded the judge, “the judicial machinery in McDowell can
-be held exempt from the Constitution of the State and the Constitution
-of the Federal Government, a conclusion,” he added, with prodigious
-gravity, “in which I should rather hesitate to concur upon a casual
-hearing. Having been once properly tried for murder, this man cannot be
-again tried for the same offense.”
-
-“It has been held,” said the prosecuting attorney, “that where the first
-trial was procured by the fraud of the prisoner, the case did not come
-within the provisions of the Constitution.”
-
-“True,” replied the judge, “there is an early case in Virginia, and
-later cases of record, but the fraud must be gross and apparent. What
-fraud could be shown here? The indictment was properly found, the trial
-was regular, no suspicion of conspiracy attaches to the officers of the
-State, nor can it be shown that even misstatements were made, unless
-a plain conspiracy can be shown on the part of this detective, John
-Bartlett.” Then he turned to the secret agent of the life insurance
-companies. “How about this Bartlett?” he asked.
-
-“So far as I can learn,” replied the detective, “Bartlett made no false
-statements. He is a member of Loomey's Agency in New York. It is true
-that he called on Mrs. Hirst and requested permission to investigate the
-case. What he stated to the prosecuting attorney as facts were facts.
-Of course, his theory was wrong, and his deductions incorrect; but for
-these, I presume, he could not be held responsible. I have investigated
-the matter with care, and while it is extremely probable that this trial
-was shrewdly procured by Gilmore, yet it has been so skilfully handled
-that no fraudulent proceeding could be shown on the part of Bartlett,
-although I am quite certain of his villainy.”
-
-The sheriff rubbed his hands with the bland unction of a Hebrew at a
-“fire sale.”
-
-“Jeb,” he drawled, “I guess you're it. I guess the thing is all over but
-the shouting.”
-
-“Well,” responded the prosecutor, “I judge there are others. How about
-the lamented Jenkins, erstwhile representative of the sheriff of
-McDowell? Is the young man Absalom safe?”
-
-A faint ripple of merriment spread over the fat face of the sheriff.
-“Boys,” he mused, “it was a keen flim-flam. Let us quietly disperse, and
-endeavor to live it down.” Then he added wearily. “It may be good to be
-good, but it is safer to be smooth.”
-
-The judge arose. “Mr. Gilmore has been tried and acquitted,” he
-observed. “The record is complete. He cannot be held again to answer
-for this crime, even though he be pleased to proclaim his guilt from the
-housetops.”
-
-“Then,” said the detective, with the dreary deliberation of one retiring
-from a failing cause, “this murderer cannot be punished.”
-
-The dreamy blue eyes of White Carter swam listlessly
-
-“Perhaps,” he drawled, “when the gentleman shall have passed the
-melancholy flood with that grim ferryman whom poets write of unto the
-Kingdom of Perpetual Night.”
-
-_(See Code of West Virginia, Chap, cxxiv., Sec. 14, Chap, cvi., Sec. 25;
-also Chap. cxxv. See any good text book on Landlord and Tenant. The
-case also of Martin Admix vs. Smith it al., 25 West Virginia, 579, and
-casts cited.)_
-
-
-
-
-THE GRAZIER
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE driller of the Bonnie Mag No. 3 had been keeping his weather eye
-on the public road all the long summer afternoon; exacting and laborious
-duties had obtained under the shadow of the oil derrick on this
-nineteenth day of August, quite sufficient to have distracted the
-attention of the ordinary man, but through it all the driller had
-maintained his watch. The pumper, a grimy mortal, who regarded the
-monster oil company as the sole and omnipotent power of the universe,
-had marked this apparent anxiety of the driller, and inquired, with some
-trace of humor, if that gentleman was expecting to see grease gush
-up out of the road. To which the driller had responded with barbaric
-profanity that the pumper had been employed to pump, and that he might
-hold his position by holding his tongue, but not otherwise. A suggestion
-that banished all levity from the speech of the pumper. Besides, there
-was a red glint in the eyes of the driller, and the underling of the
-great oil company appreciated perfectly the full significance of the
-sign. He had noticed it before on divers eventful occasions, especially
-on a certain morning when being interrupted by an order of the Circuit
-Court, the driller had promptly suggested to the deputy sheriff that
-he might go to the infernal regions with his injunction; and instead of
-suspending operations until the legal forum could determine the title
-to the realty, he had complied with his contract by pushing his well
-through to the Gordon sand.
-
-It was true indeed that the Circuit Court had attached t he body of the
-driller and bringing him up before its august presence fined him two
-hundred dollars for contempt, but the old man had paid over the money
-without the hesitation of a moment and immediately thereafter consigned
-the Circuit Court to the same heated region originally suggested to the
-deputy sheriff.
-
-The sun had gone down, and the twilight was beginning to gather on the
-oil field. The shadows darkened across the long sloping valley, and the
-great derricks in the half light looked dark and gaunt and threatening
-like some grim engines of war. It was now difficult to observe the
-highway from the oil wells far up on the hill side, and the driller,
-who evidently intended to maintain his surveillance of the county
-thoroughfare at any cost, stepped out from the shadow of the derrick and
-began to wipe his hands on the grass; when he had finished he turned to
-the pumper. “Just keep your eye on that cable,” he said curtly, “I'll be
-back when you see me coming.” Then he turned and walked slowly down the
-path to the road.
-
-The soft breath of wind creeping up from the North through the rift in
-the low hills brought with it no sound, save the dull ceaseless thump
-of the engines drawing streams of liquid wealth from a thousand narrow
-arteries leading down into the bosom of the earth. This great industry,
-not content with changing the civilization, had changed also the very
-face of the land; two years before this fluttering summer breeze had
-carried with it the murmur of ripening corn fields, the sweet odor of
-quiet pasture land where herds of fattening cattle wandered through
-fields of blue grass. Now, the lands were marked with wagon roads,
-studded with the rough shanties of the pumpers and the gigantic wooden
-tanks of the great oil companies; and here and there, like the twisted
-ugly back of some huge serpent, a black pipe line stretched its
-interminable length across the broken country. Greed ruled the world,
-and beauty, like many another gift of nature, was battered out under his
-hammer.
-
-The oil driller stopped at the road side and leaned his long body on the
-rail fence. He was a thin, old man, with sharp, emaciated features, his
-hair and iron-gray beard were matted with oil, and his long arms, bare
-to the elbow and burned black by the sun, glistened greasy as the piston
-of his engine. The ancient workman kept his watch in dead silence, and
-beyond this his face showed no interest. This man belonged to that iron
-type upon which the world has depended so much for its civilization,
-that type which no matter where placed toils on in its station like
-a machine, unquestioning, tireless, reliable as a law. In the rank of
-their legions it had extended the rule of the Caesars; on the broad
-decks of the men-of-war it had widened the dominion of Great Britain;
-and in the mines and mills and forests of America it had reared and
-maintained and enriched a Republic; growing greater than them all.
-
-Presently in the deepening twilight a huge shadow appeared at the foot
-of the long hill, and the driller heard distinctly the sound of a horse
-coming leisurely up the sandy road. As it approached, the indefinite
-shadow took on a clear and decided outline, until one in the position
-of the driller could have seen that it was an enormous man, riding a
-red roan horse. The man was leaning forward, his head down and his hands
-resting on the pommel of his saddle, while the bridle reins dangled
-loose in his fingers. When they were opposite, the driller spoke.
-
-“Is that you, Alshire?” he said.
-
-The giant threw bark his great shoulders and stopped his horse with
-a wrench on the bridle “Morg Gaston!” he announced with some trace of
-surprise in his voice, then he added, half-apologetically, “what's the
-good word with you?”
-
-The driller climbed heavily over the big staked-and-ridered fence, “I
-saw you go down this morning,” he said, “and I have been watching for
-you back; I want to tell you something.”
-
-Then he came over to the middle of the road and rested his greasy chin
-on the mane of the red roan.
-
-“Hell of a high horse,” said the driller.
-
-“Seventeen hands,” responded the giant.
-
-The old man ran his eyes slowly over the immense proportions of the
-traveller, his deep, powerful chest, his broad, thick shoulders and his
-massive limbs almost grotesquely huge.
-
-“You are not little yourself,” he observed, as though announcing a
-discovery, “and I am darned glad of it, leastways I was darned glad of
-it that morning old Ward's rotten derrick blowed down, and you chanced
-along and lifted her off me. I was pinned under them timbers like a
-rat.”
-
-The man laughed, but his face in the dark was not merry. The driller
-extended his close inspection to the horse; when he had finished he
-stepped back in the road and an expression of intense admiration spread
-itself over his rugged features.
-
-“By jolly!” he said, “you are a pair to draw to.”
-
-The giant patted the withers of the great horse.
-
-“Cardinal is a good colt,” he replied, “good as they grow.”
-
-The driller stood for some moments gazing almost worshipfully at the
-pair; then he straightened suddenly and coming up close to the horse
-rested his arms, wet with petroleum, on the pommel of the saddle.
-
-“Alshire,” he said, lowering his voice, “the Company thinks there is
-grease under your land. I was up to see the manager last night, and
-while I was there the engineers came in with the maps, and they all
-agreed that the head of the pool was about under your farm. You are
-nigh on to three miles east of the development, but the belt is surely
-running your way; this here last well that the Company plugged is forty
-barrels better than the No. 1 five hundred feet west; and I'll tell
-you another thing, there ain't no more boring in this region until the
-Company gets its clutches on all this land laying to the east, yours
-included. My instructions is to make this last one dry, and move over
-into Ohio.”
-
-The great Alshire bent over and placed his broad hand on the greasy
-arm of the driller. “I'm obliged to you, Morg,” he said slowly. “I'll
-lookout.”
-
-“By jolly!” continued the old workman, “you better had, they are a
-smooth set of divels, and whatever you do, keep your mouth plugged. I
-ain't never given the Company the double cross before, but I could n't
-see them skin you, by jolly, I could n't!”
-
-The old driller spoke rapidly, as though half ashamed of his treason,
-and when he had finished turned and began climbing the high fence.
-
-“Morg,” called the giant. “Morg.”
-
-“That's all right,” answered the driller, as he vanished up the dark
-hill side, “just keep your mouth plugged; that's all right.”
-
-The giant touched his horse in the flank with his heel and rode on.
-
-Rufus Alshire was a grazier, a business almost exclusively followed in
-this magnificent grass country. Many years before, his greatgrandfather,
-an English Tory, had fled into this inland country in order to escape
-certain unpleasant relations with the colonial government. Here he had
-builded an enormous log manor-house, and surrounding himself with rather
-worthless retainers, maintained a sort of baronial existence. Others
-followed, and after a time the country was cleared and came to be
-divided into great tracts of pasture land, owned by these powerful
-families. But the elements of the feudal system, although suffering some
-modifications, remained. The tenants were, for the most part, born and
-reared on the stock land, and were almost fixtures.
-
-The descendants of this independent ancestry continued to reside as near
-to the central part of their estate as possible, and maintained huge
-residences, rough at times and not quite comfortable perhaps, but always
-enormous. The nature of the country being especially adapted to the
-fattening of beef cattle, this industry soon came to be the exclusive
-business of this powerful people. It was a profitable and supremely
-independent industry, and gave wide play to the baronial instincts of
-the Anglo-Saxon; who, even after the golden time of his race had gone
-out so many hundred years, still loved the open sky, and the blue hills,
-and the monster oak trees, and hated in his heart with a stubborn bitter
-spirit of rebellion the least shadow of restraint. He was willing to
-serve God if need be, but while he lived he would not serve men. In
-stature the descendants of the long dead Saxon were huge specimens
-of the race, almost as big of limb as the fabled barbarians of Lygia;
-powerful men, whom close and intimate relations with the mother nature
-kept strong and immensely vital to the very evening of life. But withal
-the hospitality of the Saxon was profligate, his impulses were kindly,
-and he was quite content to leave the affairs of government and the
-problems of civilization to other hands, provided the minions of these
-powers held their feet back from his soil.
-
-The twilight had deepened into night; on the crest of the far-off hills
-the great oak trees stood outlined against the sky like mighty silent
-figures waiting for some mystic word that should call them into life.
-
-The rim of the moon was rising slowly from behind the oil field, red
-like battered brass; the road, covered with shifting light and shadow,
-stretched across the rolling country like a silver ribbon. The grazier
-rode slowly, his hands hanging idly at his sides, and his face set with
-deep thought; from time to time he raised his ponderous right hand and
-struck it heavily against the tree of his saddle as though to indicate
-thereby some important decision finally reached, but as often he dropped
-the hand back to its place.
-
-The important information of the oil driller had added a mighty element
-to the matters with which he was evidently concerned. The horse, left to
-his own inclinations, quickened his pace and presently the shadow of a
-huge house loomed upon the crest of the hill at the roadside. The horse
-stopped at the gate, and the man. aroused from his reverie, dismounted
-slowly, and opening the gate led the horse through; as he closed the
-gate he stopped for a moment and rested his enormous elbow on the
-latch. “Well,” he said, as though announcing his temporary conclusion to
-himself, “I'll ship the cattle to-morrow, and I'll see Jerry.”
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-FROM the earliest record of events, either sacred or profane, the genus
-Bos has been associated with the history of the landowner. The Ancient
-Egyptian saw in him certain traces of divinity, and honored it with
-proper recognition. The lamented Job, erstwhile poet of calamity,
-found time amid the recording of his numerous disasters to set down
-his venerable appreciation of the species; and the pagan Homer, while
-singing of gods and men, remembered to sing also the virtues of the
-noble bullock; and the painters, too, from Claude Lorraine to Rosa
-Bonheur, have deigned to consider the artistic importance of the
-domesticated kine; treating him first as a necessary adjunct to a
-landscape, and later as a central figure in the scene. He has had his
-part, say the records, not infrequently with the plans of men, virtuous
-and otherwise. A certain wily barbaric general used him well in a
-difficult emergency, and the patriarch Jacob used him in a shrewd
-physiological experiment, which he had probably learned at Padan-aram
-in his salad days; an experiment that added much to the worldly worth of
-the good father, but detracted not a little from his fame.
-
-When the sun climbed up from behind the broad eastern hillside on the
-following morning it looked down upon Rufus Alshire, who, far more
-expeditious than itself, had already set himself to the affairs of the
-day; before the dawn he had brought the cattle from their beds in the
-cool pasture land, weighed them at his scales and turned them out in the
-road on their journey to the shipping station some ten miles away. The
-herd strayed leisurely along the highway. The giant Alshire rode through
-the drove, keeping the bullocks moving slowly; while following the herd
-barefoot in the dust, was one of his retainers, a half-witted youth,
-wearing an ancient straw hat, a shirt originally of the material called
-“hickory,” but now patched in variegated colors, and blue cloth trousers
-well worn and frayed. As the youth tramped along he sang in a high
-piping voice one of those simple little songs which the playing children
-sing, and by way of illustration danced up and down and whipped the dust
-with a long hickory switch. On his heart was no shadow of the cares of
-men, and for this reason, perhaps, under his torn shirt was two-thirds
-of the happiness of the world.
-
-As the herd wandered along under the great oaks that lined the roadway
-and the rays of the morning sun crept down through the green leaves,
-making queer mottled spots on the sleek cattle and brilliant shifting
-patches on the dewy grass, one looking on could easily have come to
-believe that the world had turned back some several hundred years, and
-this was a grassy forest glade of merry England, and the herd, cattle
-of the gruff, gigantic Saxon who rode among them on his huge red horse,
-scowling under his black brows and cursing by St. Withold and St.
-Dunstan and the soul of Hengist the evil times of the Conqueror that
-forced him to drive his herd into the thick forest at daybreak in order
-to preserve it from the marauding cut-throats of a Norman baron; and
-he would have looked close for great stones half-bedded in the moss,
-lasting monuments to the weird and bloody rites of some stern Druid
-colony long dead; and then glanced up sharply to see if that patch
-of thicker green in the deeper woods were not indeed the coat of some
-gallant outlaw whose bosom was English, and who stood ready with his
-yew bow and his cloth-yard shaft to join the huge Saxon in his stubborn
-fight against the bloody followers of Duke William of Normandy; and when
-the herd had wandered by one would have leaned over in the road to see
-if there was not a brass collar soldered fast around the neck of the
-happy cowherd, graven in Saxon letters with this inscription: “Zaak, the
-son of Jonas, is thrall to Rufus of Alshire.”
-
-The cheery sunshine under the dear arch of blue, with its homely noises
-of awakening life and its cool breath, ladened with the fresh odor
-wafted from meadows of clover springing up with sweet new blossom after
-the harvest, all so conducive to careless, joyous existence, failed
-utterly to remove any portion of the anxiety from the face of the
-grazier.
-
-He sat listlessly in his saddle, with his gray eyes half-closed and the
-muscles of his face drawn down in furrows; the red roan, trained from
-his colt days, assumed the duties of his master, and moved carefully
-among the cattle; his equine intelligence appreciating that it was a
-part of his duty to the indolent master, to see that the drove kept
-moving slowly, and that no bullock stopped to crop the wet grass by the
-roadside, or fight with his fellow.
-
-The watches of the night had brought to Rufus Alshire no solution of the
-matter with which he had struggled so persistently during the evening
-before. He was acting, it was true, upon his temporary plan, but that
-seemed but an incident in the main vexatious problem.
-
-The giant was now entirely oblivious of his environment, and deep in his
-troublous matter he spoke aloud. “If I could only hold the title,” he
-muttered, and then, as if realizing the folly of his hope, he gripped
-the tree of his saddle with his hand and straightened his mighty foot
-suddenly in the stirrup. The leather snapped under the great weight, and
-the iron stirrup dropped into the road. The red roan stopped short, and
-the huge Alshire, pronouncing some severe malediction on his ponderous
-size, dismounted, picked up the stirrup and tied it to the strap. Then
-he slipped the bridle rein over his aim and, walking along beside the
-horse, began to examine the herd with the critical eye of an expert, and
-comment thereon with the artlessness of a child.
-
-“Beef for the British.” he said, “and as good beef as John Bull ever put
-under his ribs. They are broad on the backs and deep in the brisket and
-heavy in the quarters, and every black calf of them made the beam kick
-sixteen hundred pounds.”
-
-The grazier slapped his horse fondly on the neck. “They 'll please the
-Jews, won't they, boy?” The red roan pricked up his ears and rubbed his
-nose against his master's arm, as though this statement was quite in
-accord with his own private views of the matter. “They will ship well
-over the sea.” The giant laughed. “And by gad! if the rotten ships hold
-together the black brutes will get a blamed sight nearer to the Queen
-than most of the little snobs ambling around in the East.”
-
-The herd of Rufus Alshire belonged to that species of beef cattle
-termed Polled-Angus, native to the lowlands of Scotland; a breed of
-comparatively recent importation. They were fine bullocks, full, round,
-and comely in form; hornless, trim of head and neck, and with coats as
-black as the fabled spirit of midnight. The law of natural selection had
-finally indicated this breed as best adapted to the conditions of the
-West Virginia grazier. It was hardy, easily maintained, and endured the
-rigor of the winter without distress, beside it was quick to mature and
-gained flesh rapidly, and then, too, the absence of horns rendered it
-easier to handle and far less dangerous.
-
-The horn, a necessary and powerful weapon in the wild state, was in the
-state of domestication a useless incumbrance Hence nature, laboring for
-the convenience of men, thrust in and produced the Polled-Angus.
-
-The business of the grazier had been progressive. The powerful
-landowner, who in the autumn purchased his cattle from the stockmen of
-the interior counties, had ever encouraged the cultivation of the breed.
-For many years the short horn Durham had been the great cattle of this
-inland country. It was an old race; old in England when the Scandinavian
-and the Dane swarmed over the river Tees. But the breed, though
-excellent, was rather slow to mature and not adapted to severe winters,
-and the breeder awakened to the needs of his market and casting about
-for an animal better adapted to his uses chanced upon the Hereford,
-first imported by the elder Clay of Kentucky. And the Hereford became
-the chief bovine of the grazier. He was old, too; old on the north side
-of the river Wye in the tenth century, and ancient of record, it is
-said, in the law of Howell the Good; but while a fine beef animal, he
-preserved one defect, the massive horn. Still he maintained his place,
-until on a certain autumn morning at a fat cattle show in Chicago,
-the good wife of a powerful Virginia grazier, on a quest for the ideal
-bullock, pointed down into the stock ring at the splendid Polled-Angus
-and said, “There he is, but he don't look human.” And there he was
-indeed, broad, and shiny black, and hornless as a man's palm--nature's
-answer to the breeder's dream.
-
-The great tawny sun climbed high in the heavens; the heat of the day
-settled down over the living earth like an invisible mantle; the crisp
-freshness of the morning breeze had given place to the monotonous hot
-air of midday. The dust arose in clouds from under the feet of the herd,
-and the cattle themselves, warm and vexed with the irksome travel, were
-restless and difficult to control. The great Al-shire and his huge horse
-moved here and there through the drove, white with dust; while the happy
-thrall plodded along behind the herd, whistling merrily and turning from
-time to time to strike some lagging bullock, and shout with childish
-glee “Go along you fat feller; to-night you will ride on the steam-cars,
-and to-morrow the British will eat you.” And passing a slight inaccuracy
-in the matter of time, the witless Zaak was entirely correct. To him
-the steam-cars were marvels from wonderland, and the British was some
-far-away gigantic monster with a mighty, insatiate maw.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-THE young man closed the door to the private writing-room of the club,
-and coming back to the table drew a chair up beside his companion and
-sat down.
-
-“Rufus,” he said, “how did you get in so deep?”
-
-“Well,” responded the grazier, looking down at the floor. “I am an ass,
-Jerry, just a natural ass. I was all right, doing well and living like
-a lord, until I endorsed for that lumber company. When it grew shaky,
-I tried to save myself by borrowing money and holding it up until the
-panic was over, but I could n't do it, and when the thing failed I had
-the notes to meet. I did n't want to be sued, so I borrowed the money.
-It was a big sum, almost as big as I was worth, but I thought that the
-men from whom I borrowed the money would not push me, and that probably
-I could pull through some way. I might have known that the crash would
-come, but it is natural, I judge, to postpone the evil day.”
-
-“Have your creditors instituted legal proceedings?” asked the young man.
-
-“Not yet,” replied Alshire. “On Thursday I was at the county seat
-looking after my taxes, and while there William Farras, who is a local
-manager for the oil company, took me aside and said that through some
-business transactions my notes had come into his hands, and added that
-he hoped that I was in a position to pay them, as he was hard up and
-would require a considerable sum of money at once. On the way home in
-the evening I had the conversation with the driller of which I have
-spoken; and his statement made the scheme as plain as day light. The
-company believes that the pool is under my land, and, wishing to secure
-the property, it has bought up my outstanding notes. The plan is to sue
-me at once, sell the land, and buy it in.”
-
-The giant spoke slowly, the great muscles of his face set, and his eyes
-hard. He raised his ponderous clenched hand and brought it slowly down
-on his knee. “I shipped the cattle,” he added, “to prevent their being
-attached, and I have gone over the whole thing from end to end, and by
-every devil in hell I don't see any way to stop their game.”
-
-Jerry Van Meter arose and went over to the window. He was mightily
-affected by the hopeless position of his friend, and in his breast his
-heart was heavy. The condition of things was reversed. From his very
-babyhood he had gone to the giant with his troubles, and the giant
-had always found some way out. Now the man had come to him, and he was
-helpless. He looked at the huge grazier sitting motionless with his face
-in his hands, and the tears gathered in his eyes. Van Meter knew too
-much of the world not to know that the man was ruined. Finally he turned
-to his companion.
-
-“Rufus,” he said, “we will walk down to my office and see what can be
-done.”
-
-It was merely a weakling move for delay. In his heart the young man knew
-that the matter was hopeless.
-
-The two men arose and passed out of the club.
-
-The life of Jerry Van Meter had been crowded with events quite as varied
-and rapid of incident as that of Sinbad the Sailor. His parents, who
-resided on a small farm near Rufus Alshire's estate, had died when the
-child Jerry was quite an infant, and the huge grazier had assumed
-the guardianship of the youth. Under his direction the boy had been
-educated, and finally installed as a bank clerk in one of the small
-towns. But the spirit of adventure was big in the breast of the youthful
-Jerry, and one morning he closed the ledger carefully and vanished into
-the Northwest. Here he pulled teeth for an itinerant dentist, drummed
-for a soap house, and travelled with a circus. But he had a fortunate
-star, not at all times obscured; and when the boom struck St. Paul,
-Jerry drifted in, bought far and wide, and carried out with him ten
-thousand dollars in gold, which he promptly dropped in a bucket-shop
-in Chicago. A letter to the good genius Alshire brought a check for one
-hundred dollars and nine pages of advice.
-
-With this money in his pocket, Jerry passed over on to the Pacific
-coast. Here he mixed drinks in a bar-room, and officiated in the
-important capacity of night clerk to a restaurant, until his star came
-up again, and when it did, Jerry chanced on an abandoned claim that
-netted him seven thousand dollars. He returned to Alshire the one
-hundred dollars and the well-worn but badly-heeded letter of advice,
-and set out for the East. In St. Louis he became deeply interested
-in certain horse races, and ten days later he landed in the Virginias
-bronzed, bearded, and broke. The giant Alshire laughed at the escapades
-of this youth until his sides ached, gave him another check and the
-ancient letter of advice with various amendments, and the restless Mr.
-Van Meter dropped down into the metropolis of New York. Here his star
-gave evidences of constancy, and he became an insurance broker and a man
-of affairs.
-
-The two men walked slowly down the steps of the club and across the busy
-thoroughfare. As they stepped up or the opposite curb they were startled
-by a sharp cry, and turning suddenly they saw a little man stumble and
-fall forward in the street directly in front of an approaching mail
-wagon. The great horses were almost upon him, bearing down in a long
-sweeping trot. The driver at the moment was not looking, but it was too
-late for him to prevent the impending accident even if he had been. The
-giant Alshire ran out into the street, caught the horses and threw his
-ponderous weight against the iron bits. The heavy Percherons reared
-and fell back on their haunches, the tongue of the wagon shot forward,
-grazing the giant's shoulder, and the wheels stopped for a moment almost
-against the body of the prostrate man. In that moment Van Meter dragged
-the hapless pedestrian from beneath the belly of the horses. The giant
-stepped quickly aside, and the horses, plunging forward heavily on the
-cobble stones, passed on down the street, while the half-dazed driver
-did not even look back to ascertain what had really occurred.
-
-The little man wiped the dust from his hat with the sleeve of his coat
-and looked up at his deliverers.
-
-“Well,” he said, “Randolph Mason came near to losing his clerk. I guess
-I stumbled on that infernal rail.”
-
-A great light came into the face of Jerry Van Meter. He came up close
-to the little man and caught him by the shoulder. “Randolph Mason!” he
-said, “Is Randolph Mason in New York?”
-
-“Yes,” responded the little man. “I am his clerk. Parks is my name. Mr.
-Mason is here, but----” Then he stopped short.
-
-The now excited Van Meter shook the little man almost roughly by the
-shoulder.
-
-“Good,” he cried, “good, we must see him at once.”
-
-The clerk Parks looked down at his soiled clothes and the dust on his
-bruised hands.
-
-“Gentlemen,” he said slowly, “it is against the strict order of the
-physicians, but, under the circumstances, I don't quite see how I am
-going to refuse.”
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-RANDOLPH MASON leaned forward and struck his hand heavily on the arm of
-his chair.
-
-“Forty thousand,” he said sharply, “you owe that sum, sir?” His face
-looked old, sunken, and furrowed with heavy dark lines, but his eyes
-shone under his shaggy brows.
-
-“Yes,” responded the grazier, “fully that much.”
-
-“To secure that amount in cash,” continued Mason, “it will be necessary
-to deal with some bank or savings institution of which the president
-or some powerful director is an attorney-at-law. This condition will be
-found to obtain in almost any one of the small towns of the country, and
-if my directions are followed strictly, the plan can be carried out and
-the money secured in a very few hours. The plan is simple and easy. In
-the first place----”
-
-“But,” said the giant Alshire, “I don't want other men's money. I don't
-want to commit a crime.”
-
-The veins in the forehead of Randolph Mason grew black with anger.
-
-“Commit a crime!” he cried. “No man who has followed my advice has ever
-committed a crime. Crime is a technical word. It is the law's name for
-certain acts which it is pleased to define and punish with a penalty.
-None but fools, dolts, and children commit crimes.”
-
-“Well,” responded the grazier, “whether the plan you are about to
-propose is a crime or not, it is certainly a moral wrong, and I have no
-desire to rob a bank by committing even a moral wrong.”
-
-Randolph Mason arose slowly and pointed his finger at the huge Alshire.
-
-“The old story,” he sneered, “child afraid of a goblin. Moral wrong! A
-name used to frighten fools. There is no such thing. The law lays down
-the only standard by which the acts of the citizen are to be governed.
-What the law permits is right, else it would prohibit it. What the law
-prohibits is wrong, because it punishes it. This is the only lawful
-measure, the only measure bearing the stamp and the sanction of the
-State. All others are spurious, counterfeit, and void. The word moral is
-a pure metaphysical symbol, possessing no more intrinsic virtue than the
-radical sign.”
-
-“I beg your pardon, Mr. Mason,” said Van Meter thrusting into the
-conversation, “but I am quite certain that you mistake the request of
-my friend. He is not attempting to secure any sum of money. He simply
-desires to retain the title to his land and prevent its sale, until he
-can determine the extent of its oil production.”
-
-“For what length of time?” asked Mason.
-
-“Well,” said the grazier, “I scarcely know. One year might be time
-enough, or even less than one year; while, on the other hand, it might
-require several years. You see, if I can prevent the land from being
-sold, and keep it in my name until the territory is developed, then if
-oil is found in paying quantities I can meet all these notes, and if
-the land is dry I am no worse off. At any rate, I want to hold on to the
-land and see.”
-
-“Are there judgments of record against you?” inquired Mason.
-
-“Not yet,” replied Alshire, “but Farras is preparing to sue on the notes
-and rush the sale through. Can I stop him; can I hold the sale off?”
- There was anxiety in the grazier's voice.
-
-Randolph Mason began to walk to and fro across the room with an unsteady
-nervous stride.
-
-“Easy,” he muttered, “easy as learning to lie.” Then he stopped by the
-table and looked flown sharply at the great Alshire.
-
-“Have you two friends,” he asked, “nonresidents of your State, whom you
-can trust?”
-
-“Yes,” responded the grazier, “Mr. Van Meter here in New York, and
-Morgan Gaston now in Ohio, they will both stand by me.”
-
-“Then,” said Mason, “listen to me, and do as I advise, and the sale of
-your property will be as far distant years from to-day as it seems this
-afternoon. First make an oil lease for a long term, say thirty years,
-to your non-resident friend of Ohio, giving him all the oil privileges,
-but, for your own protection in case of the death of the lessee,
-incorporate in the instrument a clause permitting the lessor the right
-to annul the lease at any time by the payment of a small sum. Have the
-instrument show also that the entire compensation for the lease has
-been fully paid in advance. Then make another lease renting all your
-remaining property rights to your friend Mr. Van Meter of this city.
-Have this second lease for a similar term and of similar provisions to
-the first, and the entire compensation for it likewise paid in advance.
-Then you have but to record the instruments, employ an attorney, and
-sit down in the shadow of your house. The hair on your head will have
-thinned vastly before the litigation over your complicated affairs
-terminates in a final decree of sale.” Rufus Alshire leaned forward
-listening eagerly. “But won't Farras sue me,” he asked, “won't he attack
-the leases?”
-
-“Certainly,” said Mason, “he will at once do one of two things; either
-he will bring an action at law on the notes, or he will attempt to
-embrace the whole matter in a chancery suit. If he sues at law, resist
-and attempt to fight through the superior courts. When he finally
-obtains a judgment at law in your State, he will be compelled to resort
-to a suit in chancery for the purpose of selling the land. In either
-event he must come finally into a court of chancery and include the
-holders of these leases as parties defendant to his action. When this is
-done, the non resident lessees are not to appear, and he will be able to
-obtain service on them only by an order of publication. You alone will
-fight this chancery suit through the lower and superior courts, and just
-before a sale of the land is ordered by the court of last resort, one
-of the non resident lessees mast appear, and by virtue of the statutory
-provision applying to such cases, file his bill of review and open up
-the whole matter, enjoin the sale, fight the case over again and again
-through the superior court. When this new litigation finally draws
-near to a close and the land is again ordered sold, the remaining
-non-resident must appear, bring his action in the Circuit Court of the
-United States, enjoin the sale, and proceed with his fight.
-
-“By this time,” continued Mason, placing his bony hand on the giant's
-shoulder, “there will probably be gray streaks in your beard, and if
-you wish to run this litigation on into eternity, you will have only to
-produce some collateral heir.”
-
-The huge Alshire looked up at the strange man beside him. “Is all this
-possible?” he asked in astonishment.
-
-Randolph Mason did not at once answer; he walked stumblingly across
-the room to his chair and sat down by the table. His form was thin and
-gaunt, and along the border of his forehead the veins were purple and
-swollen. After a time he turned toward the powerful grazier, his face
-ugly with a sneer. “To the law,” he said, “all things are possible--even
-justice.”
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-ONE morning in the early winter the red roan horse, with his head over
-the high fence of his pasture, saw two men standing in the neighboring
-meadow contemplating in silence a gigantic derrick. One he immediately
-recognized as his master Rufus Alshire, and the other resembled in a
-very large degree a certain obnoxious person who on a memorable summer
-night had smeared his well kept mane with most disagreeable petroleum.
-
-Presently the grazier spoke. “I judge that it will not now be necessary
-for Jerry to invoke the tedium of Federal tribunals, there seems to be
-grease enough here to pay everything and wind up the lawsuits.”
-
-The driller looked up at the oil streaming down from the timbers of the
-derrick; then he made a mighty angular gesture with his bare right arm.
-
-“By jolly!” he said, “there is money enough in that hole to pay off the
-national debt.”
-
-
-
-
-THE RULE AGAINST CARPER
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-CARPER did not recall that he had ever noticed the ugly details of the
-courtroom before,--the high, soiled ceiling, the rows of benches, worn,
-broken, empty as a fool's heart, the clerk's desk, and the presumptuous
-bench of the judge; the long tables, too, for the attorneys, heaped with
-papers, books, and dusty covers, a farrago of disorder--how ugly they
-were!
-
-Carper looked up at the judge. The man's black silk robe fell away in
-sharp straight folds; he sat erect like a bronze cast, his face turned
-half toward the window in order that he might better read the paper
-before him. How power had changed this face! Carper remembered idly
-that, years before, the face of this man had been sweet, tender, lit
-with kindness. Now it was as hard as white ivory.
-
-The attorneys at the table were talking in subdued whispers; Carper did
-not hear; he was wondering vaguely if the long slim fingers of the judge
-ever ached as his head was aching. The conjecture was unique.
-
-It was difficult for Carper to realize his position. His clothing was
-certainly better than that of any other man in the court-room, He was
-quite certain that his face was the same powerful, clean-cut, immobile
-mask that it had been always. The world did not know, it did not even
-suspect. If one had asked the clerk yonder for a financial rating on
-Russell Carper, the clerk would have shrugged his shoulder and written
-six figures on the margin of his record.. Yet this was the end,--the
-end.
-
-Over by the window stood a prisoner in the custody of the marshal.
-The man was poor, miserably poor; his clothes were clean, threadbare,
-ancient as the law. Carper knew the story. The man was a little
-shopkeeper; his wife was ill,--dying, the deputy said. There were
-children, too, hungry, naked, absurdly miserable, and the crime,--some
-petty revenue infraction. He would be presently required to pay his
-fine, and, failing that, would be locked up in a cell. It was the law,
-heartless as an image. Yet Carper wondered listlessly if one from beyond
-the world's rim on the quest of the good would not take this man, and
-leave the others, leave all the others--the judge with his blue-veined
-patriciate face, the clerks with their lank jaws, the attorneys, with
-their expression of abominable indifference, and himself. Well, the
-machinery of human justice was awry. Then he wondered at the condition
-that bred this surmise. How was it possible to reflect so indolently
-upon the condition of another when his own was perilous. Still, such
-speculations obtained with men, it is said, in great crises, and at the
-grave's edge.
-
-Presently the judge laid down his papers and began to speak. Carper
-heard him as one speaking a long distance away. At first the words
-seemed indistinct and without meaning; then he caught them full, as one
-waking suddenly catches and understands the conversation of his fellow.
-
-“Our commissioner's report,” the judge was saying, “shows that this
-receiver has now in his custody three hundred and seventeen thousand
-dollars belonging to the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company.
-At a former term of this court an order was entered directing the
-receiver to distribute this fund in accordance with a previous decree.
-At that term this order was resisted upon the ground that the decree
-was not sufficiently explicit; which objection the court, upon
-consideration, overruled. Later, the payment was sought to be held back
-upon the ground that this order was improvidently awarded, and a motion
-made to revoke, which was also overruled. And still later innumerable
-technical objections have been offered by the attorney for the receiver,
-all of which this court considers insufficient and trivial.”
-
-At this point one of the attorneys for Carper arose. “If your honor
-please,” he said, “we ask to be heard in defense of our client. We think
-that it can yet be shown that this order should not be enforced.” Then
-he sat down.
-
-The blue veins in the face of the jurist grew darker. “Gentlemen,” he
-continued, “cannot now be heard. The time of this court has already been
-much consumed by unprofitable argument. On yesterday the stockholders
-of the Massachusetts Iron Company applied for a rule, requiring Russell
-Carper, receiver, to appear and make answer, if any he has, why he
-should not be attached and punished for contempt in disobeying the
-orders of this court. The rule I have ordered to issue returnable
-tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.”
-
-The judge handed the paper down to the clerk, and directed the next case
-to be called. Then he leaned back in his chair with the huge unconcern
-of one well removed from the grip of his fellows.
-
-It was the end. But to Carper it was all as unreal as the yesterday. He
-seemed to be out of the scene, and, for that, out of himself, an idle
-spectator. His attorneys were whispering gravely. They were telling him
-that the game was now played out. There was nothing more to do. He must
-direct his banker to pay over the money. Even these hired fighters
-did not suspect; they presumed the delay was favorable to some deal in
-stocks. The truth--only he, Carper, knew the truth. There was grim humor
-in the huge deception.
-
-On the way out of the court-room Carper stopped and handed the clerk the
-only bill in his pockets. It would pay the fine of the shopkeeper. The
-whole thing was an immensely clever little comedy, and he wanted to see
-the sunshine come back into the shopkeeper's face.
-
-CARPER had been given the long afternoon to arrange some scheme, to
-plan some way out, but he allowed it to slip by like any leisure day.
-His mind was indolent, absurdly indolent. In all the other crises of his
-life, it had been restless as a blown wave. This day it was sluggish.
-Realizing the end, it had folded its arms. It was difficult to
-appreciate that his career was ripped off like a rotten seam. That
-afternoon his broker had talked confidentially of a certain railroad
-venture. Men from the West had begged the use of his name in the
-organization of a trust embracing the copper mines of a State. He had
-been asked to contribute to a great charity. This night, the last night,
-in his library there was yet no sign of that ruin which sat by the
-hearthstone. The fire was warm; the surroundings wore luxurious; the
-shelves were filled with books; from the walls the stern faces of his
-forbears looked down, haughty, relentless as their lives had shown.
-It was difficult to realize that he was an embezzler and a bankrupt,
-suspended above a vacuous abyss by a line that the to-morrow would cut
-short.
-
-For five years he had been the receiver of the Massachusetts Iron
-Company. In those five years he had bought and sold on the street with
-the abandon of a master. He had used the funds of this company as a
-workman would use a tool left lying in his shop. He had won great sums,
-and he had lost until the very earth seemed slipping away beneath him.
-
-Then the slump in the stocks of a great railroad system caught him, and
-he had put in every dollar of this trust fund and watched it vanish like
-a vapor. Still, no one knew. Carper's reputation stood on the street
-flawless, perfect in outline, an empty shell--but no one knew.
-
-When the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company finally demanded
-a reorganization, he had employed the best legal talent and thrust in
-every delay of the law. The fight had gone on year after year, from
-court to court. Orders had been entered and dissolved; decrees had been
-made and reversed; hearings had been granted by superior courts, and
-rehearings, but the end, long delayed, came finally.
-
-The stockholders had applied for a rule. It was the most summary
-proceeding known to the law. To-morrow he must pay the money, or go to
-prison a felon. The end loomed like the ragged outlines of a cliff.
-
-To Carper this end seemed atrociously unjust. He had worked so hard, so
-hard: the best that was in him; the good days of his life had been given
-up to this labor It had been his boyhood dream to be a factor in great
-affairs,--the bitter labor of his youth, and, in part, the realization
-of his middle life. He had cut every other thing away with a hand that
-never once had trembled. It was his right to win, if there was any
-justice anywhere. But to-morrow was the end. To-morrow the court would
-strip him naked as a bone.
-
-He had heard many a sleek pastor discourse glibly upon the eternal
-justice of Providence. Then he believed it cant with a smattering of
-truth. Now it was entirely clear that it was cant--but false; a pleasant
-lie like the housewife tale of fairies.
-
-Carper took the cigar from between his teeth and dropped it on the
-hearth. The game of life was an ugly game. He confessed that he had lost
-interest in its play. Now that the thought suggested he saw that he had
-been losing interest all along. It was inertia he had been fighting--the
-plague of inertia, and for no gain at all. It was a world where, if one
-sat still, one wasted with monotony; and if one labored, it was only for
-the purpose of building ships to fly in the air, which, when they were
-all completed, sat stupidly on the earth or by hap toppled heavily upon
-the builder, crushing out his heart. He could not understand why men had
-sometimes said that life was good.
-
-Carper had looked, he believed, into not a few chambers of the temple.
-The same hooded shape sat in each. If fame was given, the skull was
-pretty generally crushed with the crown. If wealth was given, the back
-was broken with the weight. If love was given,--yes, the heart was
-usually broken with it,--love!
-
-Carper arose and went over to a cabinet in the wall, unlocked the door
-and took out a big photograph, which he brought over to the fire. It was
-the picture of a woman, young, beautiful, quivering with the power of
-life; the mass of dark hair was caught back from her forehead; the eyes
-were wide, clear, transparent; the nose was straight as the edges of a
-die, and the throat round, full, marvellously moulded. In the set of the
-head there was pride of lineage, and the relentless rigor of purity.
-It was a fine face looking out from a blameless life, strong, innocent,
-exacting as a child.
-
-The man placed the picture on the mantelshelf, and sat down by the
-fire. That day was now seven years gone,--seven years! Yesterday was no
-farther back. Every detail was clear. The shock had stamped them on the
-lining of his heart. He had loved this woman as a man loves just one
-time. He was trusting his very life to her keeping; he was going to her
-for everything that woman could give; all of sweet fellowship, all of
-tender sympathy, all of love. She was the only woman in the world. The
-expression is a platitude, but the fact was as real to Carper as the
-green trees and the sunlight. One could no more have convinced this man
-that other women held some of the charms of life, than one could have
-convinced him that light was a liquid. His love had gained the power of
-a religion; it had gone, farther---it had gained the majesty of a law.
-
-Then the blow came. Carper had gone to this woman with a case of jewels,
-the profit of a venture. He remembered how happy she had been: how the
-light of trustfulness danced in her eyes; how she had carried the jewels
-to the window in order to see the great rubies change to blood-drops,
-then she had turned with a playful smile and asked him how he had made
-so great a sum, and he, like a miserable fool, had blurted out that it
-was a part of his gains in a deal on the street,--a deal in which he
-had ruined a little banking house by seizing the vantage of its ignorant
-mistake. It was the master blunder.
-
-Carper remembered how the blood faded from this woman's face, leaving it
-ashen gray; how the dull ache of pain gathered in her eyes; how she had
-come over to him and dropped the jewels slowly into their case, and,
-without a word, had gone back and sat down by the window. And he knew
-that the woman of his love was gone out beyond the reach of his fingers.
-The leash of his love had slipped off and snapped back in his hands.
-
-He remembered the effect upon himself as something entirely foreign to
-that which writers attribute to men under similar conditions. There
-was no benumbing horror; no desire to make any violent demonstration of
-feeling. There was merely a vague loss of strength, as though the
-bottom of the fountain of vital force had dropped out, and then he grew
-sick--physically sick. The material man was hurt first, and collapsed,
-much as it would have done if shot through the stomach with a shell. He
-felt none of that exaggerated emotion affected by the play-actor.
-
-It was the commonplace sickness of a frightful physical blow.
-
-When the nausea had passed, he had gone over to her and begged to know
-what it all meant, although he knew quite as well as she. The woman had
-looked at him with her wide eyes deadened with pain, and said that she
-had believed him ah honorable man, and had loved him for it, but that
-now she knew the truth, and she would never be wife to a dishonest man.
-
-He had made his argument then, and it was good. The venture was
-perfectly legitimate, so recognized and treated by the business men
-of the land,--nay, more, it was so regarded by the law. These were the
-standards; there was no other. The customs of business and the law were
-the rules of right in the marketplaces. Their wisdom was unquestioned.
-It was the result of all the experience of the race, the conclusion of
-wise men, laboring with conditions as they were. Had she a right to say
-that these standards were wrong? He appealed to her sense of fairness.
-Was she better able to pass upon the right of this transaction than all
-the merchants learned in the customs of trade,--than all the jurists
-learned in the wisdom of the law? Was she better able?
-
-Carper pointed out that she lived in an atmosphere of purity high above
-the din of the fight for life; a land of refined right, refined justice,
-refined honor, magnificent, but not the world. The world had no perfect
-code; it was no perfect place; it was not intended to be so, else it
-would have been so made. It was an indifferent place, governed by the
-inexorable law of the survival of the fittest, wherein men struggled for
-footing and the comforts of life. One must conform to conditions as they
-were, or go to the wall. It was folly, it was idiocy, it was madness to
-do otherwise.
-
-Trade was like nature--pitiless. There was no measure of consideration
-for the weakling or the fool. The fight was bitter, remorseless, subject
-to dangerous shifts. If one was caught and broken, the blame was with
-the sorry scheme of things, and this a Divine Intelligence maintained,
-and men could not question that Divine Intelligence. This condition of
-the world might not be purest or happiest, but it was the condition of
-the world. It was God's way. Was it wise to call it evil?
-
-Then he shifted. He bade her remember that she had promised to go
-through life with him. It was a contract she had no right to break.
-The position she was taking was a frightful contradiction. She was
-reprehending the customs of trade, and yet there was not a merchant in
-the market-place who would repudiate his contract. She was charging the
-law with failure to appreciate the highest shades of right, and yet
-she was about to do what the law, even in its grossness, recognized and
-punished as a wrong. She could not stand upon this ground, and do as
-she was doing. Even if he had done wrong, was she to punish him by doing
-wrong also? The vice of her position cried out. Her promise had
-been given. It was immutable. It was her affair to know her mind, to
-determine what she wanted to do. She had known him for years. In those
-years there had been ample time to investigate, to conclude, to decide.
-No one had abridged the freedom of her agency. She had finally become
-a party to this contract. Could she repudiate it now, like the common
-rogue in whom principle was wanting?
-
-He bade her remember the gravity of this contract. It involved her life,
-his life, mayhap the lives of others. He had been shaping everything to
-this end. Had she the right to ruthlessly destroy all? What would she
-think of one who having contracted to accompany another into an unknown
-land should suddenly abandon him on the purlieus of the country? What
-would she think of one who had contracted to go with another into
-an unknown sea, and should, when that other had made his ship ready,
-abandon him at the water's edge? Was she doing better than these?
-
-The woman had not answered at all; dark circles had gathered around her
-eyes, and the full muscles of her throat relaxed and sank.
-
-Then Carper remembered how he had knelt down beside her and taken her
-hand in his own,---her hand, limp, cold, a dead thing.
-
-Besides, he had gone on, he loved her; she was the only woman in his
-heart. There could never be another. Day and night, and every day and
-night, his heart cried for her like a tortured child! There was nothing
-else in all the wide world to live for, to strive for. He had grown to
-associate her with every hope, every emotion, every ambition, of his
-life. How should he live on without her! What should he do with his
-empty days! Pride might carry him crippled through a few, but, there was
-a limit to the endurance of a man, and what then--what of his empty days
-then?
-
-If he had been doing wrong, God could find some way to punish him
-outside of her love. Besides, if he was doing wrong, he needed her the
-more. He needed her to round out his life, to add honor and purity and
-right. God had sent her to do this work of good. Was she going to refuse
-merely because the world was not the sort of place which she believed it
-to be? Master of Life! the world would be abominably empty without her.
-He would go anywhere she wished; do anything, be anything, she wished.
-It was not the applause of men that he wanted in this life, nor the
-multitude of things. It was her hand on his own; her voice in his ears;
-her image in his heart forever. He could never get back again to his
-view-point.
-
-She had loosed the mouth of something in his bosom that clamored for
-her. It would be content with no other. It would hush for no other. His
-heart was aching now with the cry. What a place of torture it would be
-tomorrow, and the next year, and the next.
-
-The tears had rained down this woman's face, but she had shaken her
-head.
-
-That day was now seven years gone--seven years! Yesterday was no farther
-back. Well, well! He had been only partly right. The woman's face in his
-heart he had walled up. The cry for her he had silenced with the opiates
-of greed. Still they were both there and alive. To-night the wall had
-slipped away and the anaesthetics were powerless. It was no matter.
-After all, had she done well? She had lived on, spotless, pure, alone;
-and he had lived on--to this. Had she done well? That question it was no
-right of his to answer.
-
-Carper got up from his chair, took the picture from the mantel, broke
-it across the face and dropped the pieces into the fire. It was not
-necessary for the marshal's deputy to speculate about this picture.
-
-Then he went over to the cabinet and took out a pack of letters, old,
-yellow, tied with a faded ribbon, and, selecting one at random, sat down
-in his chair to read it through. “Dear Heart,” it ran at the beginning,
-and at the end “I am unutterably lonely, and I love you.” Yes, he
-recalled the circumstances of its writing well. Then he replaced it
-with the others and laid them all gently on the fire. They should not be
-pleasant reading for the marshal.
-
-He had come down into the world, with his heart shredded and every shred
-aching like a nerve, and from that day he had flown the black flag of
-piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the hand of none had
-been heavier, and the brain of none had been keener than his own. From
-that day every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of his
-galleon, had walked the plank. The muscles of his face grew tense with
-the thought.
-
-Somewhere in the house a clock struck ten. Carper arose and walked
-backward and forward across the room. The spirit of fierce resistance
-was beginning to awaken. He would not be stripped like a weakling. He
-would fight, fight--but how? It was hopeless to dream of raising the
-money. That plan had been discarded long ago. Vain vaporing! There was
-no way remaining but Brutus's way--the road out into the vastness of
-eternity was open! The exit was easy. Why should he lag back? Surely he
-must go later on. For years the world had been a good place to get out
-of--for seven years.
-
-The man opened a drawer at the bottom of the book-case and took out a
-weapon--an ancient duelling pistol of his grandfather. He carried the
-weapon to the table, wiped it carefully, and began to load it. When he
-had finished, he went over to close the door. On the threshold lay one
-of the evening papers of the city. Carper picked it up and brought it
-with him to the light. The headlines caught his attention. It was the
-story of a great bank defaulter who had gone free by reason of some
-defect in the law shrewdly pointed out by a lawyer, Randolph Mason.
-
-He remembered the man as a remarkable legal misanthrope. He had heard of
-him in the Federal courts. Somewhere he had this man's address, jotted
-down one morning when the administrator of an estate walked out of the
-Federal court a confessed gigantic thief, but, by this man's counsel,
-beyond the reach of the law.
-
-Carper looked through one of the files on his table--yes, here was
-the residence number. The man leaned over and rested his arm on the
-mantel-shelf. One might not do ill to go; there was time ample. One
-could come back to the thing of steel later on.
-
-Carper turned suddenly, put on his coat and hat, and passed out into the
-street, closing the door and locking it carefully behind him. Then he
-called a cab, gave the number to the driver, and leaned back heavily
-against the cushion.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-
-THIS is the place, sir,” said the cabman.
-
-Before him was lighted. The door was standing open. The brougham of a
-surgeon was beside the curb. He walked slowly up the great steps to the
-door. There was an indescribable something in the air which seemed to
-presage calamity; there were sounds as of persons hurrying with some
-desperate matter.
-
-As Carper put up his hand to touch the bell, two men came out into the
-shadow of the hall.
-
-“It is a bad case of acute mania,” one was saying. “I have given him two
-hypodermics of morphine, and he is still raving like a drunken sailor.”
-
-Carper's hand dropped to his side. He turned slowly and passed down the
-steps into the street. He had not been noticed by the busy surgeons.
-
-Carper stepped out. At the curb he stopped for a moment and looked up
-and down the avenue. Well, it was justice. For seven years he had flown
-the black flag of piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the
-hand of none had been heavier, and the brain of none had been keener
-than his own. Every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of
-his galleon, had walked the plank. It was now his turn. It was justice.
-
-Carper spoke to the cabman. Then he stepped in and closed the door.
-
-The man of last resort was probably gone. There was now no resort but to
-the steel thing on the table.
-
-
-THE END.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***
-
-***** This file should be named 51955-0.txt or 51955-0.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/5/51955/
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
-Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
-Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the
-phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
-Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
-Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation.”
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
-of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
diff --git a/old/51955-0.zip b/old/51955-0.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 65339c3..0000000
--- a/old/51955-0.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51955-8.txt b/old/51955-8.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 3102584..0000000
--- a/old/51955-8.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5830 +0,0 @@
-Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Man of Last Resort
-       Or, The Clients of Randolph Mason
-
-Author: Melville Davisson Post
-
-Release Date: May 2, 2016 [EBook #51955]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THE MAN OF LAST RESORT
-
-Or, The Clients Of Randolph Mason
-
-By Melville Davisson Post
-
-G. P. Putnam's Sons New York And London
-
-1897
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-IN this _fin-de-s��cle_ time, society has grown liberal, it is said,
-and yet he who thrusts a lever under sage customs, or he who points out
-the vice of institutions long established, may deem himself happy if he
-be permitted to strip against the duellist rather than the mob. Even
-if one come new into the courts of the _literati_ with a cloak dyed a
-different hue from his fellows, he will scarcely have passed the doorway
-ere the taunting challenge, "Do you fight, my lord?"
-
-The author, in a previous volume entitled _The Strange Schemes of
-Randolph Mason_, pointed out certain defects in the criminal law, and
-demonstrated how the skilful rogue could commit not a few of the higher
-crimes in such a manner as to render the law powerless to punish him.
-The suggestion was, it seems, considered startling and the volume has
-provoked large discussion. A few gentlemen of no inconsiderable legal
-learning, and certain others to be classified as moral reformers,
-contended that the book must be dangerous because it explained with
-great detail how one could murder or steal and escape punishment. If the
-laws were to be improved, they said, "would it not be more wisely done
-by influencing a few political leaders?"
-
-While such a criticism does not come from any considerable number of
-authorities, it has been honestly made and is entitled to consideration.
-
-The vice of it lies, it seems to me, in a failure to grasp the actual
-nature of our institutions. It is a maxim of our system that the law
-making power of the state rests in the first instance with the people of
-the state. This power, for the purpose of convenience, is delegated to
-certain selected persons who meet together in order to put into effect
-the will of the people.
-
-The so-called law-makers are therefore not law-makers at all, in the
-sense of being originators of the law; they are rather agents who come
-up from their respective districts under instructions. Such agents are
-simply temporary representatives of the citizens of their respective
-districts, directly responsible to them and charged with no duty other
-than that of putting their will into effect. The agent or delegate
-should therefore approach very conservatively any matter upon which the
-will of his constituency has not been satisfactorily determined. It is,
-then, apparent that the influence which makes or which alters the law
-is a force exerted from without. No change in the law can be properly
-or safely brought about except through the pressure of public sentiment.
-The need for the law must be first felt by the people and the demand for
-it made before the legislator is warranted in acting. The representative
-would otherwise become a presumptive usurper, afflicting the people
-with statutes for which there was no public demand; and such laws, so
-improperly obtained, would be without the support of public sentiment
-and would be liable to repeal.
-
-Hence it is entirely clear that if the existing law prove to be unjust
-or defective, the people must be brought to see and appreciate such
-injustice or inadequacy and to demand the requisite modification.
-
-This contention can, as it seems to me, not be gainsaid. It is
-respectfully urged that no other method of securing wise changes in
-the law can be properly pursued under democratic institutions. To hold
-otherwise is to take issue with the wisdom of democracy itself, and with
-so rash a champion the writer has no spear to break. Indeed, he makes
-this explanation with immense unwillingness, as he feels that he should
-not be required to defend a truth so evident. It is like demonstrating
-gravely that the earth is round and that sun light is an energy.
-
-Yet he is advised that attention should be called to this matter, lest
-the thoughtless condemn upon a hearing _ex-parte_. Indeed, even after
-the punishment of _la peine forte et dure_ is gone out these many
-hundred years, the good citizen will hardly hold that one guiltless who
-stands dumb while hidden evils assail. If men about their affairs were
-passing to and fro across a great bridge, and one should discover that
-certain planks in its flooring were defective, would he do ill if he
-pointed them out to his fellows? If men labored in the shops and traded
-in the market confident in the security of their city's wall, and one
-should perceive that the wall was honeycombed with holes, could he stand
-dumb and escape the stigma of being a traitor? The law makes little
-difference in the degree of moral turpitude between the _suppressio
-veri_ and the _suggestio falsi_. Both are grievous wrongs. The duty
-of the individual to the state is imperative. He cannot evade it and
-continue to regard himself as a worthy citizen.
-
-Is there not in all this criticism a faint suggestion of the men who
-"darken counsel by words without knowledge"?
-
-Lycurgus taught the laws to the people, Solon taught the laws to the
-people. The Roman law provided for a final appeal from the consul to
-the people, and the very essence of republican institutions lies, as
-has been said, in a recognition of the people as the source of the
-law-making power. If the law offers imperfect security and is capable of
-revision, the people must be taught in order that they may revise it. If
-it offers insufficient security and is incapable of revision, then the
-people must be taught in order that they may protect themselves. This
-conclusion is irresistible. To counsel otherwise is to share in the
-odium of that short-sighted ambassador who urged upon Pericles the
-wisdom of reversing the tablet upon which the law was written in order
-that the people might not read the decree.
-
-Surely, then, he who points out the vices of the law to the people
-cannot be said to do evil, unless the law of the land is to be made by
-a narrow patriciate sitting, like the Areopagus of ancient Athens, with
-closed doors.
-
-That yesterday in which the enemies of society plied their craft by
-means of the jimmy and the dark lantern is now almost entirely past. The
-master rogue has discovered, with immense satisfaction, that the labor
-of others may be enjoyed, and the results of their labor seized and
-appropriated to his uses, without thrusting himself within the control
-of criminal tribunals.
-
-Wise magistrates, laboring for the welfare of the race, have been
-pleased to write down what should be done and what should not be done,
-and have called it "law." The citizen, having no time to inquire, has
-gone about his trade under the impression that these rules were offering
-ample protection to his person and his property. But the law, being
-of human device, is imperfect, and in this fag end of the nineteenth
-century, the evil genius thrusts through and despoils the citizen,
-and the robbery is all the more easy because the victim sleeps in a
-consciousness of perfect security.
-
-The writer has undertaken to point out a few of the more evident
-inadequacies of the law and a few of the simpler methods for evasion
-that are utilized by the skilful villain. It must be borne in mind,
-however, that more gigantic and more intricate methods for evading the
-law and for appropriating the property of the citizen are available.
-The unwritten records of business ventures and the reports of courts
-are crowded with the record of huge schemes having for their ultimate
-purpose the robbery of the citizen. Some of these have been successful
-and some have failed. Enough have brought great fortunes to their daring
-perpetrators to appal that one who looks on with the welfare of human
-society at heart.
-
-The reader must bear in mind that the law herein dealt with is the law
-as it is administered in the legal forms of his country, in no degree
-changed and in no degree colored by the imagination of the author. Every
-legal statement represents an established principle, thoroughly analyzed
-by the courts of last resort. There can be no question as to the
-probable truth of these legal conclusions. They are as certainly
-established as it is possible for the decisions of courts to establish
-any principle of law.
-
-The reader is reminded that the schemes of skilled plotters, resorted
-to for the purpose of defeating the spirit of the law, are, for the most
-part, too elaborate and too intricate to be made the subject of popular
-discussion. An attempt to explain to the but half-interested layman
-plots of this character would be as vain as an attempt to demonstrate
-an abstract problem in analytical mechanics. The knaves who have been
-pleased to devote their energies and their capacities to problems of
-this nature are experts learned and capable, and against these the
-average man of affairs can defend himself but poorly. He may be warned,
-however, and the author will have accomplished his purpose if he
-succeeds in identifying the black flag of such pirate crafts.
-
-In the present volume he has deemed it wise to continue to utilize as
-his central figure the lawyer, Randolph Mason,--a rather mysterious
-legal misanthrope, having no sense of moral obligation, but learned in
-the law, who by virtue of the strange tilt of his mind is pleased to
-strive with the difficulties of his clients as though they were mere
-problems involving no matter of right or equity or common justice.
-
-This emotionless counsellor has already been introduced to the public.
-He has been described as a man in the middle forties. "Tall and
-reasonably broad across the shoulders; muscular, without being either
-stout or lean." His hair was thin and of a brown color, with erratic
-streaks of gray. His forehead was broad and high and of a faint reddish
-color.
-
-His eyes were restless, inky black, and not over large. The nose was big
-and muscular and bowed. The eyebrows were black and heavy, almost bushy.
-There were heavy furrows, running from the nose downward and outward to
-the comers of the mouth. The mouth was straight, and the jaw was heavy
-and square.
-
-"Looking at the face of Randolph Mason from above, the expression in
-repose was crafty and cynical; viewed from below upward, it was savage
-and vindictive, almost brutal; while from the front, if looked squarely
-in the face, the stranger was fascinated by the animation of the man.
-and at once concluded that his expression was at the same time sneering
-and fearless. He was evidently of Southern extraction and a man of
-unusual power."
-
-This counsellor, keen, powerful, and yet devoid of any sense of moral
-obligation, is possessed of this one idea---that the difficulties of men
-are problems and that he can solve them; that the law, being of human
-origin, can be evaded; that its servants, being but men like the others,
-may be balked, and thwarted and baffled in their efforts at a proper
-administration of this law.
-
-It is the age of the able rogue, and, in examining his rascally schemes,
-the writer has finally come to believe that the ancient maxim, which
-declares that the law will always find a remedy for a wrong, is, in this
-present time of hasty legislation, not to be accepted as trustworthy.
-
-
-_(See the learned opinion of Mr. Justice Matthews in the case of Irwin
-vs. Williar, no U. S. Reports, 499; the case of Waugh vs. Beck, 114 Pa.
-State, 422; also Williamson vs. Baley, 78 Mo., 636; 15 B. Monroe, Ky.
-Reports, 138. See also, in Virginia, the case of Machir vs. Moore, 2
-Grat., 258.)_
-
-
-
-
-THE GOVERNOR'S MACHINE
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THERE was something on the Governor's mind, and when this condition
-obtained, interesting events had usually followed in the far Southwest.
-This highly mystic mental status had preceded the efforts of a Federal
-Court to compel him to act under a mandamus, and the result was history.
-It had preceded a memorable conflict between the legislature at large
-and His Excellency, the Governor, also at large, and immediately
-thereafter a certain statute had sprung into existence prohibiting the
-massing of State troops within one hundred miles of the Capitol during
-the sitting of the Solons of the Commonwealth; but it was a law after
-the fact. It had preceded also the mercurial efforts of the so-called
-patriotic orders to impeach the Executive for malfeasance, misfeasance,
-and nonfeasance,--an effort that had brought to its instigators only a
-lurid and inglorious rout.
-
-The Governor was standing at the eastern window of his private office
-looking out at the monotonous brown tablelands stretching away to the
-foothills of the blue mountains that marked the outer limits of his
-jurisdiction. He was a young man, this Governor, with the firm, straight
-figure of a soldier and the gracious bearing of important ancestry. His
-eyes were brown, and his hair and Van Dyke beard were brown also--all
-indicative, say the sages, of precisely what the Governor was not.
-He was perfectly groomed. Every morning when he walked down to the
-State-house he was the marvel and the fastidious spotless idol of the
-far Southwest.
-
-One would have imagined that this handsome fellow had just stepped
-out from a smart New York club, could he have forgotten that such
-an institution was almost a continent to eastward. The Governor had
-maintained that it was quite possible to live as a gentleman should
-wherever Providence had provided Chinamen and water, and that the matter
-was not entirely hopeless if the Chinamen were not to be had, so the
-water remained.
-
-It was true indeed that the Executive had maintained his customs with
-no little pain against the divers protests of gods and men, ofttimes
-wrought in silence, but not infrequently urged fiercely in the open.
-But the Governor was not one with whom meddling folk could trifle and
-preserve the peace. This fact certain bad men had learned to their hurt
-west of the Gila, and divers evil-disposed persons regretted and were
-buried, and regretted and remembered south of the Pecos. So that in time
-this matter came to be regarded as a peculiarity, and passed into
-common respect as is the way with the peculiarities of those expeditious
-spirits who shoot first and explain afterwards.
-
-The Governor was aroused from his reverie by his private secretary who
-came in at this moment from the outer office.
-
-"Governor," said the young man, "there is a strike at the Big Injin."
-
-"Well," replied the Executive, "telegraph the sheriff."
-
-"But," said the Secretary, "the sheriff has just telegraphed us."
-
-"Then," continued the Executive, "send a courier to Colonel Shiraf."
-
-"But Colonel Shiraf is out on the Ten Mile."
-
-"In that case," said the Governor, "you must go up to the mines, and
-if the dignity of the Commonwealth needs to be maintained, you will
-maintain it, Dave. You should find some troops at the post, some herders
-at the cattle ranch, and a very large proportion of the State Guards, by
-this time quite drunk, at a horse fair in Garfield County. If they are
-required, notify me."
-
-As the secretary turned to leave the room, the Governor called him
-back. "Dave, my boy," he said, "peace in this Commonwealth is a sacred
-thing--a superlatively sacred thing, so sacred that we are going to
-have it if thereby the word 'census' becomes a meaningless term; and
-remember, my boy, that the State is very expeditious."
-
-The secretary went out and closed the door behind him, while His
-Excellency, Alfred Capland Randal, forgetting the report, turned back
-to the window. The air from the great brown plain came up dry and hot;
-above the blue mountains the sun looked like a splotch of bloody red,
-and over it all brooded the monotonous--the almost hopeless silence of
-the far Southwest.
-
-The something on the Governor's mind was a something of grave import,
-for which he could evidently find no solution, and presently he began
-to pace the length of his private office with long strides, and with his
-hands thrust deep into his pockets.
-
-Suddenly the door opened and a Chinaman entered with a telegram. The
-Governor looked up sharply, and taking the envelope tore it open with
-evident unconcern. When his eyes ran over the message he drew in a deep
-breath, and, seating himself at a table, spread out the paper before
-him. This was the advent of the unexpected, for which Mr. Randal was not
-quite prepared, and this his manner exhibited to such a degree that
-the stolid Celestial wondered vaguely what was up with the big foreign
-devil.
-
-"Our train stops at El Paso," ran the telegram, "you will come up, won't
-you?--M. L."
-
-The Governor stroked his Van Dyke beard, and the fine lines came out on
-his face. "Of all times," he muttered. Then he turned to the Chinaman.
-"Have my overcoat at the depot at six. I am going to El Paso, and shall
-not return until late."
-
-The Chinaman vanished, and the Executive crushed the telegram in his
-hands, thrust it into his pocket, and resumed his march up and down the
-private office.
-
-This Governor was the crowning achievement of a machine. He was the
-elder son of an ancient family in Massachusetts, and had been reared and
-educated in an atmosphere of culture. It had been the intention of his
-family to have him succeed his father with the practice of the law,
-but the plans of men are subject to innumerable perils, and it soon
-developed that young Mr. Randal was not at all adapted to the duties of
-a barrister. Indeed it was very early apparent that nature had intended
-this man for the precarious vagaries of a public life. He was magnetic,
-generous, with a splendid presence, and the careless, speculative spirit
-of a gambler. In truth, Alfred Capland Randal was a politician _per
-se_. While in college he had been a restless element, injecting the
-principles of practical policy into everything he touched, from the
-Greek-letter fraternities to the examinations in Tacitus, and all with
-such reckless, jovial abandon that divers sage members of the faculty
-speculated with much wonder as to which particular penal institution
-would be his ultimate domicile.
-
-At times the elder Randal had been summoned to attend these grave
-sittings of the faculty, and straightway thereafter the rigid New
-England lawyer had lectured his son at great length and with bitter
-invective, to which the young man attended in a fashion that was
-amiable, and immediately disregarded in a fashion that was equally
-amiable. Thus in the Puritanic bosom of the father the conclusion grew
-and fattened and matured that the eldest scion of his house was an
-entirely worthless scapegrace, while the son was quite as certain that
-his father was a very sincere, but an entirely misguided old gentleman.
-
-The result of these divergent opinions was that on a certain June
-evening young Randal sat down upon a bench in the park of his father's
-country place with the express purpose of planning his career. Out of
-the confidence of youth he determined upon two ultimate results. One
-was, of course, wealth, and the other was an elaborate and entirely
-proper wedding ceremony with a certain Miss Marion Lanmar. This young
-lady, Randal had met at a football game at Harvard, and afterward in New
-York, where she resided with her aunt, Mrs. Hester Beaufort.
-
-The gigantic confidence of youth is certainly a matter of sublime wonder
-to the gods. One at all familiar with the ways of things would have at
-once pronounced both results quite impossible to the improvident young
-man. But from the standpoint of exuberant youth there seemed to be no
-important obstacles except the possible delay, and this was not very
-material, as the world was young and these were things to be had in the
-farther future.
-
-For the present, Randal determined to organize a political machine and
-transport it into one of the remote Western States. The East offered
-no theatre for his talents; it was closely organized; its political
-machinery was too strong for him to hope to oppose it. He would be
-crushed out in the first skirmish.
-
-Nor could he hope for early recognition by allying himself to any one
-of the established organizations. These were crowded with deserving men,
-and besides, he had no intention of serving as a political apprentice.
-He had ability, he believed, as a political strategist, and he proposed
-to operate free and untrammelled in a big, breezy arena.
-
-Having determined upon a course, young Randal at once proceeded to put
-it into operation. He held a council of war at the Plaza on Fifth Avenue
-with two of his college associates, a stranded gambler, called for
-convenience "Billy the Plunger," and an old Virginia gentleman named
-Major Culverson. The council sat in secret session for three days,
-and the result was that the machine moved out into the Commonwealth of
-Idaho, and began to operate. But the manners and customs of the West
-were varied and mystic, and with the following summer the machine, badly
-shaken, moved over into Nevada. Here, at Tulasco, on the Central Pacific
-Railroad, the first college man deserted and, helped by his father,
-returned with great penitence to the civilized East.
-
-The machine passed on across the Humbolt River and proceeded to attempt
-to shape the political destinies of Nevada. But disaster was following
-in its wake, and, after an active and turbulent but quite unprofitable
-career of a few months, it moved southward, battered and beaten, but
-unconquered.
-
-On the night of the third of October, the machine tramped into
-Hackberry, on the Southern Pacific, and while men slept, the second
-college man, concealing himself in a freight car, set out for the
-Atlantic coast, cursing with lurid language all that part of the
-continent lying west of the Mississippi.
-
-On the following morning the machine held its second great council, but
-this time it sat in desperate conclave above the Cow-Punchers' Saloon
-in the town of Hackberry, facing a condition and not a theory. But
-three members remained--Randal, the dauntiess Culver-son, and Billy the
-Plunger.
-
-The gambler was for organizing a faro bank, and working the towns down
-the Gila, but as the bank had no funds, and the death rate usually
-attendant upon such ventures in this primitive country was enormous,
-his plan was held impracticable, and at four o'clock in the afternoon he
-ceased to urge the wisdom of his scheme, and after having announced with
-great solemnity that he was game to any limit the gang wanted, he lapsed
-into the capacity of a spectator.
-
-The Major advised moving south into Mexico, but as he seemed to have
-no definite idea of what should be done when Mexico was reached, and it
-finally appearing that moving south was simply a fad with Culverson, the
-plan was likewise abandoned.
-
-Young Randal, fired by his unabated purpose, urged the wisdom of trying
-a round with the political fortunes of Arizona, but it was demonstrated
-that he was considering a major venture, having for its object huge
-honor, while at present there was crying need for some minor venture
-that would probably result in the necessaries of life and a few hundred
-dollars. Accordingly, at three o'clock in the morning, the machine
-decided to assume, for a time, the vocation of the cattle herder, and
-accept employment with a certain stock king of New Mexico.
-
-It was understood, however, that this digression should be temporary,
-and should be abandoned just as soon as the machine should feel able to
-resume its original purpose. It was at this point in the deliberations
-of the conclave that Major Culverson made his famous statement, to wit,
-that the gates of hell could not ultimately prevail against a political
-machine composed of a Massachusetts Yankee, a dead game sport, and an
-old Virginia gentleman.
-
-From this time forth the career of Randal's machine was a concatenation
-of fortunes and misfortunes, principally the latter, quite incredible.
-But the three men clung together, and a single enthusiastic purpose is
-a marvellous motor power, so that when Fate finally lent a helping
-hand, the machine became a something of importance in the affairs of a
-Southwestern Commonwealth. Once on the upward way, the ability of Randal
-and the daring energies of his associates carried it forward with great
-strides, so great that on the evening of the day with which this history
-has to do, the Massachusetts Yankee was the Governor of a State, the
-Major was Auditor, and Billy the Plunger, now known by his signature as
-Ambercrombie Hergan, was Secretary of State.
-
-The sun had gone downward from sight behind the far mountains, now
-changed from blue to a murky gray. The Governor, recalled to a sense
-of the hour, closed his mahogany desk, locked the door of his private
-office, and walked leisurely out through the State-house. As he passed
-down the steps of the Capitol he met the Auditor coming up.
-
-"How are you, Al?" said the Auditor.
-
-"Charmed," replied the Governor.
-
-"Ah," said the Major, with great ceremony, "you may be charmed, sir,
-but to me, sir, yuur face wears the haunted look of one who holds three
-nines against what he strongly suspects to be a pat hand."
-
-"Sage," said the Governor, bowing, "I tremble for my hidden thoughts."
-
-"You're a fool," said the Major, stepping up beside the Executive. "I
-want to know where you are going."
-
-"I!" said the Governor, "I am going to the southeast. Do you see
-that little railroad? I am even now about to commit myself to its
-irresponsible mercies."
-
-"You must not go, Al," continued the Auditor. "Attend, I will nominate
-the reasons. First, there is a julep party at my palatial residence."
-
-"Insufficient," said the Governor.
-
-"Second, there is a strike at the Big Injin."
-
-"Insufficient," said the Governor.
-
-"And third," continued the Auditor, lowering his voice, "Honorable
-Ambercrombie Hergan is at this very hour in the second room of Crawley's
-Emporium, playing the taxes of Bolas County, and losing them, sir,
-losing them."
-
-The Governor's face grew hard, and his remarks for a moment were quite
-unprintable. Then he turned to the Auditor.
-
-"Ned," he continued, "you must get him out, and take him up to my
-residence. I will be here by ten o'clock. I am compelled to go to El
-Paso. I can't get out of it. I am compelled to go."
-
-"Compelled?" ejaculated the Major, "who, in the name of all the living
-gods, is compelling you? He must be greater than the railroads, greater
-than the legislature, greater than the Federal Court. Compelling the
-Honorable Alfred Capland Randal? Shade of the blooming Witch of Endor!"
-
-"Ned," said the Governor slowly, "I will explain it all just as soon
-as I can. In the meantime you must help me. You must get him out. Won't
-you, Ned?"
-
-The Governor put his hand on the Auditor's shoulder, just as he had done
-a thousand times before when he needed the help of this unusual man.
-And, just as he had done a thousand times before, the Major declared
-that the Executive was a "damned rascal" and a "no account youngster,"
-and that he would not do it, when all the time he knew deep down in his
-heart that he loved this straight young fellow better than any other
-thing in the world, and that presently he was going to do exactly what
-he said he would not do.
-
-The Governor knew this also, for he ran down the steps without stopping
-to interrupt the amiable flow of the Auditor's depreciatory remarks.
-
-At the depot he found the Chinaman, Bumgarner, waiting with his coat.
-
-That such a primitive Celestial should be saddled with such a name arose
-entirely from the pious instincts of the Major. It happened that the
-Virginian was standing in a crowd at the corner near Crawley's Emporium
-when the Chinaman first appeared, having tramped from the coast. The
-Major, who was slightly in his cups, called the Chinaman over to the
-corner, and inquired by what appellation he was known, to which the
-foreigner responded that he was called Fu Lun. "Fu Lun!" shouted the
-Major, fiercely, "a name smacking of the devil, and not to be tolerated
-in a Christian State." And then turning to the crowd, "Gentlemen," he
-continued, "behold! I do a goodly missionary work. I rebuke the evil
-spirit dwelling in the bosom of this heathen. I give it a Christian
-name. I name it Bumgarner."
-
-Thus the first evidence of civilization fastened upon the Celestial,
-and, as the Major's mandate was not to be disregarded, as "Bumgarner"
-the Chinaman had gone.
-
-The journey to El Paso was not an idle one for the Governor. In a very
-short time he should be in the presence of Miss Marion Lanmar and
-her aunt Mrs. Beaufort, and, of all times since their first eventful
-meeting, this was the very time he was not prepared for an interview.
-Prior to the notable exodus of the machine to Idaho, Randal had called
-upon Miss Lanmar, who was at that time a very young woman in college.
-The two were quite important, quite enthusiastic, and pitiably ignorant
-of the world's ways.
-
-This last meeting to them seemed big with fate, and was dramatic to the
-limit of a playactor's rehearsal. Youth lent to it all the glamour of
-romance. To Miss Lanmar young Randal was her chivalrous knight-errant,
-on the eve of his departure into a wild and unknown land full of
-mysterious peril, in quest of wealth and fair fame, all for her. To
-Randal she was the Lily Maid of Astolat, whom it was fate that he should
-worship with noble deeds until he won. It was all in strict accord with
-romantic custom in such cases made and provided, and terminated quite in
-keeping with the ideal conventions.
-
-When the door had closed upon the handsome young fellow whom Miss Marion
-Lanmar had promised to love for ever more, that young lady remained
-standing motionless by the mantel shelf, her face very white, and her
-heart very desperate and very true. To the dainty Miss Lanmar it was all
-very real, and by no means the pretty little comedy which the world out
-of its practical wisdom would have known it to be.
-
-To Mr. Alfred Randal, as he passed down the steps of Mrs. Beaufort's
-residence on the avenue, the world was now a vast arena, into which he
-was going, armed and knighted with his lady's colors on his helm. His
-heart beat high in his bosom. He would be a factor in great affairs;
-the hour would come when he would return, famous, wealthy past belief,
-announced by the heralds. He could not know that he was but another
-character in that sweet old fairy story which men and women have striven
-to act over and over again before they learn with dumb horror how
-pitiless and how practical are the ways of Providence.
-
-Yet the wise man who accompanies the youth to the gateway of the arena
-will not say: "To-morrow Circumstance will beat you from your horse
-and tramp you under, and instead of returning victor, you will return a
-cripple." Although the wise man knows full well that of all results this
-latter is most probable, yet he will not say it, because the enthusiasm
-of youth is a marvellous power, difficult to estimate, and what it may
-accomplish no man can tell.
-
-The Governor had not seen this young woman after that night, but he had
-clung to his intention with the determination of a man who has a single
-object in life. An intermittent correspondence had been maintained, but
-after years this intention to wed Miss Lanmar had become rather an ideal
-something, and in this there was peril. But a few weeks before, he had
-intimated vaguely, that he was now a person of some local importance,
-and with no inconsiderable prospects of wealth, and to this Miss Lanmar
-had intimated quite as vaguely that she was waiting. But in it all
-there, seemed to be a powerful, albeit somewhat indistinct doubt. Years
-had passed, and years had a way of working frightful changes in people.
-The Miss Lanmar of to-day could not be the school-girl whom he had
-known.
-
-The Executive leaned back in a seat of the stuffy little coach and
-speculated with grave concern At any rate, this alliance was now
-quite impossible. Complications had been thrust in; a duty, or what
-he conceived to be a duty, had sprung up, and this duty it was not his
-intention to evade.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-THE Governor walked gravely down the long platform at El Paso, looking
-up at the windows of the Pullmans, wondering, rather indistinctly, how
-he should be able to recognize the irridescent princess of his romantic
-youth. A negro porter touched him on the arm and inquired if he was
-Governor Randal. The Executive replied that he was, whereupon the negro
-with much profound obeisance announced that Miss Lanmar was waiting in
-the drawing-room of the opposite Pullman.
-
-The Governor sprang up the steps of the coach. As he entered, a young
-woman, wearing a dark travelling dress, came forward to meet him. She
-was of medium height, with heavy brown hair, fine eyes, arched brows,
-and quite a faultless nose. But the great charm of the woman was her
-splendid bearing, and her instinctive culture.
-
-Just how this meeting began Alfred Randal could never afterwards quite
-recall. He could remember in vivid details the first picture of this
-superb woman as she arose to greet him, but then, just then, the love
-of his youth that had seemed to sleep under an anaesthetic for so many
-years, suddenly woke into glorious life, and gushed into his heart
-and overran his senses with its marvellous vitality. What transpired
-thereafter was provokingly indistinct. He remembered being presented to
-the aunt, Mrs. Beaufort, and her astonishment, and her incredulous
-query as to whether he lived in this "terrible country" to which he had
-replied that he could not be said to live, but that it was his part to
-exist in this rather primitive land. He remembered that the three sat
-together in the drawing-room of the coach and talked of his return to
-New York, of his ultimate success, and his assured future. He remembered
-also that for the time he had forgotten the grave difficulty in the way
-of such a future and his stern decision made but a few minutes before.
-He remembered also that through it all he had been very foolish and very
-confident and idiotically happy, and how at the parting he had kissed
-Miss Lanmar's hand and blushed like a school-girl, and then jumped down
-from the moving train at the peril of his life.
-
-The Governor stood upon the platform and watched the great train as
-it thundered away in the distance. The interview which had just ended,
-although a thing apparently unreal, had swept him out from under the
-influence of an illusion that had served to make his life in the great
-Southwest bearable, even happy. From this time forth it could never
-be what it had been. The man felt like one who, having been so long a
-captive in a dungeon that he was half content, and his memories of
-the world had become vague and unreal, is suddenly and without warning
-lifted into the sunshine of the great glorious world and held there
-until his heart is filled to drunkenness with the beauty of it all, and
-then, ruthlessly and on the instant, is thrust back into the rayless
-gloom of his dungeon.
-
-Randal stood for a time looking at the rows of dim lights scattered
-about the station like dismal fireflies. Then he crossed to the freight
-train upon which he was to return and climbed up into the cab with the
-driver.
-
-"What time shall we get in?" he asked.
-
-"By the top of the night, Governor, if we have luck," answered the
-driver, pulling open the throttle.
-
-The engine snorted and pounded along in the dark like some huge beast.
-The Governor sat in the cab window and looked out. The night air was
-sweet and cool, his face was hot. Two hours before he had decided what
-he should do, and dismissed the matter; but new and powerful elements
-had arisen and ordered him to rehear and decide anew.
-
-Ambercrombie Hergan had lost and wasted the money of the State. There
-was now a deficit in his accounts of some fifty thousand dollars. There
-was no way by which this loss could be met unless Randal should pay it,
-and to do this would take everything he had on earth. It would mean the
-sacrifice of his mining stock, which, if held, promised great returns.
-It would be ruin, utter ruin, to make good the loss; yet the gambler,
-although a gambler, was his friend, and two hours before he had not
-hesitated at all.
-
-Motives, mighty, selfish motives, which until this hour he had beaten
-back, now leaped up clamoring to be heard, howling for time against his
-decision, time to show the right of their cause, the wisdom of it, the
-ultimate justice of it. Something asked him roughly what right had he to
-jeopardize the future of this woman who loved him. What right had he to
-deceive, to sacrifice her? Who was Hergan that he should be considered
-against this woman? Who, but a reckless and improvident adventurer? It
-was not his own happiness urged the something; that would be a matter of
-little moment. It was the happiness of another, and that other was true,
-innocent of wrong, superlatively just. What contrast could be drawn
-between the woman and this gambler? Duty? What duty could he owe to
-the irresponsible Hergan that could approach in the slightest part the
-measure of the duty which he owed to the woman who had trusted him for
-so many years, and waited, and loved him?
-
-Yet against all this, certain pictures came up from the past,--vivid,
-proclaiming a mighty truth, a truth which the man knew and acknowledged
-in his heart, the truth that if these positions were reversed, Hergan,
-gambler though he was, would not hesitate for a moment. Had he hesitated
-that morning in the Rio Grande when Randal's horse had fallen and
-was being swept down with the current, carrying his master under him,
-tangled in the stirrup strap? Had he hesitated when it became necessary
-deliberately to steal and burn the bogus ballots in Garfield County,
-when to do so seemed little less than deliberate suicide? Had he
-hesitated that terrible day on the Rio Sonora, when there was no time
-for warning, but time only to spring forward and take the knife in his
-shoulder? Had this man ever hesitated when the welfare of Randal was
-at stake? Would he not gladly, and without comment, give up his life
-to-morrow if the Governor should ask it of him?
-
-The Governor passed his hand across his forehead and closed his eyes.
-When he opened them he had decided, and against this second decision
-there should be now no appeal and no rehearing.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-THE Secretary of State was far removed from the ordinary. He was one of
-those not infrequent persons whom men are quite unable to classify. At
-times he arose far beyond the limits set for him by his associates,
-and at times he dropped far below. There was about the man a sort of
-indefinite reserve that impressed his fellows and inspired confidence
-in those positions requiring rash and apparently impracticable moves.
-Ordinarily, in commonplace affairs, his judgment was not considered
-sound, or even valuable, and at such times no one would have thought for
-a moment of advising with this man. It was only when sound common-sense
-could see no way out that the machine appealed to Hergan, and at such
-times he came forward with some freak venture which was frightfully
-perilous and never ordinary, and never quite a failure.
-
-Success, usually arose, however, not from the ultimate wisdom of
-Hergan's plans, but from the fact that his unique move would throw the
-affair into a sort of convulsion resulting in a new situation, and this
-new situation the sound judgment of his fellows would usually be able to
-control. The counsel of Ambercrombie Hergan was a protean agent.
-
-The grave vice in the character of the Secretary of State lay in the
-fact that he possessed no idea of perspective. He would wager his last
-dollar with the same joyous unconcern with which he had wagered his
-first, and he would have staked the entire Southwest, if he possessed
-it, as readily as a Mexican peso, upon the turn of a card or the result
-of a horse race. As to the antecedents of the Honorable Ambercrombie
-Hergan, even conjecture was silent. He had come up from a mysterious
-substratum of New York,--for what, and by reason of what, no man
-inquired. This mighty new land traced no records and propounded
-no questions. The arena stood open with its doors thrown back. Any
-combatant who pleased could enter. Heralded or unheralded, it mattered
-not. Good or bad, learned or ignorant, of yokel blood or princely
-lineage, it mattered not. If he were fittest, he could win.
-
-From this organic defect of his mental build, and not from evil animus,
-had resulted the sad state of the Secretary's accounts. He had never
-entirely appreciated the important distinction between his own money
-and that which belonged to the Commonwealth. He had been thoughtless,
-reckless, unconcerned, until now he was hopelessly involved. Yet even
-at this stage when his term of office was fast drawing to a close, he
-failed to appreciate the gravity of his position, and treated the matter
-with good-natured unconcern, as of no moment.
-
-The Auditor and Secretary of State sat together in the Governor's
-library awaiting his return. In appearance the Auditor was a muscular
-little man of most marvellous vitality, with a fierce white mustache,
-and a fund of quaint oaths and semi-dramatic phrases hugely expressive
-and at times artistic; while the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan was very
-tall and very broad, with a shock of heavy black hair, wide jaws, and a
-big crooked nose. Far back in his youth this nose had been straight,
-but one night, in a barroom on the Bowery, a difference of opinion had
-arisen over some inconsequential matter, and thereafter the gambler's
-nose had assumed a contour not contemplated in the original design.
-
-The Major was talking, and pounding the table vigorously, when the
-Chinese servant entered with a tray and some glasses. The Virginian drew
-himself up and stepped back from the table.
-
-"Well, Bumgarner," he said, "I hail your resurrection; I glory in your
-return to life. You have been dead no inconsiderable period, sir."
-
-The Chinaman replied that he had been engaged in a laborious but
-unsuccessful hunt for the bottle of Angostura bitters.
-
-"Angostura bitters?" cried the Major, "marvellous, inscrutable heathen!
-Will you deign to reveal your reason for requiring the Angostura
-bitters?"
-
-The Celestial responded that he presumed bitters was an element
-requisite to the rather mysterious drink which he had been requested to
-compound.
-
-"Hear him, hear him!" thundered the Major, as though addressing some
-present but invisible avenging demon; "hear the vandal! Bitters in a
-julep! Mighty, intelligent shade of Simple Simon! Attend and observe the
-idiocy of this savage!" Then he crossed to the astonished Chinaman and
-took him gently by the collar.
-
-"Bumgarner," he said softly, "you are a frightful example of man's
-neglect. You have been trained by a Massachusetts Yankee. Ergo, your
-lack of knowledge is sublime. Bitters you might put in a plebeian gin
-fizz, and be happy thereafter. Bitters you might put in a high ball of
-whiskey, and live thereafter. But bitters in a julep, _magnum sacrum!_
-the gods would crush you! Bumgarner, you are an awful throbbing error,
-and you have had a providential escape from death. Now," continued the
-Major, seizing the Chinaman by the shoulder and turning him toward the
-door, "you may depart, and burn a few joss sticks, and ponder upon my
-remarks."
-
-The almond-eyed Celestial vanished, wondering vaguely if it had not been
-better to remain in San Francisco and launder shirts in a cellar than to
-attempt to cater to the depraved taste of such incomprehensible foreign
-devils.
-
-"Now, Bill," continued the Major, seating himself at the table, "I want
-to know what you are going to do."
-
-"About what?" asked the gambler.
-
-"About this money which you owe the State," said the Major. "Do you
-realize, sir, that our stand in the Southwest is just about closing, and
-that we have got to square up and pull out?"
-
-"I reckon so," replied the gambler, as though it were a matter of no
-importance.
-
-"You reckon so! You irresponsible truck horse! You reckon so!"
-snorted the Major. "You will cease to indulge in the dainty pastime of
-speculation when you get a log-chain on your leg and a striped suit on
-your back."
-
-The Secretary of State laughed. "Something will turn up," he said.
-
-"Ambercrombie Hergan," said the Major, pounding the table with his hand,
-"for a broken, a branded, a long-suffering cow pony of Satan, you have
-the blindest, most stupendous Presbyterian faith in Providence of any
-white creature ambling south of the Central Pacific Railroad; but
-you're sweetening on a bluff this hand, and I am going to call you."
-
-The gambler's face grew serious. "What are you prodding for, Ned?" he
-asked.
-
-The Auditor leaned forward on the table. "You are planning to slide
-out," he said, "and it don't go."
-
-"Would it hurt you or Al?" asked the gambler anxiously.
-
-The Auditor reached over and placed his hand on Hergan's arm. "It would
-not hurt me," he continued, "and it would be no bones if it did, but
-it would hurt the boy, and he must not be hurt. Don't you know that the
-moment you are gone, Randal will sacrifice everything he possesses and
-pay up the deficit? And that would ruin him."
-
-The gambler's face lengthened. "I had not thought about that," he said
-slowly, "but you are right, he would do that. He is that sort of a man.
-I have been a fool, an infernal fool, but I did not think about the boy
-getting hurt, not once." The man shut his teeth tight together and the
-big muscles swelled out on his jaws.
-
-The Auditor sat and watched the man across the table from him, and
-admired his iron nerve in the terrible struggle to decide between
-himself and the welfare of his friend. The man was evidently suffering.
-His face showed it plainly; the battle must be a bitter one. The Auditor
-wondered how it would result. He pitied the man, and in spite of all,
-half hoped that he would decide to save himself.
-
-Presently the gambler turned slowly and lifted his face, white, haggard,
-ten years older than he had been an hour before.
-
-"I don't see how to keep him from doing it," he muttered; "I don't see
-how."
-
-The Auditor started. This man had not been thinking of himself at all.
-
-"You see," continued Hergan. "I am about fifty thousand short, and there
-is no way to raise that much money,--no way in God's world. If I slide
-over the Rio, Al will pay it to keep them from extraditing me; and if I
-stay here, he will pay it to keep them from sending me to the Pen. It's
-the devil's own trap, and works both ways."
-
-"Who got the money, Bill?" asked the Auditor.
-
-"Crawley, and old Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining Company. Crawley got
-most of it."
-
-"A plague of fat old gamblers," said the Major, solemnly; "they are both
-as rich as they are mean, and as mean as they are crooked."
-
-At this moment the door opened and the Governor entered.
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-THE Executive stopped for a moment and scrutinized his visitors
-quizzically; then he laughed. "May I inquire, gentlemen, whence arises
-this gloom?"
-
-The Auditor bowed low. "Good sir," he said, "your Excellency fails to
-distinguish between gloom and the gravity of sages."
-
-"If the funereal," replied the Governor, "be a _sine qua non_ of the
-converse of the wise, then there has been here this night great cause
-for envy on the part of Solomon, the Son of David, King of Israel; for
-such gloom I have not met with in a world of evil days."
-
-"And, sir," responded the Auditor, waving his hand like a barbaric
-king, "if absence of respect for the dignity of the thoughtful be a
-symptom of organic mental defect, then there is now here, in truth,
-great cause for envy upon the part of Wamba, the Son of Witless, the
-Son of Weatherbrain. For such amiable impudence is marvellous to
-contemplate."
-
-"Boys," said the gambler rising, "if you will kindly come down out
-of the clouds, I will be much obliged to you both, because I have got
-something to say, and this is just as good a time to say it as any."
-
-The Auditor resumed his seat at the table. The Governor took up a chair,
-moved it back deliberately into the shadow of the room and sat down.
-
-"It is like this," continued the gambler, "we three have stood in for a
-long time, and I guess we know each other pretty well. We did n't take
-no oath to stand by each other when we started, but I reckon that is
-what we calculated to do. Anyway that is what we did do. If we had n't a
-done it, we would n't have been deuce high in this Southwest. I did n't
-have no faith in Al's machine when it started; I thought it was a wild
-goose chase, but I did n't say nothing, because I had nothing to lose.
-I was broke, and anything coming my way was pure velvet, so I joined in
-and come out here.
-
-"Since that time we have had our ups and downs, if God's creatures ever
-had 'em. We have lied a lot, and we've stole some, and we've starved
-most of the time, and we have been poor and miserable and broke, but we
-have played fair with each other, and we have never stacked the pack
-nor dealt from the bottom. Then, one day, the luck turned and we won out
-through the roof, just like it always does if you stay long enough and
-keep doubling the bet. You two were elected, and Al appointed me.
-
-"I reckon none of us are going to forget the hell that appointment
-raised. They said I was an ignorant understrapper, a short card gambler,
-and a leary element; and it was true, every blooming word of it Then the
-newspapers pitched into Al; they said that it was to be hoped that the
-new Governor would now have 'the moral courage to at least suppress
-the shady member of his machine'--them are the very words; I'll never
-forget 'em, and they meant me.
-
-"I guess I went to you boys, and told you I had better keep out, but I
-reckon I did n't put up a very stiff case, because I was hot at the row.
-I would n't have cared if the howlers had been better men than I was,
-but I knew they were all just the same kind of cattle--unbranded,
-straggling steers, gathered up from anywhere but a good place. As for
-being shady, there was n't a man between the Gila and the Pecos white
-enough to pass an Eastern grand jury, and as for being a gambler, there
-was n't a mother's son of the batch that would n't have coppered his
-soul on a black jack if the bank would have cashed it for a dollar."
-
-Hergan paused for a moment and looked at the Auditor. Then he added,
-"Exceptin' of course, you and Al."
-
-"Then," the gambler went on: "I guess Al got mad. He made a little
-speech; we was all there, and it was mighty good talk to hear. He
-said there had n't been no 'invidious distinctions'--them were his
-words,--during all the years when nothing had come our way but just one
-dose of bad luck after another until we reckoned there was n't no God at
-all,--least ways, if there was any, that He did n't operate south of
-the Central Pacific Railroad, and now when we had finally landed on our
-feet, there was n't going to be no 'invidious distinctions.' I am bound
-to say that it seemed mighty good to hear Al talk like he did, and I
-went ahead and let him appoint me."
-
-The Secretary of State moved a little nearer to the table, and an
-almost imperceptible shadow flitted across his face. "All the time," he
-continued, "I knowed it was wrong. I knowed that what the mudslingers
-were sayin' was gospel. I knowed that I was n't fit for the job no more
-than a Chinaman is fit for a pope. I knowed that the gambler in me was
-ground in, and the other was just only rubbed on the outside, and that
-the gambler part was going to run things,--and it did."
-
-The man paused for a moment and turned to the Governor. "Now," he said,
-"I have come to the point, and it's this: I got into this hole and I am
-going to get out of it; it's my game now; I am not going to stand any
-side bets. You have both got to promise me right here that you will keep
-your hands off this matter,--clear off--unless I say it goes."
-
-The gambler stopped, rested his arms heavily on the table and looked at
-his companions. The Virginian and the Executive were silent; both men
-realized fully the true import of Hergan's demand. He was seeking to
-prevent any sacrifice on their part; that was all, and if he had been
-the most skilful diplomat in the world, he could not have moved more
-adroitly.
-
-The Governor looked up at the massive face of the gambler, marred by
-evil circumstance and the riot of dissipation, and wondered--as he had
-wondered many a time before,--at the splendid unselfishness of this
-man. From whence could have come this flower of nobility? The life of
-Ambercrombie Hergan had been sterile soil indeed for such a plant as
-this. How could it be in the economy of men that such princely fidelity
-obtained alone even without trace of the common attendant virtues?
-
-For the obligations of the law Ambercrombie Hergan had no regard. For
-the obligations of the citizen he had no regard. Even for the common
-obligations of morality he maintained the most stolid unconcern. Honesty
-was a name to him, and right and duty and honor were merely names to
-him. Yet blooming in the barren garden of this gambler's heart was
-something fairer than them all.
-
-"Well," asked Hergan, with a trace of anxiety in his voice, "are you
-going to promise?"
-
-The Governor arose. "This is a very serious matter," he said slowly; "we
-must be given a few minutes in which to decide."
-
-"That 's fair enough," replied the gambler. "You two can go into the
-other room. I'll wait."
-
-The Auditor and the Executive retired, and the Secretary of State
-resumed his seat beside the table, the suggestion of a smile on his
-face, he knew perfectly that if he could secure the promise of his
-companions it would be maintained inviolate.
-
-Presently the door opened and the two men entered. "Bill," said the
-Governor, "we promise."
-
-The gambler arose, and stretched his long limbs like one relieved from
-the weight of a crushing burden. Then he turned to his companions.
-"Boys," he said almost gaily, "I may as well tell you now that I am
-going to New York Saturday night."
-
-"And I may add," responded the Governor, "that I am going Friday night."
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-YOU see," the Governor was saying," the failure of this bank in San
-Francisco has wiped out every penny I had in the world. On the fourth
-day of next March I will be poorer than the ordinary drayman. So poor
-that I must begin all over again, and I have no heart to do it."
-
-Miss Marion Lanmar was silent. Her bands rested upon the great aims of
-the chair in which she was seated. Her face might have been a cast; it
-was so very motionless.
-
-"I should not mind if it were not for you," the young man went on. "I
-mean,"--he hesitated for a moment,--"if I had never seen you; if I had
-never known you. But now the effort would seem so miserably inadequate,
-if it were not made for you. I have loved you and lived for you too
-long. I have grown accustomed to you as the mighty incentive. Every path
-that I have travelled has had you waiting at the end. Every battle I
-have fought has seemed to hold your happiness in its balance. Even the
-meagre gains of all the weary commonplace days have been to me so much
-or so little added to the kingdom of the queen. So I could have gone on
-to the end, but now, without you I have no heart at all."
-
-The man leaned over and rested his arm on the mantel-shelf. "I have read
-somewhere," he continued, "how the evil fiend strove to destroy a man
-whom he hated; how he robbed him of his wealth, of his friends, of his
-fair fame, and how the man worked on, laughing in the demon's face, and
-how it all failed, until one morning the evil fiend reached down into
-the man's heart and plucked the motive out of his life, and then the
-man threw away his tools and came and sat in the doorway of his shop. I
-suppose it is all very cowardly, to talk as I am talking, but it would
-be very much worse, I should think, to deceive myself and you." The
-woman did not answer. She was looking into the fire. The little blue
-flames in the wide fireplace danced up and down upon their bed of coal
-in impish merriment at all the trouble of men's lives.
-
-Presently the man began again. "Yet a woman cannot wait always," he
-said, "and I have no right to ask it of you. I must step aside out of
-your life and beg to be forgotten. It is a terrible ordeal for one who
-has gone down into the _mel�e_ with his lady's colors on his helm to
-return beaten and overthrown and say, 'This quest is not for me.' It is
-hard to have the hope of one's life battered out and to live on in the
-world, and yet men do, and I shall, I presume.
-
-"We are taught in youth that the world is a happy place, and I judge
-that it is a bit of illusion, like the black goblin and the fairies, and
-yet we all try very hard to believe the old housewife tales, and cling
-to them, and give them up grudgingly and with regret. I shall always
-remember how very sorry I was when I first realized that there really
-were no fairies. I was only a child, but it made me unhappy for days.
-It seemed to put all my reckoning out of joint. And so I have always
-believed that happiness existed in the world, and that it came to men
-somewhere in their lives about as the beautiful princess comes in the
-fairy stories. It never occurred to me to doubt its coming. True, it
-never came, but everything that did come seemed only to prepare a way
-for its coming at some day farther on. Now I see that this is just an
-illusion like the others, and I confess that the discovery has jarred me
-frightfully."
-
-The man's voice wavered for a moment; then it grew stronger. "I don't
-quite see how the world can ever seem a beautiful place after to-night.
-The sky may be very blue indeed, but the man whose eyes ache will not
-look up to see it. The birds may sing gloriously in the trees, but the
-man whose heart is an empty house will not care at all."
-
-Randal stopped and looked down at the woman. He noticed how very soft
-and heavy her brown hair was, and how delicate and slender her hands
-were. He noted vaguely, too, the artistic effect of the folds of her
-gown and the shadows on her face.
-
-"Marion," he said, "If I did not love you better than any other thing in
-the world, I would not be urging these bitter arguments against my own
-happiness. I would not be so desperately anxious about your welfare. I
-should not be so fearful of the future. I should take the chance without
-the hesitation of a moment. But the very depth of my love makes me a
-coward. I could not bear to see you subject to all the evil things that
-come with poverty. I know what a frightful plight it is--how it crushes
-out the sweetness and the nobility of one's life, how it squeezes the
-heart, day after day, until it finally becomes a dry husk in one's
-breast."
-
-Randal's voice was now thick with emotion. "Marion," he said, "do you
-hear me? Do you believe me?"
-
-The woman's hands tightened on the great arms of the chair, and for a
-moment she was silent; then she began to speak, slowly and distinctly.
-
-"I do not know." she said. "I must have time to think. Yet I have
-believed you all these years. I must believe you now. Yes, I do believe
-you now. But you are wrong, frightfully wrong. You forget that a woman
-is a human being with a heart. You think I am afraid of the world,
-afraid of poverty, afraid of life as God makes it, as God wills it; that
-I am a fragile something that the rain and the sunlight would ruin if it
-touched; that I am a something more or less than you, a something that
-requires ease and luxury and all the gilded stage-setting of wealth--and
-you are wrong. If I love you, of what value to me are all those other
-things without you? If I love you, it is not all these things I want--it
-is you. I ask you to answer this, and by what is true in your heart,
-know what is true in mine: Would you be happy with all that wealth can
-give you and without me?"
-
-"No," said the man, "not after to-night. No."
-
-"No more would I," added the woman.
-
-The heart, as it is said, speaks clearer to the heart when tongues are
-silent, and it is said that grief and happiness when riding high in
-their meridian have no need for the cumbrous medium of language.
-
-After a long silence, Miss Lanmar began again. "Men cannot understand,"
-she said; "a woman's heart is so miserably strange. Things either slip
-around it, leaving no mark at all, or they sink in and become a very
-part of the woman's heart itself. There is no middle ground; no half
-joy; no middle hurt. So it comes about that if one's image creeps into
-her heart, it must remain. True, the world may never know; the world is
-very stupid. But for all that, the woman's heart will hold its tenant,
-and when she is alone or in the dark, she will know and feel its
-presence. It may be that the woman will pray to be rid of the evil
-thing, or it may be that she will pray to hold it always as a gift of
-good, but be that as it happens, the woman's heart will remain forever
-helpless to evict its tenant.
-
-"Is it strange, then, if I love you, that I should want to go with you
-and live with you, and be with you always, and make your joys and your
-burdens my joys and my burdens, and have a share and an interest in
-everything that comes to you? Is it strange that I should hold wealth or
-place or even honor as nothing against you? Is it strange that I should
-be miserable, thoroughly, utterly miserable with every other thing in
-the world, and you denied?"
-
-The woman's voice faltered and broke; her hands relaxed, and began to
-slip from the great arms of the chair. The man came over, and knelt down
-beside her and put his arms around her.
-
-"Marion, dear heart," he said, "you do love me. You will trust me a
-little while,--just a little while?"
-
-The woman's head slipped down on his shoulder. "Love you!" she murmured,
-"I have always loved you. Surely I shall always love you. But when you
-are gone, the world is so empty, so miserably empty!"
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-I THOROUGHLY appreciate everything I you have mentioned, Mr. Hergan,"
-said the clerk Parks, "but it is quite impossible. Mr. Mason is entirely
-inaccessible. I should not dare interrupt him."
-
-"Look here, my friend," responded the gambler. "I have heard this same
-talk every day for the last week, and it don't go any longer. I have
-got to see this lawyer, and I have got to see him now. Do you understand
-me?"
-
-"Oh, yes," replied the clerk, with a faint smile, "I understand you
-perfectly, but it is entirely useless to urge the matter any farther.
-The business with which Mr. Mason is at present engaged is of great
-magnitude. He would not permit an interview at all. I am very sorry,
-but, of course, I can do nothing for you."
-
-The gambler did not respond. For a few moments he was silent. Then he
-put his hands into the inside pocket of his coat and drew forth a rather
-battered leather pocket-book. He held the pocket-book under the table,
-opened it slowly, and selecting a fifty-dollar bill from among a number
-of others, laid it gently on the table.
-
-"There," he said, "is my ante. I want in the game."
-
-The eyes of the clerk began to contract slowly at the corners.
-
-"My dear man," he said, "I should like to do this for you, but I don't
-see how I can. I don't believe Mr. Mason would even listen to me just
-now. I don't----"
-
-"Wait," responded the gambler; "I sweeten it."
-
-Thereupon he selected another bill from the pocket-book and spread it
-out carefully beside the other upon the table.
-
-The little bald clerk began to drum on the chair with his fingers. His
-eyes wandered from the money to the door of Mason's private office, and
-back again. Presently he turned to the gambler.
-
-The Hon. Ambercrombie Herman held up two fingers. "Don't call," he said,
-"I tilt it to one hundred and fifty." And he added another bill to the
-two, and pushed the money across the table to the clerk. Then he closed
-the pocket-book deliberately and replaced it in his coat.
-
-Parks arose, picked up the money without a word, and passed into
-Randolph Mason's private office, closing the door carefully behind him.
-In a very few moments the clerk returned. He came up dose to the gambler
-and put his hand confidentially on his shoulder.
-
-"My friend," he said, in a low tone, "you are not a fool. I have told
-some lies to get you this interview. Look sharp, and say as little as
-possible."
-
-"What lies?" asked the gambler, arising.
-
-"Such as were useful," responded the clerk. "Quite too tedious to
-enumerate. Please walk into Mr. Mason's office, sir, and remember that
-you are my brother-in-law. Answer the questions which are put to you,
-and don't volunteer talk. It is n't wise."
-
-The gambler opened the door to Randolph Mason's private office and
-entered.
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-HE Secretary of State came slowly down the steps from Randolph Mason's
-office. At the entrance to the great building he stopped and looked up
-and down the busy, jostling thoroughfare. It had been but a few years
-since he was a grain in this vortex, and now that past seemed ages
-removed. He was not conscious of anything of interest in the very
-familiar scene. Just why he had stopped to look, this man would not
-have been quite able to explain. In truth, he was striving to obtain his
-mental bearings. He had been flung violently upon another view point,
-and he was endeavoring to comprehend the loom of this new land. His
-sensations were not unlike those of one who but an hour before had gone
-into the operating room of a surgeon, walking as he believed to his
-death, and now returned with the tumor dissected out, and the hope of
-life big in his bosom. The world was an entirely different place from
-what it had been some hours before, and the gambler's steps were firmer,
-and his ancient careless spirit had returned.
-
-At this moment, as it pleased Fate, a cab stopped before a broker's
-office on the opposite-side of the street, and the Governor stepped out.
-The gambler darted across and caught his companion by the shoulder. The
-Governor turned suddenly.
-
-"Well," he said, in astonishment, "is this an assault _vi et armis?_"
-
-"No," said the gambler. "It's worse than that, Al. It's a mandamus. You
-are not to go in that broker's office."
-
-"Not to go in?" echoed the Executive. "Why not?"
-
-"Al," said the gambler, grinning like a Hindoo idol, "I said this here
-was a mandamus. I guess the judge don't ever explain 'why not' in a
-mandamus."
-
-"Good chancellor," replied the Governor, with mock gravity, "I resist
-the order."
-
-"On what ground?" said the lion. Ambercrombie Hergan, with such a sage
-judicial air as might obtain with a truck horse.
-
-"First," replied the Governor, "that the mandamus was improvidently
-awarded. Second, that the Court issuing the writ was without
-jurisdiction. And, third, that the act sought to be restrained is not
-entirely ministerial, but one largely within the discretion of the
-officer."
-
-"All them objections," said the gambler, "this Court overrules."
-
-"But," continued the Executive, "in this case the mandamus cannot lie. I
-move to quash the writ."
-
-"But it does lie," asserted the powerful devotee of fortune, hooking his
-arm through that of the Executive and turning him down the street, "and
-she can't be squashed."
-
-The Governor had observed the very great change in the man, and knowing
-the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, he knew that this erratic person
-had chanced upon some solution for his dilemma--strange and but
-half-practical, the Governor had no doubt, but certainly not
-commonplace, and so he made no further offer of resistance.
-
-"Al," said the gambler, hurrying his companion through the crowded
-street, "do you know where you are going?"
-
-"I have n't the slightest idea," observed the Governor, with greatest
-unconcern.
-
-"Well, I'll tell you. You are going first to the hotel, then to the
-railroad, then to the Southwest, and you have just fifty-nine minutes
-between you and the train."
-
-The Governor stopped short. "I can't go, Bill. I must sell these
-stocks."
-
-"That's just the point," said the gambler. "You aint going to sell
-them stocks. That's why I issued this here mandamus." And he seized the
-Executive by the arm and fairly dragged him across the street.
-
-"Bill," protested the Governor, "Bill, this is all nonsense. It don't
-go."
-
-"Everything goes," said the gambler. "Come on. We have lost three of
-them fifty-nine minutes already."
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-THE Emporium of Crawley was not quite a trading-place as the Greek
-root of the word would indicate, unless transactions in which the
-unwary bartered his gain for experience, and the great unscrubbed of the
-Southwest pitted their wage against the riot of dissipation, could be
-held to partake of the nature of commerce. It was a fad with Crawley to
-assert that his Emporium was a clearinghouse,--a rather grim jest, heavy
-with truth. Indeed, all the currency of this primitive land seemed to
-pass, sooner or later, through the mammoth establishment of First Class
-Crawley, and in season and out of season as the dollar went through, a
-portion paused and remained in the fingers of the proprietor. And for
-this, also,--as the common-law pleader would put it,--truth clung to the
-pet declaration of Crawley.
-
-When the population gathered night after night under the roof of his
-Emporium, their troubles came also; and when the smoke grew thick and
-the tanglefoot whiskey began to assert itself, there were other things
-to clear up beside matters of currency. Matters of consequence and
-matters of no consequence were cleared by the same rapid, drastic
-measures. Bad men here decided who was the worst or the best, as they
-were pleased with the term. The henchmen of rival cattle kings submitted
-the vexatious question of a brand on a stray heifer to this court of
-instant resort and quick decision, and other concerns of the citizen,
-affecting perhaps his truth, or honor, or ability for a vice, were
-determined suddenly and for all time without the wrangling of counsel or
-the tedium of courts.
-
-If a Mexican was so short sighted as to slip his knife into a
-tenderfoot, some one shot the Mexican, and the crowd "lickered up." If
-the faro dealer killed his man, it was usually because the man needed
-killing, and certainly the faro dealer was the best judge of this.
-On the contrary, if one shot the dealer, this was considered a public
-calamity, demanding an explanation, since the dealer was a _quasi_
-public functionary, and the convenience of the citizen required that the
-game should continue. One's life was perhaps the cheapest thing below
-the Central Pacific Railroad, and it was entirely the duty of the
-individual to see that it was maintained. If one was unsteady on the
-trigger, or caught napping on the draw, one was held to have died by
-virtue of contributory negligence.
-
-To be sure there was law, and machinery for its execution; but the
-machinery was liberal, and had ideas of its own, and the law adhered
-with supreme unconcern to its maxim--_De minimis non curat lex_.
-
-First Class Crawley had been splendidly trained for the duties of his
-position. If Fortune had been moving of design, she could not have
-schooled him better for such a life. Some thirty years before, he had
-been a sutler with the Army of the Potomac--not the sutler of romance,
-but the sutler of reality; following the army bravely, but at such a
-distance to the rear as to be at all times extremely safe, and exacting
-for his valuable public service every gain that human ingenuity could
-discover. It was no wrong in the mind of Crawley to cheat the common
-soldier out of his eyes; belike the soldier would be shot on the
-morrow, and then all opportunity to cheat him would cease, and if prior
-opportunity had not been seized and enjoyed, Crawley would regret.
-
-When the "bitterness of death" had passed, Crawley became a justice
-of the peace in Ohio. Here the field for his talent was broader, and
-Crawley arose and spread like the bay tree of Biblical record. Crawley
-held it as a basic principle that the machinery of human justice could
-not be maintained without ample sinews of war. It was best, to be sure,
-if these sinews could be wrested from the wrong-doer, but, failing that,
-the innocent must contribute. Every litigant was presumed to proceed at
-the peril of costs. The matter of costs was one vital to Crawley, and
-loomed constantly. The right or justice of a cause was never for a
-moment permitted to obscure it. If the plaintiff was impecunious, then
-the decision must be against the defendant, else the costs could not be
-had, and _vice versa_ as it had pleased Providence to place substance.
-
-This was a high conception of human justice; since it passed by the
-trivial controversy of the litigants, and placed the burden of legal
-procedure upon the one best able to support It. First Class Crawley
-maintained further that it was the part of wisdom in a government
-promptly to release the criminal who "shelled out," since the revenues
-of the State arose largely from the fines imposed upon the evildoer, and
-it was certainly quite useless to retain the criminal at public expense
-after having squeezed him thoroughly, when he could be returned to
-society and squeezed again later on.
-
-Crawley might have been the father of a school, had he not found the
-school in Ohio established to his uses. Consequently his fame was local,
-and his methods being of ancient origin in this Commonwealth, provoked
-no comment, and indeed he might have passed on, with the usual career
-of such ambitious spirits, to a seat in the legislature, had he not
-unwittingly crossed into a neighboring State in order to attend a
-reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic. Here one, smarting from a
-hurt, pounced down upon him with a warrant for a felony, and that same
-night the visiting justice was a guest of the State. But First Class
-Crawley was no man of feeble resources, and two days later he gave a
-straw bond and vanished like a newspaper war cloud.
-
-In the Southwest, Crawley was a person of importance--a court of last
-resort on all matters, barring none. If bets were made, Crawley was
-umpire. If questions w ere argued, Crawley was judge. If one wanted
-advice, one went to him. If one wanted information, one went to him; and
-if one needed money, one went always to First Class Crawley, and put up
-everything but his life. No function was complete without the presence
-of this celebrity, be it bull tight or prize fight, or dog fight, or a
-prearranged resort to the arbitration of the Winchester. Crawley was a
-great man, in counterdistinction to a bad man. Personally, he neither
-quarrelled nor fought, and one would have no more considered shooting at
-Crawley than he would have considered shooting at his grandmother. This
-proprietor of the Emporium maintained his position, not by virtue of
-arms and skill in their use, but by virtue of an interesting something
-which passed with him for an intellect.
-
-Consequently, when he and Hiram Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining
-Company, sat down in the private gambling room of the Emporium to a
-private interview with the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, they were
-expecting to realize from the time expended. They were both attentive
-and interested, since the reckless Secretary of State was known in the
-lingo of the guild as an "easy member." If he had money, or could obtain
-money, it would eventually fall into their clutches as it had always
-done. Hence their interest was genuine.
-
-"Boys," said the Secretary of State, "I have a scheme to make a stake,
-and I want you in on it. I have been over in the East, and I have got it
-all figured out, and it's a cinch."
-
-The owner of the Golden Horn folded his hands over the vast expanse of
-his stomach and smiled benignly. He knew all about the usual combination
-of circumstances set down in the elegant diction of the gambler as a
-"cinch."
-
-He was an expert upon things of this sort, but he volunteered no
-information, and no comment. He merely smiled and murmured "Yes," in a
-voice which reminded one of oil being poured from a very full barrel.
-
-"You see," continued the Honorable Ambercrombie
-
-Hergan, "it's this way. There is a broker in Chicago who is a friend of
-mine. I saved him from the jug when he was a kid, and he never forgot
-it. Well, he went to Chicago, raked together a bunch of money, and
-bought a seat in the Stock Exchange. He was lucky, and now he is away
-up. He is on the inside, and he says that there is going to be a big
-raise in oil stocks; that the Standard Oil Company has been forcing it
-down in order to squeeze out the little dealers, and that they are right
-now at the bottom, and when they let go, it will fly back to a dollar."
-
-At this point in the narrative, Crawley murmured "Yes," then leaned back
-in his chair and closed his eyes. He was not quite ready to puncture
-Mr. Hergan's balloon, and it was not his way to offer objections to
-unfinished propositions.
-
-"Now," said Hergan, leaning over and resting his arms on the table, "the
-plan is to form a big pool and buy oil, and make enough at one haul to
-go back to civilization and live like a king. That is the scheme, boys.
-It's good." First Class Crawley opened his eyes slowly, and putting out
-his fat hand, began to caress the green cloth on the little round poker
-table.
-
-"Billy," he said slowly, "I expect that is a good scheme, and I expect
-there is money in it,--may be tubs of money, but me and Martin aint
-speculators; we never so much as saw a ticking machine in our life. We
-don't know anything about new-fangled ways to get rich. We're both old
-fogies,--just common old fogies, and I reckon we had better stay out. Of
-course, I aint knocking on the scheme. It looks good, mighty good, but
-me and Martin aint young any longer; we're getting old and heavy on
-our pins, and we aint got no nerve like we used to have. Still I aint
-knocking. Me and Martin would like to see you make a pile of money,
-would n't we, Martin?"
-
-"Yes," gurgled the owner of the Golden Horn, "we would that."
-
-The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan straightened up and thrust his hands
-into his pockets. "Of course, boys," he said, "it's a gamble, but it's
-a ten-to-one shot better than a faro bank. If it goes our way, we will
-have all kinds of money; if it goes the other way, we are skinned to a
-standstill. I am tired of little gambles, and I am going to make one big
-play if I eat snowballs for the next twenty years. I would like to have
-you boys in, but if you don't believe that the thing is easy to beat,
-you can stay out."
-
-An inspiration came to First Class Crawley, and he seized it with the
-avidity of a shark. "Billy," he said, with amiable confidence, "you
-have no better friends in this here country' than me and Martin--has he,
-Martin?"
-
-"No," muttered the fat owner of the oleaginous voice, "he aint."
-
-"And me and Martin," the proprietor went on, "would go in anything
-in the world that you wanted us to go in, and it would n't make no
-difference to us what it was, if you said it was a good thing. But me
-and Martin are pretty nigh sixty, and if we would go broke, we could
-never get on our feet no more. We are skeery, Billy; me and Martin are
-skeery, but we are ready to do anything for you that we can. We are
-ready to help you any way you want to be helped, because you are dead
-game, Billy,--that's what you are--you're dead game."
-
-The wary Hiram Martin was totally in the dark as to what Crawley was
-probing for, but he had unlimited confidence in the proprietor of the
-Emporium, and he assented blandly. Crawley, he knew, followed no cold
-trail; Crawley worked no salted lead, and if he stooped to "crook the
-pregnant hinges of the knee," there was something in it for Crawley, and
-at no great distance.
-
-"Well," responded the Secretary of State,
-
-"I am obliged to you both, but I guess there is nothing I need just now.
-Of course, I, have got to raise a bunch of money for this deal, but I
-sort of arranged that in New York."
-
-The ulterior motive of Crawley was now quite clear to the owner of the
-Golden Horn. Hergan would require money,--perhaps a large sum for his
-venture. If good security could be given, there was no reason why they
-should not advance the cash at a large and comfortable discount.
-
-The officer of the Commonwealth moved his chair back from the table as
-an indication that the secret conference was at an end. As he did so,
-the proprietor of the Emporium leaned over and spread out his fat hands
-on the green cloth.
-
-"Billy, old man," he said, in a voice that indicated gentle reproach,
-"there was no necessity for you to go among strangers to raise any money
-you wanted; me and Martin have saved up a little, and me and Martin
-would be glad to let you have it if it is any accommodation, would n't
-we, Martin?"
-
-First Class Crawley failed to add that both he and Martin would require
-the trifling detail of a substantial surety, but they concluded shrewdly
-that if Hergan could raise money in New York, he had obtained some
-first-class support, and if this security were sufficient for an Eastern
-bank, it was amply sufficient for all purposes known to commerce. Hence
-the apparently unconcerned Martin consented most amiably.
-
-The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan settled back in his chair and grew
-thoughtful. "I aint closed the loan," he said, after some little
-consideration, "and I would just as leave borrow it of you, boys. The
-fact is, I would a little rather borrow it of you. I am paying pretty
-stiff for the money, and I would rather pay my friends than the Yankees
-in the East."
-
-"Yes," observed the unctuous mining magnate, although he had not
-intended to speak at all.
-
-"But," continued the Secretary of State, "I reckon you would n't like to
-put up as much as I need. I am going to crowd the bank this once."
-
-"Well, Billy," drawled the proprietor of the Emporium, "I expect me and
-Martin can make it up for you. If we aint got enough, we can get some
-around and piece out. Least ways, we will try. About what sum might you
-need?"
-
-"I reckon," responded Hergan, "that I shall want about fifty thousand."
-
-The hands of Hiram Martin tightened over his stomach, and for a moment
-Crawley studied the ceiling with placid indifference. He had turned
-Hergan into his own channel, and the transaction being assured, it was
-now the part of wisdom to affect gravity. Presently he spoke, slowly
-and anxiously: "That's a powerful big wad of money. Still, me and
-Martin----" Here he stopped short and turned to his companion.
-
-"Powerful big," echoed the mine owner, and volunteered no further
-observation. He understood First Class Crawley as few men are
-understood, and such observations were quite useless between them,
-except for the effect upon the victim at hand.
-
-"Still," continued the proprietor of the Emporium, "I expect we can
-raise it some way. About what terms do you allow on?"
-
-"I guess thirty days will be long enough," responded Hergan. "Thirty
-days at twelve per cent, is how I have been figuring it."
-
-"Yes," drawled the gambling king, "and the security?"
-
-"Well," said the Secretary of State, "I have calculated to give the
-Governor and Culverson."
-
-"They are good, I reckon," observed the wary Crawley. "Aint they good,
-Martin?"
-
-"Might be worse," responded the oily owner of the Golden Horn, "but it
-aint that. It's the rate. Seems like mighty little on a short loan."
-
-"It is mighty little," continued Crawley, after a silence of some
-moments. "We would have to give more than that for what we borrowed
-'round. There would n't be nothing in it for us, Billy,--not a cent to
-me and Martin."
-
-"I tell you what I'll do," put in the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan,
-abruptly, as though the idea was new and sudden in its coming, "I'll
-give you twelve per cent, for the money for a month, and I will enter
-into an agreement to turn over to you two one-eighth of what I win on
-the gamble."
-
-Crawley was very grave. The proposition pleased him hugely, but emotions
-found no expression with him. To loan fifty thousand dollars on good
-security at an enormous rate of interest, and in addition to have a
-substantial share in a speculation without standing to lose a cent, was
-a condition of affairs not likely to arise with much regularity in the
-span of a gambler's precarious life. Yet Crawley was not anxious. To
-the spectator he was sad and unconcerned. He knew quite well that this
-proposition was Hergan's ultimatum, and he was going to accept, but
-desired to appear to accept rather as a matter of kindly feeling toward
-Hergan than by reason of the fact that the inducement had increased.
-
-"Billy," he said slowly, almost sadly, "me and Martin don't want to make
-anything off of you, and we will try to fix it any way you want it. If
-you want to arrange the thing that way, why it suits us--it suits me and
-Martin."
-
-"All right," responded the Secretary of State, getting up from the
-table. "I'll go over to the Governor's house and have Al fix the papers.
-The sooner I get it, the better chance I'll have to win a stake."
-
-"Billy," called the proprietor of the Emporium, as the official of
-the Commonwealth was passing out through the door, "just make the note
-payable to Martin."
-
-The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan nodded his assent, and departed,
-leaving the fat gambling kings of the Southwest to prolong the secret
-session.
-
-When the door was closed, First Class Crawley turned to his companion,
-his little gray eyes slipping around in their puffy sockets.
-
-"Martin," he said, "aint he a mark?"
-
-The stomach of the rotund Martin undulated like a rubber bag filled with
-fluid. "Of all damn fools," he gurgled.
-
-"Were it clear?" inquired the proprietor of the Emporium.
-
-"Plain as a speckled pup," responded Martin, "except the note."
-
-"You see," said First Class Crawley, turning around in his chair, "you
-live in New Mexico, and I wanted the note in your name so that if we had
-to sue we could get it in the United States court. You can't ever tell
-what the State courts are going to do with you, but old Uncle Sam's
-courts don't stand no flim-flam."
-
-"Crawley," announced the owner of the Golden Horn, "Crawley, you are
-built like a white man, but you have got a head on you like a Yankee."
-
-When the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan returned to the Governor's
-residence he found that celebrated official and Major Culverson in the
-library. The irrepressible Major was engaged in presenting a lurid
-and highly dramatic history of how he had straightened the tangled
-exigencies of the Commonwealth during the absence of his associates,
-and how, by virtue of his magnificent personality, the entire Southwest,
-from the borders of lower Utah to the Rio Grande, was now the placid
-abode of peace and fraternal good-will. He stopped short as the
-Secretary of State entered, and bowed. Then thrusting his hand into
-the front of his coat, he exclaimed, with the affected manner of a
-tenth-rate actor, "Good morrow, good gambler."
-
-"Top chop," responded the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan. "And a
-favorite."
-
-"I opine," continued the Major, "I opine, sir, from your gladsome tone
-that the fat sharks have been successfully harpooned."
-
-"Gentlemen," said the Secretary of State, dropping into a chair by the
-table, "the reports of this race will announce that Hiram Martin and
-First Class Crawley 'also ran.'"
-
-"Which being translated," observed the Governor, "means that these
-gentlemen will advance you the money on the line suggested by your New
-York lawyer."
-
-"Yes," said the gambler. "You are to fix up the papers, and I am to go
-down there to-night. Everything turned out just like Randolph Mason
-said it would. If the rest goes through as slick, we will be riding in
-carriages."
-
-"Produce the sealed orders," said the Governor, partaking of the mock
-dramatic atmosphere.
-
-The Secretary of State drew a big envelope from his pocket and threw
-it down on the table. The Executive leaned over, opened the paper, and,
-after having examined it carefully, took up a pen and began to write.
-
-Major Culverson wandered over to the window and looked out at the hot,
-monotonous, sterile country. "I wonder," he murmured, "if this is really
-the passing of the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan?"
-
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-THE audience in the court-room arose and remained standing until the
-judge in his black silk robe had entered and taken his place on the
-bench. Then the audience resumed its seat, and the clerk began to read
-the proceedings for the previous day. The ceremony attendant upon the
-sitting of the Circuit Court of the United States carried with it an
-impressive sense of majestic, imperial authority, and an air of grave,
-judicial deliberation. It was the Government of the United States of
-America, the spirit of supreme order and law moving through its servant,
-and, next to the Great Ruler of Events, it was greatest. It had assumed
-for the good of men the right to sit in judgment, and to say wherein lay
-the justice of their complicated quarrels. Before it, every man's cause
-was of equal import, and every man was of equal stature; bond or free,
-one stood before it naked of influence, and with his shoulder made as
-high as the shoulder of his fellow.
-
-This is the theory. If it fails, it is because the law at best is but a
-human device, and its servants, after all, are but men like the others.
-
-The building in which the Federal Court held its session was a
-substantial, handsome structure, and maintained a strange contrast to
-the town in which it stood. The town was rough, miserable, uncouth;
-the temporary habitation of men, struggling ever with the relentless
-_ananke_ of things; in equal contrast to the officers of this court
-was the audience in the great court-room. They were the pioneers of
-civilization; a motley crowd in which the best and worst of human
-society was mixed and intermixed. They were, for the most part, bronzed,
-bearded, fearless examples of the inexorable law of the survival of the
-fittest, but not all. Some were the reckless advance agents of those
-hardy vices that follow close in the wake of empire,--devils too
-villainous to be tolerated in the cities of the East, and too bold and
-too wary to be stamped out by the deliberate machinery of the law.
-
-Against these the officers of the court bore some evidence of polish.
-They were exact, calculating men, bred to respect order, and obey and
-maintain the customs of law. The contrast was significant, and one
-recalled and understood the constant bitter conflict between the
-judicial tribunals of the State and the judicial tribunals of the
-Federal Government, bitterly waged and as yet undecided. From one
-standpoint, this was the calm tribunal of the supreme power of the
-land, providing the same rights and remedies on the very border of
-its jurisdiction that it provided at the capital itself, favoring no
-condition and acting as even-eyed as nature.
-
-On the other hand, one understood how the remote Commonwealth held this
-court to be the tribunal of a far off imperial government, seeking to
-enforce laws and customs foreign and repugnant to the laws and customs
-of its people. To them the Federal judge was a king's governor,
-travelling with his retinue over a subjugated province, and enforcing
-his edict by virtue of foreign armies quartered convenient to his hand.
-And looking on from this point of view, one understood why the outpost
-State hated this court so bitterly, and whence arose the fierce
-clamor against it. One understood how the far West smarted under its
-injunctions, and denounced them as the royal mandates of an emperor's
-consul, and how the far South collided with this tribunal and cried out
-against it to the Congress of the United States in a memorial clanging
-like a bell.
-
-So the conflict was easy to understand, and it was easy to appreciate
-how large the spectre of discord loomed, and most difficult indeed to
-force the problem to some happy end.
-
-When the clerk had finished, the marshal called the jury, and struggled
-bravely, but at times unsuccessfully, with the marvellous tangle of
-names. Indeed, if the list of this panel had been placed before a
-student of philology, he would have required no further history of the
-civilization of the Southwest. When the marshal had ended, the judge
-directed that the jury should be dismissed until two o'clock, and when
-order was again restored, the judge turned and looked down gravely from
-the bench.
-
-"This court," he said, "is ready to pass upon the matter taken under
-advisement yesterday afternoon. It seems that one Hiram Martin, a
-citizen of and a resident in the State of New Mexico, brought an action
-in this court against Ambercrombie Hergan and others to recover the sum
-of fifty thousand dollars, money, as it is said, borrowed by the said
-Hergan. The declaration contained the common counts _in assumpsit_, with
-which was filed, in lieu of the bill of particulars, a promissory
-note, made by the said Hergan to the said plaintiff, calling for fifty
-thousand dollars, and endorsed by one Randal and another Culver-son.
-This note, in addition to the matter usually had in such instruments,
-recited that it was given in accord with a certain agreement of even
-date therewith, made and entered into by the parties to the said
-note. The case coming on for trial, the defendants, by their attorney,
-appeared and filed their plea exhibiting the said agreement, maintaining
-that the said note was given for money loaned for the purpose of being
-used in a gambling venture, and was, therefore, void at law. An issue
-being had upon the said plea, the case was put to trial, and the said
-agreement having been admitted, the defendants, by their attorney, moved
-this court to exclude the evidence, and direct the jury to find for the
-defendants; which motion this court took time to consider.
-
-"The facts herewith concerned are involved in no controversy, and
-the agreement being couched in plain terms, admits of no doubtful
-construction. It would seem that the defendant Hergan called at the
-gambling house of one Crawley, a resident of this State, and requested a
-private interview with the said Crawley and the plaintiff; that in this
-interview Hergan explained that he was considering what it pleased him
-to denominate 'a gambling venture in oil,' and solicited the two men to
-join him in the venture. This they declined to do, but suggested
-that they would advance to Hergan such money as he might need upon a
-promissory note with good security.
-
-"It appears that some controversy arose as to the rate of interest to be
-paid; and a division of the profits was suggested in lieu of the larger
-per cent. This matter was finally concluded by the plaintiff and the
-said Crawley advancing the said sum, and taking therefor the note filed
-in this cause, and in addition thereto entering into this agreement in
-writing with the said Hergan, wherein it is set forth that the money
-loaned is to be used by the said Hergan for the express purpose of 'a
-gamble in oil,' and for no other purpose; and that if any profit should
-result from said gambling venture, the said plaintiff and the said
-Crawley were to receive one-eighth of said profits. It seems that the
-money was paid and presumably used by Hergan for the purpose as stated.
-Afterward the note was presented for payment, and being refused, was
-duly protested, and later sued upon in this court.
-
-"It is maintained by the defendants that this transaction was contrary
-to public policy, and that the money, having been loaned for a known
-illegal purpose, cannot be recovered in a judicial tribunal, but falls
-Within the purlieus of those matters which are _par se ex turfe causa_,
-and for which the law provides no remedy. On the contrary, it is urged
-by counsel for the plaintiff that the transaction as between the parties
-to this suit was entirely commercial and innocent; that the plaintiff is
-a mere lender of money in a _bona fide_ transaction, and is in no wise
-a party to any illegal proceeding, and that the mere use to which the
-money was put is a matter of no moment.
-
-"The law, being for the welfare and the protection of human society,
-refuses to recognize and enforce certain contracts had among its
-citizens, when those contracts are founded in moral turpitude or
-inconsistent with the good order or solid interests of society.
-
-"'No people,' declares Chancellor Kent in his _Commentaries_, 'are
-bound or ought to enforce or hold valid in their courts of justice any
-contract which is injurious to the public rights or offends their morals
-or contravenes their policy or violates a public law.' Hence contracts
-having an illegal or immoral consideration, or tending to the violation
-of law or the debauching of public morals, are held to be _contra bonas
-mores_, and are void.
-
-"It is said that the object of all law is to suppress vice, and to
-promote the general welfare of society, and it does not give its
-assistance to persons to enforce a demand originating in their breach or
-violation of its principles and enactments. It is not necessary that the
-law expressly prohibit or enjoin an act. It may impliedly prohibit or
-enjoin it. In either case a contract in violation of its principles is
-void under the wholesome maxim _ex turpi causa non oritur actio_.
-
-"It may happen, and, indeed, frequently does happen, that the individual
-suffers great hurt from this sweeping policy of the law, but it is held
-that the good of the commonwealth rises above the mere benefit of the
-individual citizen, and that where the welfare of the whole of society
-is involved, the law will not pause to consider the injury entailed upon
-the mere unit. Hence the policy of government in the exigencies of
-war, when protection must be had against violence, and the policy of
-government in the peaceful administration of the law, when protection
-must be had against vice.
-
-"Thus gambling, wagering, and all gambling and wagering contracts
-and transactions are illegal as against public policy, since they are
-repugnant to the well-being of society, fraught with vice, pregnant with
-demoralization, and corrupting alike to the youth and to the aged, as
-they inspire a hope of reward without labor.
-
-"It is significant that in matters of this nature human society has been
-progressive. Under the common law of England wagers were not unlawful
-or unenforceable, but the statute of 9th Anne followed and altered the
-common law, and the statutes of 8th and 9th Victoria altered it yet
-farther, and in the United States every separate Commonwealth has its
-respective statute striking at this vice.
-
-"I think it will not at this day be denied that all transactions in
-stocks, by way of margin, settlement of differences, and payment of
-gains or losses, without intending to deliver the stocks, is a gambling
-or wagering operation which the law does not sanction, and will not
-carry into effect; and it has been held in the Supreme Court of the
-United States in the case of Irwin vs. Williar, 'If under the guise of
-a contract to deliver goods at a future day the real intent be to
-speculate in the rise or fall of prices, and the goods are not to be
-delivered, but one party is to pay to the other the difference between
-the contract price and the market price of the goods at the date fixed
-for executing the contract, the whole transaction is nothing more than
-a wager, and is null and void.' And that 'Generally in this country
-wagering contracts are held to be illegal and void as against public
-policy.'
-
-"Indeed the courts of the land have gone to the extremity of denouncing
-in no uncertain terms the dangerous character of these illegal ventures.
-Judge Blauford, in the case of Cunningham vs. The National Bank of
-Augusta, in speaking of these transactions termed 'futures,' declares:
-'If this is not a speculation on chances--a wagering and betting between
-the parties, then we are unable to understand the transaction. A betting
-on a game of faro or poker cannot be more hazardous, dangerous, or
-uncertain. Indeed it may be said that these animals are tame, gentle,
-and submissive compared to this monster. The law has caged them and
-driven them to the den. They have been outlawed; while this ferocious
-beast has been allowed to stalk about in open mid-day with gilded signs
-and flaming advertisements to lure the unhappy victim to its embrace
-of death and destruction. What are some of the consequences of these
-speculations in 'futures'? The faithful chroniclers of the day have
-informed us, as growing directly out of these nefarious practices,
-that there have been bankruptcies, defalcations of public officers,
-embezzlements, forgeries, larcenies, and deaths. Certainly no one
-will contend for a moment that a transaction fraught with such evil
-consequences is not immoral, illegal, and contrary to public policy.'
-
-"In so far as this doctrine is concerned with the case at bar, it is
-certain that the parties understood and intended that the money loaned
-should be used for the purpose of engaging in an illegal speculation in
-oil,--'a gamble in oil,' as it is termed in the agreement, and that such
-gambling transactions are against public policy and the law of the land.
-But it is contended by learned counsel that all this can have no bearing
-upon the case at bar for the reason that in the cases heretofore cited
-announcing these conclusions of law, the litigants were the parties who
-dealt with or for each other, and were the immediate parties engaged in
-an unlawful gambling venture, and the ones to gain or lose directly
-by the venture, and not a mere stranger who loaned money to another to
-engage in such transactions, and having but an undetermined interest in
-the result; and that the law will not lend its aid to a further wrong.
-The defendant having committed one wrong cannot be permitted to use his
-first wrongful act as an instrument whereby to effect a second wrongful
-act.
-
-"The objection is ingenious, but I judge fully met by the declaration
-of Lord Mansfield in Holman's case: 'The objection,' said the learned
-judge, 'that a contract is immoral or illegal as between plaintiff and
-defendant, sounds at all times very ill in the mouth of the defendant.
-It is not for his sake, however, that the objection is allowed, but it
-is founded on the general principle of policy which the defendant has
-the advantage of, contrary to the real justice as between himself and
-plaintiff, by accident, if I may so say. The principle of public policy
-is this: _ex dolo malo non oritur actio_. No court will lend its aid to
-a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act.
-If from the plaintiff's own statement or otherwise the cause of action
-appear to arise _ex turpi causa_, or the transgression of a positive law
-of this country, then the court says he has no right to be assisted. It
-is upon that ground the court goes, not for the sake of the defendant,
-but because it will not lend its aid to such a plaintiff.'
-
-"This claim of the plaintiff to this action is unsound for the further
-reason that any promise, contract, or undertaking the performance of
-which would tend to promote, advance, or carry into effect an object
-or purpose which is unlawful, is itself void and will not maintain
-an action. The law which prohibits the end, will not lend its aid in
-promoting the means assigned to carry it into effect. Nor is it
-possible for an act contrary to law to be made the basis of a contract
-enforceable in courts of law. Hence when one lends money to another for
-the express purpose of enabling him to commit a specific unlawful act,
-and such act be afterwards committed by means of the aid so received,
-the lender is a _particeps criminis_, and the law will not aid him to
-recover money advanced for such a purpose, and much less would it assist
-him, if, as in this case he retained an interest in the result of the
-venture."
-
-It was very unusual for counsel to interrupt the judge in the delivery
-of his opinion, but at this point the attorney for Martin arose.
-
-"If your honor please," he said, "this court is taking away the remedy
-of the plaintiff, and permitting the wrong to stand. Does this court
-reverse the ancient doctrine upon which the theory of human justice has
-its eternal basis, the ancient doctrine that the law will always provide
-a remedy for a wrong?"
-
-The faintest shadow of a smile flitted over the judicial face.
-
-"That sage maxim: '_lex semper debit rem�diant_,'" answered the judge,
-"is a gigantic error couched in very good law Latin. The motion to
-exclude the evidence is sustained, and the jury will find a verdict for
-the defendants."
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-THE Governor's machine marched gravely out of the Circuit Court of the
-United States and down the wide steps, the Major leading, the Executive
-following second, and the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan bringing up
-the rear, every man as silent and as solemn as a Japanese diplomat. The
-machine passed through the great arched doorway and directly across the
-street to "The Happy Maria" saloon, an institution with a variegated
-past. The machine filed in through the door and lined up before the bar
-as mysteriously as a country delegation in a caucus.
-
-The Bartender of "The Happy Maria" was a lame actor from St. Louis. When
-he turned and beheld the solemn array, he stepped back and tapped his
-forehead tragically with his fingers.
-
-"Ha!" he muttered, "it is Ulfius and Brastias and Sir Bedivere."
-
-To this no response was made, except that the Major raised his hand and
-pointed to the bottle of "Dougherty" reposing on the second shelf beside
-the box of "scrap" and the proprietor's pistol-belt. The bartender
-hurried forward, took down the bottle, placed three little glasses on
-the bar and began to fill them. When he came to the third glass, he
-paused and set down the bottle. A puzzled expression gathered on his
-face. He thrust his forefinger into his mouth and began to lisp:
-
-               "Be there two or be there three
-
-                   In our king's companee?"
-
-The Major turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the Governor as he
-vanished in a telegraph office next door; then he swung around toward
-the barkeeper with the dramatic abandon of a professional at a benefit.
-
-"Pour on, good seneschal," he cried; "it is the man who would be
-married. He hastens with glad tidings to the well beloved. He will
-return."
-
-
-_(See the famous opinion of Henry St. George Tucker, President of the
-Supreme Court of Virginia, in the leading case of Gallego's Executors
-vs. Attorney General, 3 Leigh, 450; also the opinion of John Marshall,
-Chief Justice of the United States, in the case of the Trustees of
-the Philadelphia Baptist Association el at. vs. Hart's Executors, 4
-Wheaton's U. S. Reports, 330; also Knox vs. Knox's Executors, 9 W. Va.,
-125; 2y W. Va., 109, and cases cited.)_
-
-
-
-
-MRS. VAN BARTON
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-ALL this," said Randolph Mason," is the veriest nonsense."
-
-The younger Mrs. Van Bartan straightened up in her chair and looked
-sharply at the counsellor. She was a woman of magnificent presence,
-with a great fleece of yellow hair, fine eyes, and regular, clear-cut
-features.
-
-"Do you mean that it is not the truth?" she asked.
-
-"Half truth," responded Mason.
-
-"Then," said the woman, smiling, "it is only half nonsense."
-
-"Madam," said Randolph Mason, "if you desire my aid, you must explain
-this entire matter. I do not choose to guess riddles."
-
-"I have told you," began the young woman, slowly, "that my husband and
-myself reside with his mother in a certain city of the Virginias; that
-his father is dead, and, by his will, left his entire property to the
-elder Mrs. Van Bartan--my mother-in-law; that was all true."
-
-The counsellor nodded.
-
-"The other part," she went on, "I was trying to put into a 'hypothetical
-case '--is n't that what you call it?"
-
-She hesitated for a moment.
-
-"It is hard to tell, and I was only trying to save myself, but I suppose
-the surgeon is quite useless if the wound is not fully revealed. If you
-will listen to me I will explain. It is hard to tell, and it hurts, but
-everything is at stake, and if I lose now I lose everything. It will
-simply mean that I have made sacrifice after sacrifice for nothing at
-all. One shrinks from putting one's heart upon a dissecting table
-where the valves may be pinned back and pried into with the point of
-a scalpel, and so one struggles with a hurt until it finally aches so
-bitterly that the expert must be had. Then one goes to the surgeon or
-the priest or the lawyer, and takes an anaesthetic while he cuts it
-out."
-
-"Madam," said Randolph Mason, "you talk like a diplomat: you say nothing
-at all."
-
-The younger Mrs. Van Bartan unbuttoned her coat and threw it back with
-the air of one who has ultimately decided to keep nothing in reserve.
-
-"I have been married three years," she began, "my father's name is
-Summers. In the good days of Virginia our family was wealthy, but of
-late years we have met with one disaster after another until the
-family became very poor, and the effort to maintain an appearance of
-respectability was a nipping struggle indeed.
-
-"About this time the coal industries of West Virginia began to develop,
-and our city became a manufacturing centre. This brought in many Eastern
-capitalists, among them Michael Van Bartan, who established great iron
-mills, out of which he made a vast fortune. Shortly thereafter he died,
-leaving his widow and one son, Gerald Van Bartan.
-
-"This woman I have never quite understood. After the death of her
-husband, she maintained their country place in almost profligate
-magnificence, but she has always seemed terribly disappointed in her
-son. He was a good, easy-going fellow, and his mother, an ambitious,
-restless woman, had great plans for his future. But, failing that, and
-being a person of shrewd instinct, she set about finding for him an
-ambitious wife, who would probably be able to succeed where she had
-failed. But while the mother was striving to select a suitable woman for
-her purpose, the son paid court to me,--and I married him."
-
-The young woman paused for a moment, and the lines of her mouth
-hardened. Then she went on:
-
-"He was not quite the person with whom I had hoped to spend my life, but
-he had wealth, and we were so miserably poor,--and, I judge after all,
-one is never permitted to do just what one wishes in this weary world.
-This marriage was a bitter disappointment to Mrs. Van Bartan, but she
-was a woman with the resources of an empress. She came at once to me,
-and, with the kindest and most gracious courtesy, welcomed me as her
-daughter, and began at once to shower upon me the most substantial
-evidences of her good will. We were taken to live with her at the
-country place, and everything was done that a shrewd woman could imagine
-to bring me completely under her influence, and, through me, to move
-my husband to the effort which she desired. But it was all an utter
-failure.
-
-"I appreciated thoroughly the incapacity of Gerald Van Bartan, and said
-as much to his mother. I went deliberately to her and pointed out how
-very vain her ambition was, and how certainly it must come to nothing. I
-said how difficult it was for men to lift themselves even the least bit
-higher than their fellows; how it required years of labor and selfdenial
-and courage. I reminded her that my husband had not one of the qualities
-necessary for such work; that he was not industrious, and not ambitious
-she knew well; that the habits of the man had been formed, and this work
-could not be now undone.
-
-"Then I blundered like a fool. I said that wealth had caused these
-habits to become fixed, and that we must accept him as his luxurious
-life had made him; that if he had been thrown out to struggle with
-poverty, some qualities might have been developed, but that he had never
-been forced to feel the necessity for an effort, and consequently he
-had never called his faculties into use, nor could he now since the
-necessity did not arise. I begged her to abandon the effort as vexatious
-and entirely hopeless.
-
-"To all this the elder Mrs. Van Bartan listened attentively and made no
-comment. When I had finished, she laughed, and said that I had entirely
-misapprehended her intentions toward her son; that she had no object
-in life but to make us as happy as it were possible to do, but that one
-could not tell what conditions might arise, and she had wished simply to
-put her son in a position to care for himself and me, if it ever should
-be necessary. Then she stroked my hair, as she might have done to a
-child, and bade me not worry over trifles. I now congratulated myself
-that the matter was finally settled, but I was fearfully wrong. I
-had read this remarkable woman poorly. Although again beaten, she was
-unconquered, and she determined upon a final desperate move. Perhaps
-my foolish prattle, furnished the suggestion, but it is rather more
-probable, I think, that her master mind evolved the plan out of what she
-considered a desperate condition."
-
-The woman's face was now grave, and she seemed deeply in earnest.
-
-"It was the plan of Mrs. Van Bartan to convince my husband and myself
-that future poverty was impending, but just how to make this impression
-strongly probable, was a matter of great difficulty, and one which she
-appreciated fully. In order to do this effectually, it was necessary for
-her, in some manner, apparently to dispose of her property, and at the
-same time actually to retain it in possession.
-
-"This was a difficult problem, but difficult problems were not appalling
-to Mrs. Van Bartan, and she finally determined upon this shrewd scheme.
-She would make a will, leaving her entire estate at her death to the
-church of which she was a member, and entirely disinheriting my husband.
-This will could have the effect she desired, and at the same time leave
-her unhampered in the use of her property, and free to destroy this
-will or make another at her pleasure. This is now her plan. How I have
-discovered it is not of importance, since it is a part of her plan in
-this matter to have me suspect her intention and finally to have me
-believe that she has decided to cut us off without a dollar. Having
-determined upon this move, she will carry it through with the skill of a
-master strategist. She will have the paper drawn by her legal adviser
-in the presence of witnesses; she will declare her intention to the most
-substantial people of our city, and will take good care to see that her
-act is made known through the most reliable sources. There will be no
-blunder anywhere,--Mrs. Van Rartan does not blunder."
-
-"Has this will been drafted?" asked Randolph Mason.
-
-"No," replied the young woman, "but it will be made soon. Mrs. Van
-Bartan is now preparing public opinion for her act. She is far too wise
-to hurry."
-
-"I see no danger in all this," said Mason, "since it is not this woman's
-intention to really disinherit her son. Ultimately she will destroy this
-document or make another."
-
-"But," said the young woman, bending forward in her chair, "Mrs. Van
-Bartan is afflicted with an aortic aneurism, and may drop dead at any
-moment. This she refuses to believe, and although she has been examined
-by celebrated specialists, she stoutly asserts that her health is as
-good as it ever was in her whole life.
-
-"Now suppose she makes this will and dies suddenly without having an
-opportunity to make another. What then? Her intention will not help us.
-This will holds, and we are left entirely without a dollar in the world.
-Now, what am I to do to save us? It is of no use to go to Mrs. Van
-Bartan. She is an iron woman. She has her plan, and Heaven could not
-change her in the least. I must do something. It all depends on me, and
-I don't know which way to turn. You must show me some way; you must do
-something."
-
-Randolph Mason turned around in his chair and looked squarely at the
-young woman.
-
-"Madam," he said, "you have neglected to tell me the most important
-matter."
-
-"Oh, no, sir," responded the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, "I have told you
-everything."
-
-"By no means," said Mason. "You have said that Mr. Van Bartan is not the
-man with whom you had hoped to spend your life. Who is that man?"
-
-The young woman looked down at the floor and was silent.
-
-"Well," she said, "I don't know that I meant quite that. I was meaning,
-you know, that there were other considerations moving me to this
-alliance beyond mere affection. I did not say that I loved some one
-else, did I? Did I say I loved some one else?"
-
-"You evade," said Mason, bluntly. "It is the weakling's method of
-confession, and as well the fool's method."
-
-The blood came into the face of the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, and she
-looked up resolutely.
-
-"You don't spare me at all," she said, bitterly. "You pry out
-everything, even the very heart linings. Suppose I did love some one
-else, what has that to do with this matter? That is all over and past
-and gone. Can't I permit it to sleep and be forgotten? Suppose there was
-another man? Suppose there is now? Must I empty out his heart too? Can't
-I spare him? Can't I leave him out of this?"
-
-"I am waiting, madam," said Mason, quietly.
-
-The young woman passed her hand downward over her face, as though to
-remove something that was clinging to her.
-
-"If you must know," she said slowly, "his name is Dalton, Robert Dalton,
-a member of the law firm of Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton, of our city. He
-is said to be an able lawyer. He is the elder Mrs. Van Bartan's legal
-adviser, but I have no right to tell you all this. It is unjust to him.
-and unjust to me, and unfair to us all."
-
-"And he still loves you?" said Mason, with the blunt indifference of a
-surgeon who thrusts his thumb into a wound.
-
-The young woman threw back her head. "You are brutal," she cried, "to
-ask such a question, and I should be a fool, a miserable, contemptible
-fool if I should answer."
-
-"But you have answered it, madam," replied Randolph Mason.
-
-The younger Mrs. Van Bartan covered her face with her hands, and began
-to sob. The counsellor sat and watched her, as an expert might watch an
-intricate piece of machinery that he was testing. There was no emotion
-of any sort visible in his face--nothing at all, except the intense
-interest of the expert.
-
-Presently Mason leaned back in his chair. The result was evidently
-satisfactory.
-
-"Is this man married?" he asked.
-
-The woman did not answer. She simply pressed her hands tighter against
-her face. The counsellor waited for a few moments. Then he repeated:
-
-"Is this man married?"
-
-The woman's hands trembled violently. "No," she sobbed, "and he never
-will be." The lines in the face of Randolph Mason grew deep and resolute
-as one has seen the lines in the face of a great physician when, in some
-desperate case, he finally turned from the bedside of the patient in
-order to write the prescription upon which he had decided.
-
-"Madam," he said, in a voice that was firm and admitted of no protest,
-"this man Dalton is perhaps a person of some learning. Since he is your
-mother-in-law's legal adviser, he will have the matter in his hands. He
-is under your influence. Could a problem be more simple? You have but to
-go to him and say what you have said to me. He will know what to do."
-
-She dropped her hands in astonishment.
-
-"Go to him? Go to him?" she repeated.
-
-"Yes," said Mason, "and tell him the truth,--and wait."
-
-"But," began the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, "how could he help me? What
-could----"
-
-"Madam," interrupted Mason, rising, "this is your coat, I believe.
-Permit my clerk to assist you to your carriage."
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-Robert dalton was of good blood, having descended from colonial
-families of degree. He was perhaps in his middle thirties, in appearance
-no usual man, straight as a spire, with a powerful face in which every
-feature seemed prominent; hair rather prematurely gray, and soft and
-clinging as a woman's, and withal a manner courtly to such a degree that
-the young, and those others unskilled in divining the natures of men,
-associated with Mr. Dalton relations of a so-called romantic nature.
-This conclusion was grossly erroneous, and led to much profitless
-gossip. In fact, Robert Dalton was a stern and practical man of large
-legal acquirements, with no more romance in his composition than a ship
-carpenter. In the practice of his profession he was always cold, clear
-headed, and technical, believing no man, and fearing no man; in truth,
-the wags asserted, his courtesy was in itself a libel, because of
-all members of the bar no one was more rigid, more exacting, or more
-relentless than Robert Dalton, of Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton.
-
-The mental build of young Dalton rendered him especially valuable as
-a chancery lawyer, and this department of the business he gradually
-assumed until it was almost entirely in his hands. For years he drafted
-all difficult pleadings, especially difficult under the rigid practice
-of the common law obtaining in the Virginias. He drafted likewise all
-deeds, wills, and papers of like tenor, with such unusual care and skill
-that he rapidly gained a reputation,--the sort of reputation which it
-usually requires a lifetime to establish, and the value of which is
-above rubies.
-
-When the judges spoke of him they said, "If Mr. Dalton prepared this
-paper it is probably correct."
-
-It would be unwise to attribute to young Dalton an utter disregard
-for social relations. The error of such an assertion would readily
-be detected by those who knew him. In fact, he was usually present at
-prominent social functions, and largely sought after by reason of his
-magnetic nature and the charm of his vigorous mind.
-
-The father of young Dalton had been a man of improvident habits, and,
-immediately upon the death of his wife, squandered his large estate
-in the riot of dissipation, so that his son inherited nothing but a
-dilapidated manor-house and a single slave. This servant, a pure negro,
-was deeply attached to young Dalton, and the two continued to reside in
-the manor-house near the city suburbs, the negro acting as cook, valet,
-and man-of-all-work. This manor house was one of the first built in
-the Virginias. It was surrounded by a long, ill-kept lawn, in which
-the ancient knotted oaks seemed to stand guard over the memory of some
-departed greatness. The house itself, covered with the green Virginia
-creeper, was little better than a ruin. The plaster had fallen away from
-the great pillars, and the walls were cracked, in places, almost to the
-roof.
-
-Strangely enough, Robert Dalton never attempted to repair the estate,
-taking pride rather in its air of decay. This statement is not entirely
-accurate. He did, indeed, fit up the ancient drawing-room for the
-purposes of a library, thrusting in rows of bookcases beside long
-antique mirrors and mahogany window seats. These bookcases were
-filled entirely with reports of courts, late digests, the decisions of
-tribunals of last resort, and volume after volume on wills, contracts,
-and corporations, but scarcely a volume on standard or current
-literature. For these latter he had no inclination, and, as he
-apologetically explained, no time.
-
-In this library, Dalton did most of his legal work, obtaining here
-freedom from interruption and the quiet which he required.
-
-As the city developed, this neglected suburban street was seized upon
-and assumed as the fashionable quarter by the wealthy Eastern families.
-They paved it far into the country, and ruthlessly wiped out the
-splendid old homesteads, erecting on their ruins ostentatious palaces
-with prim lawns, reminding one not a little of that civilized vandalism
-which would cut out from its frame the superb painting of a landscape
-and replace therein a practical and entirely accurate map of the same
-landscape.
-
-These wealthy families swept out, too, the old social customs of this
-city, setting up elaborate formalities and impoverishing standards of
-dress and entertainment.
-
-The recognized leader was Mrs. LeConte Dean, the wife of a nail
-manufacturer of vast wealth. Her receptions were the society events.
-Indeed, it has been said that recognition by this newly rich importation
-determined one's social status.
-
-The Van Bartans were another of these wealthy families coming directly
-from the city of New York. The father had founded gigantic iron mills
-from which he had gathered a princely revenue. Upon his death, the wife,
-a grim woman of frightful prejudices, had continued to maintain their
-country place in sumptuous, albeit rather frigid, elegance. They had one
-child, Gerald Van Bartan, an utterly worthless young man of extravagant
-habits and wandering aims; nevertheless, a youth of generosity and
-kindly impulses. The boy was a source of ceaseless vexation to his
-mother.
-
-Carpenter, Lomax, & Dalton were her solicitors; especially Robert
-Dalton, in whom she reposed the greatest confidence, and not
-infrequently she spoke to him at great length of her difficulties with
-her son, and usually concluded by working herself into a towering rage.
-
-When one morning in the early autumn it was announced that Gerald Van
-Bartan was very shortly to wed Miss Columbia Summers, a young lady of
-great beauty and of aristocratic lineage, but of reduced and nipping
-finances, the city was very justly indignant. Robert Dalton had for
-many years paid court to this young woman, and the self-constituted
-match-makers had long since entered up their decree in this matter and
-dismissed it, and they resented, as almost a personal affront, the going
-afield of their plans.
-
-Thereupon idle folk prattled of the great blow to Dalton, his broken
-heart, and other drivel. There was no evidence that Robert Dalton
-had any other than a passing interest in this matter, and neither his
-partners nor those others intimately acquainted with the man suspected
-that this gossip contained any element of truth Indeed, he had come to
-be regarded as of stoical build.
-
-When this rumor came to the ears of Mrs. Van Rartan, she received it
-with almost suspicious composure, and a few days later sent for Dalton,
-her solicitor, and inquired if she could dispose of her entire property.
-To this Dalton replied that she could, the title to all property having
-passed to her by virtue of her husband's will, of which she was the sole
-beneficiary. Thereupon she smiled, and said that she might require his
-services further on.
-
-The wedding and receptions which followed were great social functions,
-and for three years thereafter Mrs. Van Bartan maintained the two
-young people in the veriest profligate magnificence, the elder woman
-anticipating every wish of the younger, and heaping upon her the
-costliest gowns and jewels to be had.
-
-During this time, Carpenter and Lomax watched Dalton closely, but they
-could detect no change in the man, except perhaps that he was even more
-rigid and exacting in his professional transactions.
-
-Thus matters continued without event until the night set apart for the
-first autumn reception of Mrs. LeConte Dean. These were annual events
-of great revelry, and largely attended. The night was unpropitious, raw,
-and foggy, as October nights usually are in this region, but this in no
-wise interfered with the occasion; indeed, it was long remembered as one
-of startling magnificence.
-
-This reception Robert Dalton determined not to attend, partly because he
-avoided as far as possible every gathering at which he might be thrown
-with the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, but principally because the firm had
-an important case in the Federal Court then sitting, and he had been
-asked to prepare an elaborate decree for the following day.
-
-After determining to remain at home, Robert Dalton went into his
-library, gathered his books of reference from their cases, and began the
-preparation of his legal paper. This decree he found more difficult to
-draft than he had anticipated, and, striving to adjust its intricate
-matters, he became more and more absorbed until he was entirely
-unconscious of his surroundings and of the time that had elapsed.
-
-Finally he arose in order to refer to some report that was not within
-reach of his hand. As he turned to the light he beheld a woman, wrapped
-in the folds of a long party cloak, standing with her hand on the door,
-as though she had just entered. Dalton was so utterly astonished that he
-literally rubbed his eyes to ascertain if he were not the victim of an
-illusion. Whereupon the woman threw back her cloak, and advanced to the
-table, when he perceived to his amazement that it was the younger Mrs.
-Van Bartan. To this man she seemed a daughter of the very gods in the
-full bloom of womanhood. The rich velvet cloak thrown back from her bare
-shoulders, the ball dress clinging like puffy webs to a form that his
-brooding mind had idolized; her eyes illumined, and her splendid hair
-wound in loose coils above her dainty head.
-
-It would all be very weary to set out in detail what occurred on this
-October night; how the younger woman explained that she had finally
-divined the intention of the elder Mrs. Van Bartan, and how she had
-hoped to see Dalton at the LeConte Dean's, and not finding him had
-slipped away, and, availing herself of the foggy night, had been driven
-unattended to his house in order to implore his aid; how she came and
-stood beside him, and pointed out the dread results sure to follow the
-elder Mrs. Van Bartan's unnatural intentions,--results disastrous to
-her and to hers. Gerald Van Bartan was worthless, she knew that; he had
-never been taught to work; he was now too old to learn; it would mean
-poverty, grinding poverty, and shame worse than all; and her father,
-aged and broken in health, and the others of them, all dependent upon
-her, would be thrown out to huddle in beggary, literally, beggary.
-
-How Dalton replied that there was nothing he could do; reminding her
-that the elder Mrs. Van Bartan was a woman of iron will, of stern
-resolve, of relentless determination, and that neither he nor any other
-living man could affect her. And how like a woman she answered that he,
-Dalton, would be sent for to make the will, and that he must save her
-some way, she did not know how,--he would know, he was shrewd, he was
-a great lawyer, he could certainly find some way; this she knew, and he
-must do it.
-
-And how he labored to show her that there was nothing he could
-do--absolutely nothing; that the whole thing was hopeless, thoroughly,
-utterly hopeless; and then how she came to him and put her bare white
-arms around him and looked up into his face, the big tears shining in
-her glorious eyes, and said that if this were true, then she proposed
-to tell him all the truth, the truth that she loved him, him only in all
-the wide world, him always from her very childhood, and that for others
-she had made this sacrifice; and how great, how awful a sacrifice it had
-been, men could not understand. How he coldly loosed her arms, although
-to do it wrenched his very heart loose; although he would have given his
-life gladly to have taken her in his embrace if only for a moment, and
-told her how he understood and how he loved her for it, and how he would
-always love her to the very end of all things; but, instead, how he had
-sternly led her out to the carriage and forced her to leave him, and
-how he turned back into the library with his head swimming and his heart
-pounding like a hammer, and fought the whole thing out through the long
-October night, until the dawn crept in and the birds began to chirp in
-the Virginia creeper.
-
-Some weeks later, as was anticipated, the elder Mrs. Van Bartan summoned
-Robert Dalton to her residence in order to prepare her will. Upon his
-arrival he found Simon Harrison, President of the First National Bank,
-and David Pickney, a steel manufacturer, both prominent citizens of
-unquestioned integrity; also the late Milton South, a most estimable
-physician. At Mrs. Van Bartan's request, Robert Dalton prepared the will
-in the presence of these three persons. When he had finished he handed
-the paper to the testatrix, who thereupon read it aloud in the presence
-of all, declared it entirely correct, and affixed her signature. As is
-customary, Dalton requested the three gentlemen to converse with the
-testatrix and satisfy themselves that she was in proper mental
-condition. This they did at some length, and not unskilfully, all being
-men of good sense. Afterward Harrison and Pickney subscribed their names
-as witnesses in the manner prescribed by the statute. Mrs. Van Bartan
-then placed the will in an envelope, sealed it with her own hand in the
-presence of all, and gave it to Simon Harrison to retain until after her
-death.
-
-On the seventeenth day of December following, Mrs. Van Bartan died
-suddenly, and some days thereafter the will was opened and read at her
-late residence by Simon Harrison, executor. Gerald Van Bartan and his
-young wife were present, as was also Robert Dalton, and those others who
-had been with the deceased when the will was drawn. The elder members
-of the law firm, Carpenter and Lomax, were likewise present, and, at the
-request of Harrison, the Episcopal minister, Rev. Mr. Boreland, and his
-counsel, an obscure practitioner named Gouch.
-
-The will was short, leaving the entire estate, real and personal, naming
-it specifically, for some religious purpose; and, in a spirit of grim
-jest, it would seem, one dollar each to her "beloved children," Gerald
-Van Bartan and Columbia Van Bartan, his wife.
-
-The effect of this will upon the two young people, as the executor
-slowly read its provisions, would require a dramatist of no little
-stature to describe. The woman's face grew drawn and bloodless. The
-man's knees seemed to give way, and he would have fallen had he not been
-helped to a chair.
-
-Dalton, men did not notice, for he was a skilful actor. When the
-executor had finished, Mr. Lomax plucked Carpenter by the arm, and
-inquired, in a low voice, if he had noticed any defect in the will.
-Carpenter replied that he had not, but that he had paid little attention
-to its form, whereupon Lomax requested him to examine it closely. The
-elder counsellor stepped up beside Harrison and began to go carefully
-over the instrument. Presently he stopped in amazement, and put his
-finger down on the paper.
-
-"This will," he said, "is utterly void."
-
-At the word, the blood surged back into Columbia Van Bartan's face. She
-took two steps toward Robert Dalton, then turned and buried her face in
-the folds of a heavy curtain. Dalton was cool and entirely incredulous.
-
-"I think you are very much mistaken, Mr. Carpenter," he said quietly.
-
-"Mistaken?" answered the counsellor. "Why, this bequest is made simply
-to 'St. Luke's Episcopal Church.' That organization is neither an
-individual nor a corporation; it has no recognized legal existence. And
-this request must fail for want of a devisee."
-
-At this point Harrison, who was a slow but very careful man, interrupted
-and explained with great accuracy that the will was in every detail
-exactly as the testatrix had desired it; that even the language used was
-her language; that she had said "St. Luke's Episcopal Church," and
-that Mr. Dalton had written it in the instrument precisely as Mrs. Van
-Bartan had said, and that there could be no possible error either by
-accident or design.
-
-Carpenter was about to reply, when Lomax, noticing his excitement,
-stepped in between Harrison and the elder attorney, and pointed out at
-great length that this was all no doubt true, but that, under the law,
-an indefinite religious organization, could not take a bequest; that
-this was not generally known to those unfamiliar with legal business,
-but that Mr. Dalton should have known that, in order to devise property
-to a religious organization, it must be given to a board of trustees,
-or to a certain person or persons, named in the will, for a specific
-and accurately determined purpose; that this, Mr. Dalton should have
-explained, and that his writing down the exact words of Mrs. Van Bartan
-had defeated her intentions, and rendered this bequest void.
-
-"But, sir," put in the attorney Gouch, pompously, "the testatrix's
-intention must control. I see no----"
-
-"Come, come, my good man," cried Carpenter, angrily, "this is what is
-known in Virginia as a 'vague and indefinite charity.' Such bequests
-have been held void for almost a century. Why Silas Hart attempted to
-create such a devise as early as 1790, and John Marshall, Chief Justice
-of the United States, held it void at law. Twenty years later.
-Joseph Gallego attempted to bequeath a similar charity to the Roman
-Catholic Church at Richmond, and Henry St. George Tucker, President of
-the Supreme Court of Virginia, in a famous opinion, held that it must
-fail, and from that time until the present the courts of this country
-have been passing upon this common error of testators and their
-incompetent advisers."
-
-Robert Dalton looked up anxiously. "In what cases?" he stammered.
-
-"What cases!" almost shouted the elder counsellor, for he had now
-lost his temper completely. "What cases, you bungler! Ask the veriest
-pettyfogger; ask the commonest justice of the peace, but do not
-catechise me." And after having delivered himself of this venom, he
-seized his hat and cane and stalked out of the house. He was greatly
-enraged to think that a man of Dalton's learning, a member of a firm of
-high standing, should make such a stupendous blunder.
-
-Later in the day Robert Dalton came to the office and requested
-Carpenter and Lomax to join him in his private room. His face showed
-plainly the evidences of a great mental strain. When they were together
-he closed the door, and, turning to them, said that he had examined the
-question which they had raised, in regard to Mrs. Van Bartan's will, and
-he was now satisfied that he had made a prodigious error in drafting
-the instrument; that as his mistake would deprive a powerful church of
-a vast estate, endless criticism of a most acrimonious character would
-follow; that it was not just for any part of this criticism to fall
-upon the shoulders of either Carpenter or Lomax, and, therefore, he
-had determined to publicly withdraw from the firm. To this they made
-scarcely a courteous objection, and Dalton accordingly withdrew,
-publishing an announcement thereof in the daily papers.
-
-The report of a great error in Mrs. Van Bartan's will spread through the
-city with the marvellous rapidity of an evil rumor. The vials of bitter
-criticism were poured out upon the head of Robert Dalton. Men declared
-that they had long suspected that he was a sham, a posing ignoramus, a
-dangerous blunderer.
-
-The executor, Harrison, as was his duty, attempted to execute the
-charitable bequest, but, of course, failed. Whereupon the press of the
-city stood up in the market-place like the selfcomplacent Pharisee and
-declared that in this day mistakes were crimes; that it was not enough
-for an attorney to do the best he knew,--it was his duty to know; it was
-not enough for an attorney to be honest, he must he likewise competent;
-that the law was a learned profession in which the bungler was equally
-as dangerous as the knave; that vast estates were conveyed by will, and
-how easily by mistake or design a lawyer could destroy the testator's
-most sacred wish; he could rob the helpless of his right, the dependent
-of his inheritance, or the charitable institution of its patron's aid,
-and all this without color of criminal wrong. The law, it asserted,
-punished with relentless hand the man who blundered in positions of
-trust; it punished with awful penalties the man who blundered in the
-heat of passion, but it had no censure, no sting, no scourge for the man
-who blundered at the bedside of the dying.
-
-Thus was Robert Dalton's fame as a lawyer damned into the veriest
-blackness.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-ON a certain bleak Thursday of January, Randolph Mason sat in his
-office, absorbed in the study of a great map which was spread out on his
-table. The day was so dark and lowering that the electric light above
-the table had been turned on. Presently the door opened and the little
-clerk Parks looked in. He watched the lawyer for a few moments intently;
-then he withdrew his head. A few minutes later, the door again opened
-and a woman entered, and closed it behind her. She stopped and looked
-at the counsellor, bending over his map. The picture was not a pleasant
-one. The man's streaked, gray hair was rumpled, and his heavy-muscled
-face under the glare of the light was rather more brutal than otherwise.
-Then she crossed to the table and threw a newspaper down on the map.
-
-"Will you kindly read that marked paragraph?" she said.
-
-Randolph Mason looked up. For a moment he did not recall the woman, her
-face was so very white. Then he recognized his client, Mrs. Van Bartan.
-
-"You will pardon me, madam," he said. "I am deeply engaged. Kindly come
-here tomorrow."
-
-"I have to regret," said the woman, "that I ever came here at all. Will
-you please read that paragraph?" And she put her finger down on the
-newspaper.
-
-The counsellor looked at the paper.
-
-"We notice by to-day's _Herald_," it ran, "that Robert Dalton, Esq., has
-sailed for Japan, where it is said he will become a legal instructor in
-one of the national universities. Mr. Dalton, it will be remembered, is
-the attorney whose stupid blunder invalidated the Van Bartan will, and
-it is to be hoped that he will prove more efficient in the service
-of the Mikado. The bar of the Virginias cannot be said to regret Mr.
-Dalton's departure. He was grossly incompetent, and just such men bring
-the legal profession into disrepute."
-
-"What of all this?" said Mason. "You obtained what you desired. Why do
-you harass me with this nonsense?"
-
-"I obtained it," repeated the woman, bitterly. "Yes, thanks to your
-devilish ingenuity, I obtained it, but at what a cost! I have the money,
-but it is daubed over with the blood of a man's heart It has the price
-of a man's honor stamped on the face of every coin. I hate it all.
-Everything I see, every thread that touches me, taunts me with the shame
-of such a sacrifice."
-
-The woman's voice was firm, but her figure trembled like a tense wire.
-
-"Madam." said Randolph Mason, "you annoy me. I have no interest in this
-drivel."
-
-"No interest in it?" cried the woman. "You, you have no interest in it?
-Was it not you who did it? You and the devil himself? You concocted this
-plan. You said go to him, and tell him, and he would know what to do.
-Your fiendish ingenuity saw what would result, but you did not tell me.
-You did not tell me that this man would be compelled to rip his life
-in two like a cloth to save me, and that he would do it. If I had known
-this, do you suppose that I would have gone on for a moment? Do you
-suppose that I wanted wealth, or ease, or luxury, at the cost of a man's
-hope and fame and honor? I tell you, you miserable blunderer, this thing
-cost too much."
-
-"Chatter," said Mason, rising.
-
-"Chatter!" cried the woman, beating her hards on the table. "Do you call
-this chatter? I charge you,--do you hear me, I charge you with the ruin
-of this man's life."
-
-"Madam," said Randolph Mason, "the vice of your error lies in the fact
-that you should have consulted a priest. I am not concerned with the
-nonsense of emotion."
-
-Then he turned abruptly and walked out of the room.
-
-_(See Amer, and Eng. Enc of Law. vol. ii., page 926, and the cases
-there discussed; see also State us. Richardson, S.C. 35 Lawyers' Reports
-Annotated, 238, and cases there cited; also Constitution of the United
-States, Art., and the Constitution of West Virginia Art. 3, Sec. 5.)_
-
-
-
-
-ONCE IN JEOPARDY
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE sheriff stopped on the steps of the court-house, pushed his straw
-hat back from his forehead, moved his eyeglasses up a little closer
-to his fat face, and began to contemplate the limits of his official
-jurisdiction, with the air of one about to deduce a law.
-
-The little county seat on Tug River slept in a pocket. Behind it and
-on every side except the river were great mountains, half-hidden by a
-gigantic cloak of fog. On the opposite side, from the great coal plants
-of the Norfolk and Western Railroad a counter-canopy of smoke arose,
-dense and voluminous, and stretched itself like a black hand out over
-the town and across to the fog of the mountain. Man, it seemed, had
-conspired with nature to cover up and hide the town of Welch.
-
-"Strange," drawled the sheriff, "strange, that a white man should be
-willing to leave a paradise like this, and with river water in his
-stomach too." Then he chuckled comfortably.
-
-The sheriff of the county of McDowell was all right. He represented the
-entire machinery of the law obtaining south of Tug River, and he carried
-the momentous responsibility with the languid grace of a bank clerk at a
-charity german.
-
-The sheriff was a Virginian. But, marvel of marvels, he was a Virginian
-without a title. He was plain W. M. Carter. The statement is not quite
-accurate. Among the boys he was "White" Carter. But he was no "colonel"
-and no "major," and he gloried in the distinction and guarded it well.
-The sheriff was a comfortably fat man and most genial. His eyes were
-round, blue, and dreamy, and he never hurried. He was never abrupt or
-a jarring element. He slipped easily into any position and filled it
-up without a ripple, as water slips in and fills up the outlines of a
-vessel.
-
-Still the sheriff was all right. When he looked out of his dreamy blue
-eyes through his rimless nose glasses at a negro miner who had used his
-razor as an adjunct to an argument, and mildly requested the negro to
-accompany him to the confines of the county jail, it was as certain as
-the advent of death that the negro would obey, and obey without comment.
-And when the sheriff mounted his "murky dun" horse and passed up into
-the mountains for the purpose of inducing a moonshiner to come down
-to civilization and submit his rights to the decision of a judicial
-tribunal, it was a matter of familiar history that the moonshiner always
-came.
-
-To the inquiring stranger, no man seemed a native of McDowell.
-
-This impression arose from the fact that the stranger adhered to the
-railroad and the coal towns which sprang up in its wake, and in these
-every man came from somewhere. The railroad had brought in the coal
-companies, and the coal companies had brought in the negroes, and thus
-towns sprang into existence, and the usual rough, expeditious methods
-of civilization began. Then came the politician and the adventurer, and
-mixed in merrily, and from that time forth the county of McDowell was
-industrial and Republican, and everything "went." But a few years back,
-before the section hands on the Norfolk and Western Railroad cut through
-from the county of Mercer, there was a population in McDowell that was
-not Republican, and that did not "go." They were long-limbed, indolent,
-and "handy men" in a fight. They made corn whiskey when they pleased,
-and voted the Democratic ticket when they saw fit, and accounted to
-no one. The revenue officer came, and looked up at the great mountains
-covered with the giant oaks of a century, concluded that the laws were
-not being violated, and so reported to the Government. It was vastly
-more comfortable than going up into these same mountains not to come
-down at all, or maybe to come down with a squirrel bullet under the
-ribs. In his day and generation the revenue officer was a wise man.
-
-Here the citizen was born as it happened, lived as he could, and died
-as the necessity arose, and the outside world neither knew nor cared nor
-concerned itself with it. These were not bad people. Morally they were
-as good as the sun warmed. Their life bred no shams. If they loved each
-other, they lived together and were happy, and if they hated each other,
-they fought it out The feud has been usually overdrawn. It existed in
-truth, but it rarely resulted in anything more than a "fist fight" at a
-grist mill, but when it grew serious, it grew very serious indeed. The
-mountaineer always shot to kill. He was no man of half measures; it was
-a free, open, breezy war, and perhaps it was as healthy fighting as any.
-At his worst, the native moonshiner was a better man than the imported
-miner at his best. Up in the fog of the mountains men were killed; down
-in the smoke of the coke ovens they were murdered; and between the two
-words there is a distinction as big as the honor of a people.
-
-The "killer" was common in McDowell, but the suicide was not, perhaps
-because men rarely take their own lives in the mountains. It is a
-trick of jaded civilization obtaining in congested cities, unknown and
-unpractised by the dwellers among the hills. Men died in the mountains,
-but by the hand of others.
-
-So the sheriff was puzzled. That morning the body of Brown Hirst,
-manager of the Octagon Coal Company, had been picked up in the muddy
-waters of Tug River, just below the bridge. Above, on the railing of
-the bridge, his coat and vest had been found, folded and apparently
-laid carefully over a girder. The bridge was very high above the
-rocky stream, and the body of the man was badly crushed--almost beyond
-recognition. The man had evidently jumped from the bridge with the
-deliberate intention of taking his own life. All this the sheriff had
-heard as he rode into the town. But rumors are lurid, the sheriff knew,
-and he concluded to go at once to the prosecuting attorney. He wanted
-the tale straight from some one who could pry the facts free from the
-fiction. On the steps of the court-house the sheriff had paused for a
-moment and made some observations to himself. But a crowd was beginning
-to gather in the street below, and the sheriff, being fully aware that
-this portended a demand for his opinion and not being pleased to express
-one, he turned abruptly and passed into the court-house.
-
-The man of order walked leisurely down the hall to the office of the
-prosecuting attorney and entered. A thin, red-haired girl was pounding
-a typewriter with the energy of a two-horse-power engine.
-Conventionalities were abbreviated in McDowell. The sheriff sauntered
-in.
-
-"Where's Jeb?" he drawled.
-
-The red-haired girl paused for a moment and jerked her thumb over her
-shoulder. "In there," she said, "busy." Then she went on.
-
-Miss McFadden was an economist; she wasted no words. The sheriff threw
-open the door, and walked into the private office. The prosecuting
-attorney turned around from the window.
-
-"Hello, White!" he said, "you are the very man I want."
-
-"Which indicates," drawled the sheriff, "that you are a young person of
-great discernment."
-
-"When one needs horse sense," said the prosecuting attorney, "your
-acquaintance is valuable. At other times it is a luxury."
-
-"Together," observed the sheriff, mildly, "we create a sort of
-equoasinus intellectual atmosphere, I suppose."
-
-The attorney took up a chair and placed it by the window.
-
-"Sit there," he said, "and listen." Then he closed the door, and,
-crossing the room, began to open the safe by his desk.
-
-The sheriff sat down meekly and turned his dreamy blue eyes on the young
-lawyer.
-
-The prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell was an imported
-article. Like the ancient wise men, he came from the East, but the
-manner of his coming was not quite that of the early sages. The sheriff
-had come up from the hills of Virginia, while the prosecuting attorney
-had come up from the sea. Not that this young scion of the law' was a
-sailor or the son of a sailor, but on a certain summer afternoon at a
-certain fashionable resort, Fate suddenly threw away the toys with which
-she had been amusing him, and he immediately realized that the world was
-a common treadmill instead of a breezy French drag.
-
-It was a stiff shock, but the spine of young Mr. Huron was good, and
-instead of stepping off the pier, at ten o'clock of that same night
-he was demonstrating to a certain wealthy senator who had large
-coal interests in West Virginia that it would be the part of no
-inconsiderable wisdom to send a bright young fellow with a legal
-education down into this great mining region for the purpose of
-investigating the land titles, and for the purpose of keeping an eye
-on the industries generally, and, as it is said in the law, "for other
-purposes."
-
-The old senator was by no means blind to the very slight efficiency
-of raw material, but he had a heart hidden away under his coat, and at
-thirty minutes past eleven he was convinced. So J. E. B. Huron came into
-the county of McDowell, nailed up his shingle, and stepped down into the
-_mel�e_.
-
-The opening chapters of his legal career were blue-tinted histories, but
-the material in the backbone of young Mr. Huron was splendid material,
-and he remained. The perception of this man of the law was no dwarfish
-growth, and he used it like the wise. McDowell was Republican by 1600,
-and "White" Carter was big boss; _post hoc ergo propter hoc_. J. E. B.
-Huron was a Republican of ancient affiliation, and more specifically
-he was right hand man to White Carter. This wisdom was not without its
-reward. The convention that nominated Carter for sheriff, nominated
-Huron for prosecuting attorney, and the big boss pulled his man through
-in spite of splits, and splits, and independent tickets. The prosecuting
-attorney was a handsome young fellow with a good level head. He knew the
-value of the sheriff, and he held to him.
-
-The prosecuting attorney took some papers from the safe, drew up a
-chair, and sat down by the sheriff.
-
-"You have heard of Hirst's suicide?" he said.
-
-The sheriff nodded. "All but the antemortem note," he drawled.
-
-The prosecuting attorney smiled. "How did you know there was a note?"
-
-"Jeb," said the sheriff, "it is a part of the etiquette of suicide. No
-man effects his exit without a parting word. It would be bad form, Jeb,
-frightfully bad form."
-
-"So you guessed it?"
-
-"No," replied the sheriff, wearily, "my gray matter was allowed me for
-the purpose of utility. I concluded."
-
-The prosecuting attorney selected a letter from the package of papers
-and passed it over to the sheriff. That official examined the envelope
-carefully, then he slowly opened it and spread the enclosed letter out
-on the desk before him.
-
-"Octagon Coal Company," he read slowly, "Miners and Shippers of Coal
-and Coke, Welch, West Virginia. Robert Gilmore, President. Brown Hirst,
-Business Manager. All agreements are contingent upon strikes, accidents,
-and other delays unavoidable or beyond our control."
-
-The sheriff paused for a moment. "Written at the office," he observed,
-"with a pen, on the company's stationery."
-
-The guardian of order removed his eyeglasses, wiped them carefully,
-replaced them on his nose, and continued:
-
-"The officers of the law are informed that I, Brown Hirst, have taken my
-own life, deliberately and at a time when I am in the full possession of
-my faculties. My reasons for so doing are of no importance to the law,
-and are accordingly withheld. This statement is made merely for
-the purpose of preventing any inference of murder, and for no other
-purpose.--Brown Hirst."
-
-The sheriff replaced the letter in its envelope. "That," he said, "Is a
-sensible communication. By the very highest flame on the altar of folly,
-it is an exceedingly sensible communication. Where did you find it?"
-
-"The coat and vest," replied the lawyer, "were found lying carefully
-folded over the railing of the bridge. This letter was in the breast
-pocket of the coat. Hirst evidently went about his death with great
-deliberation. Still, I see no motive for suicide."
-
-"Jeb," drawled the sheriff, "you are _long_ on motives. Everything must
-have a motive stamped in red ink on its face. Can't you allow an obscure
-citizen to change his permanent residence and retain his reasons? The
-gentleman has said in his communication that his reasons are of no
-moment to the law. Can't you take the gentleman's word for it? It is n't
-courteous, Jeb. By the way, where is the corpse of the decedent?"
-
-"Within the sacred jurisdiction of the coroner."
-
-"And the medical fraternity?" inquired the sheriff.
-
-"Doctor Hart is over in Jacktown putting the finishing touches, it is
-said, on old Pap Dolan, so the coroner called in a miracle doctor from
-Cincinnati."
-
-The sheriff chuckled. "Miracle doctor," he drawled, "is good--is very
-good."
-
-The prosecuting attorney assumed the air of an instructor.
-
-"Healers," he began, "may be set down, for the purposes of a proper
-classification, under three great heads or grand divisions, namely,
-'yarb doctors,' 'old-line practitioners,' and 'miracle doctors.' Under
-the first class may be grouped those persons who seek to effect cures
-by means of the virtues of shrubbery, as well as that vast army of rural
-healers known along the watershed of the Alleghanies as 'bleeders' and
-'steamers.' Under the second great division are included those grave
-professional persons supposed to be learned in the mysteries of the
-human economy, who, for a fixed consideration, guess at the ill, and
-thrust in a chemical: while the third and final division is composed of
-those mysterious healers who affect to thwart dissolution by means of
-marvellous knowledge or marvellous skill peculiar to themselves.
-
-"The species of the first grand division infest all that great tract of
-country bounded by a timber line. The second great class obtains in the
-cities and villages, and affect buggies, drugs, and sombre dress.
-The third class is a by-product of congested civilization, and begins
-usually with a patent lotion, and ends usually with a hospital."
-
-White Carter waved his fat hand. "But, if your honor, please," he
-interrupted, "what did the miracle doctor say?"
-
-"He said," replied the prosecuting attorney, "that Brown Hirst was a
-compound fracture from the sustentaculum tali to the tripod of Haller;
-and from the tripod of Haller to the corpus callossum, he was a simple
-fracture."
-
-"Horrible," drawled the sheriff.
-
-"And he said further," continued the man of the law, "that the
-suiciding decedent was probably afflicted with some species of psychical
-neurosis."
-
-"_Domine miserere!_" murmured the guardian of order. "So the travelling
-�sculapius testified, and as the coroner was quite unable to spell the
-craft terms, he simply wrote down in the record that Doctor Leon Dupey
-of Cincinnati, after a careful examination, had pronounced Brown Hirst
-dead, which was far less prolix and entirely true."
-
-"That coroner," observed White Carter, "should be United States Senator
-from Kansas."
-
-Huron took up the note and put it with the other papers.
-
-"I judge this to be a plain case of suicide," he said. "I have carefully
-compared the writing with these letters. It is certainly Brown Hirst's
-writing. Still, men do not act without a motive, and I see no
-justifiable motive."
-
-"Well," said the sheriff, "I happen to know that financially the Octagon
-Coal Company is somewhat 'groggy.' How will that answer for a motive _ad
-interim?_ Or, as the sensible would say, in the meantime?"
-
-"Good," said the prosecuting attorney. Then he took a pencil from
-his pocket, and wrote on the back of the decedent's letter "Suicide.
-Motive--business depression," and replaced the papers in the safe.
-
-The sheriff arose. "The legend you have subscribed is probably correct,"
-he drawled, "but the ways of Providence are varied and mystic, and I
-think I shall make some observations in my own right." Then he went out.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-IT is quite plain," said Randolph Mason, "that you have fallen into
-the usual blunder of the common rogue. If you had wished to rob the
-insurance companies, you could easily have accomplished your end without
-perpetrating this crime, and thus assume the hazard of discovery and
-criminal prosecution."
-
-Robert Gilmore looked sharply at the counsellor.
-
-"You mean that I am seeking advice late?"
-
-"Precisely," said Mason. "It is the characteristic error of the
-witless."
-
-"Well," observed the coal operator, "in desperate positions one usually
-relies on one's-self; confederates are dangerous, and usually expert
-advice is difficult to obtain." Then he laughed. "I could not advertise
-for sealed bids on how the thing should be done. I did the best possible
-under the circumstances, and I rather thought that I had made a clean
-job of it."
-
-"That delusion," muttered Mason, "is common with the amateur. Indeed, it
-is the mark of him. This killing was useless. You could have gotten on as
-well without it."
-
-The keen, gray eyes of Robert Gilmore twinkled. "I should be interested
-to know how?" he said.
-
-"At this late hour," answered Randolph Mason, "my advice upon that
-point can be of no importance. Suggestions after the fact are of little
-interest and of no value. You have now to consider some method by which
-you may place yourself permanently beyond the reach of the law. This is
-no problem of slight moment, and, in order to meet it properly, I must
-know the details of this blundering business."
-
-The coal operator's face grew grave and thoughtful. "I presume," he
-began, "that the priest and the attorney are accustomed to require
-details and accurate confessions. I am president of the Octagon Coal
-Company, as I have said, and reside in the city of Philadelphia, where
-I have been engaged in active business for several years. My life beyond
-that time cannot be a matter of any special importance. I may add,
-however, that I had been engaged with a foreign company as a fire
-insurance adjuster for the State of Illinois for some years before
-coming to the East. It was while acting as an adjuster of losses that I
-first met with Brown Hirst.
-
-"An unusually large fire occurred in one of the suburban towns near
-Chicago, destroying almost an entire block, and I was sent out by my
-company to adjust the loss. Upon my arrival in the town I found what I
-believed to be evidence of a gigantic fraud. The block had been leased
-for a year by one John Hall for the purpose of doing a mammoth general
-business with a great number of different departments, and almost before
-Hall had opened his doors to the public this fire occurred. There was
-no explanation of how the fire originated. When first noticed by the
-police, about three o'clock in the morning, the building was blazing
-fiercely in a dozen places, and under such headway as to be impossible
-to control. The local fire department was unable to prevent the loss of
-the building, but fortunately a heavy rainstorm set in and prevented a
-total loss of the stock.
-
-"In conversation with Hall, I discovered that not one domestic company
-had a dollar on the building or its stock, but that the entire insurance
-was carried in my company and a number of London companies usually
-associated with it, and for whom I acted as general adjuster. This was
-of itself a suspicious circumstance, since the insured would not be
-subject to the inquisition of numberless representatives of convenient
-local companies, and in a legal fight would have the prejudice against a
-remote company in his favor, and, further, he would have but one man to
-deal with.
-
-"I observed immediately that Hall was a person of much shrewdness. He
-talked little, but what he had to say was exceedingly free from any
-suggestion of concealment or obscurity. When I came to examine the
-unburned stock, my suspicions were confirmed. It was composed entirely
-of bulky merchandise, evidently selected with a view to a fire.
-
-"The manner of its arrangement in the building was exceedingly
-suspicious. The boxes had been piled up before the windows in such a
-manner as to prevent the firemen from entering the building even after
-the iron bars had been cut, and the arrangement was such that when the
-fire should gain headway and the windows be opened, the position of the
-boxes would act as a sort of flue and thereby greatly assist the fire.
-It was all exceedingly well planned, and if the building had been
-entirely consumed, detection would have been impossible. Nothing could
-have prevented this but the unforeseen storm, and had it not occurred
-just when it did, Hall's scheme would have proved a masterpiece of its
-kind.
-
-"I gave the public no intimation of my conclusions concerning the
-incendiary nature of the fire, but when the investigation was concluded,
-I took Hall to the hotel, and told him frankly that my company would
-not pay the loss, as it was quite evident that it was all a shrewdly
-arranged scheme to defraud. I pointed out the suspicious circumstances,
-and the irresistible conclusion that flowed from them, and said plainly
-that Hall would do well to escape criminal prosecution.
-
-"To my utter astonishment, the man expressed no surprise whatever.
-When I had finished, he asked me a few searching questions intended
-to determine the thoroughness of my investigation, and when he was
-satisfied upon that point, he drew his chair up near to the table at
-which I was seated, and quietly proposed to divide the insurance if I
-would join with him and make the proper sort of report to my company.
-
-"In handling this proposition, Hall was marvellously skilful. He assumed
-to treat the matter purely as a business arrangement. He said that
-the loss, although big to us, was a very small matter to the wealthy
-companies which I represented, and would not be felt by them, and would
-cause no man any appreciable hurt; that he had gone to infinite
-pains and no little expense to perfect his plan, and nothing but the
-unfortunate storm could have prevented its complete success; that he
-had never intended to divide with any one, but accident against which he
-could not guard had placed me in a position to secure a portion of the
-very considerable sum which he had gone to so much trouble and expense
-to obtain, and, appreciating this new necessity, he was quite willing
-to allow me an equal division of the gain. At no time during his entire
-conversation was there any suggestion of danger or any allusion to any
-risk, criminal or otherwise.
-
-"It is unnecessary, I judge, to weary you with further details. Under
-the remarkable handling of this man, the element of substantial wrong
-seemed to disappear from the transaction, and the result was that I
-finally consented to join with him. He claimed two hundred thousand
-dollars. I reported to the company a complete loss, but advised a
-settlement at not more than one half of the sum claimed. This finally
-led to an adjustment at about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars,
-without the least suspicion of a community of interests between us.
-
-"It would not be quite true to assume that I easily fell in with Hall's
-plan, although in point of time it would seem so. Financially, I was
-in a bad way; from childhood I had been poor; always poor. In money
-matters, things invariably went wrong. Every hazard I had taken, every
-speculation in which I had entered, had always lost, no matter how
-substantial it seemed. At this time I was rather desperate, I presume.
-At any rate, I joined with the scheme, and it succeeded without a jar.
-
-"Thus I came to know Brown Hirst under his alias. We divided the money
-and deposited it with a trust company in Philadelphia until such time
-as we might safely join in some one of the numerous ventures which Brown
-Hirst was continually planning. But he was no dreamer, this Hirst. He
-knew fully the great virtue of deliberation, and insisted that I
-remain with the insurance company for at least a year, and then secure
-employment with another company on some reasonable pretext, and then by
-some error be discharged from this company, and if possible join with
-another, until finally I should drift out of the business without being
-subject to speculative comment.
-
-"These suggestions of Hirst I followed to the letter, and they resulted
-as he anticipated. I had now great confidence in the ability of this
-remarkable man. The details of his plans were as accurate as the pieces
-of a machine, and they seemed never capable of failure."
-
-The coal operator paused and rested his hands on the arms of his chair.
-
-"Even now," he said, "I consider Brown Hirst to have been the ablest man
-I ever saw."
-
-Randolph Mason was silent. His face indicated rather more of weariness
-than of interest. Perhaps the story in its substance was very old to
-him.
-
-"On the first day of September, 1893, I joined Brown Hirst in
-Philadelphia, and here he unfolded a number of gigantic plans, among
-others one for defrauding life insurance companies, which we finally
-decided to attempt. I do not now recall that I felt any real repugnance
-to the moral obliquity of these ventures. The mastermind of Hirst seemed
-to sweep out any moral consideration, by simply ignoring it utterly.
-When Hirst planned, it was all business, and, according to the ethics
-of business, quite as right as any. Indeed, the man was so phenomenally
-successful where I had always failed, that I never once dreamed of
-objecting to any plan which he deemed wise.
-
-"As I have said, Brown Hirst was as practical as a blue print. He used
-to assert that of all vices haste was the most abominable, and that
-before seeking to effect our venture it would be the part of wisdom to
-engage in some legitimate business for a few years in order to establish
-a reputation as a substantial business firm. Then our plans would be rid
-of the suggestion of adventurers. Besides, it would give us financial
-rating and substantial standing in the community in which we should
-begin our fraudulent operations, and as well, in the meantime, we could
-prepare our motives, which, Hirst asserted, should always be furnished
-ready-made to the public when investigation began.
-
-"We accordingly determined to purchase and operate a coal plant in West
-Virginia. This business was suited to our purpose rather better than any
-other, because men were continually coming and going in this business.
-Unknown companies were formed in remote cities and operated merely with
-an agent. The firm was rarely investigated to any very great degree, if
-it promptly met its obligations, and there being little opportunity for
-fraud, a good business standing could be easily secured by any manager
-who was reasonably expeditious in his transactions.
-
-"We secured a charter for the Octagon Coal Company, purchased a plant on
-the Norfolk and Western Railroad in the county of McDowell, and began to
-operate with Brown Hirst as manager and myself president of the presumed
-Philadelphia company.
-
-"Hirst was, as I have said, a man of fine business sense, and very
-shortly began to make money. We enlarged the plant, and soon came to
-be considered a firm of importance. When it grew apparent that we could
-succeed at a legitimate business, I began to urge Hirst to abandon his
-dangerous venture entirely, and devote his splendid abilities to the
-development of the coal industry; but he only laughed, and bade me
-remember that all this required work, and it was not his intention to
-spend his life at work."
-
-"Sir," said Randolph Mason, interrupting, "you are overlooking the
-important matter in your disclosure. What was this insurance scheme?"
-
-"Oh. yes," said the coal operator, "I was coming to that. It was our
-plan to secure heavy insurance on the life of Hirst, making his wife the
-beneficiary, and later have him disappear under circumstances indicating
-suicide."
-
-"That plan," said Mason, drawing down the heavy muscles of his mouth,
-"is ancient, and infantile, and trite; worthy of blunderers--children
-and blunderers."
-
-Gilmore looked at the lawyer for a moment critically, then he continued.
-"I presume the scheme is not new, but I rather think Hirst's plan for
-carrying it into effect was somewhat novel and unusually practical. At
-the time Hirst proposed this scheme he was unmarried, and, as a cold
-business proposition, he said that I should select some woman--any woman
-agreeable to me, whom I should like as a wife, then he would marry her,
-insure his life for her benefit, make his exit, and afterwards I should
-marry the woman and send half of the insurance money to him in Spain or
-Italy, where he had determined to take up his permanent residence.
-
-"He urged that it would be best to keep the woman totally ignorant
-of our plan, so that if anything should go wrong, she could not be
-implicated in a conspiracy, and, therefore, could not be prevented from
-obtaining the insurance as, she being the sole beneficiary and no fraud
-on her part being possible, any suspected or even assured fraud on my
-part would not void the policy payable to her, provided he, Hirst, could
-not be found within seven years.
-
-"Hence, two considerations were necessary in selecting the woman. First,
-she must be so situated as to reduce suspicion of her to the minimum.
-And, second, she must be one whom I could marry as Hirst's widow and
-thereby obtain the money. This part of the plan was allotted to me to
-complete. You will now see with what a remarkable man I was associated,
-and how little regard he entertained for the customs of human society.
-
-"In leaguing myself with this man's fortune I blundered fatally.
-My nature was entirely different. I could not shut out the natural
-emotions. I could not crowd out the human in me. I was no calculating
-machine like this man Hirst, and in carrying out my portion of the
-venture I made a frightful mistake.
-
-"I am not now going into the details of that mistake. It will be
-sufficient for the purposes of this interview to say that the woman
-whom Hirst finally married was a good woman, the daughter of a venerable
-churchman residing in one of the suburban towns of Philadelphia,--such
-a good woman that no sooner had the ceremony taken place than I began to
-regret having associated her with such a cold-blooded villain as Brown
-Hirst, and as the days ran by, that regret grew into a very passion of
-remorse."
-
-The man paused for a moment, raised his elbows up on the arms of his
-chair and locked his fingers.
-
-"I guess it was a sort of Providential judgment," he continued, "if such
-things are supposed to be in this practical time. I avoided the woman
-as far as possible, and strove to conceal my terrible regret, but it was
-quite useless. Hirst knew almost before I realized the feeling myself,
-and harshly bade me remember that this was business, and no matter of
-maudlin sentiment. He had no feeling whatever for the woman, and if I
-could wait for a little time the plan would very shortly give her to me.
-He warned me against what he was pleased to call 'nonsense,' and I must
-admit that the powerful personality of this man forced me into a sort of
-stolid subjection to his will. But the feeling for the woman remained,
-and I hated Hirst."
-
-Randolph Mason put out his hand as though to interrupt the speaker, but,
-appearing to reconsider, suddenly withdrew it and nodded to the coal
-operator to continue. The young man took no notice of the interruption.
-
-"Hirst," he went on, "like the master spirit that he was, proceeded to
-put the details of his plan into operation. From time to time he applied
-to the best companies in the country for insurance, and as he was
-considered a good risk, a man of fine physique, and in charge of a
-substantial business, he presently secured about two hundred thousand
-dollars on his life. These policies he carried for two years in order
-to avoid the suicide clause, and in order to render them as nearly
-incontestable as possible.
-
-"Finally, every arrangement having been completed, the time drew near
-when Brown Hirst determined to make the final movement in his scheme.
-But during these two years my hate of this man had not been idle. I
-don't know just what possessed me. I had no good reason to hate him.
-It was all, as he said, a business matter,--details in a pure business
-matter. But I did hate him, and, unconsciously, one does not know just
-how. I determined to take a part in his plan. I determined to make the
-play real. This determination was no sudden resolve; it seemed rather
-to evolve slowly until it finally became a fixed purpose. The motive
-for the supposed suicide, Hirst had by no means overlooked. It was to be
-impending financial ruin, and during the past year immediately preceding
-his death Brown Hirst drew great sums from the business, and finally
-mortgaged and remortgaged the entire coal plant and applied the money
-to the payment of his heavy insurance, so that at the time of his
-disappearance the business would be in a state of financial collapse,
-and the motive for his rash deed would be adequate and thoroughly
-apparent.
-
-"During all this time, Hirst operated in McDowell near the county seat
-of Welch, his wife remaining for the most part with her father, while I
-maintained a city office in Philadelphia. On the day set apart for the
-disappearance of Brown Hirst, there was a stockholders' meeting of our
-company at its principal office in West Virginia. It was a sham, but it
-was rumored that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss some measure
-that would relieve our business from impending ruin. This was the
-purpose made public. The real purpose was to account for my presence
-in McDowell. It was a part of Hirst's plan that I should remain behind
-after his disappearance in order to see that everything was properly
-arranged, and then take a night train for the East.
-
-"The preliminary details of that night's work were splendidly managed.
-We met together at the office of the company. Here Hirst wrote a letter
-explaining that he was about to take his own life, and placed it in the
-pocket of his coat.
-
-"Then he took a bundle of men's clothing, in which he intended to make
-his escape from the country. This bundle consisted of a grimy coat such
-as the ordinary miner wears, in the pockets of which he had placed a
-package of bank notes, a pocket-book containing a New York draft and a
-memorandum of his insurance policies.
-
-"The trousers, shoes, and other articles of this disguise Hirst wore
-when he left the office, it being his intention to leave his usual coat
-and vest on the bridge over Tug River, as evidence of the suicide, and
-then, assuming the remainder of his disguise, slip out to Cincinnati on
-the night freight.
-
-"From the office we went directly to the bridge over Tug River, for the
-reason, as Brown Hirst always maintained, that in order to leave perfect
-circumstantial evidence it was absolutely necessary to actually do as
-far as possible the things which one desired the public to believe one
-had done.
-
-"It was perhaps two o'clock, and very dark and wet. It had been raining
-for almost a week. This was largely in our favor, since the river
-at flood is deep and rapid, and a body lost in it when the water was
-running high would not probably be recovered at all, as we had noticed
-was the case with lumbermen not infrequently drowned; hence we had
-selected the time of heaviest rains in this region in order that the
-loss of the body should not seem a matter of unusual moment.
-
-"It might be as well to explain that when Tug River is swollen by rains
-its channel beneath the bridge is very deep and rapid nearest its east
-shore, while near the west shore its bed is higher and covered with
-immense bowlders; thus anything thrown into this river on its east
-side would probably be carried away and lost, while if dropped from the
-bridge on the west side it would probably lodge among the bowlders, and
-remain after the high water had subsided.
-
-"As I have said, it was very dark, and the roar of the waters was
-something frightful, but we were quite familiar with the bridge, and,
-becoming accustomed to the darkness, presently came to see sufficiently
-for our purposes.
-
-"Hirst went directly to the span of the bridge nearest the east shore,
-and, removing his coat and vest, placed them across one of the girders.
-Then he began to undo the bundle in order to put on the miner's clothing
-which he had brought with him.
-
-"This was my opportunity, and I suggested that we first walk to the
-other side in order to make sure that the bridge was entirely clear.
-He immediately put down the bundle and came up to me. I do not now know
-whether there was in his mind any trace of suspicion, but I do know that
-at this suggestion the man seized my arm and tried to look into my face,
-and I am certain that had it been light he would have discovered the
-treachery which I was contemplating. But it was dark, and the man said
-nothing except to curse the night. He was exceedingly profane, this
-Hirst, and as we walked the length of the bridge, he holding my arm
-and damning the night in half whispers, I somehow felt that this man
-appreciated in a vague way the doom that was impending. But I presume
-that this was simply an impression arising from the intense strain under
-which I was laboring.
-
-"As we were about to return, I pointed to the white surf, breaking on
-the bowlders below. The man, still holding my arm, stopped, leaned over
-the low railing, and peered down into the water. This was the position
-into which I had hoped to trap him, and, wrenching my arm loose
-suddenly, I struck him heavily between the shoulders. The man plunged
-forward over the railing, clutching wildly at the air, but he uttered no
-cry. and his body whirled downward into the blackness below.
-
-"I clung to the railing and strove to see where the body would strike,
-but it was folly. The bridge was high above the rough stream, and I
-heard only the dull splash that told of his death."
-
-The eyes of the coal operator seemed to stretch at the corners, and a
-dull gray spread over his face.
-
-"I should like to be rid of that scene," he continued after a moment.
-"It is frightfully vivid. Every detail of it seems to have been
-photographed on my brain, and it runs before me like the pictures in
-a vitascope. Men sometimes forget such things, it is said, but, in the
-name of Heaven, how? Why, I can see him any moment in the dark. I can
-see his strained white face mad with horror, I can see his clutching
-hands, I can feel in my own throat just how the terror of death choked
-in his, and I know, I know----"
-
-Randolph Mason struck his clenched fist heavily on the table. "Sir," he
-said sharply, "you will kindly omit this drivel. Give me the facts just
-as they occurred. You may reserve your melodrama for the purposes of a
-copyright."
-
-Gilmore started and threw up his head as though some one had suddenly
-dashed ice-water in his face. He put his hand up to his forehead and
-pressed his fingers hard against the skin; then he straightened in his
-chair and seemed to gain his self-control.
-
-"Well," he went on, "I went back to the east side of the bridge, threw
-the bundle over into the river, slipped through to the Chesapeake and
-Ohio on one of the night freights, and by noon of the same day I was in
-Philadelphia.
-
-"That afternoon the city office was advised of Brown Hirst's suicide.
-We immediately wired the prosecuting attorney for details, and were
-informed that he had jumped from the bridge, leaving a note in his
-pocket which explained that he had taken his own life. The body was
-shipped to Philadelphia, as his wife directed. Almost immediately I began
-to close the affairs of the Octagon Coal Company, and very shortly after
-the funeral I called upon Mrs. Hirst in order to take the preliminary
-steps looking toward the collection of her husband's insurance.
-
-"Here my plan struck and went to pieces like a vapor. The wife of Brown
-Hirst was a good woman, and I had failed to foresee what she would
-do under circumstances of this nature. To my utter astonishment, she
-informed me that the representatives of the insurance companies had been
-to see her and had asked time in which to investigate the case, and that
-she had gladly concurred in their request. And then, like a woman, she
-declared that there was no reason why her husband should commit suicide,
-and that she did not believe he had done so, but that, if he had
-deliberately taken his own life, she would not touch one dollar of the
-insurance money; that she would have nothing bought with life. If it
-could be shown that her husband was murdered, as she believed, then she
-saw no reason why she should not claim the insurance; but if, on the
-other hand, it proved true that he had planned to defraud the life
-insurance company for her benefit, and, pursuant to that awful plan,
-had hurled himself into eternity, then she would starve in an almshouse
-before she would touch a penny of the money.
-
-"This statement struck me with the crushing power of an axe stroke. The
-world seemed to pass out from under me. I saw every hope of the future
-vanish. I realized in a flash, as one is said to do at the grave's edge,
-in what a prodigious error I had been engaged."
-
-There must have been some suggestion of annoyance on the counsellor's
-face, for the coal operator stopped short and moved uneasily in his
-chair.
-
-"I was about to forget your instructions," he explained, with a shade of
-apology in his voice; "it is rather hard to crowd one's emotions out of
-a desperate, personal narrative like this, although, of course, it is
-all nonsense to rant about it.
-
-"To be brief, I was totally unable to shake this woman's purpose, and I
-returned to the city knowing that a tireless investigation was about to
-begin. I have not waited to see the result of this investigation. I know
-that the insurance companies and this unusual woman will leave no stone
-unturned in order to discover just how Hirst came to his death, and I am
-not fool enough to think that they will eventually fail. I don't believe
-any of the bosh about murder crying from the ground, but I am entirely
-convinced that it is almost impossible to cover a crime so that human
-ingenuity cannot trail down the man who committed it.
-
-"I judge that I was not intended for business of this sort. I cannot
-fight out in good order. With me a retreat is a rout. I have abandoned
-everything. I have thrown away every plan. I am trying now to save
-myself from the hangman, or at least the penitentiary. I have not waited
-to be caught; I have come to you at once."
-
-The man seemed to relax and settle back in his chair.
-
-"Now," he added, with the utter dependence of a patient stretched upon
-the table of the surgeon, "you must save me."
-
-The eyes of Randolph Mason flattened as though they were being pressed
-down from above, and the lines of his face deepened and widened into
-rugged furrows.
-
-"There are two methods of evading the law," he said. "The escape _ipso
-jure_ planned before the fact; and the escape _ipso jure_ after the
-fact. The first is a matter of no great difficulty, and may easily be
-prepared by any man reasonably conversant with the law of the place of
-his intended act, and if skilfully arranged need contain no element of
-hazard whatever. The latter is far more difficult, and must be handled
-with some care in order to reduce the element of peril to its minimum.
-In the first, one constructs the facts to suit the defects in the law,
-and if executed with any degree of intelligence, the criminal actor has
-nothing whatever to fear, and the law is as harmless as a painted devil.
-
-"In the latter, the expert must take the facts as circumstance and the
-blundering criminal agent have made them, and strive to adapt these
-prepared facts to the law as it stands, which is a far more difficult
-proceeding, and not infrequently attended with disastrous results. Hence
-the skill of certain criminal lawyers, and the long technical legal
-battles with which the books are crowded.
-
-"As for you, sir, the scheme in which you have been an actor was
-abominably planned, and more abominably executed. The most drivelling
-intelligence should have seen peril staring out from every infantile
-move made by you and this stupendous blunderer Hirst. You have taken
-an old, time-worn plan, teeming with dangers, and, not content with its
-frightful hazards, you and this witless Hirst have added one complicated
-peril after another until you have finally constructed a masterpiece of
-idiocy that in its complex nonsense approaches the sublime.
-
-"I wonder, sir, that you have not gone to the authorities and requested
-an execution. It would be a fitting sequel to your atrocious errors."
-
-The face of the counsellor was ugly with a sneer.
-
-"Your seeking counsel at once stands out as your one intelligent act.
-It is marvellous discretion, Judged by your narrative; marvellous and
-unexpected. Let us hope that your period of mental aberration is past."
-
-Then he arose and stood looking down at the man who, like many another,
-had striven to throw the machinery of human justice out of its proper
-gear, and had simply succeeded in tangling himself in its complicated
-wheels.
-
-"In order to save you now," said Randolph Mason, "we must move quickly.
-These great insurance companies have the ablest detective service of the
-world. With such a bungle as you have made, it is merely a question of a
-few weeks until they will succeed in fastening this murder upon you, not
-directly perhaps, but sufficiently to warrant your arrest, and then you
-must take your hazards with a jury. The man who to-day hopes to cover
-his crime well enough to baffle the keen and tireless search of a great
-life insurance company must be governed by something vastly nearer to an
-intelligence than that upon which you and the decedent Hirst depended.
-
-"At this stage of your blunder there are but two ways by which it is
-possible to put you absolutely beyond the reach of the law. Death is one
-way, and we will pass that. The other I am now going to bring to your
-aid. With it the greatest care and haste are vital. At nine to-night you
-must be here prepared to put yourself wholly in my hands. I shall have
-every arrangement complete by that time."
-
-Mason stopped short, and put his hand down heavily upon the table.
-
-"Now, sir," he said, bluntly, "it will be entirely useless for me to
-attempt the drastic measures necessary in your case unless you are
-prepared to act under my fingers like a machine. Can you do that?"
-
-"Yes," said the man, wiping the perspiration from his face.
-
-"Then," said Randolph Mason, opening the door of his private office, "go
-down to your hotel and sleep; and if you please, sir, do not think, or,
-to be more accurate, do not attempt to think. Your thoughts, as has been
-demonstrated, are of no value to you, and I assure you, sir, they will
-be quite useless to me."
-
-Then he closed the door after the departing criminal and went back to
-his desk.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-THE sheriff was riding slowly down the narrow mountain road to the ford
-over Tug River,--"Jim's Ford" the natives of McDowell had dubbed this
-crossing far back when the dry ginseng root was a legal tender for all
-debts public and private southwest, as the crow flies, from the county
-of Mercer. Whence the name had come, and by reason of what, tradition
-was silent. No doubt the original Jim had dwelt in this rugged gorge,
-and by accidental hap had given his name to this rocky ford that lived
-on and proclaimed him long after the man had passed out into the hands
-of the Wind.
-
-To the negro miner, seven miles up at the town of Welch, this rugged
-crossing, studded with great bowlders, was respectfully referred to as
-"Hell's Gap,"--respectfully, for no other reason than that the negroes
-were superstitious, and the mammoth gorge, silent as the grave floor,
-and deep and foggy except in the long summer afternoons, was calculated
-to conjure every grim phantom set down in the African catalogue.
-
-The sheriff pulled up his "dun" horse suddenly, and threw his leg over
-the pommel of his saddle. Just below him in the ford of the river was
-a man wading out into the water,--a tall mountaineer, bare-headed, his
-dress indicating a rather equal compromise between the barbarity of the
-village and the barbarity of the mountain. For upper garment he wore the
-red-fringed hunting shirt of his fathers and his grandfathers and on;
-and for nether garment, the blue overalls purchased at the country store
-for a haunch of venison or a bundle of hides. The mountaineer was tall,
-rugged, and powerful,--a proper inhabitant for such a place.
-
-"Spitler Hamrick," murmured the sheriff.
-
-"By every limping god! The toughest pine knot in the mountains of
-McDowell. I wonder what the old wolf is looking for."
-
-Then he tightened his knee on the pommel of the saddle and a slow smile
-crept over the features of the sheriff. "By my troth'" he drawled, "it
-is certain that Spitler is no Vere de Vere. Still, if blue blood ran
-to back, and bunches of muscles on the shoulders, Spitler's claim to
-princely lineage would be unquestioned."
-
-White Carter stopped short, and adjusted his eye-glasses. The
-mountaineer had gathered up a bundle from the river and was turning to
-wade ashore. The man did not at once see the sheriff; he was looking
-down into the water in order to avoid slipping on the smooth stones.
-When he stepped on to the rocky bank of the river, the sheriff called.
-At the sound, the mountaineer dropped the bundle and jerked up a
-Winchester that lay nearby against a bowlder. It was an act after the
-custom of the mountains. One armed himself first, and observed the "lay
-of the land" afterwards.
-
-White Carter remained perfectly motionless. "I would n't shoot,
-Spitler," he drawled, "it's vulgar."
-
-The mountaineer dropped the butt of his rifle on the stones, and looked
-up in astonishment. "Smoky hell!" ejaculated the mountaineer, "it air
-the sheriff. Smoky hell!" The refrain was a nervous idiom with Spitler
-Hamrick.
-
-White Carter put his hand into the pocket of his coat, took out a
-pipe, knocked the ashes from the bowl and began to fill it with
-great deliberation. This act, remaining after the red man had passed,
-proclaimed a status of dignified truce.
-
-The play of action faded from Hamrick's face, leaving it stolid, heavy,
-prodigiously indifferent. It was the mountain's stamp on its minion, the
-silence, and the abominable indifference of the rugged earth ground into
-the faces of the men who struggle for life on her stony breast.
-
-"Hot," observed the sheriff, crowding the bowl of his pipe and thrusting
-the tobacco down with his broad thumb.
-
-The mountaineer folded his arms over the muzzle of his rifle and leaned
-upon it heavily.
-
-"Yas," he responded, "warmish,"
-
-It was the full measure of salutation, and the full measure of
-introduction to all matters, important or unimportant, on the watershed
-of the Alleghanies. In the mountains no man hurried with his speech.
-There was time to be fully understood, and time to answer fully; then
-what one did afterwards, one was not so likely to regret. In the flat
-lands men are not so wise, perhaps.
-
-The sheriff struck a match on his saddle skirt, lighted his pipe, and
-puffed a cloud of blue smoke rings out over the placid ears of the
-"murky dun." Presently he took the pipe stem from between his teeth and
-looked down at the solitary proprietor of Jim's Ford.
-
-"Spitler," he drawled, "what 's in the bundle?"
-
-"Ye kin look," responded the mountaineer with prodigious unconcern.
-
-The sheriff replaced his pipe and lapsed into silence for a moment. Then
-he said:
-
-"Where did you find it, Spitler?"
-
-"I reckin ye saw," replied the scion of the house of Hamrick.
-
-The guardian of order looked up at the blue sky over the top of his nose
-glasses. Then he looked down. "Spitler,"--he said softly.
-
-The mountaineer interrupted. "Sheriff," he growled, "old Spitler Hamrick
-don't stand no shammackin' round the bush. Smoky hell! He aint never
-stood it. Things air goin' to be like this: ye kin mosey' down here and
-git this bundle, air ye kin ride on. But ye can't set on you hoss and
-jaw. Smoky hell! Ye can't set on you hoss and jaw."
-
-There was no circumlocution, no trick of equivocation, no shadow of
-obscurity in the speech of the denizen of Hell's Gap He used words for
-the purpose of expressing exactly what he believed to be true, and for
-no other purpose. This the sheriff knew, and others had learned and
-remembered by certain long glistening scars, covered afterward with the
-red flannel of their hunting shirts.
-
-White Carter removed his knee from the pommel of his saddle and slipped
-down to the ground. Here he paused for a moment, knocked the ashes from
-his pipe and replaced it in his pocket. Then he clambered down the steep
-bank to the river. The proprietor of Jim's Ford looked on with mighty
-indifference. The sheriff took up the bundle without a word, returned to
-his horse, and unbuckling the "throat latch" of his bridle, strapped the
-bundle to the horn of his saddle. Then he placed his right foot in the
-stirrup and turned to the mountaineer.
-
-"Spitler," he drawled, "we found a dead man in Tug the other day. I
-think this is his coat."
-
-The mountaineer looked up from the muzzle of his Winchester. "Were there
-lead in him?" he asked.
-
-The sheriff flung his leg over the saddle and gathered up his bridle
-from the horse's neck.
-
-"No bullet holes," he answered.
-
-"Then," said the giant Hamrick, "he were not killed in the hills."
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-IT was the first Monday of July, and the grand inquisitors of the
-county of McDowell were in laborious session. It was hot in Welch,--so
-hot that the sheriff had purchased a linen coat and departed for
-Atlantic City on a ten-dollar excursion, leaving the deputy, Salathiel
-Jenkins, to swelter with the grand jury. So hot that J. E. B. Huron,
-prosecuting attorney by selection of the Commonwealth, resorted to
-expressions not quite profane but nipping close to the border. So hot
-that the foreman from Charity Fork made continual odious reference
-to that historic locality over which Lazarus passed in the bosom of
-Abraham.
-
-The grand jury was a body mightily out of harmony with its inquisitorial
-affairs, especially on this sweltering Monday when the mercury was
-mounting heavenward. The members of the grand jury had removed their
-coats, they had unbuttoned their shirts, they had rolled up their
-sleeves to the limit over their great brown arms. It was hot--this grand
-jury. But it was jovial and good-natured, sixteen freeholders of the
-bailiwick turning aside for a day to bolster up the peace and dignity of
-the State. The characteristic apparel of the farmer, the hunter, and the
-miner was on this grand jury, but there were no collars; not even the
-"biled shirt" of notorious report. If one had spoken of a haberdasher or
-essayed to enumerate his wares in the land south of Tug River, he would
-have been regarded as a purveyor of "green furrin jabber," or been
-pitied as a hopeless victim of idiot mutterings.
-
-Thus do men hoot the customs of their fellows when in conflict with
-their own. One looking at this grand jury as an exhibit would have gone
-away regretting that the chief fad of Delilah had not been handed down
-in the county of McDowell, just as the jury would have wondered why the
-funny little man divided his hair in the middle like a woman and wore a
-tight band around his neck and a stiff breastplate of cloth and starch
-over his ribs, when he could dress like a Christian, and be comfortable.
-
-At two o'clock the sage body had concluded its inquisition, and was
-resting ponderously while the foreman. Abe Collister, of Charity
-Fork, was slowly and with infinite pain affixing his signature to the
-indictments. It was no small labor for one whose fingers were thick and
-broad and accustomed to implements little slighter in proportion than
-the handle of an axe or the stock of a Winchester.
-
-The facial contortions of this good freeholder as he strove in a
-clerical capacity would have won for him applause and fortune and wide
-repute in the cast of a comedy. It was Fate's way, better than genius
-could imitate, but no audience to see.
-
-It is the function of bodies of this sort to be severe, and it is their
-way to be most amiable. The prosecuting attorney, it was maintained,
-ought to know what he wanted. He was paid to know. It was his business.
-If he thought it wise to send in witnesses charging one with a crime,
-then the charge should be found. This conclusion was a splendid working
-hypothesis, pregnant with expedition, but not quite in accord with the
-ideal _jus_.
-
-So the grand jury rested as the afternoon grew apace, while the
-scripturian from Charity Fork toiled, and the prosecuting attorney
-went down to his office in order to "see if there was anything else he
-wanted." It was at this hour of lull, that a nervous little man hurried
-into the office presided over by the industrious daughter of the house
-of McFadden, and inquired for Mr. Huron. The red genius replied that he
-was busy. According to this oracle, young Mr. Huron was always busy. His
-continual status was one of tireless toil,--as continuous as a mortgage,
-and as tireless as a gas meter.
-
-Just then the prosecuting attorney came out on his way to the grand jury
-room. The little man rushed up and demanded an immediate audience. The
-two returned to the private office and closed the door. Here the little
-man looked at his watch and announced that things would have to
-be rushed, and launched into the subject. He explained with almost
-breathless rapidity that he was a detective from New York, representing
-Loomey's Agency. As he talked, he threw back his coat revealing a
-badge which Mr. Huron did not stop to examine. He said that he had been
-working on the case of Brown Hirst; that he had finally discovered
-that Hirst had been murdered, foully murdered by one Robert Gilmore,
-president of the Octagon Coal Company; that he had the case tightened
-around Gilmore beyond the remotest shadow of probability; that Gilmore,
-it seemed, had by some means learned of the damning evidence gathering
-against him, and was attempting to fly from the country; that he had
-left Philadelphia disguised as a cattle drover, and would pass through
-Chares-ton, West Virginia, at midnight on the Chesapeake and Ohio
-Railroad, and if he was not then arrested, he would probably escape
-entirely, or, at the least, subject his trailer to the expense and the
-tedium of an extradition; hence the detective had hurried to Welch in
-order to secure an indictment at once and return to Charleston in a
-position to arrest the man and hold him under a legal warrant that would
-be valid and unquestioned.
-
-He explained that he must leave at three o'clock in order to reach the
-Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in time, and requested that he be permitted
-to go at once before the grand-jury, which he had learned was now in
-session.
-
-The prosecuting attorney listened in astonishment, but he was a man
-familiar with the startling surprises of criminal investigation, and
-he set himself to act with the expedition which the matter required. He
-went at once to the grand jury with the detective, and explained that he
-had just received information tending to the conclusion that Brown
-Hirst had been murdered; that the witness with him was John Bartlett, a
-detective from New York, who had worked up the case and would give full
-information concerning the facts of the crime. He then added that as Mr.
-Bartlett would be compelled to leave within the hour, he would return
-to his office and prepare an indictment for murder. In the meantime the
-grand jury could determine whether the information was sufficient to
-sustain the charge, and, if so, the indictment would be ready and Mr.
-Bartlett could return to Charleston without unnecessary delay.
-
-Then he withdrew, and the grand jury of McDowell, braced by the gust of
-sudden sensation, straightway forgot how very warm it was and began to
-put itself into a state of ponderous bovine expectancy.
-
-The witness Bartlett sat down by the table, took out his watch, looked
-at it anxiously, then snapped the case and returned it to his pocket.
-
-The foreman put down his pen very carefully, mopped his wet face with
-a great red cotton cloth, and strove to assume the gravity of his
-position.
-
-"Your name's Bartlett, stranger?" said the scripturian, feeling that
-it was becoming for him to set the wheels of judicial investigation in
-motion, but not quite certain of the method. "You are a detective man:
-and I 'low you know all about this here little trouble?"
-
-The latter part of the query was a stock question with the foreman. All
-day long, every crime, from homicide to assault and battery, had been
-dubbed by this arch inquisitor as "this here little trouble." If there
-was any big trouble south of Tug River, it was not deemed to be within
-the purlieus of the _lex scripta_ or the _lex non scripta_ of the county
-of McDowell.
-
-The detective saw the open opportunity to thrust in his testimony as a
-narrative, and seized it. He leaned over on the table, assured himself
-of the attention of the jury, and began to talk.
-
-He told how he had trailed this matter down; how the Octagon Coal
-Company was financially on the verge of ruin, and it was his theory that
-Gilmore, as president, had been stealing largely from the company;
-that Hirst had finally suspected this theft and had summoned Gilmore to
-McDowell; how the dangerous man had obeyed the summons, had quarrelled
-with Hirst in the office, finally killed him, and in order to cover the
-crime had carried the body to the bridge and thrown it over, arranging
-the evidence to appear like a suicide. He painted in lurid colors the
-desperate character of this man Gilmore; he pointed out how fearful of
-arrest the murderer of Hirst was, at that very hour hurrying westward in
-order, as he believed, to put himself beyond the reach of the law.
-
-The witness talked on glib and shrewdly, and while he talked, the jury,
-unfamiliar with the rules of evidence, grew indignant and bitter, and
-fired with a sense of the gigantic outrage.
-
-Presently the door opened and the prosecuting attorney entered with the
-indictment.
-
-"Are you ready to vote on the matter, gentlemen?" he asked.
-
-The foreman nodded slowly. "I guess we are, Jeb," he answered.
-
-"Then," responded the prosecuting attorney, "Mr. Bartlett and myself
-will withdraw."
-
-The witness arose and followed Mr Huron out of the jury room.
-
-When the door had closed, the chief inquisitor from Charity Fork picked
-up the indictment., turned it over curiously in his ponderous hand, and
-then laid it down on the table with the back up. Then he took up his
-pen and jabbed it down into the ink pot.
-
-"Boys," he observed, cheerily, "the Good Book says, 'None shall escape,
-no not one.' What about this here one?"
-
-"I reckon," drawled Uriah Coburn, sage and philosopher, and most
-venerable member from Injun Run, "I reckon the Good Book air right, I
-reckon we better flop him."
-
-"Flop" was an accurate idiom in McDowell, and, being translated, meant,
-"to throw heavily."
-
-To this the grand jury agreed with many and various methods of assent.
-So the member from Charity Fork took a new grip on his pen, thrust his
-tongue out of the corner of his mouth, and slowly and with great labor
-inscribed on the back of the indictment this legend, big with the
-injured dignity of the Commonwealth: "A True Bill. Abraham Collister,
-Foreman."
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-AT high noon on the following day Salathiel Jenkins, chief deputy of
-the absent Carter, was a voluble factor in McDowell. He explained with
-many a dash of color just how "me and Bartlett" had taken the fleeing
-Gilmore from a midnight train and transported him to the jail at Welch,
-where he now languished. How brave they had been, how expeditious, and
-how marvellously successful in each of their desperate moves. Salathiel
-Jenkins was a young person who considered himself of huge importance to
-the economy of nature,--an opinion with which the world at large failed
-to concur. The conservative Carter had expressed it all long ago when he
-remarked with immense gravity that Salathiel Jenkins was not wise. But
-the deputy's potential was high, and he talked. He explained that
-the prisoner had employed legal counsel, with whom he had been in
-consultation since his arrival in the town. He explained that Mr.
-Bartlett had advised the prosecuting attorney to force the case to a
-trial at once in order to avoid an application for bail, and in order
-to prevent the prisoner from being unduly assisted by any accomplice he
-might have in the East.
-
-He explained that the evidence against Gilmore was overpowering, that
-there were witnesses who knew something of the matter, and he had the
-subpoenas in his pocket.
-
-He explained that John Bartlett was the greatest detective in the
-Republic, and that the days on earth of Robert Gilmore were growing
-lamentably short. The self-importance of young Mr. Jenkins gushed
-and bubbled and expanded until it threatened to bulge his anatomical
-proportions, and he talked and he talked. He descanted with acrimonious
-criticism upon the fact that Mr. Huron had asked for time in which to
-examine the evidence, and that he and the great Bartlett had labored to
-convince him that the case should be put to trial at once, and that they
-had had a lot of trouble, but that it was all right now, and when court
-convened in the morning the case would be called and pushed, and
-he gloried in the fact that he and Bartlett had assumed large
-responsibility for this splendid expedition.
-
-It thus came about that the court-room was so crowded on the following
-morning that the judge as he came down to his bench had literally
-to elbow his way through. The details of this morning's procedure
-demonstrated that while the deputy Jenkins had talked he had been
-telling the truth. After the docket was called, the prosecuting attorney
-arose and requested that a jury be empanelled for the trial of the case
-of the State vs. Gilmore.
-
-The judge expressed some surprise at this unusual haste, and intimated
-that if an objection was urged he would continue the case to a later day
-of the term. To his surprise, however, counsel for Gilmore replied that
-he was quite ready for trial.
-
-Whereupon a jury was had and the case ordered to proceed. The opening
-statement of the prosecuting attorney was frank. It gave the history of
-the case as he had heard it from Bartlett, admitting freely that he
-had been unable to investigate the matter personally, but upon his
-information he was convinced that the prisoner was guilty.
-
-To this the counsel for Gilmore replied that the State was laboring
-under a stupendous delusion; that Mr. Gilmore was a gentleman of
-standing, and that it would quickly appear that there was no cause for
-subjecting his client to the odium of a criminal prosecution.
-
-The spectators were not a little disgusted with the tame proceedings.
-They had expected a keen and spirited struggle with the startling
-thrusts and parries of a bitter legal affair. They had hoped to hear the
-steel grate, and to see the blades dart forward and bend and fly back,
-as the champion of the State and its enemy strove for some master
-vantage. They hoped for the fierce interests and the quick sharp thrills
-incident to the grim fight of a desperate criminal for his liberty and
-his life, and they were disgusted.
-
-Their strong pugnacious spirit sympathized with Gilmore and damned his
-counsel. In the picturesque speech of an auditor from "Dog Skin," "The
-lawyer was a quitter."
-
-The case progressed with almost exasperating insipidity.
-
-The prosecuting attorney proceeded with great deliberation, and with the
-air of one who maintains a thunderbolt in reserve. He proved the death
-of Brown Hirst by the coroner and others; he introduced the books of the
-company showing its financial standing; and put in such other matters of
-unimportant evidence as were easily at hand. To all this the counsel for
-Gilmore made no objection. To the observer, he was stupidly indifferent.
-
-The prosecuting attorney then placed the detective John Bartlett on the
-stand. Bartlett explained with great volubility that he was a member of
-Latency's Detective Agency; that he had learned of the mysterious death
-of Brown Hirst, and hoping to obtain the reward offered by Hirst's
-widow, had gone to her and requested permission to investigate the case.
-He explained that he had learned that the Octagon Coal Company was in
-desperate financial straits; that the president, Robert Gilmore, who
-resided in the city of Philadelphia, had been in the county of McDowell
-on the night of Hirst's death, and from these data he had formulated his
-theory to the effect that Gilmore had been stealing from the company;
-that this fact had been discovered by Hirst, and that they had come
-together in McDowell for the purpose of discussing this matter; that
-there the two men had quarrelled, and the result was that Hirst had been
-killed and his body thrown into the river, and the evidence of suicide
-manufactured by Robert Gilmore.
-
-The detective explained further that being advised that Robert Gilmore
-intended to leave Philadelphia for St. Louis, and fearing that it was
-an attempt on the part of the president of the Octagon Coal Company
-to escape from the country, he had hurried to McDowell and secured an
-indictment.
-
-Upon cross-examination it at once appeared that this detective had no
-knowledge of any fact whatever, but was merely speaking from certain
-conclusions which he was pleased to call his theory. The attorney for
-the defense moved to strike out the evidence of this witness, which was
-accordingly done, much to the chagrin of John Bartlett, detective, and
-Salathiel Jenkins, deputy-in-extraordinary to the sheriff of McDowell.
-
-The prosecuting attorney then proceeded to spring his sensation.
-He announced to the court that during the night Gilmore had made a
-confession to Mr. Jenkins, the deputy, and that he desired to have
-Mr. Jenkins sworn and his testimony introduced. Accordingly the
-irrepressible Jenkins, by virtue of an oath properly administered, was
-transformed into a witness for the State of West Virginia.
-
-Before the witness was permitted to launch into his marvellous story of
-the self-condemnation of Robert Gilmore, the attorney for the defense
-arose and demanded permission to inquire into the circumstances under
-which the alleged confession had been obtained. The judge replied that
-such inquiry was entirely proper, and the attorney for the defense
-began.
-
-The ways of Providence are without premonition. At the first onslaught
-of the attorney for Gilmore, the importance of the testimony of
-Salathiel Jenkins vanished like a New Year's resolution. Yes, he had
-gone to the prisoner together with John Bartlett; he had explained
-that he was the deputy sheriff of the county of McDowell; that he was a
-person of influence; that the prisoner was in grave peril; and that, if
-a full confession were made, he, Jenkins, would induce the authorities
-of the law to deal leniently with the prisoner. He was a person of
-importance, he said, and, in the absence of the sheriff, the first
-guardian of all the law and order in the county of McDowell; if the
-prisoner would confess, he, Salathiel Jenkins, could save him from the
-hangman, and he would do it.
-
-These were the conditions under which the alleged confession was made.
-
-At this point in his narrative, the attorney for the prisoner stopped
-the witness, and objected to the introduction of the confession as
-having been improperly obtained. The court very promptly sustained the
-objection, and directed the witness to stand aside.
-
-The prosecuting attorney arose and asked the court to _nolle_ the
-indictment and permit the case to be dismissed. The judge reminded him
-that the case was at trial, and that such action could not now be taken;
-that the request should have been made before a jury was called; it was
-now too late, since the control of the cause had passed from the hands
-of the State.
-
-Young Mr. Huron, prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell, was
-lost, rudderless, upon an unknown sea. He arose and explained that he
-had not had an opportunity to investigate the evidence; that he had not
-spoken with the witnesses; that he had depended upon John Bartlett
-and the confession made to Salathiel Jenkins in order to convict the
-prisoner, and that, failing with these, he had no further evidence to
-introduce.
-
-The court interrupted this speech of explanation, and reminded the
-attorney that the State could not urge such excuses; that the prisoner,
-having been put to the hazard of a defense, was entitled to have his
-cause legally determined; a _nolle prosequi_ could not now be entered,
-and the case must proceed.
-
-To this the young attorney, having recovered his composure, replied that
-the State had nothing more to offer, and resumed his seat.
-
-The counsel for Gilmore at once moved the court to direct a verdict of
-not guilty, which was accordingly done and the prisoner discharged.
-
-Mystic, and varied, and without premonition are the ways of Providence.
-When the negro miner went down into the sunless temples of the earth on
-this Wednesday of July, Salathiel Jenkins was a person of high estate,
-crowding mightily the orbit of his employer. And when the negro miner
-came up at evening, this same Salathiel Jenkins was a crestfallen
-underling, shrinking like a rotten value. The ordeal was frightful. The
-pride of young Mr. Jenkins had gone through a process of sublimation
-most excruciating. And yet how abominably indifferent nature was. The
-books in the office of the sheriff were the same. The trees, the river,
-and indeed the entire outside world were quite as large as they had
-been. Only the importance of the deputy had shrunk, and was shrinking.
-Master of folly! Would it stop short of microscopic? The vice of his
-yesterday loomed clear-cut like the angles of a wall. He had talked,
-talked. It was the deadliest error. In the name of that notorious Simon
-of infantile record, was there no God to save the witless from himself?
-
-The crowd passed out of the court-room, and, sauntering down by the
-office of the miserable deputy, paused to harpoon him as it drifted
-by. The weather was fine for scaffold building, it observed. Would the
-deputy spring the trap in the absence of his chief? it was interested
-to know. Could he tie a hangman's knot? Would he be pleased to have the
-gracious assistance of his fellows? And more ingenious proddings, while
-the weary Jenkins perspired and shrunk, but was silent. This he had
-learned: like as the great lessons of life by hap learned too late.
-
-And that same night John Bartlett and Robert Gilmore hurrying eastward
-in a Pullman car on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad remarked with large
-favorable comment that the ancient doctrine of _lex vigilantibus non
-dormientums subvenit_ was marvellously true in this practical time.
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-ON the night of the seventeenth day of July the judge of the criminal
-court of McDowell walked into the office of the sheriff. He was in no
-altruistic mood, this jurist. Since his fortunate political affiliations
-had thrust him into a high estate his dignity sat upon him heavy as a
-fog. He had been sent for. It was thoughtlessness approaching near to
-disrespect. When the tall jurist entered, the crowd in the office of
-White Carter arose.
-
-"Judge," drawled the sheriff, coming forward, "you must pardon the
-centurion for taking this liberty with the tribune, but we were holding
-a secret war council, and presently required the fountain of law. I am
-sure you won't mind, Judge."
-
-The fountain of law flung aside his injured feeling with a wave of his
-slim hand.
-
-"It is all right, Carter," he observed. "But why the conclave? Good men
-should be abed."
-
-"'Day unto day uttereth speech,'" drawled the sheriff, "and night unto
-night showeth knowledge. And just here the hurt lies. The boys have been
-crowding the day and shirking the night turn."
-
-Then he stepped back by his companions and added: "Young Mr. Huron we
-will overlook as familiar in your honor's forum. The other gentleman is
-Mr. Hartmyer Belfast, in the secret service of the New York life
-insurance companies."
-
-The judge nodded cordially and sat down by the table. The others also
-resumed their seats, while the sheriff removed his eye-glasses, placed
-them carefully on the forefinger of his fat right hand, and began to
-explain.
-
-"While I was absent, I believe, one Robert Gilmore was indicted here and
-tried for murder, which trial resulted in a verdict of not guilty, the
-evidence being insufficient to sustain the charge. It now appears
-that Gilmore did kill Hirst, and that he can now be convicted with the
-evidence in the possession of Mr. Belfast and myself."
-
-The judge elevated his eyebrows, but volunteered no comment.
-
-The sheriff continued. "At the time of Hirst's death I was not quite
-certain that it was suicide. The coat and vest found on the bridge did
-not correspond to the trousers and shoes of the deceased, which were the
-ordinary rough articles worn by the miners. There was no explanation for
-such dress on the part of Hirst. Later I found a miner's coat at Jim's
-Ford which corresponded to the other clothing of Hirst. This coat had
-been tied in a bundle and thrown into the river above--probably at the
-bridge. Stitched in the lining was a pocket book belonging to Brown
-Hirst containing some money and a draft on New York, together with a
-memorandum of a number of life insurance policies. These matters led me
-to believe that Hirst had planned to secure the insurance on his life by
-arranging a counterfeit suicide, but by some means the plan had failed
-after the evidence had been prepared and he had come to a violent death,
-probably by the hand of another.
-
-"But the matter was involved in mystery, and I deemed it best to retain
-my conclusions until further developments should appear. I wrote to the
-various companies with which Hirst was insured, explaining the facts
-which I had determined. They replied that the matter was in the hands of
-Hartmyer Belfast, their secret agent, and that I would be advised when
-the investigation was complete.
-
-"A few days since the companies wired me that Mr. Belfast might be
-expected to appear in my county at any time, and yesterday he called
-upon me."
-
-The sheriff moved a little closer to the table, and the drawl seemed to
-slip out of his speech.
-
-"It can now be shown that Robert Gilmore came to McDowell for the
-purpose of assisting Hirst to manufacture evidence of a suicide; that he
-went with him upon the bridge, and after enticing Hirst to the rail of
-the bridge, suddenly threw him over into the river. The train men can
-be produced who saw Gilmore when he arrived and when he departed on the
-night of the murder. All of this evidence has been carefully prepared.
-In addition, it can be shown that immediately after his trial, for some
-mysterious reason Gilmore went directly to Philadelphia and arranged
-for a conference with the widow of Brown Hirst. Of this Mr. Belfast had
-notice, and, by request of Mrs. Hirst, he was present, concealed in
-an adjoining room. This conference between Gilmore and Mrs. Hirst was
-remarkable. The man was deeply affected, and said that he had come to
-tell her the entire history of his villainy, because he loved her, had
-loved her always, and now knew that he could never have her. Whereupon
-he explained that Hirst and himself had planned to rob the insurance
-companies; that Hirst's marriage to her was part of the scheme, but
-that he, Gilmore, had grown to love her, and to regret his action in
-procuring the marriage, and so frightfully had this grown upon him that
-finally he had killed Hirst.
-
-"He then explained the minute circumstances of the death, adding that he
-had been tried and acquitted, and would now leave the country, but that
-something in his bosom would not rest until he had told her the entire
-truth. So we have now, I judge, a complete case, together with the
-confession, which, I am told, will be quite proper evidence, and
-with such a case there can now be nothing in the way of Gilmore's
-conviction."
-
-"Nothing at all," observed the judge, dryly, "except the Constitution of
-the United States of America."
-
-The sheriff sat down suddenly and replaced the eye-glasses on his fat
-nose.
-
-"You mean," said the prosecuting attorney, "that the prisoner cannot be
-put twice in jeopardy for the same offense?"
-
-"Unless," responded the judge, "the judicial machinery in McDowell can
-be held exempt from the Constitution of the State and the Constitution
-of the Federal Government, a conclusion," he added, with prodigious
-gravity, "in which I should rather hesitate to concur upon a casual
-hearing. Having been once properly tried for murder, this man cannot be
-again tried for the same offense."
-
-"It has been held," said the prosecuting attorney, "that where the first
-trial was procured by the fraud of the prisoner, the case did not come
-within the provisions of the Constitution."
-
-"True," replied the judge, "there is an early case in Virginia, and
-later cases of record, but the fraud must be gross and apparent. What
-fraud could be shown here? The indictment was properly found, the trial
-was regular, no suspicion of conspiracy attaches to the officers of the
-State, nor can it be shown that even misstatements were made, unless
-a plain conspiracy can be shown on the part of this detective, John
-Bartlett." Then he turned to the secret agent of the life insurance
-companies. "How about this Bartlett?" he asked.
-
-"So far as I can learn," replied the detective, "Bartlett made no false
-statements. He is a member of Loomey's Agency in New York. It is true
-that he called on Mrs. Hirst and requested permission to investigate the
-case. What he stated to the prosecuting attorney as facts were facts.
-Of course, his theory was wrong, and his deductions incorrect; but for
-these, I presume, he could not be held responsible. I have investigated
-the matter with care, and while it is extremely probable that this trial
-was shrewdly procured by Gilmore, yet it has been so skilfully handled
-that no fraudulent proceeding could be shown on the part of Bartlett,
-although I am quite certain of his villainy."
-
-The sheriff rubbed his hands with the bland unction of a Hebrew at a
-"fire sale."
-
-"Jeb," he drawled, "I guess you're it. I guess the thing is all over but
-the shouting."
-
-"Well," responded the prosecutor, "I judge there are others. How about
-the lamented Jenkins, erstwhile representative of the sheriff of
-McDowell? Is the young man Absalom safe?"
-
-A faint ripple of merriment spread over the fat face of the sheriff.
-"Boys," he mused, "it was a keen flim-flam. Let us quietly disperse, and
-endeavor to live it down." Then he added wearily. "It may be good to be
-good, but it is safer to be smooth."
-
-The judge arose. "Mr. Gilmore has been tried and acquitted," he
-observed. "The record is complete. He cannot be held again to answer
-for this crime, even though he be pleased to proclaim his guilt from the
-housetops."
-
-"Then," said the detective, with the dreary deliberation of one retiring
-from a failing cause, "this murderer cannot be punished."
-
-The dreamy blue eyes of White Carter swam listlessly
-
-"Perhaps," he drawled, "when the gentleman shall have passed the
-melancholy flood with that grim ferryman whom poets write of unto the
-Kingdom of Perpetual Night."
-
-_(See Code of West Virginia, Chap, cxxiv., Sec. 14, Chap, cvi., Sec. 25;
-also Chap. cxxv. See any good text book on Landlord and Tenant. The
-case also of Martin Admix vs. Smith it al., 25 West Virginia, 579, and
-casts cited.)_
-
-
-
-
-THE GRAZIER
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE driller of the Bonnie Mag No. 3 had been keeping his weather eye
-on the public road all the long summer afternoon; exacting and laborious
-duties had obtained under the shadow of the oil derrick on this
-nineteenth day of August, quite sufficient to have distracted the
-attention of the ordinary man, but through it all the driller had
-maintained his watch. The pumper, a grimy mortal, who regarded the
-monster oil company as the sole and omnipotent power of the universe,
-had marked this apparent anxiety of the driller, and inquired, with some
-trace of humor, if that gentleman was expecting to see grease gush
-up out of the road. To which the driller had responded with barbaric
-profanity that the pumper had been employed to pump, and that he might
-hold his position by holding his tongue, but not otherwise. A suggestion
-that banished all levity from the speech of the pumper. Besides, there
-was a red glint in the eyes of the driller, and the underling of the
-great oil company appreciated perfectly the full significance of the
-sign. He had noticed it before on divers eventful occasions, especially
-on a certain morning when being interrupted by an order of the Circuit
-Court, the driller had promptly suggested to the deputy sheriff that
-he might go to the infernal regions with his injunction; and instead of
-suspending operations until the legal forum could determine the title
-to the realty, he had complied with his contract by pushing his well
-through to the Gordon sand.
-
-It was true indeed that the Circuit Court had attached t he body of the
-driller and bringing him up before its august presence fined him two
-hundred dollars for contempt, but the old man had paid over the money
-without the hesitation of a moment and immediately thereafter consigned
-the Circuit Court to the same heated region originally suggested to the
-deputy sheriff.
-
-The sun had gone down, and the twilight was beginning to gather on the
-oil field. The shadows darkened across the long sloping valley, and the
-great derricks in the half light looked dark and gaunt and threatening
-like some grim engines of war. It was now difficult to observe the
-highway from the oil wells far up on the hill side, and the driller,
-who evidently intended to maintain his surveillance of the county
-thoroughfare at any cost, stepped out from the shadow of the derrick and
-began to wipe his hands on the grass; when he had finished he turned to
-the pumper. "Just keep your eye on that cable," he said curtly, "I'll be
-back when you see me coming." Then he turned and walked slowly down the
-path to the road.
-
-The soft breath of wind creeping up from the North through the rift in
-the low hills brought with it no sound, save the dull ceaseless thump
-of the engines drawing streams of liquid wealth from a thousand narrow
-arteries leading down into the bosom of the earth. This great industry,
-not content with changing the civilization, had changed also the very
-face of the land; two years before this fluttering summer breeze had
-carried with it the murmur of ripening corn fields, the sweet odor of
-quiet pasture land where herds of fattening cattle wandered through
-fields of blue grass. Now, the lands were marked with wagon roads,
-studded with the rough shanties of the pumpers and the gigantic wooden
-tanks of the great oil companies; and here and there, like the twisted
-ugly back of some huge serpent, a black pipe line stretched its
-interminable length across the broken country. Greed ruled the world,
-and beauty, like many another gift of nature, was battered out under his
-hammer.
-
-The oil driller stopped at the road side and leaned his long body on the
-rail fence. He was a thin, old man, with sharp, emaciated features, his
-hair and iron-gray beard were matted with oil, and his long arms, bare
-to the elbow and burned black by the sun, glistened greasy as the piston
-of his engine. The ancient workman kept his watch in dead silence, and
-beyond this his face showed no interest. This man belonged to that iron
-type upon which the world has depended so much for its civilization,
-that type which no matter where placed toils on in its station like
-a machine, unquestioning, tireless, reliable as a law. In the rank of
-their legions it had extended the rule of the Caesars; on the broad
-decks of the men-of-war it had widened the dominion of Great Britain;
-and in the mines and mills and forests of America it had reared and
-maintained and enriched a Republic; growing greater than them all.
-
-Presently in the deepening twilight a huge shadow appeared at the foot
-of the long hill, and the driller heard distinctly the sound of a horse
-coming leisurely up the sandy road. As it approached, the indefinite
-shadow took on a clear and decided outline, until one in the position
-of the driller could have seen that it was an enormous man, riding a
-red roan horse. The man was leaning forward, his head down and his hands
-resting on the pommel of his saddle, while the bridle reins dangled
-loose in his fingers. When they were opposite, the driller spoke.
-
-"Is that you, Alshire?" he said.
-
-The giant threw bark his great shoulders and stopped his horse with
-a wrench on the bridle "Morg Gaston!" he announced with some trace of
-surprise in his voice, then he added, half-apologetically, "what's the
-good word with you?"
-
-The driller climbed heavily over the big staked-and-ridered fence, "I
-saw you go down this morning," he said, "and I have been watching for
-you back; I want to tell you something."
-
-Then he came over to the middle of the road and rested his greasy chin
-on the mane of the red roan.
-
-"Hell of a high horse," said the driller.
-
-"Seventeen hands," responded the giant.
-
-The old man ran his eyes slowly over the immense proportions of the
-traveller, his deep, powerful chest, his broad, thick shoulders and his
-massive limbs almost grotesquely huge.
-
-"You are not little yourself," he observed, as though announcing a
-discovery, "and I am darned glad of it, leastways I was darned glad of
-it that morning old Ward's rotten derrick blowed down, and you chanced
-along and lifted her off me. I was pinned under them timbers like a
-rat."
-
-The man laughed, but his face in the dark was not merry. The driller
-extended his close inspection to the horse; when he had finished he
-stepped back in the road and an expression of intense admiration spread
-itself over his rugged features.
-
-"By jolly!" he said, "you are a pair to draw to."
-
-The giant patted the withers of the great horse.
-
-"Cardinal is a good colt," he replied, "good as they grow."
-
-The driller stood for some moments gazing almost worshipfully at the
-pair; then he straightened suddenly and coming up close to the horse
-rested his arms, wet with petroleum, on the pommel of the saddle.
-
-"Alshire," he said, lowering his voice, "the Company thinks there is
-grease under your land. I was up to see the manager last night, and
-while I was there the engineers came in with the maps, and they all
-agreed that the head of the pool was about under your farm. You are
-nigh on to three miles east of the development, but the belt is surely
-running your way; this here last well that the Company plugged is forty
-barrels better than the No. 1 five hundred feet west; and I'll tell
-you another thing, there ain't no more boring in this region until the
-Company gets its clutches on all this land laying to the east, yours
-included. My instructions is to make this last one dry, and move over
-into Ohio."
-
-The great Alshire bent over and placed his broad hand on the greasy
-arm of the driller. "I'm obliged to you, Morg," he said slowly. "I'll
-lookout."
-
-"By jolly!" continued the old workman, "you better had, they are a
-smooth set of divels, and whatever you do, keep your mouth plugged. I
-ain't never given the Company the double cross before, but I could n't
-see them skin you, by jolly, I could n't!"
-
-The old driller spoke rapidly, as though half ashamed of his treason,
-and when he had finished turned and began climbing the high fence.
-
-"Morg," called the giant. "Morg."
-
-"That's all right," answered the driller, as he vanished up the dark
-hill side, "just keep your mouth plugged; that's all right."
-
-The giant touched his horse in the flank with his heel and rode on.
-
-Rufus Alshire was a grazier, a business almost exclusively followed in
-this magnificent grass country. Many years before, his greatgrandfather,
-an English Tory, had fled into this inland country in order to escape
-certain unpleasant relations with the colonial government. Here he had
-builded an enormous log manor-house, and surrounding himself with rather
-worthless retainers, maintained a sort of baronial existence. Others
-followed, and after a time the country was cleared and came to be
-divided into great tracts of pasture land, owned by these powerful
-families. But the elements of the feudal system, although suffering some
-modifications, remained. The tenants were, for the most part, born and
-reared on the stock land, and were almost fixtures.
-
-The descendants of this independent ancestry continued to reside as near
-to the central part of their estate as possible, and maintained huge
-residences, rough at times and not quite comfortable perhaps, but always
-enormous. The nature of the country being especially adapted to the
-fattening of beef cattle, this industry soon came to be the exclusive
-business of this powerful people. It was a profitable and supremely
-independent industry, and gave wide play to the baronial instincts of
-the Anglo-Saxon; who, even after the golden time of his race had gone
-out so many hundred years, still loved the open sky, and the blue hills,
-and the monster oak trees, and hated in his heart with a stubborn bitter
-spirit of rebellion the least shadow of restraint. He was willing to
-serve God if need be, but while he lived he would not serve men. In
-stature the descendants of the long dead Saxon were huge specimens
-of the race, almost as big of limb as the fabled barbarians of Lygia;
-powerful men, whom close and intimate relations with the mother nature
-kept strong and immensely vital to the very evening of life. But withal
-the hospitality of the Saxon was profligate, his impulses were kindly,
-and he was quite content to leave the affairs of government and the
-problems of civilization to other hands, provided the minions of these
-powers held their feet back from his soil.
-
-The twilight had deepened into night; on the crest of the far-off hills
-the great oak trees stood outlined against the sky like mighty silent
-figures waiting for some mystic word that should call them into life.
-
-The rim of the moon was rising slowly from behind the oil field, red
-like battered brass; the road, covered with shifting light and shadow,
-stretched across the rolling country like a silver ribbon. The grazier
-rode slowly, his hands hanging idly at his sides, and his face set with
-deep thought; from time to time he raised his ponderous right hand and
-struck it heavily against the tree of his saddle as though to indicate
-thereby some important decision finally reached, but as often he dropped
-the hand back to its place.
-
-The important information of the oil driller had added a mighty element
-to the matters with which he was evidently concerned. The horse, left to
-his own inclinations, quickened his pace and presently the shadow of a
-huge house loomed upon the crest of the hill at the roadside. The horse
-stopped at the gate, and the man. aroused from his reverie, dismounted
-slowly, and opening the gate led the horse through; as he closed the
-gate he stopped for a moment and rested his enormous elbow on the
-latch. "Well," he said, as though announcing his temporary conclusion to
-himself, "I'll ship the cattle to-morrow, and I'll see Jerry."
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-FROM the earliest record of events, either sacred or profane, the genus
-Bos has been associated with the history of the landowner. The Ancient
-Egyptian saw in him certain traces of divinity, and honored it with
-proper recognition. The lamented Job, erstwhile poet of calamity,
-found time amid the recording of his numerous disasters to set down
-his venerable appreciation of the species; and the pagan Homer, while
-singing of gods and men, remembered to sing also the virtues of the
-noble bullock; and the painters, too, from Claude Lorraine to Rosa
-Bonheur, have deigned to consider the artistic importance of the
-domesticated kine; treating him first as a necessary adjunct to a
-landscape, and later as a central figure in the scene. He has had his
-part, say the records, not infrequently with the plans of men, virtuous
-and otherwise. A certain wily barbaric general used him well in a
-difficult emergency, and the patriarch Jacob used him in a shrewd
-physiological experiment, which he had probably learned at Padan-aram
-in his salad days; an experiment that added much to the worldly worth of
-the good father, but detracted not a little from his fame.
-
-When the sun climbed up from behind the broad eastern hillside on the
-following morning it looked down upon Rufus Alshire, who, far more
-expeditious than itself, had already set himself to the affairs of the
-day; before the dawn he had brought the cattle from their beds in the
-cool pasture land, weighed them at his scales and turned them out in the
-road on their journey to the shipping station some ten miles away. The
-herd strayed leisurely along the highway. The giant Alshire rode through
-the drove, keeping the bullocks moving slowly; while following the herd
-barefoot in the dust, was one of his retainers, a half-witted youth,
-wearing an ancient straw hat, a shirt originally of the material called
-"hickory," but now patched in variegated colors, and blue cloth trousers
-well worn and frayed. As the youth tramped along he sang in a high
-piping voice one of those simple little songs which the playing children
-sing, and by way of illustration danced up and down and whipped the dust
-with a long hickory switch. On his heart was no shadow of the cares of
-men, and for this reason, perhaps, under his torn shirt was two-thirds
-of the happiness of the world.
-
-As the herd wandered along under the great oaks that lined the roadway
-and the rays of the morning sun crept down through the green leaves,
-making queer mottled spots on the sleek cattle and brilliant shifting
-patches on the dewy grass, one looking on could easily have come to
-believe that the world had turned back some several hundred years, and
-this was a grassy forest glade of merry England, and the herd, cattle
-of the gruff, gigantic Saxon who rode among them on his huge red horse,
-scowling under his black brows and cursing by St. Withold and St.
-Dunstan and the soul of Hengist the evil times of the Conqueror that
-forced him to drive his herd into the thick forest at daybreak in order
-to preserve it from the marauding cut-throats of a Norman baron; and
-he would have looked close for great stones half-bedded in the moss,
-lasting monuments to the weird and bloody rites of some stern Druid
-colony long dead; and then glanced up sharply to see if that patch
-of thicker green in the deeper woods were not indeed the coat of some
-gallant outlaw whose bosom was English, and who stood ready with his
-yew bow and his cloth-yard shaft to join the huge Saxon in his stubborn
-fight against the bloody followers of Duke William of Normandy; and when
-the herd had wandered by one would have leaned over in the road to see
-if there was not a brass collar soldered fast around the neck of the
-happy cowherd, graven in Saxon letters with this inscription: "Zaak, the
-son of Jonas, is thrall to Rufus of Alshire."
-
-The cheery sunshine under the dear arch of blue, with its homely noises
-of awakening life and its cool breath, ladened with the fresh odor
-wafted from meadows of clover springing up with sweet new blossom after
-the harvest, all so conducive to careless, joyous existence, failed
-utterly to remove any portion of the anxiety from the face of the
-grazier.
-
-He sat listlessly in his saddle, with his gray eyes half-closed and the
-muscles of his face drawn down in furrows; the red roan, trained from
-his colt days, assumed the duties of his master, and moved carefully
-among the cattle; his equine intelligence appreciating that it was a
-part of his duty to the indolent master, to see that the drove kept
-moving slowly, and that no bullock stopped to crop the wet grass by the
-roadside, or fight with his fellow.
-
-The watches of the night had brought to Rufus Alshire no solution of the
-matter with which he had struggled so persistently during the evening
-before. He was acting, it was true, upon his temporary plan, but that
-seemed but an incident in the main vexatious problem.
-
-The giant was now entirely oblivious of his environment, and deep in his
-troublous matter he spoke aloud. "If I could only hold the title," he
-muttered, and then, as if realizing the folly of his hope, he gripped
-the tree of his saddle with his hand and straightened his mighty foot
-suddenly in the stirrup. The leather snapped under the great weight, and
-the iron stirrup dropped into the road. The red roan stopped short, and
-the huge Alshire, pronouncing some severe malediction on his ponderous
-size, dismounted, picked up the stirrup and tied it to the strap. Then
-he slipped the bridle rein over his aim and, walking along beside the
-horse, began to examine the herd with the critical eye of an expert, and
-comment thereon with the artlessness of a child.
-
-"Beef for the British." he said, "and as good beef as John Bull ever put
-under his ribs. They are broad on the backs and deep in the brisket and
-heavy in the quarters, and every black calf of them made the beam kick
-sixteen hundred pounds."
-
-The grazier slapped his horse fondly on the neck. "They 'll please the
-Jews, won't they, boy?" The red roan pricked up his ears and rubbed his
-nose against his master's arm, as though this statement was quite in
-accord with his own private views of the matter. "They will ship well
-over the sea." The giant laughed. "And by gad! if the rotten ships hold
-together the black brutes will get a blamed sight nearer to the Queen
-than most of the little snobs ambling around in the East."
-
-The herd of Rufus Alshire belonged to that species of beef cattle
-termed Polled-Angus, native to the lowlands of Scotland; a breed of
-comparatively recent importation. They were fine bullocks, full, round,
-and comely in form; hornless, trim of head and neck, and with coats as
-black as the fabled spirit of midnight. The law of natural selection had
-finally indicated this breed as best adapted to the conditions of the
-West Virginia grazier. It was hardy, easily maintained, and endured the
-rigor of the winter without distress, beside it was quick to mature and
-gained flesh rapidly, and then, too, the absence of horns rendered it
-easier to handle and far less dangerous.
-
-The horn, a necessary and powerful weapon in the wild state, was in the
-state of domestication a useless incumbrance Hence nature, laboring for
-the convenience of men, thrust in and produced the Polled-Angus.
-
-The business of the grazier had been progressive. The powerful
-landowner, who in the autumn purchased his cattle from the stockmen of
-the interior counties, had ever encouraged the cultivation of the breed.
-For many years the short horn Durham had been the great cattle of this
-inland country. It was an old race; old in England when the Scandinavian
-and the Dane swarmed over the river Tees. But the breed, though
-excellent, was rather slow to mature and not adapted to severe winters,
-and the breeder awakened to the needs of his market and casting about
-for an animal better adapted to his uses chanced upon the Hereford,
-first imported by the elder Clay of Kentucky. And the Hereford became
-the chief bovine of the grazier. He was old, too; old on the north side
-of the river Wye in the tenth century, and ancient of record, it is
-said, in the law of Howell the Good; but while a fine beef animal, he
-preserved one defect, the massive horn. Still he maintained his place,
-until on a certain autumn morning at a fat cattle show in Chicago,
-the good wife of a powerful Virginia grazier, on a quest for the ideal
-bullock, pointed down into the stock ring at the splendid Polled-Angus
-and said, "There he is, but he don't look human." And there he was
-indeed, broad, and shiny black, and hornless as a man's palm--nature's
-answer to the breeder's dream.
-
-The great tawny sun climbed high in the heavens; the heat of the day
-settled down over the living earth like an invisible mantle; the crisp
-freshness of the morning breeze had given place to the monotonous hot
-air of midday. The dust arose in clouds from under the feet of the herd,
-and the cattle themselves, warm and vexed with the irksome travel, were
-restless and difficult to control. The great Al-shire and his huge horse
-moved here and there through the drove, white with dust; while the happy
-thrall plodded along behind the herd, whistling merrily and turning from
-time to time to strike some lagging bullock, and shout with childish
-glee "Go along you fat feller; to-night you will ride on the steam-cars,
-and to-morrow the British will eat you." And passing a slight inaccuracy
-in the matter of time, the witless Zaak was entirely correct. To him
-the steam-cars were marvels from wonderland, and the British was some
-far-away gigantic monster with a mighty, insatiate maw.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-THE young man closed the door to the private writing-room of the club,
-and coming back to the table drew a chair up beside his companion and
-sat down.
-
-"Rufus," he said, "how did you get in so deep?"
-
-"Well," responded the grazier, looking down at the floor. "I am an ass,
-Jerry, just a natural ass. I was all right, doing well and living like
-a lord, until I endorsed for that lumber company. When it grew shaky,
-I tried to save myself by borrowing money and holding it up until the
-panic was over, but I could n't do it, and when the thing failed I had
-the notes to meet. I did n't want to be sued, so I borrowed the money.
-It was a big sum, almost as big as I was worth, but I thought that the
-men from whom I borrowed the money would not push me, and that probably
-I could pull through some way. I might have known that the crash would
-come, but it is natural, I judge, to postpone the evil day."
-
-"Have your creditors instituted legal proceedings?" asked the young man.
-
-"Not yet," replied Alshire. "On Thursday I was at the county seat
-looking after my taxes, and while there William Farras, who is a local
-manager for the oil company, took me aside and said that through some
-business transactions my notes had come into his hands, and added that
-he hoped that I was in a position to pay them, as he was hard up and
-would require a considerable sum of money at once. On the way home in
-the evening I had the conversation with the driller of which I have
-spoken; and his statement made the scheme as plain as day light. The
-company believes that the pool is under my land, and, wishing to secure
-the property, it has bought up my outstanding notes. The plan is to sue
-me at once, sell the land, and buy it in."
-
-The giant spoke slowly, the great muscles of his face set, and his eyes
-hard. He raised his ponderous clenched hand and brought it slowly down
-on his knee. "I shipped the cattle," he added, "to prevent their being
-attached, and I have gone over the whole thing from end to end, and by
-every devil in hell I don't see any way to stop their game."
-
-Jerry Van Meter arose and went over to the window. He was mightily
-affected by the hopeless position of his friend, and in his breast his
-heart was heavy. The condition of things was reversed. From his very
-babyhood he had gone to the giant with his troubles, and the giant
-had always found some way out. Now the man had come to him, and he was
-helpless. He looked at the huge grazier sitting motionless with his face
-in his hands, and the tears gathered in his eyes. Van Meter knew too
-much of the world not to know that the man was ruined. Finally he turned
-to his companion.
-
-"Rufus," he said, "we will walk down to my office and see what can be
-done."
-
-It was merely a weakling move for delay. In his heart the young man knew
-that the matter was hopeless.
-
-The two men arose and passed out of the club.
-
-The life of Jerry Van Meter had been crowded with events quite as varied
-and rapid of incident as that of Sinbad the Sailor. His parents, who
-resided on a small farm near Rufus Alshire's estate, had died when the
-child Jerry was quite an infant, and the huge grazier had assumed
-the guardianship of the youth. Under his direction the boy had been
-educated, and finally installed as a bank clerk in one of the small
-towns. But the spirit of adventure was big in the breast of the youthful
-Jerry, and one morning he closed the ledger carefully and vanished into
-the Northwest. Here he pulled teeth for an itinerant dentist, drummed
-for a soap house, and travelled with a circus. But he had a fortunate
-star, not at all times obscured; and when the boom struck St. Paul,
-Jerry drifted in, bought far and wide, and carried out with him ten
-thousand dollars in gold, which he promptly dropped in a bucket-shop
-in Chicago. A letter to the good genius Alshire brought a check for one
-hundred dollars and nine pages of advice.
-
-With this money in his pocket, Jerry passed over on to the Pacific
-coast. Here he mixed drinks in a bar-room, and officiated in the
-important capacity of night clerk to a restaurant, until his star came
-up again, and when it did, Jerry chanced on an abandoned claim that
-netted him seven thousand dollars. He returned to Alshire the one
-hundred dollars and the well-worn but badly-heeded letter of advice,
-and set out for the East. In St. Louis he became deeply interested
-in certain horse races, and ten days later he landed in the Virginias
-bronzed, bearded, and broke. The giant Alshire laughed at the escapades
-of this youth until his sides ached, gave him another check and the
-ancient letter of advice with various amendments, and the restless Mr.
-Van Meter dropped down into the metropolis of New York. Here his star
-gave evidences of constancy, and he became an insurance broker and a man
-of affairs.
-
-The two men walked slowly down the steps of the club and across the busy
-thoroughfare. As they stepped up or the opposite curb they were startled
-by a sharp cry, and turning suddenly they saw a little man stumble and
-fall forward in the street directly in front of an approaching mail
-wagon. The great horses were almost upon him, bearing down in a long
-sweeping trot. The driver at the moment was not looking, but it was too
-late for him to prevent the impending accident even if he had been. The
-giant Alshire ran out into the street, caught the horses and threw his
-ponderous weight against the iron bits. The heavy Percherons reared
-and fell back on their haunches, the tongue of the wagon shot forward,
-grazing the giant's shoulder, and the wheels stopped for a moment almost
-against the body of the prostrate man. In that moment Van Meter dragged
-the hapless pedestrian from beneath the belly of the horses. The giant
-stepped quickly aside, and the horses, plunging forward heavily on the
-cobble stones, passed on down the street, while the half-dazed driver
-did not even look back to ascertain what had really occurred.
-
-The little man wiped the dust from his hat with the sleeve of his coat
-and looked up at his deliverers.
-
-"Well," he said, "Randolph Mason came near to losing his clerk. I guess
-I stumbled on that infernal rail."
-
-A great light came into the face of Jerry Van Meter. He came up close
-to the little man and caught him by the shoulder. "Randolph Mason!" he
-said, "Is Randolph Mason in New York?"
-
-"Yes," responded the little man. "I am his clerk. Parks is my name. Mr.
-Mason is here, but----" Then he stopped short.
-
-The now excited Van Meter shook the little man almost roughly by the
-shoulder.
-
-"Good," he cried, "good, we must see him at once."
-
-The clerk Parks looked down at his soiled clothes and the dust on his
-bruised hands.
-
-"Gentlemen," he said slowly, "it is against the strict order of the
-physicians, but, under the circumstances, I don't quite see how I am
-going to refuse."
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-RANDOLPH MASON leaned forward and struck his hand heavily on the arm of
-his chair.
-
-"Forty thousand," he said sharply, "you owe that sum, sir?" His face
-looked old, sunken, and furrowed with heavy dark lines, but his eyes
-shone under his shaggy brows.
-
-"Yes," responded the grazier, "fully that much."
-
-"To secure that amount in cash," continued Mason, "it will be necessary
-to deal with some bank or savings institution of which the president
-or some powerful director is an attorney-at-law. This condition will be
-found to obtain in almost any one of the small towns of the country, and
-if my directions are followed strictly, the plan can be carried out and
-the money secured in a very few hours. The plan is simple and easy. In
-the first place----"
-
-"But," said the giant Alshire, "I don't want other men's money. I don't
-want to commit a crime."
-
-The veins in the forehead of Randolph Mason grew black with anger.
-
-"Commit a crime!" he cried. "No man who has followed my advice has ever
-committed a crime. Crime is a technical word. It is the law's name for
-certain acts which it is pleased to define and punish with a penalty.
-None but fools, dolts, and children commit crimes."
-
-"Well," responded the grazier, "whether the plan you are about to
-propose is a crime or not, it is certainly a moral wrong, and I have no
-desire to rob a bank by committing even a moral wrong."
-
-Randolph Mason arose slowly and pointed his finger at the huge Alshire.
-
-"The old story," he sneered, "child afraid of a goblin. Moral wrong! A
-name used to frighten fools. There is no such thing. The law lays down
-the only standard by which the acts of the citizen are to be governed.
-What the law permits is right, else it would prohibit it. What the law
-prohibits is wrong, because it punishes it. This is the only lawful
-measure, the only measure bearing the stamp and the sanction of the
-State. All others are spurious, counterfeit, and void. The word moral is
-a pure metaphysical symbol, possessing no more intrinsic virtue than the
-radical sign."
-
-"I beg your pardon, Mr. Mason," said Van Meter thrusting into the
-conversation, "but I am quite certain that you mistake the request of
-my friend. He is not attempting to secure any sum of money. He simply
-desires to retain the title to his land and prevent its sale, until he
-can determine the extent of its oil production."
-
-"For what length of time?" asked Mason.
-
-"Well," said the grazier, "I scarcely know. One year might be time
-enough, or even less than one year; while, on the other hand, it might
-require several years. You see, if I can prevent the land from being
-sold, and keep it in my name until the territory is developed, then if
-oil is found in paying quantities I can meet all these notes, and if
-the land is dry I am no worse off. At any rate, I want to hold on to the
-land and see."
-
-"Are there judgments of record against you?" inquired Mason.
-
-"Not yet," replied Alshire, "but Farras is preparing to sue on the notes
-and rush the sale through. Can I stop him; can I hold the sale off?"
-There was anxiety in the grazier's voice.
-
-Randolph Mason began to walk to and fro across the room with an unsteady
-nervous stride.
-
-"Easy," he muttered, "easy as learning to lie." Then he stopped by the
-table and looked flown sharply at the great Alshire.
-
-"Have you two friends," he asked, "nonresidents of your State, whom you
-can trust?"
-
-"Yes," responded the grazier, "Mr. Van Meter here in New York, and
-Morgan Gaston now in Ohio, they will both stand by me."
-
-"Then," said Mason, "listen to me, and do as I advise, and the sale of
-your property will be as far distant years from to-day as it seems this
-afternoon. First make an oil lease for a long term, say thirty years,
-to your non-resident friend of Ohio, giving him all the oil privileges,
-but, for your own protection in case of the death of the lessee,
-incorporate in the instrument a clause permitting the lessor the right
-to annul the lease at any time by the payment of a small sum. Have the
-instrument show also that the entire compensation for the lease has
-been fully paid in advance. Then make another lease renting all your
-remaining property rights to your friend Mr. Van Meter of this city.
-Have this second lease for a similar term and of similar provisions to
-the first, and the entire compensation for it likewise paid in advance.
-Then you have but to record the instruments, employ an attorney, and
-sit down in the shadow of your house. The hair on your head will have
-thinned vastly before the litigation over your complicated affairs
-terminates in a final decree of sale." Rufus Alshire leaned forward
-listening eagerly. "But won't Farras sue me," he asked, "won't he attack
-the leases?"
-
-"Certainly," said Mason, "he will at once do one of two things; either
-he will bring an action at law on the notes, or he will attempt to
-embrace the whole matter in a chancery suit. If he sues at law, resist
-and attempt to fight through the superior courts. When he finally
-obtains a judgment at law in your State, he will be compelled to resort
-to a suit in chancery for the purpose of selling the land. In either
-event he must come finally into a court of chancery and include the
-holders of these leases as parties defendant to his action. When this is
-done, the non resident lessees are not to appear, and he will be able to
-obtain service on them only by an order of publication. You alone will
-fight this chancery suit through the lower and superior courts, and just
-before a sale of the land is ordered by the court of last resort, one
-of the non resident lessees mast appear, and by virtue of the statutory
-provision applying to such cases, file his bill of review and open up
-the whole matter, enjoin the sale, fight the case over again and again
-through the superior court. When this new litigation finally draws
-near to a close and the land is again ordered sold, the remaining
-non-resident must appear, bring his action in the Circuit Court of the
-United States, enjoin the sale, and proceed with his fight.
-
-"By this time," continued Mason, placing his bony hand on the giant's
-shoulder, "there will probably be gray streaks in your beard, and if
-you wish to run this litigation on into eternity, you will have only to
-produce some collateral heir."
-
-The huge Alshire looked up at the strange man beside him. "Is all this
-possible?" he asked in astonishment.
-
-Randolph Mason did not at once answer; he walked stumblingly across
-the room to his chair and sat down by the table. His form was thin and
-gaunt, and along the border of his forehead the veins were purple and
-swollen. After a time he turned toward the powerful grazier, his face
-ugly with a sneer. "To the law," he said, "all things are possible--even
-justice."
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-ONE morning in the early winter the red roan horse, with his head over
-the high fence of his pasture, saw two men standing in the neighboring
-meadow contemplating in silence a gigantic derrick. One he immediately
-recognized as his master Rufus Alshire, and the other resembled in a
-very large degree a certain obnoxious person who on a memorable summer
-night had smeared his well kept mane with most disagreeable petroleum.
-
-Presently the grazier spoke. "I judge that it will not now be necessary
-for Jerry to invoke the tedium of Federal tribunals, there seems to be
-grease enough here to pay everything and wind up the lawsuits."
-
-The driller looked up at the oil streaming down from the timbers of the
-derrick; then he made a mighty angular gesture with his bare right arm.
-
-"By jolly!" he said, "there is money enough in that hole to pay off the
-national debt."
-
-
-
-
-THE RULE AGAINST CARPER
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-CARPER did not recall that he had ever noticed the ugly details of the
-courtroom before,--the high, soiled ceiling, the rows of benches, worn,
-broken, empty as a fool's heart, the clerk's desk, and the presumptuous
-bench of the judge; the long tables, too, for the attorneys, heaped with
-papers, books, and dusty covers, a farrago of disorder--how ugly they
-were!
-
-Carper looked up at the judge. The man's black silk robe fell away in
-sharp straight folds; he sat erect like a bronze cast, his face turned
-half toward the window in order that he might better read the paper
-before him. How power had changed this face! Carper remembered idly
-that, years before, the face of this man had been sweet, tender, lit
-with kindness. Now it was as hard as white ivory.
-
-The attorneys at the table were talking in subdued whispers; Carper did
-not hear; he was wondering vaguely if the long slim fingers of the judge
-ever ached as his head was aching. The conjecture was unique.
-
-It was difficult for Carper to realize his position. His clothing was
-certainly better than that of any other man in the court-room, He was
-quite certain that his face was the same powerful, clean-cut, immobile
-mask that it had been always. The world did not know, it did not even
-suspect. If one had asked the clerk yonder for a financial rating on
-Russell Carper, the clerk would have shrugged his shoulder and written
-six figures on the margin of his record.. Yet this was the end,--the
-end.
-
-Over by the window stood a prisoner in the custody of the marshal.
-The man was poor, miserably poor; his clothes were clean, threadbare,
-ancient as the law. Carper knew the story. The man was a little
-shopkeeper; his wife was ill,--dying, the deputy said. There were
-children, too, hungry, naked, absurdly miserable, and the crime,--some
-petty revenue infraction. He would be presently required to pay his
-fine, and, failing that, would be locked up in a cell. It was the law,
-heartless as an image. Yet Carper wondered listlessly if one from beyond
-the world's rim on the quest of the good would not take this man, and
-leave the others, leave all the others--the judge with his blue-veined
-patriciate face, the clerks with their lank jaws, the attorneys, with
-their expression of abominable indifference, and himself. Well, the
-machinery of human justice was awry. Then he wondered at the condition
-that bred this surmise. How was it possible to reflect so indolently
-upon the condition of another when his own was perilous. Still, such
-speculations obtained with men, it is said, in great crises, and at the
-grave's edge.
-
-Presently the judge laid down his papers and began to speak. Carper
-heard him as one speaking a long distance away. At first the words
-seemed indistinct and without meaning; then he caught them full, as one
-waking suddenly catches and understands the conversation of his fellow.
-
-"Our commissioner's report," the judge was saying, "shows that this
-receiver has now in his custody three hundred and seventeen thousand
-dollars belonging to the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company.
-At a former term of this court an order was entered directing the
-receiver to distribute this fund in accordance with a previous decree.
-At that term this order was resisted upon the ground that the decree
-was not sufficiently explicit; which objection the court, upon
-consideration, overruled. Later, the payment was sought to be held back
-upon the ground that this order was improvidently awarded, and a motion
-made to revoke, which was also overruled. And still later innumerable
-technical objections have been offered by the attorney for the receiver,
-all of which this court considers insufficient and trivial."
-
-At this point one of the attorneys for Carper arose. "If your honor
-please," he said, "we ask to be heard in defense of our client. We think
-that it can yet be shown that this order should not be enforced." Then
-he sat down.
-
-The blue veins in the face of the jurist grew darker. "Gentlemen," he
-continued, "cannot now be heard. The time of this court has already been
-much consumed by unprofitable argument. On yesterday the stockholders
-of the Massachusetts Iron Company applied for a rule, requiring Russell
-Carper, receiver, to appear and make answer, if any he has, why he
-should not be attached and punished for contempt in disobeying the
-orders of this court. The rule I have ordered to issue returnable
-tomorrow morning at ten o'clock."
-
-The judge handed the paper down to the clerk, and directed the next case
-to be called. Then he leaned back in his chair with the huge unconcern
-of one well removed from the grip of his fellows.
-
-It was the end. But to Carper it was all as unreal as the yesterday. He
-seemed to be out of the scene, and, for that, out of himself, an idle
-spectator. His attorneys were whispering gravely. They were telling him
-that the game was now played out. There was nothing more to do. He must
-direct his banker to pay over the money. Even these hired fighters
-did not suspect; they presumed the delay was favorable to some deal in
-stocks. The truth--only he, Carper, knew the truth. There was grim humor
-in the huge deception.
-
-On the way out of the court-room Carper stopped and handed the clerk the
-only bill in his pockets. It would pay the fine of the shopkeeper. The
-whole thing was an immensely clever little comedy, and he wanted to see
-the sunshine come back into the shopkeeper's face.
-
-CARPER had been given the long afternoon to arrange some scheme, to
-plan some way out, but he allowed it to slip by like any leisure day.
-His mind was indolent, absurdly indolent. In all the other crises of his
-life, it had been restless as a blown wave. This day it was sluggish.
-Realizing the end, it had folded its arms. It was difficult to
-appreciate that his career was ripped off like a rotten seam. That
-afternoon his broker had talked confidentially of a certain railroad
-venture. Men from the West had begged the use of his name in the
-organization of a trust embracing the copper mines of a State. He had
-been asked to contribute to a great charity. This night, the last night,
-in his library there was yet no sign of that ruin which sat by the
-hearthstone. The fire was warm; the surroundings wore luxurious; the
-shelves were filled with books; from the walls the stern faces of his
-forbears looked down, haughty, relentless as their lives had shown.
-It was difficult to realize that he was an embezzler and a bankrupt,
-suspended above a vacuous abyss by a line that the to-morrow would cut
-short.
-
-For five years he had been the receiver of the Massachusetts Iron
-Company. In those five years he had bought and sold on the street with
-the abandon of a master. He had used the funds of this company as a
-workman would use a tool left lying in his shop. He had won great sums,
-and he had lost until the very earth seemed slipping away beneath him.
-
-Then the slump in the stocks of a great railroad system caught him, and
-he had put in every dollar of this trust fund and watched it vanish like
-a vapor. Still, no one knew. Carper's reputation stood on the street
-flawless, perfect in outline, an empty shell--but no one knew.
-
-When the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company finally demanded
-a reorganization, he had employed the best legal talent and thrust in
-every delay of the law. The fight had gone on year after year, from
-court to court. Orders had been entered and dissolved; decrees had been
-made and reversed; hearings had been granted by superior courts, and
-rehearings, but the end, long delayed, came finally.
-
-The stockholders had applied for a rule. It was the most summary
-proceeding known to the law. To-morrow he must pay the money, or go to
-prison a felon. The end loomed like the ragged outlines of a cliff.
-
-To Carper this end seemed atrociously unjust. He had worked so hard, so
-hard: the best that was in him; the good days of his life had been given
-up to this labor It had been his boyhood dream to be a factor in great
-affairs,--the bitter labor of his youth, and, in part, the realization
-of his middle life. He had cut every other thing away with a hand that
-never once had trembled. It was his right to win, if there was any
-justice anywhere. But to-morrow was the end. To-morrow the court would
-strip him naked as a bone.
-
-He had heard many a sleek pastor discourse glibly upon the eternal
-justice of Providence. Then he believed it cant with a smattering of
-truth. Now it was entirely clear that it was cant--but false; a pleasant
-lie like the housewife tale of fairies.
-
-Carper took the cigar from between his teeth and dropped it on the
-hearth. The game of life was an ugly game. He confessed that he had lost
-interest in its play. Now that the thought suggested he saw that he had
-been losing interest all along. It was inertia he had been fighting--the
-plague of inertia, and for no gain at all. It was a world where, if one
-sat still, one wasted with monotony; and if one labored, it was only for
-the purpose of building ships to fly in the air, which, when they were
-all completed, sat stupidly on the earth or by hap toppled heavily upon
-the builder, crushing out his heart. He could not understand why men had
-sometimes said that life was good.
-
-Carper had looked, he believed, into not a few chambers of the temple.
-The same hooded shape sat in each. If fame was given, the skull was
-pretty generally crushed with the crown. If wealth was given, the back
-was broken with the weight. If love was given,--yes, the heart was
-usually broken with it,--love!
-
-Carper arose and went over to a cabinet in the wall, unlocked the door
-and took out a big photograph, which he brought over to the fire. It was
-the picture of a woman, young, beautiful, quivering with the power of
-life; the mass of dark hair was caught back from her forehead; the eyes
-were wide, clear, transparent; the nose was straight as the edges of a
-die, and the throat round, full, marvellously moulded. In the set of the
-head there was pride of lineage, and the relentless rigor of purity.
-It was a fine face looking out from a blameless life, strong, innocent,
-exacting as a child.
-
-The man placed the picture on the mantelshelf, and sat down by the
-fire. That day was now seven years gone,--seven years! Yesterday was no
-farther back. Every detail was clear. The shock had stamped them on the
-lining of his heart. He had loved this woman as a man loves just one
-time. He was trusting his very life to her keeping; he was going to her
-for everything that woman could give; all of sweet fellowship, all of
-tender sympathy, all of love. She was the only woman in the world. The
-expression is a platitude, but the fact was as real to Carper as the
-green trees and the sunlight. One could no more have convinced this man
-that other women held some of the charms of life, than one could have
-convinced him that light was a liquid. His love had gained the power of
-a religion; it had gone, farther---it had gained the majesty of a law.
-
-Then the blow came. Carper had gone to this woman with a case of jewels,
-the profit of a venture. He remembered how happy she had been: how the
-light of trustfulness danced in her eyes; how she had carried the jewels
-to the window in order to see the great rubies change to blood-drops,
-then she had turned with a playful smile and asked him how he had made
-so great a sum, and he, like a miserable fool, had blurted out that it
-was a part of his gains in a deal on the street,--a deal in which he
-had ruined a little banking house by seizing the vantage of its ignorant
-mistake. It was the master blunder.
-
-Carper remembered how the blood faded from this woman's face, leaving it
-ashen gray; how the dull ache of pain gathered in her eyes; how she had
-come over to him and dropped the jewels slowly into their case, and,
-without a word, had gone back and sat down by the window. And he knew
-that the woman of his love was gone out beyond the reach of his fingers.
-The leash of his love had slipped off and snapped back in his hands.
-
-He remembered the effect upon himself as something entirely foreign to
-that which writers attribute to men under similar conditions. There
-was no benumbing horror; no desire to make any violent demonstration of
-feeling. There was merely a vague loss of strength, as though the
-bottom of the fountain of vital force had dropped out, and then he grew
-sick--physically sick. The material man was hurt first, and collapsed,
-much as it would have done if shot through the stomach with a shell. He
-felt none of that exaggerated emotion affected by the play-actor.
-
-It was the commonplace sickness of a frightful physical blow.
-
-When the nausea had passed, he had gone over to her and begged to know
-what it all meant, although he knew quite as well as she. The woman had
-looked at him with her wide eyes deadened with pain, and said that she
-had believed him ah honorable man, and had loved him for it, but that
-now she knew the truth, and she would never be wife to a dishonest man.
-
-He had made his argument then, and it was good. The venture was
-perfectly legitimate, so recognized and treated by the business men
-of the land,--nay, more, it was so regarded by the law. These were the
-standards; there was no other. The customs of business and the law were
-the rules of right in the marketplaces. Their wisdom was unquestioned.
-It was the result of all the experience of the race, the conclusion of
-wise men, laboring with conditions as they were. Had she a right to say
-that these standards were wrong? He appealed to her sense of fairness.
-Was she better able to pass upon the right of this transaction than all
-the merchants learned in the customs of trade,--than all the jurists
-learned in the wisdom of the law? Was she better able?
-
-Carper pointed out that she lived in an atmosphere of purity high above
-the din of the fight for life; a land of refined right, refined justice,
-refined honor, magnificent, but not the world. The world had no perfect
-code; it was no perfect place; it was not intended to be so, else it
-would have been so made. It was an indifferent place, governed by the
-inexorable law of the survival of the fittest, wherein men struggled for
-footing and the comforts of life. One must conform to conditions as they
-were, or go to the wall. It was folly, it was idiocy, it was madness to
-do otherwise.
-
-Trade was like nature--pitiless. There was no measure of consideration
-for the weakling or the fool. The fight was bitter, remorseless, subject
-to dangerous shifts. If one was caught and broken, the blame was with
-the sorry scheme of things, and this a Divine Intelligence maintained,
-and men could not question that Divine Intelligence. This condition of
-the world might not be purest or happiest, but it was the condition of
-the world. It was God's way. Was it wise to call it evil?
-
-Then he shifted. He bade her remember that she had promised to go
-through life with him. It was a contract she had no right to break.
-The position she was taking was a frightful contradiction. She was
-reprehending the customs of trade, and yet there was not a merchant in
-the market-place who would repudiate his contract. She was charging the
-law with failure to appreciate the highest shades of right, and yet
-she was about to do what the law, even in its grossness, recognized and
-punished as a wrong. She could not stand upon this ground, and do as
-she was doing. Even if he had done wrong, was she to punish him by doing
-wrong also? The vice of her position cried out. Her promise had
-been given. It was immutable. It was her affair to know her mind, to
-determine what she wanted to do. She had known him for years. In those
-years there had been ample time to investigate, to conclude, to decide.
-No one had abridged the freedom of her agency. She had finally become
-a party to this contract. Could she repudiate it now, like the common
-rogue in whom principle was wanting?
-
-He bade her remember the gravity of this contract. It involved her life,
-his life, mayhap the lives of others. He had been shaping everything to
-this end. Had she the right to ruthlessly destroy all? What would she
-think of one who having contracted to accompany another into an unknown
-land should suddenly abandon him on the purlieus of the country? What
-would she think of one who had contracted to go with another into
-an unknown sea, and should, when that other had made his ship ready,
-abandon him at the water's edge? Was she doing better than these?
-
-The woman had not answered at all; dark circles had gathered around her
-eyes, and the full muscles of her throat relaxed and sank.
-
-Then Carper remembered how he had knelt down beside her and taken her
-hand in his own,---her hand, limp, cold, a dead thing.
-
-Besides, he had gone on, he loved her; she was the only woman in his
-heart. There could never be another. Day and night, and every day and
-night, his heart cried for her like a tortured child! There was nothing
-else in all the wide world to live for, to strive for. He had grown to
-associate her with every hope, every emotion, every ambition, of his
-life. How should he live on without her! What should he do with his
-empty days! Pride might carry him crippled through a few, but, there was
-a limit to the endurance of a man, and what then--what of his empty days
-then?
-
-If he had been doing wrong, God could find some way to punish him
-outside of her love. Besides, if he was doing wrong, he needed her the
-more. He needed her to round out his life, to add honor and purity and
-right. God had sent her to do this work of good. Was she going to refuse
-merely because the world was not the sort of place which she believed it
-to be? Master of Life! the world would be abominably empty without her.
-He would go anywhere she wished; do anything, be anything, she wished.
-It was not the applause of men that he wanted in this life, nor the
-multitude of things. It was her hand on his own; her voice in his ears;
-her image in his heart forever. He could never get back again to his
-view-point.
-
-She had loosed the mouth of something in his bosom that clamored for
-her. It would be content with no other. It would hush for no other. His
-heart was aching now with the cry. What a place of torture it would be
-tomorrow, and the next year, and the next.
-
-The tears had rained down this woman's face, but she had shaken her
-head.
-
-That day was now seven years gone--seven years! Yesterday was no farther
-back. Well, well! He had been only partly right. The woman's face in his
-heart he had walled up. The cry for her he had silenced with the opiates
-of greed. Still they were both there and alive. To-night the wall had
-slipped away and the anaesthetics were powerless. It was no matter.
-After all, had she done well? She had lived on, spotless, pure, alone;
-and he had lived on--to this. Had she done well? That question it was no
-right of his to answer.
-
-Carper got up from his chair, took the picture from the mantel, broke
-it across the face and dropped the pieces into the fire. It was not
-necessary for the marshal's deputy to speculate about this picture.
-
-Then he went over to the cabinet and took out a pack of letters, old,
-yellow, tied with a faded ribbon, and, selecting one at random, sat down
-in his chair to read it through. "Dear Heart," it ran at the beginning,
-and at the end "I am unutterably lonely, and I love you." Yes, he
-recalled the circumstances of its writing well. Then he replaced it
-with the others and laid them all gently on the fire. They should not be
-pleasant reading for the marshal.
-
-He had come down into the world, with his heart shredded and every shred
-aching like a nerve, and from that day he had flown the black flag of
-piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the hand of none had
-been heavier, and the brain of none had been keener than his own. From
-that day every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of his
-galleon, had walked the plank. The muscles of his face grew tense with
-the thought.
-
-Somewhere in the house a clock struck ten. Carper arose and walked
-backward and forward across the room. The spirit of fierce resistance
-was beginning to awaken. He would not be stripped like a weakling. He
-would fight, fight--but how? It was hopeless to dream of raising the
-money. That plan had been discarded long ago. Vain vaporing! There was
-no way remaining but Brutus's way--the road out into the vastness of
-eternity was open! The exit was easy. Why should he lag back? Surely he
-must go later on. For years the world had been a good place to get out
-of--for seven years.
-
-The man opened a drawer at the bottom of the book-case and took out a
-weapon--an ancient duelling pistol of his grandfather. He carried the
-weapon to the table, wiped it carefully, and began to load it. When he
-had finished, he went over to close the door. On the threshold lay one
-of the evening papers of the city. Carper picked it up and brought it
-with him to the light. The headlines caught his attention. It was the
-story of a great bank defaulter who had gone free by reason of some
-defect in the law shrewdly pointed out by a lawyer, Randolph Mason.
-
-He remembered the man as a remarkable legal misanthrope. He had heard of
-him in the Federal courts. Somewhere he had this man's address, jotted
-down one morning when the administrator of an estate walked out of the
-Federal court a confessed gigantic thief, but, by this man's counsel,
-beyond the reach of the law.
-
-Carper looked through one of the files on his table--yes, here was
-the residence number. The man leaned over and rested his arm on the
-mantel-shelf. One might not do ill to go; there was time ample. One
-could come back to the thing of steel later on.
-
-Carper turned suddenly, put on his coat and hat, and passed out into the
-street, closing the door and locking it carefully behind him. Then he
-called a cab, gave the number to the driver, and leaned back heavily
-against the cushion.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-
-THIS is the place, sir," said the cabman.
-
-Before him was lighted. The door was standing open. The brougham of a
-surgeon was beside the curb. He walked slowly up the great steps to the
-door. There was an indescribable something in the air which seemed to
-presage calamity; there were sounds as of persons hurrying with some
-desperate matter.
-
-As Carper put up his hand to touch the bell, two men came out into the
-shadow of the hall.
-
-"It is a bad case of acute mania," one was saying. "I have given him two
-hypodermics of morphine, and he is still raving like a drunken sailor."
-
-Carper's hand dropped to his side. He turned slowly and passed down the
-steps into the street. He had not been noticed by the busy surgeons.
-
-Carper stepped out. At the curb he stopped for a moment and looked up
-and down the avenue. Well, it was justice. For seven years he had flown
-the black flag of piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the
-hand of none had been heavier, and the brain of none had been keener
-than his own. Every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of
-his galleon, had walked the plank. It was now his turn. It was justice.
-
-Carper spoke to the cabman. Then he stepped in and closed the door.
-
-The man of last resort was probably gone. There was now no resort but to
-the steel thing on the table.
-
-
-THE END.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***
-
-***** This file should be named 51955-8.txt or 51955-8.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/5/51955/
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
diff --git a/old/51955-8.zip b/old/51955-8.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index d08bc25..0000000
--- a/old/51955-8.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51955-h.zip b/old/51955-h.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 7038370..0000000
--- a/old/51955-h.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/51955-h/51955-h.htm b/old/51955-h/51955-h.htm
deleted file mode 100644
index 7c46b38..0000000
--- a/old/51955-h/51955-h.htm
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7108 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
-
-<!DOCTYPE html
-   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
-   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
-
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
-  <head>
-    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
-    <title>
-      The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-    </title>
-    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
-
-    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
-    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
-    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
-    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
-    .foot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; font-size: 80%; font-style: italic;}
-    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
-    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
-    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
-    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
-    .xx-small {font-size: 60%;}
-    .x-small {font-size: 75%;}
-    .small {font-size: 85%;}
-    .large {font-size: 115%;}
-    .x-large {font-size: 130%;}
-    .indent5   { margin-left: 5%;}
-    .indent10  { margin-left: 10%;}
-    .indent15  { margin-left: 15%;}
-    .indent20  { margin-left: 20%;}
-    .indent30  { margin-left: 30%;}
-    .indent40  { margin-left: 40%;}
-    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
-    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
-    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
-    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
-    .pagenum   {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: 0.6em;
-                font-variant: normal; font-style: normal;
-                text-align: right; background-color: #FFFACD;
-                border: 1px solid; padding: 0.3em;text-indent: 0em;}
-    .side      { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em;
-               border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left;
-               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
-               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border:        solid 1px;}
-    .head      { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em;
-               border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center;
-               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
-               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border:        solid 1px;}
-    p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0}
-    span.dropcap         { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 0.8 }
-    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
-
-</style>
-  </head>
-  <body>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Man of Last Resort
-       Or, The Clients of Randolph Mason
-
-Author: Melville Davisson Post
-
-Release Date: May 2, 2016 [EBook #51955]
-Last Updated: March 16, 2018
-
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-    <div style="height: 8em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h1>
-      THE MAN OF LAST RESORT
-    </h1>
-    <h3>
-      Or, The Clients Of Randolph Mason
-    </h3>
-    <h2>
-      By Melville Davisson Post
-    </h2>
-    <h4>
-      G. P. Putnam's Sons New York And London
-    </h4>
-    <h3>
-      1897
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <b>CONTENTS</b>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE GOVERNOR'S MACHINE </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VI </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VII </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> VIII </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IX </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> X </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> MRS. VAN BARTON </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> I </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> II </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> III </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> ONCE IN JEOPARDY </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> I </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> II </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> III </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> IV </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> V </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> VI </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> THE GRAZIER </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> I </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> II </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> III </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> IV </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> V </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> THE RULE AGAINST CARPER </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> I </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> II </a>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      PREFACE
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N this <i>fin-de-sîècle</i>
-      time, society has grown liberal, it is said, and yet he who thrusts a
-      lever under sage customs, or he who points out the vice of institutions
-      long established, may deem himself happy if he be permitted to strip
-      against the duellist rather than the mob. Even if one come new into the
-      courts of the <i>literati</i> with a cloak dyed a different hue from his
-      fellows, he will scarcely have passed the doorway ere the taunting
-      challenge, &ldquo;Do you fight, my lord?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The author, in a previous volume entitled <i>The Strange Schemes of
-      Randolph Mason</i>, pointed out certain defects in the criminal law, and
-      demonstrated how the skilful rogue could commit not a few of the higher
-      crimes in such a manner as to render the law powerless to punish him. The
-      suggestion was, it seems, considered startling and the volume has provoked
-      large discussion. A few gentlemen of no inconsiderable legal learning, and
-      certain others to be classified as moral reformers, contended that the
-      book must be dangerous because it explained with great detail how one
-      could murder or steal and escape punishment. If the laws were to be
-      improved, they said, &ldquo;would it not be more wisely done by
-      influencing a few political leaders?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While such a criticism does not come from any considerable number of
-      authorities, it has been honestly made and is entitled to consideration.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The vice of it lies, it seems to me, in a failure to grasp the actual
-      nature of our institutions. It is a maxim of our system that the law
-      making power of the state rests in the first instance with the people of
-      the state. This power, for the purpose of convenience, is delegated to
-      certain selected persons who meet together in order to put into effect the
-      will of the people.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The so-called law-makers are therefore not law-makers at all, in the sense
-      of being originators of the law; they are rather agents who come up from
-      their respective districts under instructions. Such agents are simply
-      temporary representatives of the citizens of their respective districts,
-      directly responsible to them and charged with no duty other than that of
-      putting their will into effect. The agent or delegate should therefore
-      approach very conservatively any matter upon which the will of his
-      constituency has not been satisfactorily determined. It is, then, apparent
-      that the influence which makes or which alters the law is a force exerted
-      from without. No change in the law can be properly or safely brought about
-      except through the pressure of public sentiment. The need for the law must
-      be first felt by the people and the demand for it made before the
-      legislator is warranted in acting. The representative would otherwise
-      become a presumptive usurper, afflicting the people with statutes for
-      which there was no public demand; and such laws, so improperly obtained,
-      would be without the support of public sentiment and would be liable to
-      repeal.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hence it is entirely clear that if the existing law prove to be unjust or
-      defective, the people must be brought to see and appreciate such injustice
-      or inadequacy and to demand the requisite modification.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This contention can, as it seems to me, not be gainsaid. It is
-      respectfully urged that no other method of securing wise changes in the
-      law can be properly pursued under democratic institutions. To hold
-      otherwise is to take issue with the wisdom of democracy itself, and with
-      so rash a champion the writer has no spear to break. Indeed, he makes this
-      explanation with immense unwillingness, as he feels that he should not be
-      required to defend a truth so evident. It is like demonstrating gravely
-      that the earth is round and that sun light is an energy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yet he is advised that attention should be called to this matter, lest the
-      thoughtless condemn upon a hearing <i>ex-parte</i>. Indeed, even after the
-      punishment of <i>la peine forte et dure</i> is gone out these many hundred
-      years, the good citizen will hardly hold that one guiltless who stands
-      dumb while hidden evils assail. If men about their affairs were passing to
-      and fro across a great bridge, and one should discover that certain planks
-      in its flooring were defective, would he do ill if he pointed them out to
-      his fellows? If men labored in the shops and traded in the market
-      confident in the security of their city's wall, and one should perceive
-      that the wall was honeycombed with holes, could he stand dumb and escape
-      the stigma of being a traitor? The law makes little difference in the
-      degree of moral turpitude between the <i>suppressio veri</i> and the <i>suggestio
-      falsi</i>. Both are grievous wrongs. The duty of the individual to the
-      state is imperative. He cannot evade it and continue to regard himself as
-      a worthy citizen.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Is there not in all this criticism a faint suggestion of the men who
-      &ldquo;darken counsel by words without knowledge&rdquo;?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lycurgus taught the laws to the people, Solon taught the laws to the
-      people. The Roman law provided for a final appeal from the consul to the
-      people, and the very essence of republican institutions lies, as has been
-      said, in a recognition of the people as the source of the law-making
-      power. If the law offers imperfect security and is capable of revision,
-      the people must be taught in order that they may revise it. If it offers
-      insufficient security and is incapable of revision, then the people must
-      be taught in order that they may protect themselves. This conclusion is
-      irresistible. To counsel otherwise is to share in the odium of that
-      short-sighted ambassador who urged upon Pericles the wisdom of reversing
-      the tablet upon which the law was written in order that the people might
-      not read the decree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Surely, then, he who points out the vices of the law to the people cannot
-      be said to do evil, unless the law of the land is to be made by a narrow
-      patriciate sitting, like the Areopagus of ancient Athens, with closed
-      doors.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That yesterday in which the enemies of society plied their craft by means
-      of the jimmy and the dark lantern is now almost entirely past. The master
-      rogue has discovered, with immense satisfaction, that the labor of others
-      may be enjoyed, and the results of their labor seized and appropriated to
-      his uses, without thrusting himself within the control of criminal
-      tribunals.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wise magistrates, laboring for the welfare of the race, have been pleased
-      to write down what should be done and what should not be done, and have
-      called it &ldquo;law.&rdquo; The citizen, having no time to inquire, has
-      gone about his trade under the impression that these rules were offering
-      ample protection to his person and his property. But the law, being of
-      human device, is imperfect, and in this fag end of the nineteenth century,
-      the evil genius thrusts through and despoils the citizen, and the robbery
-      is all the more easy because the victim sleeps in a consciousness of
-      perfect security.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The writer has undertaken to point out a few of the more evident
-      inadequacies of the law and a few of the simpler methods for evasion that
-      are utilized by the skilful villain. It must be borne in mind, however,
-      that more gigantic and more intricate methods for evading the law and for
-      appropriating the property of the citizen are available. The unwritten
-      records of business ventures and the reports of courts are crowded with
-      the record of huge schemes having for their ultimate purpose the robbery
-      of the citizen. Some of these have been successful and some have failed.
-      Enough have brought great fortunes to their daring perpetrators to appal
-      that one who looks on with the welfare of human society at heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The reader must bear in mind that the law herein dealt with is the law as
-      it is administered in the legal forms of his country, in no degree changed
-      and in no degree colored by the imagination of the author. Every legal
-      statement represents an established principle, thoroughly analyzed by the
-      courts of last resort. There can be no question as to the probable truth
-      of these legal conclusions. They are as certainly established as it is
-      possible for the decisions of courts to establish any principle of law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The reader is reminded that the schemes of skilled plotters, resorted to
-      for the purpose of defeating the spirit of the law, are, for the most
-      part, too elaborate and too intricate to be made the subject of popular
-      discussion. An attempt to explain to the but half-interested layman plots
-      of this character would be as vain as an attempt to demonstrate an
-      abstract problem in analytical mechanics. The knaves who have been pleased
-      to devote their energies and their capacities to problems of this nature
-      are experts learned and capable, and against these the average man of
-      affairs can defend himself but poorly. He may be warned, however, and the
-      author will have accomplished his purpose if he succeeds in identifying
-      the black flag of such pirate crafts.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the present volume he has deemed it wise to continue to utilize as his
-      central figure the lawyer, Randolph Mason,&mdash;a rather mysterious legal
-      misanthrope, having no sense of moral obligation, but learned in the law,
-      who by virtue of the strange tilt of his mind is pleased to strive with
-      the difficulties of his clients as though they were mere problems
-      involving no matter of right or equity or common justice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This emotionless counsellor has already been introduced to the public. He
-      has been described as a man in the middle forties. &ldquo;Tall and
-      reasonably broad across the shoulders; muscular, without being either
-      stout or lean.&rdquo; His hair was thin and of a brown color, with erratic
-      streaks of gray. His forehead was broad and high and of a faint reddish
-      color.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His eyes were restless, inky black, and not over large. The nose was big
-      and muscular and bowed. The eyebrows were black and heavy, almost bushy.
-      There were heavy furrows, running from the nose downward and outward to
-      the comers of the mouth. The mouth was straight, and the jaw was heavy and
-      square.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Looking at the face of Randolph Mason from above, the expression in
-      repose was crafty and cynical; viewed from below upward, it was savage and
-      vindictive, almost brutal; while from the front, if looked squarely in the
-      face, the stranger was fascinated by the animation of the man. and at once
-      concluded that his expression was at the same time sneering and fearless.
-      He was evidently of Southern extraction and a man of unusual power.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This counsellor, keen, powerful, and yet devoid of any sense of moral
-      obligation, is possessed of this one idea&mdash;-that the difficulties of
-      men are problems and that he can solve them; that the law, being of human
-      origin, can be evaded; that its servants, being but men like the others,
-      may be balked, and thwarted and baffled in their efforts at a proper
-      administration of this law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is the age of the able rogue, and, in examining his rascally schemes,
-      the writer has finally come to believe that the ancient maxim, which
-      declares that the law will always find a remedy for a wrong, is, in this
-      present time of hasty legislation, not to be accepted as trustworthy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <i>(See the learned opinion of Mr. Justice Matthews in the case of Irwin
-      vs. Williar, no U. S. Reports, 499; the case of Waugh vs. Beck, 114 Pa.
-      State, 422; also Williamson vs. Baley, 78 Mo., 636; 15 B. Monroe, Ky.
-      Reports, 138. See also, in Virginia, the case of Machir vs. Moore, 2
-      Grat., 258.)</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      THE GOVERNOR'S MACHINE
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      I
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HERE was something
-      on the Governor's mind, and when this condition obtained, interesting
-      events had usually followed in the far Southwest. This highly mystic
-      mental status had preceded the efforts of a Federal Court to compel him to
-      act under a mandamus, and the result was history. It had preceded a
-      memorable conflict between the legislature at large and His Excellency,
-      the Governor, also at large, and immediately thereafter a certain statute
-      had sprung into existence prohibiting the massing of State troops within
-      one hundred miles of the Capitol during the sitting of the Solons of the
-      Commonwealth; but it was a law after the fact. It had preceded also the
-      mercurial efforts of the so-called patriotic orders to impeach the
-      Executive for malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance,&mdash;an effort
-      that had brought to its instigators only a lurid and inglorious rout.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor was standing at the eastern window of his private office
-      looking out at the monotonous brown tablelands stretching away to the
-      foothills of the blue mountains that marked the outer limits of his
-      jurisdiction. He was a young man, this Governor, with the firm, straight
-      figure of a soldier and the gracious bearing of important ancestry. His
-      eyes were brown, and his hair and Van Dyke beard were brown also&mdash;all
-      indicative, say the sages, of precisely what the Governor was not. He was
-      perfectly groomed. Every morning when he walked down to the State-house he
-      was the marvel and the fastidious spotless idol of the far Southwest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      One would have imagined that this handsome fellow had just stepped out
-      from a smart New York club, could he have forgotten that such an
-      institution was almost a continent to eastward. The Governor had
-      maintained that it was quite possible to live as a gentleman should
-      wherever Providence had provided Chinamen and water, and that the matter
-      was not entirely hopeless if the Chinamen were not to be had, so the water
-      remained.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was true indeed that the Executive had maintained his customs with no
-      little pain against the divers protests of gods and men, ofttimes wrought
-      in silence, but not infrequently urged fiercely in the open. But the
-      Governor was not one with whom meddling folk could trifle and preserve the
-      peace. This fact certain bad men had learned to their hurt west of the
-      Gila, and divers evil-disposed persons regretted and were buried, and
-      regretted and remembered south of the Pecos. So that in time this matter
-      came to be regarded as a peculiarity, and passed into common respect as is
-      the way with the peculiarities of those expeditious spirits who shoot
-      first and explain afterwards.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor was aroused from his reverie by his private secretary who
-      came in at this moment from the outer office.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Governor,&rdquo; said the young man, &ldquo;there is a strike at
-      the Big Injin.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; replied the Executive, &ldquo;telegraph the sheriff.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the Secretary, &ldquo;the sheriff has just
-      telegraphed us.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; continued the Executive, &ldquo;send a courier to
-      Colonel Shiraf.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But Colonel Shiraf is out on the Ten Mile.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said the Governor, &ldquo;you must go up to
-      the mines, and if the dignity of the Commonwealth needs to be maintained,
-      you will maintain it, Dave. You should find some troops at the post, some
-      herders at the cattle ranch, and a very large proportion of the State
-      Guards, by this time quite drunk, at a horse fair in Garfield County. If
-      they are required, notify me.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As the secretary turned to leave the room, the Governor called him back.
-      &ldquo;Dave, my boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;peace in this Commonwealth is
-      a sacred thing&mdash;a superlatively sacred thing, so sacred that we are
-      going to have it if thereby the word 'census' becomes a meaningless term;
-      and remember, my boy, that the State is very expeditious.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The secretary went out and closed the door behind him, while His
-      Excellency, Alfred Capland Randal, forgetting the report, turned back to
-      the window. The air from the great brown plain came up dry and hot; above
-      the blue mountains the sun looked like a splotch of bloody red, and over
-      it all brooded the monotonous&mdash;the almost hopeless silence of the far
-      Southwest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The something on the Governor's mind was a something of grave import, for
-      which he could evidently find no solution, and presently he began to pace
-      the length of his private office with long strides, and with his hands
-      thrust deep into his pockets.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Suddenly the door opened and a Chinaman entered with a telegram. The
-      Governor looked up sharply, and taking the envelope tore it open with
-      evident unconcern. When his eyes ran over the message he drew in a deep
-      breath, and, seating himself at a table, spread out the paper before him.
-      This was the advent of the unexpected, for which Mr. Randal was not quite
-      prepared, and this his manner exhibited to such a degree that the stolid
-      Celestial wondered vaguely what was up with the big foreign devil.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Our train stops at El Paso,&rdquo; ran the telegram, &ldquo;you
-      will come up, won't you?&mdash;M. L.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor stroked his Van Dyke beard, and the fine lines came out on
-      his face. &ldquo;Of all times,&rdquo; he muttered. Then he turned to the
-      Chinaman. &ldquo;Have my overcoat at the depot at six. I am going to El
-      Paso, and shall not return until late.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Chinaman vanished, and the Executive crushed the telegram in his
-      hands, thrust it into his pocket, and resumed his march up and down the
-      private office.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This Governor was the crowning achievement of a machine. He was the elder
-      son of an ancient family in Massachusetts, and had been reared and
-      educated in an atmosphere of culture. It had been the intention of his
-      family to have him succeed his father with the practice of the law, but
-      the plans of men are subject to innumerable perils, and it soon developed
-      that young Mr. Randal was not at all adapted to the duties of a barrister.
-      Indeed it was very early apparent that nature had intended this man for
-      the precarious vagaries of a public life. He was magnetic, generous, with
-      a splendid presence, and the careless, speculative spirit of a gambler. In
-      truth, Alfred Capland Randal was a politician <i>per se</i>. While in
-      college he had been a restless element, injecting the principles of
-      practical policy into everything he touched, from the Greek-letter
-      fraternities to the examinations in Tacitus, and all with such reckless,
-      jovial abandon that divers sage members of the faculty speculated with
-      much wonder as to which particular penal institution would be his ultimate
-      domicile.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At times the elder Randal had been summoned to attend these grave sittings
-      of the faculty, and straightway thereafter the rigid New England lawyer
-      had lectured his son at great length and with bitter invective, to which
-      the young man attended in a fashion that was amiable, and immediately
-      disregarded in a fashion that was equally amiable. Thus in the Puritanic
-      bosom of the father the conclusion grew and fattened and matured that the
-      eldest scion of his house was an entirely worthless scapegrace, while the
-      son was quite as certain that his father was a very sincere, but an
-      entirely misguided old gentleman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The result of these divergent opinions was that on a certain June evening
-      young Randal sat down upon a bench in the park of his father's country
-      place with the express purpose of planning his career. Out of the
-      confidence of youth he determined upon two ultimate results. One was, of
-      course, wealth, and the other was an elaborate and entirely proper wedding
-      ceremony with a certain Miss Marion Lanmar. This young lady, Randal had
-      met at a football game at Harvard, and afterward in New York, where she
-      resided with her aunt, Mrs. Hester Beaufort.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gigantic confidence of youth is certainly a matter of sublime wonder
-      to the gods. One at all familiar with the ways of things would have at
-      once pronounced both results quite impossible to the improvident young
-      man. But from the standpoint of exuberant youth there seemed to be no
-      important obstacles except the possible delay, and this was not very
-      material, as the world was young and these were things to be had in the
-      farther future.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For the present, Randal determined to organize a political machine and
-      transport it into one of the remote Western States. The East offered no
-      theatre for his talents; it was closely organized; its political machinery
-      was too strong for him to hope to oppose it. He would be crushed out in
-      the first skirmish.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nor could he hope for early recognition by allying himself to any one of
-      the established organizations. These were crowded with deserving men, and
-      besides, he had no intention of serving as a political apprentice. He had
-      ability, he believed, as a political strategist, and he proposed to
-      operate free and untrammelled in a big, breezy arena.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Having determined upon a course, young Randal at once proceeded to put it
-      into operation. He held a council of war at the Plaza on Fifth Avenue with
-      two of his college associates, a stranded gambler, called for convenience
-      &ldquo;Billy the Plunger,&rdquo; and an old Virginia gentleman named Major
-      Culverson. The council sat in secret session for three days, and the
-      result was that the machine moved out into the Commonwealth of Idaho, and
-      began to operate. But the manners and customs of the West were varied and
-      mystic, and with the following summer the machine, badly shaken, moved
-      over into Nevada. Here, at Tulasco, on the Central Pacific Railroad, the
-      first college man deserted and, helped by his father, returned with great
-      penitence to the civilized East.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The machine passed on across the Humbolt River and proceeded to attempt to
-      shape the political destinies of Nevada. But disaster was following in its
-      wake, and, after an active and turbulent but quite unprofitable career of
-      a few months, it moved southward, battered and beaten, but unconquered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the night of the third of October, the machine tramped into Hackberry,
-      on the Southern Pacific, and while men slept, the second college man,
-      concealing himself in a freight car, set out for the Atlantic coast,
-      cursing with lurid language all that part of the continent lying west of
-      the Mississippi.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the following morning the machine held its second great council, but
-      this time it sat in desperate conclave above the Cow-Punchers' Saloon in
-      the town of Hackberry, facing a condition and not a theory. But three
-      members remained&mdash;Randal, the dauntiess Culver-son, and Billy the
-      Plunger.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler was for organizing a faro bank, and working the towns down the
-      Gila, but as the bank had no funds, and the death rate usually attendant
-      upon such ventures in this primitive country was enormous, his plan was
-      held impracticable, and at four o'clock in the afternoon he ceased to urge
-      the wisdom of his scheme, and after having announced with great solemnity
-      that he was game to any limit the gang wanted, he lapsed into the capacity
-      of a spectator.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Major advised moving south into Mexico, but as he seemed to have no
-      definite idea of what should be done when Mexico was reached, and it
-      finally appearing that moving south was simply a fad with Culverson, the
-      plan was likewise abandoned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Young Randal, fired by his unabated purpose, urged the wisdom of trying a
-      round with the political fortunes of Arizona, but it was demonstrated that
-      he was considering a major venture, having for its object huge honor,
-      while at present there was crying need for some minor venture that would
-      probably result in the necessaries of life and a few hundred dollars.
-      Accordingly, at three o'clock in the morning, the machine decided to
-      assume, for a time, the vocation of the cattle herder, and accept
-      employment with a certain stock king of New Mexico.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was understood, however, that this digression should be temporary, and
-      should be abandoned just as soon as the machine should feel able to resume
-      its original purpose. It was at this point in the deliberations of the
-      conclave that Major Culverson made his famous statement, to wit, that the
-      gates of hell could not ultimately prevail against a political machine
-      composed of a Massachusetts Yankee, a dead game sport, and an old Virginia
-      gentleman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From this time forth the career of Randal's machine was a concatenation of
-      fortunes and misfortunes, principally the latter, quite incredible. But
-      the three men clung together, and a single enthusiastic purpose is a
-      marvellous motor power, so that when Fate finally lent a helping hand, the
-      machine became a something of importance in the affairs of a Southwestern
-      Commonwealth. Once on the upward way, the ability of Randal and the daring
-      energies of his associates carried it forward with great strides, so great
-      that on the evening of the day with which this history has to do, the
-      Massachusetts Yankee was the Governor of a State, the Major was Auditor,
-      and Billy the Plunger, now known by his signature as Ambercrombie Hergan,
-      was Secretary of State.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sun had gone downward from sight behind the far mountains, now changed
-      from blue to a murky gray. The Governor, recalled to a sense of the hour,
-      closed his mahogany desk, locked the door of his private office, and
-      walked leisurely out through the State-house. As he passed down the steps
-      of the Capitol he met the Auditor coming up.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How are you, Al?&rdquo; said the Auditor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Charmed,&rdquo; replied the Governor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said the Major, with great ceremony, &ldquo;you may be
-      charmed, sir, but to me, sir, yuur face wears the haunted look of one who
-      holds three nines against what he strongly suspects to be a pat hand.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sage,&rdquo; said the Governor, bowing, &ldquo;I tremble for my
-      hidden thoughts.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You're a fool,&rdquo; said the Major, stepping up beside the
-      Executive. &ldquo;I want to know where you are going.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I!&rdquo; said the Governor, &ldquo;I am going to the southeast. Do
-      you see that little railroad? I am even now about to commit myself to its
-      irresponsible mercies.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You must not go, Al,&rdquo; continued the Auditor. &ldquo;Attend, I
-      will nominate the reasons. First, there is a julep party at my palatial
-      residence.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Insufficient,&rdquo; said the Governor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Second, there is a strike at the Big Injin.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Insufficient,&rdquo; said the Governor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And third,&rdquo; continued the Auditor, lowering his voice,
-      &ldquo;Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan is at this very hour in the second
-      room of Crawley's Emporium, playing the taxes of Bolas County, and losing
-      them, sir, losing them.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor's face grew hard, and his remarks for a moment were quite
-      unprintable. Then he turned to the Auditor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ned,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;you must get him out, and take him
-      up to my residence. I will be here by ten o'clock. I am compelled to go to
-      El Paso. I can't get out of it. I am compelled to go.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Compelled?&rdquo; ejaculated the Major, &ldquo;who, in the name of
-      all the living gods, is compelling you? He must be greater than the
-      railroads, greater than the legislature, greater than the Federal Court.
-      Compelling the Honorable Alfred Capland Randal? Shade of the blooming
-      Witch of Endor!&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ned,&rdquo; said the Governor slowly, &ldquo;I will explain it all
-      just as soon as I can. In the meantime you must help me. You must get him
-      out. Won't you, Ned?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor put his hand on the Auditor's shoulder, just as he had done a
-      thousand times before when he needed the help of this unusual man. And,
-      just as he had done a thousand times before, the Major declared that the
-      Executive was a &ldquo;damned rascal&rdquo; and a &ldquo;no account
-      youngster,&rdquo; and that he would not do it, when all the time he knew
-      deep down in his heart that he loved this straight young fellow better
-      than any other thing in the world, and that presently he was going to do
-      exactly what he said he would not do.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor knew this also, for he ran down the steps without stopping to
-      interrupt the amiable flow of the Auditor's depreciatory remarks.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the depot he found the Chinaman, Bumgarner, waiting with his coat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That such a primitive Celestial should be saddled with such a name arose
-      entirely from the pious instincts of the Major. It happened that the
-      Virginian was standing in a crowd at the corner near Crawley's Emporium
-      when the Chinaman first appeared, having tramped from the coast. The
-      Major, who was slightly in his cups, called the Chinaman over to the
-      corner, and inquired by what appellation he was known, to which the
-      foreigner responded that he was called Fu Lun. &ldquo;Fu Lun!&rdquo;
-      shouted the Major, fiercely, &ldquo;a name smacking of the devil, and not
-      to be tolerated in a Christian State.&rdquo; And then turning to the
-      crowd, &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;behold! I do a goodly
-      missionary work. I rebuke the evil spirit dwelling in the bosom of this
-      heathen. I give it a Christian name. I name it Bumgarner.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thus the first evidence of civilization fastened upon the Celestial, and,
-      as the Major's mandate was not to be disregarded, as &ldquo;Bumgarner&rdquo;
-      the Chinaman had gone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The journey to El Paso was not an idle one for the Governor. In a very
-      short time he should be in the presence of Miss Marion Lanmar and her aunt
-      Mrs. Beaufort, and, of all times since their first eventful meeting, this
-      was the very time he was not prepared for an interview. Prior to the
-      notable exodus of the machine to Idaho, Randal had called upon Miss
-      Lanmar, who was at that time a very young woman in college. The two were
-      quite important, quite enthusiastic, and pitiably ignorant of the world's
-      ways.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This last meeting to them seemed big with fate, and was dramatic to the
-      limit of a playactor's rehearsal. Youth lent to it all the glamour of
-      romance. To Miss Lanmar young Randal was her chivalrous knight-errant, on
-      the eve of his departure into a wild and unknown land full of mysterious
-      peril, in quest of wealth and fair fame, all for her. To Randal she was
-      the Lily Maid of Astolat, whom it was fate that he should worship with
-      noble deeds until he won. It was all in strict accord with romantic custom
-      in such cases made and provided, and terminated quite in keeping with the
-      ideal conventions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the door had closed upon the handsome young fellow whom Miss Marion
-      Lanmar had promised to love for ever more, that young lady remained
-      standing motionless by the mantel shelf, her face very white, and her
-      heart very desperate and very true. To the dainty Miss Lanmar it was all
-      very real, and by no means the pretty little comedy which the world out of
-      its practical wisdom would have known it to be.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To Mr. Alfred Randal, as he passed down the steps of Mrs. Beaufort's
-      residence on the avenue, the world was now a vast arena, into which he was
-      going, armed and knighted with his lady's colors on his helm. His heart
-      beat high in his bosom. He would be a factor in great affairs; the hour
-      would come when he would return, famous, wealthy past belief, announced by
-      the heralds. He could not know that he was but another character in that
-      sweet old fairy story which men and women have striven to act over and
-      over again before they learn with dumb horror how pitiless and how
-      practical are the ways of Providence.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yet the wise man who accompanies the youth to the gateway of the arena
-      will not say: &ldquo;To-morrow Circumstance will beat you from your horse
-      and tramp you under, and instead of returning victor, you will return a
-      cripple.&rdquo; Although the wise man knows full well that of all results
-      this latter is most probable, yet he will not say it, because the
-      enthusiasm of youth is a marvellous power, difficult to estimate, and what
-      it may accomplish no man can tell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor had not seen this young woman after that night, but he had
-      clung to his intention with the determination of a man who has a single
-      object in life. An intermittent correspondence had been maintained, but
-      after years this intention to wed Miss Lanmar had become rather an ideal
-      something, and in this there was peril. But a few weeks before, he had
-      intimated vaguely, that he was now a person of some local importance, and
-      with no inconsiderable prospects of wealth, and to this Miss Lanmar had
-      intimated quite as vaguely that she was waiting. But in it all there,
-      seemed to be a powerful, albeit somewhat indistinct doubt. Years had
-      passed, and years had a way of working frightful changes in people. The
-      Miss Lanmar of to-day could not be the school-girl whom he had known.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Executive leaned back in a seat of the stuffy little coach and
-      speculated with grave concern At any rate, this alliance was now quite
-      impossible. Complications had been thrust in; a duty, or what he conceived
-      to be a duty, had sprung up, and this duty it was not his intention to
-      evade.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      II
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Governor walked
-      gravely down the long platform at El Paso, looking up at the windows of
-      the Pullmans, wondering, rather indistinctly, how he should be able to
-      recognize the irridescent princess of his romantic youth. A negro porter
-      touched him on the arm and inquired if he was Governor Randal. The
-      Executive replied that he was, whereupon the negro with much profound
-      obeisance announced that Miss Lanmar was waiting in the drawing-room of
-      the opposite Pullman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor sprang up the steps of the coach. As he entered, a young
-      woman, wearing a dark travelling dress, came forward to meet him. She was
-      of medium height, with heavy brown hair, fine eyes, arched brows, and
-      quite a faultless nose. But the great charm of the woman was her splendid
-      bearing, and her instinctive culture.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Just how this meeting began Alfred Randal could never afterwards quite
-      recall. He could remember in vivid details the first picture of this
-      superb woman as she arose to greet him, but then, just then, the love of
-      his youth that had seemed to sleep under an anaesthetic for so many years,
-      suddenly woke into glorious life, and gushed into his heart and overran
-      his senses with its marvellous vitality. What transpired thereafter was
-      provokingly indistinct. He remembered being presented to the aunt, Mrs.
-      Beaufort, and her astonishment, and her incredulous query as to whether he
-      lived in this &ldquo;terrible country&rdquo; to which he had replied that
-      he could not be said to live, but that it was his part to exist in this
-      rather primitive land. He remembered that the three sat together in the
-      drawing-room of the coach and talked of his return to New York, of his
-      ultimate success, and his assured future. He remembered also that for the
-      time he had forgotten the grave difficulty in the way of such a future and
-      his stern decision made but a few minutes before. He remembered also that
-      through it all he had been very foolish and very confident and idiotically
-      happy, and how at the parting he had kissed Miss Lanmar's hand and blushed
-      like a school-girl, and then jumped down from the moving train at the
-      peril of his life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor stood upon the platform and watched the great train as it
-      thundered away in the distance. The interview which had just ended,
-      although a thing apparently unreal, had swept him out from under the
-      influence of an illusion that had served to make his life in the great
-      Southwest bearable, even happy. From this time forth it could never be
-      what it had been. The man felt like one who, having been so long a captive
-      in a dungeon that he was half content, and his memories of the world had
-      become vague and unreal, is suddenly and without warning lifted into the
-      sunshine of the great glorious world and held there until his heart is
-      filled to drunkenness with the beauty of it all, and then, ruthlessly and
-      on the instant, is thrust back into the rayless gloom of his dungeon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randal stood for a time looking at the rows of dim lights scattered about
-      the station like dismal fireflies. Then he crossed to the freight train
-      upon which he was to return and climbed up into the cab with the driver.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What time shall we get in?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By the top of the night, Governor, if we have luck,&rdquo; answered
-      the driver, pulling open the throttle.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The engine snorted and pounded along in the dark like some huge beast. The
-      Governor sat in the cab window and looked out. The night air was sweet and
-      cool, his face was hot. Two hours before he had decided what he should do,
-      and dismissed the matter; but new and powerful elements had arisen and
-      ordered him to rehear and decide anew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ambercrombie Hergan had lost and wasted the money of the State. There was
-      now a deficit in his accounts of some fifty thousand dollars. There was no
-      way by which this loss could be met unless Randal should pay it, and to do
-      this would take everything he had on earth. It would mean the sacrifice of
-      his mining stock, which, if held, promised great returns. It would be
-      ruin, utter ruin, to make good the loss; yet the gambler, although a
-      gambler, was his friend, and two hours before he had not hesitated at all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Motives, mighty, selfish motives, which until this hour he had beaten
-      back, now leaped up clamoring to be heard, howling for time against his
-      decision, time to show the right of their cause, the wisdom of it, the
-      ultimate justice of it. Something asked him roughly what right had he to
-      jeopardize the future of this woman who loved him. What right had he to
-      deceive, to sacrifice her? Who was Hergan that he should be considered
-      against this woman? Who, but a reckless and improvident adventurer? It was
-      not his own happiness urged the something; that would be a matter of
-      little moment. It was the happiness of another, and that other was true,
-      innocent of wrong, superlatively just. What contrast could be drawn
-      between the woman and this gambler? Duty? What duty could he owe to the
-      irresponsible Hergan that could approach in the slightest part the measure
-      of the duty which he owed to the woman who had trusted him for so many
-      years, and waited, and loved him?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yet against all this, certain pictures came up from the past,&mdash;vivid,
-      proclaiming a mighty truth, a truth which the man knew and acknowledged in
-      his heart, the truth that if these positions were reversed, Hergan,
-      gambler though he was, would not hesitate for a moment. Had he hesitated
-      that morning in the Rio Grande when Randal's horse had fallen and was
-      being swept down with the current, carrying his master under him, tangled
-      in the stirrup strap? Had he hesitated when it became necessary
-      deliberately to steal and burn the bogus ballots in Garfield County, when
-      to do so seemed little less than deliberate suicide? Had he hesitated that
-      terrible day on the Rio Sonora, when there was no time for warning, but
-      time only to spring forward and take the knife in his shoulder? Had this
-      man ever hesitated when the welfare of Randal was at stake? Would he not
-      gladly, and without comment, give up his life to-morrow if the Governor
-      should ask it of him?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor passed his hand across his forehead and closed his eyes. When
-      he opened them he had decided, and against this second decision there
-      should be now no appeal and no rehearing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      III
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Secretary of
-      State was far removed from the ordinary. He was one of those not
-      infrequent persons whom men are quite unable to classify. At times he
-      arose far beyond the limits set for him by his associates, and at times he
-      dropped far below. There was about the man a sort of indefinite reserve
-      that impressed his fellows and inspired confidence in those positions
-      requiring rash and apparently impracticable moves. Ordinarily, in
-      commonplace affairs, his judgment was not considered sound, or even
-      valuable, and at such times no one would have thought for a moment of
-      advising with this man. It was only when sound common-sense could see no
-      way out that the machine appealed to Hergan, and at such times he came
-      forward with some freak venture which was frightfully perilous and never
-      ordinary, and never quite a failure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Success, usually arose, however, not from the ultimate wisdom of Hergan's
-      plans, but from the fact that his unique move would throw the affair into
-      a sort of convulsion resulting in a new situation, and this new situation
-      the sound judgment of his fellows would usually be able to control. The
-      counsel of Ambercrombie Hergan was a protean agent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The grave vice in the character of the Secretary of State lay in the fact
-      that he possessed no idea of perspective. He would wager his last dollar
-      with the same joyous unconcern with which he had wagered his first, and he
-      would have staked the entire Southwest, if he possessed it, as readily as
-      a Mexican peso, upon the turn of a card or the result of a horse race. As
-      to the antecedents of the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, even conjecture
-      was silent. He had come up from a mysterious substratum of New York,&mdash;for
-      what, and by reason of what, no man inquired. This mighty new land traced
-      no records and propounded no questions. The arena stood open with its
-      doors thrown back. Any combatant who pleased could enter. Heralded or
-      unheralded, it mattered not. Good or bad, learned or ignorant, of yokel
-      blood or princely lineage, it mattered not. If he were fittest, he could
-      win.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From this organic defect of his mental build, and not from evil animus,
-      had resulted the sad state of the Secretary's accounts. He had never
-      entirely appreciated the important distinction between his own money and
-      that which belonged to the Commonwealth. He had been thoughtless,
-      reckless, unconcerned, until now he was hopelessly involved. Yet even at
-      this stage when his term of office was fast drawing to a close, he failed
-      to appreciate the gravity of his position, and treated the matter with
-      good-natured unconcern, as of no moment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor and Secretary of State sat together in the Governor's library
-      awaiting his return. In appearance the Auditor was a muscular little man
-      of most marvellous vitality, with a fierce white mustache, and a fund of
-      quaint oaths and semi-dramatic phrases hugely expressive and at times
-      artistic; while the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan was very tall and very
-      broad, with a shock of heavy black hair, wide jaws, and a big crooked
-      nose. Far back in his youth this nose had been straight, but one night, in
-      a barroom on the Bowery, a difference of opinion had arisen over some
-      inconsequential matter, and thereafter the gambler's nose had assumed a
-      contour not contemplated in the original design.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Major was talking, and pounding the table vigorously, when the Chinese
-      servant entered with a tray and some glasses. The Virginian drew himself
-      up and stepped back from the table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, Bumgarner,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I hail your resurrection; I
-      glory in your return to life. You have been dead no inconsiderable period,
-      sir.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Chinaman replied that he had been engaged in a laborious but
-      unsuccessful hunt for the bottle of Angostura bitters.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angostura bitters?&rdquo; cried the Major, &ldquo;marvellous,
-      inscrutable heathen! Will you deign to reveal your reason for requiring
-      the Angostura bitters?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Celestial responded that he presumed bitters was an element requisite
-      to the rather mysterious drink which he had been requested to compound.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hear him, hear him!&rdquo; thundered the Major, as though
-      addressing some present but invisible avenging demon; &ldquo;hear the
-      vandal! Bitters in a julep! Mighty, intelligent shade of Simple Simon!
-      Attend and observe the idiocy of this savage!&rdquo; Then he crossed to
-      the astonished Chinaman and took him gently by the collar.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bumgarner,&rdquo; he said softly, &ldquo;you are a frightful
-      example of man's neglect. You have been trained by a Massachusetts Yankee.
-      Ergo, your lack of knowledge is sublime. Bitters you might put in a
-      plebeian gin fizz, and be happy thereafter. Bitters you might put in a
-      high ball of whiskey, and live thereafter. But bitters in a julep, <i>magnum
-      sacrum!</i> the gods would crush you! Bumgarner, you are an awful
-      throbbing error, and you have had a providential escape from death. Now,&rdquo;
-      continued the Major, seizing the Chinaman by the shoulder and turning him
-      toward the door, &ldquo;you may depart, and burn a few joss sticks, and
-      ponder upon my remarks.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The almond-eyed Celestial vanished, wondering vaguely if it had not been
-      better to remain in San Francisco and launder shirts in a cellar than to
-      attempt to cater to the depraved taste of such incomprehensible foreign
-      devils.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, Bill,&rdquo; continued the Major, seating himself at the
-      table, &ldquo;I want to know what you are going to do.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;About what?&rdquo; asked the gambler.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;About this money which you owe the State,&rdquo; said the Major.
-      &ldquo;Do you realize, sir, that our stand in the Southwest is just about
-      closing, and that we have got to square up and pull out?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I reckon so,&rdquo; replied the gambler, as though it were a matter
-      of no importance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You reckon so! You irresponsible truck horse! You reckon so!&rdquo;
-      snorted the Major. &ldquo;You will cease to indulge in the dainty pastime
-      of speculation when you get a log-chain on your leg and a striped suit on
-      your back.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Secretary of State laughed. &ldquo;Something will turn up,&rdquo; he
-      said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ambercrombie Hergan,&rdquo; said the Major, pounding the table with
-      his hand, &ldquo;for a broken, a branded, a long-suffering cow pony of
-      Satan, you have the blindest, most stupendous Presbyterian faith in
-      Providence of any white creature ambling south of the Central Pacific
-      Railroad; but you're sweetening on a bluff this hand, and I am going to
-      call you.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler's face grew serious. &ldquo;What are you prodding for, Ned?&rdquo;
-      he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor leaned forward on the table. &ldquo;You are planning to slide
-      out,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and it don't go.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would it hurt you or Al?&rdquo; asked the gambler anxiously.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor reached over and placed his hand on Hergan's arm. &ldquo;It
-      would not hurt me,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;and it would be no bones if
-      it did, but it would hurt the boy, and he must not be hurt. Don't you know
-      that the moment you are gone, Randal will sacrifice everything he
-      possesses and pay up the deficit? And that would ruin him.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler's face lengthened. &ldquo;I had not thought about that,&rdquo;
-      he said slowly, &ldquo;but you are right, he would do that. He is that
-      sort of a man. I have been a fool, an infernal fool, but I did not think
-      about the boy getting hurt, not once.&rdquo; The man shut his teeth tight
-      together and the big muscles swelled out on his jaws.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor sat and watched the man across the table from him, and admired
-      his iron nerve in the terrible struggle to decide between himself and the
-      welfare of his friend. The man was evidently suffering. His face showed it
-      plainly; the battle must be a bitter one. The Auditor wondered how it
-      would result. He pitied the man, and in spite of all, half hoped that he
-      would decide to save himself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently the gambler turned slowly and lifted his face, white, haggard,
-      ten years older than he had been an hour before.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't see how to keep him from doing it,&rdquo; he muttered;
-      &ldquo;I don't see how.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor started. This man had not been thinking of himself at all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; continued Hergan. &ldquo;I am about fifty thousand
-      short, and there is no way to raise that much money,&mdash;no way in God's
-      world. If I slide over the Rio, Al will pay it to keep them from
-      extraditing me; and if I stay here, he will pay it to keep them from
-      sending me to the Pen. It's the devil's own trap, and works both ways.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Who got the money, Bill?&rdquo; asked the Auditor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Crawley, and old Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining Company. Crawley
-      got most of it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A plague of fat old gamblers,&rdquo; said the Major, solemnly;
-      &ldquo;they are both as rich as they are mean, and as mean as they are
-      crooked.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At this moment the door opened and the Governor entered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      IV
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Executive
-      stopped for a moment and scrutinized his visitors quizzically; then he
-      laughed. &ldquo;May I inquire, gentlemen, whence arises this gloom?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor bowed low. &ldquo;Good sir,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;your
-      Excellency fails to distinguish between gloom and the gravity of sages.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If the funereal,&rdquo; replied the Governor, &ldquo;be a <i>sine
-      qua non</i> of the converse of the wise, then there has been here this
-      night great cause for envy on the part of Solomon, the Son of David, King
-      of Israel; for such gloom I have not met with in a world of evil days.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And, sir,&rdquo; responded the Auditor, waving his hand like a
-      barbaric king, &ldquo;if absence of respect for the dignity of the
-      thoughtful be a symptom of organic mental defect, then there is now here,
-      in truth, great cause for envy upon the part of Wamba, the Son of Witless,
-      the Son of Weatherbrain. For such amiable impudence is marvellous to
-      contemplate.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; said the gambler rising, &ldquo;if you will kindly
-      come down out of the clouds, I will be much obliged to you both, because I
-      have got something to say, and this is just as good a time to say it as
-      any.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor resumed his seat at the table. The Governor took up a chair,
-      moved it back deliberately into the shadow of the room and sat down.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is like this,&rdquo; continued the gambler, &ldquo;we three have
-      stood in for a long time, and I guess we know each other pretty well. We
-      did n't take no oath to stand by each other when we started, but I reckon
-      that is what we calculated to do. Anyway that is what we did do. If we had
-      n't a done it, we would n't have been deuce high in this Southwest. I did
-      n't have no faith in Al's machine when it started; I thought it was a wild
-      goose chase, but I did n't say nothing, because I had nothing to lose. I
-      was broke, and anything coming my way was pure velvet, so I joined in and
-      come out here.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Since that time we have had our ups and downs, if God's creatures
-      ever had 'em. We have lied a lot, and we've stole some, and we've starved
-      most of the time, and we have been poor and miserable and broke, but we
-      have played fair with each other, and we have never stacked the pack nor
-      dealt from the bottom. Then, one day, the luck turned and we won out
-      through the roof, just like it always does if you stay long enough and
-      keep doubling the bet. You two were elected, and Al appointed me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I reckon none of us are going to forget the hell that appointment
-      raised. They said I was an ignorant understrapper, a short card gambler,
-      and a leary element; and it was true, every blooming word of it Then the
-      newspapers pitched into Al; they said that it was to be hoped that the new
-      Governor would now have 'the moral courage to at least suppress the shady
-      member of his machine'&mdash;them are the very words; I'll never forget
-      'em, and they meant me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I guess I went to you boys, and told you I had better keep out, but
-      I reckon I did n't put up a very stiff case, because I was hot at the row.
-      I would n't have cared if the howlers had been better men than I was, but
-      I knew they were all just the same kind of cattle&mdash;unbranded,
-      straggling steers, gathered up from anywhere but a good place. As for
-      being shady, there was n't a man between the Gila and the Pecos white
-      enough to pass an Eastern grand jury, and as for being a gambler, there
-      was n't a mother's son of the batch that would n't have coppered his soul
-      on a black jack if the bank would have cashed it for a dollar.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hergan paused for a moment and looked at the Auditor. Then he added,
-      &ldquo;Exceptin' of course, you and Al.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; the gambler went on: &ldquo;I guess Al got mad. He
-      made a little speech; we was all there, and it was mighty good talk to
-      hear. He said there had n't been no 'invidious distinctions'&mdash;them
-      were his words,&mdash;during all the years when nothing had come our way
-      but just one dose of bad luck after another until we reckoned there was
-      n't no God at all,&mdash;least ways, if there was any, that He did n't
-      operate south of the Central Pacific Railroad, and now when we had finally
-      landed on our feet, there was n't going to be no 'invidious distinctions.'
-      I am bound to say that it seemed mighty good to hear Al talk like he did,
-      and I went ahead and let him appoint me.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Secretary of State moved a little nearer to the table, and an almost
-      imperceptible shadow flitted across his face. &ldquo;All the time,&rdquo;
-      he continued, &ldquo;I knowed it was wrong. I knowed that what the
-      mudslingers were sayin' was gospel. I knowed that I was n't fit for the
-      job no more than a Chinaman is fit for a pope. I knowed that the gambler
-      in me was ground in, and the other was just only rubbed on the outside,
-      and that the gambler part was going to run things,&mdash;and it did.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man paused for a moment and turned to the Governor. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo;
-      he said, &ldquo;I have come to the point, and it's this: I got into this
-      hole and I am going to get out of it; it's my game now; I am not going to
-      stand any side bets. You have both got to promise me right here that you
-      will keep your hands off this matter,&mdash;clear off&mdash;unless I say
-      it goes.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler stopped, rested his arms heavily on the table and looked at
-      his companions. The Virginian and the Executive were silent; both men
-      realized fully the true import of Hergan's demand. He was seeking to
-      prevent any sacrifice on their part; that was all, and if he had been the
-      most skilful diplomat in the world, he could not have moved more adroitly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor looked up at the massive face of the gambler, marred by evil
-      circumstance and the riot of dissipation, and wondered&mdash;as he had
-      wondered many a time before,&mdash;at the splendid unselfishness of this
-      man. From whence could have come this flower of nobility? The life of
-      Ambercrombie Hergan had been sterile soil indeed for such a plant as this.
-      How could it be in the economy of men that such princely fidelity obtained
-      alone even without trace of the common attendant virtues?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For the obligations of the law Ambercrombie Hergan had no regard. For the
-      obligations of the citizen he had no regard. Even for the common
-      obligations of morality he maintained the most stolid unconcern. Honesty
-      was a name to him, and right and duty and honor were merely names to him.
-      Yet blooming in the barren garden of this gambler's heart was something
-      fairer than them all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; asked Hergan, with a trace of anxiety in his voice,
-      &ldquo;are you going to promise?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor arose. &ldquo;This is a very serious matter,&rdquo; he said
-      slowly; &ldquo;we must be given a few minutes in which to decide.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That 's fair enough,&rdquo; replied the gambler. &ldquo;You two can
-      go into the other room. I'll wait.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Auditor and the Executive retired, and the Secretary of State resumed
-      his seat beside the table, the suggestion of a smile on his face, he knew
-      perfectly that if he could secure the promise of his companions it would
-      be maintained inviolate.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently the door opened and the two men entered. &ldquo;Bill,&rdquo;
-      said the Governor, &ldquo;we promise.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler arose, and stretched his long limbs like one relieved from the
-      weight of a crushing burden. Then he turned to his companions. &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo;
-      he said almost gaily, &ldquo;I may as well tell you now that I am going to
-      New York Saturday night.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And I may add,&rdquo; responded the Governor, &ldquo;that I am
-      going Friday night.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      V
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU see,&rdquo; the
-      Governor was saying,&rdquo; the failure of this bank in San Francisco has
-      wiped out every penny I had in the world. On the fourth day of next March
-      I will be poorer than the ordinary drayman. So poor that I must begin all
-      over again, and I have no heart to do it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Miss Marion Lanmar was silent. Her bands rested upon the great aims of the
-      chair in which she was seated. Her face might have been a cast; it was so
-      very motionless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I should not mind if it were not for you,&rdquo; the young man went
-      on. &ldquo;I mean,&rdquo;&mdash;he hesitated for a moment,&mdash;&ldquo;if
-      I had never seen you; if I had never known you. But now the effort would
-      seem so miserably inadequate, if it were not made for you. I have loved
-      you and lived for you too long. I have grown accustomed to you as the
-      mighty incentive. Every path that I have travelled has had you waiting at
-      the end. Every battle I have fought has seemed to hold your happiness in
-      its balance. Even the meagre gains of all the weary commonplace days have
-      been to me so much or so little added to the kingdom of the queen. So I
-      could have gone on to the end, but now, without you I have no heart at
-      all.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man leaned over and rested his arm on the mantel-shelf. &ldquo;I have
-      read somewhere,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;how the evil fiend strove to
-      destroy a man whom he hated; how he robbed him of his wealth, of his
-      friends, of his fair fame, and how the man worked on, laughing in the
-      demon's face, and how it all failed, until one morning the evil fiend
-      reached down into the man's heart and plucked the motive out of his life,
-      and then the man threw away his tools and came and sat in the doorway of
-      his shop. I suppose it is all very cowardly, to talk as I am talking, but
-      it would be very much worse, I should think, to deceive myself and you.&rdquo;
-      The woman did not answer. She was looking into the fire. The little blue
-      flames in the wide fireplace danced up and down upon their bed of coal in
-      impish merriment at all the trouble of men's lives.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently the man began again. &ldquo;Yet a woman cannot wait always,&rdquo;
-      he said, &ldquo;and I have no right to ask it of you. I must step aside
-      out of your life and beg to be forgotten. It is a terrible ordeal for one
-      who has gone down into the <i>melée</i> with his lady's colors on his helm
-      to return beaten and overthrown and say, 'This quest is not for me.' It is
-      hard to have the hope of one's life battered out and to live on in the
-      world, and yet men do, and I shall, I presume.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We are taught in youth that the world is a happy place, and I judge
-      that it is a bit of illusion, like the black goblin and the fairies, and
-      yet we all try very hard to believe the old housewife tales, and cling to
-      them, and give them up grudgingly and with regret. I shall always remember
-      how very sorry I was when I first realized that there really were no
-      fairies. I was only a child, but it made me unhappy for days. It seemed to
-      put all my reckoning out of joint. And so I have always believed that
-      happiness existed in the world, and that it came to men somewhere in their
-      lives about as the beautiful princess comes in the fairy stories. It never
-      occurred to me to doubt its coming. True, it never came, but everything
-      that did come seemed only to prepare a way for its coming at some day
-      farther on. Now I see that this is just an illusion like the others, and I
-      confess that the discovery has jarred me frightfully.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man's voice wavered for a moment; then it grew stronger. &ldquo;I
-      don't quite see how the world can ever seem a beautiful place after
-      to-night. The sky may be very blue indeed, but the man whose eyes ache
-      will not look up to see it. The birds may sing gloriously in the trees,
-      but the man whose heart is an empty house will not care at all.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randal stopped and looked down at the woman. He noticed how very soft and
-      heavy her brown hair was, and how delicate and slender her hands were. He
-      noted vaguely, too, the artistic effect of the folds of her gown and the
-      shadows on her face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Marion,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;If I did not love you better than
-      any other thing in the world, I would not be urging these bitter arguments
-      against my own happiness. I would not be so desperately anxious about your
-      welfare. I should not be so fearful of the future. I should take the
-      chance without the hesitation of a moment. But the very depth of my love
-      makes me a coward. I could not bear to see you subject to all the evil
-      things that come with poverty. I know what a frightful plight it is&mdash;how
-      it crushes out the sweetness and the nobility of one's life, how it
-      squeezes the heart, day after day, until it finally becomes a dry husk in
-      one's breast.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randal's voice was now thick with emotion. &ldquo;Marion,&rdquo; he said,
-      &ldquo;do you hear me? Do you believe me?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman's hands tightened on the great arms of the chair, and for a
-      moment she was silent; then she began to speak, slowly and distinctly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I do not know.&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I must have time to think.
-      Yet I have believed you all these years. I must believe you now. Yes, I do
-      believe you now. But you are wrong, frightfully wrong. You forget that a
-      woman is a human being with a heart. You think I am afraid of the world,
-      afraid of poverty, afraid of life as God makes it, as God wills it; that I
-      am a fragile something that the rain and the sunlight would ruin if it
-      touched; that I am a something more or less than you, a something that
-      requires ease and luxury and all the gilded stage-setting of wealth&mdash;and
-      you are wrong. If I love you, of what value to me are all those other
-      things without you? If I love you, it is not all these things I want&mdash;it
-      is you. I ask you to answer this, and by what is true in your heart, know
-      what is true in mine: Would you be happy with all that wealth can give you
-      and without me?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;not after to-night. No.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No more would I,&rdquo; added the woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heart, as it is said, speaks clearer to the heart when tongues are
-      silent, and it is said that grief and happiness when riding high in their
-      meridian have no need for the cumbrous medium of language.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a long silence, Miss Lanmar began again. &ldquo;Men cannot
-      understand,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;a woman's heart is so miserably
-      strange. Things either slip around it, leaving no mark at all, or they
-      sink in and become a very part of the woman's heart itself. There is no
-      middle ground; no half joy; no middle hurt. So it comes about that if
-      one's image creeps into her heart, it must remain. True, the world may
-      never know; the world is very stupid. But for all that, the woman's heart
-      will hold its tenant, and when she is alone or in the dark, she will know
-      and feel its presence. It may be that the woman will pray to be rid of the
-      evil thing, or it may be that she will pray to hold it always as a gift of
-      good, but be that as it happens, the woman's heart will remain forever
-      helpless to evict its tenant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is it strange, then, if I love you, that I should want to go with
-      you and live with you, and be with you always, and make your joys and your
-      burdens my joys and my burdens, and have a share and an interest in
-      everything that comes to you? Is it strange that I should hold wealth or
-      place or even honor as nothing against you? Is it strange that I should be
-      miserable, thoroughly, utterly miserable with every other thing in the
-      world, and you denied?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman's voice faltered and broke; her hands relaxed, and began to slip
-      from the great arms of the chair. The man came over, and knelt down beside
-      her and put his arms around her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Marion, dear heart,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you do love me. You will
-      trust me a little while,&mdash;just a little while?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman's head slipped down on his shoulder. &ldquo;Love you!&rdquo; she
-      murmured, &ldquo;I have always loved you. Surely I shall always love you.
-      But when you are gone, the world is so empty, so miserably empty!&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      VI
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span> THOROUGHLY
-      appreciate everything I you have mentioned, Mr. Hergan,&rdquo; said the
-      clerk Parks, &ldquo;but it is quite impossible. Mr. Mason is entirely
-      inaccessible. I should not dare interrupt him.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Look here, my friend,&rdquo; responded the gambler. &ldquo;I have
-      heard this same talk every day for the last week, and it don't go any
-      longer. I have got to see this lawyer, and I have got to see him now. Do
-      you understand me?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; replied the clerk, with a faint smile, &ldquo;I
-      understand you perfectly, but it is entirely useless to urge the matter
-      any farther. The business with which Mr. Mason is at present engaged is of
-      great magnitude. He would not permit an interview at all. I am very sorry,
-      but, of course, I can do nothing for you.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler did not respond. For a few moments he was silent. Then he put
-      his hands into the inside pocket of his coat and drew forth a rather
-      battered leather pocket-book. He held the pocket-book under the table,
-      opened it slowly, and selecting a fifty-dollar bill from among a number of
-      others, laid it gently on the table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is my ante. I want in the game.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The eyes of the clerk began to contract slowly at the corners.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My dear man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I should like to do this for
-      you, but I don't see how I can. I don't believe Mr. Mason would even
-      listen to me just now. I don't&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wait,&rdquo; responded the gambler; &ldquo;I sweeten it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thereupon he selected another bill from the pocket-book and spread it out
-      carefully beside the other upon the table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The little bald clerk began to drum on the chair with his fingers. His
-      eyes wandered from the money to the door of Mason's private office, and
-      back again. Presently he turned to the gambler.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Hon. Ambercrombie Herman held up two fingers. &ldquo;Don't call,&rdquo;
-      he said, &ldquo;I tilt it to one hundred and fifty.&rdquo; And he added
-      another bill to the two, and pushed the money across the table to the
-      clerk. Then he closed the pocket-book deliberately and replaced it in his
-      coat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Parks arose, picked up the money without a word, and passed into Randolph
-      Mason's private office, closing the door carefully behind him. In a very
-      few moments the clerk returned. He came up dose to the gambler and put his
-      hand confidentially on his shoulder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; he said, in a low tone, &ldquo;you are not a
-      fool. I have told some lies to get you this interview. Look sharp, and say
-      as little as possible.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What lies?&rdquo; asked the gambler, arising.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Such as were useful,&rdquo; responded the clerk. &ldquo;Quite too
-      tedious to enumerate. Please walk into Mr. Mason's office, sir, and
-      remember that you are my brother-in-law. Answer the questions which are
-      put to you, and don't volunteer talk. It is n't wise.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gambler opened the door to Randolph Mason's private office and
-      entered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      VII
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>E Secretary of
-      State came slowly down the steps from Randolph Mason's office. At the
-      entrance to the great building he stopped and looked up and down the busy,
-      jostling thoroughfare. It had been but a few years since he was a grain in
-      this vortex, and now that past seemed ages removed. He was not conscious
-      of anything of interest in the very familiar scene. Just why he had
-      stopped to look, this man would not have been quite able to explain. In
-      truth, he was striving to obtain his mental bearings. He had been flung
-      violently upon another view point, and he was endeavoring to comprehend
-      the loom of this new land. His sensations were not unlike those of one who
-      but an hour before had gone into the operating room of a surgeon, walking
-      as he believed to his death, and now returned with the tumor dissected
-      out, and the hope of life big in his bosom. The world was an entirely
-      different place from what it had been some hours before, and the gambler's
-      steps were firmer, and his ancient careless spirit had returned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At this moment, as it pleased Fate, a cab stopped before a broker's office
-      on the opposite-side of the street, and the Governor stepped out. The
-      gambler darted across and caught his companion by the shoulder. The
-      Governor turned suddenly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, in astonishment, &ldquo;is this an assault <i>vi
-      et armis?</i>&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;It's worse than that, Al. It's
-      a mandamus. You are not to go in that broker's office.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not to go in?&rdquo; echoed the Executive. &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Al,&rdquo; said the gambler, grinning like a Hindoo idol, &ldquo;I
-      said this here was a mandamus. I guess the judge don't ever explain 'why
-      not' in a mandamus.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good chancellor,&rdquo; replied the Governor, with mock gravity,
-      &ldquo;I resist the order.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On what ground?&rdquo; said the lion. Ambercrombie Hergan, with
-      such a sage judicial air as might obtain with a truck horse.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;First,&rdquo; replied the Governor, &ldquo;that the mandamus was
-      improvidently awarded. Second, that the Court issuing the writ was without
-      jurisdiction. And, third, that the act sought to be restrained is not
-      entirely ministerial, but one largely within the discretion of the
-      officer.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All them objections,&rdquo; said the gambler, &ldquo;this Court
-      overrules.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; continued the Executive, &ldquo;in this case the
-      mandamus cannot lie. I move to quash the writ.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But it does lie,&rdquo; asserted the powerful devotee of fortune,
-      hooking his arm through that of the Executive and turning him down the
-      street, &ldquo;and she can't be squashed.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor had observed the very great change in the man, and knowing
-      the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, he knew that this erratic person had
-      chanced upon some solution for his dilemma&mdash;strange and but
-      half-practical, the Governor had no doubt, but certainly not commonplace,
-      and so he made no further offer of resistance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Al,&rdquo; said the gambler, hurrying his companion through the
-      crowded street, &ldquo;do you know where you are going?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have n't the slightest idea,&rdquo; observed the Governor, with
-      greatest unconcern.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'll tell you. You are going first to the hotel, then to the
-      railroad, then to the Southwest, and you have just fifty-nine minutes
-      between you and the train.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Governor stopped short. &ldquo;I can't go, Bill. I must sell these
-      stocks.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's just the point,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;You aint
-      going to sell them stocks. That's why I issued this here mandamus.&rdquo;
-      And he seized the Executive by the arm and fairly dragged him across the
-      street.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bill,&rdquo; protested the Governor, &ldquo;Bill, this is all
-      nonsense. It don't go.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Everything goes,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;Come on. We have
-      lost three of them fifty-nine minutes already.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      VIII
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Emporium of
-      Crawley was not quite a trading-place as the Greek root of the word would
-      indicate, unless transactions in which the unwary bartered his gain for
-      experience, and the great unscrubbed of the Southwest pitted their wage
-      against the riot of dissipation, could be held to partake of the nature of
-      commerce. It was a fad with Crawley to assert that his Emporium was a
-      clearinghouse,&mdash;a rather grim jest, heavy with truth. Indeed, all the
-      currency of this primitive land seemed to pass, sooner or later, through
-      the mammoth establishment of First Class Crawley, and in season and out of
-      season as the dollar went through, a portion paused and remained in the
-      fingers of the proprietor. And for this, also,&mdash;as the common-law
-      pleader would put it,&mdash;truth clung to the pet declaration of Crawley.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the population gathered night after night under the roof of his
-      Emporium, their troubles came also; and when the smoke grew thick and the
-      tanglefoot whiskey began to assert itself, there were other things to
-      clear up beside matters of currency. Matters of consequence and matters of
-      no consequence were cleared by the same rapid, drastic measures. Bad men
-      here decided who was the worst or the best, as they were pleased with the
-      term. The henchmen of rival cattle kings submitted the vexatious question
-      of a brand on a stray heifer to this court of instant resort and quick
-      decision, and other concerns of the citizen, affecting perhaps his truth,
-      or honor, or ability for a vice, were determined suddenly and for all time
-      without the wrangling of counsel or the tedium of courts.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If a Mexican was so short sighted as to slip his knife into a tenderfoot,
-      some one shot the Mexican, and the crowd &ldquo;lickered up.&rdquo; If the
-      faro dealer killed his man, it was usually because the man needed killing,
-      and certainly the faro dealer was the best judge of this. On the contrary,
-      if one shot the dealer, this was considered a public calamity, demanding
-      an explanation, since the dealer was a <i>quasi</i> public functionary,
-      and the convenience of the citizen required that the game should continue.
-      One's life was perhaps the cheapest thing below the Central Pacific
-      Railroad, and it was entirely the duty of the individual to see that it
-      was maintained. If one was unsteady on the trigger, or caught napping on
-      the draw, one was held to have died by virtue of contributory negligence.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To be sure there was law, and machinery for its execution; but the
-      machinery was liberal, and had ideas of its own, and the law adhered with
-      supreme unconcern to its maxim&mdash;<i>De minimis non curat lex</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      First Class Crawley had been splendidly trained for the duties of his
-      position. If Fortune had been moving of design, she could not have
-      schooled him better for such a life. Some thirty years before, he had been
-      a sutler with the Army of the Potomac&mdash;not the sutler of romance, but
-      the sutler of reality; following the army bravely, but at such a distance
-      to the rear as to be at all times extremely safe, and exacting for his
-      valuable public service every gain that human ingenuity could discover. It
-      was no wrong in the mind of Crawley to cheat the common soldier out of his
-      eyes; belike the soldier would be shot on the morrow, and then all
-      opportunity to cheat him would cease, and if prior opportunity had not
-      been seized and enjoyed, Crawley would regret.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the &ldquo;bitterness of death&rdquo; had passed, Crawley became a
-      justice of the peace in Ohio. Here the field for his talent was broader,
-      and Crawley arose and spread like the bay tree of Biblical record. Crawley
-      held it as a basic principle that the machinery of human justice could not
-      be maintained without ample sinews of war. It was best, to be sure, if
-      these sinews could be wrested from the wrong-doer, but, failing that, the
-      innocent must contribute. Every litigant was presumed to proceed at the
-      peril of costs. The matter of costs was one vital to Crawley, and loomed
-      constantly. The right or justice of a cause was never for a moment
-      permitted to obscure it. If the plaintiff was impecunious, then the
-      decision must be against the defendant, else the costs could not be had,
-      and <i>vice versa</i> as it had pleased Providence to place substance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This was a high conception of human justice; since it passed by the
-      trivial controversy of the litigants, and placed the burden of legal
-      procedure upon the one best able to support It. First Class Crawley
-      maintained further that it was the part of wisdom in a government promptly
-      to release the criminal who &ldquo;shelled out,&rdquo; since the revenues
-      of the State arose largely from the fines imposed upon the evildoer, and
-      it was certainly quite useless to retain the criminal at public expense
-      after having squeezed him thoroughly, when he could be returned to society
-      and squeezed again later on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Crawley might have been the father of a school, had he not found the
-      school in Ohio established to his uses. Consequently his fame was local,
-      and his methods being of ancient origin in this Commonwealth, provoked no
-      comment, and indeed he might have passed on, with the usual career of such
-      ambitious spirits, to a seat in the legislature, had he not unwittingly
-      crossed into a neighboring State in order to attend a reunion of the Grand
-      Army of the Republic. Here one, smarting from a hurt, pounced down upon
-      him with a warrant for a felony, and that same night the visiting justice
-      was a guest of the State. But First Class Crawley was no man of feeble
-      resources, and two days later he gave a straw bond and vanished like a
-      newspaper war cloud.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the Southwest, Crawley was a person of importance&mdash;a court of last
-      resort on all matters, barring none. If bets were made, Crawley was
-      umpire. If questions w ere argued, Crawley was judge. If one wanted
-      advice, one went to him. If one wanted information, one went to him; and
-      if one needed money, one went always to First Class Crawley, and put up
-      everything but his life. No function was complete without the presence of
-      this celebrity, be it bull tight or prize fight, or dog fight, or a
-      prearranged resort to the arbitration of the Winchester. Crawley was a
-      great man, in counterdistinction to a bad man. Personally, he neither
-      quarrelled nor fought, and one would have no more considered shooting at
-      Crawley than he would have considered shooting at his grandmother. This
-      proprietor of the Emporium maintained his position, not by virtue of arms
-      and skill in their use, but by virtue of an interesting something which
-      passed with him for an intellect.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Consequently, when he and Hiram Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining Company,
-      sat down in the private gambling room of the Emporium to a private
-      interview with the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, they were expecting to
-      realize from the time expended. They were both attentive and interested,
-      since the reckless Secretary of State was known in the lingo of the guild
-      as an &ldquo;easy member.&rdquo; If he had money, or could obtain money,
-      it would eventually fall into their clutches as it had always done. Hence
-      their interest was genuine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; said the Secretary of State, &ldquo;I have a scheme to
-      make a stake, and I want you in on it. I have been over in the East, and I
-      have got it all figured out, and it's a cinch.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The owner of the Golden Horn folded his hands over the vast expanse of his
-      stomach and smiled benignly. He knew all about the usual combination of
-      circumstances set down in the elegant diction of the gambler as a &ldquo;cinch.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was an expert upon things of this sort, but he volunteered no
-      information, and no comment. He merely smiled and murmured &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo;
-      in a voice which reminded one of oil being poured from a very full barrel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; continued the Honorable Ambercrombie
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hergan, &ldquo;it's this way. There is a broker in Chicago who is a friend
-      of mine. I saved him from the jug when he was a kid, and he never forgot
-      it. Well, he went to Chicago, raked together a bunch of money, and bought
-      a seat in the Stock Exchange. He was lucky, and now he is away up. He is
-      on the inside, and he says that there is going to be a big raise in oil
-      stocks; that the Standard Oil Company has been forcing it down in order to
-      squeeze out the little dealers, and that they are right now at the bottom,
-      and when they let go, it will fly back to a dollar.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At this point in the narrative, Crawley murmured &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; then
-      leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He was not quite ready to
-      puncture Mr. Hergan's balloon, and it was not his way to offer objections
-      to unfinished propositions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Hergan, leaning over and resting his arms on the
-      table, &ldquo;the plan is to form a big pool and buy oil, and make enough
-      at one haul to go back to civilization and live like a king. That is the
-      scheme, boys. It's good.&rdquo; First Class Crawley opened his eyes
-      slowly, and putting out his fat hand, began to caress the green cloth on
-      the little round poker table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; he said slowly, &ldquo;I expect that is a good
-      scheme, and I expect there is money in it,&mdash;may be tubs of money, but
-      me and Martin aint speculators; we never so much as saw a ticking machine
-      in our life. We don't know anything about new-fangled ways to get rich.
-      We're both old fogies,&mdash;just common old fogies, and I reckon we had
-      better stay out. Of course, I aint knocking on the scheme. It looks good,
-      mighty good, but me and Martin aint young any longer; we're getting old
-      and heavy on our pins, and we aint got no nerve like we used to have.
-      Still I aint knocking. Me and Martin would like to see you make a pile of
-      money, would n't we, Martin?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; gurgled the owner of the Golden Horn, &ldquo;we would
-      that.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan straightened up and thrust his hands
-      into his pockets. &ldquo;Of course, boys,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it's a
-      gamble, but it's a ten-to-one shot better than a faro bank. If it goes our
-      way, we will have all kinds of money; if it goes the other way, we are
-      skinned to a standstill. I am tired of little gambles, and I am going to
-      make one big play if I eat snowballs for the next twenty years. I would
-      like to have you boys in, but if you don't believe that the thing is easy
-      to beat, you can stay out.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      An inspiration came to First Class Crawley, and he seized it with the
-      avidity of a shark. &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; he said, with amiable confidence,
-      &ldquo;you have no better friends in this here country' than me and Martin&mdash;has
-      he, Martin?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; muttered the fat owner of the oleaginous voice, &ldquo;he
-      aint.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And me and Martin,&rdquo; the proprietor went on, &ldquo;would go
-      in anything in the world that you wanted us to go in, and it would n't
-      make no difference to us what it was, if you said it was a good thing. But
-      me and Martin are pretty nigh sixty, and if we would go broke, we could
-      never get on our feet no more. We are skeery, Billy; me and Martin are
-      skeery, but we are ready to do anything for you that we can. We are ready
-      to help you any way you want to be helped, because you are dead game,
-      Billy,&mdash;that's what you are&mdash;you're dead game.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The wary Hiram Martin was totally in the dark as to what Crawley was
-      probing for, but he had unlimited confidence in the proprietor of the
-      Emporium, and he assented blandly. Crawley, he knew, followed no cold
-      trail; Crawley worked no salted lead, and if he stooped to &ldquo;crook
-      the pregnant hinges of the knee,&rdquo; there was something in it for
-      Crawley, and at no great distance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the Secretary of State,
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am obliged to you both, but I guess there is nothing I need just
-      now. Of course, I, have got to raise a bunch of money for this deal, but I
-      sort of arranged that in New York.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The ulterior motive of Crawley was now quite clear to the owner of the
-      Golden Horn. Hergan would require money,&mdash;perhaps a large sum for his
-      venture. If good security could be given, there was no reason why they
-      should not advance the cash at a large and comfortable discount.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The officer of the Commonwealth moved his chair back from the table as an
-      indication that the secret conference was at an end. As he did so, the
-      proprietor of the Emporium leaned over and spread out his fat hands on the
-      green cloth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Billy, old man,&rdquo; he said, in a voice that indicated gentle
-      reproach, &ldquo;there was no necessity for you to go among strangers to
-      raise any money you wanted; me and Martin have saved up a little, and me
-      and Martin would be glad to let you have it if it is any accommodation,
-      would n't we, Martin?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      First Class Crawley failed to add that both he and Martin would require
-      the trifling detail of a substantial surety, but they concluded shrewdly
-      that if Hergan could raise money in New York, he had obtained some
-      first-class support, and if this security were sufficient for an Eastern
-      bank, it was amply sufficient for all purposes known to commerce. Hence
-      the apparently unconcerned Martin consented most amiably.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan settled back in his chair and grew
-      thoughtful. &ldquo;I aint closed the loan,&rdquo; he said, after some
-      little consideration, &ldquo;and I would just as leave borrow it of you,
-      boys. The fact is, I would a little rather borrow it of you. I am paying
-      pretty stiff for the money, and I would rather pay my friends than the
-      Yankees in the East.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; observed the unctuous mining magnate, although he had
-      not intended to speak at all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; continued the Secretary of State, &ldquo;I reckon you
-      would n't like to put up as much as I need. I am going to crowd the bank
-      this once.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, Billy,&rdquo; drawled the proprietor of the Emporium, &ldquo;I
-      expect me and Martin can make it up for you. If we aint got enough, we can
-      get some around and piece out. Least ways, we will try. About what sum
-      might you need?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I reckon,&rdquo; responded Hergan, &ldquo;that I shall want about
-      fifty thousand.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The hands of Hiram Martin tightened over his stomach, and for a moment
-      Crawley studied the ceiling with placid indifference. He had turned Hergan
-      into his own channel, and the transaction being assured, it was now the
-      part of wisdom to affect gravity. Presently he spoke, slowly and
-      anxiously: &ldquo;That's a powerful big wad of money. Still, me and Martin&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-      Here he stopped short and turned to his companion.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Powerful big,&rdquo; echoed the mine owner, and volunteered no
-      further observation. He understood First Class Crawley as few men are
-      understood, and such observations were quite useless between them, except
-      for the effect upon the victim at hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Still,&rdquo; continued the proprietor of the Emporium, &ldquo;I
-      expect we can raise it some way. About what terms do you allow on?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I guess thirty days will be long enough,&rdquo; responded Hergan.
-      &ldquo;Thirty days at twelve per cent, is how I have been figuring it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; drawled the gambling king, &ldquo;and the security?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Secretary of State, &ldquo;I have calculated
-      to give the Governor and Culverson.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They are good, I reckon,&rdquo; observed the wary Crawley. &ldquo;Aint
-      they good, Martin?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Might be worse,&rdquo; responded the oily owner of the Golden Horn,
-      &ldquo;but it aint that. It's the rate. Seems like mighty little on a
-      short loan.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is mighty little,&rdquo; continued Crawley, after a silence of
-      some moments. &ldquo;We would have to give more than that for what we
-      borrowed 'round. There would n't be nothing in it for us, Billy,&mdash;not
-      a cent to me and Martin.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I tell you what I'll do,&rdquo; put in the Honorable Ambercrombie
-      Hergan, abruptly, as though the idea was new and sudden in its coming,
-      &ldquo;I'll give you twelve per cent, for the money for a month, and I
-      will enter into an agreement to turn over to you two one-eighth of what I
-      win on the gamble.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Crawley was very grave. The proposition pleased him hugely, but emotions
-      found no expression with him. To loan fifty thousand dollars on good
-      security at an enormous rate of interest, and in addition to have a
-      substantial share in a speculation without standing to lose a cent, was a
-      condition of affairs not likely to arise with much regularity in the span
-      of a gambler's precarious life. Yet Crawley was not anxious. To the
-      spectator he was sad and unconcerned. He knew quite well that this
-      proposition was Hergan's ultimatum, and he was going to accept, but
-      desired to appear to accept rather as a matter of kindly feeling toward
-      Hergan than by reason of the fact that the inducement had increased.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; he said slowly, almost sadly, &ldquo;me and Martin
-      don't want to make anything off of you, and we will try to fix it any way
-      you want it. If you want to arrange the thing that way, why it suits us&mdash;it
-      suits me and Martin.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; responded the Secretary of State, getting up from
-      the table. &ldquo;I'll go over to the Governor's house and have Al fix the
-      papers. The sooner I get it, the better chance I'll have to win a stake.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; called the proprietor of the Emporium, as the
-      official of the Commonwealth was passing out through the door, &ldquo;just
-      make the note payable to Martin.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan nodded his assent, and departed, leaving
-      the fat gambling kings of the Southwest to prolong the secret session.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the door was closed, First Class Crawley turned to his companion, his
-      little gray eyes slipping around in their puffy sockets.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Martin,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;aint he a mark?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The stomach of the rotund Martin undulated like a rubber bag filled with
-      fluid. &ldquo;Of all damn fools,&rdquo; he gurgled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were it clear?&rdquo; inquired the proprietor of the Emporium.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Plain as a speckled pup,&rdquo; responded Martin, &ldquo;except the
-      note.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; said First Class Crawley, turning around in his
-      chair, &ldquo;you live in New Mexico, and I wanted the note in your name
-      so that if we had to sue we could get it in the United States court. You
-      can't ever tell what the State courts are going to do with you, but old
-      Uncle Sam's courts don't stand no flim-flam.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Crawley,&rdquo; announced the owner of the Golden Horn, &ldquo;Crawley,
-      you are built like a white man, but you have got a head on you like a
-      Yankee.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan returned to the Governor's
-      residence he found that celebrated official and Major Culverson in the
-      library. The irrepressible Major was engaged in presenting a lurid and
-      highly dramatic history of how he had straightened the tangled exigencies
-      of the Commonwealth during the absence of his associates, and how, by
-      virtue of his magnificent personality, the entire Southwest, from the
-      borders of lower Utah to the Rio Grande, was now the placid abode of peace
-      and fraternal good-will. He stopped short as the Secretary of State
-      entered, and bowed. Then thrusting his hand into the front of his coat, he
-      exclaimed, with the affected manner of a tenth-rate actor, &ldquo;Good
-      morrow, good gambler.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Top chop,&rdquo; responded the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan.
-      &ldquo;And a favorite.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I opine,&rdquo; continued the Major, &ldquo;I opine, sir, from your
-      gladsome tone that the fat sharks have been successfully harpooned.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; said the Secretary of State, dropping into a
-      chair by the table, &ldquo;the reports of this race will announce that
-      Hiram Martin and First Class Crawley 'also ran.'&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Which being translated,&rdquo; observed the Governor, &ldquo;means
-      that these gentlemen will advance you the money on the line suggested by
-      your New York lawyer.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;You are to fix up the papers,
-      and I am to go down there to-night. Everything turned out just like
-      Randolph Mason said it would. If the rest goes through as slick, we will
-      be riding in carriages.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Produce the sealed orders,&rdquo; said the Governor, partaking of
-      the mock dramatic atmosphere.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Secretary of State drew a big envelope from his pocket and threw it
-      down on the table. The Executive leaned over, opened the paper, and, after
-      having examined it carefully, took up a pen and began to write.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Major Culverson wandered over to the window and looked out at the hot,
-      monotonous, sterile country. &ldquo;I wonder,&rdquo; he murmured, &ldquo;if
-      this is really the passing of the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      IX
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE audience in the
-      court-room arose and remained standing until the judge in his black silk
-      robe had entered and taken his place on the bench. Then the audience
-      resumed its seat, and the clerk began to read the proceedings for the
-      previous day. The ceremony attendant upon the sitting of the Circuit Court
-      of the United States carried with it an impressive sense of majestic,
-      imperial authority, and an air of grave, judicial deliberation. It was the
-      Government of the United States of America, the spirit of supreme order
-      and law moving through its servant, and, next to the Great Ruler of
-      Events, it was greatest. It had assumed for the good of men the right to
-      sit in judgment, and to say wherein lay the justice of their complicated
-      quarrels. Before it, every man's cause was of equal import, and every man
-      was of equal stature; bond or free, one stood before it naked of
-      influence, and with his shoulder made as high as the shoulder of his
-      fellow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This is the theory. If it fails, it is because the law at best is but a
-      human device, and its servants, after all, are but men like the others.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The building in which the Federal Court held its session was a
-      substantial, handsome structure, and maintained a strange contrast to the
-      town in which it stood. The town was rough, miserable, uncouth; the
-      temporary habitation of men, struggling ever with the relentless <i>ananke</i>
-      of things; in equal contrast to the officers of this court was the
-      audience in the great court-room. They were the pioneers of civilization;
-      a motley crowd in which the best and worst of human society was mixed and
-      intermixed. They were, for the most part, bronzed, bearded, fearless
-      examples of the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest, but not
-      all. Some were the reckless advance agents of those hardy vices that
-      follow close in the wake of empire,&mdash;devils too villainous to be
-      tolerated in the cities of the East, and too bold and too wary to be
-      stamped out by the deliberate machinery of the law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Against these the officers of the court bore some evidence of polish. They
-      were exact, calculating men, bred to respect order, and obey and maintain
-      the customs of law. The contrast was significant, and one recalled and
-      understood the constant bitter conflict between the judicial tribunals of
-      the State and the judicial tribunals of the Federal Government, bitterly
-      waged and as yet undecided. From one standpoint, this was the calm
-      tribunal of the supreme power of the land, providing the same rights and
-      remedies on the very border of its jurisdiction that it provided at the
-      capital itself, favoring no condition and acting as even-eyed as nature.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the other hand, one understood how the remote Commonwealth held this
-      court to be the tribunal of a far off imperial government, seeking to
-      enforce laws and customs foreign and repugnant to the laws and customs of
-      its people. To them the Federal judge was a king's governor, travelling
-      with his retinue over a subjugated province, and enforcing his edict by
-      virtue of foreign armies quartered convenient to his hand. And looking on
-      from this point of view, one understood why the outpost State hated this
-      court so bitterly, and whence arose the fierce clamor against it. One
-      understood how the far West smarted under its injunctions, and denounced
-      them as the royal mandates of an emperor's consul, and how the far South
-      collided with this tribunal and cried out against it to the Congress of
-      the United States in a memorial clanging like a bell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So the conflict was easy to understand, and it was easy to appreciate how
-      large the spectre of discord loomed, and most difficult indeed to force
-      the problem to some happy end.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the clerk had finished, the marshal called the jury, and struggled
-      bravely, but at times unsuccessfully, with the marvellous tangle of names.
-      Indeed, if the list of this panel had been placed before a student of
-      philology, he would have required no further history of the civilization
-      of the Southwest. When the marshal had ended, the judge directed that the
-      jury should be dismissed until two o'clock, and when order was again
-      restored, the judge turned and looked down gravely from the bench.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This court,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is ready to pass upon the matter
-      taken under advisement yesterday afternoon. It seems that one Hiram
-      Martin, a citizen of and a resident in the State of New Mexico, brought an
-      action in this court against Ambercrombie Hergan and others to recover the
-      sum of fifty thousand dollars, money, as it is said, borrowed by the said
-      Hergan. The declaration contained the common counts <i>in assumpsit</i>,
-      with which was filed, in lieu of the bill of particulars, a promissory
-      note, made by the said Hergan to the said plaintiff, calling for fifty
-      thousand dollars, and endorsed by one Randal and another Culver-son. This
-      note, in addition to the matter usually had in such instruments, recited
-      that it was given in accord with a certain agreement of even date
-      therewith, made and entered into by the parties to the said note. The case
-      coming on for trial, the defendants, by their attorney, appeared and filed
-      their plea exhibiting the said agreement, maintaining that the said note
-      was given for money loaned for the purpose of being used in a gambling
-      venture, and was, therefore, void at law. An issue being had upon the said
-      plea, the case was put to trial, and the said agreement having been
-      admitted, the defendants, by their attorney, moved this court to exclude
-      the evidence, and direct the jury to find for the defendants; which motion
-      this court took time to consider.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The facts herewith concerned are involved in no controversy, and
-      the agreement being couched in plain terms, admits of no doubtful
-      construction. It would seem that the defendant Hergan called at the
-      gambling house of one Crawley, a resident of this State, and requested a
-      private interview with the said Crawley and the plaintiff; that in this
-      interview Hergan explained that he was considering what it pleased him to
-      denominate 'a gambling venture in oil,' and solicited the two men to join
-      him in the venture. This they declined to do, but suggested that they
-      would advance to Hergan such money as he might need upon a promissory note
-      with good security.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It appears that some controversy arose as to the rate of interest
-      to be paid; and a division of the profits was suggested in lieu of the
-      larger per cent. This matter was finally concluded by the plaintiff and
-      the said Crawley advancing the said sum, and taking therefor the note
-      filed in this cause, and in addition thereto entering into this agreement
-      in writing with the said Hergan, wherein it is set forth that the money
-      loaned is to be used by the said Hergan for the express purpose of 'a
-      gamble in oil,' and for no other purpose; and that if any profit should
-      result from said gambling venture, the said plaintiff and the said Crawley
-      were to receive one-eighth of said profits. It seems that the money was
-      paid and presumably used by Hergan for the purpose as stated. Afterward
-      the note was presented for payment, and being refused, was duly protested,
-      and later sued upon in this court.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is maintained by the defendants that this transaction was
-      contrary to public policy, and that the money, having been loaned for a
-      known illegal purpose, cannot be recovered in a judicial tribunal, but
-      falls Within the purlieus of those matters which are <i>par se ex turfe
-      causa</i>, and for which the law provides no remedy. On the contrary, it
-      is urged by counsel for the plaintiff that the transaction as between the
-      parties to this suit was entirely commercial and innocent; that the
-      plaintiff is a mere lender of money in a <i>bona fide</i> transaction, and
-      is in no wise a party to any illegal proceeding, and that the mere use to
-      which the money was put is a matter of no moment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The law, being for the welfare and the protection of human society,
-      refuses to recognize and enforce certain contracts had among its citizens,
-      when those contracts are founded in moral turpitude or inconsistent with
-      the good order or solid interests of society.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'No people,' declares Chancellor Kent in his <i>Commentaries</i>,
-      'are bound or ought to enforce or hold valid in their courts of justice
-      any contract which is injurious to the public rights or offends their
-      morals or contravenes their policy or violates a public law.' Hence
-      contracts having an illegal or immoral consideration, or tending to the
-      violation of law or the debauching of public morals, are held to be <i>contra
-      bonas mores</i>, and are void.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is said that the object of all law is to suppress vice, and to
-      promote the general welfare of society, and it does not give its
-      assistance to persons to enforce a demand originating in their breach or
-      violation of its principles and enactments. It is not necessary that the
-      law expressly prohibit or enjoin an act. It may impliedly prohibit or
-      enjoin it. In either case a contract in violation of its principles is
-      void under the wholesome maxim <i>ex turpi causa non oritur actio</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It may happen, and, indeed, frequently does happen, that the
-      individual suffers great hurt from this sweeping policy of the law, but it
-      is held that the good of the commonwealth rises above the mere benefit of
-      the individual citizen, and that where the welfare of the whole of society
-      is involved, the law will not pause to consider the injury entailed upon
-      the mere unit. Hence the policy of government in the exigencies of war,
-      when protection must be had against violence, and the policy of government
-      in the peaceful administration of the law, when protection must be had
-      against vice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thus gambling, wagering, and all gambling and wagering contracts
-      and transactions are illegal as against public policy, since they are
-      repugnant to the well-being of society, fraught with vice, pregnant with
-      demoralization, and corrupting alike to the youth and to the aged, as they
-      inspire a hope of reward without labor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is significant that in matters of this nature human society has
-      been progressive. Under the common law of England wagers were not unlawful
-      or unenforceable, but the statute of 9th Anne followed and altered the
-      common law, and the statutes of 8th and 9th Victoria altered it yet
-      farther, and in the United States every separate Commonwealth has its
-      respective statute striking at this vice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think it will not at this day be denied that all transactions in
-      stocks, by way of margin, settlement of differences, and payment of gains
-      or losses, without intending to deliver the stocks, is a gambling or
-      wagering operation which the law does not sanction, and will not carry
-      into effect; and it has been held in the Supreme Court of the United
-      States in the case of Irwin vs. Williar, 'If under the guise of a contract
-      to deliver goods at a future day the real intent be to speculate in the
-      rise or fall of prices, and the goods are not to be delivered, but one
-      party is to pay to the other the difference between the contract price and
-      the market price of the goods at the date fixed for executing the
-      contract, the whole transaction is nothing more than a wager, and is null
-      and void.' And that 'Generally in this country wagering contracts are held
-      to be illegal and void as against public policy.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Indeed the courts of the land have gone to the extremity of
-      denouncing in no uncertain terms the dangerous character of these illegal
-      ventures. Judge Blauford, in the case of Cunningham vs. The National Bank
-      of Augusta, in speaking of these transactions termed 'futures,' declares:
-      'If this is not a speculation on chances&mdash;a wagering and betting
-      between the parties, then we are unable to understand the transaction. A
-      betting on a game of faro or poker cannot be more hazardous, dangerous, or
-      uncertain. Indeed it may be said that these animals are tame, gentle, and
-      submissive compared to this monster. The law has caged them and driven
-      them to the den. They have been outlawed; while this ferocious beast has
-      been allowed to stalk about in open mid-day with gilded signs and flaming
-      advertisements to lure the unhappy victim to its embrace of death and
-      destruction. What are some of the consequences of these speculations in
-      'futures'? The faithful chroniclers of the day have informed us, as
-      growing directly out of these nefarious practices, that there have been
-      bankruptcies, defalcations of public officers, embezzlements, forgeries,
-      larcenies, and deaths. Certainly no one will contend for a moment that a
-      transaction fraught with such evil consequences is not immoral, illegal,
-      and contrary to public policy.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In so far as this doctrine is concerned with the case at bar, it is
-      certain that the parties understood and intended that the money loaned
-      should be used for the purpose of engaging in an illegal speculation in
-      oil,&mdash;'a gamble in oil,' as it is termed in the agreement, and that
-      such gambling transactions are against public policy and the law of the
-      land. But it is contended by learned counsel that all this can have no
-      bearing upon the case at bar for the reason that in the cases heretofore
-      cited announcing these conclusions of law, the litigants were the parties
-      who dealt with or for each other, and were the immediate parties engaged
-      in an unlawful gambling venture, and the ones to gain or lose directly by
-      the venture, and not a mere stranger who loaned money to another to engage
-      in such transactions, and having but an undetermined interest in the
-      result; and that the law will not lend its aid to a further wrong. The
-      defendant having committed one wrong cannot be permitted to use his first
-      wrongful act as an instrument whereby to effect a second wrongful act.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The objection is ingenious, but I judge fully met by the
-      declaration of Lord Mansfield in Holman's case: 'The objection,' said the
-      learned judge, 'that a contract is immoral or illegal as between plaintiff
-      and defendant, sounds at all times very ill in the mouth of the defendant.
-      It is not for his sake, however, that the objection is allowed, but it is
-      founded on the general principle of policy which the defendant has the
-      advantage of, contrary to the real justice as between himself and
-      plaintiff, by accident, if I may so say. The principle of public policy is
-      this: <i>ex dolo malo non oritur actio</i>. No court will lend its aid to
-      a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act. If
-      from the plaintiff's own statement or otherwise the cause of action appear
-      to arise <i>ex turpi causa</i>, or the transgression of a positive law of
-      this country, then the court says he has no right to be assisted. It is
-      upon that ground the court goes, not for the sake of the defendant, but
-      because it will not lend its aid to such a plaintiff.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This claim of the plaintiff to this action is unsound for the
-      further reason that any promise, contract, or undertaking the performance
-      of which would tend to promote, advance, or carry into effect an object or
-      purpose which is unlawful, is itself void and will not maintain an action.
-      The law which prohibits the end, will not lend its aid in promoting the
-      means assigned to carry it into effect. Nor is it possible for an act
-      contrary to law to be made the basis of a contract enforceable in courts
-      of law. Hence when one lends money to another for the express purpose of
-      enabling him to commit a specific unlawful act, and such act be afterwards
-      committed by means of the aid so received, the lender is a <i>particeps
-      criminis</i>, and the law will not aid him to recover money advanced for
-      such a purpose, and much less would it assist him, if, as in this case he
-      retained an interest in the result of the venture.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was very unusual for counsel to interrupt the judge in the delivery of
-      his opinion, but at this point the attorney for Martin arose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If your honor please,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;this court is taking
-      away the remedy of the plaintiff, and permitting the wrong to stand. Does
-      this court reverse the ancient doctrine upon which the theory of human
-      justice has its eternal basis, the ancient doctrine that the law will
-      always provide a remedy for a wrong?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The faintest shadow of a smile flitted over the judicial face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That sage maxim: '<i>lex semper debit remédiant</i>,'&rdquo;
-      answered the judge, &ldquo;is a gigantic error couched in very good law
-      Latin. The motion to exclude the evidence is sustained, and the jury will
-      find a verdict for the defendants.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      X
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Governor's
-      machine marched gravely out of the Circuit Court of the United States and
-      down the wide steps, the Major leading, the Executive following second,
-      and the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan bringing up the rear, every man as
-      silent and as solemn as a Japanese diplomat. The machine passed through
-      the great arched doorway and directly across the street to &ldquo;The
-      Happy Maria&rdquo; saloon, an institution with a variegated past. The
-      machine filed in through the door and lined up before the bar as
-      mysteriously as a country delegation in a caucus.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bartender of &ldquo;The Happy Maria&rdquo; was a lame actor from St.
-      Louis. When he turned and beheld the solemn array, he stepped back and
-      tapped his forehead tragically with his fingers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;it is Ulfius and Brastias and Sir
-      Bedivere.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To this no response was made, except that the Major raised his hand and
-      pointed to the bottle of &ldquo;Dougherty&rdquo; reposing on the second
-      shelf beside the box of &ldquo;scrap&rdquo; and the proprietor's
-      pistol-belt. The bartender hurried forward, took down the bottle, placed
-      three little glasses on the bar and began to fill them. When he came to
-      the third glass, he paused and set down the bottle. A puzzled expression
-      gathered on his face. He thrust his forefinger into his mouth and began to
-      lisp:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;Be there two or be there three
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      In our king's companee?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Major turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the Governor as he
-      vanished in a telegraph office next door; then he swung around toward the
-      barkeeper with the dramatic abandon of a professional at a benefit.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Pour on, good seneschal,&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;it is the man who
-      would be married. He hastens with glad tidings to the well beloved. He
-      will return.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <i>(See the famous opinion of Henry St. George Tucker, President of the
-      Supreme Court of Virginia, in the leading case of Gallego's Executors vs.
-      Attorney General, 3 Leigh, 450; also the opinion of John Marshall, Chief
-      Justice of the United States, in the case of the Trustees of the
-      Philadelphia Baptist Association el at. vs. Hart's Executors, 4 Wheaton's
-      U. S. Reports, 330; also Knox vs. Knox's Executors, 9 W. Va., 125; 2y W.
-      Va., 109, and cases cited.)</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      MRS. VAN BARTON
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      I
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span> LL this,&rdquo;
-      said Randolph Mason,&rdquo; is the veriest nonsense.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The younger Mrs. Van Bartan straightened up in her chair and looked
-      sharply at the counsellor. She was a woman of magnificent presence, with a
-      great fleece of yellow hair, fine eyes, and regular, clear-cut features.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you mean that it is not the truth?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Half truth,&rdquo; responded Mason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the woman, smiling, &ldquo;it is only half
-      nonsense.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;if you desire my aid, you
-      must explain this entire matter. I do not choose to guess riddles.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have told you,&rdquo; began the young woman, slowly, &ldquo;that
-      my husband and myself reside with his mother in a certain city of the
-      Virginias; that his father is dead, and, by his will, left his entire
-      property to the elder Mrs. Van Bartan&mdash;my mother-in-law; that was all
-      true.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The counsellor nodded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The other part,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;I was trying to put into
-      a 'hypothetical case '&mdash;is n't that what you call it?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She hesitated for a moment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is hard to tell, and I was only trying to save myself, but I
-      suppose the surgeon is quite useless if the wound is not fully revealed.
-      If you will listen to me I will explain. It is hard to tell, and it hurts,
-      but everything is at stake, and if I lose now I lose everything. It will
-      simply mean that I have made sacrifice after sacrifice for nothing at all.
-      One shrinks from putting one's heart upon a dissecting table where the
-      valves may be pinned back and pried into with the point of a scalpel, and
-      so one struggles with a hurt until it finally aches so bitterly that the
-      expert must be had. Then one goes to the surgeon or the priest or the
-      lawyer, and takes an anaesthetic while he cuts it out.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;you talk like a diplomat:
-      you say nothing at all.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The younger Mrs. Van Bartan unbuttoned her coat and threw it back with the
-      air of one who has ultimately decided to keep nothing in reserve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been married three years,&rdquo; she began, &ldquo;my
-      father's name is Summers. In the good days of Virginia our family was
-      wealthy, but of late years we have met with one disaster after another
-      until the family became very poor, and the effort to maintain an
-      appearance of respectability was a nipping struggle indeed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;About this time the coal industries of West Virginia began to
-      develop, and our city became a manufacturing centre. This brought in many
-      Eastern capitalists, among them Michael Van Bartan, who established great
-      iron mills, out of which he made a vast fortune. Shortly thereafter he
-      died, leaving his widow and one son, Gerald Van Bartan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This woman I have never quite understood. After the death of her
-      husband, she maintained their country place in almost profligate
-      magnificence, but she has always seemed terribly disappointed in her son.
-      He was a good, easy-going fellow, and his mother, an ambitious, restless
-      woman, had great plans for his future. But, failing that, and being a
-      person of shrewd instinct, she set about finding for him an ambitious
-      wife, who would probably be able to succeed where she had failed. But
-      while the mother was striving to select a suitable woman for her purpose,
-      the son paid court to me,&mdash;and I married him.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The young woman paused for a moment, and the lines of her mouth hardened.
-      Then she went on:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He was not quite the person with whom I had hoped to spend my life,
-      but he had wealth, and we were so miserably poor,&mdash;and, I judge after
-      all, one is never permitted to do just what one wishes in this weary
-      world. This marriage was a bitter disappointment to Mrs. Van Bartan, but
-      she was a woman with the resources of an empress. She came at once to me,
-      and, with the kindest and most gracious courtesy, welcomed me as her
-      daughter, and began at once to shower upon me the most substantial
-      evidences of her good will. We were taken to live with her at the country
-      place, and everything was done that a shrewd woman could imagine to bring
-      me completely under her influence, and, through me, to move my husband to
-      the effort which she desired. But it was all an utter failure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I appreciated thoroughly the incapacity of Gerald Van Bartan, and
-      said as much to his mother. I went deliberately to her and pointed out how
-      very vain her ambition was, and how certainly it must come to nothing. I
-      said how difficult it was for men to lift themselves even the least bit
-      higher than their fellows; how it required years of labor and selfdenial
-      and courage. I reminded her that my husband had not one of the qualities
-      necessary for such work; that he was not industrious, and not ambitious
-      she knew well; that the habits of the man had been formed, and this work
-      could not be now undone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then I blundered like a fool. I said that wealth had caused these
-      habits to become fixed, and that we must accept him as his luxurious life
-      had made him; that if he had been thrown out to struggle with poverty,
-      some qualities might have been developed, but that he had never been
-      forced to feel the necessity for an effort, and consequently he had never
-      called his faculties into use, nor could he now since the necessity did
-      not arise. I begged her to abandon the effort as vexatious and entirely
-      hopeless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;To all this the elder Mrs. Van Bartan listened attentively and made
-      no comment. When I had finished, she laughed, and said that I had entirely
-      misapprehended her intentions toward her son; that she had no object in
-      life but to make us as happy as it were possible to do, but that one could
-      not tell what conditions might arise, and she had wished simply to put her
-      son in a position to care for himself and me, if it ever should be
-      necessary. Then she stroked my hair, as she might have done to a child,
-      and bade me not worry over trifles. I now congratulated myself that the
-      matter was finally settled, but I was fearfully wrong. I had read this
-      remarkable woman poorly. Although again beaten, she was unconquered, and
-      she determined upon a final desperate move. Perhaps my foolish prattle,
-      furnished the suggestion, but it is rather more probable, I think, that
-      her master mind evolved the plan out of what she considered a desperate
-      condition.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman's face was now grave, and she seemed deeply in earnest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It was the plan of Mrs. Van Bartan to convince my husband and
-      myself that future poverty was impending, but just how to make this
-      impression strongly probable, was a matter of great difficulty, and one
-      which she appreciated fully. In order to do this effectually, it was
-      necessary for her, in some manner, apparently to dispose of her property,
-      and at the same time actually to retain it in possession.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This was a difficult problem, but difficult problems were not
-      appalling to Mrs. Van Bartan, and she finally determined upon this shrewd
-      scheme. She would make a will, leaving her entire estate at her death to
-      the church of which she was a member, and entirely disinheriting my
-      husband. This will could have the effect she desired, and at the same time
-      leave her unhampered in the use of her property, and free to destroy this
-      will or make another at her pleasure. This is now her plan. How I have
-      discovered it is not of importance, since it is a part of her plan in this
-      matter to have me suspect her intention and finally to have me believe
-      that she has decided to cut us off without a dollar. Having determined
-      upon this move, she will carry it through with the skill of a master
-      strategist. She will have the paper drawn by her legal adviser in the
-      presence of witnesses; she will declare her intention to the most
-      substantial people of our city, and will take good care to see that her
-      act is made known through the most reliable sources. There will be no
-      blunder anywhere,&mdash;Mrs. Van Rartan does not blunder.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Has this will been drafted?&rdquo; asked Randolph Mason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the young woman, &ldquo;but it will be made
-      soon. Mrs. Van Bartan is now preparing public opinion for her act. She is
-      far too wise to hurry.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I see no danger in all this,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;since it is
-      not this woman's intention to really disinherit her son. Ultimately she
-      will destroy this document or make another.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the young woman, bending forward in her chair,
-      &ldquo;Mrs. Van Bartan is afflicted with an aortic aneurism, and may drop
-      dead at any moment. This she refuses to believe, and although she has been
-      examined by celebrated specialists, she stoutly asserts that her health is
-      as good as it ever was in her whole life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now suppose she makes this will and dies suddenly without having an
-      opportunity to make another. What then? Her intention will not help us.
-      This will holds, and we are left entirely without a dollar in the world.
-      Now, what am I to do to save us? It is of no use to go to Mrs. Van Bartan.
-      She is an iron woman. She has her plan, and Heaven could not change her in
-      the least. I must do something. It all depends on me, and I don't know
-      which way to turn. You must show me some way; you must do something.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason turned around in his chair and looked squarely at the young
-      woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you have neglected to tell me the
-      most important matter.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, no, sir,&rdquo; responded the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, &ldquo;I
-      have told you everything.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By no means,&rdquo; said Mason. &ldquo;You have said that Mr. Van
-      Bartan is not the man with whom you had hoped to spend your life. Who is
-      that man?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The young woman looked down at the floor and was silent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I don't know that I meant quite that.
-      I was meaning, you know, that there were other considerations moving me to
-      this alliance beyond mere affection. I did not say that I loved some one
-      else, did I? Did I say I loved some one else?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You evade,&rdquo; said Mason, bluntly. &ldquo;It is the weakling's
-      method of confession, and as well the fool's method.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The blood came into the face of the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, and she
-      looked up resolutely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You don't spare me at all,&rdquo; she said, bitterly. &ldquo;You
-      pry out everything, even the very heart linings. Suppose I did love some
-      one else, what has that to do with this matter? That is all over and past
-      and gone. Can't I permit it to sleep and be forgotten? Suppose there was
-      another man? Suppose there is now? Must I empty out his heart too? Can't I
-      spare him? Can't I leave him out of this?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am waiting, madam,&rdquo; said Mason, quietly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The young woman passed her hand downward over her face, as though to
-      remove something that was clinging to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you must know,&rdquo; she said slowly, &ldquo;his name is
-      Dalton, Robert Dalton, a member of the law firm of Carpenter, Lomax, &amp;
-      Dalton, of our city. He is said to be an able lawyer. He is the elder Mrs.
-      Van Bartan's legal adviser, but I have no right to tell you all this. It
-      is unjust to him. and unjust to me, and unfair to us all.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And he still loves you?&rdquo; said Mason, with the blunt
-      indifference of a surgeon who thrusts his thumb into a wound.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The young woman threw back her head. &ldquo;You are brutal,&rdquo; she
-      cried, &ldquo;to ask such a question, and I should be a fool, a miserable,
-      contemptible fool if I should answer.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you have answered it, madam,&rdquo; replied Randolph Mason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The younger Mrs. Van Bartan covered her face with her hands, and began to
-      sob. The counsellor sat and watched her, as an expert might watch an
-      intricate piece of machinery that he was testing. There was no emotion of
-      any sort visible in his face&mdash;nothing at all, except the intense
-      interest of the expert.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently Mason leaned back in his chair. The result was evidently
-      satisfactory.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is this man married?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman did not answer. She simply pressed her hands tighter against her
-      face. The counsellor waited for a few moments. Then he repeated:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is this man married?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman's hands trembled violently. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she sobbed,
-      &ldquo;and he never will be.&rdquo; The lines in the face of Randolph
-      Mason grew deep and resolute as one has seen the lines in the face of a
-      great physician when, in some desperate case, he finally turned from the
-      bedside of the patient in order to write the prescription upon which he
-      had decided.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; he said, in a voice that was firm and admitted of no
-      protest, &ldquo;this man Dalton is perhaps a person of some learning.
-      Since he is your mother-in-law's legal adviser, he will have the matter in
-      his hands. He is under your influence. Could a problem be more simple? You
-      have but to go to him and say what you have said to me. He will know what
-      to do.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She dropped her hands in astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go to him? Go to him?&rdquo; she repeated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;and tell him the truth,&mdash;and
-      wait.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; began the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, &ldquo;how could he
-      help me? What could&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; interrupted Mason, rising, &ldquo;this is your coat,
-      I believe. Permit my clerk to assist you to your carriage.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      II
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">R</span>obert dalton was
-      of good blood, having descended from colonial families of degree. He was
-      perhaps in his middle thirties, in appearance no usual man, straight as a
-      spire, with a powerful face in which every feature seemed prominent; hair
-      rather prematurely gray, and soft and clinging as a woman's, and withal a
-      manner courtly to such a degree that the young, and those others unskilled
-      in divining the natures of men, associated with Mr. Dalton relations of a
-      so-called romantic nature. This conclusion was grossly erroneous, and led
-      to much profitless gossip. In fact, Robert Dalton was a stern and
-      practical man of large legal acquirements, with no more romance in his
-      composition than a ship carpenter. In the practice of his profession he
-      was always cold, clear headed, and technical, believing no man, and
-      fearing no man; in truth, the wags asserted, his courtesy was in itself a
-      libel, because of all members of the bar no one was more rigid, more
-      exacting, or more relentless than Robert Dalton, of Carpenter, Lomax,
-      &amp; Dalton.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The mental build of young Dalton rendered him especially valuable as a
-      chancery lawyer, and this department of the business he gradually assumed
-      until it was almost entirely in his hands. For years he drafted all
-      difficult pleadings, especially difficult under the rigid practice of the
-      common law obtaining in the Virginias. He drafted likewise all deeds,
-      wills, and papers of like tenor, with such unusual care and skill that he
-      rapidly gained a reputation,&mdash;the sort of reputation which it usually
-      requires a lifetime to establish, and the value of which is above rubies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the judges spoke of him they said, &ldquo;If Mr. Dalton prepared this
-      paper it is probably correct.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It would be unwise to attribute to young Dalton an utter disregard for
-      social relations. The error of such an assertion would readily be detected
-      by those who knew him. In fact, he was usually present at prominent social
-      functions, and largely sought after by reason of his magnetic nature and
-      the charm of his vigorous mind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The father of young Dalton had been a man of improvident habits, and,
-      immediately upon the death of his wife, squandered his large estate in the
-      riot of dissipation, so that his son inherited nothing but a dilapidated
-      manor-house and a single slave. This servant, a pure negro, was deeply
-      attached to young Dalton, and the two continued to reside in the
-      manor-house near the city suburbs, the negro acting as cook, valet, and
-      man-of-all-work. This manor house was one of the first built in the
-      Virginias. It was surrounded by a long, ill-kept lawn, in which the
-      ancient knotted oaks seemed to stand guard over the memory of some
-      departed greatness. The house itself, covered with the green Virginia
-      creeper, was little better than a ruin. The plaster had fallen away from
-      the great pillars, and the walls were cracked, in places, almost to the
-      roof.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Strangely enough, Robert Dalton never attempted to repair the estate,
-      taking pride rather in its air of decay. This statement is not entirely
-      accurate. He did, indeed, fit up the ancient drawing-room for the purposes
-      of a library, thrusting in rows of bookcases beside long antique mirrors
-      and mahogany window seats. These bookcases were filled entirely with
-      reports of courts, late digests, the decisions of tribunals of last
-      resort, and volume after volume on wills, contracts, and corporations, but
-      scarcely a volume on standard or current literature. For these latter he
-      had no inclination, and, as he apologetically explained, no time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In this library, Dalton did most of his legal work, obtaining here freedom
-      from interruption and the quiet which he required.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As the city developed, this neglected suburban street was seized upon and
-      assumed as the fashionable quarter by the wealthy Eastern families. They
-      paved it far into the country, and ruthlessly wiped out the splendid old
-      homesteads, erecting on their ruins ostentatious palaces with prim lawns,
-      reminding one not a little of that civilized vandalism which would cut out
-      from its frame the superb painting of a landscape and replace therein a
-      practical and entirely accurate map of the same landscape.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      These wealthy families swept out, too, the old social customs of this
-      city, setting up elaborate formalities and impoverishing standards of
-      dress and entertainment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The recognized leader was Mrs. LeConte Dean, the wife of a nail
-      manufacturer of vast wealth. Her receptions were the society events.
-      Indeed, it has been said that recognition by this newly rich importation
-      determined one's social status.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Van Bartans were another of these wealthy families coming directly
-      from the city of New York. The father had founded gigantic iron mills from
-      which he had gathered a princely revenue. Upon his death, the wife, a grim
-      woman of frightful prejudices, had continued to maintain their country
-      place in sumptuous, albeit rather frigid, elegance. They had one child,
-      Gerald Van Bartan, an utterly worthless young man of extravagant habits
-      and wandering aims; nevertheless, a youth of generosity and kindly
-      impulses. The boy was a source of ceaseless vexation to his mother.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carpenter, Lomax, &amp; Dalton were her solicitors; especially Robert
-      Dalton, in whom she reposed the greatest confidence, and not infrequently
-      she spoke to him at great length of her difficulties with her son, and
-      usually concluded by working herself into a towering rage.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When one morning in the early autumn it was announced that Gerald Van
-      Bartan was very shortly to wed Miss Columbia Summers, a young lady of
-      great beauty and of aristocratic lineage, but of reduced and nipping
-      finances, the city was very justly indignant. Robert Dalton had for many
-      years paid court to this young woman, and the self-constituted
-      match-makers had long since entered up their decree in this matter and
-      dismissed it, and they resented, as almost a personal affront, the going
-      afield of their plans.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thereupon idle folk prattled of the great blow to Dalton, his broken
-      heart, and other drivel. There was no evidence that Robert Dalton had any
-      other than a passing interest in this matter, and neither his partners nor
-      those others intimately acquainted with the man suspected that this gossip
-      contained any element of truth Indeed, he had come to be regarded as of
-      stoical build.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When this rumor came to the ears of Mrs. Van Rartan, she received it with
-      almost suspicious composure, and a few days later sent for Dalton, her
-      solicitor, and inquired if she could dispose of her entire property. To
-      this Dalton replied that she could, the title to all property having
-      passed to her by virtue of her husband's will, of which she was the sole
-      beneficiary. Thereupon she smiled, and said that she might require his
-      services further on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The wedding and receptions which followed were great social functions, and
-      for three years thereafter Mrs. Van Bartan maintained the two young people
-      in the veriest profligate magnificence, the elder woman anticipating every
-      wish of the younger, and heaping upon her the costliest gowns and jewels
-      to be had.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      During this time, Carpenter and Lomax watched Dalton closely, but they
-      could detect no change in the man, except perhaps that he was even more
-      rigid and exacting in his professional transactions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thus matters continued without event until the night set apart for the
-      first autumn reception of Mrs. LeConte Dean. These were annual events of
-      great revelry, and largely attended. The night was unpropitious, raw, and
-      foggy, as October nights usually are in this region, but this in no wise
-      interfered with the occasion; indeed, it was long remembered as one of
-      startling magnificence.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This reception Robert Dalton determined not to attend, partly because he
-      avoided as far as possible every gathering at which he might be thrown
-      with the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, but principally because the firm had an
-      important case in the Federal Court then sitting, and he had been asked to
-      prepare an elaborate decree for the following day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After determining to remain at home, Robert Dalton went into his library,
-      gathered his books of reference from their cases, and began the
-      preparation of his legal paper. This decree he found more difficult to
-      draft than he had anticipated, and, striving to adjust its intricate
-      matters, he became more and more absorbed until he was entirely
-      unconscious of his surroundings and of the time that had elapsed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Finally he arose in order to refer to some report that was not within
-      reach of his hand. As he turned to the light he beheld a woman, wrapped in
-      the folds of a long party cloak, standing with her hand on the door, as
-      though she had just entered. Dalton was so utterly astonished that he
-      literally rubbed his eyes to ascertain if he were not the victim of an
-      illusion. Whereupon the woman threw back her cloak, and advanced to the
-      table, when he perceived to his amazement that it was the younger Mrs. Van
-      Bartan. To this man she seemed a daughter of the very gods in the full
-      bloom of womanhood. The rich velvet cloak thrown back from her bare
-      shoulders, the ball dress clinging like puffy webs to a form that his
-      brooding mind had idolized; her eyes illumined, and her splendid hair
-      wound in loose coils above her dainty head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It would all be very weary to set out in detail what occurred on this
-      October night; how the younger woman explained that she had finally
-      divined the intention of the elder Mrs. Van Bartan, and how she had hoped
-      to see Dalton at the LeConte Dean's, and not finding him had slipped away,
-      and, availing herself of the foggy night, had been driven unattended to
-      his house in order to implore his aid; how she came and stood beside him,
-      and pointed out the dread results sure to follow the elder Mrs. Van
-      Bartan's unnatural intentions,&mdash;results disastrous to her and to
-      hers. Gerald Van Bartan was worthless, she knew that; he had never been
-      taught to work; he was now too old to learn; it would mean poverty,
-      grinding poverty, and shame worse than all; and her father, aged and
-      broken in health, and the others of them, all dependent upon her, would be
-      thrown out to huddle in beggary, literally, beggary.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How Dalton replied that there was nothing he could do; reminding her that
-      the elder Mrs. Van Bartan was a woman of iron will, of stern resolve, of
-      relentless determination, and that neither he nor any other living man
-      could affect her. And how like a woman she answered that he, Dalton, would
-      be sent for to make the will, and that he must save her some way, she did
-      not know how,&mdash;he would know, he was shrewd, he was a great lawyer,
-      he could certainly find some way; this she knew, and he must do it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      And how he labored to show her that there was nothing he could do&mdash;absolutely
-      nothing; that the whole thing was hopeless, thoroughly, utterly hopeless;
-      and then how she came to him and put her bare white arms around him and
-      looked up into his face, the big tears shining in her glorious eyes, and
-      said that if this were true, then she proposed to tell him all the truth,
-      the truth that she loved him, him only in all the wide world, him always
-      from her very childhood, and that for others she had made this sacrifice;
-      and how great, how awful a sacrifice it had been, men could not
-      understand. How he coldly loosed her arms, although to do it wrenched his
-      very heart loose; although he would have given his life gladly to have
-      taken her in his embrace if only for a moment, and told her how he
-      understood and how he loved her for it, and how he would always love her
-      to the very end of all things; but, instead, how he had sternly led her
-      out to the carriage and forced her to leave him, and how he turned back
-      into the library with his head swimming and his heart pounding like a
-      hammer, and fought the whole thing out through the long October night,
-      until the dawn crept in and the birds began to chirp in the Virginia
-      creeper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Some weeks later, as was anticipated, the elder Mrs. Van Bartan summoned
-      Robert Dalton to her residence in order to prepare her will. Upon his
-      arrival he found Simon Harrison, President of the First National Bank, and
-      David Pickney, a steel manufacturer, both prominent citizens of
-      unquestioned integrity; also the late Milton South, a most estimable
-      physician. At Mrs. Van Bartan's request, Robert Dalton prepared the will
-      in the presence of these three persons. When he had finished he handed the
-      paper to the testatrix, who thereupon read it aloud in the presence of
-      all, declared it entirely correct, and affixed her signature. As is
-      customary, Dalton requested the three gentlemen to converse with the
-      testatrix and satisfy themselves that she was in proper mental condition.
-      This they did at some length, and not unskilfully, all being men of good
-      sense. Afterward Harrison and Pickney subscribed their names as witnesses
-      in the manner prescribed by the statute. Mrs. Van Bartan then placed the
-      will in an envelope, sealed it with her own hand in the presence of all,
-      and gave it to Simon Harrison to retain until after her death.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the seventeenth day of December following, Mrs. Van Bartan died
-      suddenly, and some days thereafter the will was opened and read at her
-      late residence by Simon Harrison, executor. Gerald Van Bartan and his
-      young wife were present, as was also Robert Dalton, and those others who
-      had been with the deceased when the will was drawn. The elder members of
-      the law firm, Carpenter and Lomax, were likewise present, and, at the
-      request of Harrison, the Episcopal minister, Rev. Mr. Boreland, and his
-      counsel, an obscure practitioner named Gouch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The will was short, leaving the entire estate, real and personal, naming
-      it specifically, for some religious purpose; and, in a spirit of grim
-      jest, it would seem, one dollar each to her &ldquo;beloved children,&rdquo;
-      Gerald Van Bartan and Columbia Van Bartan, his wife.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The effect of this will upon the two young people, as the executor slowly
-      read its provisions, would require a dramatist of no little stature to
-      describe. The woman's face grew drawn and bloodless. The man's knees
-      seemed to give way, and he would have fallen had he not been helped to a
-      chair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dalton, men did not notice, for he was a skilful actor. When the executor
-      had finished, Mr. Lomax plucked Carpenter by the arm, and inquired, in a
-      low voice, if he had noticed any defect in the will. Carpenter replied
-      that he had not, but that he had paid little attention to its form,
-      whereupon Lomax requested him to examine it closely. The elder counsellor
-      stepped up beside Harrison and began to go carefully over the instrument.
-      Presently he stopped in amazement, and put his finger down on the paper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This will,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is utterly void.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the word, the blood surged back into Columbia Van Bartan's face. She
-      took two steps toward Robert Dalton, then turned and buried her face in
-      the folds of a heavy curtain. Dalton was cool and entirely incredulous.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think you are very much mistaken, Mr. Carpenter,&rdquo; he said
-      quietly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mistaken?&rdquo; answered the counsellor. &ldquo;Why, this bequest
-      is made simply to 'St. Luke's Episcopal Church.' That organization is
-      neither an individual nor a corporation; it has no recognized legal
-      existence. And this request must fail for want of a devisee.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At this point Harrison, who was a slow but very careful man, interrupted
-      and explained with great accuracy that the will was in every detail
-      exactly as the testatrix had desired it; that even the language used was
-      her language; that she had said &ldquo;St. Luke's Episcopal Church,&rdquo;
-      and that Mr. Dalton had written it in the instrument precisely as Mrs. Van
-      Bartan had said, and that there could be no possible error either by
-      accident or design.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carpenter was about to reply, when Lomax, noticing his excitement, stepped
-      in between Harrison and the elder attorney, and pointed out at great
-      length that this was all no doubt true, but that, under the law, an
-      indefinite religious organization, could not take a bequest; that this was
-      not generally known to those unfamiliar with legal business, but that Mr.
-      Dalton should have known that, in order to devise property to a religious
-      organization, it must be given to a board of trustees, or to a certain
-      person or persons, named in the will, for a specific and accurately
-      determined purpose; that this, Mr. Dalton should have explained, and that
-      his writing down the exact words of Mrs. Van Bartan had defeated her
-      intentions, and rendered this bequest void.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But, sir,&rdquo; put in the attorney Gouch, pompously, &ldquo;the
-      testatrix's intention must control. I see no&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come, come, my good man,&rdquo; cried Carpenter, angrily, &ldquo;this
-      is what is known in Virginia as a 'vague and indefinite charity.' Such
-      bequests have been held void for almost a century. Why Silas Hart
-      attempted to create such a devise as early as 1790, and John Marshall,
-      Chief Justice of the United States, held it void at law. Twenty years
-      later. Joseph Gallego attempted to bequeath a similar charity to the Roman
-      Catholic Church at Richmond, and Henry St. George Tucker, President of the
-      Supreme Court of Virginia, in a famous opinion, held that it must fail,
-      and from that time until the present the courts of this country have been
-      passing upon this common error of testators and their incompetent
-      advisers.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Dalton looked up anxiously. &ldquo;In what cases?&rdquo; he
-      stammered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What cases!&rdquo; almost shouted the elder counsellor, for he had
-      now lost his temper completely. &ldquo;What cases, you bungler! Ask the
-      veriest pettyfogger; ask the commonest justice of the peace, but do not
-      catechise me.&rdquo; And after having delivered himself of this venom, he
-      seized his hat and cane and stalked out of the house. He was greatly
-      enraged to think that a man of Dalton's learning, a member of a firm of
-      high standing, should make such a stupendous blunder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Later in the day Robert Dalton came to the office and requested Carpenter
-      and Lomax to join him in his private room. His face showed plainly the
-      evidences of a great mental strain. When they were together he closed the
-      door, and, turning to them, said that he had examined the question which
-      they had raised, in regard to Mrs. Van Bartan's will, and he was now
-      satisfied that he had made a prodigious error in drafting the instrument;
-      that as his mistake would deprive a powerful church of a vast estate,
-      endless criticism of a most acrimonious character would follow; that it
-      was not just for any part of this criticism to fall upon the shoulders of
-      either Carpenter or Lomax, and, therefore, he had determined to publicly
-      withdraw from the firm. To this they made scarcely a courteous objection,
-      and Dalton accordingly withdrew, publishing an announcement thereof in the
-      daily papers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The report of a great error in Mrs. Van Bartan's will spread through the
-      city with the marvellous rapidity of an evil rumor. The vials of bitter
-      criticism were poured out upon the head of Robert Dalton. Men declared
-      that they had long suspected that he was a sham, a posing ignoramus, a
-      dangerous blunderer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The executor, Harrison, as was his duty, attempted to execute the
-      charitable bequest, but, of course, failed. Whereupon the press of the
-      city stood up in the market-place like the selfcomplacent Pharisee and
-      declared that in this day mistakes were crimes; that it was not enough for
-      an attorney to do the best he knew,&mdash;it was his duty to know; it was
-      not enough for an attorney to be honest, he must he likewise competent;
-      that the law was a learned profession in which the bungler was equally as
-      dangerous as the knave; that vast estates were conveyed by will, and how
-      easily by mistake or design a lawyer could destroy the testator's most
-      sacred wish; he could rob the helpless of his right, the dependent of his
-      inheritance, or the charitable institution of its patron's aid, and all
-      this without color of criminal wrong. The law, it asserted, punished with
-      relentless hand the man who blundered in positions of trust; it punished
-      with awful penalties the man who blundered in the heat of passion, but it
-      had no censure, no sting, no scourge for the man who blundered at the
-      bedside of the dying.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thus was Robert Dalton's fame as a lawyer damned into the veriest
-      blackness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      III
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N a certain bleak
-      Thursday of January, Randolph Mason sat in his office, absorbed in the
-      study of a great map which was spread out on his table. The day was so
-      dark and lowering that the electric light above the table had been turned
-      on. Presently the door opened and the little clerk Parks looked in. He
-      watched the lawyer for a few moments intently; then he withdrew his head.
-      A few minutes later, the door again opened and a woman entered, and closed
-      it behind her. She stopped and looked at the counsellor, bending over his
-      map. The picture was not a pleasant one. The man's streaked, gray hair was
-      rumpled, and his heavy-muscled face under the glare of the light was
-      rather more brutal than otherwise. Then she crossed to the table and threw
-      a newspaper down on the map.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you kindly read that marked paragraph?&rdquo; she said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason looked up. For a moment he did not recall the woman, her
-      face was so very white. Then he recognized his client, Mrs. Van Bartan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You will pardon me, madam,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am deeply
-      engaged. Kindly come here tomorrow.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have to regret,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;that I ever came
-      here at all. Will you please read that paragraph?&rdquo; And she put her
-      finger down on the newspaper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The counsellor looked at the paper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We notice by to-day's <i>Herald</i>,&rdquo; it ran, &ldquo;that
-      Robert Dalton, Esq., has sailed for Japan, where it is said he will become
-      a legal instructor in one of the national universities. Mr. Dalton, it
-      will be remembered, is the attorney whose stupid blunder invalidated the
-      Van Bartan will, and it is to be hoped that he will prove more efficient
-      in the service of the Mikado. The bar of the Virginias cannot be said to
-      regret Mr. Dalton's departure. He was grossly incompetent, and just such
-      men bring the legal profession into disrepute.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What of all this?&rdquo; said Mason. &ldquo;You obtained what you
-      desired. Why do you harass me with this nonsense?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I obtained it,&rdquo; repeated the woman, bitterly. &ldquo;Yes,
-      thanks to your devilish ingenuity, I obtained it, but at what a cost! I
-      have the money, but it is daubed over with the blood of a man's heart It
-      has the price of a man's honor stamped on the face of every coin. I hate
-      it all. Everything I see, every thread that touches me, taunts me with the
-      shame of such a sacrifice.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman's voice was firm, but her figure trembled like a tense wire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam.&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;you annoy me. I have no
-      interest in this drivel.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No interest in it?&rdquo; cried the woman. &ldquo;You, you have no
-      interest in it? Was it not you who did it? You and the devil himself? You
-      concocted this plan. You said go to him, and tell him, and he would know
-      what to do. Your fiendish ingenuity saw what would result, but you did not
-      tell me. You did not tell me that this man would be compelled to rip his
-      life in two like a cloth to save me, and that he would do it. If I had
-      known this, do you suppose that I would have gone on for a moment? Do you
-      suppose that I wanted wealth, or ease, or luxury, at the cost of a man's
-      hope and fame and honor? I tell you, you miserable blunderer, this thing
-      cost too much.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Chatter,&rdquo; said Mason, rising.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Chatter!&rdquo; cried the woman, beating her hards on the table.
-      &ldquo;Do you call this chatter? I charge you,&mdash;do you hear me, I
-      charge you with the ruin of this man's life.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;the vice of your error
-      lies in the fact that you should have consulted a priest. I am not
-      concerned with the nonsense of emotion.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he turned abruptly and walked out of the room.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <i>(See Amer, and Eng. Enc of Law. vol. ii., page 926, and the cases there
-      discussed; see also State us. Richardson, S.C. 35 Lawyers' Reports
-      Annotated, 238, and cases there cited; also Constitution of the United
-      States, Art., and the Constitution of West Virginia Art. 3, Sec. 5.)</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      ONCE IN JEOPARDY
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      I
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE sheriff stopped
-      on the steps of the court-house, pushed his straw hat back from his
-      forehead, moved his eyeglasses up a little closer to his fat face, and
-      began to contemplate the limits of his official jurisdiction, with the air
-      of one about to deduce a law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The little county seat on Tug River slept in a pocket. Behind it and on
-      every side except the river were great mountains, half-hidden by a
-      gigantic cloak of fog. On the opposite side, from the great coal plants of
-      the Norfolk and Western Railroad a counter-canopy of smoke arose, dense
-      and voluminous, and stretched itself like a black hand out over the town
-      and across to the fog of the mountain. Man, it seemed, had conspired with
-      nature to cover up and hide the town of Welch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Strange,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;strange, that a white
-      man should be willing to leave a paradise like this, and with river water
-      in his stomach too.&rdquo; Then he chuckled comfortably.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff of the county of McDowell was all right. He represented the
-      entire machinery of the law obtaining south of Tug River, and he carried
-      the momentous responsibility with the languid grace of a bank clerk at a
-      charity german.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff was a Virginian. But, marvel of marvels, he was a Virginian
-      without a title. He was plain W. M. Carter. The statement is not quite
-      accurate. Among the boys he was &ldquo;White&rdquo; Carter. But he was no
-      &ldquo;colonel&rdquo; and no &ldquo;major,&rdquo; and he gloried in the
-      distinction and guarded it well. The sheriff was a comfortably fat man and
-      most genial. His eyes were round, blue, and dreamy, and he never hurried.
-      He was never abrupt or a jarring element. He slipped easily into any
-      position and filled it up without a ripple, as water slips in and fills up
-      the outlines of a vessel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Still the sheriff was all right. When he looked out of his dreamy blue
-      eyes through his rimless nose glasses at a negro miner who had used his
-      razor as an adjunct to an argument, and mildly requested the negro to
-      accompany him to the confines of the county jail, it was as certain as the
-      advent of death that the negro would obey, and obey without comment. And
-      when the sheriff mounted his &ldquo;murky dun&rdquo; horse and passed up
-      into the mountains for the purpose of inducing a moonshiner to come down
-      to civilization and submit his rights to the decision of a judicial
-      tribunal, it was a matter of familiar history that the moonshiner always
-      came.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To the inquiring stranger, no man seemed a native of McDowell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This impression arose from the fact that the stranger adhered to the
-      railroad and the coal towns which sprang up in its wake, and in these
-      every man came from somewhere. The railroad had brought in the coal
-      companies, and the coal companies had brought in the negroes, and thus
-      towns sprang into existence, and the usual rough, expeditious methods of
-      civilization began. Then came the politician and the adventurer, and mixed
-      in merrily, and from that time forth the county of McDowell was industrial
-      and Republican, and everything &ldquo;went.&rdquo; But a few years back,
-      before the section hands on the Norfolk and Western Railroad cut through
-      from the county of Mercer, there was a population in McDowell that was not
-      Republican, and that did not &ldquo;go.&rdquo; They were long-limbed,
-      indolent, and &ldquo;handy men&rdquo; in a fight. They made corn whiskey
-      when they pleased, and voted the Democratic ticket when they saw fit, and
-      accounted to no one. The revenue officer came, and looked up at the great
-      mountains covered with the giant oaks of a century, concluded that the
-      laws were not being violated, and so reported to the Government. It was
-      vastly more comfortable than going up into these same mountains not to
-      come down at all, or maybe to come down with a squirrel bullet under the
-      ribs. In his day and generation the revenue officer was a wise man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Here the citizen was born as it happened, lived as he could, and died as
-      the necessity arose, and the outside world neither knew nor cared nor
-      concerned itself with it. These were not bad people. Morally they were as
-      good as the sun warmed. Their life bred no shams. If they loved each
-      other, they lived together and were happy, and if they hated each other,
-      they fought it out The feud has been usually overdrawn. It existed in
-      truth, but it rarely resulted in anything more than a &ldquo;fist fight&rdquo;
-      at a grist mill, but when it grew serious, it grew very serious indeed.
-      The mountaineer always shot to kill. He was no man of half measures; it
-      was a free, open, breezy war, and perhaps it was as healthy fighting as
-      any. At his worst, the native moonshiner was a better man than the
-      imported miner at his best. Up in the fog of the mountains men were
-      killed; down in the smoke of the coke ovens they were murdered; and
-      between the two words there is a distinction as big as the honor of a
-      people.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The &ldquo;killer&rdquo; was common in McDowell, but the suicide was not,
-      perhaps because men rarely take their own lives in the mountains. It is a
-      trick of jaded civilization obtaining in congested cities, unknown and
-      unpractised by the dwellers among the hills. Men died in the mountains,
-      but by the hand of others.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So the sheriff was puzzled. That morning the body of Brown Hirst, manager
-      of the Octagon Coal Company, had been picked up in the muddy waters of Tug
-      River, just below the bridge. Above, on the railing of the bridge, his
-      coat and vest had been found, folded and apparently laid carefully over a
-      girder. The bridge was very high above the rocky stream, and the body of
-      the man was badly crushed&mdash;almost beyond recognition. The man had
-      evidently jumped from the bridge with the deliberate intention of taking
-      his own life. All this the sheriff had heard as he rode into the town. But
-      rumors are lurid, the sheriff knew, and he concluded to go at once to the
-      prosecuting attorney. He wanted the tale straight from some one who could
-      pry the facts free from the fiction. On the steps of the court-house the
-      sheriff had paused for a moment and made some observations to himself. But
-      a crowd was beginning to gather in the street below, and the sheriff,
-      being fully aware that this portended a demand for his opinion and not
-      being pleased to express one, he turned abruptly and passed into the
-      court-house.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man of order walked leisurely down the hall to the office of the
-      prosecuting attorney and entered. A thin, red-haired girl was pounding a
-      typewriter with the energy of a two-horse-power engine. Conventionalities
-      were abbreviated in McDowell. The sheriff sauntered in.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Where's Jeb?&rdquo; he drawled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The red-haired girl paused for a moment and jerked her thumb over her
-      shoulder. &ldquo;In there,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;busy.&rdquo; Then she
-      went on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Miss McFadden was an economist; she wasted no words. The sheriff threw
-      open the door, and walked into the private office. The prosecuting
-      attorney turned around from the window.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hello, White!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you are the very man I want.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Which indicates,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;that you are a
-      young person of great discernment.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;When one needs horse sense,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney,
-      &ldquo;your acquaintance is valuable. At other times it is a luxury.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Together,&rdquo; observed the sheriff, mildly, &ldquo;we create a
-      sort of equoasinus intellectual atmosphere, I suppose.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The attorney took up a chair and placed it by the window.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sit there,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and listen.&rdquo; Then he closed
-      the door, and, crossing the room, began to open the safe by his desk.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff sat down meekly and turned his dreamy blue eyes on the young
-      lawyer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell was an imported
-      article. Like the ancient wise men, he came from the East, but the manner
-      of his coming was not quite that of the early sages. The sheriff had come
-      up from the hills of Virginia, while the prosecuting attorney had come up
-      from the sea. Not that this young scion of the law' was a sailor or the
-      son of a sailor, but on a certain summer afternoon at a certain
-      fashionable resort, Fate suddenly threw away the toys with which she had
-      been amusing him, and he immediately realized that the world was a common
-      treadmill instead of a breezy French drag.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was a stiff shock, but the spine of young Mr. Huron was good, and
-      instead of stepping off the pier, at ten o'clock of that same night he was
-      demonstrating to a certain wealthy senator who had large coal interests in
-      West Virginia that it would be the part of no inconsiderable wisdom to
-      send a bright young fellow with a legal education down into this great
-      mining region for the purpose of investigating the land titles, and for
-      the purpose of keeping an eye on the industries generally, and, as it is
-      said in the law, &ldquo;for other purposes.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The old senator was by no means blind to the very slight efficiency of raw
-      material, but he had a heart hidden away under his coat, and at thirty
-      minutes past eleven he was convinced. So J. E. B. Huron came into the
-      county of McDowell, nailed up his shingle, and stepped down into the <i>melée</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The opening chapters of his legal career were blue-tinted histories, but
-      the material in the backbone of young Mr. Huron was splendid material, and
-      he remained. The perception of this man of the law was no dwarfish growth,
-      and he used it like the wise. McDowell was Republican by 1600, and &ldquo;White&rdquo;
-      Carter was big boss; <i>post hoc ergo propter hoc</i>. J. E. B. Huron was
-      a Republican of ancient affiliation, and more specifically he was right
-      hand man to White Carter. This wisdom was not without its reward. The
-      convention that nominated Carter for sheriff, nominated Huron for
-      prosecuting attorney, and the big boss pulled his man through in spite of
-      splits, and splits, and independent tickets. The prosecuting attorney was
-      a handsome young fellow with a good level head. He knew the value of the
-      sheriff, and he held to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney took some papers from the safe, drew up a chair,
-      and sat down by the sheriff.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You have heard of Hirst's suicide?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff nodded. &ldquo;All but the antemortem note,&rdquo; he drawled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney smiled. &ldquo;How did you know there was a note?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Jeb,&rdquo; said the sheriff, &ldquo;it is a part of the etiquette
-      of suicide. No man effects his exit without a parting word. It would be
-      bad form, Jeb, frightfully bad form.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;So you guessed it?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the sheriff, wearily, &ldquo;my gray matter was
-      allowed me for the purpose of utility. I concluded.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney selected a letter from the package of papers and
-      passed it over to the sheriff. That official examined the envelope
-      carefully, then he slowly opened it and spread the enclosed letter out on
-      the desk before him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Octagon Coal Company,&rdquo; he read slowly, &ldquo;Miners and
-      Shippers of Coal and Coke, Welch, West Virginia. Robert Gilmore,
-      President. Brown Hirst, Business Manager. All agreements are contingent
-      upon strikes, accidents, and other delays unavoidable or beyond our
-      control.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff paused for a moment. &ldquo;Written at the office,&rdquo; he
-      observed, &ldquo;with a pen, on the company's stationery.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The guardian of order removed his eyeglasses, wiped them carefully,
-      replaced them on his nose, and continued:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The officers of the law are informed that I, Brown Hirst, have
-      taken my own life, deliberately and at a time when I am in the full
-      possession of my faculties. My reasons for so doing are of no importance
-      to the law, and are accordingly withheld. This statement is made merely
-      for the purpose of preventing any inference of murder, and for no other
-      purpose.&mdash;Brown Hirst.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff replaced the letter in its envelope. &ldquo;That,&rdquo; he
-      said, &ldquo;Is a sensible communication. By the very highest flame on the
-      altar of folly, it is an exceedingly sensible communication. Where did you
-      find it?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The coat and vest,&rdquo; replied the lawyer, &ldquo;were found
-      lying carefully folded over the railing of the bridge. This letter was in
-      the breast pocket of the coat. Hirst evidently went about his death with
-      great deliberation. Still, I see no motive for suicide.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Jeb,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;you are <i>long</i> on
-      motives. Everything must have a motive stamped in red ink on its face.
-      Can't you allow an obscure citizen to change his permanent residence and
-      retain his reasons? The gentleman has said in his communication that his
-      reasons are of no moment to the law. Can't you take the gentleman's word
-      for it? It is n't courteous, Jeb. By the way, where is the corpse of the
-      decedent?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Within the sacred jurisdiction of the coroner.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And the medical fraternity?&rdquo; inquired the sheriff.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Doctor Hart is over in Jacktown putting the finishing touches, it
-      is said, on old Pap Dolan, so the coroner called in a miracle doctor from
-      Cincinnati.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff chuckled. &ldquo;Miracle doctor,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;is
-      good&mdash;is very good.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney assumed the air of an instructor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Healers,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;may be set down, for the purposes
-      of a proper classification, under three great heads or grand divisions,
-      namely, 'yarb doctors,' 'old-line practitioners,' and 'miracle doctors.'
-      Under the first class may be grouped those persons who seek to effect
-      cures by means of the virtues of shrubbery, as well as that vast army of
-      rural healers known along the watershed of the Alleghanies as 'bleeders'
-      and 'steamers.' Under the second great division are included those grave
-      professional persons supposed to be learned in the mysteries of the human
-      economy, who, for a fixed consideration, guess at the ill, and thrust in a
-      chemical: while the third and final division is composed of those
-      mysterious healers who affect to thwart dissolution by means of marvellous
-      knowledge or marvellous skill peculiar to themselves.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The species of the first grand division infest all that great tract
-      of country bounded by a timber line. The second great class obtains in the
-      cities and villages, and affect buggies, drugs, and sombre dress. The
-      third class is a by-product of congested civilization, and begins usually
-      with a patent lotion, and ends usually with a hospital.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      White Carter waved his fat hand. &ldquo;But, if your honor, please,&rdquo;
-      he interrupted, &ldquo;what did the miracle doctor say?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He said,&rdquo; replied the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;that Brown
-      Hirst was a compound fracture from the sustentaculum tali to the tripod of
-      Haller; and from the tripod of Haller to the corpus callossum, he was a
-      simple fracture.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Horrible,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And he said further,&rdquo; continued the man of the law, &ldquo;that
-      the suiciding decedent was probably afflicted with some species of
-      psychical neurosis.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;<i>Domine miserere!</i>&rdquo; murmured the guardian of order.
-      &ldquo;So the travelling Æsculapius testified, and as the coroner was
-      quite unable to spell the craft terms, he simply wrote down in the record
-      that Doctor Leon Dupey of Cincinnati, after a careful examination, had
-      pronounced Brown Hirst dead, which was far less prolix and entirely true.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That coroner,&rdquo; observed White Carter, &ldquo;should be United
-      States Senator from Kansas.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Huron took up the note and put it with the other papers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I judge this to be a plain case of suicide,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I
-      have carefully compared the writing with these letters. It is certainly
-      Brown Hirst's writing. Still, men do not act without a motive, and I see
-      no justifiable motive.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the sheriff, &ldquo;I happen to know that
-      financially the Octagon Coal Company is somewhat 'groggy.' How will that
-      answer for a motive <i>ad interim?</i> Or, as the sensible would say, in
-      the meantime?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney. Then he took a pencil
-      from his pocket, and wrote on the back of the decedent's letter &ldquo;Suicide.
-      Motive&mdash;business depression,&rdquo; and replaced the papers in the
-      safe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff arose. &ldquo;The legend you have subscribed is probably
-      correct,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;but the ways of Providence are varied
-      and mystic, and I think I shall make some observations in my own right.&rdquo;
-      Then he went out.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      II
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>T is quite plain,&rdquo;
-      said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;that you have fallen into the usual blunder of
-      the common rogue. If you had wished to rob the insurance companies, you
-      could easily have accomplished your end without perpetrating this crime,
-      and thus assume the hazard of discovery and criminal prosecution.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Gilmore looked sharply at the counsellor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You mean that I am seeking advice late?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Precisely,&rdquo; said Mason. &ldquo;It is the characteristic error
-      of the witless.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; observed the coal operator, &ldquo;in desperate
-      positions one usually relies on one's-self; confederates are dangerous,
-      and usually expert advice is difficult to obtain.&rdquo; Then he laughed.
-      &ldquo;I could not advertise for sealed bids on how the thing should be
-      done. I did the best possible under the circumstances, and I rather
-      thought that I had made a clean job of it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That delusion,&rdquo; muttered Mason, &ldquo;is common with the
-      amateur. Indeed, it is the mark of him. This killing was useless. You
-      could have gotten on as well without it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The keen, gray eyes of Robert Gilmore twinkled. &ldquo;I should be
-      interested to know how?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;At this late hour,&rdquo; answered Randolph Mason, &ldquo;my advice
-      upon that point can be of no importance. Suggestions after the fact are of
-      little interest and of no value. You have now to consider some method by
-      which you may place yourself permanently beyond the reach of the law. This
-      is no problem of slight moment, and, in order to meet it properly, I must
-      know the details of this blundering business.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The coal operator's face grew grave and thoughtful. &ldquo;I presume,&rdquo;
-      he began, &ldquo;that the priest and the attorney are accustomed to
-      require details and accurate confessions. I am president of the Octagon
-      Coal Company, as I have said, and reside in the city of Philadelphia,
-      where I have been engaged in active business for several years. My life
-      beyond that time cannot be a matter of any special importance. I may add,
-      however, that I had been engaged with a foreign company as a fire
-      insurance adjuster for the State of Illinois for some years before coming
-      to the East. It was while acting as an adjuster of losses that I first met
-      with Brown Hirst.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;An unusually large fire occurred in one of the suburban towns near
-      Chicago, destroying almost an entire block, and I was sent out by my
-      company to adjust the loss. Upon my arrival in the town I found what I
-      believed to be evidence of a gigantic fraud. The block had been leased for
-      a year by one John Hall for the purpose of doing a mammoth general
-      business with a great number of different departments, and almost before
-      Hall had opened his doors to the public this fire occurred. There was no
-      explanation of how the fire originated. When first noticed by the police,
-      about three o'clock in the morning, the building was blazing fiercely in a
-      dozen places, and under such headway as to be impossible to control. The
-      local fire department was unable to prevent the loss of the building, but
-      fortunately a heavy rainstorm set in and prevented a total loss of the
-      stock.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In conversation with Hall, I discovered that not one domestic
-      company had a dollar on the building or its stock, but that the entire
-      insurance was carried in my company and a number of London companies
-      usually associated with it, and for whom I acted as general adjuster. This
-      was of itself a suspicious circumstance, since the insured would not be
-      subject to the inquisition of numberless representatives of convenient
-      local companies, and in a legal fight would have the prejudice against a
-      remote company in his favor, and, further, he would have but one man to
-      deal with.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I observed immediately that Hall was a person of much shrewdness.
-      He talked little, but what he had to say was exceedingly free from any
-      suggestion of concealment or obscurity. When I came to examine the
-      unburned stock, my suspicions were confirmed. It was composed entirely of
-      bulky merchandise, evidently selected with a view to a fire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The manner of its arrangement in the building was exceedingly
-      suspicious. The boxes had been piled up before the windows in such a
-      manner as to prevent the firemen from entering the building even after the
-      iron bars had been cut, and the arrangement was such that when the fire
-      should gain headway and the windows be opened, the position of the boxes
-      would act as a sort of flue and thereby greatly assist the fire. It was
-      all exceedingly well planned, and if the building had been entirely
-      consumed, detection would have been impossible. Nothing could have
-      prevented this but the unforeseen storm, and had it not occurred just when
-      it did, Hall's scheme would have proved a masterpiece of its kind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I gave the public no intimation of my conclusions concerning the
-      incendiary nature of the fire, but when the investigation was concluded, I
-      took Hall to the hotel, and told him frankly that my company would not pay
-      the loss, as it was quite evident that it was all a shrewdly arranged
-      scheme to defraud. I pointed out the suspicious circumstances, and the
-      irresistible conclusion that flowed from them, and said plainly that Hall
-      would do well to escape criminal prosecution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;To my utter astonishment, the man expressed no surprise whatever.
-      When I had finished, he asked me a few searching questions intended to
-      determine the thoroughness of my investigation, and when he was satisfied
-      upon that point, he drew his chair up near to the table at which I was
-      seated, and quietly proposed to divide the insurance if I would join with
-      him and make the proper sort of report to my company.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In handling this proposition, Hall was marvellously skilful. He
-      assumed to treat the matter purely as a business arrangement. He said that
-      the loss, although big to us, was a very small matter to the wealthy
-      companies which I represented, and would not be felt by them, and would
-      cause no man any appreciable hurt; that he had gone to infinite pains and
-      no little expense to perfect his plan, and nothing but the unfortunate
-      storm could have prevented its complete success; that he had never
-      intended to divide with any one, but accident against which he could not
-      guard had placed me in a position to secure a portion of the very
-      considerable sum which he had gone to so much trouble and expense to
-      obtain, and, appreciating this new necessity, he was quite willing to
-      allow me an equal division of the gain. At no time during his entire
-      conversation was there any suggestion of danger or any allusion to any
-      risk, criminal or otherwise.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is unnecessary, I judge, to weary you with further details.
-      Under the remarkable handling of this man, the element of substantial
-      wrong seemed to disappear from the transaction, and the result was that I
-      finally consented to join with him. He claimed two hundred thousand
-      dollars. I reported to the company a complete loss, but advised a
-      settlement at not more than one half of the sum claimed. This finally led
-      to an adjustment at about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, without
-      the least suspicion of a community of interests between us.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It would not be quite true to assume that I easily fell in with
-      Hall's plan, although in point of time it would seem so. Financially, I
-      was in a bad way; from childhood I had been poor; always poor. In money
-      matters, things invariably went wrong. Every hazard I had taken, every
-      speculation in which I had entered, had always lost, no matter how
-      substantial it seemed. At this time I was rather desperate, I presume. At
-      any rate, I joined with the scheme, and it succeeded without a jar.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thus I came to know Brown Hirst under his alias. We divided the
-      money and deposited it with a trust company in Philadelphia until such
-      time as we might safely join in some one of the numerous ventures which
-      Brown Hirst was continually planning. But he was no dreamer, this Hirst.
-      He knew fully the great virtue of deliberation, and insisted that I remain
-      with the insurance company for at least a year, and then secure employment
-      with another company on some reasonable pretext, and then by some error be
-      discharged from this company, and if possible join with another, until
-      finally I should drift out of the business without being subject to
-      speculative comment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These suggestions of Hirst I followed to the letter, and they
-      resulted as he anticipated. I had now great confidence in the ability of
-      this remarkable man. The details of his plans were as accurate as the
-      pieces of a machine, and they seemed never capable of failure.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The coal operator paused and rested his hands on the arms of his chair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Even now,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I consider Brown Hirst to have
-      been the ablest man I ever saw.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason was silent. His face indicated rather more of weariness
-      than of interest. Perhaps the story in its substance was very old to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On the first day of September, 1893, I joined Brown Hirst in
-      Philadelphia, and here he unfolded a number of gigantic plans, among
-      others one for defrauding life insurance companies, which we finally
-      decided to attempt. I do not now recall that I felt any real repugnance to
-      the moral obliquity of these ventures. The mastermind of Hirst seemed to
-      sweep out any moral consideration, by simply ignoring it utterly. When
-      Hirst planned, it was all business, and, according to the ethics of
-      business, quite as right as any. Indeed, the man was so phenomenally
-      successful where I had always failed, that I never once dreamed of
-      objecting to any plan which he deemed wise.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As I have said, Brown Hirst was as practical as a blue print. He
-      used to assert that of all vices haste was the most abominable, and that
-      before seeking to effect our venture it would be the part of wisdom to
-      engage in some legitimate business for a few years in order to establish a
-      reputation as a substantial business firm. Then our plans would be rid of
-      the suggestion of adventurers. Besides, it would give us financial rating
-      and substantial standing in the community in which we should begin our
-      fraudulent operations, and as well, in the meantime, we could prepare our
-      motives, which, Hirst asserted, should always be furnished ready-made to
-      the public when investigation began.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We accordingly determined to purchase and operate a coal plant in
-      West Virginia. This business was suited to our purpose rather better than
-      any other, because men were continually coming and going in this business.
-      Unknown companies were formed in remote cities and operated merely with an
-      agent. The firm was rarely investigated to any very great degree, if it
-      promptly met its obligations, and there being little opportunity for
-      fraud, a good business standing could be easily secured by any manager who
-      was reasonably expeditious in his transactions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We secured a charter for the Octagon Coal Company, purchased a
-      plant on the Norfolk and Western Railroad in the county of McDowell, and
-      began to operate with Brown Hirst as manager and myself president of the
-      presumed Philadelphia company.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hirst was, as I have said, a man of fine business sense, and very
-      shortly began to make money. We enlarged the plant, and soon came to be
-      considered a firm of importance. When it grew apparent that we could
-      succeed at a legitimate business, I began to urge Hirst to abandon his
-      dangerous venture entirely, and devote his splendid abilities to the
-      development of the coal industry; but he only laughed, and bade me
-      remember that all this required work, and it was not his intention to
-      spend his life at work.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, interrupting, &ldquo;you are
-      overlooking the important matter in your disclosure. What was this
-      insurance scheme?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh. yes,&rdquo; said the coal operator, &ldquo;I was coming to
-      that. It was our plan to secure heavy insurance on the life of Hirst,
-      making his wife the beneficiary, and later have him disappear under
-      circumstances indicating suicide.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That plan,&rdquo; said Mason, drawing down the heavy muscles of his
-      mouth, &ldquo;is ancient, and infantile, and trite; worthy of blunderers&mdash;children
-      and blunderers.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilmore looked at the lawyer for a moment critically, then he continued.
-      &ldquo;I presume the scheme is not new, but I rather think Hirst's plan
-      for carrying it into effect was somewhat novel and unusually practical. At
-      the time Hirst proposed this scheme he was unmarried, and, as a cold
-      business proposition, he said that I should select some woman&mdash;any
-      woman agreeable to me, whom I should like as a wife, then he would marry
-      her, insure his life for her benefit, make his exit, and afterwards I
-      should marry the woman and send half of the insurance money to him in
-      Spain or Italy, where he had determined to take up his permanent
-      residence.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He urged that it would be best to keep the woman totally ignorant
-      of our plan, so that if anything should go wrong, she could not be
-      implicated in a conspiracy, and, therefore, could not be prevented from
-      obtaining the insurance as, she being the sole beneficiary and no fraud on
-      her part being possible, any suspected or even assured fraud on my part
-      would not void the policy payable to her, provided he, Hirst, could not be
-      found within seven years.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hence, two considerations were necessary in selecting the woman.
-      First, she must be so situated as to reduce suspicion of her to the
-      minimum. And, second, she must be one whom I could marry as Hirst's widow
-      and thereby obtain the money. This part of the plan was allotted to me to
-      complete. You will now see with what a remarkable man I was associated,
-      and how little regard he entertained for the customs of human society.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In leaguing myself with this man's fortune I blundered fatally. My
-      nature was entirely different. I could not shut out the natural emotions.
-      I could not crowd out the human in me. I was no calculating machine like
-      this man Hirst, and in carrying out my portion of the venture I made a
-      frightful mistake.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am not now going into the details of that mistake. It will be
-      sufficient for the purposes of this interview to say that the woman whom
-      Hirst finally married was a good woman, the daughter of a venerable
-      churchman residing in one of the suburban towns of Philadelphia,&mdash;such
-      a good woman that no sooner had the ceremony taken place than I began to
-      regret having associated her with such a cold-blooded villain as Brown
-      Hirst, and as the days ran by, that regret grew into a very passion of
-      remorse.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man paused for a moment, raised his elbows up on the arms of his chair
-      and locked his fingers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I guess it was a sort of Providential judgment,&rdquo; he
-      continued, &ldquo;if such things are supposed to be in this practical
-      time. I avoided the woman as far as possible, and strove to conceal my
-      terrible regret, but it was quite useless. Hirst knew almost before I
-      realized the feeling myself, and harshly bade me remember that this was
-      business, and no matter of maudlin sentiment. He had no feeling whatever
-      for the woman, and if I could wait for a little time the plan would very
-      shortly give her to me. He warned me against what he was pleased to call
-      'nonsense,' and I must admit that the powerful personality of this man
-      forced me into a sort of stolid subjection to his will. But the feeling
-      for the woman remained, and I hated Hirst.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason put out his hand as though to interrupt the speaker, but,
-      appearing to reconsider, suddenly withdrew it and nodded to the coal
-      operator to continue. The young man took no notice of the interruption.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hirst,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;like the master spirit that he
-      was, proceeded to put the details of his plan into operation. From time to
-      time he applied to the best companies in the country for insurance, and as
-      he was considered a good risk, a man of fine physique, and in charge of a
-      substantial business, he presently secured about two hundred thousand
-      dollars on his life. These policies he carried for two years in order to
-      avoid the suicide clause, and in order to render them as nearly
-      incontestable as possible.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Finally, every arrangement having been completed, the time drew
-      near when Brown Hirst determined to make the final movement in his scheme.
-      But during these two years my hate of this man had not been idle. I don't
-      know just what possessed me. I had no good reason to hate him. It was all,
-      as he said, a business matter,&mdash;details in a pure business matter.
-      But I did hate him, and, unconsciously, one does not know just how. I
-      determined to take a part in his plan. I determined to make the play real.
-      This determination was no sudden resolve; it seemed rather to evolve
-      slowly until it finally became a fixed purpose. The motive for the
-      supposed suicide, Hirst had by no means overlooked. It was to be impending
-      financial ruin, and during the past year immediately preceding his death
-      Brown Hirst drew great sums from the business, and finally mortgaged and
-      remortgaged the entire coal plant and applied the money to the payment of
-      his heavy insurance, so that at the time of his disappearance the business
-      would be in a state of financial collapse, and the motive for his rash
-      deed would be adequate and thoroughly apparent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;During all this time, Hirst operated in McDowell near the county
-      seat of Welch, his wife remaining for the most part with her father, while
-      I maintained a city office in Philadelphia. On the day set apart for the
-      disappearance of Brown Hirst, there was a stockholders' meeting of our
-      company at its principal office in West Virginia. It was a sham, but it
-      was rumored that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss some measure
-      that would relieve our business from impending ruin. This was the purpose
-      made public. The real purpose was to account for my presence in McDowell.
-      It was a part of Hirst's plan that I should remain behind after his
-      disappearance in order to see that everything was properly arranged, and
-      then take a night train for the East.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The preliminary details of that night's work were splendidly
-      managed. We met together at the office of the company. Here Hirst wrote a
-      letter explaining that he was about to take his own life, and placed it in
-      the pocket of his coat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then he took a bundle of men's clothing, in which he intended to
-      make his escape from the country. This bundle consisted of a grimy coat
-      such as the ordinary miner wears, in the pockets of which he had placed a
-      package of bank notes, a pocket-book containing a New York draft and a
-      memorandum of his insurance policies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The trousers, shoes, and other articles of this disguise Hirst wore
-      when he left the office, it being his intention to leave his usual coat
-      and vest on the bridge over Tug River, as evidence of the suicide, and
-      then, assuming the remainder of his disguise, slip out to Cincinnati on
-      the night freight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;From the office we went directly to the bridge over Tug River, for
-      the reason, as Brown Hirst always maintained, that in order to leave
-      perfect circumstantial evidence it was absolutely necessary to actually do
-      as far as possible the things which one desired the public to believe one
-      had done.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It was perhaps two o'clock, and very dark and wet. It had been
-      raining for almost a week. This was largely in our favor, since the river
-      at flood is deep and rapid, and a body lost in it when the water was
-      running high would not probably be recovered at all, as we had noticed was
-      the case with lumbermen not infrequently drowned; hence we had selected
-      the time of heaviest rains in this region in order that the loss of the
-      body should not seem a matter of unusual moment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It might be as well to explain that when Tug River is swollen by
-      rains its channel beneath the bridge is very deep and rapid nearest its
-      east shore, while near the west shore its bed is higher and covered with
-      immense bowlders; thus anything thrown into this river on its east side
-      would probably be carried away and lost, while if dropped from the bridge
-      on the west side it would probably lodge among the bowlders, and remain
-      after the high water had subsided.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As I have said, it was very dark, and the roar of the waters was
-      something frightful, but we were quite familiar with the bridge, and,
-      becoming accustomed to the darkness, presently came to see sufficiently
-      for our purposes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hirst went directly to the span of the bridge nearest the east
-      shore, and, removing his coat and vest, placed them across one of the
-      girders. Then he began to undo the bundle in order to put on the miner's
-      clothing which he had brought with him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This was my opportunity, and I suggested that we first walk to the
-      other side in order to make sure that the bridge was entirely clear. He
-      immediately put down the bundle and came up to me. I do not now know
-      whether there was in his mind any trace of suspicion, but I do know that
-      at this suggestion the man seized my arm and tried to look into my face,
-      and I am certain that had it been light he would have discovered the
-      treachery which I was contemplating. But it was dark, and the man said
-      nothing except to curse the night. He was exceedingly profane, this Hirst,
-      and as we walked the length of the bridge, he holding my arm and damning
-      the night in half whispers, I somehow felt that this man appreciated in a
-      vague way the doom that was impending. But I presume that this was simply
-      an impression arising from the intense strain under which I was laboring.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As we were about to return, I pointed to the white surf, breaking
-      on the bowlders below. The man, still holding my arm, stopped, leaned over
-      the low railing, and peered down into the water. This was the position
-      into which I had hoped to trap him, and, wrenching my arm loose suddenly,
-      I struck him heavily between the shoulders. The man plunged forward over
-      the railing, clutching wildly at the air, but he uttered no cry. and his
-      body whirled downward into the blackness below.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I clung to the railing and strove to see where the body would
-      strike, but it was folly. The bridge was high above the rough stream, and
-      I heard only the dull splash that told of his death.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The eyes of the coal operator seemed to stretch at the corners, and a dull
-      gray spread over his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I should like to be rid of that scene,&rdquo; he continued after a
-      moment. &ldquo;It is frightfully vivid. Every detail of it seems to have
-      been photographed on my brain, and it runs before me like the pictures in
-      a vitascope. Men sometimes forget such things, it is said, but, in the
-      name of Heaven, how? Why, I can see him any moment in the dark. I can see
-      his strained white face mad with horror, I can see his clutching hands, I
-      can feel in my own throat just how the terror of death choked in his, and
-      I know, I know&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason struck his clenched fist heavily on the table. &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo;
-      he said sharply, &ldquo;you will kindly omit this drivel. Give me the
-      facts just as they occurred. You may reserve your melodrama for the
-      purposes of a copyright.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilmore started and threw up his head as though some one had suddenly
-      dashed ice-water in his face. He put his hand up to his forehead and
-      pressed his fingers hard against the skin; then he straightened in his
-      chair and seemed to gain his self-control.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;I went back to the east side of the
-      bridge, threw the bundle over into the river, slipped through to the
-      Chesapeake and Ohio on one of the night freights, and by noon of the same
-      day I was in Philadelphia.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That afternoon the city office was advised of Brown Hirst's
-      suicide. We immediately wired the prosecuting attorney for details, and
-      were informed that he had jumped from the bridge, leaving a note in his
-      pocket which explained that he had taken his own life. The body was
-      shipped to Philadelphia, as his wife directed. Almost immediately I began
-      to close the affairs of the Octagon Coal Company, and very shortly after
-      the funeral I called upon Mrs. Hirst in order to take the preliminary
-      steps looking toward the collection of her husband's insurance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Here my plan struck and went to pieces like a vapor. The wife of
-      Brown Hirst was a good woman, and I had failed to foresee what she would
-      do under circumstances of this nature. To my utter astonishment, she
-      informed me that the representatives of the insurance companies had been
-      to see her and had asked time in which to investigate the case, and that
-      she had gladly concurred in their request. And then, like a woman, she
-      declared that there was no reason why her husband should commit suicide,
-      and that she did not believe he had done so, but that, if he had
-      deliberately taken his own life, she would not touch one dollar of the
-      insurance money; that she would have nothing bought with life. If it could
-      be shown that her husband was murdered, as she believed, then she saw no
-      reason why she should not claim the insurance; but if, on the other hand,
-      it proved true that he had planned to defraud the life insurance company
-      for her benefit, and, pursuant to that awful plan, had hurled himself into
-      eternity, then she would starve in an almshouse before she would touch a
-      penny of the money.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This statement struck me with the crushing power of an axe stroke.
-      The world seemed to pass out from under me. I saw every hope of the future
-      vanish. I realized in a flash, as one is said to do at the grave's edge,
-      in what a prodigious error I had been engaged.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There must have been some suggestion of annoyance on the counsellor's
-      face, for the coal operator stopped short and moved uneasily in his chair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was about to forget your instructions,&rdquo; he explained, with
-      a shade of apology in his voice; &ldquo;it is rather hard to crowd one's
-      emotions out of a desperate, personal narrative like this, although, of
-      course, it is all nonsense to rant about it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;To be brief, I was totally unable to shake this woman's purpose,
-      and I returned to the city knowing that a tireless investigation was about
-      to begin. I have not waited to see the result of this investigation. I
-      know that the insurance companies and this unusual woman will leave no
-      stone unturned in order to discover just how Hirst came to his death, and
-      I am not fool enough to think that they will eventually fail. I don't
-      believe any of the bosh about murder crying from the ground, but I am
-      entirely convinced that it is almost impossible to cover a crime so that
-      human ingenuity cannot trail down the man who committed it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I judge that I was not intended for business of this sort. I cannot
-      fight out in good order. With me a retreat is a rout. I have abandoned
-      everything. I have thrown away every plan. I am trying now to save myself
-      from the hangman, or at least the penitentiary. I have not waited to be
-      caught; I have come to you at once.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man seemed to relax and settle back in his chair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he added, with the utter dependence of a patient
-      stretched upon the table of the surgeon, &ldquo;you must save me.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The eyes of Randolph Mason flattened as though they were being pressed
-      down from above, and the lines of his face deepened and widened into
-      rugged furrows.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There are two methods of evading the law,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The
-      escape <i>ipso jure</i> planned before the fact; and the escape <i>ipso
-      jure</i> after the fact. The first is a matter of no great difficulty, and
-      may easily be prepared by any man reasonably conversant with the law of
-      the place of his intended act, and if skilfully arranged need contain no
-      element of hazard whatever. The latter is far more difficult, and must be
-      handled with some care in order to reduce the element of peril to its
-      minimum. In the first, one constructs the facts to suit the defects in the
-      law, and if executed with any degree of intelligence, the criminal actor
-      has nothing whatever to fear, and the law is as harmless as a painted
-      devil.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In the latter, the expert must take the facts as circumstance and
-      the blundering criminal agent have made them, and strive to adapt these
-      prepared facts to the law as it stands, which is a far more difficult
-      proceeding, and not infrequently attended with disastrous results. Hence
-      the skill of certain criminal lawyers, and the long technical legal
-      battles with which the books are crowded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As for you, sir, the scheme in which you have been an actor was
-      abominably planned, and more abominably executed. The most drivelling
-      intelligence should have seen peril staring out from every infantile move
-      made by you and this stupendous blunderer Hirst. You have taken an old,
-      time-worn plan, teeming with dangers, and, not content with its frightful
-      hazards, you and this witless Hirst have added one complicated peril after
-      another until you have finally constructed a masterpiece of idiocy that in
-      its complex nonsense approaches the sublime.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wonder, sir, that you have not gone to the authorities and
-      requested an execution. It would be a fitting sequel to your atrocious
-      errors.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The face of the counsellor was ugly with a sneer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Your seeking counsel at once stands out as your one intelligent
-      act. It is marvellous discretion, Judged by your narrative; marvellous and
-      unexpected. Let us hope that your period of mental aberration is past.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he arose and stood looking down at the man who, like many another,
-      had striven to throw the machinery of human justice out of its proper
-      gear, and had simply succeeded in tangling himself in its complicated
-      wheels.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In order to save you now,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;we
-      must move quickly. These great insurance companies have the ablest
-      detective service of the world. With such a bungle as you have made, it is
-      merely a question of a few weeks until they will succeed in fastening this
-      murder upon you, not directly perhaps, but sufficiently to warrant your
-      arrest, and then you must take your hazards with a jury. The man who
-      to-day hopes to cover his crime well enough to baffle the keen and
-      tireless search of a great life insurance company must be governed by
-      something vastly nearer to an intelligence than that upon which you and
-      the decedent Hirst depended.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;At this stage of your blunder there are but two ways by which it is
-      possible to put you absolutely beyond the reach of the law. Death is one
-      way, and we will pass that. The other I am now going to bring to your aid.
-      With it the greatest care and haste are vital. At nine to-night you must
-      be here prepared to put yourself wholly in my hands. I shall have every
-      arrangement complete by that time.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mason stopped short, and put his hand down heavily upon the table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, sir,&rdquo; he said, bluntly, &ldquo;it will be entirely
-      useless for me to attempt the drastic measures necessary in your case
-      unless you are prepared to act under my fingers like a machine. Can you do
-      that?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the man, wiping the perspiration from his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, opening the door of his private
-      office, &ldquo;go down to your hotel and sleep; and if you please, sir, do
-      not think, or, to be more accurate, do not attempt to think. Your
-      thoughts, as has been demonstrated, are of no value to you, and I assure
-      you, sir, they will be quite useless to me.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he closed the door after the departing criminal and went back to his
-      desk.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      III
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE sheriff was
-      riding slowly down the narrow mountain road to the ford over Tug River,&mdash;&ldquo;Jim's
-      Ford&rdquo; the natives of McDowell had dubbed this crossing far back when
-      the dry ginseng root was a legal tender for all debts public and private
-      southwest, as the crow flies, from the county of Mercer. Whence the name
-      had come, and by reason of what, tradition was silent. No doubt the
-      original Jim had dwelt in this rugged gorge, and by accidental hap had
-      given his name to this rocky ford that lived on and proclaimed him long
-      after the man had passed out into the hands of the Wind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To the negro miner, seven miles up at the town of Welch, this rugged
-      crossing, studded with great bowlders, was respectfully referred to as
-      &ldquo;Hell's Gap,&rdquo;&mdash;respectfully, for no other reason than
-      that the negroes were superstitious, and the mammoth gorge, silent as the
-      grave floor, and deep and foggy except in the long summer afternoons, was
-      calculated to conjure every grim phantom set down in the African
-      catalogue.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff pulled up his &ldquo;dun&rdquo; horse suddenly, and threw his
-      leg over the pommel of his saddle. Just below him in the ford of the river
-      was a man wading out into the water,&mdash;a tall mountaineer,
-      bare-headed, his dress indicating a rather equal compromise between the
-      barbarity of the village and the barbarity of the mountain. For upper
-      garment he wore the red-fringed hunting shirt of his fathers and his
-      grandfathers and on; and for nether garment, the blue overalls purchased
-      at the country store for a haunch of venison or a bundle of hides. The
-      mountaineer was tall, rugged, and powerful,&mdash;a proper inhabitant for
-      such a place.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Spitler Hamrick,&rdquo; murmured the sheriff.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By every limping god! The toughest pine knot in the mountains of
-      McDowell. I wonder what the old wolf is looking for.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he tightened his knee on the pommel of the saddle and a slow smile
-      crept over the features of the sheriff. &ldquo;By my troth'&rdquo; he
-      drawled, &ldquo;it is certain that Spitler is no Vere de Vere. Still, if
-      blue blood ran to back, and bunches of muscles on the shoulders, Spitler's
-      claim to princely lineage would be unquestioned.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      White Carter stopped short, and adjusted his eye-glasses. The mountaineer
-      had gathered up a bundle from the river and was turning to wade ashore.
-      The man did not at once see the sheriff; he was looking down into the
-      water in order to avoid slipping on the smooth stones. When he stepped on
-      to the rocky bank of the river, the sheriff called. At the sound, the
-      mountaineer dropped the bundle and jerked up a Winchester that lay nearby
-      against a bowlder. It was an act after the custom of the mountains. One
-      armed himself first, and observed the &ldquo;lay of the land&rdquo;
-      afterwards.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      White Carter remained perfectly motionless. &ldquo;I would n't shoot,
-      Spitler,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;it's vulgar.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The mountaineer dropped the butt of his rifle on the stones, and looked up
-      in astonishment. &ldquo;Smoky hell!&rdquo; ejaculated the mountaineer,
-      &ldquo;it air the sheriff. Smoky hell!&rdquo; The refrain was a nervous
-      idiom with Spitler Hamrick.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      White Carter put his hand into the pocket of his coat, took out a pipe,
-      knocked the ashes from the bowl and began to fill it with great
-      deliberation. This act, remaining after the red man had passed, proclaimed
-      a status of dignified truce.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The play of action faded from Hamrick's face, leaving it stolid, heavy,
-      prodigiously indifferent. It was the mountain's stamp on its minion, the
-      silence, and the abominable indifference of the rugged earth ground into
-      the faces of the men who struggle for life on her stony breast.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hot,&rdquo; observed the sheriff, crowding the bowl of his pipe and
-      thrusting the tobacco down with his broad thumb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The mountaineer folded his arms over the muzzle of his rifle and leaned
-      upon it heavily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yas,&rdquo; he responded, &ldquo;warmish,&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the full measure of salutation, and the full measure of
-      introduction to all matters, important or unimportant, on the watershed of
-      the Alleghanies. In the mountains no man hurried with his speech. There
-      was time to be fully understood, and time to answer fully; then what one
-      did afterwards, one was not so likely to regret. In the flat lands men are
-      not so wise, perhaps.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff struck a match on his saddle skirt, lighted his pipe, and
-      puffed a cloud of blue smoke rings out over the placid ears of the &ldquo;murky
-      dun.&rdquo; Presently he took the pipe stem from between his teeth and
-      looked down at the solitary proprietor of Jim's Ford.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Spitler,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;what 's in the bundle?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye kin look,&rdquo; responded the mountaineer with prodigious
-      unconcern.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff replaced his pipe and lapsed into silence for a moment. Then
-      he said:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Where did you find it, Spitler?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I reckin ye saw,&rdquo; replied the scion of the house of Hamrick.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The guardian of order looked up at the blue sky over the top of his nose
-      glasses. Then he looked down. &ldquo;Spitler,&rdquo;&mdash;he said softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The mountaineer interrupted. &ldquo;Sheriff,&rdquo; he growled, &ldquo;old
-      Spitler Hamrick don't stand no shammackin' round the bush. Smoky hell! He
-      aint never stood it. Things air goin' to be like this: ye kin mosey' down
-      here and git this bundle, air ye kin ride on. But ye can't set on you hoss
-      and jaw. Smoky hell! Ye can't set on you hoss and jaw.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was no circumlocution, no trick of equivocation, no shadow of
-      obscurity in the speech of the denizen of Hell's Gap He used words for the
-      purpose of expressing exactly what he believed to be true, and for no
-      other purpose. This the sheriff knew, and others had learned and
-      remembered by certain long glistening scars, covered afterward with the
-      red flannel of their hunting shirts.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      White Carter removed his knee from the pommel of his saddle and slipped
-      down to the ground. Here he paused for a moment, knocked the ashes from
-      his pipe and replaced it in his pocket. Then he clambered down the steep
-      bank to the river. The proprietor of Jim's Ford looked on with mighty
-      indifference. The sheriff took up the bundle without a word, returned to
-      his horse, and unbuckling the &ldquo;throat latch&rdquo; of his bridle,
-      strapped the bundle to the horn of his saddle. Then he placed his right
-      foot in the stirrup and turned to the mountaineer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Spitler,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;we found a dead man in Tug the
-      other day. I think this is his coat.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The mountaineer looked up from the muzzle of his Winchester. &ldquo;Were
-      there lead in him?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff flung his leg over the saddle and gathered up his bridle from
-      the horse's neck.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No bullet holes,&rdquo; he answered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the giant Hamrick, &ldquo;he were not killed in
-      the hills.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      IV
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>T was the first
-      Monday of July, and the grand inquisitors of the county of McDowell were
-      in laborious session. It was hot in Welch,&mdash;so hot that the sheriff
-      had purchased a linen coat and departed for Atlantic City on a ten-dollar
-      excursion, leaving the deputy, Salathiel Jenkins, to swelter with the
-      grand jury. So hot that J. E. B. Huron, prosecuting attorney by selection
-      of the Commonwealth, resorted to expressions not quite profane but nipping
-      close to the border. So hot that the foreman from Charity Fork made
-      continual odious reference to that historic locality over which Lazarus
-      passed in the bosom of Abraham.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The grand jury was a body mightily out of harmony with its inquisitorial
-      affairs, especially on this sweltering Monday when the mercury was
-      mounting heavenward. The members of the grand jury had removed their
-      coats, they had unbuttoned their shirts, they had rolled up their sleeves
-      to the limit over their great brown arms. It was hot&mdash;this grand
-      jury. But it was jovial and good-natured, sixteen freeholders of the
-      bailiwick turning aside for a day to bolster up the peace and dignity of
-      the State. The characteristic apparel of the farmer, the hunter, and the
-      miner was on this grand jury, but there were no collars; not even the
-      &ldquo;biled shirt&rdquo; of notorious report. If one had spoken of a
-      haberdasher or essayed to enumerate his wares in the land south of Tug
-      River, he would have been regarded as a purveyor of &ldquo;green furrin
-      jabber,&rdquo; or been pitied as a hopeless victim of idiot mutterings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thus do men hoot the customs of their fellows when in conflict with their
-      own. One looking at this grand jury as an exhibit would have gone away
-      regretting that the chief fad of Delilah had not been handed down in the
-      county of McDowell, just as the jury would have wondered why the funny
-      little man divided his hair in the middle like a woman and wore a tight
-      band around his neck and a stiff breastplate of cloth and starch over his
-      ribs, when he could dress like a Christian, and be comfortable.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At two o'clock the sage body had concluded its inquisition, and was
-      resting ponderously while the foreman. Abe Collister, of Charity Fork, was
-      slowly and with infinite pain affixing his signature to the indictments.
-      It was no small labor for one whose fingers were thick and broad and
-      accustomed to implements little slighter in proportion than the handle of
-      an axe or the stock of a Winchester.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The facial contortions of this good freeholder as he strove in a clerical
-      capacity would have won for him applause and fortune and wide repute in
-      the cast of a comedy. It was Fate's way, better than genius could imitate,
-      but no audience to see.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is the function of bodies of this sort to be severe, and it is their
-      way to be most amiable. The prosecuting attorney, it was maintained, ought
-      to know what he wanted. He was paid to know. It was his business. If he
-      thought it wise to send in witnesses charging one with a crime, then the
-      charge should be found. This conclusion was a splendid working hypothesis,
-      pregnant with expedition, but not quite in accord with the ideal <i>jus</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So the grand jury rested as the afternoon grew apace, while the
-      scripturian from Charity Fork toiled, and the prosecuting attorney went
-      down to his office in order to &ldquo;see if there was anything else he
-      wanted.&rdquo; It was at this hour of lull, that a nervous little man
-      hurried into the office presided over by the industrious daughter of the
-      house of McFadden, and inquired for Mr. Huron. The red genius replied that
-      he was busy. According to this oracle, young Mr. Huron was always busy.
-      His continual status was one of tireless toil,&mdash;as continuous as a
-      mortgage, and as tireless as a gas meter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Just then the prosecuting attorney came out on his way to the grand jury
-      room. The little man rushed up and demanded an immediate audience. The two
-      returned to the private office and closed the door. Here the little man
-      looked at his watch and announced that things would have to be rushed, and
-      launched into the subject. He explained with almost breathless rapidity
-      that he was a detective from New York, representing Loomey's Agency. As he
-      talked, he threw back his coat revealing a badge which Mr. Huron did not
-      stop to examine. He said that he had been working on the case of Brown
-      Hirst; that he had finally discovered that Hirst had been murdered, foully
-      murdered by one Robert Gilmore, president of the Octagon Coal Company;
-      that he had the case tightened around Gilmore beyond the remotest shadow
-      of probability; that Gilmore, it seemed, had by some means learned of the
-      damning evidence gathering against him, and was attempting to fly from the
-      country; that he had left Philadelphia disguised as a cattle drover, and
-      would pass through Chares-ton, West Virginia, at midnight on the
-      Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and if he was not then arrested, he would
-      probably escape entirely, or, at the least, subject his trailer to the
-      expense and the tedium of an extradition; hence the detective had hurried
-      to Welch in order to secure an indictment at once and return to Charleston
-      in a position to arrest the man and hold him under a legal warrant that
-      would be valid and unquestioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He explained that he must leave at three o'clock in order to reach the
-      Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in time, and requested that he be permitted
-      to go at once before the grand-jury, which he had learned was now in
-      session.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney listened in astonishment, but he was a man
-      familiar with the startling surprises of criminal investigation, and he
-      set himself to act with the expedition which the matter required. He went
-      at once to the grand jury with the detective, and explained that he had
-      just received information tending to the conclusion that Brown Hirst had
-      been murdered; that the witness with him was John Bartlett, a detective
-      from New York, who had worked up the case and would give full information
-      concerning the facts of the crime. He then added that as Mr. Bartlett
-      would be compelled to leave within the hour, he would return to his office
-      and prepare an indictment for murder. In the meantime the grand jury could
-      determine whether the information was sufficient to sustain the charge,
-      and, if so, the indictment would be ready and Mr. Bartlett could return to
-      Charleston without unnecessary delay.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he withdrew, and the grand jury of McDowell, braced by the gust of
-      sudden sensation, straightway forgot how very warm it was and began to put
-      itself into a state of ponderous bovine expectancy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The witness Bartlett sat down by the table, took out his watch, looked at
-      it anxiously, then snapped the case and returned it to his pocket.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The foreman put down his pen very carefully, mopped his wet face with a
-      great red cotton cloth, and strove to assume the gravity of his position.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Your name's Bartlett, stranger?&rdquo; said the scripturian,
-      feeling that it was becoming for him to set the wheels of judicial
-      investigation in motion, but not quite certain of the method. &ldquo;You
-      are a detective man: and I 'low you know all about this here little
-      trouble?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The latter part of the query was a stock question with the foreman. All
-      day long, every crime, from homicide to assault and battery, had been
-      dubbed by this arch inquisitor as &ldquo;this here little trouble.&rdquo;
-      If there was any big trouble south of Tug River, it was not deemed to be
-      within the purlieus of the <i>lex scripta</i> or the <i>lex non scripta</i>
-      of the county of McDowell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The detective saw the open opportunity to thrust in his testimony as a
-      narrative, and seized it. He leaned over on the table, assured himself of
-      the attention of the jury, and began to talk.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He told how he had trailed this matter down; how the Octagon Coal Company
-      was financially on the verge of ruin, and it was his theory that Gilmore,
-      as president, had been stealing largely from the company; that Hirst had
-      finally suspected this theft and had summoned Gilmore to McDowell; how the
-      dangerous man had obeyed the summons, had quarrelled with Hirst in the
-      office, finally killed him, and in order to cover the crime had carried
-      the body to the bridge and thrown it over, arranging the evidence to
-      appear like a suicide. He painted in lurid colors the desperate character
-      of this man Gilmore; he pointed out how fearful of arrest the murderer of
-      Hirst was, at that very hour hurrying westward in order, as he believed,
-      to put himself beyond the reach of the law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The witness talked on glib and shrewdly, and while he talked, the jury,
-      unfamiliar with the rules of evidence, grew indignant and bitter, and
-      fired with a sense of the gigantic outrage.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently the door opened and the prosecuting attorney entered with the
-      indictment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you ready to vote on the matter, gentlemen?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The foreman nodded slowly. &ldquo;I guess we are, Jeb,&rdquo; he answered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; responded the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;Mr.
-      Bartlett and myself will withdraw.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The witness arose and followed Mr Huron out of the jury room.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the door had closed, the chief inquisitor from Charity Fork picked up
-      the indictment., turned it over curiously in his ponderous hand, and then
-      laid it down on the table with the back up. Then he took up his pen and
-      jabbed it down into the ink pot.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; he observed, cheerily, &ldquo;the Good Book says,
-      'None shall escape, no not one.' What about this here one?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I reckon,&rdquo; drawled Uriah Coburn, sage and philosopher, and
-      most venerable member from Injun Run, &ldquo;I reckon the Good Book air
-      right, I reckon we better flop him.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Flop&rdquo; was an accurate idiom in McDowell, and, being
-      translated, meant, &ldquo;to throw heavily.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To this the grand jury agreed with many and various methods of assent. So
-      the member from Charity Fork took a new grip on his pen, thrust his tongue
-      out of the corner of his mouth, and slowly and with great labor inscribed
-      on the back of the indictment this legend, big with the injured dignity of
-      the Commonwealth: &ldquo;A True Bill. Abraham Collister, Foreman.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      V
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>T high noon on the
-      following day Salathiel Jenkins, chief deputy of the absent Carter, was a
-      voluble factor in McDowell. He explained with many a dash of color just
-      how &ldquo;me and Bartlett&rdquo; had taken the fleeing Gilmore from a
-      midnight train and transported him to the jail at Welch, where he now
-      languished. How brave they had been, how expeditious, and how marvellously
-      successful in each of their desperate moves. Salathiel Jenkins was a young
-      person who considered himself of huge importance to the economy of nature,&mdash;an
-      opinion with which the world at large failed to concur. The conservative
-      Carter had expressed it all long ago when he remarked with immense gravity
-      that Salathiel Jenkins was not wise. But the deputy's potential was high,
-      and he talked. He explained that the prisoner had employed legal counsel,
-      with whom he had been in consultation since his arrival in the town. He
-      explained that Mr. Bartlett had advised the prosecuting attorney to force
-      the case to a trial at once in order to avoid an application for bail, and
-      in order to prevent the prisoner from being unduly assisted by any
-      accomplice he might have in the East.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He explained that the evidence against Gilmore was overpowering, that
-      there were witnesses who knew something of the matter, and he had the
-      subpoenas in his pocket.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He explained that John Bartlett was the greatest detective in the
-      Republic, and that the days on earth of Robert Gilmore were growing
-      lamentably short. The self-importance of young Mr. Jenkins gushed and
-      bubbled and expanded until it threatened to bulge his anatomical
-      proportions, and he talked and he talked. He descanted with acrimonious
-      criticism upon the fact that Mr. Huron had asked for time in which to
-      examine the evidence, and that he and the great Bartlett had labored to
-      convince him that the case should be put to trial at once, and that they
-      had had a lot of trouble, but that it was all right now, and when court
-      convened in the morning the case would be called and pushed, and he
-      gloried in the fact that he and Bartlett had assumed large responsibility
-      for this splendid expedition.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It thus came about that the court-room was so crowded on the following
-      morning that the judge as he came down to his bench had literally to elbow
-      his way through. The details of this morning's procedure demonstrated that
-      while the deputy Jenkins had talked he had been telling the truth. After
-      the docket was called, the prosecuting attorney arose and requested that a
-      jury be empanelled for the trial of the case of the State vs. Gilmore.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The judge expressed some surprise at this unusual haste, and intimated
-      that if an objection was urged he would continue the case to a later day
-      of the term. To his surprise, however, counsel for Gilmore replied that he
-      was quite ready for trial.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Whereupon a jury was had and the case ordered to proceed. The opening
-      statement of the prosecuting attorney was frank. It gave the history of
-      the case as he had heard it from Bartlett, admitting freely that he had
-      been unable to investigate the matter personally, but upon his information
-      he was convinced that the prisoner was guilty.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To this the counsel for Gilmore replied that the State was laboring under
-      a stupendous delusion; that Mr. Gilmore was a gentleman of standing, and
-      that it would quickly appear that there was no cause for subjecting his
-      client to the odium of a criminal prosecution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The spectators were not a little disgusted with the tame proceedings. They
-      had expected a keen and spirited struggle with the startling thrusts and
-      parries of a bitter legal affair. They had hoped to hear the steel grate,
-      and to see the blades dart forward and bend and fly back, as the champion
-      of the State and its enemy strove for some master vantage. They hoped for
-      the fierce interests and the quick sharp thrills incident to the grim
-      fight of a desperate criminal for his liberty and his life, and they were
-      disgusted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Their strong pugnacious spirit sympathized with Gilmore and damned his
-      counsel. In the picturesque speech of an auditor from &ldquo;Dog Skin,&rdquo;
-      &ldquo;The lawyer was a quitter.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The case progressed with almost exasperating insipidity.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney proceeded with great deliberation, and with the
-      air of one who maintains a thunderbolt in reserve. He proved the death of
-      Brown Hirst by the coroner and others; he introduced the books of the
-      company showing its financial standing; and put in such other matters of
-      unimportant evidence as were easily at hand. To all this the counsel for
-      Gilmore made no objection. To the observer, he was stupidly indifferent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney then placed the detective John Bartlett on the
-      stand. Bartlett explained with great volubility that he was a member of
-      Latency's Detective Agency; that he had learned of the mysterious death of
-      Brown Hirst, and hoping to obtain the reward offered by Hirst's widow, had
-      gone to her and requested permission to investigate the case. He explained
-      that he had learned that the Octagon Coal Company was in desperate
-      financial straits; that the president, Robert Gilmore, who resided in the
-      city of Philadelphia, had been in the county of McDowell on the night of
-      Hirst's death, and from these data he had formulated his theory to the
-      effect that Gilmore had been stealing from the company; that this fact had
-      been discovered by Hirst, and that they had come together in McDowell for
-      the purpose of discussing this matter; that there the two men had
-      quarrelled, and the result was that Hirst had been killed and his body
-      thrown into the river, and the evidence of suicide manufactured by Robert
-      Gilmore.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The detective explained further that being advised that Robert Gilmore
-      intended to leave Philadelphia for St. Louis, and fearing that it was an
-      attempt on the part of the president of the Octagon Coal Company to escape
-      from the country, he had hurried to McDowell and secured an indictment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Upon cross-examination it at once appeared that this detective had no
-      knowledge of any fact whatever, but was merely speaking from certain
-      conclusions which he was pleased to call his theory. The attorney for the
-      defense moved to strike out the evidence of this witness, which was
-      accordingly done, much to the chagrin of John Bartlett, detective, and
-      Salathiel Jenkins, deputy-in-extraordinary to the sheriff of McDowell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney then proceeded to spring his sensation. He
-      announced to the court that during the night Gilmore had made a confession
-      to Mr. Jenkins, the deputy, and that he desired to have Mr. Jenkins sworn
-      and his testimony introduced. Accordingly the irrepressible Jenkins, by
-      virtue of an oath properly administered, was transformed into a witness
-      for the State of West Virginia.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before the witness was permitted to launch into his marvellous story of
-      the self-condemnation of Robert Gilmore, the attorney for the defense
-      arose and demanded permission to inquire into the circumstances under
-      which the alleged confession had been obtained. The judge replied that
-      such inquiry was entirely proper, and the attorney for the defense began.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The ways of Providence are without premonition. At the first onslaught of
-      the attorney for Gilmore, the importance of the testimony of Salathiel
-      Jenkins vanished like a New Year's resolution. Yes, he had gone to the
-      prisoner together with John Bartlett; he had explained that he was the
-      deputy sheriff of the county of McDowell; that he was a person of
-      influence; that the prisoner was in grave peril; and that, if a full
-      confession were made, he, Jenkins, would induce the authorities of the law
-      to deal leniently with the prisoner. He was a person of importance, he
-      said, and, in the absence of the sheriff, the first guardian of all the
-      law and order in the county of McDowell; if the prisoner would confess,
-      he, Salathiel Jenkins, could save him from the hangman, and he would do
-      it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      These were the conditions under which the alleged confession was made.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At this point in his narrative, the attorney for the prisoner stopped the
-      witness, and objected to the introduction of the confession as having been
-      improperly obtained. The court very promptly sustained the objection, and
-      directed the witness to stand aside.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The prosecuting attorney arose and asked the court to <i>nolle</i> the
-      indictment and permit the case to be dismissed. The judge reminded him
-      that the case was at trial, and that such action could not now be taken;
-      that the request should have been made before a jury was called; it was
-      now too late, since the control of the cause had passed from the hands of
-      the State.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Young Mr. Huron, prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell, was lost,
-      rudderless, upon an unknown sea. He arose and explained that he had not
-      had an opportunity to investigate the evidence; that he had not spoken
-      with the witnesses; that he had depended upon John Bartlett and the
-      confession made to Salathiel Jenkins in order to convict the prisoner, and
-      that, failing with these, he had no further evidence to introduce.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The court interrupted this speech of explanation, and reminded the
-      attorney that the State could not urge such excuses; that the prisoner,
-      having been put to the hazard of a defense, was entitled to have his cause
-      legally determined; a <i>nolle prosequi</i> could not now be entered, and
-      the case must proceed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To this the young attorney, having recovered his composure, replied that
-      the State had nothing more to offer, and resumed his seat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The counsel for Gilmore at once moved the court to direct a verdict of not
-      guilty, which was accordingly done and the prisoner discharged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mystic, and varied, and without premonition are the ways of Providence.
-      When the negro miner went down into the sunless temples of the earth on
-      this Wednesday of July, Salathiel Jenkins was a person of high estate,
-      crowding mightily the orbit of his employer. And when the negro miner came
-      up at evening, this same Salathiel Jenkins was a crestfallen underling,
-      shrinking like a rotten value. The ordeal was frightful. The pride of
-      young Mr. Jenkins had gone through a process of sublimation most
-      excruciating. And yet how abominably indifferent nature was. The books in
-      the office of the sheriff were the same. The trees, the river, and indeed
-      the entire outside world were quite as large as they had been. Only the
-      importance of the deputy had shrunk, and was shrinking. Master of folly!
-      Would it stop short of microscopic? The vice of his yesterday loomed
-      clear-cut like the angles of a wall. He had talked, talked. It was the
-      deadliest error. In the name of that notorious Simon of infantile record,
-      was there no God to save the witless from himself?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The crowd passed out of the court-room, and, sauntering down by the office
-      of the miserable deputy, paused to harpoon him as it drifted by. The
-      weather was fine for scaffold building, it observed. Would the deputy
-      spring the trap in the absence of his chief? it was interested to know.
-      Could he tie a hangman's knot? Would he be pleased to have the gracious
-      assistance of his fellows? And more ingenious proddings, while the weary
-      Jenkins perspired and shrunk, but was silent. This he had learned: like as
-      the great lessons of life by hap learned too late.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      And that same night John Bartlett and Robert Gilmore hurrying eastward in
-      a Pullman car on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad remarked with large
-      favorable comment that the ancient doctrine of <i>lex vigilantibus non
-      dormientums subvenit</i> was marvellously true in this practical time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      VI
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the night of the
-      seventeenth day of July the judge of the criminal court of McDowell walked
-      into the office of the sheriff. He was in no altruistic mood, this jurist.
-      Since his fortunate political affiliations had thrust him into a high
-      estate his dignity sat upon him heavy as a fog. He had been sent for. It
-      was thoughtlessness approaching near to disrespect. When the tall jurist
-      entered, the crowd in the office of White Carter arose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Judge,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, coming forward, &ldquo;you must
-      pardon the centurion for taking this liberty with the tribune, but we were
-      holding a secret war council, and presently required the fountain of law.
-      I am sure you won't mind, Judge.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The fountain of law flung aside his injured feeling with a wave of his
-      slim hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is all right, Carter,&rdquo; he observed. &ldquo;But why the
-      conclave? Good men should be abed.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Day unto day uttereth speech,'&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;and
-      night unto night showeth knowledge. And just here the hurt lies. The boys
-      have been crowding the day and shirking the night turn.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he stepped back by his companions and added: &ldquo;Young Mr. Huron
-      we will overlook as familiar in your honor's forum. The other gentleman is
-      Mr. Hartmyer Belfast, in the secret service of the New York life insurance
-      companies.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The judge nodded cordially and sat down by the table. The others also
-      resumed their seats, while the sheriff removed his eye-glasses, placed
-      them carefully on the forefinger of his fat right hand, and began to
-      explain.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;While I was absent, I believe, one Robert Gilmore was indicted here
-      and tried for murder, which trial resulted in a verdict of not guilty, the
-      evidence being insufficient to sustain the charge. It now appears that
-      Gilmore did kill Hirst, and that he can now be convicted with the evidence
-      in the possession of Mr. Belfast and myself.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The judge elevated his eyebrows, but volunteered no comment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff continued. &ldquo;At the time of Hirst's death I was not quite
-      certain that it was suicide. The coat and vest found on the bridge did not
-      correspond to the trousers and shoes of the deceased, which were the
-      ordinary rough articles worn by the miners. There was no explanation for
-      such dress on the part of Hirst. Later I found a miner's coat at Jim's
-      Ford which corresponded to the other clothing of Hirst. This coat had been
-      tied in a bundle and thrown into the river above&mdash;probably at the
-      bridge. Stitched in the lining was a pocket book belonging to Brown Hirst
-      containing some money and a draft on New York, together with a memorandum
-      of a number of life insurance policies. These matters led me to believe
-      that Hirst had planned to secure the insurance on his life by arranging a
-      counterfeit suicide, but by some means the plan had failed after the
-      evidence had been prepared and he had come to a violent death, probably by
-      the hand of another.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But the matter was involved in mystery, and I deemed it best to
-      retain my conclusions until further developments should appear. I wrote to
-      the various companies with which Hirst was insured, explaining the facts
-      which I had determined. They replied that the matter was in the hands of
-      Hartmyer Belfast, their secret agent, and that I would be advised when the
-      investigation was complete.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A few days since the companies wired me that Mr. Belfast might be
-      expected to appear in my county at any time, and yesterday he called upon
-      me.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff moved a little closer to the table, and the drawl seemed to
-      slip out of his speech.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It can now be shown that Robert Gilmore came to McDowell for the
-      purpose of assisting Hirst to manufacture evidence of a suicide; that he
-      went with him upon the bridge, and after enticing Hirst to the rail of the
-      bridge, suddenly threw him over into the river. The train men can be
-      produced who saw Gilmore when he arrived and when he departed on the night
-      of the murder. All of this evidence has been carefully prepared. In
-      addition, it can be shown that immediately after his trial, for some
-      mysterious reason Gilmore went directly to Philadelphia and arranged for a
-      conference with the widow of Brown Hirst. Of this Mr. Belfast had notice,
-      and, by request of Mrs. Hirst, he was present, concealed in an adjoining
-      room. This conference between Gilmore and Mrs. Hirst was remarkable. The
-      man was deeply affected, and said that he had come to tell her the entire
-      history of his villainy, because he loved her, had loved her always, and
-      now knew that he could never have her. Whereupon he explained that Hirst
-      and himself had planned to rob the insurance companies; that Hirst's
-      marriage to her was part of the scheme, but that he, Gilmore, had grown to
-      love her, and to regret his action in procuring the marriage, and so
-      frightfully had this grown upon him that finally he had killed Hirst.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He then explained the minute circumstances of the death, adding
-      that he had been tried and acquitted, and would now leave the country, but
-      that something in his bosom would not rest until he had told her the
-      entire truth. So we have now, I judge, a complete case, together with the
-      confession, which, I am told, will be quite proper evidence, and with such
-      a case there can now be nothing in the way of Gilmore's conviction.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Nothing at all,&rdquo; observed the judge, dryly, &ldquo;except the
-      Constitution of the United States of America.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff sat down suddenly and replaced the eye-glasses on his fat
-      nose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You mean,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;that the
-      prisoner cannot be put twice in jeopardy for the same offense?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Unless,&rdquo; responded the judge, &ldquo;the judicial machinery
-      in McDowell can be held exempt from the Constitution of the State and the
-      Constitution of the Federal Government, a conclusion,&rdquo; he added,
-      with prodigious gravity, &ldquo;in which I should rather hesitate to
-      concur upon a casual hearing. Having been once properly tried for murder,
-      this man cannot be again tried for the same offense.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It has been held,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;that
-      where the first trial was procured by the fraud of the prisoner, the case
-      did not come within the provisions of the Constitution.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; replied the judge, &ldquo;there is an early case in
-      Virginia, and later cases of record, but the fraud must be gross and
-      apparent. What fraud could be shown here? The indictment was properly
-      found, the trial was regular, no suspicion of conspiracy attaches to the
-      officers of the State, nor can it be shown that even misstatements were
-      made, unless a plain conspiracy can be shown on the part of this
-      detective, John Bartlett.&rdquo; Then he turned to the secret agent of the
-      life insurance companies. &ldquo;How about this Bartlett?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;So far as I can learn,&rdquo; replied the detective, &ldquo;Bartlett
-      made no false statements. He is a member of Loomey's Agency in New York.
-      It is true that he called on Mrs. Hirst and requested permission to
-      investigate the case. What he stated to the prosecuting attorney as facts
-      were facts. Of course, his theory was wrong, and his deductions incorrect;
-      but for these, I presume, he could not be held responsible. I have
-      investigated the matter with care, and while it is extremely probable that
-      this trial was shrewdly procured by Gilmore, yet it has been so skilfully
-      handled that no fraudulent proceeding could be shown on the part of
-      Bartlett, although I am quite certain of his villainy.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sheriff rubbed his hands with the bland unction of a Hebrew at a
-      &ldquo;fire sale.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Jeb,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;I guess you're it. I guess the thing
-      is all over but the shouting.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the prosecutor, &ldquo;I judge there are
-      others. How about the lamented Jenkins, erstwhile representative of the
-      sheriff of McDowell? Is the young man Absalom safe?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A faint ripple of merriment spread over the fat face of the sheriff.
-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; he mused, &ldquo;it was a keen flim-flam. Let us
-      quietly disperse, and endeavor to live it down.&rdquo; Then he added
-      wearily. &ldquo;It may be good to be good, but it is safer to be smooth.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The judge arose. &ldquo;Mr. Gilmore has been tried and acquitted,&rdquo;
-      he observed. &ldquo;The record is complete. He cannot be held again to
-      answer for this crime, even though he be pleased to proclaim his guilt
-      from the housetops.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the detective, with the dreary deliberation of
-      one retiring from a failing cause, &ldquo;this murderer cannot be
-      punished.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The dreamy blue eyes of White Carter swam listlessly
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;when the gentleman shall have
-      passed the melancholy flood with that grim ferryman whom poets write of
-      unto the Kingdom of Perpetual Night.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <i>(See Code of West Virginia, Chap, cxxiv., Sec. 14, Chap, cvi., Sec. 25;
-      also Chap. cxxv. See any good text book on Landlord and Tenant. The case
-      also of Martin Admix vs. Smith it al., 25 West Virginia, 579, and casts
-      cited.)</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      THE GRAZIER
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      I
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE driller of the
-      Bonnie Mag No. 3 had been keeping his weather eye on the public road all
-      the long summer afternoon; exacting and laborious duties had obtained
-      under the shadow of the oil derrick on this nineteenth day of August,
-      quite sufficient to have distracted the attention of the ordinary man, but
-      through it all the driller had maintained his watch. The pumper, a grimy
-      mortal, who regarded the monster oil company as the sole and omnipotent
-      power of the universe, had marked this apparent anxiety of the driller,
-      and inquired, with some trace of humor, if that gentleman was expecting to
-      see grease gush up out of the road. To which the driller had responded
-      with barbaric profanity that the pumper had been employed to pump, and
-      that he might hold his position by holding his tongue, but not otherwise.
-      A suggestion that banished all levity from the speech of the pumper.
-      Besides, there was a red glint in the eyes of the driller, and the
-      underling of the great oil company appreciated perfectly the full
-      significance of the sign. He had noticed it before on divers eventful
-      occasions, especially on a certain morning when being interrupted by an
-      order of the Circuit Court, the driller had promptly suggested to the
-      deputy sheriff that he might go to the infernal regions with his
-      injunction; and instead of suspending operations until the legal forum
-      could determine the title to the realty, he had complied with his contract
-      by pushing his well through to the Gordon sand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was true indeed that the Circuit Court had attached t he body of the
-      driller and bringing him up before its august presence fined him two
-      hundred dollars for contempt, but the old man had paid over the money
-      without the hesitation of a moment and immediately thereafter consigned
-      the Circuit Court to the same heated region originally suggested to the
-      deputy sheriff.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sun had gone down, and the twilight was beginning to gather on the oil
-      field. The shadows darkened across the long sloping valley, and the great
-      derricks in the half light looked dark and gaunt and threatening like some
-      grim engines of war. It was now difficult to observe the highway from the
-      oil wells far up on the hill side, and the driller, who evidently intended
-      to maintain his surveillance of the county thoroughfare at any cost,
-      stepped out from the shadow of the derrick and began to wipe his hands on
-      the grass; when he had finished he turned to the pumper. &ldquo;Just keep
-      your eye on that cable,&rdquo; he said curtly, &ldquo;I'll be back when
-      you see me coming.&rdquo; Then he turned and walked slowly down the path
-      to the road.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The soft breath of wind creeping up from the North through the rift in the
-      low hills brought with it no sound, save the dull ceaseless thump of the
-      engines drawing streams of liquid wealth from a thousand narrow arteries
-      leading down into the bosom of the earth. This great industry, not content
-      with changing the civilization, had changed also the very face of the
-      land; two years before this fluttering summer breeze had carried with it
-      the murmur of ripening corn fields, the sweet odor of quiet pasture land
-      where herds of fattening cattle wandered through fields of blue grass.
-      Now, the lands were marked with wagon roads, studded with the rough
-      shanties of the pumpers and the gigantic wooden tanks of the great oil
-      companies; and here and there, like the twisted ugly back of some huge
-      serpent, a black pipe line stretched its interminable length across the
-      broken country. Greed ruled the world, and beauty, like many another gift
-      of nature, was battered out under his hammer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The oil driller stopped at the road side and leaned his long body on the
-      rail fence. He was a thin, old man, with sharp, emaciated features, his
-      hair and iron-gray beard were matted with oil, and his long arms, bare to
-      the elbow and burned black by the sun, glistened greasy as the piston of
-      his engine. The ancient workman kept his watch in dead silence, and beyond
-      this his face showed no interest. This man belonged to that iron type upon
-      which the world has depended so much for its civilization, that type which
-      no matter where placed toils on in its station like a machine,
-      unquestioning, tireless, reliable as a law. In the rank of their legions
-      it had extended the rule of the Caesars; on the broad decks of the
-      men-of-war it had widened the dominion of Great Britain; and in the mines
-      and mills and forests of America it had reared and maintained and enriched
-      a Republic; growing greater than them all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently in the deepening twilight a huge shadow appeared at the foot of
-      the long hill, and the driller heard distinctly the sound of a horse
-      coming leisurely up the sandy road. As it approached, the indefinite
-      shadow took on a clear and decided outline, until one in the position of
-      the driller could have seen that it was an enormous man, riding a red roan
-      horse. The man was leaning forward, his head down and his hands resting on
-      the pommel of his saddle, while the bridle reins dangled loose in his
-      fingers. When they were opposite, the driller spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is that you, Alshire?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The giant threw bark his great shoulders and stopped his horse with a
-      wrench on the bridle &ldquo;Morg Gaston!&rdquo; he announced with some
-      trace of surprise in his voice, then he added, half-apologetically,
-      &ldquo;what's the good word with you?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The driller climbed heavily over the big staked-and-ridered fence, &ldquo;I
-      saw you go down this morning,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I have been
-      watching for you back; I want to tell you something.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he came over to the middle of the road and rested his greasy chin on
-      the mane of the red roan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hell of a high horse,&rdquo; said the driller.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Seventeen hands,&rdquo; responded the giant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The old man ran his eyes slowly over the immense proportions of the
-      traveller, his deep, powerful chest, his broad, thick shoulders and his
-      massive limbs almost grotesquely huge.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are not little yourself,&rdquo; he observed, as though
-      announcing a discovery, &ldquo;and I am darned glad of it, leastways I was
-      darned glad of it that morning old Ward's rotten derrick blowed down, and
-      you chanced along and lifted her off me. I was pinned under them timbers
-      like a rat.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man laughed, but his face in the dark was not merry. The driller
-      extended his close inspection to the horse; when he had finished he
-      stepped back in the road and an expression of intense admiration spread
-      itself over his rugged features.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By jolly!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you are a pair to draw to.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The giant patted the withers of the great horse.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Cardinal is a good colt,&rdquo; he replied, &ldquo;good as they
-      grow.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The driller stood for some moments gazing almost worshipfully at the pair;
-      then he straightened suddenly and coming up close to the horse rested his
-      arms, wet with petroleum, on the pommel of the saddle.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Alshire,&rdquo; he said, lowering his voice, &ldquo;the Company
-      thinks there is grease under your land. I was up to see the manager last
-      night, and while I was there the engineers came in with the maps, and they
-      all agreed that the head of the pool was about under your farm. You are
-      nigh on to three miles east of the development, but the belt is surely
-      running your way; this here last well that the Company plugged is forty
-      barrels better than the No. 1 five hundred feet west; and I'll tell you
-      another thing, there ain't no more boring in this region until the Company
-      gets its clutches on all this land laying to the east, yours included. My
-      instructions is to make this last one dry, and move over into Ohio.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The great Alshire bent over and placed his broad hand on the greasy arm of
-      the driller. &ldquo;I'm obliged to you, Morg,&rdquo; he said slowly.
-      &ldquo;I'll lookout.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By jolly!&rdquo; continued the old workman, &ldquo;you better had,
-      they are a smooth set of divels, and whatever you do, keep your mouth
-      plugged. I ain't never given the Company the double cross before, but I
-      could n't see them skin you, by jolly, I could n't!&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The old driller spoke rapidly, as though half ashamed of his treason, and
-      when he had finished turned and began climbing the high fence.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Morg,&rdquo; called the giant. &ldquo;Morg.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's all right,&rdquo; answered the driller, as he vanished up
-      the dark hill side, &ldquo;just keep your mouth plugged; that's all right.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The giant touched his horse in the flank with his heel and rode on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rufus Alshire was a grazier, a business almost exclusively followed in
-      this magnificent grass country. Many years before, his greatgrandfather,
-      an English Tory, had fled into this inland country in order to escape
-      certain unpleasant relations with the colonial government. Here he had
-      builded an enormous log manor-house, and surrounding himself with rather
-      worthless retainers, maintained a sort of baronial existence. Others
-      followed, and after a time the country was cleared and came to be divided
-      into great tracts of pasture land, owned by these powerful families. But
-      the elements of the feudal system, although suffering some modifications,
-      remained. The tenants were, for the most part, born and reared on the
-      stock land, and were almost fixtures.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The descendants of this independent ancestry continued to reside as near
-      to the central part of their estate as possible, and maintained huge
-      residences, rough at times and not quite comfortable perhaps, but always
-      enormous. The nature of the country being especially adapted to the
-      fattening of beef cattle, this industry soon came to be the exclusive
-      business of this powerful people. It was a profitable and supremely
-      independent industry, and gave wide play to the baronial instincts of the
-      Anglo-Saxon; who, even after the golden time of his race had gone out so
-      many hundred years, still loved the open sky, and the blue hills, and the
-      monster oak trees, and hated in his heart with a stubborn bitter spirit of
-      rebellion the least shadow of restraint. He was willing to serve God if
-      need be, but while he lived he would not serve men. In stature the
-      descendants of the long dead Saxon were huge specimens of the race, almost
-      as big of limb as the fabled barbarians of Lygia; powerful men, whom close
-      and intimate relations with the mother nature kept strong and immensely
-      vital to the very evening of life. But withal the hospitality of the Saxon
-      was profligate, his impulses were kindly, and he was quite content to
-      leave the affairs of government and the problems of civilization to other
-      hands, provided the minions of these powers held their feet back from his
-      soil.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The twilight had deepened into night; on the crest of the far-off hills
-      the great oak trees stood outlined against the sky like mighty silent
-      figures waiting for some mystic word that should call them into life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The rim of the moon was rising slowly from behind the oil field, red like
-      battered brass; the road, covered with shifting light and shadow,
-      stretched across the rolling country like a silver ribbon. The grazier
-      rode slowly, his hands hanging idly at his sides, and his face set with
-      deep thought; from time to time he raised his ponderous right hand and
-      struck it heavily against the tree of his saddle as though to indicate
-      thereby some important decision finally reached, but as often he dropped
-      the hand back to its place.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The important information of the oil driller had added a mighty element to
-      the matters with which he was evidently concerned. The horse, left to his
-      own inclinations, quickened his pace and presently the shadow of a huge
-      house loomed upon the crest of the hill at the roadside. The horse stopped
-      at the gate, and the man. aroused from his reverie, dismounted slowly, and
-      opening the gate led the horse through; as he closed the gate he stopped
-      for a moment and rested his enormous elbow on the latch. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo;
-      he said, as though announcing his temporary conclusion to himself, &ldquo;I'll
-      ship the cattle to-morrow, and I'll see Jerry.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      II
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">F</span>ROM the earliest
-      record of events, either sacred or profane, the genus Bos has been
-      associated with the history of the landowner. The Ancient Egyptian saw in
-      him certain traces of divinity, and honored it with proper recognition.
-      The lamented Job, erstwhile poet of calamity, found time amid the
-      recording of his numerous disasters to set down his venerable appreciation
-      of the species; and the pagan Homer, while singing of gods and men,
-      remembered to sing also the virtues of the noble bullock; and the
-      painters, too, from Claude Lorraine to Rosa Bonheur, have deigned to
-      consider the artistic importance of the domesticated kine; treating him
-      first as a necessary adjunct to a landscape, and later as a central figure
-      in the scene. He has had his part, say the records, not infrequently with
-      the plans of men, virtuous and otherwise. A certain wily barbaric general
-      used him well in a difficult emergency, and the patriarch Jacob used him
-      in a shrewd physiological experiment, which he had probably learned at
-      Padan-aram in his salad days; an experiment that added much to the worldly
-      worth of the good father, but detracted not a little from his fame.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the sun climbed up from behind the broad eastern hillside on the
-      following morning it looked down upon Rufus Alshire, who, far more
-      expeditious than itself, had already set himself to the affairs of the
-      day; before the dawn he had brought the cattle from their beds in the cool
-      pasture land, weighed them at his scales and turned them out in the road
-      on their journey to the shipping station some ten miles away. The herd
-      strayed leisurely along the highway. The giant Alshire rode through the
-      drove, keeping the bullocks moving slowly; while following the herd
-      barefoot in the dust, was one of his retainers, a half-witted youth,
-      wearing an ancient straw hat, a shirt originally of the material called
-      &ldquo;hickory,&rdquo; but now patched in variegated colors, and blue
-      cloth trousers well worn and frayed. As the youth tramped along he sang in
-      a high piping voice one of those simple little songs which the playing
-      children sing, and by way of illustration danced up and down and whipped
-      the dust with a long hickory switch. On his heart was no shadow of the
-      cares of men, and for this reason, perhaps, under his torn shirt was
-      two-thirds of the happiness of the world.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As the herd wandered along under the great oaks that lined the roadway and
-      the rays of the morning sun crept down through the green leaves, making
-      queer mottled spots on the sleek cattle and brilliant shifting patches on
-      the dewy grass, one looking on could easily have come to believe that the
-      world had turned back some several hundred years, and this was a grassy
-      forest glade of merry England, and the herd, cattle of the gruff, gigantic
-      Saxon who rode among them on his huge red horse, scowling under his black
-      brows and cursing by St. Withold and St. Dunstan and the soul of Hengist
-      the evil times of the Conqueror that forced him to drive his herd into the
-      thick forest at daybreak in order to preserve it from the marauding
-      cut-throats of a Norman baron; and he would have looked close for great
-      stones half-bedded in the moss, lasting monuments to the weird and bloody
-      rites of some stern Druid colony long dead; and then glanced up sharply to
-      see if that patch of thicker green in the deeper woods were not indeed the
-      coat of some gallant outlaw whose bosom was English, and who stood ready
-      with his yew bow and his cloth-yard shaft to join the huge Saxon in his
-      stubborn fight against the bloody followers of Duke William of Normandy;
-      and when the herd had wandered by one would have leaned over in the road
-      to see if there was not a brass collar soldered fast around the neck of
-      the happy cowherd, graven in Saxon letters with this inscription: &ldquo;Zaak,
-      the son of Jonas, is thrall to Rufus of Alshire.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cheery sunshine under the dear arch of blue, with its homely noises of
-      awakening life and its cool breath, ladened with the fresh odor wafted
-      from meadows of clover springing up with sweet new blossom after the
-      harvest, all so conducive to careless, joyous existence, failed utterly to
-      remove any portion of the anxiety from the face of the grazier.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He sat listlessly in his saddle, with his gray eyes half-closed and the
-      muscles of his face drawn down in furrows; the red roan, trained from his
-      colt days, assumed the duties of his master, and moved carefully among the
-      cattle; his equine intelligence appreciating that it was a part of his
-      duty to the indolent master, to see that the drove kept moving slowly, and
-      that no bullock stopped to crop the wet grass by the roadside, or fight
-      with his fellow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The watches of the night had brought to Rufus Alshire no solution of the
-      matter with which he had struggled so persistently during the evening
-      before. He was acting, it was true, upon his temporary plan, but that
-      seemed but an incident in the main vexatious problem.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The giant was now entirely oblivious of his environment, and deep in his
-      troublous matter he spoke aloud. &ldquo;If I could only hold the title,&rdquo;
-      he muttered, and then, as if realizing the folly of his hope, he gripped
-      the tree of his saddle with his hand and straightened his mighty foot
-      suddenly in the stirrup. The leather snapped under the great weight, and
-      the iron stirrup dropped into the road. The red roan stopped short, and
-      the huge Alshire, pronouncing some severe malediction on his ponderous
-      size, dismounted, picked up the stirrup and tied it to the strap. Then he
-      slipped the bridle rein over his aim and, walking along beside the horse,
-      began to examine the herd with the critical eye of an expert, and comment
-      thereon with the artlessness of a child.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Beef for the British.&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and as good beef as
-      John Bull ever put under his ribs. They are broad on the backs and deep in
-      the brisket and heavy in the quarters, and every black calf of them made
-      the beam kick sixteen hundred pounds.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The grazier slapped his horse fondly on the neck. &ldquo;They 'll please
-      the Jews, won't they, boy?&rdquo; The red roan pricked up his ears and
-      rubbed his nose against his master's arm, as though this statement was
-      quite in accord with his own private views of the matter. &ldquo;They will
-      ship well over the sea.&rdquo; The giant laughed. &ldquo;And by gad! if
-      the rotten ships hold together the black brutes will get a blamed sight
-      nearer to the Queen than most of the little snobs ambling around in the
-      East.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The herd of Rufus Alshire belonged to that species of beef cattle termed
-      Polled-Angus, native to the lowlands of Scotland; a breed of comparatively
-      recent importation. They were fine bullocks, full, round, and comely in
-      form; hornless, trim of head and neck, and with coats as black as the
-      fabled spirit of midnight. The law of natural selection had finally
-      indicated this breed as best adapted to the conditions of the West
-      Virginia grazier. It was hardy, easily maintained, and endured the rigor
-      of the winter without distress, beside it was quick to mature and gained
-      flesh rapidly, and then, too, the absence of horns rendered it easier to
-      handle and far less dangerous.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The horn, a necessary and powerful weapon in the wild state, was in the
-      state of domestication a useless incumbrance Hence nature, laboring for
-      the convenience of men, thrust in and produced the Polled-Angus.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The business of the grazier had been progressive. The powerful landowner,
-      who in the autumn purchased his cattle from the stockmen of the interior
-      counties, had ever encouraged the cultivation of the breed. For many years
-      the short horn Durham had been the great cattle of this inland country. It
-      was an old race; old in England when the Scandinavian and the Dane swarmed
-      over the river Tees. But the breed, though excellent, was rather slow to
-      mature and not adapted to severe winters, and the breeder awakened to the
-      needs of his market and casting about for an animal better adapted to his
-      uses chanced upon the Hereford, first imported by the elder Clay of
-      Kentucky. And the Hereford became the chief bovine of the grazier. He was
-      old, too; old on the north side of the river Wye in the tenth century, and
-      ancient of record, it is said, in the law of Howell the Good; but while a
-      fine beef animal, he preserved one defect, the massive horn. Still he
-      maintained his place, until on a certain autumn morning at a fat cattle
-      show in Chicago, the good wife of a powerful Virginia grazier, on a quest
-      for the ideal bullock, pointed down into the stock ring at the splendid
-      Polled-Angus and said, &ldquo;There he is, but he don't look human.&rdquo;
-      And there he was indeed, broad, and shiny black, and hornless as a man's
-      palm&mdash;nature's answer to the breeder's dream.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The great tawny sun climbed high in the heavens; the heat of the day
-      settled down over the living earth like an invisible mantle; the crisp
-      freshness of the morning breeze had given place to the monotonous hot air
-      of midday. The dust arose in clouds from under the feet of the herd, and
-      the cattle themselves, warm and vexed with the irksome travel, were
-      restless and difficult to control. The great Al-shire and his huge horse
-      moved here and there through the drove, white with dust; while the happy
-      thrall plodded along behind the herd, whistling merrily and turning from
-      time to time to strike some lagging bullock, and shout with childish glee
-      &ldquo;Go along you fat feller; to-night you will ride on the steam-cars,
-      and to-morrow the British will eat you.&rdquo; And passing a slight
-      inaccuracy in the matter of time, the witless Zaak was entirely correct.
-      To him the steam-cars were marvels from wonderland, and the British was
-      some far-away gigantic monster with a mighty, insatiate maw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      III
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE young man
-      closed the door to the private writing-room of the club, and coming back
-      to the table drew a chair up beside his companion and sat down.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Rufus,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;how did you get in so deep?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the grazier, looking down at the floor.
-      &ldquo;I am an ass, Jerry, just a natural ass. I was all right, doing well
-      and living like a lord, until I endorsed for that lumber company. When it
-      grew shaky, I tried to save myself by borrowing money and holding it up
-      until the panic was over, but I could n't do it, and when the thing failed
-      I had the notes to meet. I did n't want to be sued, so I borrowed the
-      money. It was a big sum, almost as big as I was worth, but I thought that
-      the men from whom I borrowed the money would not push me, and that
-      probably I could pull through some way. I might have known that the crash
-      would come, but it is natural, I judge, to postpone the evil day.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have your creditors instituted legal proceedings?&rdquo; asked the
-      young man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not yet,&rdquo; replied Alshire. &ldquo;On Thursday I was at the
-      county seat looking after my taxes, and while there William Farras, who is
-      a local manager for the oil company, took me aside and said that through
-      some business transactions my notes had come into his hands, and added
-      that he hoped that I was in a position to pay them, as he was hard up and
-      would require a considerable sum of money at once. On the way home in the
-      evening I had the conversation with the driller of which I have spoken;
-      and his statement made the scheme as plain as day light. The company
-      believes that the pool is under my land, and, wishing to secure the
-      property, it has bought up my outstanding notes. The plan is to sue me at
-      once, sell the land, and buy it in.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The giant spoke slowly, the great muscles of his face set, and his eyes
-      hard. He raised his ponderous clenched hand and brought it slowly down on
-      his knee. &ldquo;I shipped the cattle,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;to prevent
-      their being attached, and I have gone over the whole thing from end to
-      end, and by every devil in hell I don't see any way to stop their game.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jerry Van Meter arose and went over to the window. He was mightily
-      affected by the hopeless position of his friend, and in his breast his
-      heart was heavy. The condition of things was reversed. From his very
-      babyhood he had gone to the giant with his troubles, and the giant had
-      always found some way out. Now the man had come to him, and he was
-      helpless. He looked at the huge grazier sitting motionless with his face
-      in his hands, and the tears gathered in his eyes. Van Meter knew too much
-      of the world not to know that the man was ruined. Finally he turned to his
-      companion.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Rufus,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we will walk down to my office and
-      see what can be done.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was merely a weakling move for delay. In his heart the young man knew
-      that the matter was hopeless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The two men arose and passed out of the club.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The life of Jerry Van Meter had been crowded with events quite as varied
-      and rapid of incident as that of Sinbad the Sailor. His parents, who
-      resided on a small farm near Rufus Alshire's estate, had died when the
-      child Jerry was quite an infant, and the huge grazier had assumed the
-      guardianship of the youth. Under his direction the boy had been educated,
-      and finally installed as a bank clerk in one of the small towns. But the
-      spirit of adventure was big in the breast of the youthful Jerry, and one
-      morning he closed the ledger carefully and vanished into the Northwest.
-      Here he pulled teeth for an itinerant dentist, drummed for a soap house,
-      and travelled with a circus. But he had a fortunate star, not at all times
-      obscured; and when the boom struck St. Paul, Jerry drifted in, bought far
-      and wide, and carried out with him ten thousand dollars in gold, which he
-      promptly dropped in a bucket-shop in Chicago. A letter to the good genius
-      Alshire brought a check for one hundred dollars and nine pages of advice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With this money in his pocket, Jerry passed over on to the Pacific coast.
-      Here he mixed drinks in a bar-room, and officiated in the important
-      capacity of night clerk to a restaurant, until his star came up again, and
-      when it did, Jerry chanced on an abandoned claim that netted him seven
-      thousand dollars. He returned to Alshire the one hundred dollars and the
-      well-worn but badly-heeded letter of advice, and set out for the East. In
-      St. Louis he became deeply interested in certain horse races, and ten days
-      later he landed in the Virginias bronzed, bearded, and broke. The giant
-      Alshire laughed at the escapades of this youth until his sides ached, gave
-      him another check and the ancient letter of advice with various
-      amendments, and the restless Mr. Van Meter dropped down into the
-      metropolis of New York. Here his star gave evidences of constancy, and he
-      became an insurance broker and a man of affairs.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The two men walked slowly down the steps of the club and across the busy
-      thoroughfare. As they stepped up or the opposite curb they were startled
-      by a sharp cry, and turning suddenly they saw a little man stumble and
-      fall forward in the street directly in front of an approaching mail wagon.
-      The great horses were almost upon him, bearing down in a long sweeping
-      trot. The driver at the moment was not looking, but it was too late for
-      him to prevent the impending accident even if he had been. The giant
-      Alshire ran out into the street, caught the horses and threw his ponderous
-      weight against the iron bits. The heavy Percherons reared and fell back on
-      their haunches, the tongue of the wagon shot forward, grazing the giant's
-      shoulder, and the wheels stopped for a moment almost against the body of
-      the prostrate man. In that moment Van Meter dragged the hapless pedestrian
-      from beneath the belly of the horses. The giant stepped quickly aside, and
-      the horses, plunging forward heavily on the cobble stones, passed on down
-      the street, while the half-dazed driver did not even look back to
-      ascertain what had really occurred.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The little man wiped the dust from his hat with the sleeve of his coat and
-      looked up at his deliverers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Randolph Mason came near to losing his
-      clerk. I guess I stumbled on that infernal rail.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A great light came into the face of Jerry Van Meter. He came up close to
-      the little man and caught him by the shoulder. &ldquo;Randolph Mason!&rdquo;
-      he said, &ldquo;Is Randolph Mason in New York?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; responded the little man. &ldquo;I am his clerk. Parks
-      is my name. Mr. Mason is here, but&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; Then he stopped
-      short.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The now excited Van Meter shook the little man almost roughly by the
-      shoulder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;good, we must see him at once.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The clerk Parks looked down at his soiled clothes and the dust on his
-      bruised hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; he said slowly, &ldquo;it is against the strict
-      order of the physicians, but, under the circumstances, I don't quite see
-      how I am going to refuse.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      IV
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">R</span>ANDOLPH MASON
-      leaned forward and struck his hand heavily on the arm of his chair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Forty thousand,&rdquo; he said sharply, &ldquo;you owe that sum,
-      sir?&rdquo; His face looked old, sunken, and furrowed with heavy dark
-      lines, but his eyes shone under his shaggy brows.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; responded the grazier, &ldquo;fully that much.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;To secure that amount in cash,&rdquo; continued Mason, &ldquo;it
-      will be necessary to deal with some bank or savings institution of which
-      the president or some powerful director is an attorney-at-law. This
-      condition will be found to obtain in almost any one of the small towns of
-      the country, and if my directions are followed strictly, the plan can be
-      carried out and the money secured in a very few hours. The plan is simple
-      and easy. In the first place&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the giant Alshire, &ldquo;I don't want other men's
-      money. I don't want to commit a crime.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The veins in the forehead of Randolph Mason grew black with anger.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Commit a crime!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;No man who has followed my
-      advice has ever committed a crime. Crime is a technical word. It is the
-      law's name for certain acts which it is pleased to define and punish with
-      a penalty. None but fools, dolts, and children commit crimes.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the grazier, &ldquo;whether the plan you are
-      about to propose is a crime or not, it is certainly a moral wrong, and I
-      have no desire to rob a bank by committing even a moral wrong.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason arose slowly and pointed his finger at the huge Alshire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The old story,&rdquo; he sneered, &ldquo;child afraid of a goblin.
-      Moral wrong! A name used to frighten fools. There is no such thing. The
-      law lays down the only standard by which the acts of the citizen are to be
-      governed. What the law permits is right, else it would prohibit it. What
-      the law prohibits is wrong, because it punishes it. This is the only
-      lawful measure, the only measure bearing the stamp and the sanction of the
-      State. All others are spurious, counterfeit, and void. The word moral is a
-      pure metaphysical symbol, possessing no more intrinsic virtue than the
-      radical sign.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, Mr. Mason,&rdquo; said Van Meter thrusting into
-      the conversation, &ldquo;but I am quite certain that you mistake the
-      request of my friend. He is not attempting to secure any sum of money. He
-      simply desires to retain the title to his land and prevent its sale, until
-      he can determine the extent of its oil production.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;For what length of time?&rdquo; asked Mason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the grazier, &ldquo;I scarcely know. One year
-      might be time enough, or even less than one year; while, on the other
-      hand, it might require several years. You see, if I can prevent the land
-      from being sold, and keep it in my name until the territory is developed,
-      then if oil is found in paying quantities I can meet all these notes, and
-      if the land is dry I am no worse off. At any rate, I want to hold on to
-      the land and see.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are there judgments of record against you?&rdquo; inquired Mason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not yet,&rdquo; replied Alshire, &ldquo;but Farras is preparing to
-      sue on the notes and rush the sale through. Can I stop him; can I hold the
-      sale off?&rdquo; There was anxiety in the grazier's voice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason began to walk to and fro across the room with an unsteady
-      nervous stride.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Easy,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;easy as learning to lie.&rdquo;
-      Then he stopped by the table and looked flown sharply at the great
-      Alshire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have you two friends,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;nonresidents of your
-      State, whom you can trust?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; responded the grazier, &ldquo;Mr. Van Meter here in New
-      York, and Morgan Gaston now in Ohio, they will both stand by me.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;listen to me, and do as I advise,
-      and the sale of your property will be as far distant years from to-day as
-      it seems this afternoon. First make an oil lease for a long term, say
-      thirty years, to your non-resident friend of Ohio, giving him all the oil
-      privileges, but, for your own protection in case of the death of the
-      lessee, incorporate in the instrument a clause permitting the lessor the
-      right to annul the lease at any time by the payment of a small sum. Have
-      the instrument show also that the entire compensation for the lease has
-      been fully paid in advance. Then make another lease renting all your
-      remaining property rights to your friend Mr. Van Meter of this city. Have
-      this second lease for a similar term and of similar provisions to the
-      first, and the entire compensation for it likewise paid in advance. Then
-      you have but to record the instruments, employ an attorney, and sit down
-      in the shadow of your house. The hair on your head will have thinned
-      vastly before the litigation over your complicated affairs terminates in a
-      final decree of sale.&rdquo; Rufus Alshire leaned forward listening
-      eagerly. &ldquo;But won't Farras sue me,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;won't he
-      attack the leases?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;he will at once do one of two
-      things; either he will bring an action at law on the notes, or he will
-      attempt to embrace the whole matter in a chancery suit. If he sues at law,
-      resist and attempt to fight through the superior courts. When he finally
-      obtains a judgment at law in your State, he will be compelled to resort to
-      a suit in chancery for the purpose of selling the land. In either event he
-      must come finally into a court of chancery and include the holders of
-      these leases as parties defendant to his action. When this is done, the
-      non resident lessees are not to appear, and he will be able to obtain
-      service on them only by an order of publication. You alone will fight this
-      chancery suit through the lower and superior courts, and just before a
-      sale of the land is ordered by the court of last resort, one of the non
-      resident lessees mast appear, and by virtue of the statutory provision
-      applying to such cases, file his bill of review and open up the whole
-      matter, enjoin the sale, fight the case over again and again through the
-      superior court. When this new litigation finally draws near to a close and
-      the land is again ordered sold, the remaining non-resident must appear,
-      bring his action in the Circuit Court of the United States, enjoin the
-      sale, and proceed with his fight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By this time,&rdquo; continued Mason, placing his bony hand on the
-      giant's shoulder, &ldquo;there will probably be gray streaks in your
-      beard, and if you wish to run this litigation on into eternity, you will
-      have only to produce some collateral heir.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The huge Alshire looked up at the strange man beside him. &ldquo;Is all
-      this possible?&rdquo; he asked in astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Randolph Mason did not at once answer; he walked stumblingly across the
-      room to his chair and sat down by the table. His form was thin and gaunt,
-      and along the border of his forehead the veins were purple and swollen.
-      After a time he turned toward the powerful grazier, his face ugly with a
-      sneer. &ldquo;To the law,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;all things are possible&mdash;even
-      justice.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      V
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>NE morning in the
-      early winter the red roan horse, with his head over the high fence of his
-      pasture, saw two men standing in the neighboring meadow contemplating in
-      silence a gigantic derrick. One he immediately recognized as his master
-      Rufus Alshire, and the other resembled in a very large degree a certain
-      obnoxious person who on a memorable summer night had smeared his well kept
-      mane with most disagreeable petroleum.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently the grazier spoke. &ldquo;I judge that it will not now be
-      necessary for Jerry to invoke the tedium of Federal tribunals, there seems
-      to be grease enough here to pay everything and wind up the lawsuits.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The driller looked up at the oil streaming down from the timbers of the
-      derrick; then he made a mighty angular gesture with his bare right arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By jolly!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;there is money enough in that hole
-      to pay off the national debt.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      THE RULE AGAINST CARPER
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      I
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">C</span>ARPER did not
-      recall that he had ever noticed the ugly details of the courtroom before,&mdash;the
-      high, soiled ceiling, the rows of benches, worn, broken, empty as a fool's
-      heart, the clerk's desk, and the presumptuous bench of the judge; the long
-      tables, too, for the attorneys, heaped with papers, books, and dusty
-      covers, a farrago of disorder&mdash;how ugly they were!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper looked up at the judge. The man's black silk robe fell away in
-      sharp straight folds; he sat erect like a bronze cast, his face turned
-      half toward the window in order that he might better read the paper before
-      him. How power had changed this face! Carper remembered idly that, years
-      before, the face of this man had been sweet, tender, lit with kindness.
-      Now it was as hard as white ivory.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The attorneys at the table were talking in subdued whispers; Carper did
-      not hear; he was wondering vaguely if the long slim fingers of the judge
-      ever ached as his head was aching. The conjecture was unique.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was difficult for Carper to realize his position. His clothing was
-      certainly better than that of any other man in the court-room, He was
-      quite certain that his face was the same powerful, clean-cut, immobile
-      mask that it had been always. The world did not know, it did not even
-      suspect. If one had asked the clerk yonder for a financial rating on
-      Russell Carper, the clerk would have shrugged his shoulder and written six
-      figures on the margin of his record.. Yet this was the end,&mdash;the end.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Over by the window stood a prisoner in the custody of the marshal. The man
-      was poor, miserably poor; his clothes were clean, threadbare, ancient as
-      the law. Carper knew the story. The man was a little shopkeeper; his wife
-      was ill,&mdash;dying, the deputy said. There were children, too, hungry,
-      naked, absurdly miserable, and the crime,&mdash;some petty revenue
-      infraction. He would be presently required to pay his fine, and, failing
-      that, would be locked up in a cell. It was the law, heartless as an image.
-      Yet Carper wondered listlessly if one from beyond the world's rim on the
-      quest of the good would not take this man, and leave the others, leave all
-      the others&mdash;the judge with his blue-veined patriciate face, the
-      clerks with their lank jaws, the attorneys, with their expression of
-      abominable indifference, and himself. Well, the machinery of human justice
-      was awry. Then he wondered at the condition that bred this surmise. How
-      was it possible to reflect so indolently upon the condition of another
-      when his own was perilous. Still, such speculations obtained with men, it
-      is said, in great crises, and at the grave's edge.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Presently the judge laid down his papers and began to speak. Carper heard
-      him as one speaking a long distance away. At first the words seemed
-      indistinct and without meaning; then he caught them full, as one waking
-      suddenly catches and understands the conversation of his fellow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Our commissioner's report,&rdquo; the judge was saying, &ldquo;shows
-      that this receiver has now in his custody three hundred and seventeen
-      thousand dollars belonging to the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron
-      Company. At a former term of this court an order was entered directing the
-      receiver to distribute this fund in accordance with a previous decree. At
-      that term this order was resisted upon the ground that the decree was not
-      sufficiently explicit; which objection the court, upon consideration,
-      overruled. Later, the payment was sought to be held back upon the ground
-      that this order was improvidently awarded, and a motion made to revoke,
-      which was also overruled. And still later innumerable technical objections
-      have been offered by the attorney for the receiver, all of which this
-      court considers insufficient and trivial.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At this point one of the attorneys for Carper arose. &ldquo;If your honor
-      please,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we ask to be heard in defense of our
-      client. We think that it can yet be shown that this order should not be
-      enforced.&rdquo; Then he sat down.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The blue veins in the face of the jurist grew darker. &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo;
-      he continued, &ldquo;cannot now be heard. The time of this court has
-      already been much consumed by unprofitable argument. On yesterday the
-      stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company applied for a rule,
-      requiring Russell Carper, receiver, to appear and make answer, if any he
-      has, why he should not be attached and punished for contempt in disobeying
-      the orders of this court. The rule I have ordered to issue returnable
-      tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The judge handed the paper down to the clerk, and directed the next case
-      to be called. Then he leaned back in his chair with the huge unconcern of
-      one well removed from the grip of his fellows.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the end. But to Carper it was all as unreal as the yesterday. He
-      seemed to be out of the scene, and, for that, out of himself, an idle
-      spectator. His attorneys were whispering gravely. They were telling him
-      that the game was now played out. There was nothing more to do. He must
-      direct his banker to pay over the money. Even these hired fighters did not
-      suspect; they presumed the delay was favorable to some deal in stocks. The
-      truth&mdash;only he, Carper, knew the truth. There was grim humor in the
-      huge deception.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the way out of the court-room Carper stopped and handed the clerk the
-      only bill in his pockets. It would pay the fine of the shopkeeper. The
-      whole thing was an immensely clever little comedy, and he wanted to see
-      the sunshine come back into the shopkeeper's face.
-    </p>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">C</span>ARPER had been
-      given the long afternoon to arrange some scheme, to plan some way out, but
-      he allowed it to slip by like any leisure day. His mind was indolent,
-      absurdly indolent. In all the other crises of his life, it had been
-      restless as a blown wave. This day it was sluggish. Realizing the end, it
-      had folded its arms. It was difficult to appreciate that his career was
-      ripped off like a rotten seam. That afternoon his broker had talked
-      confidentially of a certain railroad venture. Men from the West had begged
-      the use of his name in the organization of a trust embracing the copper
-      mines of a State. He had been asked to contribute to a great charity. This
-      night, the last night, in his library there was yet no sign of that ruin
-      which sat by the hearthstone. The fire was warm; the surroundings wore
-      luxurious; the shelves were filled with books; from the walls the stern
-      faces of his forbears looked down, haughty, relentless as their lives had
-      shown. It was difficult to realize that he was an embezzler and a
-      bankrupt, suspended above a vacuous abyss by a line that the to-morrow
-      would cut short.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For five years he had been the receiver of the Massachusetts Iron Company.
-      In those five years he had bought and sold on the street with the abandon
-      of a master. He had used the funds of this company as a workman would use
-      a tool left lying in his shop. He had won great sums, and he had lost
-      until the very earth seemed slipping away beneath him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the slump in the stocks of a great railroad system caught him, and he
-      had put in every dollar of this trust fund and watched it vanish like a
-      vapor. Still, no one knew. Carper's reputation stood on the street
-      flawless, perfect in outline, an empty shell&mdash;but no one knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company finally demanded a
-      reorganization, he had employed the best legal talent and thrust in every
-      delay of the law. The fight had gone on year after year, from court to
-      court. Orders had been entered and dissolved; decrees had been made and
-      reversed; hearings had been granted by superior courts, and rehearings,
-      but the end, long delayed, came finally.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The stockholders had applied for a rule. It was the most summary
-      proceeding known to the law. To-morrow he must pay the money, or go to
-      prison a felon. The end loomed like the ragged outlines of a cliff.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To Carper this end seemed atrociously unjust. He had worked so hard, so
-      hard: the best that was in him; the good days of his life had been given
-      up to this labor It had been his boyhood dream to be a factor in great
-      affairs,&mdash;the bitter labor of his youth, and, in part, the
-      realization of his middle life. He had cut every other thing away with a
-      hand that never once had trembled. It was his right to win, if there was
-      any justice anywhere. But to-morrow was the end. To-morrow the court would
-      strip him naked as a bone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had heard many a sleek pastor discourse glibly upon the eternal justice
-      of Providence. Then he believed it cant with a smattering of truth. Now it
-      was entirely clear that it was cant&mdash;but false; a pleasant lie like
-      the housewife tale of fairies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper took the cigar from between his teeth and dropped it on the hearth.
-      The game of life was an ugly game. He confessed that he had lost interest
-      in its play. Now that the thought suggested he saw that he had been losing
-      interest all along. It was inertia he had been fighting&mdash;the plague
-      of inertia, and for no gain at all. It was a world where, if one sat
-      still, one wasted with monotony; and if one labored, it was only for the
-      purpose of building ships to fly in the air, which, when they were all
-      completed, sat stupidly on the earth or by hap toppled heavily upon the
-      builder, crushing out his heart. He could not understand why men had
-      sometimes said that life was good.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper had looked, he believed, into not a few chambers of the temple. The
-      same hooded shape sat in each. If fame was given, the skull was pretty
-      generally crushed with the crown. If wealth was given, the back was broken
-      with the weight. If love was given,&mdash;yes, the heart was usually
-      broken with it,&mdash;love!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper arose and went over to a cabinet in the wall, unlocked the door and
-      took out a big photograph, which he brought over to the fire. It was the
-      picture of a woman, young, beautiful, quivering with the power of life;
-      the mass of dark hair was caught back from her forehead; the eyes were
-      wide, clear, transparent; the nose was straight as the edges of a die, and
-      the throat round, full, marvellously moulded. In the set of the head there
-      was pride of lineage, and the relentless rigor of purity. It was a fine
-      face looking out from a blameless life, strong, innocent, exacting as a
-      child.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man placed the picture on the mantelshelf, and sat down by the fire.
-      That day was now seven years gone,&mdash;seven years! Yesterday was no
-      farther back. Every detail was clear. The shock had stamped them on the
-      lining of his heart. He had loved this woman as a man loves just one time.
-      He was trusting his very life to her keeping; he was going to her for
-      everything that woman could give; all of sweet fellowship, all of tender
-      sympathy, all of love. She was the only woman in the world. The expression
-      is a platitude, but the fact was as real to Carper as the green trees and
-      the sunlight. One could no more have convinced this man that other women
-      held some of the charms of life, than one could have convinced him that
-      light was a liquid. His love had gained the power of a religion; it had
-      gone, farther&mdash;-it had gained the majesty of a law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the blow came. Carper had gone to this woman with a case of jewels,
-      the profit of a venture. He remembered how happy she had been: how the
-      light of trustfulness danced in her eyes; how she had carried the jewels
-      to the window in order to see the great rubies change to blood-drops, then
-      she had turned with a playful smile and asked him how he had made so great
-      a sum, and he, like a miserable fool, had blurted out that it was a part
-      of his gains in a deal on the street,&mdash;a deal in which he had ruined
-      a little banking house by seizing the vantage of its ignorant mistake. It
-      was the master blunder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper remembered how the blood faded from this woman's face, leaving it
-      ashen gray; how the dull ache of pain gathered in her eyes; how she had
-      come over to him and dropped the jewels slowly into their case, and,
-      without a word, had gone back and sat down by the window. And he knew that
-      the woman of his love was gone out beyond the reach of his fingers. The
-      leash of his love had slipped off and snapped back in his hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He remembered the effect upon himself as something entirely foreign to
-      that which writers attribute to men under similar conditions. There was no
-      benumbing horror; no desire to make any violent demonstration of feeling.
-      There was merely a vague loss of strength, as though the bottom of the
-      fountain of vital force had dropped out, and then he grew sick&mdash;physically
-      sick. The material man was hurt first, and collapsed, much as it would
-      have done if shot through the stomach with a shell. He felt none of that
-      exaggerated emotion affected by the play-actor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the commonplace sickness of a frightful physical blow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the nausea had passed, he had gone over to her and begged to know
-      what it all meant, although he knew quite as well as she. The woman had
-      looked at him with her wide eyes deadened with pain, and said that she had
-      believed him ah honorable man, and had loved him for it, but that now she
-      knew the truth, and she would never be wife to a dishonest man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had made his argument then, and it was good. The venture was perfectly
-      legitimate, so recognized and treated by the business men of the land,&mdash;nay,
-      more, it was so regarded by the law. These were the standards; there was
-      no other. The customs of business and the law were the rules of right in
-      the marketplaces. Their wisdom was unquestioned. It was the result of all
-      the experience of the race, the conclusion of wise men, laboring with
-      conditions as they were. Had she a right to say that these standards were
-      wrong? He appealed to her sense of fairness. Was she better able to pass
-      upon the right of this transaction than all the merchants learned in the
-      customs of trade,&mdash;than all the jurists learned in the wisdom of the
-      law? Was she better able?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper pointed out that she lived in an atmosphere of purity high above
-      the din of the fight for life; a land of refined right, refined justice,
-      refined honor, magnificent, but not the world. The world had no perfect
-      code; it was no perfect place; it was not intended to be so, else it would
-      have been so made. It was an indifferent place, governed by the inexorable
-      law of the survival of the fittest, wherein men struggled for footing and
-      the comforts of life. One must conform to conditions as they were, or go
-      to the wall. It was folly, it was idiocy, it was madness to do otherwise.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Trade was like nature&mdash;pitiless. There was no measure of
-      consideration for the weakling or the fool. The fight was bitter,
-      remorseless, subject to dangerous shifts. If one was caught and broken,
-      the blame was with the sorry scheme of things, and this a Divine
-      Intelligence maintained, and men could not question that Divine
-      Intelligence. This condition of the world might not be purest or happiest,
-      but it was the condition of the world. It was God's way. Was it wise to
-      call it evil?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he shifted. He bade her remember that she had promised to go through
-      life with him. It was a contract she had no right to break. The position
-      she was taking was a frightful contradiction. She was reprehending the
-      customs of trade, and yet there was not a merchant in the market-place who
-      would repudiate his contract. She was charging the law with failure to
-      appreciate the highest shades of right, and yet she was about to do what
-      the law, even in its grossness, recognized and punished as a wrong. She
-      could not stand upon this ground, and do as she was doing. Even if he had
-      done wrong, was she to punish him by doing wrong also? The vice of her
-      position cried out. Her promise had been given. It was immutable. It was
-      her affair to know her mind, to determine what she wanted to do. She had
-      known him for years. In those years there had been ample time to
-      investigate, to conclude, to decide. No one had abridged the freedom of
-      her agency. She had finally become a party to this contract. Could she
-      repudiate it now, like the common rogue in whom principle was wanting?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He bade her remember the gravity of this contract. It involved her life,
-      his life, mayhap the lives of others. He had been shaping everything to
-      this end. Had she the right to ruthlessly destroy all? What would she
-      think of one who having contracted to accompany another into an unknown
-      land should suddenly abandon him on the purlieus of the country? What
-      would she think of one who had contracted to go with another into an
-      unknown sea, and should, when that other had made his ship ready, abandon
-      him at the water's edge? Was she doing better than these?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman had not answered at all; dark circles had gathered around her
-      eyes, and the full muscles of her throat relaxed and sank.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Carper remembered how he had knelt down beside her and taken her hand
-      in his own,&mdash;-her hand, limp, cold, a dead thing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Besides, he had gone on, he loved her; she was the only woman in his
-      heart. There could never be another. Day and night, and every day and
-      night, his heart cried for her like a tortured child! There was nothing
-      else in all the wide world to live for, to strive for. He had grown to
-      associate her with every hope, every emotion, every ambition, of his life.
-      How should he live on without her! What should he do with his empty days!
-      Pride might carry him crippled through a few, but, there was a limit to
-      the endurance of a man, and what then&mdash;what of his empty days then?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If he had been doing wrong, God could find some way to punish him outside
-      of her love. Besides, if he was doing wrong, he needed her the more. He
-      needed her to round out his life, to add honor and purity and right. God
-      had sent her to do this work of good. Was she going to refuse merely
-      because the world was not the sort of place which she believed it to be?
-      Master of Life! the world would be abominably empty without her. He would
-      go anywhere she wished; do anything, be anything, she wished. It was not
-      the applause of men that he wanted in this life, nor the multitude of
-      things. It was her hand on his own; her voice in his ears; her image in
-      his heart forever. He could never get back again to his view-point.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She had loosed the mouth of something in his bosom that clamored for her.
-      It would be content with no other. It would hush for no other. His heart
-      was aching now with the cry. What a place of torture it would be tomorrow,
-      and the next year, and the next.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The tears had rained down this woman's face, but she had shaken her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That day was now seven years gone&mdash;seven years! Yesterday was no
-      farther back. Well, well! He had been only partly right. The woman's face
-      in his heart he had walled up. The cry for her he had silenced with the
-      opiates of greed. Still they were both there and alive. To-night the wall
-      had slipped away and the anaesthetics were powerless. It was no matter.
-      After all, had she done well? She had lived on, spotless, pure, alone; and
-      he had lived on&mdash;to this. Had she done well? That question it was no
-      right of his to answer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper got up from his chair, took the picture from the mantel, broke it
-      across the face and dropped the pieces into the fire. It was not necessary
-      for the marshal's deputy to speculate about this picture.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he went over to the cabinet and took out a pack of letters, old,
-      yellow, tied with a faded ribbon, and, selecting one at random, sat down
-      in his chair to read it through. &ldquo;Dear Heart,&rdquo; it ran at the
-      beginning, and at the end &ldquo;I am unutterably lonely, and I love you.&rdquo;
-      Yes, he recalled the circumstances of its writing well. Then he replaced
-      it with the others and laid them all gently on the fire. They should not
-      be pleasant reading for the marshal.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had come down into the world, with his heart shredded and every shred
-      aching like a nerve, and from that day he had flown the black flag of
-      piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the hand of none had been
-      heavier, and the brain of none had been keener than his own. From that day
-      every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of his galleon, had
-      walked the plank. The muscles of his face grew tense with the thought.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Somewhere in the house a clock struck ten. Carper arose and walked
-      backward and forward across the room. The spirit of fierce resistance was
-      beginning to awaken. He would not be stripped like a weakling. He would
-      fight, fight&mdash;but how? It was hopeless to dream of raising the money.
-      That plan had been discarded long ago. Vain vaporing! There was no way
-      remaining but Brutus's way&mdash;the road out into the vastness of
-      eternity was open! The exit was easy. Why should he lag back? Surely he
-      must go later on. For years the world had been a good place to get out of&mdash;for
-      seven years.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man opened a drawer at the bottom of the book-case and took out a
-      weapon&mdash;an ancient duelling pistol of his grandfather. He carried the
-      weapon to the table, wiped it carefully, and began to load it. When he had
-      finished, he went over to close the door. On the threshold lay one of the
-      evening papers of the city. Carper picked it up and brought it with him to
-      the light. The headlines caught his attention. It was the story of a great
-      bank defaulter who had gone free by reason of some defect in the law
-      shrewdly pointed out by a lawyer, Randolph Mason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He remembered the man as a remarkable legal misanthrope. He had heard of
-      him in the Federal courts. Somewhere he had this man's address, jotted
-      down one morning when the administrator of an estate walked out of the
-      Federal court a confessed gigantic thief, but, by this man's counsel,
-      beyond the reach of the law.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper looked through one of the files on his table&mdash;yes, here was
-      the residence number. The man leaned over and rested his arm on the
-      mantel-shelf. One might not do ill to go; there was time ample. One could
-      come back to the thing of steel later on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper turned suddenly, put on his coat and hat, and passed out into the
-      street, closing the door and locking it carefully behind him. Then he
-      called a cab, gave the number to the driver, and leaned back heavily
-      against the cushion.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      II
-    </h2>
-    <p class="pfirst">
-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HIS is the place,
-      sir,&rdquo; said the cabman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before him was lighted. The door was standing open. The brougham of a
-      surgeon was beside the curb. He walked slowly up the great steps to the
-      door. There was an indescribable something in the air which seemed to
-      presage calamity; there were sounds as of persons hurrying with some
-      desperate matter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As Carper put up his hand to touch the bell, two men came out into the
-      shadow of the hall.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It is a bad case of acute mania,&rdquo; one was saying. &ldquo;I
-      have given him two hypodermics of morphine, and he is still raving like a
-      drunken sailor.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper's hand dropped to his side. He turned slowly and passed down the
-      steps into the street. He had not been noticed by the busy surgeons.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper stepped out. At the curb he stopped for a moment and looked up and
-      down the avenue. Well, it was justice. For seven years he had flown the
-      black flag of piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the hand of
-      none had been heavier, and the brain of none had been keener than his own.
-      Every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of his galleon, had
-      walked the plank. It was now his turn. It was justice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carper spoke to the cabman. Then he stepped in and closed the door.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The man of last resort was probably gone. There was now no resort but to
-      the steel thing on the table.
-    </p>
-    <h3>
-      THE END.
-    </h3>
-    <div style="height: 6em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***
-
-***** This file should be named 51955-h.htm or 51955-h.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/5/51955/
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project
-Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the
-Foundation&rdquo; or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the
-phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase &ldquo;Project
-Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain
-Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain &ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right
-of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
-
-
-</pre>
-  </body>
-</html>
diff --git a/old/old/51955-h.htm.2021-01-24 b/old/old/51955-h.htm.2021-01-24
deleted file mode 100644
index a5b9463..0000000
--- a/old/old/51955-h.htm.2021-01-24
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7107 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

-

-<!DOCTYPE html

-   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"

-   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >

-

-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">

-  <head>

-    <title>

-      The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post

-    </title>

-    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">

-

-    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}

-    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }

-    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }

-    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}

-    .foot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; font-size: 80%; font-style: italic;}

-    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}

-    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}

-    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}

-    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}

-    .xx-small {font-size: 60%;}

-    .x-small {font-size: 75%;}

-    .small {font-size: 85%;}

-    .large {font-size: 115%;}

-    .x-large {font-size: 130%;}

-    .indent5   { margin-left: 5%;}

-    .indent10  { margin-left: 10%;}

-    .indent15  { margin-left: 15%;}

-    .indent20  { margin-left: 20%;}

-    .indent30  { margin-left: 30%;}

-    .indent40  { margin-left: 40%;}

-    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }

-    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }

-    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}

-    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}

-    .pagenum   {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: 0.6em;

-                font-variant: normal; font-style: normal;

-                text-align: right; background-color: #FFFACD;

-                border: 1px solid; padding: 0.3em;text-indent: 0em;}

-    .side      { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em;

-               border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left;

-               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;

-               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border:        solid 1px;}

-    .head      { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em;

-               border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center;

-               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;

-               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border:        solid 1px;}

-    p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0}

-    span.dropcap         { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 0.8 }

-    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}

-

-</style>

-  </head>

-  <body>

-<pre xml:space="preserve">

-

-Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most

-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have

-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.

-

-

-

-Title: The Man of Last Resort

-       Or, The Clients of Randolph Mason

-

-Author: Melville Davisson Post

-

-Release Date: May 2, 2016 [EBook #51955]

-Last Updated: March 16, 2018

-

-

-Language: English

-

-Character set encoding: UTF-8

-

-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***

-

-

-

-

-Produced by David Widger from page images generously

-provided by the Internet Archive

-

-

-

-

-

-

-</pre>

-    <div style="height: 8em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h1>

-      THE MAN OF LAST RESORT

-    </h1>

-    <h3>

-      Or, The Clients Of Randolph Mason

-    </h3>

-    <h2>

-      By Melville Davisson Post

-    </h2>

-    <h4>

-      G. P. Putnam's Sons New York And London

-    </h4>

-    <h3>

-      1897

-    </h3>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <b>CONTENTS</b>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE GOVERNOR'S MACHINE </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VI </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VII </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> VIII </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IX </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> X </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> MRS. VAN BARTON </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> I </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> II </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> III </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> ONCE IN JEOPARDY </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> I </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> II </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> III </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> IV </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> V </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> VI </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> THE GRAZIER </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> I </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> II </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> III </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> IV </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> V </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> THE RULE AGAINST CARPER </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> I </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> II </a>

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      PREFACE

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N this <i>fin-de-sîècle</i>

-      time, society has grown liberal, it is said, and yet he who thrusts a

-      lever under sage customs, or he who points out the vice of institutions

-      long established, may deem himself happy if he be permitted to strip

-      against the duellist rather than the mob. Even if one come new into the

-      courts of the <i>literati</i> with a cloak dyed a different hue from his

-      fellows, he will scarcely have passed the doorway ere the taunting

-      challenge, &ldquo;Do you fight, my lord?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The author, in a previous volume entitled <i>The Strange Schemes of

-      Randolph Mason</i>, pointed out certain defects in the criminal law, and

-      demonstrated how the skilful rogue could commit not a few of the higher

-      crimes in such a manner as to render the law powerless to punish him. The

-      suggestion was, it seems, considered startling and the volume has provoked

-      large discussion. A few gentlemen of no inconsiderable legal learning, and

-      certain others to be classified as moral reformers, contended that the

-      book must be dangerous because it explained with great detail how one

-      could murder or steal and escape punishment. If the laws were to be

-      improved, they said, &ldquo;would it not be more wisely done by

-      influencing a few political leaders?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      While such a criticism does not come from any considerable number of

-      authorities, it has been honestly made and is entitled to consideration.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The vice of it lies, it seems to me, in a failure to grasp the actual

-      nature of our institutions. It is a maxim of our system that the law

-      making power of the state rests in the first instance with the people of

-      the state. This power, for the purpose of convenience, is delegated to

-      certain selected persons who meet together in order to put into effect the

-      will of the people.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The so-called law-makers are therefore not law-makers at all, in the sense

-      of being originators of the law; they are rather agents who come up from

-      their respective districts under instructions. Such agents are simply

-      temporary representatives of the citizens of their respective districts,

-      directly responsible to them and charged with no duty other than that of

-      putting their will into effect. The agent or delegate should therefore

-      approach very conservatively any matter upon which the will of his

-      constituency has not been satisfactorily determined. It is, then, apparent

-      that the influence which makes or which alters the law is a force exerted

-      from without. No change in the law can be properly or safely brought about

-      except through the pressure of public sentiment. The need for the law must

-      be first felt by the people and the demand for it made before the

-      legislator is warranted in acting. The representative would otherwise

-      become a presumptive usurper, afflicting the people with statutes for

-      which there was no public demand; and such laws, so improperly obtained,

-      would be without the support of public sentiment and would be liable to

-      repeal.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Hence it is entirely clear that if the existing law prove to be unjust or

-      defective, the people must be brought to see and appreciate such injustice

-      or inadequacy and to demand the requisite modification.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This contention can, as it seems to me, not be gainsaid. It is

-      respectfully urged that no other method of securing wise changes in the

-      law can be properly pursued under democratic institutions. To hold

-      otherwise is to take issue with the wisdom of democracy itself, and with

-      so rash a champion the writer has no spear to break. Indeed, he makes this

-      explanation with immense unwillingness, as he feels that he should not be

-      required to defend a truth so evident. It is like demonstrating gravely

-      that the earth is round and that sun light is an energy.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Yet he is advised that attention should be called to this matter, lest the

-      thoughtless condemn upon a hearing <i>ex-parte</i>. Indeed, even after the

-      punishment of <i>la peine forte et dure</i> is gone out these many hundred

-      years, the good citizen will hardly hold that one guiltless who stands

-      dumb while hidden evils assail. If men about their affairs were passing to

-      and fro across a great bridge, and one should discover that certain planks

-      in its flooring were defective, would he do ill if he pointed them out to

-      his fellows? If men labored in the shops and traded in the market

-      confident in the security of their city's wall, and one should perceive

-      that the wall was honeycombed with holes, could he stand dumb and escape

-      the stigma of being a traitor? The law makes little difference in the

-      degree of moral turpitude between the <i>suppressio veri</i> and the <i>suggestio

-      falsi</i>. Both are grievous wrongs. The duty of the individual to the

-      state is imperative. He cannot evade it and continue to regard himself as

-      a worthy citizen.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Is there not in all this criticism a faint suggestion of the men who

-      &ldquo;darken counsel by words without knowledge&rdquo;?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Lycurgus taught the laws to the people, Solon taught the laws to the

-      people. The Roman law provided for a final appeal from the consul to the

-      people, and the very essence of republican institutions lies, as has been

-      said, in a recognition of the people as the source of the law-making

-      power. If the law offers imperfect security and is capable of revision,

-      the people must be taught in order that they may revise it. If it offers

-      insufficient security and is incapable of revision, then the people must

-      be taught in order that they may protect themselves. This conclusion is

-      irresistible. To counsel otherwise is to share in the odium of that

-      short-sighted ambassador who urged upon Pericles the wisdom of reversing

-      the tablet upon which the law was written in order that the people might

-      not read the decree.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Surely, then, he who points out the vices of the law to the people cannot

-      be said to do evil, unless the law of the land is to be made by a narrow

-      patriciate sitting, like the Areopagus of ancient Athens, with closed

-      doors.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      That yesterday in which the enemies of society plied their craft by means

-      of the jimmy and the dark lantern is now almost entirely past. The master

-      rogue has discovered, with immense satisfaction, that the labor of others

-      may be enjoyed, and the results of their labor seized and appropriated to

-      his uses, without thrusting himself within the control of criminal

-      tribunals.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Wise magistrates, laboring for the welfare of the race, have been pleased

-      to write down what should be done and what should not be done, and have

-      called it &ldquo;law.&rdquo; The citizen, having no time to inquire, has

-      gone about his trade under the impression that these rules were offering

-      ample protection to his person and his property. But the law, being of

-      human device, is imperfect, and in this fag end of the nineteenth century,

-      the evil genius thrusts through and despoils the citizen, and the robbery

-      is all the more easy because the victim sleeps in a consciousness of

-      perfect security.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The writer has undertaken to point out a few of the more evident

-      inadequacies of the law and a few of the simpler methods for evasion that

-      are utilized by the skilful villain. It must be borne in mind, however,

-      that more gigantic and more intricate methods for evading the law and for

-      appropriating the property of the citizen are available. The unwritten

-      records of business ventures and the reports of courts are crowded with

-      the record of huge schemes having for their ultimate purpose the robbery

-      of the citizen. Some of these have been successful and some have failed.

-      Enough have brought great fortunes to their daring perpetrators to appal

-      that one who looks on with the welfare of human society at heart.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The reader must bear in mind that the law herein dealt with is the law as

-      it is administered in the legal forms of his country, in no degree changed

-      and in no degree colored by the imagination of the author. Every legal

-      statement represents an established principle, thoroughly analyzed by the

-      courts of last resort. There can be no question as to the probable truth

-      of these legal conclusions. They are as certainly established as it is

-      possible for the decisions of courts to establish any principle of law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The reader is reminded that the schemes of skilled plotters, resorted to

-      for the purpose of defeating the spirit of the law, are, for the most

-      part, too elaborate and too intricate to be made the subject of popular

-      discussion. An attempt to explain to the but half-interested layman plots

-      of this character would be as vain as an attempt to demonstrate an

-      abstract problem in analytical mechanics. The knaves who have been pleased

-      to devote their energies and their capacities to problems of this nature

-      are experts learned and capable, and against these the average man of

-      affairs can defend himself but poorly. He may be warned, however, and the

-      author will have accomplished his purpose if he succeeds in identifying

-      the black flag of such pirate crafts.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      In the present volume he has deemed it wise to continue to utilize as his

-      central figure the lawyer, Randolph Mason,&mdash;a rather mysterious legal

-      misanthrope, having no sense of moral obligation, but learned in the law,

-      who by virtue of the strange tilt of his mind is pleased to strive with

-      the difficulties of his clients as though they were mere problems

-      involving no matter of right or equity or common justice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This emotionless counsellor has already been introduced to the public. He

-      has been described as a man in the middle forties. &ldquo;Tall and

-      reasonably broad across the shoulders; muscular, without being either

-      stout or lean.&rdquo; His hair was thin and of a brown color, with erratic

-      streaks of gray. His forehead was broad and high and of a faint reddish

-      color.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      His eyes were restless, inky black, and not over large. The nose was big

-      and muscular and bowed. The eyebrows were black and heavy, almost bushy.

-      There were heavy furrows, running from the nose downward and outward to

-      the comers of the mouth. The mouth was straight, and the jaw was heavy and

-      square.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Looking at the face of Randolph Mason from above, the expression in

-      repose was crafty and cynical; viewed from below upward, it was savage and

-      vindictive, almost brutal; while from the front, if looked squarely in the

-      face, the stranger was fascinated by the animation of the man. and at once

-      concluded that his expression was at the same time sneering and fearless.

-      He was evidently of Southern extraction and a man of unusual power.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This counsellor, keen, powerful, and yet devoid of any sense of moral

-      obligation, is possessed of this one idea&mdash;-that the difficulties of

-      men are problems and that he can solve them; that the law, being of human

-      origin, can be evaded; that its servants, being but men like the others,

-      may be balked, and thwarted and baffled in their efforts at a proper

-      administration of this law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It is the age of the able rogue, and, in examining his rascally schemes,

-      the writer has finally come to believe that the ancient maxim, which

-      declares that the law will always find a remedy for a wrong, is, in this

-      present time of hasty legislation, not to be accepted as trustworthy.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <i>(See the learned opinion of Mr. Justice Matthews in the case of Irwin

-      vs. Williar, no U. S. Reports, 499; the case of Waugh vs. Beck, 114 Pa.

-      State, 422; also Williamson vs. Baley, 78 Mo., 636; 15 B. Monroe, Ky.

-      Reports, 138. See also, in Virginia, the case of Machir vs. Moore, 2

-      Grat., 258.)</i>

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      THE GOVERNOR'S MACHINE

-    </h2>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      I

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HERE was something

-      on the Governor's mind, and when this condition obtained, interesting

-      events had usually followed in the far Southwest. This highly mystic

-      mental status had preceded the efforts of a Federal Court to compel him to

-      act under a mandamus, and the result was history. It had preceded a

-      memorable conflict between the legislature at large and His Excellency,

-      the Governor, also at large, and immediately thereafter a certain statute

-      had sprung into existence prohibiting the massing of State troops within

-      one hundred miles of the Capitol during the sitting of the Solons of the

-      Commonwealth; but it was a law after the fact. It had preceded also the

-      mercurial efforts of the so-called patriotic orders to impeach the

-      Executive for malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance,&mdash;an effort

-      that had brought to its instigators only a lurid and inglorious rout.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor was standing at the eastern window of his private office

-      looking out at the monotonous brown tablelands stretching away to the

-      foothills of the blue mountains that marked the outer limits of his

-      jurisdiction. He was a young man, this Governor, with the firm, straight

-      figure of a soldier and the gracious bearing of important ancestry. His

-      eyes were brown, and his hair and Van Dyke beard were brown also&mdash;all

-      indicative, say the sages, of precisely what the Governor was not. He was

-      perfectly groomed. Every morning when he walked down to the State-house he

-      was the marvel and the fastidious spotless idol of the far Southwest.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      One would have imagined that this handsome fellow had just stepped out

-      from a smart New York club, could he have forgotten that such an

-      institution was almost a continent to eastward. The Governor had

-      maintained that it was quite possible to live as a gentleman should

-      wherever Providence had provided Chinamen and water, and that the matter

-      was not entirely hopeless if the Chinamen were not to be had, so the water

-      remained.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was true indeed that the Executive had maintained his customs with no

-      little pain against the divers protests of gods and men, ofttimes wrought

-      in silence, but not infrequently urged fiercely in the open. But the

-      Governor was not one with whom meddling folk could trifle and preserve the

-      peace. This fact certain bad men had learned to their hurt west of the

-      Gila, and divers evil-disposed persons regretted and were buried, and

-      regretted and remembered south of the Pecos. So that in time this matter

-      came to be regarded as a peculiarity, and passed into common respect as is

-      the way with the peculiarities of those expeditious spirits who shoot

-      first and explain afterwards.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor was aroused from his reverie by his private secretary who

-      came in at this moment from the outer office.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Governor,&rdquo; said the young man, &ldquo;there is a strike at

-      the Big Injin.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; replied the Executive, &ldquo;telegraph the sheriff.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the Secretary, &ldquo;the sheriff has just

-      telegraphed us.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; continued the Executive, &ldquo;send a courier to

-      Colonel Shiraf.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But Colonel Shiraf is out on the Ten Mile.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said the Governor, &ldquo;you must go up to

-      the mines, and if the dignity of the Commonwealth needs to be maintained,

-      you will maintain it, Dave. You should find some troops at the post, some

-      herders at the cattle ranch, and a very large proportion of the State

-      Guards, by this time quite drunk, at a horse fair in Garfield County. If

-      they are required, notify me.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      As the secretary turned to leave the room, the Governor called him back.

-      &ldquo;Dave, my boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;peace in this Commonwealth is

-      a sacred thing&mdash;a superlatively sacred thing, so sacred that we are

-      going to have it if thereby the word 'census' becomes a meaningless term;

-      and remember, my boy, that the State is very expeditious.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The secretary went out and closed the door behind him, while His

-      Excellency, Alfred Capland Randal, forgetting the report, turned back to

-      the window. The air from the great brown plain came up dry and hot; above

-      the blue mountains the sun looked like a splotch of bloody red, and over

-      it all brooded the monotonous&mdash;the almost hopeless silence of the far

-      Southwest.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The something on the Governor's mind was a something of grave import, for

-      which he could evidently find no solution, and presently he began to pace

-      the length of his private office with long strides, and with his hands

-      thrust deep into his pockets.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Suddenly the door opened and a Chinaman entered with a telegram. The

-      Governor looked up sharply, and taking the envelope tore it open with

-      evident unconcern. When his eyes ran over the message he drew in a deep

-      breath, and, seating himself at a table, spread out the paper before him.

-      This was the advent of the unexpected, for which Mr. Randal was not quite

-      prepared, and this his manner exhibited to such a degree that the stolid

-      Celestial wondered vaguely what was up with the big foreign devil.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Our train stops at El Paso,&rdquo; ran the telegram, &ldquo;you

-      will come up, won't you?&mdash;M. L.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor stroked his Van Dyke beard, and the fine lines came out on

-      his face. &ldquo;Of all times,&rdquo; he muttered. Then he turned to the

-      Chinaman. &ldquo;Have my overcoat at the depot at six. I am going to El

-      Paso, and shall not return until late.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Chinaman vanished, and the Executive crushed the telegram in his

-      hands, thrust it into his pocket, and resumed his march up and down the

-      private office.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This Governor was the crowning achievement of a machine. He was the elder

-      son of an ancient family in Massachusetts, and had been reared and

-      educated in an atmosphere of culture. It had been the intention of his

-      family to have him succeed his father with the practice of the law, but

-      the plans of men are subject to innumerable perils, and it soon developed

-      that young Mr. Randal was not at all adapted to the duties of a barrister.

-      Indeed it was very early apparent that nature had intended this man for

-      the precarious vagaries of a public life. He was magnetic, generous, with

-      a splendid presence, and the careless, speculative spirit of a gambler. In

-      truth, Alfred Capland Randal was a politician <i>per se</i>. While in

-      college he had been a restless element, injecting the principles of

-      practical policy into everything he touched, from the Greek-letter

-      fraternities to the examinations in Tacitus, and all with such reckless,

-      jovial abandon that divers sage members of the faculty speculated with

-      much wonder as to which particular penal institution would be his ultimate

-      domicile.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At times the elder Randal had been summoned to attend these grave sittings

-      of the faculty, and straightway thereafter the rigid New England lawyer

-      had lectured his son at great length and with bitter invective, to which

-      the young man attended in a fashion that was amiable, and immediately

-      disregarded in a fashion that was equally amiable. Thus in the Puritanic

-      bosom of the father the conclusion grew and fattened and matured that the

-      eldest scion of his house was an entirely worthless scapegrace, while the

-      son was quite as certain that his father was a very sincere, but an

-      entirely misguided old gentleman.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The result of these divergent opinions was that on a certain June evening

-      young Randal sat down upon a bench in the park of his father's country

-      place with the express purpose of planning his career. Out of the

-      confidence of youth he determined upon two ultimate results. One was, of

-      course, wealth, and the other was an elaborate and entirely proper wedding

-      ceremony with a certain Miss Marion Lanmar. This young lady, Randal had

-      met at a football game at Harvard, and afterward in New York, where she

-      resided with her aunt, Mrs. Hester Beaufort.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gigantic confidence of youth is certainly a matter of sublime wonder

-      to the gods. One at all familiar with the ways of things would have at

-      once pronounced both results quite impossible to the improvident young

-      man. But from the standpoint of exuberant youth there seemed to be no

-      important obstacles except the possible delay, and this was not very

-      material, as the world was young and these were things to be had in the

-      farther future.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      For the present, Randal determined to organize a political machine and

-      transport it into one of the remote Western States. The East offered no

-      theatre for his talents; it was closely organized; its political machinery

-      was too strong for him to hope to oppose it. He would be crushed out in

-      the first skirmish.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Nor could he hope for early recognition by allying himself to any one of

-      the established organizations. These were crowded with deserving men, and

-      besides, he had no intention of serving as a political apprentice. He had

-      ability, he believed, as a political strategist, and he proposed to

-      operate free and untrammelled in a big, breezy arena.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Having determined upon a course, young Randal at once proceeded to put it

-      into operation. He held a council of war at the Plaza on Fifth Avenue with

-      two of his college associates, a stranded gambler, called for convenience

-      &ldquo;Billy the Plunger,&rdquo; and an old Virginia gentleman named Major

-      Culverson. The council sat in secret session for three days, and the

-      result was that the machine moved out into the Commonwealth of Idaho, and

-      began to operate. But the manners and customs of the West were varied and

-      mystic, and with the following summer the machine, badly shaken, moved

-      over into Nevada. Here, at Tulasco, on the Central Pacific Railroad, the

-      first college man deserted and, helped by his father, returned with great

-      penitence to the civilized East.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The machine passed on across the Humbolt River and proceeded to attempt to

-      shape the political destinies of Nevada. But disaster was following in its

-      wake, and, after an active and turbulent but quite unprofitable career of

-      a few months, it moved southward, battered and beaten, but unconquered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On the night of the third of October, the machine tramped into Hackberry,

-      on the Southern Pacific, and while men slept, the second college man,

-      concealing himself in a freight car, set out for the Atlantic coast,

-      cursing with lurid language all that part of the continent lying west of

-      the Mississippi.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On the following morning the machine held its second great council, but

-      this time it sat in desperate conclave above the Cow-Punchers' Saloon in

-      the town of Hackberry, facing a condition and not a theory. But three

-      members remained&mdash;Randal, the dauntiess Culver-son, and Billy the

-      Plunger.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler was for organizing a faro bank, and working the towns down the

-      Gila, but as the bank had no funds, and the death rate usually attendant

-      upon such ventures in this primitive country was enormous, his plan was

-      held impracticable, and at four o'clock in the afternoon he ceased to urge

-      the wisdom of his scheme, and after having announced with great solemnity

-      that he was game to any limit the gang wanted, he lapsed into the capacity

-      of a spectator.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Major advised moving south into Mexico, but as he seemed to have no

-      definite idea of what should be done when Mexico was reached, and it

-      finally appearing that moving south was simply a fad with Culverson, the

-      plan was likewise abandoned.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Young Randal, fired by his unabated purpose, urged the wisdom of trying a

-      round with the political fortunes of Arizona, but it was demonstrated that

-      he was considering a major venture, having for its object huge honor,

-      while at present there was crying need for some minor venture that would

-      probably result in the necessaries of life and a few hundred dollars.

-      Accordingly, at three o'clock in the morning, the machine decided to

-      assume, for a time, the vocation of the cattle herder, and accept

-      employment with a certain stock king of New Mexico.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was understood, however, that this digression should be temporary, and

-      should be abandoned just as soon as the machine should feel able to resume

-      its original purpose. It was at this point in the deliberations of the

-      conclave that Major Culverson made his famous statement, to wit, that the

-      gates of hell could not ultimately prevail against a political machine

-      composed of a Massachusetts Yankee, a dead game sport, and an old Virginia

-      gentleman.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      From this time forth the career of Randal's machine was a concatenation of

-      fortunes and misfortunes, principally the latter, quite incredible. But

-      the three men clung together, and a single enthusiastic purpose is a

-      marvellous motor power, so that when Fate finally lent a helping hand, the

-      machine became a something of importance in the affairs of a Southwestern

-      Commonwealth. Once on the upward way, the ability of Randal and the daring

-      energies of his associates carried it forward with great strides, so great

-      that on the evening of the day with which this history has to do, the

-      Massachusetts Yankee was the Governor of a State, the Major was Auditor,

-      and Billy the Plunger, now known by his signature as Ambercrombie Hergan,

-      was Secretary of State.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sun had gone downward from sight behind the far mountains, now changed

-      from blue to a murky gray. The Governor, recalled to a sense of the hour,

-      closed his mahogany desk, locked the door of his private office, and

-      walked leisurely out through the State-house. As he passed down the steps

-      of the Capitol he met the Auditor coming up.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;How are you, Al?&rdquo; said the Auditor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Charmed,&rdquo; replied the Governor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said the Major, with great ceremony, &ldquo;you may be

-      charmed, sir, but to me, sir, yuur face wears the haunted look of one who

-      holds three nines against what he strongly suspects to be a pat hand.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Sage,&rdquo; said the Governor, bowing, &ldquo;I tremble for my

-      hidden thoughts.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You're a fool,&rdquo; said the Major, stepping up beside the

-      Executive. &ldquo;I want to know where you are going.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I!&rdquo; said the Governor, &ldquo;I am going to the southeast. Do

-      you see that little railroad? I am even now about to commit myself to its

-      irresponsible mercies.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You must not go, Al,&rdquo; continued the Auditor. &ldquo;Attend, I

-      will nominate the reasons. First, there is a julep party at my palatial

-      residence.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Insufficient,&rdquo; said the Governor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Second, there is a strike at the Big Injin.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Insufficient,&rdquo; said the Governor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And third,&rdquo; continued the Auditor, lowering his voice,

-      &ldquo;Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan is at this very hour in the second

-      room of Crawley's Emporium, playing the taxes of Bolas County, and losing

-      them, sir, losing them.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor's face grew hard, and his remarks for a moment were quite

-      unprintable. Then he turned to the Auditor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ned,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;you must get him out, and take him

-      up to my residence. I will be here by ten o'clock. I am compelled to go to

-      El Paso. I can't get out of it. I am compelled to go.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Compelled?&rdquo; ejaculated the Major, &ldquo;who, in the name of

-      all the living gods, is compelling you? He must be greater than the

-      railroads, greater than the legislature, greater than the Federal Court.

-      Compelling the Honorable Alfred Capland Randal? Shade of the blooming

-      Witch of Endor!&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ned,&rdquo; said the Governor slowly, &ldquo;I will explain it all

-      just as soon as I can. In the meantime you must help me. You must get him

-      out. Won't you, Ned?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor put his hand on the Auditor's shoulder, just as he had done a

-      thousand times before when he needed the help of this unusual man. And,

-      just as he had done a thousand times before, the Major declared that the

-      Executive was a &ldquo;damned rascal&rdquo; and a &ldquo;no account

-      youngster,&rdquo; and that he would not do it, when all the time he knew

-      deep down in his heart that he loved this straight young fellow better

-      than any other thing in the world, and that presently he was going to do

-      exactly what he said he would not do.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor knew this also, for he ran down the steps without stopping to

-      interrupt the amiable flow of the Auditor's depreciatory remarks.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At the depot he found the Chinaman, Bumgarner, waiting with his coat.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      That such a primitive Celestial should be saddled with such a name arose

-      entirely from the pious instincts of the Major. It happened that the

-      Virginian was standing in a crowd at the corner near Crawley's Emporium

-      when the Chinaman first appeared, having tramped from the coast. The

-      Major, who was slightly in his cups, called the Chinaman over to the

-      corner, and inquired by what appellation he was known, to which the

-      foreigner responded that he was called Fu Lun. &ldquo;Fu Lun!&rdquo;

-      shouted the Major, fiercely, &ldquo;a name smacking of the devil, and not

-      to be tolerated in a Christian State.&rdquo; And then turning to the

-      crowd, &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;behold! I do a goodly

-      missionary work. I rebuke the evil spirit dwelling in the bosom of this

-      heathen. I give it a Christian name. I name it Bumgarner.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thus the first evidence of civilization fastened upon the Celestial, and,

-      as the Major's mandate was not to be disregarded, as &ldquo;Bumgarner&rdquo;

-      the Chinaman had gone.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The journey to El Paso was not an idle one for the Governor. In a very

-      short time he should be in the presence of Miss Marion Lanmar and her aunt

-      Mrs. Beaufort, and, of all times since their first eventful meeting, this

-      was the very time he was not prepared for an interview. Prior to the

-      notable exodus of the machine to Idaho, Randal had called upon Miss

-      Lanmar, who was at that time a very young woman in college. The two were

-      quite important, quite enthusiastic, and pitiably ignorant of the world's

-      ways.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This last meeting to them seemed big with fate, and was dramatic to the

-      limit of a playactor's rehearsal. Youth lent to it all the glamour of

-      romance. To Miss Lanmar young Randal was her chivalrous knight-errant, on

-      the eve of his departure into a wild and unknown land full of mysterious

-      peril, in quest of wealth and fair fame, all for her. To Randal she was

-      the Lily Maid of Astolat, whom it was fate that he should worship with

-      noble deeds until he won. It was all in strict accord with romantic custom

-      in such cases made and provided, and terminated quite in keeping with the

-      ideal conventions.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the door had closed upon the handsome young fellow whom Miss Marion

-      Lanmar had promised to love for ever more, that young lady remained

-      standing motionless by the mantel shelf, her face very white, and her

-      heart very desperate and very true. To the dainty Miss Lanmar it was all

-      very real, and by no means the pretty little comedy which the world out of

-      its practical wisdom would have known it to be.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To Mr. Alfred Randal, as he passed down the steps of Mrs. Beaufort's

-      residence on the avenue, the world was now a vast arena, into which he was

-      going, armed and knighted with his lady's colors on his helm. His heart

-      beat high in his bosom. He would be a factor in great affairs; the hour

-      would come when he would return, famous, wealthy past belief, announced by

-      the heralds. He could not know that he was but another character in that

-      sweet old fairy story which men and women have striven to act over and

-      over again before they learn with dumb horror how pitiless and how

-      practical are the ways of Providence.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Yet the wise man who accompanies the youth to the gateway of the arena

-      will not say: &ldquo;To-morrow Circumstance will beat you from your horse

-      and tramp you under, and instead of returning victor, you will return a

-      cripple.&rdquo; Although the wise man knows full well that of all results

-      this latter is most probable, yet he will not say it, because the

-      enthusiasm of youth is a marvellous power, difficult to estimate, and what

-      it may accomplish no man can tell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor had not seen this young woman after that night, but he had

-      clung to his intention with the determination of a man who has a single

-      object in life. An intermittent correspondence had been maintained, but

-      after years this intention to wed Miss Lanmar had become rather an ideal

-      something, and in this there was peril. But a few weeks before, he had

-      intimated vaguely, that he was now a person of some local importance, and

-      with no inconsiderable prospects of wealth, and to this Miss Lanmar had

-      intimated quite as vaguely that she was waiting. But in it all there,

-      seemed to be a powerful, albeit somewhat indistinct doubt. Years had

-      passed, and years had a way of working frightful changes in people. The

-      Miss Lanmar of to-day could not be the school-girl whom he had known.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Executive leaned back in a seat of the stuffy little coach and

-      speculated with grave concern At any rate, this alliance was now quite

-      impossible. Complications had been thrust in; a duty, or what he conceived

-      to be a duty, had sprung up, and this duty it was not his intention to

-      evade.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      II

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Governor walked

-      gravely down the long platform at El Paso, looking up at the windows of

-      the Pullmans, wondering, rather indistinctly, how he should be able to

-      recognize the irridescent princess of his romantic youth. A negro porter

-      touched him on the arm and inquired if he was Governor Randal. The

-      Executive replied that he was, whereupon the negro with much profound

-      obeisance announced that Miss Lanmar was waiting in the drawing-room of

-      the opposite Pullman.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor sprang up the steps of the coach. As he entered, a young

-      woman, wearing a dark travelling dress, came forward to meet him. She was

-      of medium height, with heavy brown hair, fine eyes, arched brows, and

-      quite a faultless nose. But the great charm of the woman was her splendid

-      bearing, and her instinctive culture.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Just how this meeting began Alfred Randal could never afterwards quite

-      recall. He could remember in vivid details the first picture of this

-      superb woman as she arose to greet him, but then, just then, the love of

-      his youth that had seemed to sleep under an anaesthetic for so many years,

-      suddenly woke into glorious life, and gushed into his heart and overran

-      his senses with its marvellous vitality. What transpired thereafter was

-      provokingly indistinct. He remembered being presented to the aunt, Mrs.

-      Beaufort, and her astonishment, and her incredulous query as to whether he

-      lived in this &ldquo;terrible country&rdquo; to which he had replied that

-      he could not be said to live, but that it was his part to exist in this

-      rather primitive land. He remembered that the three sat together in the

-      drawing-room of the coach and talked of his return to New York, of his

-      ultimate success, and his assured future. He remembered also that for the

-      time he had forgotten the grave difficulty in the way of such a future and

-      his stern decision made but a few minutes before. He remembered also that

-      through it all he had been very foolish and very confident and idiotically

-      happy, and how at the parting he had kissed Miss Lanmar's hand and blushed

-      like a school-girl, and then jumped down from the moving train at the

-      peril of his life.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor stood upon the platform and watched the great train as it

-      thundered away in the distance. The interview which had just ended,

-      although a thing apparently unreal, had swept him out from under the

-      influence of an illusion that had served to make his life in the great

-      Southwest bearable, even happy. From this time forth it could never be

-      what it had been. The man felt like one who, having been so long a captive

-      in a dungeon that he was half content, and his memories of the world had

-      become vague and unreal, is suddenly and without warning lifted into the

-      sunshine of the great glorious world and held there until his heart is

-      filled to drunkenness with the beauty of it all, and then, ruthlessly and

-      on the instant, is thrust back into the rayless gloom of his dungeon.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randal stood for a time looking at the rows of dim lights scattered about

-      the station like dismal fireflies. Then he crossed to the freight train

-      upon which he was to return and climbed up into the cab with the driver.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What time shall we get in?&rdquo; he asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By the top of the night, Governor, if we have luck,&rdquo; answered

-      the driver, pulling open the throttle.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The engine snorted and pounded along in the dark like some huge beast. The

-      Governor sat in the cab window and looked out. The night air was sweet and

-      cool, his face was hot. Two hours before he had decided what he should do,

-      and dismissed the matter; but new and powerful elements had arisen and

-      ordered him to rehear and decide anew.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Ambercrombie Hergan had lost and wasted the money of the State. There was

-      now a deficit in his accounts of some fifty thousand dollars. There was no

-      way by which this loss could be met unless Randal should pay it, and to do

-      this would take everything he had on earth. It would mean the sacrifice of

-      his mining stock, which, if held, promised great returns. It would be

-      ruin, utter ruin, to make good the loss; yet the gambler, although a

-      gambler, was his friend, and two hours before he had not hesitated at all.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Motives, mighty, selfish motives, which until this hour he had beaten

-      back, now leaped up clamoring to be heard, howling for time against his

-      decision, time to show the right of their cause, the wisdom of it, the

-      ultimate justice of it. Something asked him roughly what right had he to

-      jeopardize the future of this woman who loved him. What right had he to

-      deceive, to sacrifice her? Who was Hergan that he should be considered

-      against this woman? Who, but a reckless and improvident adventurer? It was

-      not his own happiness urged the something; that would be a matter of

-      little moment. It was the happiness of another, and that other was true,

-      innocent of wrong, superlatively just. What contrast could be drawn

-      between the woman and this gambler? Duty? What duty could he owe to the

-      irresponsible Hergan that could approach in the slightest part the measure

-      of the duty which he owed to the woman who had trusted him for so many

-      years, and waited, and loved him?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Yet against all this, certain pictures came up from the past,&mdash;vivid,

-      proclaiming a mighty truth, a truth which the man knew and acknowledged in

-      his heart, the truth that if these positions were reversed, Hergan,

-      gambler though he was, would not hesitate for a moment. Had he hesitated

-      that morning in the Rio Grande when Randal's horse had fallen and was

-      being swept down with the current, carrying his master under him, tangled

-      in the stirrup strap? Had he hesitated when it became necessary

-      deliberately to steal and burn the bogus ballots in Garfield County, when

-      to do so seemed little less than deliberate suicide? Had he hesitated that

-      terrible day on the Rio Sonora, when there was no time for warning, but

-      time only to spring forward and take the knife in his shoulder? Had this

-      man ever hesitated when the welfare of Randal was at stake? Would he not

-      gladly, and without comment, give up his life to-morrow if the Governor

-      should ask it of him?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor passed his hand across his forehead and closed his eyes. When

-      he opened them he had decided, and against this second decision there

-      should be now no appeal and no rehearing.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      III

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Secretary of

-      State was far removed from the ordinary. He was one of those not

-      infrequent persons whom men are quite unable to classify. At times he

-      arose far beyond the limits set for him by his associates, and at times he

-      dropped far below. There was about the man a sort of indefinite reserve

-      that impressed his fellows and inspired confidence in those positions

-      requiring rash and apparently impracticable moves. Ordinarily, in

-      commonplace affairs, his judgment was not considered sound, or even

-      valuable, and at such times no one would have thought for a moment of

-      advising with this man. It was only when sound common-sense could see no

-      way out that the machine appealed to Hergan, and at such times he came

-      forward with some freak venture which was frightfully perilous and never

-      ordinary, and never quite a failure.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Success, usually arose, however, not from the ultimate wisdom of Hergan's

-      plans, but from the fact that his unique move would throw the affair into

-      a sort of convulsion resulting in a new situation, and this new situation

-      the sound judgment of his fellows would usually be able to control. The

-      counsel of Ambercrombie Hergan was a protean agent.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The grave vice in the character of the Secretary of State lay in the fact

-      that he possessed no idea of perspective. He would wager his last dollar

-      with the same joyous unconcern with which he had wagered his first, and he

-      would have staked the entire Southwest, if he possessed it, as readily as

-      a Mexican peso, upon the turn of a card or the result of a horse race. As

-      to the antecedents of the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, even conjecture

-      was silent. He had come up from a mysterious substratum of New York,&mdash;for

-      what, and by reason of what, no man inquired. This mighty new land traced

-      no records and propounded no questions. The arena stood open with its

-      doors thrown back. Any combatant who pleased could enter. Heralded or

-      unheralded, it mattered not. Good or bad, learned or ignorant, of yokel

-      blood or princely lineage, it mattered not. If he were fittest, he could

-      win.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      From this organic defect of his mental build, and not from evil animus,

-      had resulted the sad state of the Secretary's accounts. He had never

-      entirely appreciated the important distinction between his own money and

-      that which belonged to the Commonwealth. He had been thoughtless,

-      reckless, unconcerned, until now he was hopelessly involved. Yet even at

-      this stage when his term of office was fast drawing to a close, he failed

-      to appreciate the gravity of his position, and treated the matter with

-      good-natured unconcern, as of no moment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor and Secretary of State sat together in the Governor's library

-      awaiting his return. In appearance the Auditor was a muscular little man

-      of most marvellous vitality, with a fierce white mustache, and a fund of

-      quaint oaths and semi-dramatic phrases hugely expressive and at times

-      artistic; while the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan was very tall and very

-      broad, with a shock of heavy black hair, wide jaws, and a big crooked

-      nose. Far back in his youth this nose had been straight, but one night, in

-      a barroom on the Bowery, a difference of opinion had arisen over some

-      inconsequential matter, and thereafter the gambler's nose had assumed a

-      contour not contemplated in the original design.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Major was talking, and pounding the table vigorously, when the Chinese

-      servant entered with a tray and some glasses. The Virginian drew himself

-      up and stepped back from the table.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well, Bumgarner,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I hail your resurrection; I

-      glory in your return to life. You have been dead no inconsiderable period,

-      sir.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Chinaman replied that he had been engaged in a laborious but

-      unsuccessful hunt for the bottle of Angostura bitters.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Angostura bitters?&rdquo; cried the Major, &ldquo;marvellous,

-      inscrutable heathen! Will you deign to reveal your reason for requiring

-      the Angostura bitters?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Celestial responded that he presumed bitters was an element requisite

-      to the rather mysterious drink which he had been requested to compound.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hear him, hear him!&rdquo; thundered the Major, as though

-      addressing some present but invisible avenging demon; &ldquo;hear the

-      vandal! Bitters in a julep! Mighty, intelligent shade of Simple Simon!

-      Attend and observe the idiocy of this savage!&rdquo; Then he crossed to

-      the astonished Chinaman and took him gently by the collar.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Bumgarner,&rdquo; he said softly, &ldquo;you are a frightful

-      example of man's neglect. You have been trained by a Massachusetts Yankee.

-      Ergo, your lack of knowledge is sublime. Bitters you might put in a

-      plebeian gin fizz, and be happy thereafter. Bitters you might put in a

-      high ball of whiskey, and live thereafter. But bitters in a julep, <i>magnum

-      sacrum!</i> the gods would crush you! Bumgarner, you are an awful

-      throbbing error, and you have had a providential escape from death. Now,&rdquo;

-      continued the Major, seizing the Chinaman by the shoulder and turning him

-      toward the door, &ldquo;you may depart, and burn a few joss sticks, and

-      ponder upon my remarks.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The almond-eyed Celestial vanished, wondering vaguely if it had not been

-      better to remain in San Francisco and launder shirts in a cellar than to

-      attempt to cater to the depraved taste of such incomprehensible foreign

-      devils.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now, Bill,&rdquo; continued the Major, seating himself at the

-      table, &ldquo;I want to know what you are going to do.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;About what?&rdquo; asked the gambler.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;About this money which you owe the State,&rdquo; said the Major.

-      &ldquo;Do you realize, sir, that our stand in the Southwest is just about

-      closing, and that we have got to square up and pull out?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I reckon so,&rdquo; replied the gambler, as though it were a matter

-      of no importance.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You reckon so! You irresponsible truck horse! You reckon so!&rdquo;

-      snorted the Major. &ldquo;You will cease to indulge in the dainty pastime

-      of speculation when you get a log-chain on your leg and a striped suit on

-      your back.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Secretary of State laughed. &ldquo;Something will turn up,&rdquo; he

-      said.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ambercrombie Hergan,&rdquo; said the Major, pounding the table with

-      his hand, &ldquo;for a broken, a branded, a long-suffering cow pony of

-      Satan, you have the blindest, most stupendous Presbyterian faith in

-      Providence of any white creature ambling south of the Central Pacific

-      Railroad; but you're sweetening on a bluff this hand, and I am going to

-      call you.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler's face grew serious. &ldquo;What are you prodding for, Ned?&rdquo;

-      he asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor leaned forward on the table. &ldquo;You are planning to slide

-      out,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and it don't go.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Would it hurt you or Al?&rdquo; asked the gambler anxiously.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor reached over and placed his hand on Hergan's arm. &ldquo;It

-      would not hurt me,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;and it would be no bones if

-      it did, but it would hurt the boy, and he must not be hurt. Don't you know

-      that the moment you are gone, Randal will sacrifice everything he

-      possesses and pay up the deficit? And that would ruin him.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler's face lengthened. &ldquo;I had not thought about that,&rdquo;

-      he said slowly, &ldquo;but you are right, he would do that. He is that

-      sort of a man. I have been a fool, an infernal fool, but I did not think

-      about the boy getting hurt, not once.&rdquo; The man shut his teeth tight

-      together and the big muscles swelled out on his jaws.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor sat and watched the man across the table from him, and admired

-      his iron nerve in the terrible struggle to decide between himself and the

-      welfare of his friend. The man was evidently suffering. His face showed it

-      plainly; the battle must be a bitter one. The Auditor wondered how it

-      would result. He pitied the man, and in spite of all, half hoped that he

-      would decide to save himself.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently the gambler turned slowly and lifted his face, white, haggard,

-      ten years older than he had been an hour before.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I don't see how to keep him from doing it,&rdquo; he muttered;

-      &ldquo;I don't see how.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor started. This man had not been thinking of himself at all.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; continued Hergan. &ldquo;I am about fifty thousand

-      short, and there is no way to raise that much money,&mdash;no way in God's

-      world. If I slide over the Rio, Al will pay it to keep them from

-      extraditing me; and if I stay here, he will pay it to keep them from

-      sending me to the Pen. It's the devil's own trap, and works both ways.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Who got the money, Bill?&rdquo; asked the Auditor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Crawley, and old Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining Company. Crawley

-      got most of it.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;A plague of fat old gamblers,&rdquo; said the Major, solemnly;

-      &ldquo;they are both as rich as they are mean, and as mean as they are

-      crooked.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At this moment the door opened and the Governor entered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      IV

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Executive

-      stopped for a moment and scrutinized his visitors quizzically; then he

-      laughed. &ldquo;May I inquire, gentlemen, whence arises this gloom?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor bowed low. &ldquo;Good sir,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;your

-      Excellency fails to distinguish between gloom and the gravity of sages.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If the funereal,&rdquo; replied the Governor, &ldquo;be a <i>sine

-      qua non</i> of the converse of the wise, then there has been here this

-      night great cause for envy on the part of Solomon, the Son of David, King

-      of Israel; for such gloom I have not met with in a world of evil days.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And, sir,&rdquo; responded the Auditor, waving his hand like a

-      barbaric king, &ldquo;if absence of respect for the dignity of the

-      thoughtful be a symptom of organic mental defect, then there is now here,

-      in truth, great cause for envy upon the part of Wamba, the Son of Witless,

-      the Son of Weatherbrain. For such amiable impudence is marvellous to

-      contemplate.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; said the gambler rising, &ldquo;if you will kindly

-      come down out of the clouds, I will be much obliged to you both, because I

-      have got something to say, and this is just as good a time to say it as

-      any.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor resumed his seat at the table. The Governor took up a chair,

-      moved it back deliberately into the shadow of the room and sat down.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is like this,&rdquo; continued the gambler, &ldquo;we three have

-      stood in for a long time, and I guess we know each other pretty well. We

-      did n't take no oath to stand by each other when we started, but I reckon

-      that is what we calculated to do. Anyway that is what we did do. If we had

-      n't a done it, we would n't have been deuce high in this Southwest. I did

-      n't have no faith in Al's machine when it started; I thought it was a wild

-      goose chase, but I did n't say nothing, because I had nothing to lose. I

-      was broke, and anything coming my way was pure velvet, so I joined in and

-      come out here.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Since that time we have had our ups and downs, if God's creatures

-      ever had 'em. We have lied a lot, and we've stole some, and we've starved

-      most of the time, and we have been poor and miserable and broke, but we

-      have played fair with each other, and we have never stacked the pack nor

-      dealt from the bottom. Then, one day, the luck turned and we won out

-      through the roof, just like it always does if you stay long enough and

-      keep doubling the bet. You two were elected, and Al appointed me.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I reckon none of us are going to forget the hell that appointment

-      raised. They said I was an ignorant understrapper, a short card gambler,

-      and a leary element; and it was true, every blooming word of it Then the

-      newspapers pitched into Al; they said that it was to be hoped that the new

-      Governor would now have 'the moral courage to at least suppress the shady

-      member of his machine'&mdash;them are the very words; I'll never forget

-      'em, and they meant me.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I guess I went to you boys, and told you I had better keep out, but

-      I reckon I did n't put up a very stiff case, because I was hot at the row.

-      I would n't have cared if the howlers had been better men than I was, but

-      I knew they were all just the same kind of cattle&mdash;unbranded,

-      straggling steers, gathered up from anywhere but a good place. As for

-      being shady, there was n't a man between the Gila and the Pecos white

-      enough to pass an Eastern grand jury, and as for being a gambler, there

-      was n't a mother's son of the batch that would n't have coppered his soul

-      on a black jack if the bank would have cashed it for a dollar.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Hergan paused for a moment and looked at the Auditor. Then he added,

-      &ldquo;Exceptin' of course, you and Al.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; the gambler went on: &ldquo;I guess Al got mad. He

-      made a little speech; we was all there, and it was mighty good talk to

-      hear. He said there had n't been no 'invidious distinctions'&mdash;them

-      were his words,&mdash;during all the years when nothing had come our way

-      but just one dose of bad luck after another until we reckoned there was

-      n't no God at all,&mdash;least ways, if there was any, that He did n't

-      operate south of the Central Pacific Railroad, and now when we had finally

-      landed on our feet, there was n't going to be no 'invidious distinctions.'

-      I am bound to say that it seemed mighty good to hear Al talk like he did,

-      and I went ahead and let him appoint me.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Secretary of State moved a little nearer to the table, and an almost

-      imperceptible shadow flitted across his face. &ldquo;All the time,&rdquo;

-      he continued, &ldquo;I knowed it was wrong. I knowed that what the

-      mudslingers were sayin' was gospel. I knowed that I was n't fit for the

-      job no more than a Chinaman is fit for a pope. I knowed that the gambler

-      in me was ground in, and the other was just only rubbed on the outside,

-      and that the gambler part was going to run things,&mdash;and it did.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man paused for a moment and turned to the Governor. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo;

-      he said, &ldquo;I have come to the point, and it's this: I got into this

-      hole and I am going to get out of it; it's my game now; I am not going to

-      stand any side bets. You have both got to promise me right here that you

-      will keep your hands off this matter,&mdash;clear off&mdash;unless I say

-      it goes.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler stopped, rested his arms heavily on the table and looked at

-      his companions. The Virginian and the Executive were silent; both men

-      realized fully the true import of Hergan's demand. He was seeking to

-      prevent any sacrifice on their part; that was all, and if he had been the

-      most skilful diplomat in the world, he could not have moved more adroitly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor looked up at the massive face of the gambler, marred by evil

-      circumstance and the riot of dissipation, and wondered&mdash;as he had

-      wondered many a time before,&mdash;at the splendid unselfishness of this

-      man. From whence could have come this flower of nobility? The life of

-      Ambercrombie Hergan had been sterile soil indeed for such a plant as this.

-      How could it be in the economy of men that such princely fidelity obtained

-      alone even without trace of the common attendant virtues?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      For the obligations of the law Ambercrombie Hergan had no regard. For the

-      obligations of the citizen he had no regard. Even for the common

-      obligations of morality he maintained the most stolid unconcern. Honesty

-      was a name to him, and right and duty and honor were merely names to him.

-      Yet blooming in the barren garden of this gambler's heart was something

-      fairer than them all.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; asked Hergan, with a trace of anxiety in his voice,

-      &ldquo;are you going to promise?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor arose. &ldquo;This is a very serious matter,&rdquo; he said

-      slowly; &ldquo;we must be given a few minutes in which to decide.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That 's fair enough,&rdquo; replied the gambler. &ldquo;You two can

-      go into the other room. I'll wait.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Auditor and the Executive retired, and the Secretary of State resumed

-      his seat beside the table, the suggestion of a smile on his face, he knew

-      perfectly that if he could secure the promise of his companions it would

-      be maintained inviolate.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently the door opened and the two men entered. &ldquo;Bill,&rdquo;

-      said the Governor, &ldquo;we promise.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler arose, and stretched his long limbs like one relieved from the

-      weight of a crushing burden. Then he turned to his companions. &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo;

-      he said almost gaily, &ldquo;I may as well tell you now that I am going to

-      New York Saturday night.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And I may add,&rdquo; responded the Governor, &ldquo;that I am

-      going Friday night.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      V

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU see,&rdquo; the

-      Governor was saying,&rdquo; the failure of this bank in San Francisco has

-      wiped out every penny I had in the world. On the fourth day of next March

-      I will be poorer than the ordinary drayman. So poor that I must begin all

-      over again, and I have no heart to do it.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Miss Marion Lanmar was silent. Her bands rested upon the great aims of the

-      chair in which she was seated. Her face might have been a cast; it was so

-      very motionless.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I should not mind if it were not for you,&rdquo; the young man went

-      on. &ldquo;I mean,&rdquo;&mdash;he hesitated for a moment,&mdash;&ldquo;if

-      I had never seen you; if I had never known you. But now the effort would

-      seem so miserably inadequate, if it were not made for you. I have loved

-      you and lived for you too long. I have grown accustomed to you as the

-      mighty incentive. Every path that I have travelled has had you waiting at

-      the end. Every battle I have fought has seemed to hold your happiness in

-      its balance. Even the meagre gains of all the weary commonplace days have

-      been to me so much or so little added to the kingdom of the queen. So I

-      could have gone on to the end, but now, without you I have no heart at

-      all.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man leaned over and rested his arm on the mantel-shelf. &ldquo;I have

-      read somewhere,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;how the evil fiend strove to

-      destroy a man whom he hated; how he robbed him of his wealth, of his

-      friends, of his fair fame, and how the man worked on, laughing in the

-      demon's face, and how it all failed, until one morning the evil fiend

-      reached down into the man's heart and plucked the motive out of his life,

-      and then the man threw away his tools and came and sat in the doorway of

-      his shop. I suppose it is all very cowardly, to talk as I am talking, but

-      it would be very much worse, I should think, to deceive myself and you.&rdquo;

-      The woman did not answer. She was looking into the fire. The little blue

-      flames in the wide fireplace danced up and down upon their bed of coal in

-      impish merriment at all the trouble of men's lives.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently the man began again. &ldquo;Yet a woman cannot wait always,&rdquo;

-      he said, &ldquo;and I have no right to ask it of you. I must step aside

-      out of your life and beg to be forgotten. It is a terrible ordeal for one

-      who has gone down into the <i>melée</i> with his lady's colors on his helm

-      to return beaten and overthrown and say, 'This quest is not for me.' It is

-      hard to have the hope of one's life battered out and to live on in the

-      world, and yet men do, and I shall, I presume.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We are taught in youth that the world is a happy place, and I judge

-      that it is a bit of illusion, like the black goblin and the fairies, and

-      yet we all try very hard to believe the old housewife tales, and cling to

-      them, and give them up grudgingly and with regret. I shall always remember

-      how very sorry I was when I first realized that there really were no

-      fairies. I was only a child, but it made me unhappy for days. It seemed to

-      put all my reckoning out of joint. And so I have always believed that

-      happiness existed in the world, and that it came to men somewhere in their

-      lives about as the beautiful princess comes in the fairy stories. It never

-      occurred to me to doubt its coming. True, it never came, but everything

-      that did come seemed only to prepare a way for its coming at some day

-      farther on. Now I see that this is just an illusion like the others, and I

-      confess that the discovery has jarred me frightfully.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man's voice wavered for a moment; then it grew stronger. &ldquo;I

-      don't quite see how the world can ever seem a beautiful place after

-      to-night. The sky may be very blue indeed, but the man whose eyes ache

-      will not look up to see it. The birds may sing gloriously in the trees,

-      but the man whose heart is an empty house will not care at all.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randal stopped and looked down at the woman. He noticed how very soft and

-      heavy her brown hair was, and how delicate and slender her hands were. He

-      noted vaguely, too, the artistic effect of the folds of her gown and the

-      shadows on her face.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Marion,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;If I did not love you better than

-      any other thing in the world, I would not be urging these bitter arguments

-      against my own happiness. I would not be so desperately anxious about your

-      welfare. I should not be so fearful of the future. I should take the

-      chance without the hesitation of a moment. But the very depth of my love

-      makes me a coward. I could not bear to see you subject to all the evil

-      things that come with poverty. I know what a frightful plight it is&mdash;how

-      it crushes out the sweetness and the nobility of one's life, how it

-      squeezes the heart, day after day, until it finally becomes a dry husk in

-      one's breast.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randal's voice was now thick with emotion. &ldquo;Marion,&rdquo; he said,

-      &ldquo;do you hear me? Do you believe me?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman's hands tightened on the great arms of the chair, and for a

-      moment she was silent; then she began to speak, slowly and distinctly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I do not know.&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I must have time to think.

-      Yet I have believed you all these years. I must believe you now. Yes, I do

-      believe you now. But you are wrong, frightfully wrong. You forget that a

-      woman is a human being with a heart. You think I am afraid of the world,

-      afraid of poverty, afraid of life as God makes it, as God wills it; that I

-      am a fragile something that the rain and the sunlight would ruin if it

-      touched; that I am a something more or less than you, a something that

-      requires ease and luxury and all the gilded stage-setting of wealth&mdash;and

-      you are wrong. If I love you, of what value to me are all those other

-      things without you? If I love you, it is not all these things I want&mdash;it

-      is you. I ask you to answer this, and by what is true in your heart, know

-      what is true in mine: Would you be happy with all that wealth can give you

-      and without me?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;not after to-night. No.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No more would I,&rdquo; added the woman.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The heart, as it is said, speaks clearer to the heart when tongues are

-      silent, and it is said that grief and happiness when riding high in their

-      meridian have no need for the cumbrous medium of language.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      After a long silence, Miss Lanmar began again. &ldquo;Men cannot

-      understand,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;a woman's heart is so miserably

-      strange. Things either slip around it, leaving no mark at all, or they

-      sink in and become a very part of the woman's heart itself. There is no

-      middle ground; no half joy; no middle hurt. So it comes about that if

-      one's image creeps into her heart, it must remain. True, the world may

-      never know; the world is very stupid. But for all that, the woman's heart

-      will hold its tenant, and when she is alone or in the dark, she will know

-      and feel its presence. It may be that the woman will pray to be rid of the

-      evil thing, or it may be that she will pray to hold it always as a gift of

-      good, but be that as it happens, the woman's heart will remain forever

-      helpless to evict its tenant.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Is it strange, then, if I love you, that I should want to go with

-      you and live with you, and be with you always, and make your joys and your

-      burdens my joys and my burdens, and have a share and an interest in

-      everything that comes to you? Is it strange that I should hold wealth or

-      place or even honor as nothing against you? Is it strange that I should be

-      miserable, thoroughly, utterly miserable with every other thing in the

-      world, and you denied?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman's voice faltered and broke; her hands relaxed, and began to slip

-      from the great arms of the chair. The man came over, and knelt down beside

-      her and put his arms around her.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Marion, dear heart,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you do love me. You will

-      trust me a little while,&mdash;just a little while?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman's head slipped down on his shoulder. &ldquo;Love you!&rdquo; she

-      murmured, &ldquo;I have always loved you. Surely I shall always love you.

-      But when you are gone, the world is so empty, so miserably empty!&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      VI

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span> THOROUGHLY

-      appreciate everything I you have mentioned, Mr. Hergan,&rdquo; said the

-      clerk Parks, &ldquo;but it is quite impossible. Mr. Mason is entirely

-      inaccessible. I should not dare interrupt him.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Look here, my friend,&rdquo; responded the gambler. &ldquo;I have

-      heard this same talk every day for the last week, and it don't go any

-      longer. I have got to see this lawyer, and I have got to see him now. Do

-      you understand me?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; replied the clerk, with a faint smile, &ldquo;I

-      understand you perfectly, but it is entirely useless to urge the matter

-      any farther. The business with which Mr. Mason is at present engaged is of

-      great magnitude. He would not permit an interview at all. I am very sorry,

-      but, of course, I can do nothing for you.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler did not respond. For a few moments he was silent. Then he put

-      his hands into the inside pocket of his coat and drew forth a rather

-      battered leather pocket-book. He held the pocket-book under the table,

-      opened it slowly, and selecting a fifty-dollar bill from among a number of

-      others, laid it gently on the table.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is my ante. I want in the game.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The eyes of the clerk began to contract slowly at the corners.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;My dear man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I should like to do this for

-      you, but I don't see how I can. I don't believe Mr. Mason would even

-      listen to me just now. I don't&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Wait,&rdquo; responded the gambler; &ldquo;I sweeten it.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thereupon he selected another bill from the pocket-book and spread it out

-      carefully beside the other upon the table.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The little bald clerk began to drum on the chair with his fingers. His

-      eyes wandered from the money to the door of Mason's private office, and

-      back again. Presently he turned to the gambler.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Hon. Ambercrombie Herman held up two fingers. &ldquo;Don't call,&rdquo;

-      he said, &ldquo;I tilt it to one hundred and fifty.&rdquo; And he added

-      another bill to the two, and pushed the money across the table to the

-      clerk. Then he closed the pocket-book deliberately and replaced it in his

-      coat.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Parks arose, picked up the money without a word, and passed into Randolph

-      Mason's private office, closing the door carefully behind him. In a very

-      few moments the clerk returned. He came up dose to the gambler and put his

-      hand confidentially on his shoulder.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;My friend,&rdquo; he said, in a low tone, &ldquo;you are not a

-      fool. I have told some lies to get you this interview. Look sharp, and say

-      as little as possible.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What lies?&rdquo; asked the gambler, arising.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Such as were useful,&rdquo; responded the clerk. &ldquo;Quite too

-      tedious to enumerate. Please walk into Mr. Mason's office, sir, and

-      remember that you are my brother-in-law. Answer the questions which are

-      put to you, and don't volunteer talk. It is n't wise.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The gambler opened the door to Randolph Mason's private office and

-      entered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      VII

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>E Secretary of

-      State came slowly down the steps from Randolph Mason's office. At the

-      entrance to the great building he stopped and looked up and down the busy,

-      jostling thoroughfare. It had been but a few years since he was a grain in

-      this vortex, and now that past seemed ages removed. He was not conscious

-      of anything of interest in the very familiar scene. Just why he had

-      stopped to look, this man would not have been quite able to explain. In

-      truth, he was striving to obtain his mental bearings. He had been flung

-      violently upon another view point, and he was endeavoring to comprehend

-      the loom of this new land. His sensations were not unlike those of one who

-      but an hour before had gone into the operating room of a surgeon, walking

-      as he believed to his death, and now returned with the tumor dissected

-      out, and the hope of life big in his bosom. The world was an entirely

-      different place from what it had been some hours before, and the gambler's

-      steps were firmer, and his ancient careless spirit had returned.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At this moment, as it pleased Fate, a cab stopped before a broker's office

-      on the opposite-side of the street, and the Governor stepped out. The

-      gambler darted across and caught his companion by the shoulder. The

-      Governor turned suddenly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, in astonishment, &ldquo;is this an assault <i>vi

-      et armis?</i>&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;It's worse than that, Al. It's

-      a mandamus. You are not to go in that broker's office.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Not to go in?&rdquo; echoed the Executive. &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Al,&rdquo; said the gambler, grinning like a Hindoo idol, &ldquo;I

-      said this here was a mandamus. I guess the judge don't ever explain 'why

-      not' in a mandamus.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Good chancellor,&rdquo; replied the Governor, with mock gravity,

-      &ldquo;I resist the order.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;On what ground?&rdquo; said the lion. Ambercrombie Hergan, with

-      such a sage judicial air as might obtain with a truck horse.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;First,&rdquo; replied the Governor, &ldquo;that the mandamus was

-      improvidently awarded. Second, that the Court issuing the writ was without

-      jurisdiction. And, third, that the act sought to be restrained is not

-      entirely ministerial, but one largely within the discretion of the

-      officer.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;All them objections,&rdquo; said the gambler, &ldquo;this Court

-      overrules.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; continued the Executive, &ldquo;in this case the

-      mandamus cannot lie. I move to quash the writ.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But it does lie,&rdquo; asserted the powerful devotee of fortune,

-      hooking his arm through that of the Executive and turning him down the

-      street, &ldquo;and she can't be squashed.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor had observed the very great change in the man, and knowing

-      the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, he knew that this erratic person had

-      chanced upon some solution for his dilemma&mdash;strange and but

-      half-practical, the Governor had no doubt, but certainly not commonplace,

-      and so he made no further offer of resistance.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Al,&rdquo; said the gambler, hurrying his companion through the

-      crowded street, &ldquo;do you know where you are going?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I have n't the slightest idea,&rdquo; observed the Governor, with

-      greatest unconcern.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well, I'll tell you. You are going first to the hotel, then to the

-      railroad, then to the Southwest, and you have just fifty-nine minutes

-      between you and the train.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Governor stopped short. &ldquo;I can't go, Bill. I must sell these

-      stocks.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That's just the point,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;You aint

-      going to sell them stocks. That's why I issued this here mandamus.&rdquo;

-      And he seized the Executive by the arm and fairly dragged him across the

-      street.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Bill,&rdquo; protested the Governor, &ldquo;Bill, this is all

-      nonsense. It don't go.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Everything goes,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;Come on. We have

-      lost three of them fifty-nine minutes already.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      VIII

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Emporium of

-      Crawley was not quite a trading-place as the Greek root of the word would

-      indicate, unless transactions in which the unwary bartered his gain for

-      experience, and the great unscrubbed of the Southwest pitted their wage

-      against the riot of dissipation, could be held to partake of the nature of

-      commerce. It was a fad with Crawley to assert that his Emporium was a

-      clearinghouse,&mdash;a rather grim jest, heavy with truth. Indeed, all the

-      currency of this primitive land seemed to pass, sooner or later, through

-      the mammoth establishment of First Class Crawley, and in season and out of

-      season as the dollar went through, a portion paused and remained in the

-      fingers of the proprietor. And for this, also,&mdash;as the common-law

-      pleader would put it,&mdash;truth clung to the pet declaration of Crawley.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the population gathered night after night under the roof of his

-      Emporium, their troubles came also; and when the smoke grew thick and the

-      tanglefoot whiskey began to assert itself, there were other things to

-      clear up beside matters of currency. Matters of consequence and matters of

-      no consequence were cleared by the same rapid, drastic measures. Bad men

-      here decided who was the worst or the best, as they were pleased with the

-      term. The henchmen of rival cattle kings submitted the vexatious question

-      of a brand on a stray heifer to this court of instant resort and quick

-      decision, and other concerns of the citizen, affecting perhaps his truth,

-      or honor, or ability for a vice, were determined suddenly and for all time

-      without the wrangling of counsel or the tedium of courts.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      If a Mexican was so short sighted as to slip his knife into a tenderfoot,

-      some one shot the Mexican, and the crowd &ldquo;lickered up.&rdquo; If the

-      faro dealer killed his man, it was usually because the man needed killing,

-      and certainly the faro dealer was the best judge of this. On the contrary,

-      if one shot the dealer, this was considered a public calamity, demanding

-      an explanation, since the dealer was a <i>quasi</i> public functionary,

-      and the convenience of the citizen required that the game should continue.

-      One's life was perhaps the cheapest thing below the Central Pacific

-      Railroad, and it was entirely the duty of the individual to see that it

-      was maintained. If one was unsteady on the trigger, or caught napping on

-      the draw, one was held to have died by virtue of contributory negligence.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To be sure there was law, and machinery for its execution; but the

-      machinery was liberal, and had ideas of its own, and the law adhered with

-      supreme unconcern to its maxim&mdash;<i>De minimis non curat lex</i>.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      First Class Crawley had been splendidly trained for the duties of his

-      position. If Fortune had been moving of design, she could not have

-      schooled him better for such a life. Some thirty years before, he had been

-      a sutler with the Army of the Potomac&mdash;not the sutler of romance, but

-      the sutler of reality; following the army bravely, but at such a distance

-      to the rear as to be at all times extremely safe, and exacting for his

-      valuable public service every gain that human ingenuity could discover. It

-      was no wrong in the mind of Crawley to cheat the common soldier out of his

-      eyes; belike the soldier would be shot on the morrow, and then all

-      opportunity to cheat him would cease, and if prior opportunity had not

-      been seized and enjoyed, Crawley would regret.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the &ldquo;bitterness of death&rdquo; had passed, Crawley became a

-      justice of the peace in Ohio. Here the field for his talent was broader,

-      and Crawley arose and spread like the bay tree of Biblical record. Crawley

-      held it as a basic principle that the machinery of human justice could not

-      be maintained without ample sinews of war. It was best, to be sure, if

-      these sinews could be wrested from the wrong-doer, but, failing that, the

-      innocent must contribute. Every litigant was presumed to proceed at the

-      peril of costs. The matter of costs was one vital to Crawley, and loomed

-      constantly. The right or justice of a cause was never for a moment

-      permitted to obscure it. If the plaintiff was impecunious, then the

-      decision must be against the defendant, else the costs could not be had,

-      and <i>vice versa</i> as it had pleased Providence to place substance.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This was a high conception of human justice; since it passed by the

-      trivial controversy of the litigants, and placed the burden of legal

-      procedure upon the one best able to support It. First Class Crawley

-      maintained further that it was the part of wisdom in a government promptly

-      to release the criminal who &ldquo;shelled out,&rdquo; since the revenues

-      of the State arose largely from the fines imposed upon the evildoer, and

-      it was certainly quite useless to retain the criminal at public expense

-      after having squeezed him thoroughly, when he could be returned to society

-      and squeezed again later on.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Crawley might have been the father of a school, had he not found the

-      school in Ohio established to his uses. Consequently his fame was local,

-      and his methods being of ancient origin in this Commonwealth, provoked no

-      comment, and indeed he might have passed on, with the usual career of such

-      ambitious spirits, to a seat in the legislature, had he not unwittingly

-      crossed into a neighboring State in order to attend a reunion of the Grand

-      Army of the Republic. Here one, smarting from a hurt, pounced down upon

-      him with a warrant for a felony, and that same night the visiting justice

-      was a guest of the State. But First Class Crawley was no man of feeble

-      resources, and two days later he gave a straw bond and vanished like a

-      newspaper war cloud.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      In the Southwest, Crawley was a person of importance&mdash;a court of last

-      resort on all matters, barring none. If bets were made, Crawley was

-      umpire. If questions w ere argued, Crawley was judge. If one wanted

-      advice, one went to him. If one wanted information, one went to him; and

-      if one needed money, one went always to First Class Crawley, and put up

-      everything but his life. No function was complete without the presence of

-      this celebrity, be it bull tight or prize fight, or dog fight, or a

-      prearranged resort to the arbitration of the Winchester. Crawley was a

-      great man, in counterdistinction to a bad man. Personally, he neither

-      quarrelled nor fought, and one would have no more considered shooting at

-      Crawley than he would have considered shooting at his grandmother. This

-      proprietor of the Emporium maintained his position, not by virtue of arms

-      and skill in their use, but by virtue of an interesting something which

-      passed with him for an intellect.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Consequently, when he and Hiram Martin, of the Golden Horn Mining Company,

-      sat down in the private gambling room of the Emporium to a private

-      interview with the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, they were expecting to

-      realize from the time expended. They were both attentive and interested,

-      since the reckless Secretary of State was known in the lingo of the guild

-      as an &ldquo;easy member.&rdquo; If he had money, or could obtain money,

-      it would eventually fall into their clutches as it had always done. Hence

-      their interest was genuine.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; said the Secretary of State, &ldquo;I have a scheme to

-      make a stake, and I want you in on it. I have been over in the East, and I

-      have got it all figured out, and it's a cinch.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The owner of the Golden Horn folded his hands over the vast expanse of his

-      stomach and smiled benignly. He knew all about the usual combination of

-      circumstances set down in the elegant diction of the gambler as a &ldquo;cinch.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He was an expert upon things of this sort, but he volunteered no

-      information, and no comment. He merely smiled and murmured &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo;

-      in a voice which reminded one of oil being poured from a very full barrel.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; continued the Honorable Ambercrombie

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Hergan, &ldquo;it's this way. There is a broker in Chicago who is a friend

-      of mine. I saved him from the jug when he was a kid, and he never forgot

-      it. Well, he went to Chicago, raked together a bunch of money, and bought

-      a seat in the Stock Exchange. He was lucky, and now he is away up. He is

-      on the inside, and he says that there is going to be a big raise in oil

-      stocks; that the Standard Oil Company has been forcing it down in order to

-      squeeze out the little dealers, and that they are right now at the bottom,

-      and when they let go, it will fly back to a dollar.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At this point in the narrative, Crawley murmured &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; then

-      leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He was not quite ready to

-      puncture Mr. Hergan's balloon, and it was not his way to offer objections

-      to unfinished propositions.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Hergan, leaning over and resting his arms on the

-      table, &ldquo;the plan is to form a big pool and buy oil, and make enough

-      at one haul to go back to civilization and live like a king. That is the

-      scheme, boys. It's good.&rdquo; First Class Crawley opened his eyes

-      slowly, and putting out his fat hand, began to caress the green cloth on

-      the little round poker table.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; he said slowly, &ldquo;I expect that is a good

-      scheme, and I expect there is money in it,&mdash;may be tubs of money, but

-      me and Martin aint speculators; we never so much as saw a ticking machine

-      in our life. We don't know anything about new-fangled ways to get rich.

-      We're both old fogies,&mdash;just common old fogies, and I reckon we had

-      better stay out. Of course, I aint knocking on the scheme. It looks good,

-      mighty good, but me and Martin aint young any longer; we're getting old

-      and heavy on our pins, and we aint got no nerve like we used to have.

-      Still I aint knocking. Me and Martin would like to see you make a pile of

-      money, would n't we, Martin?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; gurgled the owner of the Golden Horn, &ldquo;we would

-      that.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan straightened up and thrust his hands

-      into his pockets. &ldquo;Of course, boys,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it's a

-      gamble, but it's a ten-to-one shot better than a faro bank. If it goes our

-      way, we will have all kinds of money; if it goes the other way, we are

-      skinned to a standstill. I am tired of little gambles, and I am going to

-      make one big play if I eat snowballs for the next twenty years. I would

-      like to have you boys in, but if you don't believe that the thing is easy

-      to beat, you can stay out.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      An inspiration came to First Class Crawley, and he seized it with the

-      avidity of a shark. &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; he said, with amiable confidence,

-      &ldquo;you have no better friends in this here country' than me and Martin&mdash;has

-      he, Martin?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; muttered the fat owner of the oleaginous voice, &ldquo;he

-      aint.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And me and Martin,&rdquo; the proprietor went on, &ldquo;would go

-      in anything in the world that you wanted us to go in, and it would n't

-      make no difference to us what it was, if you said it was a good thing. But

-      me and Martin are pretty nigh sixty, and if we would go broke, we could

-      never get on our feet no more. We are skeery, Billy; me and Martin are

-      skeery, but we are ready to do anything for you that we can. We are ready

-      to help you any way you want to be helped, because you are dead game,

-      Billy,&mdash;that's what you are&mdash;you're dead game.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The wary Hiram Martin was totally in the dark as to what Crawley was

-      probing for, but he had unlimited confidence in the proprietor of the

-      Emporium, and he assented blandly. Crawley, he knew, followed no cold

-      trail; Crawley worked no salted lead, and if he stooped to &ldquo;crook

-      the pregnant hinges of the knee,&rdquo; there was something in it for

-      Crawley, and at no great distance.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the Secretary of State,

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I am obliged to you both, but I guess there is nothing I need just

-      now. Of course, I, have got to raise a bunch of money for this deal, but I

-      sort of arranged that in New York.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The ulterior motive of Crawley was now quite clear to the owner of the

-      Golden Horn. Hergan would require money,&mdash;perhaps a large sum for his

-      venture. If good security could be given, there was no reason why they

-      should not advance the cash at a large and comfortable discount.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The officer of the Commonwealth moved his chair back from the table as an

-      indication that the secret conference was at an end. As he did so, the

-      proprietor of the Emporium leaned over and spread out his fat hands on the

-      green cloth.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Billy, old man,&rdquo; he said, in a voice that indicated gentle

-      reproach, &ldquo;there was no necessity for you to go among strangers to

-      raise any money you wanted; me and Martin have saved up a little, and me

-      and Martin would be glad to let you have it if it is any accommodation,

-      would n't we, Martin?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      First Class Crawley failed to add that both he and Martin would require

-      the trifling detail of a substantial surety, but they concluded shrewdly

-      that if Hergan could raise money in New York, he had obtained some

-      first-class support, and if this security were sufficient for an Eastern

-      bank, it was amply sufficient for all purposes known to commerce. Hence

-      the apparently unconcerned Martin consented most amiably.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan settled back in his chair and grew

-      thoughtful. &ldquo;I aint closed the loan,&rdquo; he said, after some

-      little consideration, &ldquo;and I would just as leave borrow it of you,

-      boys. The fact is, I would a little rather borrow it of you. I am paying

-      pretty stiff for the money, and I would rather pay my friends than the

-      Yankees in the East.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; observed the unctuous mining magnate, although he had

-      not intended to speak at all.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; continued the Secretary of State, &ldquo;I reckon you

-      would n't like to put up as much as I need. I am going to crowd the bank

-      this once.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well, Billy,&rdquo; drawled the proprietor of the Emporium, &ldquo;I

-      expect me and Martin can make it up for you. If we aint got enough, we can

-      get some around and piece out. Least ways, we will try. About what sum

-      might you need?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I reckon,&rdquo; responded Hergan, &ldquo;that I shall want about

-      fifty thousand.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The hands of Hiram Martin tightened over his stomach, and for a moment

-      Crawley studied the ceiling with placid indifference. He had turned Hergan

-      into his own channel, and the transaction being assured, it was now the

-      part of wisdom to affect gravity. Presently he spoke, slowly and

-      anxiously: &ldquo;That's a powerful big wad of money. Still, me and Martin&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;

-      Here he stopped short and turned to his companion.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Powerful big,&rdquo; echoed the mine owner, and volunteered no

-      further observation. He understood First Class Crawley as few men are

-      understood, and such observations were quite useless between them, except

-      for the effect upon the victim at hand.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Still,&rdquo; continued the proprietor of the Emporium, &ldquo;I

-      expect we can raise it some way. About what terms do you allow on?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I guess thirty days will be long enough,&rdquo; responded Hergan.

-      &ldquo;Thirty days at twelve per cent, is how I have been figuring it.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; drawled the gambling king, &ldquo;and the security?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Secretary of State, &ldquo;I have calculated

-      to give the Governor and Culverson.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;They are good, I reckon,&rdquo; observed the wary Crawley. &ldquo;Aint

-      they good, Martin?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Might be worse,&rdquo; responded the oily owner of the Golden Horn,

-      &ldquo;but it aint that. It's the rate. Seems like mighty little on a

-      short loan.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is mighty little,&rdquo; continued Crawley, after a silence of

-      some moments. &ldquo;We would have to give more than that for what we

-      borrowed 'round. There would n't be nothing in it for us, Billy,&mdash;not

-      a cent to me and Martin.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I tell you what I'll do,&rdquo; put in the Honorable Ambercrombie

-      Hergan, abruptly, as though the idea was new and sudden in its coming,

-      &ldquo;I'll give you twelve per cent, for the money for a month, and I

-      will enter into an agreement to turn over to you two one-eighth of what I

-      win on the gamble.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Crawley was very grave. The proposition pleased him hugely, but emotions

-      found no expression with him. To loan fifty thousand dollars on good

-      security at an enormous rate of interest, and in addition to have a

-      substantial share in a speculation without standing to lose a cent, was a

-      condition of affairs not likely to arise with much regularity in the span

-      of a gambler's precarious life. Yet Crawley was not anxious. To the

-      spectator he was sad and unconcerned. He knew quite well that this

-      proposition was Hergan's ultimatum, and he was going to accept, but

-      desired to appear to accept rather as a matter of kindly feeling toward

-      Hergan than by reason of the fact that the inducement had increased.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; he said slowly, almost sadly, &ldquo;me and Martin

-      don't want to make anything off of you, and we will try to fix it any way

-      you want it. If you want to arrange the thing that way, why it suits us&mdash;it

-      suits me and Martin.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; responded the Secretary of State, getting up from

-      the table. &ldquo;I'll go over to the Governor's house and have Al fix the

-      papers. The sooner I get it, the better chance I'll have to win a stake.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Billy,&rdquo; called the proprietor of the Emporium, as the

-      official of the Commonwealth was passing out through the door, &ldquo;just

-      make the note payable to Martin.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan nodded his assent, and departed, leaving

-      the fat gambling kings of the Southwest to prolong the secret session.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the door was closed, First Class Crawley turned to his companion, his

-      little gray eyes slipping around in their puffy sockets.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Martin,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;aint he a mark?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The stomach of the rotund Martin undulated like a rubber bag filled with

-      fluid. &ldquo;Of all damn fools,&rdquo; he gurgled.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Were it clear?&rdquo; inquired the proprietor of the Emporium.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Plain as a speckled pup,&rdquo; responded Martin, &ldquo;except the

-      note.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; said First Class Crawley, turning around in his

-      chair, &ldquo;you live in New Mexico, and I wanted the note in your name

-      so that if we had to sue we could get it in the United States court. You

-      can't ever tell what the State courts are going to do with you, but old

-      Uncle Sam's courts don't stand no flim-flam.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Crawley,&rdquo; announced the owner of the Golden Horn, &ldquo;Crawley,

-      you are built like a white man, but you have got a head on you like a

-      Yankee.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan returned to the Governor's

-      residence he found that celebrated official and Major Culverson in the

-      library. The irrepressible Major was engaged in presenting a lurid and

-      highly dramatic history of how he had straightened the tangled exigencies

-      of the Commonwealth during the absence of his associates, and how, by

-      virtue of his magnificent personality, the entire Southwest, from the

-      borders of lower Utah to the Rio Grande, was now the placid abode of peace

-      and fraternal good-will. He stopped short as the Secretary of State

-      entered, and bowed. Then thrusting his hand into the front of his coat, he

-      exclaimed, with the affected manner of a tenth-rate actor, &ldquo;Good

-      morrow, good gambler.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Top chop,&rdquo; responded the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan.

-      &ldquo;And a favorite.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I opine,&rdquo; continued the Major, &ldquo;I opine, sir, from your

-      gladsome tone that the fat sharks have been successfully harpooned.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; said the Secretary of State, dropping into a

-      chair by the table, &ldquo;the reports of this race will announce that

-      Hiram Martin and First Class Crawley 'also ran.'&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Which being translated,&rdquo; observed the Governor, &ldquo;means

-      that these gentlemen will advance you the money on the line suggested by

-      your New York lawyer.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the gambler. &ldquo;You are to fix up the papers,

-      and I am to go down there to-night. Everything turned out just like

-      Randolph Mason said it would. If the rest goes through as slick, we will

-      be riding in carriages.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Produce the sealed orders,&rdquo; said the Governor, partaking of

-      the mock dramatic atmosphere.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Secretary of State drew a big envelope from his pocket and threw it

-      down on the table. The Executive leaned over, opened the paper, and, after

-      having examined it carefully, took up a pen and began to write.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Major Culverson wandered over to the window and looked out at the hot,

-      monotonous, sterile country. &ldquo;I wonder,&rdquo; he murmured, &ldquo;if

-      this is really the passing of the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      IX

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE audience in the

-      court-room arose and remained standing until the judge in his black silk

-      robe had entered and taken his place on the bench. Then the audience

-      resumed its seat, and the clerk began to read the proceedings for the

-      previous day. The ceremony attendant upon the sitting of the Circuit Court

-      of the United States carried with it an impressive sense of majestic,

-      imperial authority, and an air of grave, judicial deliberation. It was the

-      Government of the United States of America, the spirit of supreme order

-      and law moving through its servant, and, next to the Great Ruler of

-      Events, it was greatest. It had assumed for the good of men the right to

-      sit in judgment, and to say wherein lay the justice of their complicated

-      quarrels. Before it, every man's cause was of equal import, and every man

-      was of equal stature; bond or free, one stood before it naked of

-      influence, and with his shoulder made as high as the shoulder of his

-      fellow.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This is the theory. If it fails, it is because the law at best is but a

-      human device, and its servants, after all, are but men like the others.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The building in which the Federal Court held its session was a

-      substantial, handsome structure, and maintained a strange contrast to the

-      town in which it stood. The town was rough, miserable, uncouth; the

-      temporary habitation of men, struggling ever with the relentless <i>ananke</i>

-      of things; in equal contrast to the officers of this court was the

-      audience in the great court-room. They were the pioneers of civilization;

-      a motley crowd in which the best and worst of human society was mixed and

-      intermixed. They were, for the most part, bronzed, bearded, fearless

-      examples of the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest, but not

-      all. Some were the reckless advance agents of those hardy vices that

-      follow close in the wake of empire,&mdash;devils too villainous to be

-      tolerated in the cities of the East, and too bold and too wary to be

-      stamped out by the deliberate machinery of the law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Against these the officers of the court bore some evidence of polish. They

-      were exact, calculating men, bred to respect order, and obey and maintain

-      the customs of law. The contrast was significant, and one recalled and

-      understood the constant bitter conflict between the judicial tribunals of

-      the State and the judicial tribunals of the Federal Government, bitterly

-      waged and as yet undecided. From one standpoint, this was the calm

-      tribunal of the supreme power of the land, providing the same rights and

-      remedies on the very border of its jurisdiction that it provided at the

-      capital itself, favoring no condition and acting as even-eyed as nature.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On the other hand, one understood how the remote Commonwealth held this

-      court to be the tribunal of a far off imperial government, seeking to

-      enforce laws and customs foreign and repugnant to the laws and customs of

-      its people. To them the Federal judge was a king's governor, travelling

-      with his retinue over a subjugated province, and enforcing his edict by

-      virtue of foreign armies quartered convenient to his hand. And looking on

-      from this point of view, one understood why the outpost State hated this

-      court so bitterly, and whence arose the fierce clamor against it. One

-      understood how the far West smarted under its injunctions, and denounced

-      them as the royal mandates of an emperor's consul, and how the far South

-      collided with this tribunal and cried out against it to the Congress of

-      the United States in a memorial clanging like a bell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      So the conflict was easy to understand, and it was easy to appreciate how

-      large the spectre of discord loomed, and most difficult indeed to force

-      the problem to some happy end.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the clerk had finished, the marshal called the jury, and struggled

-      bravely, but at times unsuccessfully, with the marvellous tangle of names.

-      Indeed, if the list of this panel had been placed before a student of

-      philology, he would have required no further history of the civilization

-      of the Southwest. When the marshal had ended, the judge directed that the

-      jury should be dismissed until two o'clock, and when order was again

-      restored, the judge turned and looked down gravely from the bench.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This court,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is ready to pass upon the matter

-      taken under advisement yesterday afternoon. It seems that one Hiram

-      Martin, a citizen of and a resident in the State of New Mexico, brought an

-      action in this court against Ambercrombie Hergan and others to recover the

-      sum of fifty thousand dollars, money, as it is said, borrowed by the said

-      Hergan. The declaration contained the common counts <i>in assumpsit</i>,

-      with which was filed, in lieu of the bill of particulars, a promissory

-      note, made by the said Hergan to the said plaintiff, calling for fifty

-      thousand dollars, and endorsed by one Randal and another Culver-son. This

-      note, in addition to the matter usually had in such instruments, recited

-      that it was given in accord with a certain agreement of even date

-      therewith, made and entered into by the parties to the said note. The case

-      coming on for trial, the defendants, by their attorney, appeared and filed

-      their plea exhibiting the said agreement, maintaining that the said note

-      was given for money loaned for the purpose of being used in a gambling

-      venture, and was, therefore, void at law. An issue being had upon the said

-      plea, the case was put to trial, and the said agreement having been

-      admitted, the defendants, by their attorney, moved this court to exclude

-      the evidence, and direct the jury to find for the defendants; which motion

-      this court took time to consider.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The facts herewith concerned are involved in no controversy, and

-      the agreement being couched in plain terms, admits of no doubtful

-      construction. It would seem that the defendant Hergan called at the

-      gambling house of one Crawley, a resident of this State, and requested a

-      private interview with the said Crawley and the plaintiff; that in this

-      interview Hergan explained that he was considering what it pleased him to

-      denominate 'a gambling venture in oil,' and solicited the two men to join

-      him in the venture. This they declined to do, but suggested that they

-      would advance to Hergan such money as he might need upon a promissory note

-      with good security.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It appears that some controversy arose as to the rate of interest

-      to be paid; and a division of the profits was suggested in lieu of the

-      larger per cent. This matter was finally concluded by the plaintiff and

-      the said Crawley advancing the said sum, and taking therefor the note

-      filed in this cause, and in addition thereto entering into this agreement

-      in writing with the said Hergan, wherein it is set forth that the money

-      loaned is to be used by the said Hergan for the express purpose of 'a

-      gamble in oil,' and for no other purpose; and that if any profit should

-      result from said gambling venture, the said plaintiff and the said Crawley

-      were to receive one-eighth of said profits. It seems that the money was

-      paid and presumably used by Hergan for the purpose as stated. Afterward

-      the note was presented for payment, and being refused, was duly protested,

-      and later sued upon in this court.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is maintained by the defendants that this transaction was

-      contrary to public policy, and that the money, having been loaned for a

-      known illegal purpose, cannot be recovered in a judicial tribunal, but

-      falls Within the purlieus of those matters which are <i>par se ex turfe

-      causa</i>, and for which the law provides no remedy. On the contrary, it

-      is urged by counsel for the plaintiff that the transaction as between the

-      parties to this suit was entirely commercial and innocent; that the

-      plaintiff is a mere lender of money in a <i>bona fide</i> transaction, and

-      is in no wise a party to any illegal proceeding, and that the mere use to

-      which the money was put is a matter of no moment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The law, being for the welfare and the protection of human society,

-      refuses to recognize and enforce certain contracts had among its citizens,

-      when those contracts are founded in moral turpitude or inconsistent with

-      the good order or solid interests of society.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;'No people,' declares Chancellor Kent in his <i>Commentaries</i>,

-      'are bound or ought to enforce or hold valid in their courts of justice

-      any contract which is injurious to the public rights or offends their

-      morals or contravenes their policy or violates a public law.' Hence

-      contracts having an illegal or immoral consideration, or tending to the

-      violation of law or the debauching of public morals, are held to be <i>contra

-      bonas mores</i>, and are void.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is said that the object of all law is to suppress vice, and to

-      promote the general welfare of society, and it does not give its

-      assistance to persons to enforce a demand originating in their breach or

-      violation of its principles and enactments. It is not necessary that the

-      law expressly prohibit or enjoin an act. It may impliedly prohibit or

-      enjoin it. In either case a contract in violation of its principles is

-      void under the wholesome maxim <i>ex turpi causa non oritur actio</i>.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It may happen, and, indeed, frequently does happen, that the

-      individual suffers great hurt from this sweeping policy of the law, but it

-      is held that the good of the commonwealth rises above the mere benefit of

-      the individual citizen, and that where the welfare of the whole of society

-      is involved, the law will not pause to consider the injury entailed upon

-      the mere unit. Hence the policy of government in the exigencies of war,

-      when protection must be had against violence, and the policy of government

-      in the peaceful administration of the law, when protection must be had

-      against vice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Thus gambling, wagering, and all gambling and wagering contracts

-      and transactions are illegal as against public policy, since they are

-      repugnant to the well-being of society, fraught with vice, pregnant with

-      demoralization, and corrupting alike to the youth and to the aged, as they

-      inspire a hope of reward without labor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is significant that in matters of this nature human society has

-      been progressive. Under the common law of England wagers were not unlawful

-      or unenforceable, but the statute of 9th Anne followed and altered the

-      common law, and the statutes of 8th and 9th Victoria altered it yet

-      farther, and in the United States every separate Commonwealth has its

-      respective statute striking at this vice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I think it will not at this day be denied that all transactions in

-      stocks, by way of margin, settlement of differences, and payment of gains

-      or losses, without intending to deliver the stocks, is a gambling or

-      wagering operation which the law does not sanction, and will not carry

-      into effect; and it has been held in the Supreme Court of the United

-      States in the case of Irwin vs. Williar, 'If under the guise of a contract

-      to deliver goods at a future day the real intent be to speculate in the

-      rise or fall of prices, and the goods are not to be delivered, but one

-      party is to pay to the other the difference between the contract price and

-      the market price of the goods at the date fixed for executing the

-      contract, the whole transaction is nothing more than a wager, and is null

-      and void.' And that 'Generally in this country wagering contracts are held

-      to be illegal and void as against public policy.'

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Indeed the courts of the land have gone to the extremity of

-      denouncing in no uncertain terms the dangerous character of these illegal

-      ventures. Judge Blauford, in the case of Cunningham vs. The National Bank

-      of Augusta, in speaking of these transactions termed 'futures,' declares:

-      'If this is not a speculation on chances&mdash;a wagering and betting

-      between the parties, then we are unable to understand the transaction. A

-      betting on a game of faro or poker cannot be more hazardous, dangerous, or

-      uncertain. Indeed it may be said that these animals are tame, gentle, and

-      submissive compared to this monster. The law has caged them and driven

-      them to the den. They have been outlawed; while this ferocious beast has

-      been allowed to stalk about in open mid-day with gilded signs and flaming

-      advertisements to lure the unhappy victim to its embrace of death and

-      destruction. What are some of the consequences of these speculations in

-      'futures'? The faithful chroniclers of the day have informed us, as

-      growing directly out of these nefarious practices, that there have been

-      bankruptcies, defalcations of public officers, embezzlements, forgeries,

-      larcenies, and deaths. Certainly no one will contend for a moment that a

-      transaction fraught with such evil consequences is not immoral, illegal,

-      and contrary to public policy.'

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In so far as this doctrine is concerned with the case at bar, it is

-      certain that the parties understood and intended that the money loaned

-      should be used for the purpose of engaging in an illegal speculation in

-      oil,&mdash;'a gamble in oil,' as it is termed in the agreement, and that

-      such gambling transactions are against public policy and the law of the

-      land. But it is contended by learned counsel that all this can have no

-      bearing upon the case at bar for the reason that in the cases heretofore

-      cited announcing these conclusions of law, the litigants were the parties

-      who dealt with or for each other, and were the immediate parties engaged

-      in an unlawful gambling venture, and the ones to gain or lose directly by

-      the venture, and not a mere stranger who loaned money to another to engage

-      in such transactions, and having but an undetermined interest in the

-      result; and that the law will not lend its aid to a further wrong. The

-      defendant having committed one wrong cannot be permitted to use his first

-      wrongful act as an instrument whereby to effect a second wrongful act.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The objection is ingenious, but I judge fully met by the

-      declaration of Lord Mansfield in Holman's case: 'The objection,' said the

-      learned judge, 'that a contract is immoral or illegal as between plaintiff

-      and defendant, sounds at all times very ill in the mouth of the defendant.

-      It is not for his sake, however, that the objection is allowed, but it is

-      founded on the general principle of policy which the defendant has the

-      advantage of, contrary to the real justice as between himself and

-      plaintiff, by accident, if I may so say. The principle of public policy is

-      this: <i>ex dolo malo non oritur actio</i>. No court will lend its aid to

-      a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act. If

-      from the plaintiff's own statement or otherwise the cause of action appear

-      to arise <i>ex turpi causa</i>, or the transgression of a positive law of

-      this country, then the court says he has no right to be assisted. It is

-      upon that ground the court goes, not for the sake of the defendant, but

-      because it will not lend its aid to such a plaintiff.'

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This claim of the plaintiff to this action is unsound for the

-      further reason that any promise, contract, or undertaking the performance

-      of which would tend to promote, advance, or carry into effect an object or

-      purpose which is unlawful, is itself void and will not maintain an action.

-      The law which prohibits the end, will not lend its aid in promoting the

-      means assigned to carry it into effect. Nor is it possible for an act

-      contrary to law to be made the basis of a contract enforceable in courts

-      of law. Hence when one lends money to another for the express purpose of

-      enabling him to commit a specific unlawful act, and such act be afterwards

-      committed by means of the aid so received, the lender is a <i>particeps

-      criminis</i>, and the law will not aid him to recover money advanced for

-      such a purpose, and much less would it assist him, if, as in this case he

-      retained an interest in the result of the venture.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was very unusual for counsel to interrupt the judge in the delivery of

-      his opinion, but at this point the attorney for Martin arose.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If your honor please,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;this court is taking

-      away the remedy of the plaintiff, and permitting the wrong to stand. Does

-      this court reverse the ancient doctrine upon which the theory of human

-      justice has its eternal basis, the ancient doctrine that the law will

-      always provide a remedy for a wrong?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The faintest shadow of a smile flitted over the judicial face.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That sage maxim: '<i>lex semper debit remédiant</i>,'&rdquo;

-      answered the judge, &ldquo;is a gigantic error couched in very good law

-      Latin. The motion to exclude the evidence is sustained, and the jury will

-      find a verdict for the defendants.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      X

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE Governor's

-      machine marched gravely out of the Circuit Court of the United States and

-      down the wide steps, the Major leading, the Executive following second,

-      and the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan bringing up the rear, every man as

-      silent and as solemn as a Japanese diplomat. The machine passed through

-      the great arched doorway and directly across the street to &ldquo;The

-      Happy Maria&rdquo; saloon, an institution with a variegated past. The

-      machine filed in through the door and lined up before the bar as

-      mysteriously as a country delegation in a caucus.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Bartender of &ldquo;The Happy Maria&rdquo; was a lame actor from St.

-      Louis. When he turned and beheld the solemn array, he stepped back and

-      tapped his forehead tragically with his fingers.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;it is Ulfius and Brastias and Sir

-      Bedivere.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To this no response was made, except that the Major raised his hand and

-      pointed to the bottle of &ldquo;Dougherty&rdquo; reposing on the second

-      shelf beside the box of &ldquo;scrap&rdquo; and the proprietor's

-      pistol-belt. The bartender hurried forward, took down the bottle, placed

-      three little glasses on the bar and began to fill them. When he came to

-      the third glass, he paused and set down the bottle. A puzzled expression

-      gathered on his face. He thrust his forefinger into his mouth and began to

-      lisp:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      &ldquo;Be there two or be there three

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      In our king's companee?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Major turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the Governor as he

-      vanished in a telegraph office next door; then he swung around toward the

-      barkeeper with the dramatic abandon of a professional at a benefit.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Pour on, good seneschal,&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;it is the man who

-      would be married. He hastens with glad tidings to the well beloved. He

-      will return.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <i>(See the famous opinion of Henry St. George Tucker, President of the

-      Supreme Court of Virginia, in the leading case of Gallego's Executors vs.

-      Attorney General, 3 Leigh, 450; also the opinion of John Marshall, Chief

-      Justice of the United States, in the case of the Trustees of the

-      Philadelphia Baptist Association el at. vs. Hart's Executors, 4 Wheaton's

-      U. S. Reports, 330; also Knox vs. Knox's Executors, 9 W. Va., 125; 2y W.

-      Va., 109, and cases cited.)</i>

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      MRS. VAN BARTON

-    </h2>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      I

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span> LL this,&rdquo;

-      said Randolph Mason,&rdquo; is the veriest nonsense.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The younger Mrs. Van Bartan straightened up in her chair and looked

-      sharply at the counsellor. She was a woman of magnificent presence, with a

-      great fleece of yellow hair, fine eyes, and regular, clear-cut features.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Do you mean that it is not the truth?&rdquo; she asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Half truth,&rdquo; responded Mason.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the woman, smiling, &ldquo;it is only half

-      nonsense.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;if you desire my aid, you

-      must explain this entire matter. I do not choose to guess riddles.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I have told you,&rdquo; began the young woman, slowly, &ldquo;that

-      my husband and myself reside with his mother in a certain city of the

-      Virginias; that his father is dead, and, by his will, left his entire

-      property to the elder Mrs. Van Bartan&mdash;my mother-in-law; that was all

-      true.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The counsellor nodded.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The other part,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;I was trying to put into

-      a 'hypothetical case '&mdash;is n't that what you call it?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      She hesitated for a moment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is hard to tell, and I was only trying to save myself, but I

-      suppose the surgeon is quite useless if the wound is not fully revealed.

-      If you will listen to me I will explain. It is hard to tell, and it hurts,

-      but everything is at stake, and if I lose now I lose everything. It will

-      simply mean that I have made sacrifice after sacrifice for nothing at all.

-      One shrinks from putting one's heart upon a dissecting table where the

-      valves may be pinned back and pried into with the point of a scalpel, and

-      so one struggles with a hurt until it finally aches so bitterly that the

-      expert must be had. Then one goes to the surgeon or the priest or the

-      lawyer, and takes an anaesthetic while he cuts it out.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;you talk like a diplomat:

-      you say nothing at all.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The younger Mrs. Van Bartan unbuttoned her coat and threw it back with the

-      air of one who has ultimately decided to keep nothing in reserve.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I have been married three years,&rdquo; she began, &ldquo;my

-      father's name is Summers. In the good days of Virginia our family was

-      wealthy, but of late years we have met with one disaster after another

-      until the family became very poor, and the effort to maintain an

-      appearance of respectability was a nipping struggle indeed.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;About this time the coal industries of West Virginia began to

-      develop, and our city became a manufacturing centre. This brought in many

-      Eastern capitalists, among them Michael Van Bartan, who established great

-      iron mills, out of which he made a vast fortune. Shortly thereafter he

-      died, leaving his widow and one son, Gerald Van Bartan.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This woman I have never quite understood. After the death of her

-      husband, she maintained their country place in almost profligate

-      magnificence, but she has always seemed terribly disappointed in her son.

-      He was a good, easy-going fellow, and his mother, an ambitious, restless

-      woman, had great plans for his future. But, failing that, and being a

-      person of shrewd instinct, she set about finding for him an ambitious

-      wife, who would probably be able to succeed where she had failed. But

-      while the mother was striving to select a suitable woman for her purpose,

-      the son paid court to me,&mdash;and I married him.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The young woman paused for a moment, and the lines of her mouth hardened.

-      Then she went on:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;He was not quite the person with whom I had hoped to spend my life,

-      but he had wealth, and we were so miserably poor,&mdash;and, I judge after

-      all, one is never permitted to do just what one wishes in this weary

-      world. This marriage was a bitter disappointment to Mrs. Van Bartan, but

-      she was a woman with the resources of an empress. She came at once to me,

-      and, with the kindest and most gracious courtesy, welcomed me as her

-      daughter, and began at once to shower upon me the most substantial

-      evidences of her good will. We were taken to live with her at the country

-      place, and everything was done that a shrewd woman could imagine to bring

-      me completely under her influence, and, through me, to move my husband to

-      the effort which she desired. But it was all an utter failure.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I appreciated thoroughly the incapacity of Gerald Van Bartan, and

-      said as much to his mother. I went deliberately to her and pointed out how

-      very vain her ambition was, and how certainly it must come to nothing. I

-      said how difficult it was for men to lift themselves even the least bit

-      higher than their fellows; how it required years of labor and selfdenial

-      and courage. I reminded her that my husband had not one of the qualities

-      necessary for such work; that he was not industrious, and not ambitious

-      she knew well; that the habits of the man had been formed, and this work

-      could not be now undone.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then I blundered like a fool. I said that wealth had caused these

-      habits to become fixed, and that we must accept him as his luxurious life

-      had made him; that if he had been thrown out to struggle with poverty,

-      some qualities might have been developed, but that he had never been

-      forced to feel the necessity for an effort, and consequently he had never

-      called his faculties into use, nor could he now since the necessity did

-      not arise. I begged her to abandon the effort as vexatious and entirely

-      hopeless.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;To all this the elder Mrs. Van Bartan listened attentively and made

-      no comment. When I had finished, she laughed, and said that I had entirely

-      misapprehended her intentions toward her son; that she had no object in

-      life but to make us as happy as it were possible to do, but that one could

-      not tell what conditions might arise, and she had wished simply to put her

-      son in a position to care for himself and me, if it ever should be

-      necessary. Then she stroked my hair, as she might have done to a child,

-      and bade me not worry over trifles. I now congratulated myself that the

-      matter was finally settled, but I was fearfully wrong. I had read this

-      remarkable woman poorly. Although again beaten, she was unconquered, and

-      she determined upon a final desperate move. Perhaps my foolish prattle,

-      furnished the suggestion, but it is rather more probable, I think, that

-      her master mind evolved the plan out of what she considered a desperate

-      condition.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman's face was now grave, and she seemed deeply in earnest.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It was the plan of Mrs. Van Bartan to convince my husband and

-      myself that future poverty was impending, but just how to make this

-      impression strongly probable, was a matter of great difficulty, and one

-      which she appreciated fully. In order to do this effectually, it was

-      necessary for her, in some manner, apparently to dispose of her property,

-      and at the same time actually to retain it in possession.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This was a difficult problem, but difficult problems were not

-      appalling to Mrs. Van Bartan, and she finally determined upon this shrewd

-      scheme. She would make a will, leaving her entire estate at her death to

-      the church of which she was a member, and entirely disinheriting my

-      husband. This will could have the effect she desired, and at the same time

-      leave her unhampered in the use of her property, and free to destroy this

-      will or make another at her pleasure. This is now her plan. How I have

-      discovered it is not of importance, since it is a part of her plan in this

-      matter to have me suspect her intention and finally to have me believe

-      that she has decided to cut us off without a dollar. Having determined

-      upon this move, she will carry it through with the skill of a master

-      strategist. She will have the paper drawn by her legal adviser in the

-      presence of witnesses; she will declare her intention to the most

-      substantial people of our city, and will take good care to see that her

-      act is made known through the most reliable sources. There will be no

-      blunder anywhere,&mdash;Mrs. Van Rartan does not blunder.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Has this will been drafted?&rdquo; asked Randolph Mason.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the young woman, &ldquo;but it will be made

-      soon. Mrs. Van Bartan is now preparing public opinion for her act. She is

-      far too wise to hurry.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I see no danger in all this,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;since it is

-      not this woman's intention to really disinherit her son. Ultimately she

-      will destroy this document or make another.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the young woman, bending forward in her chair,

-      &ldquo;Mrs. Van Bartan is afflicted with an aortic aneurism, and may drop

-      dead at any moment. This she refuses to believe, and although she has been

-      examined by celebrated specialists, she stoutly asserts that her health is

-      as good as it ever was in her whole life.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now suppose she makes this will and dies suddenly without having an

-      opportunity to make another. What then? Her intention will not help us.

-      This will holds, and we are left entirely without a dollar in the world.

-      Now, what am I to do to save us? It is of no use to go to Mrs. Van Bartan.

-      She is an iron woman. She has her plan, and Heaven could not change her in

-      the least. I must do something. It all depends on me, and I don't know

-      which way to turn. You must show me some way; you must do something.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason turned around in his chair and looked squarely at the young

-      woman.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you have neglected to tell me the

-      most important matter.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, no, sir,&rdquo; responded the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, &ldquo;I

-      have told you everything.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By no means,&rdquo; said Mason. &ldquo;You have said that Mr. Van

-      Bartan is not the man with whom you had hoped to spend your life. Who is

-      that man?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The young woman looked down at the floor and was silent.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I don't know that I meant quite that.

-      I was meaning, you know, that there were other considerations moving me to

-      this alliance beyond mere affection. I did not say that I loved some one

-      else, did I? Did I say I loved some one else?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You evade,&rdquo; said Mason, bluntly. &ldquo;It is the weakling's

-      method of confession, and as well the fool's method.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The blood came into the face of the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, and she

-      looked up resolutely.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You don't spare me at all,&rdquo; she said, bitterly. &ldquo;You

-      pry out everything, even the very heart linings. Suppose I did love some

-      one else, what has that to do with this matter? That is all over and past

-      and gone. Can't I permit it to sleep and be forgotten? Suppose there was

-      another man? Suppose there is now? Must I empty out his heart too? Can't I

-      spare him? Can't I leave him out of this?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I am waiting, madam,&rdquo; said Mason, quietly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The young woman passed her hand downward over her face, as though to

-      remove something that was clinging to her.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If you must know,&rdquo; she said slowly, &ldquo;his name is

-      Dalton, Robert Dalton, a member of the law firm of Carpenter, Lomax, &amp;

-      Dalton, of our city. He is said to be an able lawyer. He is the elder Mrs.

-      Van Bartan's legal adviser, but I have no right to tell you all this. It

-      is unjust to him. and unjust to me, and unfair to us all.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And he still loves you?&rdquo; said Mason, with the blunt

-      indifference of a surgeon who thrusts his thumb into a wound.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The young woman threw back her head. &ldquo;You are brutal,&rdquo; she

-      cried, &ldquo;to ask such a question, and I should be a fool, a miserable,

-      contemptible fool if I should answer.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But you have answered it, madam,&rdquo; replied Randolph Mason.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The younger Mrs. Van Bartan covered her face with her hands, and began to

-      sob. The counsellor sat and watched her, as an expert might watch an

-      intricate piece of machinery that he was testing. There was no emotion of

-      any sort visible in his face&mdash;nothing at all, except the intense

-      interest of the expert.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently Mason leaned back in his chair. The result was evidently

-      satisfactory.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Is this man married?&rdquo; he asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman did not answer. She simply pressed her hands tighter against her

-      face. The counsellor waited for a few moments. Then he repeated:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Is this man married?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman's hands trembled violently. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she sobbed,

-      &ldquo;and he never will be.&rdquo; The lines in the face of Randolph

-      Mason grew deep and resolute as one has seen the lines in the face of a

-      great physician when, in some desperate case, he finally turned from the

-      bedside of the patient in order to write the prescription upon which he

-      had decided.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; he said, in a voice that was firm and admitted of no

-      protest, &ldquo;this man Dalton is perhaps a person of some learning.

-      Since he is your mother-in-law's legal adviser, he will have the matter in

-      his hands. He is under your influence. Could a problem be more simple? You

-      have but to go to him and say what you have said to me. He will know what

-      to do.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      She dropped her hands in astonishment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Go to him? Go to him?&rdquo; she repeated.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;and tell him the truth,&mdash;and

-      wait.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; began the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, &ldquo;how could he

-      help me? What could&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; interrupted Mason, rising, &ldquo;this is your coat,

-      I believe. Permit my clerk to assist you to your carriage.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      II

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">R</span>obert dalton was

-      of good blood, having descended from colonial families of degree. He was

-      perhaps in his middle thirties, in appearance no usual man, straight as a

-      spire, with a powerful face in which every feature seemed prominent; hair

-      rather prematurely gray, and soft and clinging as a woman's, and withal a

-      manner courtly to such a degree that the young, and those others unskilled

-      in divining the natures of men, associated with Mr. Dalton relations of a

-      so-called romantic nature. This conclusion was grossly erroneous, and led

-      to much profitless gossip. In fact, Robert Dalton was a stern and

-      practical man of large legal acquirements, with no more romance in his

-      composition than a ship carpenter. In the practice of his profession he

-      was always cold, clear headed, and technical, believing no man, and

-      fearing no man; in truth, the wags asserted, his courtesy was in itself a

-      libel, because of all members of the bar no one was more rigid, more

-      exacting, or more relentless than Robert Dalton, of Carpenter, Lomax,

-      &amp; Dalton.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The mental build of young Dalton rendered him especially valuable as a

-      chancery lawyer, and this department of the business he gradually assumed

-      until it was almost entirely in his hands. For years he drafted all

-      difficult pleadings, especially difficult under the rigid practice of the

-      common law obtaining in the Virginias. He drafted likewise all deeds,

-      wills, and papers of like tenor, with such unusual care and skill that he

-      rapidly gained a reputation,&mdash;the sort of reputation which it usually

-      requires a lifetime to establish, and the value of which is above rubies.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the judges spoke of him they said, &ldquo;If Mr. Dalton prepared this

-      paper it is probably correct.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It would be unwise to attribute to young Dalton an utter disregard for

-      social relations. The error of such an assertion would readily be detected

-      by those who knew him. In fact, he was usually present at prominent social

-      functions, and largely sought after by reason of his magnetic nature and

-      the charm of his vigorous mind.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The father of young Dalton had been a man of improvident habits, and,

-      immediately upon the death of his wife, squandered his large estate in the

-      riot of dissipation, so that his son inherited nothing but a dilapidated

-      manor-house and a single slave. This servant, a pure negro, was deeply

-      attached to young Dalton, and the two continued to reside in the

-      manor-house near the city suburbs, the negro acting as cook, valet, and

-      man-of-all-work. This manor house was one of the first built in the

-      Virginias. It was surrounded by a long, ill-kept lawn, in which the

-      ancient knotted oaks seemed to stand guard over the memory of some

-      departed greatness. The house itself, covered with the green Virginia

-      creeper, was little better than a ruin. The plaster had fallen away from

-      the great pillars, and the walls were cracked, in places, almost to the

-      roof.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Strangely enough, Robert Dalton never attempted to repair the estate,

-      taking pride rather in its air of decay. This statement is not entirely

-      accurate. He did, indeed, fit up the ancient drawing-room for the purposes

-      of a library, thrusting in rows of bookcases beside long antique mirrors

-      and mahogany window seats. These bookcases were filled entirely with

-      reports of courts, late digests, the decisions of tribunals of last

-      resort, and volume after volume on wills, contracts, and corporations, but

-      scarcely a volume on standard or current literature. For these latter he

-      had no inclination, and, as he apologetically explained, no time.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      In this library, Dalton did most of his legal work, obtaining here freedom

-      from interruption and the quiet which he required.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      As the city developed, this neglected suburban street was seized upon and

-      assumed as the fashionable quarter by the wealthy Eastern families. They

-      paved it far into the country, and ruthlessly wiped out the splendid old

-      homesteads, erecting on their ruins ostentatious palaces with prim lawns,

-      reminding one not a little of that civilized vandalism which would cut out

-      from its frame the superb painting of a landscape and replace therein a

-      practical and entirely accurate map of the same landscape.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      These wealthy families swept out, too, the old social customs of this

-      city, setting up elaborate formalities and impoverishing standards of

-      dress and entertainment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The recognized leader was Mrs. LeConte Dean, the wife of a nail

-      manufacturer of vast wealth. Her receptions were the society events.

-      Indeed, it has been said that recognition by this newly rich importation

-      determined one's social status.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The Van Bartans were another of these wealthy families coming directly

-      from the city of New York. The father had founded gigantic iron mills from

-      which he had gathered a princely revenue. Upon his death, the wife, a grim

-      woman of frightful prejudices, had continued to maintain their country

-      place in sumptuous, albeit rather frigid, elegance. They had one child,

-      Gerald Van Bartan, an utterly worthless young man of extravagant habits

-      and wandering aims; nevertheless, a youth of generosity and kindly

-      impulses. The boy was a source of ceaseless vexation to his mother.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carpenter, Lomax, &amp; Dalton were her solicitors; especially Robert

-      Dalton, in whom she reposed the greatest confidence, and not infrequently

-      she spoke to him at great length of her difficulties with her son, and

-      usually concluded by working herself into a towering rage.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When one morning in the early autumn it was announced that Gerald Van

-      Bartan was very shortly to wed Miss Columbia Summers, a young lady of

-      great beauty and of aristocratic lineage, but of reduced and nipping

-      finances, the city was very justly indignant. Robert Dalton had for many

-      years paid court to this young woman, and the self-constituted

-      match-makers had long since entered up their decree in this matter and

-      dismissed it, and they resented, as almost a personal affront, the going

-      afield of their plans.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thereupon idle folk prattled of the great blow to Dalton, his broken

-      heart, and other drivel. There was no evidence that Robert Dalton had any

-      other than a passing interest in this matter, and neither his partners nor

-      those others intimately acquainted with the man suspected that this gossip

-      contained any element of truth Indeed, he had come to be regarded as of

-      stoical build.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When this rumor came to the ears of Mrs. Van Rartan, she received it with

-      almost suspicious composure, and a few days later sent for Dalton, her

-      solicitor, and inquired if she could dispose of her entire property. To

-      this Dalton replied that she could, the title to all property having

-      passed to her by virtue of her husband's will, of which she was the sole

-      beneficiary. Thereupon she smiled, and said that she might require his

-      services further on.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The wedding and receptions which followed were great social functions, and

-      for three years thereafter Mrs. Van Bartan maintained the two young people

-      in the veriest profligate magnificence, the elder woman anticipating every

-      wish of the younger, and heaping upon her the costliest gowns and jewels

-      to be had.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      During this time, Carpenter and Lomax watched Dalton closely, but they

-      could detect no change in the man, except perhaps that he was even more

-      rigid and exacting in his professional transactions.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thus matters continued without event until the night set apart for the

-      first autumn reception of Mrs. LeConte Dean. These were annual events of

-      great revelry, and largely attended. The night was unpropitious, raw, and

-      foggy, as October nights usually are in this region, but this in no wise

-      interfered with the occasion; indeed, it was long remembered as one of

-      startling magnificence.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This reception Robert Dalton determined not to attend, partly because he

-      avoided as far as possible every gathering at which he might be thrown

-      with the younger Mrs. Van Bartan, but principally because the firm had an

-      important case in the Federal Court then sitting, and he had been asked to

-      prepare an elaborate decree for the following day.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      After determining to remain at home, Robert Dalton went into his library,

-      gathered his books of reference from their cases, and began the

-      preparation of his legal paper. This decree he found more difficult to

-      draft than he had anticipated, and, striving to adjust its intricate

-      matters, he became more and more absorbed until he was entirely

-      unconscious of his surroundings and of the time that had elapsed.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Finally he arose in order to refer to some report that was not within

-      reach of his hand. As he turned to the light he beheld a woman, wrapped in

-      the folds of a long party cloak, standing with her hand on the door, as

-      though she had just entered. Dalton was so utterly astonished that he

-      literally rubbed his eyes to ascertain if he were not the victim of an

-      illusion. Whereupon the woman threw back her cloak, and advanced to the

-      table, when he perceived to his amazement that it was the younger Mrs. Van

-      Bartan. To this man she seemed a daughter of the very gods in the full

-      bloom of womanhood. The rich velvet cloak thrown back from her bare

-      shoulders, the ball dress clinging like puffy webs to a form that his

-      brooding mind had idolized; her eyes illumined, and her splendid hair

-      wound in loose coils above her dainty head.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It would all be very weary to set out in detail what occurred on this

-      October night; how the younger woman explained that she had finally

-      divined the intention of the elder Mrs. Van Bartan, and how she had hoped

-      to see Dalton at the LeConte Dean's, and not finding him had slipped away,

-      and, availing herself of the foggy night, had been driven unattended to

-      his house in order to implore his aid; how she came and stood beside him,

-      and pointed out the dread results sure to follow the elder Mrs. Van

-      Bartan's unnatural intentions,&mdash;results disastrous to her and to

-      hers. Gerald Van Bartan was worthless, she knew that; he had never been

-      taught to work; he was now too old to learn; it would mean poverty,

-      grinding poverty, and shame worse than all; and her father, aged and

-      broken in health, and the others of them, all dependent upon her, would be

-      thrown out to huddle in beggary, literally, beggary.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      How Dalton replied that there was nothing he could do; reminding her that

-      the elder Mrs. Van Bartan was a woman of iron will, of stern resolve, of

-      relentless determination, and that neither he nor any other living man

-      could affect her. And how like a woman she answered that he, Dalton, would

-      be sent for to make the will, and that he must save her some way, she did

-      not know how,&mdash;he would know, he was shrewd, he was a great lawyer,

-      he could certainly find some way; this she knew, and he must do it.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      And how he labored to show her that there was nothing he could do&mdash;absolutely

-      nothing; that the whole thing was hopeless, thoroughly, utterly hopeless;

-      and then how she came to him and put her bare white arms around him and

-      looked up into his face, the big tears shining in her glorious eyes, and

-      said that if this were true, then she proposed to tell him all the truth,

-      the truth that she loved him, him only in all the wide world, him always

-      from her very childhood, and that for others she had made this sacrifice;

-      and how great, how awful a sacrifice it had been, men could not

-      understand. How he coldly loosed her arms, although to do it wrenched his

-      very heart loose; although he would have given his life gladly to have

-      taken her in his embrace if only for a moment, and told her how he

-      understood and how he loved her for it, and how he would always love her

-      to the very end of all things; but, instead, how he had sternly led her

-      out to the carriage and forced her to leave him, and how he turned back

-      into the library with his head swimming and his heart pounding like a

-      hammer, and fought the whole thing out through the long October night,

-      until the dawn crept in and the birds began to chirp in the Virginia

-      creeper.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Some weeks later, as was anticipated, the elder Mrs. Van Bartan summoned

-      Robert Dalton to her residence in order to prepare her will. Upon his

-      arrival he found Simon Harrison, President of the First National Bank, and

-      David Pickney, a steel manufacturer, both prominent citizens of

-      unquestioned integrity; also the late Milton South, a most estimable

-      physician. At Mrs. Van Bartan's request, Robert Dalton prepared the will

-      in the presence of these three persons. When he had finished he handed the

-      paper to the testatrix, who thereupon read it aloud in the presence of

-      all, declared it entirely correct, and affixed her signature. As is

-      customary, Dalton requested the three gentlemen to converse with the

-      testatrix and satisfy themselves that she was in proper mental condition.

-      This they did at some length, and not unskilfully, all being men of good

-      sense. Afterward Harrison and Pickney subscribed their names as witnesses

-      in the manner prescribed by the statute. Mrs. Van Bartan then placed the

-      will in an envelope, sealed it with her own hand in the presence of all,

-      and gave it to Simon Harrison to retain until after her death.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On the seventeenth day of December following, Mrs. Van Bartan died

-      suddenly, and some days thereafter the will was opened and read at her

-      late residence by Simon Harrison, executor. Gerald Van Bartan and his

-      young wife were present, as was also Robert Dalton, and those others who

-      had been with the deceased when the will was drawn. The elder members of

-      the law firm, Carpenter and Lomax, were likewise present, and, at the

-      request of Harrison, the Episcopal minister, Rev. Mr. Boreland, and his

-      counsel, an obscure practitioner named Gouch.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The will was short, leaving the entire estate, real and personal, naming

-      it specifically, for some religious purpose; and, in a spirit of grim

-      jest, it would seem, one dollar each to her &ldquo;beloved children,&rdquo;

-      Gerald Van Bartan and Columbia Van Bartan, his wife.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The effect of this will upon the two young people, as the executor slowly

-      read its provisions, would require a dramatist of no little stature to

-      describe. The woman's face grew drawn and bloodless. The man's knees

-      seemed to give way, and he would have fallen had he not been helped to a

-      chair.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Dalton, men did not notice, for he was a skilful actor. When the executor

-      had finished, Mr. Lomax plucked Carpenter by the arm, and inquired, in a

-      low voice, if he had noticed any defect in the will. Carpenter replied

-      that he had not, but that he had paid little attention to its form,

-      whereupon Lomax requested him to examine it closely. The elder counsellor

-      stepped up beside Harrison and began to go carefully over the instrument.

-      Presently he stopped in amazement, and put his finger down on the paper.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This will,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is utterly void.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At the word, the blood surged back into Columbia Van Bartan's face. She

-      took two steps toward Robert Dalton, then turned and buried her face in

-      the folds of a heavy curtain. Dalton was cool and entirely incredulous.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I think you are very much mistaken, Mr. Carpenter,&rdquo; he said

-      quietly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Mistaken?&rdquo; answered the counsellor. &ldquo;Why, this bequest

-      is made simply to 'St. Luke's Episcopal Church.' That organization is

-      neither an individual nor a corporation; it has no recognized legal

-      existence. And this request must fail for want of a devisee.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At this point Harrison, who was a slow but very careful man, interrupted

-      and explained with great accuracy that the will was in every detail

-      exactly as the testatrix had desired it; that even the language used was

-      her language; that she had said &ldquo;St. Luke's Episcopal Church,&rdquo;

-      and that Mr. Dalton had written it in the instrument precisely as Mrs. Van

-      Bartan had said, and that there could be no possible error either by

-      accident or design.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carpenter was about to reply, when Lomax, noticing his excitement, stepped

-      in between Harrison and the elder attorney, and pointed out at great

-      length that this was all no doubt true, but that, under the law, an

-      indefinite religious organization, could not take a bequest; that this was

-      not generally known to those unfamiliar with legal business, but that Mr.

-      Dalton should have known that, in order to devise property to a religious

-      organization, it must be given to a board of trustees, or to a certain

-      person or persons, named in the will, for a specific and accurately

-      determined purpose; that this, Mr. Dalton should have explained, and that

-      his writing down the exact words of Mrs. Van Bartan had defeated her

-      intentions, and rendered this bequest void.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But, sir,&rdquo; put in the attorney Gouch, pompously, &ldquo;the

-      testatrix's intention must control. I see no&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Come, come, my good man,&rdquo; cried Carpenter, angrily, &ldquo;this

-      is what is known in Virginia as a 'vague and indefinite charity.' Such

-      bequests have been held void for almost a century. Why Silas Hart

-      attempted to create such a devise as early as 1790, and John Marshall,

-      Chief Justice of the United States, held it void at law. Twenty years

-      later. Joseph Gallego attempted to bequeath a similar charity to the Roman

-      Catholic Church at Richmond, and Henry St. George Tucker, President of the

-      Supreme Court of Virginia, in a famous opinion, held that it must fail,

-      and from that time until the present the courts of this country have been

-      passing upon this common error of testators and their incompetent

-      advisers.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Robert Dalton looked up anxiously. &ldquo;In what cases?&rdquo; he

-      stammered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What cases!&rdquo; almost shouted the elder counsellor, for he had

-      now lost his temper completely. &ldquo;What cases, you bungler! Ask the

-      veriest pettyfogger; ask the commonest justice of the peace, but do not

-      catechise me.&rdquo; And after having delivered himself of this venom, he

-      seized his hat and cane and stalked out of the house. He was greatly

-      enraged to think that a man of Dalton's learning, a member of a firm of

-      high standing, should make such a stupendous blunder.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Later in the day Robert Dalton came to the office and requested Carpenter

-      and Lomax to join him in his private room. His face showed plainly the

-      evidences of a great mental strain. When they were together he closed the

-      door, and, turning to them, said that he had examined the question which

-      they had raised, in regard to Mrs. Van Bartan's will, and he was now

-      satisfied that he had made a prodigious error in drafting the instrument;

-      that as his mistake would deprive a powerful church of a vast estate,

-      endless criticism of a most acrimonious character would follow; that it

-      was not just for any part of this criticism to fall upon the shoulders of

-      either Carpenter or Lomax, and, therefore, he had determined to publicly

-      withdraw from the firm. To this they made scarcely a courteous objection,

-      and Dalton accordingly withdrew, publishing an announcement thereof in the

-      daily papers.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The report of a great error in Mrs. Van Bartan's will spread through the

-      city with the marvellous rapidity of an evil rumor. The vials of bitter

-      criticism were poured out upon the head of Robert Dalton. Men declared

-      that they had long suspected that he was a sham, a posing ignoramus, a

-      dangerous blunderer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The executor, Harrison, as was his duty, attempted to execute the

-      charitable bequest, but, of course, failed. Whereupon the press of the

-      city stood up in the market-place like the selfcomplacent Pharisee and

-      declared that in this day mistakes were crimes; that it was not enough for

-      an attorney to do the best he knew,&mdash;it was his duty to know; it was

-      not enough for an attorney to be honest, he must he likewise competent;

-      that the law was a learned profession in which the bungler was equally as

-      dangerous as the knave; that vast estates were conveyed by will, and how

-      easily by mistake or design a lawyer could destroy the testator's most

-      sacred wish; he could rob the helpless of his right, the dependent of his

-      inheritance, or the charitable institution of its patron's aid, and all

-      this without color of criminal wrong. The law, it asserted, punished with

-      relentless hand the man who blundered in positions of trust; it punished

-      with awful penalties the man who blundered in the heat of passion, but it

-      had no censure, no sting, no scourge for the man who blundered at the

-      bedside of the dying.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thus was Robert Dalton's fame as a lawyer damned into the veriest

-      blackness.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      III

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N a certain bleak

-      Thursday of January, Randolph Mason sat in his office, absorbed in the

-      study of a great map which was spread out on his table. The day was so

-      dark and lowering that the electric light above the table had been turned

-      on. Presently the door opened and the little clerk Parks looked in. He

-      watched the lawyer for a few moments intently; then he withdrew his head.

-      A few minutes later, the door again opened and a woman entered, and closed

-      it behind her. She stopped and looked at the counsellor, bending over his

-      map. The picture was not a pleasant one. The man's streaked, gray hair was

-      rumpled, and his heavy-muscled face under the glare of the light was

-      rather more brutal than otherwise. Then she crossed to the table and threw

-      a newspaper down on the map.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Will you kindly read that marked paragraph?&rdquo; she said.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason looked up. For a moment he did not recall the woman, her

-      face was so very white. Then he recognized his client, Mrs. Van Bartan.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You will pardon me, madam,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am deeply

-      engaged. Kindly come here tomorrow.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I have to regret,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;that I ever came

-      here at all. Will you please read that paragraph?&rdquo; And she put her

-      finger down on the newspaper.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The counsellor looked at the paper.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We notice by to-day's <i>Herald</i>,&rdquo; it ran, &ldquo;that

-      Robert Dalton, Esq., has sailed for Japan, where it is said he will become

-      a legal instructor in one of the national universities. Mr. Dalton, it

-      will be remembered, is the attorney whose stupid blunder invalidated the

-      Van Bartan will, and it is to be hoped that he will prove more efficient

-      in the service of the Mikado. The bar of the Virginias cannot be said to

-      regret Mr. Dalton's departure. He was grossly incompetent, and just such

-      men bring the legal profession into disrepute.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What of all this?&rdquo; said Mason. &ldquo;You obtained what you

-      desired. Why do you harass me with this nonsense?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I obtained it,&rdquo; repeated the woman, bitterly. &ldquo;Yes,

-      thanks to your devilish ingenuity, I obtained it, but at what a cost! I

-      have the money, but it is daubed over with the blood of a man's heart It

-      has the price of a man's honor stamped on the face of every coin. I hate

-      it all. Everything I see, every thread that touches me, taunts me with the

-      shame of such a sacrifice.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman's voice was firm, but her figure trembled like a tense wire.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam.&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;you annoy me. I have no

-      interest in this drivel.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No interest in it?&rdquo; cried the woman. &ldquo;You, you have no

-      interest in it? Was it not you who did it? You and the devil himself? You

-      concocted this plan. You said go to him, and tell him, and he would know

-      what to do. Your fiendish ingenuity saw what would result, but you did not

-      tell me. You did not tell me that this man would be compelled to rip his

-      life in two like a cloth to save me, and that he would do it. If I had

-      known this, do you suppose that I would have gone on for a moment? Do you

-      suppose that I wanted wealth, or ease, or luxury, at the cost of a man's

-      hope and fame and honor? I tell you, you miserable blunderer, this thing

-      cost too much.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Chatter,&rdquo; said Mason, rising.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Chatter!&rdquo; cried the woman, beating her hards on the table.

-      &ldquo;Do you call this chatter? I charge you,&mdash;do you hear me, I

-      charge you with the ruin of this man's life.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Madam,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;the vice of your error

-      lies in the fact that you should have consulted a priest. I am not

-      concerned with the nonsense of emotion.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he turned abruptly and walked out of the room.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <i>(See Amer, and Eng. Enc of Law. vol. ii., page 926, and the cases there

-      discussed; see also State us. Richardson, S.C. 35 Lawyers' Reports

-      Annotated, 238, and cases there cited; also Constitution of the United

-      States, Art., and the Constitution of West Virginia Art. 3, Sec. 5.)</i>

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      ONCE IN JEOPARDY

-    </h2>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      I

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE sheriff stopped

-      on the steps of the court-house, pushed his straw hat back from his

-      forehead, moved his eyeglasses up a little closer to his fat face, and

-      began to contemplate the limits of his official jurisdiction, with the air

-      of one about to deduce a law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The little county seat on Tug River slept in a pocket. Behind it and on

-      every side except the river were great mountains, half-hidden by a

-      gigantic cloak of fog. On the opposite side, from the great coal plants of

-      the Norfolk and Western Railroad a counter-canopy of smoke arose, dense

-      and voluminous, and stretched itself like a black hand out over the town

-      and across to the fog of the mountain. Man, it seemed, had conspired with

-      nature to cover up and hide the town of Welch.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Strange,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;strange, that a white

-      man should be willing to leave a paradise like this, and with river water

-      in his stomach too.&rdquo; Then he chuckled comfortably.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff of the county of McDowell was all right. He represented the

-      entire machinery of the law obtaining south of Tug River, and he carried

-      the momentous responsibility with the languid grace of a bank clerk at a

-      charity german.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff was a Virginian. But, marvel of marvels, he was a Virginian

-      without a title. He was plain W. M. Carter. The statement is not quite

-      accurate. Among the boys he was &ldquo;White&rdquo; Carter. But he was no

-      &ldquo;colonel&rdquo; and no &ldquo;major,&rdquo; and he gloried in the

-      distinction and guarded it well. The sheriff was a comfortably fat man and

-      most genial. His eyes were round, blue, and dreamy, and he never hurried.

-      He was never abrupt or a jarring element. He slipped easily into any

-      position and filled it up without a ripple, as water slips in and fills up

-      the outlines of a vessel.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Still the sheriff was all right. When he looked out of his dreamy blue

-      eyes through his rimless nose glasses at a negro miner who had used his

-      razor as an adjunct to an argument, and mildly requested the negro to

-      accompany him to the confines of the county jail, it was as certain as the

-      advent of death that the negro would obey, and obey without comment. And

-      when the sheriff mounted his &ldquo;murky dun&rdquo; horse and passed up

-      into the mountains for the purpose of inducing a moonshiner to come down

-      to civilization and submit his rights to the decision of a judicial

-      tribunal, it was a matter of familiar history that the moonshiner always

-      came.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To the inquiring stranger, no man seemed a native of McDowell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      This impression arose from the fact that the stranger adhered to the

-      railroad and the coal towns which sprang up in its wake, and in these

-      every man came from somewhere. The railroad had brought in the coal

-      companies, and the coal companies had brought in the negroes, and thus

-      towns sprang into existence, and the usual rough, expeditious methods of

-      civilization began. Then came the politician and the adventurer, and mixed

-      in merrily, and from that time forth the county of McDowell was industrial

-      and Republican, and everything &ldquo;went.&rdquo; But a few years back,

-      before the section hands on the Norfolk and Western Railroad cut through

-      from the county of Mercer, there was a population in McDowell that was not

-      Republican, and that did not &ldquo;go.&rdquo; They were long-limbed,

-      indolent, and &ldquo;handy men&rdquo; in a fight. They made corn whiskey

-      when they pleased, and voted the Democratic ticket when they saw fit, and

-      accounted to no one. The revenue officer came, and looked up at the great

-      mountains covered with the giant oaks of a century, concluded that the

-      laws were not being violated, and so reported to the Government. It was

-      vastly more comfortable than going up into these same mountains not to

-      come down at all, or maybe to come down with a squirrel bullet under the

-      ribs. In his day and generation the revenue officer was a wise man.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Here the citizen was born as it happened, lived as he could, and died as

-      the necessity arose, and the outside world neither knew nor cared nor

-      concerned itself with it. These were not bad people. Morally they were as

-      good as the sun warmed. Their life bred no shams. If they loved each

-      other, they lived together and were happy, and if they hated each other,

-      they fought it out The feud has been usually overdrawn. It existed in

-      truth, but it rarely resulted in anything more than a &ldquo;fist fight&rdquo;

-      at a grist mill, but when it grew serious, it grew very serious indeed.

-      The mountaineer always shot to kill. He was no man of half measures; it

-      was a free, open, breezy war, and perhaps it was as healthy fighting as

-      any. At his worst, the native moonshiner was a better man than the

-      imported miner at his best. Up in the fog of the mountains men were

-      killed; down in the smoke of the coke ovens they were murdered; and

-      between the two words there is a distinction as big as the honor of a

-      people.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The &ldquo;killer&rdquo; was common in McDowell, but the suicide was not,

-      perhaps because men rarely take their own lives in the mountains. It is a

-      trick of jaded civilization obtaining in congested cities, unknown and

-      unpractised by the dwellers among the hills. Men died in the mountains,

-      but by the hand of others.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      So the sheriff was puzzled. That morning the body of Brown Hirst, manager

-      of the Octagon Coal Company, had been picked up in the muddy waters of Tug

-      River, just below the bridge. Above, on the railing of the bridge, his

-      coat and vest had been found, folded and apparently laid carefully over a

-      girder. The bridge was very high above the rocky stream, and the body of

-      the man was badly crushed&mdash;almost beyond recognition. The man had

-      evidently jumped from the bridge with the deliberate intention of taking

-      his own life. All this the sheriff had heard as he rode into the town. But

-      rumors are lurid, the sheriff knew, and he concluded to go at once to the

-      prosecuting attorney. He wanted the tale straight from some one who could

-      pry the facts free from the fiction. On the steps of the court-house the

-      sheriff had paused for a moment and made some observations to himself. But

-      a crowd was beginning to gather in the street below, and the sheriff,

-      being fully aware that this portended a demand for his opinion and not

-      being pleased to express one, he turned abruptly and passed into the

-      court-house.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man of order walked leisurely down the hall to the office of the

-      prosecuting attorney and entered. A thin, red-haired girl was pounding a

-      typewriter with the energy of a two-horse-power engine. Conventionalities

-      were abbreviated in McDowell. The sheriff sauntered in.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Where's Jeb?&rdquo; he drawled.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The red-haired girl paused for a moment and jerked her thumb over her

-      shoulder. &ldquo;In there,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;busy.&rdquo; Then she

-      went on.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Miss McFadden was an economist; she wasted no words. The sheriff threw

-      open the door, and walked into the private office. The prosecuting

-      attorney turned around from the window.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hello, White!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you are the very man I want.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Which indicates,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;that you are a

-      young person of great discernment.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;When one needs horse sense,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney,

-      &ldquo;your acquaintance is valuable. At other times it is a luxury.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Together,&rdquo; observed the sheriff, mildly, &ldquo;we create a

-      sort of equoasinus intellectual atmosphere, I suppose.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The attorney took up a chair and placed it by the window.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Sit there,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and listen.&rdquo; Then he closed

-      the door, and, crossing the room, began to open the safe by his desk.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff sat down meekly and turned his dreamy blue eyes on the young

-      lawyer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell was an imported

-      article. Like the ancient wise men, he came from the East, but the manner

-      of his coming was not quite that of the early sages. The sheriff had come

-      up from the hills of Virginia, while the prosecuting attorney had come up

-      from the sea. Not that this young scion of the law' was a sailor or the

-      son of a sailor, but on a certain summer afternoon at a certain

-      fashionable resort, Fate suddenly threw away the toys with which she had

-      been amusing him, and he immediately realized that the world was a common

-      treadmill instead of a breezy French drag.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was a stiff shock, but the spine of young Mr. Huron was good, and

-      instead of stepping off the pier, at ten o'clock of that same night he was

-      demonstrating to a certain wealthy senator who had large coal interests in

-      West Virginia that it would be the part of no inconsiderable wisdom to

-      send a bright young fellow with a legal education down into this great

-      mining region for the purpose of investigating the land titles, and for

-      the purpose of keeping an eye on the industries generally, and, as it is

-      said in the law, &ldquo;for other purposes.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The old senator was by no means blind to the very slight efficiency of raw

-      material, but he had a heart hidden away under his coat, and at thirty

-      minutes past eleven he was convinced. So J. E. B. Huron came into the

-      county of McDowell, nailed up his shingle, and stepped down into the <i>melée</i>.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The opening chapters of his legal career were blue-tinted histories, but

-      the material in the backbone of young Mr. Huron was splendid material, and

-      he remained. The perception of this man of the law was no dwarfish growth,

-      and he used it like the wise. McDowell was Republican by 1600, and &ldquo;White&rdquo;

-      Carter was big boss; <i>post hoc ergo propter hoc</i>. J. E. B. Huron was

-      a Republican of ancient affiliation, and more specifically he was right

-      hand man to White Carter. This wisdom was not without its reward. The

-      convention that nominated Carter for sheriff, nominated Huron for

-      prosecuting attorney, and the big boss pulled his man through in spite of

-      splits, and splits, and independent tickets. The prosecuting attorney was

-      a handsome young fellow with a good level head. He knew the value of the

-      sheriff, and he held to him.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney took some papers from the safe, drew up a chair,

-      and sat down by the sheriff.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You have heard of Hirst's suicide?&rdquo; he said.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff nodded. &ldquo;All but the antemortem note,&rdquo; he drawled.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney smiled. &ldquo;How did you know there was a note?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Jeb,&rdquo; said the sheriff, &ldquo;it is a part of the etiquette

-      of suicide. No man effects his exit without a parting word. It would be

-      bad form, Jeb, frightfully bad form.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;So you guessed it?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the sheriff, wearily, &ldquo;my gray matter was

-      allowed me for the purpose of utility. I concluded.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney selected a letter from the package of papers and

-      passed it over to the sheriff. That official examined the envelope

-      carefully, then he slowly opened it and spread the enclosed letter out on

-      the desk before him.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Octagon Coal Company,&rdquo; he read slowly, &ldquo;Miners and

-      Shippers of Coal and Coke, Welch, West Virginia. Robert Gilmore,

-      President. Brown Hirst, Business Manager. All agreements are contingent

-      upon strikes, accidents, and other delays unavoidable or beyond our

-      control.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff paused for a moment. &ldquo;Written at the office,&rdquo; he

-      observed, &ldquo;with a pen, on the company's stationery.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The guardian of order removed his eyeglasses, wiped them carefully,

-      replaced them on his nose, and continued:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The officers of the law are informed that I, Brown Hirst, have

-      taken my own life, deliberately and at a time when I am in the full

-      possession of my faculties. My reasons for so doing are of no importance

-      to the law, and are accordingly withheld. This statement is made merely

-      for the purpose of preventing any inference of murder, and for no other

-      purpose.&mdash;Brown Hirst.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff replaced the letter in its envelope. &ldquo;That,&rdquo; he

-      said, &ldquo;Is a sensible communication. By the very highest flame on the

-      altar of folly, it is an exceedingly sensible communication. Where did you

-      find it?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The coat and vest,&rdquo; replied the lawyer, &ldquo;were found

-      lying carefully folded over the railing of the bridge. This letter was in

-      the breast pocket of the coat. Hirst evidently went about his death with

-      great deliberation. Still, I see no motive for suicide.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Jeb,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;you are <i>long</i> on

-      motives. Everything must have a motive stamped in red ink on its face.

-      Can't you allow an obscure citizen to change his permanent residence and

-      retain his reasons? The gentleman has said in his communication that his

-      reasons are of no moment to the law. Can't you take the gentleman's word

-      for it? It is n't courteous, Jeb. By the way, where is the corpse of the

-      decedent?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Within the sacred jurisdiction of the coroner.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And the medical fraternity?&rdquo; inquired the sheriff.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Doctor Hart is over in Jacktown putting the finishing touches, it

-      is said, on old Pap Dolan, so the coroner called in a miracle doctor from

-      Cincinnati.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff chuckled. &ldquo;Miracle doctor,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;is

-      good&mdash;is very good.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney assumed the air of an instructor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Healers,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;may be set down, for the purposes

-      of a proper classification, under three great heads or grand divisions,

-      namely, 'yarb doctors,' 'old-line practitioners,' and 'miracle doctors.'

-      Under the first class may be grouped those persons who seek to effect

-      cures by means of the virtues of shrubbery, as well as that vast army of

-      rural healers known along the watershed of the Alleghanies as 'bleeders'

-      and 'steamers.' Under the second great division are included those grave

-      professional persons supposed to be learned in the mysteries of the human

-      economy, who, for a fixed consideration, guess at the ill, and thrust in a

-      chemical: while the third and final division is composed of those

-      mysterious healers who affect to thwart dissolution by means of marvellous

-      knowledge or marvellous skill peculiar to themselves.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The species of the first grand division infest all that great tract

-      of country bounded by a timber line. The second great class obtains in the

-      cities and villages, and affect buggies, drugs, and sombre dress. The

-      third class is a by-product of congested civilization, and begins usually

-      with a patent lotion, and ends usually with a hospital.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      White Carter waved his fat hand. &ldquo;But, if your honor, please,&rdquo;

-      he interrupted, &ldquo;what did the miracle doctor say?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;He said,&rdquo; replied the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;that Brown

-      Hirst was a compound fracture from the sustentaculum tali to the tripod of

-      Haller; and from the tripod of Haller to the corpus callossum, he was a

-      simple fracture.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Horrible,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And he said further,&rdquo; continued the man of the law, &ldquo;that

-      the suiciding decedent was probably afflicted with some species of

-      psychical neurosis.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;<i>Domine miserere!</i>&rdquo; murmured the guardian of order.

-      &ldquo;So the travelling Æsculapius testified, and as the coroner was

-      quite unable to spell the craft terms, he simply wrote down in the record

-      that Doctor Leon Dupey of Cincinnati, after a careful examination, had

-      pronounced Brown Hirst dead, which was far less prolix and entirely true.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That coroner,&rdquo; observed White Carter, &ldquo;should be United

-      States Senator from Kansas.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Huron took up the note and put it with the other papers.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I judge this to be a plain case of suicide,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I

-      have carefully compared the writing with these letters. It is certainly

-      Brown Hirst's writing. Still, men do not act without a motive, and I see

-      no justifiable motive.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the sheriff, &ldquo;I happen to know that

-      financially the Octagon Coal Company is somewhat 'groggy.' How will that

-      answer for a motive <i>ad interim?</i> Or, as the sensible would say, in

-      the meantime?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney. Then he took a pencil

-      from his pocket, and wrote on the back of the decedent's letter &ldquo;Suicide.

-      Motive&mdash;business depression,&rdquo; and replaced the papers in the

-      safe.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff arose. &ldquo;The legend you have subscribed is probably

-      correct,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;but the ways of Providence are varied

-      and mystic, and I think I shall make some observations in my own right.&rdquo;

-      Then he went out.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      II

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>T is quite plain,&rdquo;

-      said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;that you have fallen into the usual blunder of

-      the common rogue. If you had wished to rob the insurance companies, you

-      could easily have accomplished your end without perpetrating this crime,

-      and thus assume the hazard of discovery and criminal prosecution.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Robert Gilmore looked sharply at the counsellor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You mean that I am seeking advice late?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Precisely,&rdquo; said Mason. &ldquo;It is the characteristic error

-      of the witless.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; observed the coal operator, &ldquo;in desperate

-      positions one usually relies on one's-self; confederates are dangerous,

-      and usually expert advice is difficult to obtain.&rdquo; Then he laughed.

-      &ldquo;I could not advertise for sealed bids on how the thing should be

-      done. I did the best possible under the circumstances, and I rather

-      thought that I had made a clean job of it.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That delusion,&rdquo; muttered Mason, &ldquo;is common with the

-      amateur. Indeed, it is the mark of him. This killing was useless. You

-      could have gotten on as well without it.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The keen, gray eyes of Robert Gilmore twinkled. &ldquo;I should be

-      interested to know how?&rdquo; he said.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;At this late hour,&rdquo; answered Randolph Mason, &ldquo;my advice

-      upon that point can be of no importance. Suggestions after the fact are of

-      little interest and of no value. You have now to consider some method by

-      which you may place yourself permanently beyond the reach of the law. This

-      is no problem of slight moment, and, in order to meet it properly, I must

-      know the details of this blundering business.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The coal operator's face grew grave and thoughtful. &ldquo;I presume,&rdquo;

-      he began, &ldquo;that the priest and the attorney are accustomed to

-      require details and accurate confessions. I am president of the Octagon

-      Coal Company, as I have said, and reside in the city of Philadelphia,

-      where I have been engaged in active business for several years. My life

-      beyond that time cannot be a matter of any special importance. I may add,

-      however, that I had been engaged with a foreign company as a fire

-      insurance adjuster for the State of Illinois for some years before coming

-      to the East. It was while acting as an adjuster of losses that I first met

-      with Brown Hirst.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;An unusually large fire occurred in one of the suburban towns near

-      Chicago, destroying almost an entire block, and I was sent out by my

-      company to adjust the loss. Upon my arrival in the town I found what I

-      believed to be evidence of a gigantic fraud. The block had been leased for

-      a year by one John Hall for the purpose of doing a mammoth general

-      business with a great number of different departments, and almost before

-      Hall had opened his doors to the public this fire occurred. There was no

-      explanation of how the fire originated. When first noticed by the police,

-      about three o'clock in the morning, the building was blazing fiercely in a

-      dozen places, and under such headway as to be impossible to control. The

-      local fire department was unable to prevent the loss of the building, but

-      fortunately a heavy rainstorm set in and prevented a total loss of the

-      stock.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In conversation with Hall, I discovered that not one domestic

-      company had a dollar on the building or its stock, but that the entire

-      insurance was carried in my company and a number of London companies

-      usually associated with it, and for whom I acted as general adjuster. This

-      was of itself a suspicious circumstance, since the insured would not be

-      subject to the inquisition of numberless representatives of convenient

-      local companies, and in a legal fight would have the prejudice against a

-      remote company in his favor, and, further, he would have but one man to

-      deal with.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I observed immediately that Hall was a person of much shrewdness.

-      He talked little, but what he had to say was exceedingly free from any

-      suggestion of concealment or obscurity. When I came to examine the

-      unburned stock, my suspicions were confirmed. It was composed entirely of

-      bulky merchandise, evidently selected with a view to a fire.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The manner of its arrangement in the building was exceedingly

-      suspicious. The boxes had been piled up before the windows in such a

-      manner as to prevent the firemen from entering the building even after the

-      iron bars had been cut, and the arrangement was such that when the fire

-      should gain headway and the windows be opened, the position of the boxes

-      would act as a sort of flue and thereby greatly assist the fire. It was

-      all exceedingly well planned, and if the building had been entirely

-      consumed, detection would have been impossible. Nothing could have

-      prevented this but the unforeseen storm, and had it not occurred just when

-      it did, Hall's scheme would have proved a masterpiece of its kind.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I gave the public no intimation of my conclusions concerning the

-      incendiary nature of the fire, but when the investigation was concluded, I

-      took Hall to the hotel, and told him frankly that my company would not pay

-      the loss, as it was quite evident that it was all a shrewdly arranged

-      scheme to defraud. I pointed out the suspicious circumstances, and the

-      irresistible conclusion that flowed from them, and said plainly that Hall

-      would do well to escape criminal prosecution.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;To my utter astonishment, the man expressed no surprise whatever.

-      When I had finished, he asked me a few searching questions intended to

-      determine the thoroughness of my investigation, and when he was satisfied

-      upon that point, he drew his chair up near to the table at which I was

-      seated, and quietly proposed to divide the insurance if I would join with

-      him and make the proper sort of report to my company.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In handling this proposition, Hall was marvellously skilful. He

-      assumed to treat the matter purely as a business arrangement. He said that

-      the loss, although big to us, was a very small matter to the wealthy

-      companies which I represented, and would not be felt by them, and would

-      cause no man any appreciable hurt; that he had gone to infinite pains and

-      no little expense to perfect his plan, and nothing but the unfortunate

-      storm could have prevented its complete success; that he had never

-      intended to divide with any one, but accident against which he could not

-      guard had placed me in a position to secure a portion of the very

-      considerable sum which he had gone to so much trouble and expense to

-      obtain, and, appreciating this new necessity, he was quite willing to

-      allow me an equal division of the gain. At no time during his entire

-      conversation was there any suggestion of danger or any allusion to any

-      risk, criminal or otherwise.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is unnecessary, I judge, to weary you with further details.

-      Under the remarkable handling of this man, the element of substantial

-      wrong seemed to disappear from the transaction, and the result was that I

-      finally consented to join with him. He claimed two hundred thousand

-      dollars. I reported to the company a complete loss, but advised a

-      settlement at not more than one half of the sum claimed. This finally led

-      to an adjustment at about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, without

-      the least suspicion of a community of interests between us.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It would not be quite true to assume that I easily fell in with

-      Hall's plan, although in point of time it would seem so. Financially, I

-      was in a bad way; from childhood I had been poor; always poor. In money

-      matters, things invariably went wrong. Every hazard I had taken, every

-      speculation in which I had entered, had always lost, no matter how

-      substantial it seemed. At this time I was rather desperate, I presume. At

-      any rate, I joined with the scheme, and it succeeded without a jar.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Thus I came to know Brown Hirst under his alias. We divided the

-      money and deposited it with a trust company in Philadelphia until such

-      time as we might safely join in some one of the numerous ventures which

-      Brown Hirst was continually planning. But he was no dreamer, this Hirst.

-      He knew fully the great virtue of deliberation, and insisted that I remain

-      with the insurance company for at least a year, and then secure employment

-      with another company on some reasonable pretext, and then by some error be

-      discharged from this company, and if possible join with another, until

-      finally I should drift out of the business without being subject to

-      speculative comment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;These suggestions of Hirst I followed to the letter, and they

-      resulted as he anticipated. I had now great confidence in the ability of

-      this remarkable man. The details of his plans were as accurate as the

-      pieces of a machine, and they seemed never capable of failure.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The coal operator paused and rested his hands on the arms of his chair.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Even now,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I consider Brown Hirst to have

-      been the ablest man I ever saw.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason was silent. His face indicated rather more of weariness

-      than of interest. Perhaps the story in its substance was very old to him.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;On the first day of September, 1893, I joined Brown Hirst in

-      Philadelphia, and here he unfolded a number of gigantic plans, among

-      others one for defrauding life insurance companies, which we finally

-      decided to attempt. I do not now recall that I felt any real repugnance to

-      the moral obliquity of these ventures. The mastermind of Hirst seemed to

-      sweep out any moral consideration, by simply ignoring it utterly. When

-      Hirst planned, it was all business, and, according to the ethics of

-      business, quite as right as any. Indeed, the man was so phenomenally

-      successful where I had always failed, that I never once dreamed of

-      objecting to any plan which he deemed wise.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;As I have said, Brown Hirst was as practical as a blue print. He

-      used to assert that of all vices haste was the most abominable, and that

-      before seeking to effect our venture it would be the part of wisdom to

-      engage in some legitimate business for a few years in order to establish a

-      reputation as a substantial business firm. Then our plans would be rid of

-      the suggestion of adventurers. Besides, it would give us financial rating

-      and substantial standing in the community in which we should begin our

-      fraudulent operations, and as well, in the meantime, we could prepare our

-      motives, which, Hirst asserted, should always be furnished ready-made to

-      the public when investigation began.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We accordingly determined to purchase and operate a coal plant in

-      West Virginia. This business was suited to our purpose rather better than

-      any other, because men were continually coming and going in this business.

-      Unknown companies were formed in remote cities and operated merely with an

-      agent. The firm was rarely investigated to any very great degree, if it

-      promptly met its obligations, and there being little opportunity for

-      fraud, a good business standing could be easily secured by any manager who

-      was reasonably expeditious in his transactions.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We secured a charter for the Octagon Coal Company, purchased a

-      plant on the Norfolk and Western Railroad in the county of McDowell, and

-      began to operate with Brown Hirst as manager and myself president of the

-      presumed Philadelphia company.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hirst was, as I have said, a man of fine business sense, and very

-      shortly began to make money. We enlarged the plant, and soon came to be

-      considered a firm of importance. When it grew apparent that we could

-      succeed at a legitimate business, I began to urge Hirst to abandon his

-      dangerous venture entirely, and devote his splendid abilities to the

-      development of the coal industry; but he only laughed, and bade me

-      remember that all this required work, and it was not his intention to

-      spend his life at work.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, interrupting, &ldquo;you are

-      overlooking the important matter in your disclosure. What was this

-      insurance scheme?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh. yes,&rdquo; said the coal operator, &ldquo;I was coming to

-      that. It was our plan to secure heavy insurance on the life of Hirst,

-      making his wife the beneficiary, and later have him disappear under

-      circumstances indicating suicide.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That plan,&rdquo; said Mason, drawing down the heavy muscles of his

-      mouth, &ldquo;is ancient, and infantile, and trite; worthy of blunderers&mdash;children

-      and blunderers.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Gilmore looked at the lawyer for a moment critically, then he continued.

-      &ldquo;I presume the scheme is not new, but I rather think Hirst's plan

-      for carrying it into effect was somewhat novel and unusually practical. At

-      the time Hirst proposed this scheme he was unmarried, and, as a cold

-      business proposition, he said that I should select some woman&mdash;any

-      woman agreeable to me, whom I should like as a wife, then he would marry

-      her, insure his life for her benefit, make his exit, and afterwards I

-      should marry the woman and send half of the insurance money to him in

-      Spain or Italy, where he had determined to take up his permanent

-      residence.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;He urged that it would be best to keep the woman totally ignorant

-      of our plan, so that if anything should go wrong, she could not be

-      implicated in a conspiracy, and, therefore, could not be prevented from

-      obtaining the insurance as, she being the sole beneficiary and no fraud on

-      her part being possible, any suspected or even assured fraud on my part

-      would not void the policy payable to her, provided he, Hirst, could not be

-      found within seven years.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hence, two considerations were necessary in selecting the woman.

-      First, she must be so situated as to reduce suspicion of her to the

-      minimum. And, second, she must be one whom I could marry as Hirst's widow

-      and thereby obtain the money. This part of the plan was allotted to me to

-      complete. You will now see with what a remarkable man I was associated,

-      and how little regard he entertained for the customs of human society.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In leaguing myself with this man's fortune I blundered fatally. My

-      nature was entirely different. I could not shut out the natural emotions.

-      I could not crowd out the human in me. I was no calculating machine like

-      this man Hirst, and in carrying out my portion of the venture I made a

-      frightful mistake.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I am not now going into the details of that mistake. It will be

-      sufficient for the purposes of this interview to say that the woman whom

-      Hirst finally married was a good woman, the daughter of a venerable

-      churchman residing in one of the suburban towns of Philadelphia,&mdash;such

-      a good woman that no sooner had the ceremony taken place than I began to

-      regret having associated her with such a cold-blooded villain as Brown

-      Hirst, and as the days ran by, that regret grew into a very passion of

-      remorse.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man paused for a moment, raised his elbows up on the arms of his chair

-      and locked his fingers.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I guess it was a sort of Providential judgment,&rdquo; he

-      continued, &ldquo;if such things are supposed to be in this practical

-      time. I avoided the woman as far as possible, and strove to conceal my

-      terrible regret, but it was quite useless. Hirst knew almost before I

-      realized the feeling myself, and harshly bade me remember that this was

-      business, and no matter of maudlin sentiment. He had no feeling whatever

-      for the woman, and if I could wait for a little time the plan would very

-      shortly give her to me. He warned me against what he was pleased to call

-      'nonsense,' and I must admit that the powerful personality of this man

-      forced me into a sort of stolid subjection to his will. But the feeling

-      for the woman remained, and I hated Hirst.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason put out his hand as though to interrupt the speaker, but,

-      appearing to reconsider, suddenly withdrew it and nodded to the coal

-      operator to continue. The young man took no notice of the interruption.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hirst,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;like the master spirit that he

-      was, proceeded to put the details of his plan into operation. From time to

-      time he applied to the best companies in the country for insurance, and as

-      he was considered a good risk, a man of fine physique, and in charge of a

-      substantial business, he presently secured about two hundred thousand

-      dollars on his life. These policies he carried for two years in order to

-      avoid the suicide clause, and in order to render them as nearly

-      incontestable as possible.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Finally, every arrangement having been completed, the time drew

-      near when Brown Hirst determined to make the final movement in his scheme.

-      But during these two years my hate of this man had not been idle. I don't

-      know just what possessed me. I had no good reason to hate him. It was all,

-      as he said, a business matter,&mdash;details in a pure business matter.

-      But I did hate him, and, unconsciously, one does not know just how. I

-      determined to take a part in his plan. I determined to make the play real.

-      This determination was no sudden resolve; it seemed rather to evolve

-      slowly until it finally became a fixed purpose. The motive for the

-      supposed suicide, Hirst had by no means overlooked. It was to be impending

-      financial ruin, and during the past year immediately preceding his death

-      Brown Hirst drew great sums from the business, and finally mortgaged and

-      remortgaged the entire coal plant and applied the money to the payment of

-      his heavy insurance, so that at the time of his disappearance the business

-      would be in a state of financial collapse, and the motive for his rash

-      deed would be adequate and thoroughly apparent.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;During all this time, Hirst operated in McDowell near the county

-      seat of Welch, his wife remaining for the most part with her father, while

-      I maintained a city office in Philadelphia. On the day set apart for the

-      disappearance of Brown Hirst, there was a stockholders' meeting of our

-      company at its principal office in West Virginia. It was a sham, but it

-      was rumored that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss some measure

-      that would relieve our business from impending ruin. This was the purpose

-      made public. The real purpose was to account for my presence in McDowell.

-      It was a part of Hirst's plan that I should remain behind after his

-      disappearance in order to see that everything was properly arranged, and

-      then take a night train for the East.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The preliminary details of that night's work were splendidly

-      managed. We met together at the office of the company. Here Hirst wrote a

-      letter explaining that he was about to take his own life, and placed it in

-      the pocket of his coat.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then he took a bundle of men's clothing, in which he intended to

-      make his escape from the country. This bundle consisted of a grimy coat

-      such as the ordinary miner wears, in the pockets of which he had placed a

-      package of bank notes, a pocket-book containing a New York draft and a

-      memorandum of his insurance policies.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The trousers, shoes, and other articles of this disguise Hirst wore

-      when he left the office, it being his intention to leave his usual coat

-      and vest on the bridge over Tug River, as evidence of the suicide, and

-      then, assuming the remainder of his disguise, slip out to Cincinnati on

-      the night freight.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;From the office we went directly to the bridge over Tug River, for

-      the reason, as Brown Hirst always maintained, that in order to leave

-      perfect circumstantial evidence it was absolutely necessary to actually do

-      as far as possible the things which one desired the public to believe one

-      had done.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It was perhaps two o'clock, and very dark and wet. It had been

-      raining for almost a week. This was largely in our favor, since the river

-      at flood is deep and rapid, and a body lost in it when the water was

-      running high would not probably be recovered at all, as we had noticed was

-      the case with lumbermen not infrequently drowned; hence we had selected

-      the time of heaviest rains in this region in order that the loss of the

-      body should not seem a matter of unusual moment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It might be as well to explain that when Tug River is swollen by

-      rains its channel beneath the bridge is very deep and rapid nearest its

-      east shore, while near the west shore its bed is higher and covered with

-      immense bowlders; thus anything thrown into this river on its east side

-      would probably be carried away and lost, while if dropped from the bridge

-      on the west side it would probably lodge among the bowlders, and remain

-      after the high water had subsided.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;As I have said, it was very dark, and the roar of the waters was

-      something frightful, but we were quite familiar with the bridge, and,

-      becoming accustomed to the darkness, presently came to see sufficiently

-      for our purposes.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hirst went directly to the span of the bridge nearest the east

-      shore, and, removing his coat and vest, placed them across one of the

-      girders. Then he began to undo the bundle in order to put on the miner's

-      clothing which he had brought with him.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This was my opportunity, and I suggested that we first walk to the

-      other side in order to make sure that the bridge was entirely clear. He

-      immediately put down the bundle and came up to me. I do not now know

-      whether there was in his mind any trace of suspicion, but I do know that

-      at this suggestion the man seized my arm and tried to look into my face,

-      and I am certain that had it been light he would have discovered the

-      treachery which I was contemplating. But it was dark, and the man said

-      nothing except to curse the night. He was exceedingly profane, this Hirst,

-      and as we walked the length of the bridge, he holding my arm and damning

-      the night in half whispers, I somehow felt that this man appreciated in a

-      vague way the doom that was impending. But I presume that this was simply

-      an impression arising from the intense strain under which I was laboring.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;As we were about to return, I pointed to the white surf, breaking

-      on the bowlders below. The man, still holding my arm, stopped, leaned over

-      the low railing, and peered down into the water. This was the position

-      into which I had hoped to trap him, and, wrenching my arm loose suddenly,

-      I struck him heavily between the shoulders. The man plunged forward over

-      the railing, clutching wildly at the air, but he uttered no cry. and his

-      body whirled downward into the blackness below.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I clung to the railing and strove to see where the body would

-      strike, but it was folly. The bridge was high above the rough stream, and

-      I heard only the dull splash that told of his death.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The eyes of the coal operator seemed to stretch at the corners, and a dull

-      gray spread over his face.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I should like to be rid of that scene,&rdquo; he continued after a

-      moment. &ldquo;It is frightfully vivid. Every detail of it seems to have

-      been photographed on my brain, and it runs before me like the pictures in

-      a vitascope. Men sometimes forget such things, it is said, but, in the

-      name of Heaven, how? Why, I can see him any moment in the dark. I can see

-      his strained white face mad with horror, I can see his clutching hands, I

-      can feel in my own throat just how the terror of death choked in his, and

-      I know, I know&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason struck his clenched fist heavily on the table. &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo;

-      he said sharply, &ldquo;you will kindly omit this drivel. Give me the

-      facts just as they occurred. You may reserve your melodrama for the

-      purposes of a copyright.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Gilmore started and threw up his head as though some one had suddenly

-      dashed ice-water in his face. He put his hand up to his forehead and

-      pressed his fingers hard against the skin; then he straightened in his

-      chair and seemed to gain his self-control.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;I went back to the east side of the

-      bridge, threw the bundle over into the river, slipped through to the

-      Chesapeake and Ohio on one of the night freights, and by noon of the same

-      day I was in Philadelphia.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That afternoon the city office was advised of Brown Hirst's

-      suicide. We immediately wired the prosecuting attorney for details, and

-      were informed that he had jumped from the bridge, leaving a note in his

-      pocket which explained that he had taken his own life. The body was

-      shipped to Philadelphia, as his wife directed. Almost immediately I began

-      to close the affairs of the Octagon Coal Company, and very shortly after

-      the funeral I called upon Mrs. Hirst in order to take the preliminary

-      steps looking toward the collection of her husband's insurance.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Here my plan struck and went to pieces like a vapor. The wife of

-      Brown Hirst was a good woman, and I had failed to foresee what she would

-      do under circumstances of this nature. To my utter astonishment, she

-      informed me that the representatives of the insurance companies had been

-      to see her and had asked time in which to investigate the case, and that

-      she had gladly concurred in their request. And then, like a woman, she

-      declared that there was no reason why her husband should commit suicide,

-      and that she did not believe he had done so, but that, if he had

-      deliberately taken his own life, she would not touch one dollar of the

-      insurance money; that she would have nothing bought with life. If it could

-      be shown that her husband was murdered, as she believed, then she saw no

-      reason why she should not claim the insurance; but if, on the other hand,

-      it proved true that he had planned to defraud the life insurance company

-      for her benefit, and, pursuant to that awful plan, had hurled himself into

-      eternity, then she would starve in an almshouse before she would touch a

-      penny of the money.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This statement struck me with the crushing power of an axe stroke.

-      The world seemed to pass out from under me. I saw every hope of the future

-      vanish. I realized in a flash, as one is said to do at the grave's edge,

-      in what a prodigious error I had been engaged.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      There must have been some suggestion of annoyance on the counsellor's

-      face, for the coal operator stopped short and moved uneasily in his chair.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I was about to forget your instructions,&rdquo; he explained, with

-      a shade of apology in his voice; &ldquo;it is rather hard to crowd one's

-      emotions out of a desperate, personal narrative like this, although, of

-      course, it is all nonsense to rant about it.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;To be brief, I was totally unable to shake this woman's purpose,

-      and I returned to the city knowing that a tireless investigation was about

-      to begin. I have not waited to see the result of this investigation. I

-      know that the insurance companies and this unusual woman will leave no

-      stone unturned in order to discover just how Hirst came to his death, and

-      I am not fool enough to think that they will eventually fail. I don't

-      believe any of the bosh about murder crying from the ground, but I am

-      entirely convinced that it is almost impossible to cover a crime so that

-      human ingenuity cannot trail down the man who committed it.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I judge that I was not intended for business of this sort. I cannot

-      fight out in good order. With me a retreat is a rout. I have abandoned

-      everything. I have thrown away every plan. I am trying now to save myself

-      from the hangman, or at least the penitentiary. I have not waited to be

-      caught; I have come to you at once.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man seemed to relax and settle back in his chair.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he added, with the utter dependence of a patient

-      stretched upon the table of the surgeon, &ldquo;you must save me.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The eyes of Randolph Mason flattened as though they were being pressed

-      down from above, and the lines of his face deepened and widened into

-      rugged furrows.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;There are two methods of evading the law,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The

-      escape <i>ipso jure</i> planned before the fact; and the escape <i>ipso

-      jure</i> after the fact. The first is a matter of no great difficulty, and

-      may easily be prepared by any man reasonably conversant with the law of

-      the place of his intended act, and if skilfully arranged need contain no

-      element of hazard whatever. The latter is far more difficult, and must be

-      handled with some care in order to reduce the element of peril to its

-      minimum. In the first, one constructs the facts to suit the defects in the

-      law, and if executed with any degree of intelligence, the criminal actor

-      has nothing whatever to fear, and the law is as harmless as a painted

-      devil.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In the latter, the expert must take the facts as circumstance and

-      the blundering criminal agent have made them, and strive to adapt these

-      prepared facts to the law as it stands, which is a far more difficult

-      proceeding, and not infrequently attended with disastrous results. Hence

-      the skill of certain criminal lawyers, and the long technical legal

-      battles with which the books are crowded.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;As for you, sir, the scheme in which you have been an actor was

-      abominably planned, and more abominably executed. The most drivelling

-      intelligence should have seen peril staring out from every infantile move

-      made by you and this stupendous blunderer Hirst. You have taken an old,

-      time-worn plan, teeming with dangers, and, not content with its frightful

-      hazards, you and this witless Hirst have added one complicated peril after

-      another until you have finally constructed a masterpiece of idiocy that in

-      its complex nonsense approaches the sublime.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I wonder, sir, that you have not gone to the authorities and

-      requested an execution. It would be a fitting sequel to your atrocious

-      errors.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The face of the counsellor was ugly with a sneer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Your seeking counsel at once stands out as your one intelligent

-      act. It is marvellous discretion, Judged by your narrative; marvellous and

-      unexpected. Let us hope that your period of mental aberration is past.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he arose and stood looking down at the man who, like many another,

-      had striven to throw the machinery of human justice out of its proper

-      gear, and had simply succeeded in tangling himself in its complicated

-      wheels.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In order to save you now,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, &ldquo;we

-      must move quickly. These great insurance companies have the ablest

-      detective service of the world. With such a bungle as you have made, it is

-      merely a question of a few weeks until they will succeed in fastening this

-      murder upon you, not directly perhaps, but sufficiently to warrant your

-      arrest, and then you must take your hazards with a jury. The man who

-      to-day hopes to cover his crime well enough to baffle the keen and

-      tireless search of a great life insurance company must be governed by

-      something vastly nearer to an intelligence than that upon which you and

-      the decedent Hirst depended.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;At this stage of your blunder there are but two ways by which it is

-      possible to put you absolutely beyond the reach of the law. Death is one

-      way, and we will pass that. The other I am now going to bring to your aid.

-      With it the greatest care and haste are vital. At nine to-night you must

-      be here prepared to put yourself wholly in my hands. I shall have every

-      arrangement complete by that time.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Mason stopped short, and put his hand down heavily upon the table.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now, sir,&rdquo; he said, bluntly, &ldquo;it will be entirely

-      useless for me to attempt the drastic measures necessary in your case

-      unless you are prepared to act under my fingers like a machine. Can you do

-      that?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the man, wiping the perspiration from his face.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Randolph Mason, opening the door of his private

-      office, &ldquo;go down to your hotel and sleep; and if you please, sir, do

-      not think, or, to be more accurate, do not attempt to think. Your

-      thoughts, as has been demonstrated, are of no value to you, and I assure

-      you, sir, they will be quite useless to me.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he closed the door after the departing criminal and went back to his

-      desk.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      III

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE sheriff was

-      riding slowly down the narrow mountain road to the ford over Tug River,&mdash;&ldquo;Jim's

-      Ford&rdquo; the natives of McDowell had dubbed this crossing far back when

-      the dry ginseng root was a legal tender for all debts public and private

-      southwest, as the crow flies, from the county of Mercer. Whence the name

-      had come, and by reason of what, tradition was silent. No doubt the

-      original Jim had dwelt in this rugged gorge, and by accidental hap had

-      given his name to this rocky ford that lived on and proclaimed him long

-      after the man had passed out into the hands of the Wind.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To the negro miner, seven miles up at the town of Welch, this rugged

-      crossing, studded with great bowlders, was respectfully referred to as

-      &ldquo;Hell's Gap,&rdquo;&mdash;respectfully, for no other reason than

-      that the negroes were superstitious, and the mammoth gorge, silent as the

-      grave floor, and deep and foggy except in the long summer afternoons, was

-      calculated to conjure every grim phantom set down in the African

-      catalogue.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff pulled up his &ldquo;dun&rdquo; horse suddenly, and threw his

-      leg over the pommel of his saddle. Just below him in the ford of the river

-      was a man wading out into the water,&mdash;a tall mountaineer,

-      bare-headed, his dress indicating a rather equal compromise between the

-      barbarity of the village and the barbarity of the mountain. For upper

-      garment he wore the red-fringed hunting shirt of his fathers and his

-      grandfathers and on; and for nether garment, the blue overalls purchased

-      at the country store for a haunch of venison or a bundle of hides. The

-      mountaineer was tall, rugged, and powerful,&mdash;a proper inhabitant for

-      such a place.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Spitler Hamrick,&rdquo; murmured the sheriff.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By every limping god! The toughest pine knot in the mountains of

-      McDowell. I wonder what the old wolf is looking for.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he tightened his knee on the pommel of the saddle and a slow smile

-      crept over the features of the sheriff. &ldquo;By my troth'&rdquo; he

-      drawled, &ldquo;it is certain that Spitler is no Vere de Vere. Still, if

-      blue blood ran to back, and bunches of muscles on the shoulders, Spitler's

-      claim to princely lineage would be unquestioned.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      White Carter stopped short, and adjusted his eye-glasses. The mountaineer

-      had gathered up a bundle from the river and was turning to wade ashore.

-      The man did not at once see the sheriff; he was looking down into the

-      water in order to avoid slipping on the smooth stones. When he stepped on

-      to the rocky bank of the river, the sheriff called. At the sound, the

-      mountaineer dropped the bundle and jerked up a Winchester that lay nearby

-      against a bowlder. It was an act after the custom of the mountains. One

-      armed himself first, and observed the &ldquo;lay of the land&rdquo;

-      afterwards.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      White Carter remained perfectly motionless. &ldquo;I would n't shoot,

-      Spitler,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;it's vulgar.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The mountaineer dropped the butt of his rifle on the stones, and looked up

-      in astonishment. &ldquo;Smoky hell!&rdquo; ejaculated the mountaineer,

-      &ldquo;it air the sheriff. Smoky hell!&rdquo; The refrain was a nervous

-      idiom with Spitler Hamrick.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      White Carter put his hand into the pocket of his coat, took out a pipe,

-      knocked the ashes from the bowl and began to fill it with great

-      deliberation. This act, remaining after the red man had passed, proclaimed

-      a status of dignified truce.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The play of action faded from Hamrick's face, leaving it stolid, heavy,

-      prodigiously indifferent. It was the mountain's stamp on its minion, the

-      silence, and the abominable indifference of the rugged earth ground into

-      the faces of the men who struggle for life on her stony breast.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hot,&rdquo; observed the sheriff, crowding the bowl of his pipe and

-      thrusting the tobacco down with his broad thumb.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The mountaineer folded his arms over the muzzle of his rifle and leaned

-      upon it heavily.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yas,&rdquo; he responded, &ldquo;warmish,&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was the full measure of salutation, and the full measure of

-      introduction to all matters, important or unimportant, on the watershed of

-      the Alleghanies. In the mountains no man hurried with his speech. There

-      was time to be fully understood, and time to answer fully; then what one

-      did afterwards, one was not so likely to regret. In the flat lands men are

-      not so wise, perhaps.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff struck a match on his saddle skirt, lighted his pipe, and

-      puffed a cloud of blue smoke rings out over the placid ears of the &ldquo;murky

-      dun.&rdquo; Presently he took the pipe stem from between his teeth and

-      looked down at the solitary proprietor of Jim's Ford.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Spitler,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;what 's in the bundle?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ye kin look,&rdquo; responded the mountaineer with prodigious

-      unconcern.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff replaced his pipe and lapsed into silence for a moment. Then

-      he said:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Where did you find it, Spitler?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I reckin ye saw,&rdquo; replied the scion of the house of Hamrick.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The guardian of order looked up at the blue sky over the top of his nose

-      glasses. Then he looked down. &ldquo;Spitler,&rdquo;&mdash;he said softly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The mountaineer interrupted. &ldquo;Sheriff,&rdquo; he growled, &ldquo;old

-      Spitler Hamrick don't stand no shammackin' round the bush. Smoky hell! He

-      aint never stood it. Things air goin' to be like this: ye kin mosey' down

-      here and git this bundle, air ye kin ride on. But ye can't set on you hoss

-      and jaw. Smoky hell! Ye can't set on you hoss and jaw.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      There was no circumlocution, no trick of equivocation, no shadow of

-      obscurity in the speech of the denizen of Hell's Gap He used words for the

-      purpose of expressing exactly what he believed to be true, and for no

-      other purpose. This the sheriff knew, and others had learned and

-      remembered by certain long glistening scars, covered afterward with the

-      red flannel of their hunting shirts.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      White Carter removed his knee from the pommel of his saddle and slipped

-      down to the ground. Here he paused for a moment, knocked the ashes from

-      his pipe and replaced it in his pocket. Then he clambered down the steep

-      bank to the river. The proprietor of Jim's Ford looked on with mighty

-      indifference. The sheriff took up the bundle without a word, returned to

-      his horse, and unbuckling the &ldquo;throat latch&rdquo; of his bridle,

-      strapped the bundle to the horn of his saddle. Then he placed his right

-      foot in the stirrup and turned to the mountaineer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Spitler,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;we found a dead man in Tug the

-      other day. I think this is his coat.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The mountaineer looked up from the muzzle of his Winchester. &ldquo;Were

-      there lead in him?&rdquo; he asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff flung his leg over the saddle and gathered up his bridle from

-      the horse's neck.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No bullet holes,&rdquo; he answered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the giant Hamrick, &ldquo;he were not killed in

-      the hills.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      IV

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>T was the first

-      Monday of July, and the grand inquisitors of the county of McDowell were

-      in laborious session. It was hot in Welch,&mdash;so hot that the sheriff

-      had purchased a linen coat and departed for Atlantic City on a ten-dollar

-      excursion, leaving the deputy, Salathiel Jenkins, to swelter with the

-      grand jury. So hot that J. E. B. Huron, prosecuting attorney by selection

-      of the Commonwealth, resorted to expressions not quite profane but nipping

-      close to the border. So hot that the foreman from Charity Fork made

-      continual odious reference to that historic locality over which Lazarus

-      passed in the bosom of Abraham.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The grand jury was a body mightily out of harmony with its inquisitorial

-      affairs, especially on this sweltering Monday when the mercury was

-      mounting heavenward. The members of the grand jury had removed their

-      coats, they had unbuttoned their shirts, they had rolled up their sleeves

-      to the limit over their great brown arms. It was hot&mdash;this grand

-      jury. But it was jovial and good-natured, sixteen freeholders of the

-      bailiwick turning aside for a day to bolster up the peace and dignity of

-      the State. The characteristic apparel of the farmer, the hunter, and the

-      miner was on this grand jury, but there were no collars; not even the

-      &ldquo;biled shirt&rdquo; of notorious report. If one had spoken of a

-      haberdasher or essayed to enumerate his wares in the land south of Tug

-      River, he would have been regarded as a purveyor of &ldquo;green furrin

-      jabber,&rdquo; or been pitied as a hopeless victim of idiot mutterings.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thus do men hoot the customs of their fellows when in conflict with their

-      own. One looking at this grand jury as an exhibit would have gone away

-      regretting that the chief fad of Delilah had not been handed down in the

-      county of McDowell, just as the jury would have wondered why the funny

-      little man divided his hair in the middle like a woman and wore a tight

-      band around his neck and a stiff breastplate of cloth and starch over his

-      ribs, when he could dress like a Christian, and be comfortable.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At two o'clock the sage body had concluded its inquisition, and was

-      resting ponderously while the foreman. Abe Collister, of Charity Fork, was

-      slowly and with infinite pain affixing his signature to the indictments.

-      It was no small labor for one whose fingers were thick and broad and

-      accustomed to implements little slighter in proportion than the handle of

-      an axe or the stock of a Winchester.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The facial contortions of this good freeholder as he strove in a clerical

-      capacity would have won for him applause and fortune and wide repute in

-      the cast of a comedy. It was Fate's way, better than genius could imitate,

-      but no audience to see.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It is the function of bodies of this sort to be severe, and it is their

-      way to be most amiable. The prosecuting attorney, it was maintained, ought

-      to know what he wanted. He was paid to know. It was his business. If he

-      thought it wise to send in witnesses charging one with a crime, then the

-      charge should be found. This conclusion was a splendid working hypothesis,

-      pregnant with expedition, but not quite in accord with the ideal <i>jus</i>.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      So the grand jury rested as the afternoon grew apace, while the

-      scripturian from Charity Fork toiled, and the prosecuting attorney went

-      down to his office in order to &ldquo;see if there was anything else he

-      wanted.&rdquo; It was at this hour of lull, that a nervous little man

-      hurried into the office presided over by the industrious daughter of the

-      house of McFadden, and inquired for Mr. Huron. The red genius replied that

-      he was busy. According to this oracle, young Mr. Huron was always busy.

-      His continual status was one of tireless toil,&mdash;as continuous as a

-      mortgage, and as tireless as a gas meter.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Just then the prosecuting attorney came out on his way to the grand jury

-      room. The little man rushed up and demanded an immediate audience. The two

-      returned to the private office and closed the door. Here the little man

-      looked at his watch and announced that things would have to be rushed, and

-      launched into the subject. He explained with almost breathless rapidity

-      that he was a detective from New York, representing Loomey's Agency. As he

-      talked, he threw back his coat revealing a badge which Mr. Huron did not

-      stop to examine. He said that he had been working on the case of Brown

-      Hirst; that he had finally discovered that Hirst had been murdered, foully

-      murdered by one Robert Gilmore, president of the Octagon Coal Company;

-      that he had the case tightened around Gilmore beyond the remotest shadow

-      of probability; that Gilmore, it seemed, had by some means learned of the

-      damning evidence gathering against him, and was attempting to fly from the

-      country; that he had left Philadelphia disguised as a cattle drover, and

-      would pass through Chares-ton, West Virginia, at midnight on the

-      Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and if he was not then arrested, he would

-      probably escape entirely, or, at the least, subject his trailer to the

-      expense and the tedium of an extradition; hence the detective had hurried

-      to Welch in order to secure an indictment at once and return to Charleston

-      in a position to arrest the man and hold him under a legal warrant that

-      would be valid and unquestioned.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He explained that he must leave at three o'clock in order to reach the

-      Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in time, and requested that he be permitted

-      to go at once before the grand-jury, which he had learned was now in

-      session.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney listened in astonishment, but he was a man

-      familiar with the startling surprises of criminal investigation, and he

-      set himself to act with the expedition which the matter required. He went

-      at once to the grand jury with the detective, and explained that he had

-      just received information tending to the conclusion that Brown Hirst had

-      been murdered; that the witness with him was John Bartlett, a detective

-      from New York, who had worked up the case and would give full information

-      concerning the facts of the crime. He then added that as Mr. Bartlett

-      would be compelled to leave within the hour, he would return to his office

-      and prepare an indictment for murder. In the meantime the grand jury could

-      determine whether the information was sufficient to sustain the charge,

-      and, if so, the indictment would be ready and Mr. Bartlett could return to

-      Charleston without unnecessary delay.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he withdrew, and the grand jury of McDowell, braced by the gust of

-      sudden sensation, straightway forgot how very warm it was and began to put

-      itself into a state of ponderous bovine expectancy.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The witness Bartlett sat down by the table, took out his watch, looked at

-      it anxiously, then snapped the case and returned it to his pocket.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The foreman put down his pen very carefully, mopped his wet face with a

-      great red cotton cloth, and strove to assume the gravity of his position.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Your name's Bartlett, stranger?&rdquo; said the scripturian,

-      feeling that it was becoming for him to set the wheels of judicial

-      investigation in motion, but not quite certain of the method. &ldquo;You

-      are a detective man: and I 'low you know all about this here little

-      trouble?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The latter part of the query was a stock question with the foreman. All

-      day long, every crime, from homicide to assault and battery, had been

-      dubbed by this arch inquisitor as &ldquo;this here little trouble.&rdquo;

-      If there was any big trouble south of Tug River, it was not deemed to be

-      within the purlieus of the <i>lex scripta</i> or the <i>lex non scripta</i>

-      of the county of McDowell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The detective saw the open opportunity to thrust in his testimony as a

-      narrative, and seized it. He leaned over on the table, assured himself of

-      the attention of the jury, and began to talk.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He told how he had trailed this matter down; how the Octagon Coal Company

-      was financially on the verge of ruin, and it was his theory that Gilmore,

-      as president, had been stealing largely from the company; that Hirst had

-      finally suspected this theft and had summoned Gilmore to McDowell; how the

-      dangerous man had obeyed the summons, had quarrelled with Hirst in the

-      office, finally killed him, and in order to cover the crime had carried

-      the body to the bridge and thrown it over, arranging the evidence to

-      appear like a suicide. He painted in lurid colors the desperate character

-      of this man Gilmore; he pointed out how fearful of arrest the murderer of

-      Hirst was, at that very hour hurrying westward in order, as he believed,

-      to put himself beyond the reach of the law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The witness talked on glib and shrewdly, and while he talked, the jury,

-      unfamiliar with the rules of evidence, grew indignant and bitter, and

-      fired with a sense of the gigantic outrage.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently the door opened and the prosecuting attorney entered with the

-      indictment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Are you ready to vote on the matter, gentlemen?&rdquo; he asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The foreman nodded slowly. &ldquo;I guess we are, Jeb,&rdquo; he answered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; responded the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;Mr.

-      Bartlett and myself will withdraw.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The witness arose and followed Mr Huron out of the jury room.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the door had closed, the chief inquisitor from Charity Fork picked up

-      the indictment., turned it over curiously in his ponderous hand, and then

-      laid it down on the table with the back up. Then he took up his pen and

-      jabbed it down into the ink pot.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; he observed, cheerily, &ldquo;the Good Book says,

-      'None shall escape, no not one.' What about this here one?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I reckon,&rdquo; drawled Uriah Coburn, sage and philosopher, and

-      most venerable member from Injun Run, &ldquo;I reckon the Good Book air

-      right, I reckon we better flop him.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Flop&rdquo; was an accurate idiom in McDowell, and, being

-      translated, meant, &ldquo;to throw heavily.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To this the grand jury agreed with many and various methods of assent. So

-      the member from Charity Fork took a new grip on his pen, thrust his tongue

-      out of the corner of his mouth, and slowly and with great labor inscribed

-      on the back of the indictment this legend, big with the injured dignity of

-      the Commonwealth: &ldquo;A True Bill. Abraham Collister, Foreman.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      V

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>T high noon on the

-      following day Salathiel Jenkins, chief deputy of the absent Carter, was a

-      voluble factor in McDowell. He explained with many a dash of color just

-      how &ldquo;me and Bartlett&rdquo; had taken the fleeing Gilmore from a

-      midnight train and transported him to the jail at Welch, where he now

-      languished. How brave they had been, how expeditious, and how marvellously

-      successful in each of their desperate moves. Salathiel Jenkins was a young

-      person who considered himself of huge importance to the economy of nature,&mdash;an

-      opinion with which the world at large failed to concur. The conservative

-      Carter had expressed it all long ago when he remarked with immense gravity

-      that Salathiel Jenkins was not wise. But the deputy's potential was high,

-      and he talked. He explained that the prisoner had employed legal counsel,

-      with whom he had been in consultation since his arrival in the town. He

-      explained that Mr. Bartlett had advised the prosecuting attorney to force

-      the case to a trial at once in order to avoid an application for bail, and

-      in order to prevent the prisoner from being unduly assisted by any

-      accomplice he might have in the East.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He explained that the evidence against Gilmore was overpowering, that

-      there were witnesses who knew something of the matter, and he had the

-      subpoenas in his pocket.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He explained that John Bartlett was the greatest detective in the

-      Republic, and that the days on earth of Robert Gilmore were growing

-      lamentably short. The self-importance of young Mr. Jenkins gushed and

-      bubbled and expanded until it threatened to bulge his anatomical

-      proportions, and he talked and he talked. He descanted with acrimonious

-      criticism upon the fact that Mr. Huron had asked for time in which to

-      examine the evidence, and that he and the great Bartlett had labored to

-      convince him that the case should be put to trial at once, and that they

-      had had a lot of trouble, but that it was all right now, and when court

-      convened in the morning the case would be called and pushed, and he

-      gloried in the fact that he and Bartlett had assumed large responsibility

-      for this splendid expedition.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It thus came about that the court-room was so crowded on the following

-      morning that the judge as he came down to his bench had literally to elbow

-      his way through. The details of this morning's procedure demonstrated that

-      while the deputy Jenkins had talked he had been telling the truth. After

-      the docket was called, the prosecuting attorney arose and requested that a

-      jury be empanelled for the trial of the case of the State vs. Gilmore.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The judge expressed some surprise at this unusual haste, and intimated

-      that if an objection was urged he would continue the case to a later day

-      of the term. To his surprise, however, counsel for Gilmore replied that he

-      was quite ready for trial.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Whereupon a jury was had and the case ordered to proceed. The opening

-      statement of the prosecuting attorney was frank. It gave the history of

-      the case as he had heard it from Bartlett, admitting freely that he had

-      been unable to investigate the matter personally, but upon his information

-      he was convinced that the prisoner was guilty.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To this the counsel for Gilmore replied that the State was laboring under

-      a stupendous delusion; that Mr. Gilmore was a gentleman of standing, and

-      that it would quickly appear that there was no cause for subjecting his

-      client to the odium of a criminal prosecution.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The spectators were not a little disgusted with the tame proceedings. They

-      had expected a keen and spirited struggle with the startling thrusts and

-      parries of a bitter legal affair. They had hoped to hear the steel grate,

-      and to see the blades dart forward and bend and fly back, as the champion

-      of the State and its enemy strove for some master vantage. They hoped for

-      the fierce interests and the quick sharp thrills incident to the grim

-      fight of a desperate criminal for his liberty and his life, and they were

-      disgusted.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Their strong pugnacious spirit sympathized with Gilmore and damned his

-      counsel. In the picturesque speech of an auditor from &ldquo;Dog Skin,&rdquo;

-      &ldquo;The lawyer was a quitter.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The case progressed with almost exasperating insipidity.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney proceeded with great deliberation, and with the

-      air of one who maintains a thunderbolt in reserve. He proved the death of

-      Brown Hirst by the coroner and others; he introduced the books of the

-      company showing its financial standing; and put in such other matters of

-      unimportant evidence as were easily at hand. To all this the counsel for

-      Gilmore made no objection. To the observer, he was stupidly indifferent.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney then placed the detective John Bartlett on the

-      stand. Bartlett explained with great volubility that he was a member of

-      Latency's Detective Agency; that he had learned of the mysterious death of

-      Brown Hirst, and hoping to obtain the reward offered by Hirst's widow, had

-      gone to her and requested permission to investigate the case. He explained

-      that he had learned that the Octagon Coal Company was in desperate

-      financial straits; that the president, Robert Gilmore, who resided in the

-      city of Philadelphia, had been in the county of McDowell on the night of

-      Hirst's death, and from these data he had formulated his theory to the

-      effect that Gilmore had been stealing from the company; that this fact had

-      been discovered by Hirst, and that they had come together in McDowell for

-      the purpose of discussing this matter; that there the two men had

-      quarrelled, and the result was that Hirst had been killed and his body

-      thrown into the river, and the evidence of suicide manufactured by Robert

-      Gilmore.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The detective explained further that being advised that Robert Gilmore

-      intended to leave Philadelphia for St. Louis, and fearing that it was an

-      attempt on the part of the president of the Octagon Coal Company to escape

-      from the country, he had hurried to McDowell and secured an indictment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Upon cross-examination it at once appeared that this detective had no

-      knowledge of any fact whatever, but was merely speaking from certain

-      conclusions which he was pleased to call his theory. The attorney for the

-      defense moved to strike out the evidence of this witness, which was

-      accordingly done, much to the chagrin of John Bartlett, detective, and

-      Salathiel Jenkins, deputy-in-extraordinary to the sheriff of McDowell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney then proceeded to spring his sensation. He

-      announced to the court that during the night Gilmore had made a confession

-      to Mr. Jenkins, the deputy, and that he desired to have Mr. Jenkins sworn

-      and his testimony introduced. Accordingly the irrepressible Jenkins, by

-      virtue of an oath properly administered, was transformed into a witness

-      for the State of West Virginia.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Before the witness was permitted to launch into his marvellous story of

-      the self-condemnation of Robert Gilmore, the attorney for the defense

-      arose and demanded permission to inquire into the circumstances under

-      which the alleged confession had been obtained. The judge replied that

-      such inquiry was entirely proper, and the attorney for the defense began.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The ways of Providence are without premonition. At the first onslaught of

-      the attorney for Gilmore, the importance of the testimony of Salathiel

-      Jenkins vanished like a New Year's resolution. Yes, he had gone to the

-      prisoner together with John Bartlett; he had explained that he was the

-      deputy sheriff of the county of McDowell; that he was a person of

-      influence; that the prisoner was in grave peril; and that, if a full

-      confession were made, he, Jenkins, would induce the authorities of the law

-      to deal leniently with the prisoner. He was a person of importance, he

-      said, and, in the absence of the sheriff, the first guardian of all the

-      law and order in the county of McDowell; if the prisoner would confess,

-      he, Salathiel Jenkins, could save him from the hangman, and he would do

-      it.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      These were the conditions under which the alleged confession was made.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At this point in his narrative, the attorney for the prisoner stopped the

-      witness, and objected to the introduction of the confession as having been

-      improperly obtained. The court very promptly sustained the objection, and

-      directed the witness to stand aside.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The prosecuting attorney arose and asked the court to <i>nolle</i> the

-      indictment and permit the case to be dismissed. The judge reminded him

-      that the case was at trial, and that such action could not now be taken;

-      that the request should have been made before a jury was called; it was

-      now too late, since the control of the cause had passed from the hands of

-      the State.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Young Mr. Huron, prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell, was lost,

-      rudderless, upon an unknown sea. He arose and explained that he had not

-      had an opportunity to investigate the evidence; that he had not spoken

-      with the witnesses; that he had depended upon John Bartlett and the

-      confession made to Salathiel Jenkins in order to convict the prisoner, and

-      that, failing with these, he had no further evidence to introduce.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The court interrupted this speech of explanation, and reminded the

-      attorney that the State could not urge such excuses; that the prisoner,

-      having been put to the hazard of a defense, was entitled to have his cause

-      legally determined; a <i>nolle prosequi</i> could not now be entered, and

-      the case must proceed.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To this the young attorney, having recovered his composure, replied that

-      the State had nothing more to offer, and resumed his seat.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The counsel for Gilmore at once moved the court to direct a verdict of not

-      guilty, which was accordingly done and the prisoner discharged.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Mystic, and varied, and without premonition are the ways of Providence.

-      When the negro miner went down into the sunless temples of the earth on

-      this Wednesday of July, Salathiel Jenkins was a person of high estate,

-      crowding mightily the orbit of his employer. And when the negro miner came

-      up at evening, this same Salathiel Jenkins was a crestfallen underling,

-      shrinking like a rotten value. The ordeal was frightful. The pride of

-      young Mr. Jenkins had gone through a process of sublimation most

-      excruciating. And yet how abominably indifferent nature was. The books in

-      the office of the sheriff were the same. The trees, the river, and indeed

-      the entire outside world were quite as large as they had been. Only the

-      importance of the deputy had shrunk, and was shrinking. Master of folly!

-      Would it stop short of microscopic? The vice of his yesterday loomed

-      clear-cut like the angles of a wall. He had talked, talked. It was the

-      deadliest error. In the name of that notorious Simon of infantile record,

-      was there no God to save the witless from himself?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The crowd passed out of the court-room, and, sauntering down by the office

-      of the miserable deputy, paused to harpoon him as it drifted by. The

-      weather was fine for scaffold building, it observed. Would the deputy

-      spring the trap in the absence of his chief? it was interested to know.

-      Could he tie a hangman's knot? Would he be pleased to have the gracious

-      assistance of his fellows? And more ingenious proddings, while the weary

-      Jenkins perspired and shrunk, but was silent. This he had learned: like as

-      the great lessons of life by hap learned too late.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      And that same night John Bartlett and Robert Gilmore hurrying eastward in

-      a Pullman car on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad remarked with large

-      favorable comment that the ancient doctrine of <i>lex vigilantibus non

-      dormientums subvenit</i> was marvellously true in this practical time.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      VI

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the night of the

-      seventeenth day of July the judge of the criminal court of McDowell walked

-      into the office of the sheriff. He was in no altruistic mood, this jurist.

-      Since his fortunate political affiliations had thrust him into a high

-      estate his dignity sat upon him heavy as a fog. He had been sent for. It

-      was thoughtlessness approaching near to disrespect. When the tall jurist

-      entered, the crowd in the office of White Carter arose.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Judge,&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, coming forward, &ldquo;you must

-      pardon the centurion for taking this liberty with the tribune, but we were

-      holding a secret war council, and presently required the fountain of law.

-      I am sure you won't mind, Judge.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The fountain of law flung aside his injured feeling with a wave of his

-      slim hand.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is all right, Carter,&rdquo; he observed. &ldquo;But why the

-      conclave? Good men should be abed.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;'Day unto day uttereth speech,'&rdquo; drawled the sheriff, &ldquo;and

-      night unto night showeth knowledge. And just here the hurt lies. The boys

-      have been crowding the day and shirking the night turn.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he stepped back by his companions and added: &ldquo;Young Mr. Huron

-      we will overlook as familiar in your honor's forum. The other gentleman is

-      Mr. Hartmyer Belfast, in the secret service of the New York life insurance

-      companies.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The judge nodded cordially and sat down by the table. The others also

-      resumed their seats, while the sheriff removed his eye-glasses, placed

-      them carefully on the forefinger of his fat right hand, and began to

-      explain.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;While I was absent, I believe, one Robert Gilmore was indicted here

-      and tried for murder, which trial resulted in a verdict of not guilty, the

-      evidence being insufficient to sustain the charge. It now appears that

-      Gilmore did kill Hirst, and that he can now be convicted with the evidence

-      in the possession of Mr. Belfast and myself.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The judge elevated his eyebrows, but volunteered no comment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff continued. &ldquo;At the time of Hirst's death I was not quite

-      certain that it was suicide. The coat and vest found on the bridge did not

-      correspond to the trousers and shoes of the deceased, which were the

-      ordinary rough articles worn by the miners. There was no explanation for

-      such dress on the part of Hirst. Later I found a miner's coat at Jim's

-      Ford which corresponded to the other clothing of Hirst. This coat had been

-      tied in a bundle and thrown into the river above&mdash;probably at the

-      bridge. Stitched in the lining was a pocket book belonging to Brown Hirst

-      containing some money and a draft on New York, together with a memorandum

-      of a number of life insurance policies. These matters led me to believe

-      that Hirst had planned to secure the insurance on his life by arranging a

-      counterfeit suicide, but by some means the plan had failed after the

-      evidence had been prepared and he had come to a violent death, probably by

-      the hand of another.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But the matter was involved in mystery, and I deemed it best to

-      retain my conclusions until further developments should appear. I wrote to

-      the various companies with which Hirst was insured, explaining the facts

-      which I had determined. They replied that the matter was in the hands of

-      Hartmyer Belfast, their secret agent, and that I would be advised when the

-      investigation was complete.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;A few days since the companies wired me that Mr. Belfast might be

-      expected to appear in my county at any time, and yesterday he called upon

-      me.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff moved a little closer to the table, and the drawl seemed to

-      slip out of his speech.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It can now be shown that Robert Gilmore came to McDowell for the

-      purpose of assisting Hirst to manufacture evidence of a suicide; that he

-      went with him upon the bridge, and after enticing Hirst to the rail of the

-      bridge, suddenly threw him over into the river. The train men can be

-      produced who saw Gilmore when he arrived and when he departed on the night

-      of the murder. All of this evidence has been carefully prepared. In

-      addition, it can be shown that immediately after his trial, for some

-      mysterious reason Gilmore went directly to Philadelphia and arranged for a

-      conference with the widow of Brown Hirst. Of this Mr. Belfast had notice,

-      and, by request of Mrs. Hirst, he was present, concealed in an adjoining

-      room. This conference between Gilmore and Mrs. Hirst was remarkable. The

-      man was deeply affected, and said that he had come to tell her the entire

-      history of his villainy, because he loved her, had loved her always, and

-      now knew that he could never have her. Whereupon he explained that Hirst

-      and himself had planned to rob the insurance companies; that Hirst's

-      marriage to her was part of the scheme, but that he, Gilmore, had grown to

-      love her, and to regret his action in procuring the marriage, and so

-      frightfully had this grown upon him that finally he had killed Hirst.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;He then explained the minute circumstances of the death, adding

-      that he had been tried and acquitted, and would now leave the country, but

-      that something in his bosom would not rest until he had told her the

-      entire truth. So we have now, I judge, a complete case, together with the

-      confession, which, I am told, will be quite proper evidence, and with such

-      a case there can now be nothing in the way of Gilmore's conviction.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Nothing at all,&rdquo; observed the judge, dryly, &ldquo;except the

-      Constitution of the United States of America.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff sat down suddenly and replaced the eye-glasses on his fat

-      nose.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You mean,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;that the

-      prisoner cannot be put twice in jeopardy for the same offense?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Unless,&rdquo; responded the judge, &ldquo;the judicial machinery

-      in McDowell can be held exempt from the Constitution of the State and the

-      Constitution of the Federal Government, a conclusion,&rdquo; he added,

-      with prodigious gravity, &ldquo;in which I should rather hesitate to

-      concur upon a casual hearing. Having been once properly tried for murder,

-      this man cannot be again tried for the same offense.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It has been held,&rdquo; said the prosecuting attorney, &ldquo;that

-      where the first trial was procured by the fraud of the prisoner, the case

-      did not come within the provisions of the Constitution.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; replied the judge, &ldquo;there is an early case in

-      Virginia, and later cases of record, but the fraud must be gross and

-      apparent. What fraud could be shown here? The indictment was properly

-      found, the trial was regular, no suspicion of conspiracy attaches to the

-      officers of the State, nor can it be shown that even misstatements were

-      made, unless a plain conspiracy can be shown on the part of this

-      detective, John Bartlett.&rdquo; Then he turned to the secret agent of the

-      life insurance companies. &ldquo;How about this Bartlett?&rdquo; he asked.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;So far as I can learn,&rdquo; replied the detective, &ldquo;Bartlett

-      made no false statements. He is a member of Loomey's Agency in New York.

-      It is true that he called on Mrs. Hirst and requested permission to

-      investigate the case. What he stated to the prosecuting attorney as facts

-      were facts. Of course, his theory was wrong, and his deductions incorrect;

-      but for these, I presume, he could not be held responsible. I have

-      investigated the matter with care, and while it is extremely probable that

-      this trial was shrewdly procured by Gilmore, yet it has been so skilfully

-      handled that no fraudulent proceeding could be shown on the part of

-      Bartlett, although I am quite certain of his villainy.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sheriff rubbed his hands with the bland unction of a Hebrew at a

-      &ldquo;fire sale.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Jeb,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;I guess you're it. I guess the thing

-      is all over but the shouting.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the prosecutor, &ldquo;I judge there are

-      others. How about the lamented Jenkins, erstwhile representative of the

-      sheriff of McDowell? Is the young man Absalom safe?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      A faint ripple of merriment spread over the fat face of the sheriff.

-      &ldquo;Boys,&rdquo; he mused, &ldquo;it was a keen flim-flam. Let us

-      quietly disperse, and endeavor to live it down.&rdquo; Then he added

-      wearily. &ldquo;It may be good to be good, but it is safer to be smooth.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The judge arose. &ldquo;Mr. Gilmore has been tried and acquitted,&rdquo;

-      he observed. &ldquo;The record is complete. He cannot be held again to

-      answer for this crime, even though he be pleased to proclaim his guilt

-      from the housetops.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the detective, with the dreary deliberation of

-      one retiring from a failing cause, &ldquo;this murderer cannot be

-      punished.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The dreamy blue eyes of White Carter swam listlessly

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; he drawled, &ldquo;when the gentleman shall have

-      passed the melancholy flood with that grim ferryman whom poets write of

-      unto the Kingdom of Perpetual Night.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <i>(See Code of West Virginia, Chap, cxxiv., Sec. 14, Chap, cvi., Sec. 25;

-      also Chap. cxxv. See any good text book on Landlord and Tenant. The case

-      also of Martin Admix vs. Smith it al., 25 West Virginia, 579, and casts

-      cited.)</i>

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      THE GRAZIER

-    </h2>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      I

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE driller of the

-      Bonnie Mag No. 3 had been keeping his weather eye on the public road all

-      the long summer afternoon; exacting and laborious duties had obtained

-      under the shadow of the oil derrick on this nineteenth day of August,

-      quite sufficient to have distracted the attention of the ordinary man, but

-      through it all the driller had maintained his watch. The pumper, a grimy

-      mortal, who regarded the monster oil company as the sole and omnipotent

-      power of the universe, had marked this apparent anxiety of the driller,

-      and inquired, with some trace of humor, if that gentleman was expecting to

-      see grease gush up out of the road. To which the driller had responded

-      with barbaric profanity that the pumper had been employed to pump, and

-      that he might hold his position by holding his tongue, but not otherwise.

-      A suggestion that banished all levity from the speech of the pumper.

-      Besides, there was a red glint in the eyes of the driller, and the

-      underling of the great oil company appreciated perfectly the full

-      significance of the sign. He had noticed it before on divers eventful

-      occasions, especially on a certain morning when being interrupted by an

-      order of the Circuit Court, the driller had promptly suggested to the

-      deputy sheriff that he might go to the infernal regions with his

-      injunction; and instead of suspending operations until the legal forum

-      could determine the title to the realty, he had complied with his contract

-      by pushing his well through to the Gordon sand.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was true indeed that the Circuit Court had attached t he body of the

-      driller and bringing him up before its august presence fined him two

-      hundred dollars for contempt, but the old man had paid over the money

-      without the hesitation of a moment and immediately thereafter consigned

-      the Circuit Court to the same heated region originally suggested to the

-      deputy sheriff.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sun had gone down, and the twilight was beginning to gather on the oil

-      field. The shadows darkened across the long sloping valley, and the great

-      derricks in the half light looked dark and gaunt and threatening like some

-      grim engines of war. It was now difficult to observe the highway from the

-      oil wells far up on the hill side, and the driller, who evidently intended

-      to maintain his surveillance of the county thoroughfare at any cost,

-      stepped out from the shadow of the derrick and began to wipe his hands on

-      the grass; when he had finished he turned to the pumper. &ldquo;Just keep

-      your eye on that cable,&rdquo; he said curtly, &ldquo;I'll be back when

-      you see me coming.&rdquo; Then he turned and walked slowly down the path

-      to the road.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The soft breath of wind creeping up from the North through the rift in the

-      low hills brought with it no sound, save the dull ceaseless thump of the

-      engines drawing streams of liquid wealth from a thousand narrow arteries

-      leading down into the bosom of the earth. This great industry, not content

-      with changing the civilization, had changed also the very face of the

-      land; two years before this fluttering summer breeze had carried with it

-      the murmur of ripening corn fields, the sweet odor of quiet pasture land

-      where herds of fattening cattle wandered through fields of blue grass.

-      Now, the lands were marked with wagon roads, studded with the rough

-      shanties of the pumpers and the gigantic wooden tanks of the great oil

-      companies; and here and there, like the twisted ugly back of some huge

-      serpent, a black pipe line stretched its interminable length across the

-      broken country. Greed ruled the world, and beauty, like many another gift

-      of nature, was battered out under his hammer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The oil driller stopped at the road side and leaned his long body on the

-      rail fence. He was a thin, old man, with sharp, emaciated features, his

-      hair and iron-gray beard were matted with oil, and his long arms, bare to

-      the elbow and burned black by the sun, glistened greasy as the piston of

-      his engine. The ancient workman kept his watch in dead silence, and beyond

-      this his face showed no interest. This man belonged to that iron type upon

-      which the world has depended so much for its civilization, that type which

-      no matter where placed toils on in its station like a machine,

-      unquestioning, tireless, reliable as a law. In the rank of their legions

-      it had extended the rule of the Caesars; on the broad decks of the

-      men-of-war it had widened the dominion of Great Britain; and in the mines

-      and mills and forests of America it had reared and maintained and enriched

-      a Republic; growing greater than them all.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently in the deepening twilight a huge shadow appeared at the foot of

-      the long hill, and the driller heard distinctly the sound of a horse

-      coming leisurely up the sandy road. As it approached, the indefinite

-      shadow took on a clear and decided outline, until one in the position of

-      the driller could have seen that it was an enormous man, riding a red roan

-      horse. The man was leaning forward, his head down and his hands resting on

-      the pommel of his saddle, while the bridle reins dangled loose in his

-      fingers. When they were opposite, the driller spoke.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Is that you, Alshire?&rdquo; he said.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The giant threw bark his great shoulders and stopped his horse with a

-      wrench on the bridle &ldquo;Morg Gaston!&rdquo; he announced with some

-      trace of surprise in his voice, then he added, half-apologetically,

-      &ldquo;what's the good word with you?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The driller climbed heavily over the big staked-and-ridered fence, &ldquo;I

-      saw you go down this morning,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I have been

-      watching for you back; I want to tell you something.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he came over to the middle of the road and rested his greasy chin on

-      the mane of the red roan.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hell of a high horse,&rdquo; said the driller.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Seventeen hands,&rdquo; responded the giant.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The old man ran his eyes slowly over the immense proportions of the

-      traveller, his deep, powerful chest, his broad, thick shoulders and his

-      massive limbs almost grotesquely huge.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You are not little yourself,&rdquo; he observed, as though

-      announcing a discovery, &ldquo;and I am darned glad of it, leastways I was

-      darned glad of it that morning old Ward's rotten derrick blowed down, and

-      you chanced along and lifted her off me. I was pinned under them timbers

-      like a rat.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man laughed, but his face in the dark was not merry. The driller

-      extended his close inspection to the horse; when he had finished he

-      stepped back in the road and an expression of intense admiration spread

-      itself over his rugged features.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By jolly!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you are a pair to draw to.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The giant patted the withers of the great horse.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Cardinal is a good colt,&rdquo; he replied, &ldquo;good as they

-      grow.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The driller stood for some moments gazing almost worshipfully at the pair;

-      then he straightened suddenly and coming up close to the horse rested his

-      arms, wet with petroleum, on the pommel of the saddle.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Alshire,&rdquo; he said, lowering his voice, &ldquo;the Company

-      thinks there is grease under your land. I was up to see the manager last

-      night, and while I was there the engineers came in with the maps, and they

-      all agreed that the head of the pool was about under your farm. You are

-      nigh on to three miles east of the development, but the belt is surely

-      running your way; this here last well that the Company plugged is forty

-      barrels better than the No. 1 five hundred feet west; and I'll tell you

-      another thing, there ain't no more boring in this region until the Company

-      gets its clutches on all this land laying to the east, yours included. My

-      instructions is to make this last one dry, and move over into Ohio.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The great Alshire bent over and placed his broad hand on the greasy arm of

-      the driller. &ldquo;I'm obliged to you, Morg,&rdquo; he said slowly.

-      &ldquo;I'll lookout.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By jolly!&rdquo; continued the old workman, &ldquo;you better had,

-      they are a smooth set of divels, and whatever you do, keep your mouth

-      plugged. I ain't never given the Company the double cross before, but I

-      could n't see them skin you, by jolly, I could n't!&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The old driller spoke rapidly, as though half ashamed of his treason, and

-      when he had finished turned and began climbing the high fence.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Morg,&rdquo; called the giant. &ldquo;Morg.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That's all right,&rdquo; answered the driller, as he vanished up

-      the dark hill side, &ldquo;just keep your mouth plugged; that's all right.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The giant touched his horse in the flank with his heel and rode on.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Rufus Alshire was a grazier, a business almost exclusively followed in

-      this magnificent grass country. Many years before, his greatgrandfather,

-      an English Tory, had fled into this inland country in order to escape

-      certain unpleasant relations with the colonial government. Here he had

-      builded an enormous log manor-house, and surrounding himself with rather

-      worthless retainers, maintained a sort of baronial existence. Others

-      followed, and after a time the country was cleared and came to be divided

-      into great tracts of pasture land, owned by these powerful families. But

-      the elements of the feudal system, although suffering some modifications,

-      remained. The tenants were, for the most part, born and reared on the

-      stock land, and were almost fixtures.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The descendants of this independent ancestry continued to reside as near

-      to the central part of their estate as possible, and maintained huge

-      residences, rough at times and not quite comfortable perhaps, but always

-      enormous. The nature of the country being especially adapted to the

-      fattening of beef cattle, this industry soon came to be the exclusive

-      business of this powerful people. It was a profitable and supremely

-      independent industry, and gave wide play to the baronial instincts of the

-      Anglo-Saxon; who, even after the golden time of his race had gone out so

-      many hundred years, still loved the open sky, and the blue hills, and the

-      monster oak trees, and hated in his heart with a stubborn bitter spirit of

-      rebellion the least shadow of restraint. He was willing to serve God if

-      need be, but while he lived he would not serve men. In stature the

-      descendants of the long dead Saxon were huge specimens of the race, almost

-      as big of limb as the fabled barbarians of Lygia; powerful men, whom close

-      and intimate relations with the mother nature kept strong and immensely

-      vital to the very evening of life. But withal the hospitality of the Saxon

-      was profligate, his impulses were kindly, and he was quite content to

-      leave the affairs of government and the problems of civilization to other

-      hands, provided the minions of these powers held their feet back from his

-      soil.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The twilight had deepened into night; on the crest of the far-off hills

-      the great oak trees stood outlined against the sky like mighty silent

-      figures waiting for some mystic word that should call them into life.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The rim of the moon was rising slowly from behind the oil field, red like

-      battered brass; the road, covered with shifting light and shadow,

-      stretched across the rolling country like a silver ribbon. The grazier

-      rode slowly, his hands hanging idly at his sides, and his face set with

-      deep thought; from time to time he raised his ponderous right hand and

-      struck it heavily against the tree of his saddle as though to indicate

-      thereby some important decision finally reached, but as often he dropped

-      the hand back to its place.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The important information of the oil driller had added a mighty element to

-      the matters with which he was evidently concerned. The horse, left to his

-      own inclinations, quickened his pace and presently the shadow of a huge

-      house loomed upon the crest of the hill at the roadside. The horse stopped

-      at the gate, and the man. aroused from his reverie, dismounted slowly, and

-      opening the gate led the horse through; as he closed the gate he stopped

-      for a moment and rested his enormous elbow on the latch. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo;

-      he said, as though announcing his temporary conclusion to himself, &ldquo;I'll

-      ship the cattle to-morrow, and I'll see Jerry.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      II

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">F</span>ROM the earliest

-      record of events, either sacred or profane, the genus Bos has been

-      associated with the history of the landowner. The Ancient Egyptian saw in

-      him certain traces of divinity, and honored it with proper recognition.

-      The lamented Job, erstwhile poet of calamity, found time amid the

-      recording of his numerous disasters to set down his venerable appreciation

-      of the species; and the pagan Homer, while singing of gods and men,

-      remembered to sing also the virtues of the noble bullock; and the

-      painters, too, from Claude Lorraine to Rosa Bonheur, have deigned to

-      consider the artistic importance of the domesticated kine; treating him

-      first as a necessary adjunct to a landscape, and later as a central figure

-      in the scene. He has had his part, say the records, not infrequently with

-      the plans of men, virtuous and otherwise. A certain wily barbaric general

-      used him well in a difficult emergency, and the patriarch Jacob used him

-      in a shrewd physiological experiment, which he had probably learned at

-      Padan-aram in his salad days; an experiment that added much to the worldly

-      worth of the good father, but detracted not a little from his fame.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the sun climbed up from behind the broad eastern hillside on the

-      following morning it looked down upon Rufus Alshire, who, far more

-      expeditious than itself, had already set himself to the affairs of the

-      day; before the dawn he had brought the cattle from their beds in the cool

-      pasture land, weighed them at his scales and turned them out in the road

-      on their journey to the shipping station some ten miles away. The herd

-      strayed leisurely along the highway. The giant Alshire rode through the

-      drove, keeping the bullocks moving slowly; while following the herd

-      barefoot in the dust, was one of his retainers, a half-witted youth,

-      wearing an ancient straw hat, a shirt originally of the material called

-      &ldquo;hickory,&rdquo; but now patched in variegated colors, and blue

-      cloth trousers well worn and frayed. As the youth tramped along he sang in

-      a high piping voice one of those simple little songs which the playing

-      children sing, and by way of illustration danced up and down and whipped

-      the dust with a long hickory switch. On his heart was no shadow of the

-      cares of men, and for this reason, perhaps, under his torn shirt was

-      two-thirds of the happiness of the world.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      As the herd wandered along under the great oaks that lined the roadway and

-      the rays of the morning sun crept down through the green leaves, making

-      queer mottled spots on the sleek cattle and brilliant shifting patches on

-      the dewy grass, one looking on could easily have come to believe that the

-      world had turned back some several hundred years, and this was a grassy

-      forest glade of merry England, and the herd, cattle of the gruff, gigantic

-      Saxon who rode among them on his huge red horse, scowling under his black

-      brows and cursing by St. Withold and St. Dunstan and the soul of Hengist

-      the evil times of the Conqueror that forced him to drive his herd into the

-      thick forest at daybreak in order to preserve it from the marauding

-      cut-throats of a Norman baron; and he would have looked close for great

-      stones half-bedded in the moss, lasting monuments to the weird and bloody

-      rites of some stern Druid colony long dead; and then glanced up sharply to

-      see if that patch of thicker green in the deeper woods were not indeed the

-      coat of some gallant outlaw whose bosom was English, and who stood ready

-      with his yew bow and his cloth-yard shaft to join the huge Saxon in his

-      stubborn fight against the bloody followers of Duke William of Normandy;

-      and when the herd had wandered by one would have leaned over in the road

-      to see if there was not a brass collar soldered fast around the neck of

-      the happy cowherd, graven in Saxon letters with this inscription: &ldquo;Zaak,

-      the son of Jonas, is thrall to Rufus of Alshire.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The cheery sunshine under the dear arch of blue, with its homely noises of

-      awakening life and its cool breath, ladened with the fresh odor wafted

-      from meadows of clover springing up with sweet new blossom after the

-      harvest, all so conducive to careless, joyous existence, failed utterly to

-      remove any portion of the anxiety from the face of the grazier.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He sat listlessly in his saddle, with his gray eyes half-closed and the

-      muscles of his face drawn down in furrows; the red roan, trained from his

-      colt days, assumed the duties of his master, and moved carefully among the

-      cattle; his equine intelligence appreciating that it was a part of his

-      duty to the indolent master, to see that the drove kept moving slowly, and

-      that no bullock stopped to crop the wet grass by the roadside, or fight

-      with his fellow.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The watches of the night had brought to Rufus Alshire no solution of the

-      matter with which he had struggled so persistently during the evening

-      before. He was acting, it was true, upon his temporary plan, but that

-      seemed but an incident in the main vexatious problem.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The giant was now entirely oblivious of his environment, and deep in his

-      troublous matter he spoke aloud. &ldquo;If I could only hold the title,&rdquo;

-      he muttered, and then, as if realizing the folly of his hope, he gripped

-      the tree of his saddle with his hand and straightened his mighty foot

-      suddenly in the stirrup. The leather snapped under the great weight, and

-      the iron stirrup dropped into the road. The red roan stopped short, and

-      the huge Alshire, pronouncing some severe malediction on his ponderous

-      size, dismounted, picked up the stirrup and tied it to the strap. Then he

-      slipped the bridle rein over his aim and, walking along beside the horse,

-      began to examine the herd with the critical eye of an expert, and comment

-      thereon with the artlessness of a child.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Beef for the British.&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and as good beef as

-      John Bull ever put under his ribs. They are broad on the backs and deep in

-      the brisket and heavy in the quarters, and every black calf of them made

-      the beam kick sixteen hundred pounds.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The grazier slapped his horse fondly on the neck. &ldquo;They 'll please

-      the Jews, won't they, boy?&rdquo; The red roan pricked up his ears and

-      rubbed his nose against his master's arm, as though this statement was

-      quite in accord with his own private views of the matter. &ldquo;They will

-      ship well over the sea.&rdquo; The giant laughed. &ldquo;And by gad! if

-      the rotten ships hold together the black brutes will get a blamed sight

-      nearer to the Queen than most of the little snobs ambling around in the

-      East.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The herd of Rufus Alshire belonged to that species of beef cattle termed

-      Polled-Angus, native to the lowlands of Scotland; a breed of comparatively

-      recent importation. They were fine bullocks, full, round, and comely in

-      form; hornless, trim of head and neck, and with coats as black as the

-      fabled spirit of midnight. The law of natural selection had finally

-      indicated this breed as best adapted to the conditions of the West

-      Virginia grazier. It was hardy, easily maintained, and endured the rigor

-      of the winter without distress, beside it was quick to mature and gained

-      flesh rapidly, and then, too, the absence of horns rendered it easier to

-      handle and far less dangerous.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The horn, a necessary and powerful weapon in the wild state, was in the

-      state of domestication a useless incumbrance Hence nature, laboring for

-      the convenience of men, thrust in and produced the Polled-Angus.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The business of the grazier had been progressive. The powerful landowner,

-      who in the autumn purchased his cattle from the stockmen of the interior

-      counties, had ever encouraged the cultivation of the breed. For many years

-      the short horn Durham had been the great cattle of this inland country. It

-      was an old race; old in England when the Scandinavian and the Dane swarmed

-      over the river Tees. But the breed, though excellent, was rather slow to

-      mature and not adapted to severe winters, and the breeder awakened to the

-      needs of his market and casting about for an animal better adapted to his

-      uses chanced upon the Hereford, first imported by the elder Clay of

-      Kentucky. And the Hereford became the chief bovine of the grazier. He was

-      old, too; old on the north side of the river Wye in the tenth century, and

-      ancient of record, it is said, in the law of Howell the Good; but while a

-      fine beef animal, he preserved one defect, the massive horn. Still he

-      maintained his place, until on a certain autumn morning at a fat cattle

-      show in Chicago, the good wife of a powerful Virginia grazier, on a quest

-      for the ideal bullock, pointed down into the stock ring at the splendid

-      Polled-Angus and said, &ldquo;There he is, but he don't look human.&rdquo;

-      And there he was indeed, broad, and shiny black, and hornless as a man's

-      palm&mdash;nature's answer to the breeder's dream.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The great tawny sun climbed high in the heavens; the heat of the day

-      settled down over the living earth like an invisible mantle; the crisp

-      freshness of the morning breeze had given place to the monotonous hot air

-      of midday. The dust arose in clouds from under the feet of the herd, and

-      the cattle themselves, warm and vexed with the irksome travel, were

-      restless and difficult to control. The great Al-shire and his huge horse

-      moved here and there through the drove, white with dust; while the happy

-      thrall plodded along behind the herd, whistling merrily and turning from

-      time to time to strike some lagging bullock, and shout with childish glee

-      &ldquo;Go along you fat feller; to-night you will ride on the steam-cars,

-      and to-morrow the British will eat you.&rdquo; And passing a slight

-      inaccuracy in the matter of time, the witless Zaak was entirely correct.

-      To him the steam-cars were marvels from wonderland, and the British was

-      some far-away gigantic monster with a mighty, insatiate maw.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      III

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE young man

-      closed the door to the private writing-room of the club, and coming back

-      to the table drew a chair up beside his companion and sat down.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Rufus,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;how did you get in so deep?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the grazier, looking down at the floor.

-      &ldquo;I am an ass, Jerry, just a natural ass. I was all right, doing well

-      and living like a lord, until I endorsed for that lumber company. When it

-      grew shaky, I tried to save myself by borrowing money and holding it up

-      until the panic was over, but I could n't do it, and when the thing failed

-      I had the notes to meet. I did n't want to be sued, so I borrowed the

-      money. It was a big sum, almost as big as I was worth, but I thought that

-      the men from whom I borrowed the money would not push me, and that

-      probably I could pull through some way. I might have known that the crash

-      would come, but it is natural, I judge, to postpone the evil day.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Have your creditors instituted legal proceedings?&rdquo; asked the

-      young man.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Not yet,&rdquo; replied Alshire. &ldquo;On Thursday I was at the

-      county seat looking after my taxes, and while there William Farras, who is

-      a local manager for the oil company, took me aside and said that through

-      some business transactions my notes had come into his hands, and added

-      that he hoped that I was in a position to pay them, as he was hard up and

-      would require a considerable sum of money at once. On the way home in the

-      evening I had the conversation with the driller of which I have spoken;

-      and his statement made the scheme as plain as day light. The company

-      believes that the pool is under my land, and, wishing to secure the

-      property, it has bought up my outstanding notes. The plan is to sue me at

-      once, sell the land, and buy it in.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The giant spoke slowly, the great muscles of his face set, and his eyes

-      hard. He raised his ponderous clenched hand and brought it slowly down on

-      his knee. &ldquo;I shipped the cattle,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;to prevent

-      their being attached, and I have gone over the whole thing from end to

-      end, and by every devil in hell I don't see any way to stop their game.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Jerry Van Meter arose and went over to the window. He was mightily

-      affected by the hopeless position of his friend, and in his breast his

-      heart was heavy. The condition of things was reversed. From his very

-      babyhood he had gone to the giant with his troubles, and the giant had

-      always found some way out. Now the man had come to him, and he was

-      helpless. He looked at the huge grazier sitting motionless with his face

-      in his hands, and the tears gathered in his eyes. Van Meter knew too much

-      of the world not to know that the man was ruined. Finally he turned to his

-      companion.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Rufus,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we will walk down to my office and

-      see what can be done.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was merely a weakling move for delay. In his heart the young man knew

-      that the matter was hopeless.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The two men arose and passed out of the club.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The life of Jerry Van Meter had been crowded with events quite as varied

-      and rapid of incident as that of Sinbad the Sailor. His parents, who

-      resided on a small farm near Rufus Alshire's estate, had died when the

-      child Jerry was quite an infant, and the huge grazier had assumed the

-      guardianship of the youth. Under his direction the boy had been educated,

-      and finally installed as a bank clerk in one of the small towns. But the

-      spirit of adventure was big in the breast of the youthful Jerry, and one

-      morning he closed the ledger carefully and vanished into the Northwest.

-      Here he pulled teeth for an itinerant dentist, drummed for a soap house,

-      and travelled with a circus. But he had a fortunate star, not at all times

-      obscured; and when the boom struck St. Paul, Jerry drifted in, bought far

-      and wide, and carried out with him ten thousand dollars in gold, which he

-      promptly dropped in a bucket-shop in Chicago. A letter to the good genius

-      Alshire brought a check for one hundred dollars and nine pages of advice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      With this money in his pocket, Jerry passed over on to the Pacific coast.

-      Here he mixed drinks in a bar-room, and officiated in the important

-      capacity of night clerk to a restaurant, until his star came up again, and

-      when it did, Jerry chanced on an abandoned claim that netted him seven

-      thousand dollars. He returned to Alshire the one hundred dollars and the

-      well-worn but badly-heeded letter of advice, and set out for the East. In

-      St. Louis he became deeply interested in certain horse races, and ten days

-      later he landed in the Virginias bronzed, bearded, and broke. The giant

-      Alshire laughed at the escapades of this youth until his sides ached, gave

-      him another check and the ancient letter of advice with various

-      amendments, and the restless Mr. Van Meter dropped down into the

-      metropolis of New York. Here his star gave evidences of constancy, and he

-      became an insurance broker and a man of affairs.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The two men walked slowly down the steps of the club and across the busy

-      thoroughfare. As they stepped up or the opposite curb they were startled

-      by a sharp cry, and turning suddenly they saw a little man stumble and

-      fall forward in the street directly in front of an approaching mail wagon.

-      The great horses were almost upon him, bearing down in a long sweeping

-      trot. The driver at the moment was not looking, but it was too late for

-      him to prevent the impending accident even if he had been. The giant

-      Alshire ran out into the street, caught the horses and threw his ponderous

-      weight against the iron bits. The heavy Percherons reared and fell back on

-      their haunches, the tongue of the wagon shot forward, grazing the giant's

-      shoulder, and the wheels stopped for a moment almost against the body of

-      the prostrate man. In that moment Van Meter dragged the hapless pedestrian

-      from beneath the belly of the horses. The giant stepped quickly aside, and

-      the horses, plunging forward heavily on the cobble stones, passed on down

-      the street, while the half-dazed driver did not even look back to

-      ascertain what had really occurred.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The little man wiped the dust from his hat with the sleeve of his coat and

-      looked up at his deliverers.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Randolph Mason came near to losing his

-      clerk. I guess I stumbled on that infernal rail.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      A great light came into the face of Jerry Van Meter. He came up close to

-      the little man and caught him by the shoulder. &ldquo;Randolph Mason!&rdquo;

-      he said, &ldquo;Is Randolph Mason in New York?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; responded the little man. &ldquo;I am his clerk. Parks

-      is my name. Mr. Mason is here, but&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; Then he stopped

-      short.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The now excited Van Meter shook the little man almost roughly by the

-      shoulder.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;good, we must see him at once.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The clerk Parks looked down at his soiled clothes and the dust on his

-      bruised hands.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; he said slowly, &ldquo;it is against the strict

-      order of the physicians, but, under the circumstances, I don't quite see

-      how I am going to refuse.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      IV

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">R</span>ANDOLPH MASON

-      leaned forward and struck his hand heavily on the arm of his chair.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Forty thousand,&rdquo; he said sharply, &ldquo;you owe that sum,

-      sir?&rdquo; His face looked old, sunken, and furrowed with heavy dark

-      lines, but his eyes shone under his shaggy brows.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; responded the grazier, &ldquo;fully that much.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;To secure that amount in cash,&rdquo; continued Mason, &ldquo;it

-      will be necessary to deal with some bank or savings institution of which

-      the president or some powerful director is an attorney-at-law. This

-      condition will be found to obtain in almost any one of the small towns of

-      the country, and if my directions are followed strictly, the plan can be

-      carried out and the money secured in a very few hours. The plan is simple

-      and easy. In the first place&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the giant Alshire, &ldquo;I don't want other men's

-      money. I don't want to commit a crime.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The veins in the forehead of Randolph Mason grew black with anger.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Commit a crime!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;No man who has followed my

-      advice has ever committed a crime. Crime is a technical word. It is the

-      law's name for certain acts which it is pleased to define and punish with

-      a penalty. None but fools, dolts, and children commit crimes.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; responded the grazier, &ldquo;whether the plan you are

-      about to propose is a crime or not, it is certainly a moral wrong, and I

-      have no desire to rob a bank by committing even a moral wrong.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason arose slowly and pointed his finger at the huge Alshire.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The old story,&rdquo; he sneered, &ldquo;child afraid of a goblin.

-      Moral wrong! A name used to frighten fools. There is no such thing. The

-      law lays down the only standard by which the acts of the citizen are to be

-      governed. What the law permits is right, else it would prohibit it. What

-      the law prohibits is wrong, because it punishes it. This is the only

-      lawful measure, the only measure bearing the stamp and the sanction of the

-      State. All others are spurious, counterfeit, and void. The word moral is a

-      pure metaphysical symbol, possessing no more intrinsic virtue than the

-      radical sign.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, Mr. Mason,&rdquo; said Van Meter thrusting into

-      the conversation, &ldquo;but I am quite certain that you mistake the

-      request of my friend. He is not attempting to secure any sum of money. He

-      simply desires to retain the title to his land and prevent its sale, until

-      he can determine the extent of its oil production.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;For what length of time?&rdquo; asked Mason.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the grazier, &ldquo;I scarcely know. One year

-      might be time enough, or even less than one year; while, on the other

-      hand, it might require several years. You see, if I can prevent the land

-      from being sold, and keep it in my name until the territory is developed,

-      then if oil is found in paying quantities I can meet all these notes, and

-      if the land is dry I am no worse off. At any rate, I want to hold on to

-      the land and see.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Are there judgments of record against you?&rdquo; inquired Mason.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Not yet,&rdquo; replied Alshire, &ldquo;but Farras is preparing to

-      sue on the notes and rush the sale through. Can I stop him; can I hold the

-      sale off?&rdquo; There was anxiety in the grazier's voice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason began to walk to and fro across the room with an unsteady

-      nervous stride.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Easy,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;easy as learning to lie.&rdquo;

-      Then he stopped by the table and looked flown sharply at the great

-      Alshire.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Have you two friends,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;nonresidents of your

-      State, whom you can trust?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; responded the grazier, &ldquo;Mr. Van Meter here in New

-      York, and Morgan Gaston now in Ohio, they will both stand by me.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;listen to me, and do as I advise,

-      and the sale of your property will be as far distant years from to-day as

-      it seems this afternoon. First make an oil lease for a long term, say

-      thirty years, to your non-resident friend of Ohio, giving him all the oil

-      privileges, but, for your own protection in case of the death of the

-      lessee, incorporate in the instrument a clause permitting the lessor the

-      right to annul the lease at any time by the payment of a small sum. Have

-      the instrument show also that the entire compensation for the lease has

-      been fully paid in advance. Then make another lease renting all your

-      remaining property rights to your friend Mr. Van Meter of this city. Have

-      this second lease for a similar term and of similar provisions to the

-      first, and the entire compensation for it likewise paid in advance. Then

-      you have but to record the instruments, employ an attorney, and sit down

-      in the shadow of your house. The hair on your head will have thinned

-      vastly before the litigation over your complicated affairs terminates in a

-      final decree of sale.&rdquo; Rufus Alshire leaned forward listening

-      eagerly. &ldquo;But won't Farras sue me,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;won't he

-      attack the leases?&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; said Mason, &ldquo;he will at once do one of two

-      things; either he will bring an action at law on the notes, or he will

-      attempt to embrace the whole matter in a chancery suit. If he sues at law,

-      resist and attempt to fight through the superior courts. When he finally

-      obtains a judgment at law in your State, he will be compelled to resort to

-      a suit in chancery for the purpose of selling the land. In either event he

-      must come finally into a court of chancery and include the holders of

-      these leases as parties defendant to his action. When this is done, the

-      non resident lessees are not to appear, and he will be able to obtain

-      service on them only by an order of publication. You alone will fight this

-      chancery suit through the lower and superior courts, and just before a

-      sale of the land is ordered by the court of last resort, one of the non

-      resident lessees mast appear, and by virtue of the statutory provision

-      applying to such cases, file his bill of review and open up the whole

-      matter, enjoin the sale, fight the case over again and again through the

-      superior court. When this new litigation finally draws near to a close and

-      the land is again ordered sold, the remaining non-resident must appear,

-      bring his action in the Circuit Court of the United States, enjoin the

-      sale, and proceed with his fight.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By this time,&rdquo; continued Mason, placing his bony hand on the

-      giant's shoulder, &ldquo;there will probably be gray streaks in your

-      beard, and if you wish to run this litigation on into eternity, you will

-      have only to produce some collateral heir.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The huge Alshire looked up at the strange man beside him. &ldquo;Is all

-      this possible?&rdquo; he asked in astonishment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Randolph Mason did not at once answer; he walked stumblingly across the

-      room to his chair and sat down by the table. His form was thin and gaunt,

-      and along the border of his forehead the veins were purple and swollen.

-      After a time he turned toward the powerful grazier, his face ugly with a

-      sneer. &ldquo;To the law,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;all things are possible&mdash;even

-      justice.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      V

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>NE morning in the

-      early winter the red roan horse, with his head over the high fence of his

-      pasture, saw two men standing in the neighboring meadow contemplating in

-      silence a gigantic derrick. One he immediately recognized as his master

-      Rufus Alshire, and the other resembled in a very large degree a certain

-      obnoxious person who on a memorable summer night had smeared his well kept

-      mane with most disagreeable petroleum.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently the grazier spoke. &ldquo;I judge that it will not now be

-      necessary for Jerry to invoke the tedium of Federal tribunals, there seems

-      to be grease enough here to pay everything and wind up the lawsuits.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The driller looked up at the oil streaming down from the timbers of the

-      derrick; then he made a mighty angular gesture with his bare right arm.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;By jolly!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;there is money enough in that hole

-      to pay off the national debt.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      THE RULE AGAINST CARPER

-    </h2>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      I

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">C</span>ARPER did not

-      recall that he had ever noticed the ugly details of the courtroom before,&mdash;the

-      high, soiled ceiling, the rows of benches, worn, broken, empty as a fool's

-      heart, the clerk's desk, and the presumptuous bench of the judge; the long

-      tables, too, for the attorneys, heaped with papers, books, and dusty

-      covers, a farrago of disorder&mdash;how ugly they were!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper looked up at the judge. The man's black silk robe fell away in

-      sharp straight folds; he sat erect like a bronze cast, his face turned

-      half toward the window in order that he might better read the paper before

-      him. How power had changed this face! Carper remembered idly that, years

-      before, the face of this man had been sweet, tender, lit with kindness.

-      Now it was as hard as white ivory.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The attorneys at the table were talking in subdued whispers; Carper did

-      not hear; he was wondering vaguely if the long slim fingers of the judge

-      ever ached as his head was aching. The conjecture was unique.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was difficult for Carper to realize his position. His clothing was

-      certainly better than that of any other man in the court-room, He was

-      quite certain that his face was the same powerful, clean-cut, immobile

-      mask that it had been always. The world did not know, it did not even

-      suspect. If one had asked the clerk yonder for a financial rating on

-      Russell Carper, the clerk would have shrugged his shoulder and written six

-      figures on the margin of his record.. Yet this was the end,&mdash;the end.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Over by the window stood a prisoner in the custody of the marshal. The man

-      was poor, miserably poor; his clothes were clean, threadbare, ancient as

-      the law. Carper knew the story. The man was a little shopkeeper; his wife

-      was ill,&mdash;dying, the deputy said. There were children, too, hungry,

-      naked, absurdly miserable, and the crime,&mdash;some petty revenue

-      infraction. He would be presently required to pay his fine, and, failing

-      that, would be locked up in a cell. It was the law, heartless as an image.

-      Yet Carper wondered listlessly if one from beyond the world's rim on the

-      quest of the good would not take this man, and leave the others, leave all

-      the others&mdash;the judge with his blue-veined patriciate face, the

-      clerks with their lank jaws, the attorneys, with their expression of

-      abominable indifference, and himself. Well, the machinery of human justice

-      was awry. Then he wondered at the condition that bred this surmise. How

-      was it possible to reflect so indolently upon the condition of another

-      when his own was perilous. Still, such speculations obtained with men, it

-      is said, in great crises, and at the grave's edge.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Presently the judge laid down his papers and began to speak. Carper heard

-      him as one speaking a long distance away. At first the words seemed

-      indistinct and without meaning; then he caught them full, as one waking

-      suddenly catches and understands the conversation of his fellow.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Our commissioner's report,&rdquo; the judge was saying, &ldquo;shows

-      that this receiver has now in his custody three hundred and seventeen

-      thousand dollars belonging to the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron

-      Company. At a former term of this court an order was entered directing the

-      receiver to distribute this fund in accordance with a previous decree. At

-      that term this order was resisted upon the ground that the decree was not

-      sufficiently explicit; which objection the court, upon consideration,

-      overruled. Later, the payment was sought to be held back upon the ground

-      that this order was improvidently awarded, and a motion made to revoke,

-      which was also overruled. And still later innumerable technical objections

-      have been offered by the attorney for the receiver, all of which this

-      court considers insufficient and trivial.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At this point one of the attorneys for Carper arose. &ldquo;If your honor

-      please,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we ask to be heard in defense of our

-      client. We think that it can yet be shown that this order should not be

-      enforced.&rdquo; Then he sat down.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The blue veins in the face of the jurist grew darker. &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo;

-      he continued, &ldquo;cannot now be heard. The time of this court has

-      already been much consumed by unprofitable argument. On yesterday the

-      stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company applied for a rule,

-      requiring Russell Carper, receiver, to appear and make answer, if any he

-      has, why he should not be attached and punished for contempt in disobeying

-      the orders of this court. The rule I have ordered to issue returnable

-      tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The judge handed the paper down to the clerk, and directed the next case

-      to be called. Then he leaned back in his chair with the huge unconcern of

-      one well removed from the grip of his fellows.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was the end. But to Carper it was all as unreal as the yesterday. He

-      seemed to be out of the scene, and, for that, out of himself, an idle

-      spectator. His attorneys were whispering gravely. They were telling him

-      that the game was now played out. There was nothing more to do. He must

-      direct his banker to pay over the money. Even these hired fighters did not

-      suspect; they presumed the delay was favorable to some deal in stocks. The

-      truth&mdash;only he, Carper, knew the truth. There was grim humor in the

-      huge deception.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On the way out of the court-room Carper stopped and handed the clerk the

-      only bill in his pockets. It would pay the fine of the shopkeeper. The

-      whole thing was an immensely clever little comedy, and he wanted to see

-      the sunshine come back into the shopkeeper's face.

-    </p>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">C</span>ARPER had been

-      given the long afternoon to arrange some scheme, to plan some way out, but

-      he allowed it to slip by like any leisure day. His mind was indolent,

-      absurdly indolent. In all the other crises of his life, it had been

-      restless as a blown wave. This day it was sluggish. Realizing the end, it

-      had folded its arms. It was difficult to appreciate that his career was

-      ripped off like a rotten seam. That afternoon his broker had talked

-      confidentially of a certain railroad venture. Men from the West had begged

-      the use of his name in the organization of a trust embracing the copper

-      mines of a State. He had been asked to contribute to a great charity. This

-      night, the last night, in his library there was yet no sign of that ruin

-      which sat by the hearthstone. The fire was warm; the surroundings wore

-      luxurious; the shelves were filled with books; from the walls the stern

-      faces of his forbears looked down, haughty, relentless as their lives had

-      shown. It was difficult to realize that he was an embezzler and a

-      bankrupt, suspended above a vacuous abyss by a line that the to-morrow

-      would cut short.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      For five years he had been the receiver of the Massachusetts Iron Company.

-      In those five years he had bought and sold on the street with the abandon

-      of a master. He had used the funds of this company as a workman would use

-      a tool left lying in his shop. He had won great sums, and he had lost

-      until the very earth seemed slipping away beneath him.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then the slump in the stocks of a great railroad system caught him, and he

-      had put in every dollar of this trust fund and watched it vanish like a

-      vapor. Still, no one knew. Carper's reputation stood on the street

-      flawless, perfect in outline, an empty shell&mdash;but no one knew.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the stockholders of the Massachusetts Iron Company finally demanded a

-      reorganization, he had employed the best legal talent and thrust in every

-      delay of the law. The fight had gone on year after year, from court to

-      court. Orders had been entered and dissolved; decrees had been made and

-      reversed; hearings had been granted by superior courts, and rehearings,

-      but the end, long delayed, came finally.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The stockholders had applied for a rule. It was the most summary

-      proceeding known to the law. To-morrow he must pay the money, or go to

-      prison a felon. The end loomed like the ragged outlines of a cliff.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      To Carper this end seemed atrociously unjust. He had worked so hard, so

-      hard: the best that was in him; the good days of his life had been given

-      up to this labor It had been his boyhood dream to be a factor in great

-      affairs,&mdash;the bitter labor of his youth, and, in part, the

-      realization of his middle life. He had cut every other thing away with a

-      hand that never once had trembled. It was his right to win, if there was

-      any justice anywhere. But to-morrow was the end. To-morrow the court would

-      strip him naked as a bone.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He had heard many a sleek pastor discourse glibly upon the eternal justice

-      of Providence. Then he believed it cant with a smattering of truth. Now it

-      was entirely clear that it was cant&mdash;but false; a pleasant lie like

-      the housewife tale of fairies.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper took the cigar from between his teeth and dropped it on the hearth.

-      The game of life was an ugly game. He confessed that he had lost interest

-      in its play. Now that the thought suggested he saw that he had been losing

-      interest all along. It was inertia he had been fighting&mdash;the plague

-      of inertia, and for no gain at all. It was a world where, if one sat

-      still, one wasted with monotony; and if one labored, it was only for the

-      purpose of building ships to fly in the air, which, when they were all

-      completed, sat stupidly on the earth or by hap toppled heavily upon the

-      builder, crushing out his heart. He could not understand why men had

-      sometimes said that life was good.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper had looked, he believed, into not a few chambers of the temple. The

-      same hooded shape sat in each. If fame was given, the skull was pretty

-      generally crushed with the crown. If wealth was given, the back was broken

-      with the weight. If love was given,&mdash;yes, the heart was usually

-      broken with it,&mdash;love!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper arose and went over to a cabinet in the wall, unlocked the door and

-      took out a big photograph, which he brought over to the fire. It was the

-      picture of a woman, young, beautiful, quivering with the power of life;

-      the mass of dark hair was caught back from her forehead; the eyes were

-      wide, clear, transparent; the nose was straight as the edges of a die, and

-      the throat round, full, marvellously moulded. In the set of the head there

-      was pride of lineage, and the relentless rigor of purity. It was a fine

-      face looking out from a blameless life, strong, innocent, exacting as a

-      child.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man placed the picture on the mantelshelf, and sat down by the fire.

-      That day was now seven years gone,&mdash;seven years! Yesterday was no

-      farther back. Every detail was clear. The shock had stamped them on the

-      lining of his heart. He had loved this woman as a man loves just one time.

-      He was trusting his very life to her keeping; he was going to her for

-      everything that woman could give; all of sweet fellowship, all of tender

-      sympathy, all of love. She was the only woman in the world. The expression

-      is a platitude, but the fact was as real to Carper as the green trees and

-      the sunlight. One could no more have convinced this man that other women

-      held some of the charms of life, than one could have convinced him that

-      light was a liquid. His love had gained the power of a religion; it had

-      gone, farther&mdash;-it had gained the majesty of a law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then the blow came. Carper had gone to this woman with a case of jewels,

-      the profit of a venture. He remembered how happy she had been: how the

-      light of trustfulness danced in her eyes; how she had carried the jewels

-      to the window in order to see the great rubies change to blood-drops, then

-      she had turned with a playful smile and asked him how he had made so great

-      a sum, and he, like a miserable fool, had blurted out that it was a part

-      of his gains in a deal on the street,&mdash;a deal in which he had ruined

-      a little banking house by seizing the vantage of its ignorant mistake. It

-      was the master blunder.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper remembered how the blood faded from this woman's face, leaving it

-      ashen gray; how the dull ache of pain gathered in her eyes; how she had

-      come over to him and dropped the jewels slowly into their case, and,

-      without a word, had gone back and sat down by the window. And he knew that

-      the woman of his love was gone out beyond the reach of his fingers. The

-      leash of his love had slipped off and snapped back in his hands.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He remembered the effect upon himself as something entirely foreign to

-      that which writers attribute to men under similar conditions. There was no

-      benumbing horror; no desire to make any violent demonstration of feeling.

-      There was merely a vague loss of strength, as though the bottom of the

-      fountain of vital force had dropped out, and then he grew sick&mdash;physically

-      sick. The material man was hurt first, and collapsed, much as it would

-      have done if shot through the stomach with a shell. He felt none of that

-      exaggerated emotion affected by the play-actor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was the commonplace sickness of a frightful physical blow.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the nausea had passed, he had gone over to her and begged to know

-      what it all meant, although he knew quite as well as she. The woman had

-      looked at him with her wide eyes deadened with pain, and said that she had

-      believed him ah honorable man, and had loved him for it, but that now she

-      knew the truth, and she would never be wife to a dishonest man.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He had made his argument then, and it was good. The venture was perfectly

-      legitimate, so recognized and treated by the business men of the land,&mdash;nay,

-      more, it was so regarded by the law. These were the standards; there was

-      no other. The customs of business and the law were the rules of right in

-      the marketplaces. Their wisdom was unquestioned. It was the result of all

-      the experience of the race, the conclusion of wise men, laboring with

-      conditions as they were. Had she a right to say that these standards were

-      wrong? He appealed to her sense of fairness. Was she better able to pass

-      upon the right of this transaction than all the merchants learned in the

-      customs of trade,&mdash;than all the jurists learned in the wisdom of the

-      law? Was she better able?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper pointed out that she lived in an atmosphere of purity high above

-      the din of the fight for life; a land of refined right, refined justice,

-      refined honor, magnificent, but not the world. The world had no perfect

-      code; it was no perfect place; it was not intended to be so, else it would

-      have been so made. It was an indifferent place, governed by the inexorable

-      law of the survival of the fittest, wherein men struggled for footing and

-      the comforts of life. One must conform to conditions as they were, or go

-      to the wall. It was folly, it was idiocy, it was madness to do otherwise.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Trade was like nature&mdash;pitiless. There was no measure of

-      consideration for the weakling or the fool. The fight was bitter,

-      remorseless, subject to dangerous shifts. If one was caught and broken,

-      the blame was with the sorry scheme of things, and this a Divine

-      Intelligence maintained, and men could not question that Divine

-      Intelligence. This condition of the world might not be purest or happiest,

-      but it was the condition of the world. It was God's way. Was it wise to

-      call it evil?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he shifted. He bade her remember that she had promised to go through

-      life with him. It was a contract she had no right to break. The position

-      she was taking was a frightful contradiction. She was reprehending the

-      customs of trade, and yet there was not a merchant in the market-place who

-      would repudiate his contract. She was charging the law with failure to

-      appreciate the highest shades of right, and yet she was about to do what

-      the law, even in its grossness, recognized and punished as a wrong. She

-      could not stand upon this ground, and do as she was doing. Even if he had

-      done wrong, was she to punish him by doing wrong also? The vice of her

-      position cried out. Her promise had been given. It was immutable. It was

-      her affair to know her mind, to determine what she wanted to do. She had

-      known him for years. In those years there had been ample time to

-      investigate, to conclude, to decide. No one had abridged the freedom of

-      her agency. She had finally become a party to this contract. Could she

-      repudiate it now, like the common rogue in whom principle was wanting?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He bade her remember the gravity of this contract. It involved her life,

-      his life, mayhap the lives of others. He had been shaping everything to

-      this end. Had she the right to ruthlessly destroy all? What would she

-      think of one who having contracted to accompany another into an unknown

-      land should suddenly abandon him on the purlieus of the country? What

-      would she think of one who had contracted to go with another into an

-      unknown sea, and should, when that other had made his ship ready, abandon

-      him at the water's edge? Was she doing better than these?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The woman had not answered at all; dark circles had gathered around her

-      eyes, and the full muscles of her throat relaxed and sank.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then Carper remembered how he had knelt down beside her and taken her hand

-      in his own,&mdash;-her hand, limp, cold, a dead thing.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Besides, he had gone on, he loved her; she was the only woman in his

-      heart. There could never be another. Day and night, and every day and

-      night, his heart cried for her like a tortured child! There was nothing

-      else in all the wide world to live for, to strive for. He had grown to

-      associate her with every hope, every emotion, every ambition, of his life.

-      How should he live on without her! What should he do with his empty days!

-      Pride might carry him crippled through a few, but, there was a limit to

-      the endurance of a man, and what then&mdash;what of his empty days then?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      If he had been doing wrong, God could find some way to punish him outside

-      of her love. Besides, if he was doing wrong, he needed her the more. He

-      needed her to round out his life, to add honor and purity and right. God

-      had sent her to do this work of good. Was she going to refuse merely

-      because the world was not the sort of place which she believed it to be?

-      Master of Life! the world would be abominably empty without her. He would

-      go anywhere she wished; do anything, be anything, she wished. It was not

-      the applause of men that he wanted in this life, nor the multitude of

-      things. It was her hand on his own; her voice in his ears; her image in

-      his heart forever. He could never get back again to his view-point.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      She had loosed the mouth of something in his bosom that clamored for her.

-      It would be content with no other. It would hush for no other. His heart

-      was aching now with the cry. What a place of torture it would be tomorrow,

-      and the next year, and the next.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The tears had rained down this woman's face, but she had shaken her head.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      That day was now seven years gone&mdash;seven years! Yesterday was no

-      farther back. Well, well! He had been only partly right. The woman's face

-      in his heart he had walled up. The cry for her he had silenced with the

-      opiates of greed. Still they were both there and alive. To-night the wall

-      had slipped away and the anaesthetics were powerless. It was no matter.

-      After all, had she done well? She had lived on, spotless, pure, alone; and

-      he had lived on&mdash;to this. Had she done well? That question it was no

-      right of his to answer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper got up from his chair, took the picture from the mantel, broke it

-      across the face and dropped the pieces into the fire. It was not necessary

-      for the marshal's deputy to speculate about this picture.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then he went over to the cabinet and took out a pack of letters, old,

-      yellow, tied with a faded ribbon, and, selecting one at random, sat down

-      in his chair to read it through. &ldquo;Dear Heart,&rdquo; it ran at the

-      beginning, and at the end &ldquo;I am unutterably lonely, and I love you.&rdquo;

-      Yes, he recalled the circumstances of its writing well. Then he replaced

-      it with the others and laid them all gently on the fire. They should not

-      be pleasant reading for the marshal.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He had come down into the world, with his heart shredded and every shred

-      aching like a nerve, and from that day he had flown the black flag of

-      piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the hand of none had been

-      heavier, and the brain of none had been keener than his own. From that day

-      every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of his galleon, had

-      walked the plank. The muscles of his face grew tense with the thought.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Somewhere in the house a clock struck ten. Carper arose and walked

-      backward and forward across the room. The spirit of fierce resistance was

-      beginning to awaken. He would not be stripped like a weakling. He would

-      fight, fight&mdash;but how? It was hopeless to dream of raising the money.

-      That plan had been discarded long ago. Vain vaporing! There was no way

-      remaining but Brutus's way&mdash;the road out into the vastness of

-      eternity was open! The exit was easy. Why should he lag back? Surely he

-      must go later on. For years the world had been a good place to get out of&mdash;for

-      seven years.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man opened a drawer at the bottom of the book-case and took out a

-      weapon&mdash;an ancient duelling pistol of his grandfather. He carried the

-      weapon to the table, wiped it carefully, and began to load it. When he had

-      finished, he went over to close the door. On the threshold lay one of the

-      evening papers of the city. Carper picked it up and brought it with him to

-      the light. The headlines caught his attention. It was the story of a great

-      bank defaulter who had gone free by reason of some defect in the law

-      shrewdly pointed out by a lawyer, Randolph Mason.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      He remembered the man as a remarkable legal misanthrope. He had heard of

-      him in the Federal courts. Somewhere he had this man's address, jotted

-      down one morning when the administrator of an estate walked out of the

-      Federal court a confessed gigantic thief, but, by this man's counsel,

-      beyond the reach of the law.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper looked through one of the files on his table&mdash;yes, here was

-      the residence number. The man leaned over and rested his arm on the

-      mantel-shelf. One might not do ill to go; there was time ample. One could

-      come back to the thing of steel later on.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper turned suddenly, put on his coat and hat, and passed out into the

-      street, closing the door and locking it carefully behind him. Then he

-      called a cab, gave the number to the driver, and leaned back heavily

-      against the cushion.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      II

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HIS is the place,

-      sir,&rdquo; said the cabman.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Before him was lighted. The door was standing open. The brougham of a

-      surgeon was beside the curb. He walked slowly up the great steps to the

-      door. There was an indescribable something in the air which seemed to

-      presage calamity; there were sounds as of persons hurrying with some

-      desperate matter.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      As Carper put up his hand to touch the bell, two men came out into the

-      shadow of the hall.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is a bad case of acute mania,&rdquo; one was saying. &ldquo;I

-      have given him two hypodermics of morphine, and he is still raving like a

-      drunken sailor.&rdquo;

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper's hand dropped to his side. He turned slowly and passed down the

-      steps into the street. He had not been noticed by the busy surgeons.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper stepped out. At the curb he stopped for a moment and looked up and

-      down the avenue. Well, it was justice. For seven years he had flown the

-      black flag of piracy. Among all the buccaneers of the street, the hand of

-      none had been heavier, and the brain of none had been keener than his own.

-      Every man who had passed up a prisoner on to the deck of his galleon, had

-      walked the plank. It was now his turn. It was justice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Carper spoke to the cabman. Then he stepped in and closed the door.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The man of last resort was probably gone. There was now no resort but to

-      the steel thing on the table.

-    </p>

-    <h3>

-      THE END.

-    </h3>

-    <div style="height: 6em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-<pre xml:space="preserve">

-

-

-

-

-

-End of Project Gutenberg's The Man of Last Resort, by Melville Davisson Post

-

-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN OF LAST RESORT ***

-

-***** This file should be named 51955-h.htm or 51955-h.zip *****

-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:

-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/5/51955/

-

-Produced by David Widger from page images generously

-provided by the Internet Archive

-

-

-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will

-be renamed.

-

-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright

-law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part

-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project

-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm

-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,

-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive

-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this

-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook

-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,

-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given

-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks

-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the

-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

-

-START: FULL LICENSE

-

-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

-

-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free

-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work

-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project

-Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full

-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at

-www.gutenberg.org/license.

-

-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project

-Gutenberg-tm electronic works

-

-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm

-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to

-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property

-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all

-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or

-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your

-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a

-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound

-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the

-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph

-1.E.8.

-

-1.B. &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark. It may only be

-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who

-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few

-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works

-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See

-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project

-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this

-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm

-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.

-

-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the

-Foundation&rdquo; or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection

-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual

-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United

-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the

-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not

-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,

-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as

-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope

-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting

-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm

-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the

-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily

-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the

-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when

-you share it without charge with others.

-

-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern

-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are

-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,

-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this

-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,

-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any

-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no

-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any

-country outside the United States.

-

-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

-

-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other

-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear

-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work

-on which the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the

-phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed,

-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:

-

-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and

-  most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the

-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you

-  are located before using this ebook.

-

-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is

-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not

-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the

-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in

-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are

-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase &ldquo;Project

-Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply

-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or

-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm

-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

-

-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted

-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution

-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any

-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms

-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works

-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the

-beginning of this work.

-

-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm

-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this

-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.

-

-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this

-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without

-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with

-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project

-Gutenberg-tm License.

-

-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,

-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including

-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access

-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format

-other than &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official

-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site

-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense

-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means

-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain

-Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other form. Any alternate format must include the

-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

-

-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,

-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works

-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

-

-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing

-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works

-provided that

-

-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from

-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method

-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed

-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has

-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project

-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid

-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are

-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty

-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project

-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in

-  Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg

-  Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;

-

-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies

-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he

-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm

-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all

-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue

-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm

-  works.

-

-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of

-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the

-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of

-  receipt of the work.

-

-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free

-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.

-

-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project

-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than

-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing

-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The

-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm

-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

-

-1.F.

-

-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable

-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread

-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project

-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm

-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may

-contain &ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate

-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other

-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or

-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or

-cannot be read by your equipment.

-

-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right

-of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project

-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project

-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project

-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all

-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal

-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT

-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE

-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE

-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE

-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR

-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH

-DAMAGE.

-

-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a

-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can

-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a

-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you

-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium

-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you

-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in

-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person

-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second

-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If

-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing

-without further opportunities to fix the problem.

-

-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth

-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO

-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT

-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

-

-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied

-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of

-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement

-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the

-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or

-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or

-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the

-remaining provisions.

-

-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the

-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone

-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in

-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the

-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm

-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,

-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of

-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this

-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or

-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any

-Defect you cause.

-

-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm

-

-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of

-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of

-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It

-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations

-from people in all walks of life.

-

-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the

-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's

-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will

-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project

-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure

-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future

-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary

-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see

-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at

-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg

-Literary Archive Foundation

-

-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit

-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the

-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal

-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification

-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary

-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by

-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.

-

-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the

-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its

-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous

-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt

-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to

-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and

-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact

-

-For additional contact information:

-

-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby

-    Chief Executive and Director

-    gbnewby@pglaf.org

-

-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg

-Literary Archive Foundation

-

-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide

-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of

-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be

-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest

-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations

-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt

-status with the IRS.

-

-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating

-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United

-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a

-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up

-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations

-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND

-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular

-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate

-

-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we

-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition

-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who

-approach us with offers to donate.

-

-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make

-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from

-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

-

-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation

-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other

-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To

-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate

-

-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.

-

-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project

-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be

-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and

-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of

-volunteer support.

-

-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed

-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in

-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not

-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper

-edition.

-

-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search

-facility: www.gutenberg.org

-

-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,

-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary

-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to

-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.

-

-

-

-</pre>

-  </body>

-</html>