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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jane Cable, by George Barr McCutcheon
+(#10 in our series by George Barr McCutcheon)
+
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+Title: Jane Cable
+
+Author: George Barr McCutcheon
+
+Release Date: June, 2004  [EBook #5971]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 2, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, JANE CABLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Charles Franks, Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "HIS FEEBLE GLANCE TOOK IN HER FACE WITH LIFELESS
+INTEREST"]
+
+Jane Cable
+
+By George Barr McCutcheon
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I When Jane Goes Driving
+II The Cables
+III James Bansemer
+IV The Foundling
+V The Bansemer Crash
+VI In Sight of the Fangs
+VII Mrs. Cable Entertains
+VIII The Telegram
+IX The Proposal
+X The Four Initials
+XI An Evening with Droom
+XII James Bansemer Calls
+XIII Jane Sees with New Eyes
+XIV The Canker
+XV The Tragedy of the Sea Wall
+XVI Hours of Terror
+XVII David Cable's Debts
+XVIII The Visit of Harbert
+XIX The Crash
+XX Father and Son
+XXI In the Philippines
+XXII The Chase of Pilar
+XXIII The Fight in the Convent
+XXIV Teresa Velasquez
+XXV The Beautiful Nurse
+XXVI The Separation of Hearts
+XXVII "If They Don't Kill You"
+XXVIII Homeward Bound
+XXIX The Wreckage
+XXX The Drink of Gall
+XXXI The Transforming of Droom
+XXXII Elias Droom's Dinner Party
+XXXIII Droom Triumphs over Death
+XXXIV To-morrow
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHEN JANE GOES DRIVING
+
+
+
+
+
+It was a bright, clear afternoon in the late fall that pretty Miss
+Cable drove up in her trap and waited at the curb for her father to
+come forth from his office in one of Chicago's tallest buildings.
+The crisp, caressing wind that came up the street from the lake put
+the pink into her smooth cheeks, but it did not disturb the brown
+hair that crowned her head. Well-groomed and graceful, she sat
+straight and sure upon the box, her gloved hand grasping the yellow
+reins firmly and confidently. Miss Cable looked neither to right
+nor to left, but at the tips of her thoroughbred's ears. Slender
+and tall and very aristocratic she appeared, her profile alone
+visible to the passers-by.
+
+After a very few moments, waiting in her trap, the smart young
+woman became impatient. A severe, little pucker settled upon her
+brow, and not once, but many times her eyes turned to the broad
+entrance across the sidewalk. She had telephoned to her father
+earlier in the afternoon; and he had promised faithfully to be
+ready at four o'clock for a spin up the drive behind Spartan. At
+three minutes past four the pucker made its first appearance; and
+now, several minutes later, it was quite distressing. Never before
+had he kept her waiting like this. She was conscious of the fact
+that at least a hundred men had stared at her in the longest ten
+minutes she had ever known. From the bottom of a very hot heart
+she was beginning to resent this scrutiny, when a tall young fellow
+swung around a near-by corner, and came up with a smile so full of
+delight, that the dainty pucker left her brow, as the shadow flees
+from the sunshine. His hat was off and poised gallantly above his
+head, his right hand reaching up to clasp the warm, little tan one
+outstretched to meet it.
+
+"I knew it was you long before I saw you," said he warmly.
+
+"Truly? How interesting!" she responded, with equal warmth.
+"Something psychic in the atmosphere today?"
+
+"Oh, no," he said, reluctantly releasing her hand. "I can't see
+through these huge buildings, you know---it's impossible to look
+over their tops--I simply knew you were here, that's all."
+
+"You're romantic, even though you are a bit silly," she cried gaily.
+"Pray, how could you know?"
+
+"Simplest thing in the world. Rigby told me he had seen you, and
+that you seemed to be in a great rage. He dared me to venture into
+your presence, and--that's why I'm here."
+
+"What a hopelessly, commonplace explanation! Why did you not leave
+me to think that there was really something psychic about it? Logic
+is so discouraging to one's conceit. I'm in a very disagreeable
+humour to-day," she said, in fine despair.
+
+"I don't believe it," he disputed graciously.
+
+"But I am," she insisted, smiling brightly. His heart was leaping
+high--so high, that it filled his eyes. "Everything has gone wrong
+with me to-day. It's pretty trying to have to wait in front of a
+big office building for fifteen minutes. Every instant, I expect
+a policeman to come up and order me to move on. Don't they arrest
+people for blocking the street?"
+
+"Yes, and put them in awful, rat-swarming dungeons over in Dearborn
+Avenue. Poor Mr. Cable, he should be made to suffer severely for
+his wretched conduct. The idea of--"
+
+"Don't you dare to say anything mean about dad," she warned.
+
+"But he's the cause of all the trouble--he's never done anything
+to make you happy, or--"
+
+"Stop!--I take it all back--I'm in a perfectly adorable humour.
+It was dreadfully mean of me to be half-angry with him, wasn't it?
+He's in there, now, working his dear old brain to pieces, and I'm
+out here with no brain at all," she said ruefully.
+
+To the ingenuous youth, such an appeal to his gallantry was well-nigh
+irresistible, and for a moment it seemed as if he would yield to
+the temptation to essay a brilliant contradiction; but his wits
+came to his rescue, for quickly realising that not only were the
+frowning rocks of offence to be avoided, but likewise the danger of
+floundering helplessly about in the inviting quicksands of inanity, he
+preserved silence--wise young man that he was, and trusted to his
+eyes to express an eloquent refutation. At last, however, something
+seemed to occur to him. A smile broke on his face.
+
+"You had a stupid time last night?" he hazarded.
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+"I know who took you in to dinner."
+
+The eyes of the girl narrowed slightly at the corners.
+
+"Did he tell you?"
+
+"No, I have neither seen nor heard from anyone present." She opened
+her eyes wide, now.
+
+"Well, Mr. S. Holmes, who was it?"
+
+"That imbecile, Medford."
+
+Miss Cable sat up very straight in the trap; her little chin went
+up in the air; she even went so far as to make a pretence of curbing
+the impatience of her horse.
+
+"Mr. Medford was most entertaining--he was the life of the dinner,"
+she returned somewhat severely.
+
+"He's a professional!"
+
+"An actor!" she cried incredulously.
+
+"No, a professional diner-out. Wasn't that rich young Jackson
+there?"
+
+"Why, yes; but do tell me how you knew?" The girl was softening a
+little, her curiosity aroused.
+
+"Of course I will," he said boyishly, at once pleased with himself
+and his sympathetic audience. "About five-thirty I happened to be
+in the club. Medford was there, and as usual catering to Jackson,
+when the latter was called to the 'phone. Naturally, I put two
+and two together." He paused to more thoroughly enjoy the look of
+utter mystification that hovered on the girl's countenance. It was
+very apparent that this method of deduction through addition was
+unsatisfying. "What Jackson said to Medford, on his return," the
+young man continued, "I did not hear; but from the expression on
+the listener's face I could have wagered that an invitation had been
+extended and accepted. Oh, we boys have got it down fine! Garrison
+is---"
+
+"And who is Garrison?"
+
+"Garrison is the head door man at the club. It's positively amazing
+the number of telephone calls he receives every afternoon from
+well-known society women!"
+
+"What about? And what's that got to do with Mr. Medford taking me
+in to dinner?"
+
+"Just this: Suppose Mrs. Rowden..."
+
+"Mrs. Rowden!" The girl was nonplussed.
+
+"Yes--wants to find out who's in the club? She 'phones Garrison.
+Instantly, after ascertaining which set--younger or older is wanted,
+from a small card upon which he has written a few but choice names
+of club members, he submits a name to her."
+
+"Really, you don't mean to tell me that such a thing is actually
+done?" exclaimed Miss Cable, who as yet was socially so unsophisticated
+as to be horrified; "you're joking, of course!"
+
+"But nine time out of ten," ignoring the interruption; "it is met
+with: 'Don't want him!' Another: 'Makes a bad combination!' A third:
+'Oh, no, my dear, not a dollar to his name--hopelessly ineligible!'
+This last exclamation though intended solely for the visitor at
+her home, elicits from Garrison a low chuckle of approval of the
+speaker's discrimination; and presently, he hears: 'Goodness me,
+Garrison, there must be someone else!' Then, to her delights she
+is informed that Mr. Jackson has just come in; and he is requested
+to come to the 'phone, Garrison being dismissed with thanks and
+the expectation of seeing her butler in the morning."
+
+"How perfectly delicious!" came from the girl. "I can almost hear
+Mrs. Rowden telling Jackson that he will be the dearest boy in the
+world if he will dine with her."
+
+"And bring someone with him, as she is one man short," laughed
+Graydon, as he wound up lightly; "and here is where the professional
+comes in. We're all onto Medford! Why, Garrison has half a dozen
+requests a night--six times five--thirty dollars. Not bad--but
+then the man's a 'who's who' that never makes mistakes. I won't be
+positive that he does not draw pay from both ends. For, men like
+Medford, outside of the club, probably tip him to give them the
+preference. It would be good business."
+
+There was so much self-satisfaction in the speaker's manner
+of uttering these last words, that it would not have required the
+wisdom of one older than Miss Cable to detect that he was thoroughly
+enjoying his pose of man of the world. He was indeed young! For, he
+had yet to learn that not to disillusion the girl, but to conform
+as much as possible to her ideals, was the surest way to win her
+favour; and his vanity surely would have received a blow had not David
+Cable at that moment come out of the doorway across the sidewalk,
+pausing for a moment to converse with the man who accompanied him.
+The girl's face lighted with pleasure and relief; but the young
+man regarding uneasily the countenance of the General Manager of
+the Pacific, Lakes & Atlantic R.R. Company, saw that he was white,
+tired and drawn. It was not the keen, alert expression that had been
+the admiration of everyone; something vital seemed to be missing,
+although he could not have told what it was. A flame seemed to have
+died somewhere in his face, leaving behind a faint suggestion of
+ashes; and through the young man's brain there flashed the remark
+of his fair companion: 'He's in there now, working his dear, old
+brain to pieces.'
+
+"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Jane," said Cable, crossing
+to the curb. "Hello, Graydon; how are you?" His voice was sharp,
+crisp, and louder than the occasion seemed to demand, but it was
+natural with him. Years of life in an engine cab do not serve to
+mellow the tone of the human voice, and the habit is too strong to
+be overcome.  There was no polish to the tones as they issued from
+David Cable's lips. He spoke with more than ordinary regard for the
+Queen's English, but it was because he never had neglected it. It
+was characteristic of the man to do a thing as nearly right as he
+knew how in the beginning, and to do it. the same way until a better
+method presented itself.
+
+"Very well, thank you, Mr. Cable, except that Jane has been abusing
+me because you were not here to---"
+
+"Don't you believe a word he says, dad," she cried.
+
+"Oh, if the truth isn't in me, I'll subside," laughed Graydon.
+"Nevertheless, you've kept her waiting, and it's only reasonable
+that she should abuse somebody."
+
+"I am glad you were here to receive it; it saves my grey hairs."
+
+"Rubbish!" was Miss Cable's simple comment, as her father took his
+place beside her.
+
+"Oh, please drive on, Jane," said the young man, his admiring eyes
+on the girl who grasped the reins afresh and straightened like a
+soldier for inspection. "I must run around to the University Club
+and watch the score of the Yale-Harvard game at Cambridge. It looks
+like Harvard, hang it all! Great game, they say---"
+
+"There he goes on football. We must be off, or it will be dark
+before we get away from him. Good-bye!" cried Miss Cable.
+
+"How's your father, Gray? He wasn't feeling the best in the world,
+yesterday," said Cable, tucking in the robe.
+
+"A case of liver, Mr. Cable; he's all right to-day. Good-bye!"
+
+As Jane and her father whirled away, the latter gave utterance
+to a remark that brought a new brightness to her eyes and a proud
+throbbing to her heart; but he did not observe the effect.
+
+"Bright, clever chap--that Graydon Bansemer," he said comfortably.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE CABLES
+
+
+
+
+
+The General Manager of the Pacific, Lakes & Atlantic Railroad
+System had had a hard struggle of it. He who begins his career with
+a shovel in a locomotive cab usually has something of that sort
+to look back upon. There are no roses along the pathway he has
+traversed. In the end, perhaps, he wonders if it has been worth
+while. David Cable was a General Manager; he had been a fireman.
+It had required twenty-five years of hard work on his part to break
+through the chrysalis. Packed away in a chest upstairs in his house
+there was a grimy, greasy, unwholesome suit of once-blue overalls.
+The garments were just as old as his railroad career, for he had worn
+them on his first trip with the shovel. When his wife implored him
+to throw away the "detestable things," he said, with characteristic
+humour, that he thought he would keep them for a rainy day. It was
+much simpler to go from General Manager to fireman than vice versa,
+and it might be that he would need the suit again.  It pleased him
+to hear his wife sniff contemptuously.
+
+David Cable had been a wayward, venturesome youth. His father and
+mother had built their hopes high with him as a foundation, and he
+had proved a decidedly insecure basis; for one night, in the winter
+of 1863, he stole away from his home in New York; before spring
+he was fighting in the far Southland, a boy of sixteen carrying a
+musket in the service of his country.
+
+At the close of the Civil War Private Cable, barely eighteen, returned
+to his home only to find that death had destroyed its happiness:
+his father had died, leaving his widowed mother a dependant upon
+him. It was then, philosophically, he realised that labour alone
+could win for him; and he stuck to it with rigid integrity. In
+turn, he became brakeman and fireman; finally his determination
+and faithfulness won him a fireman's place on one of the fast New
+York Central "runs." If ever he was dissatisfied with the work, no
+one was the wiser.
+
+Railroading in those days was not what it is in these advanced times.
+Then, it meant that one was possessed of all the evil habits that
+fall to the lot of man. David Cable was more or less contaminated
+by contact with his rough, ribald companions of the rail, and
+he glided moderately into the bad habits of his kind. He drank
+and "gamboled" with the rest of the boys; but by nature not being
+vicious and low, the influences were not hopelessly deadening to
+the better qualities of his character. To his mother, he was always
+the strong, good-hearted, manly boy, better than all the other
+sons in the world. She believed in him; he worshipped her; and it
+was not until he was well up in the twenties that he stopped to
+think that she was not the only good woman in the world who deserved
+respect.
+
+Up in Albany lived the Widow Coleman and her two pretty daughters.
+Mrs. Coleman's husband died on the battlefield, and she, like many
+women in the North and the South, after years of moderate prosperity,
+was compelled to support herself and her family. She had been
+a pretty woman, and one readily could see where her daughters got
+their personal attractiveness. Not many doors from the boisterous
+little eating-house in which the railroad men snatched their meals
+as they went through, the widow opened a book and newsstand. Her
+home was on the floor above the stand, and it was there she brought
+her little girls to womanhood. Good-looking, harum-scarum Dave
+Cable saw Frances Coleman one evening as he dropped in to purchase
+a newspaper. It was at the end of June, in 1876, and the country
+was in the throes of excitement over the first news of the Custer
+massacre on the Little Big Horn River.
+
+Cable was deeply interested, for he had seen Custer fighting at
+the front in the sixties. Frances Coleman, the prettiest girl he
+had ever seen, sold him the newspaper. After that, he seldom went
+through Albany without visiting the little book shop.
+
+Tempestuous, even arrogant in love, Cable, once convinced that he
+cared for her, lost no time in claiming her, whether or no. In less
+than three months after the Custer massacre they were married.
+
+Defeated rivals unanimously and enviously observed that the
+handsomest fireman on the road had conquered the mo&t outrageous
+little coquette between New York and Buffalo. As a matter of fact,
+she had loved him from the start; the others served as thorns with
+which she delightedly pricked his heart into subjection.
+
+The young husband settled down, renounced all of his undesirable
+habits and became a new man with such surprising suddenness that
+his friends marvelled and--derided. A year of happiness followed.
+He grew accustomed to her frivolous ways, overlooked her merry
+whimsicalities and gave her the "full length of a free rope," as he
+called it. He was contented and consequently careless. She chafed
+under the indifference, and in her resentment believed the worst
+of him. Turmoil succeeded peace and contentment, and in the end,
+David Cable, driven to distraction, weakly abandoned the domestic
+battlefield and fled to the Far West, giving up home, good wages,
+and all for the sake of freedom, such as it was. He ignored her
+letters and entreaties, but in all those months that he was away
+from her he never ceased to regret the impulse that had defeated
+him. Nevertheless, he could not make up his mind to go back and
+resume the life of torture her jealousy had begotten.
+
+Then, the unexpected happened. A letter was received containing
+the command to come home and care for his wife and baby. At once,
+David Cable called a halt in his demoralising career and saw the
+situation plainly. He forgot that she had "nagged" him to the point
+where endurance rebelled; he forgot everything but the fact that
+he cared for her in spite of all. Sobered and conscience-stricken,
+he knew only that she was alone and toiling; that she had suffered
+uncomplainingly until the babe was some months old before appealing
+to him for help. In abject humiliation, he hastened back to New
+York, reproaching himself every mile of the way. Had he but known
+the true situation, he would have been spared the pangs of remorse,
+and this narrative never would have been written.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JAMES BANSEMER
+
+
+
+
+
+In the City of New York there was practising, at that time, a
+lawyer by the name of Bansemer. His office, on the topmost floor
+of a dingy building in the lower section of the city, was not
+inviting. On leaving the elevator, one wound about through narrow
+halls and finally peered, with more or less uncertainty and misgiving,
+at the half-obliterated sign which said that James Bansemer held
+forth on the other side of the glass panel.
+
+It was whispered in certain circles and openly avowed in others
+that Bansemer's business was not the kind which elevates the law;
+in plain words, his methods were construed to debase the good and
+honest statutes of the land. Once inside the door of his office--and
+a heavy spring always closed it behind one--there was quick evidence
+that the lawyer lamentably disregarded the virtues of prosperity,
+no matter how they had been courted and won. Although his transactions
+in and out of the courts of that great city bore the mark of
+dishonour, he was known to have made money during the ten years
+of his career as a member of the bar. Possibly he kept his office
+shabby and unclean that it might be in touch with the transactions
+which had their morbid birth inside the grimy walls. There was no
+spot or corner in the two small rooms that comprised his "chambers"
+to which he could point with pride. The floors were littered with
+papers; the walls were greasy and bedecked with malodorous notations,
+documents and pictures; the windows were smoky and useless; the
+clerk's desk bore every suggestion of dissoluteness.
+
+But little less appalling to one's aesthetic sense was the clerk
+himself. Squatting behind his wretched desk, Elias Droom peered
+across the litter of papers and books with snaky but polite eyes,
+almost as inviting as the spider who, with wily but insidious
+decorum, draws the guileless into his web.
+
+If one passed muster in the estimation of the incomprehensible
+Droom, he was permitted, in due season, to pass through a second
+oppressive-looking door and into the private office of Mr. James
+Bansemer, attorney-at-law and solicitor. It may be remarked at
+this early stage that, no matter how long or how well one may have
+known Droom, one seldom lingered to engage in commonplaces with
+him. His was the most repellent personality imaginable. When he
+smiled, one was conscious of a shock to the nervous system; when
+he so far forgot himself as to laugh aloud, there was a distinct
+illustration of the word "crunching"; when he spoke, one was almost
+sorry that he had ears.
+
+Bansemer knew but little of this freakish individual's history; no
+one else had the temerity to inquire into his past--or to separate
+it from his future, for that matter. Once, Bansemer ironically
+asked him why he had never married. It was a full minute before
+the other lifted his eyes from the sheet of legal cap, and by that
+time he was in full control of his passion.
+
+"Look at me! Would any woman marry a thing like me?"
+
+This was said with such terrible earnestness that Bansemer took
+care never to broach the subject again. He saw that Droom's heart
+was not all steel and brass.
+
+Droom v/as middle-aged. His lank body and cadaverous face were
+constructed on principles not generally accredited to nature as it
+applies to men. When erect, his body swayed as if it were a stubborn
+reed determined to maintain its dignity in the face of the wind; he
+did not walk, he glided. His long square chin, rarely clean-shaven,
+protruded far beyond its natural orbit; indeed, the attitude of
+the chin gave one an insight to the greedy character of the man.
+At first glance, one felt that Droom was reaching forth with his
+lower jaw to give greeting with his teeth, instead of his hand.
+
+His neck was long and thin, and his turndown collar was at least
+two sizes too large. The nose was hooked and of abnormal length,
+the tip coming well down over the short, upper lip and broad mouth.
+His eyes were light blue, and so intense that he was never known to
+blink the lashes. Topping them were deep, wavering, black eyebrows
+that met above the nose, forming an ominous, cloudy line across
+the base of his thin, high forehead. The crown of his head, covered
+by long, scant strands of black hair, was of the type known as
+"retreating and pointed." The forehead ran upward and back from the
+brows almost to a point, and down from the pinnacle hung the veil
+of hair, just as if he had draped it there with the same care
+he might have used in placing his best hat upon a peg. His back
+was stooped, and the high, narrow shoulders were hunched forward
+eagerly. Long arms and ridiculously thin legs, with big hands and
+feet, tell the story of his extremities. When he was on his feet
+Droom was more than six feet tall; as he sat in the low-backed,
+office chair he looked to be less than five feet, over all. What
+became of that lank expanse of bone and cuticle when he sat down
+was one of the mysteries that not even James Bansemer could fathom.
+
+The men had been classmates in an obscure law school down in
+Pennsylvania. Bansemer was good-looking, forceful and young; while
+Droom was distinctly his opposite. Where he came from no one knew
+and no one cared. He was past thirty-five when he entered the
+school-at least twelve years the senior of Bansemer.
+
+His appearance and attire proclaimed him to be from the country;
+but his sophistry, his knowledge of the world and his wonderful
+insight into human nature contradicted his looks immeasureably.
+A conflict or two convinced his fellow students that he was more
+than a match for them in stealth and cunning, if not in dress and
+deportment.
+
+Elias Droom had not succeeded as a lawyer. He repelled people,
+growing more and more bitter against the world as his struggles
+became harder. What little money he had accumulated--Heaven alone
+knew how: he came by it--dwindled to nothing, and he was in actual
+squalor when, later, Bansemer found him in an attic in Baltimore.
+Even as he engaged the half-starved wretch to become his confidential
+clerk the lawyer shuddered and almost repented of his action.
+
+But Elias Droom was worth his weight in gold to James Bansemer from
+that day forth. His employer's sole aim in life was to get rich
+and thereby to achieve power. His ambition was laudable, if one
+accepts the creed of morals, but his methods were not so praise-worthy.
+After a year of two of starvation struggles to get on with the
+legitimate, he packed up his scruples and laid them away--temporarily,
+he said. He resorted to sharp practice, knavery, and all the forms
+of legal blackmail; it was not long before his bank account began
+to swell. His business thrived. He was so clever that not one of his
+shady proceedings reacted. It is safe to venture that ninety-nine
+per cent, of the people who were bilked through his manipulations
+promised, in the heat of virtuous wrath, to expose him, but he had
+learned to smile in security. He knew that exposure for him meant
+humiliation for the instigator, and he continued to rest easy while
+he worked hard.
+
+"You're getting rich at this sort of thing," observed Droom one
+day, after the lawyer had closed a particularly nauseous deal to
+his own satisfaction, "but what are you going to do when the tide
+turns?"
+
+Bansemer, irritated on perceiving that the other was engaged in his
+exasperating habit of rubbing his hands together, did not answer,
+but merely thundered out: "Will you stop that!"
+
+There was a faint suggestion of the possibility of a transition of
+the hands to claws, as Droom abruptly desisted, but smilingly went
+on:
+
+"Some day, the other shark will get the better of you and you'll
+have nothing to fall back on. You've been building on mighty slim
+foundations. There isn't a sign of support if the worst comes to
+the worst," he chuckled.
+
+"It's a large world, Droom," said his employer easily.
+
+"And small also, according to another saying," supplemented Droom.
+"When a man's down, everybody kicks him--I'm afraid you could not
+survive the kicking."
+
+Droom grinned so diabolically as again he resumed the rubbing of
+his hands that the other turned away with an oath and closed the
+door to the inside office. Bansemer was alone and where Droom's
+eyes could not see him, but something told him that the grin hung
+outside the door for many minutes, as if waiting for a chance to
+pop in and tantalise him.
+
+Bansemer was a good-looking man of the coarser mould--the kind of
+man that merits a second look in passing, and the second look is not
+always in his favour. He was thirty-five years of age, but looked
+older. His face was hard and deeply marked with the lines of
+intensity. The black eyes were fascinating in their brilliancy,
+but there was a cruel, savage light in their depths. The nose and
+mouth were clean-cut and pitiless in their very symmetry. Shortly
+after leaving college to hang out his shingle, he had married the
+daughter of a minister. For two years her sweet influence kept his
+efforts along the righteous path, but he writhed beneath the yoke
+of poverty. His pride suffered because he was unable to provide
+her with more of the luxuries of life; in his selfish way, he loved
+her.  Failure to advance made him surly and ill-tempered, despite
+her amiable efforts to lighten the shadows around their little
+home.  When the baby boy was born to them, and she suffered more
+and more from the unkindness of privation, James Bansemer, by nature
+an aggressor, threw off restraint and plunged into the traffic that
+soon made him infamously successful. She died, however, before the
+taint of his duplicity touched her, and he, even in his grief, felt
+thankful that she never was to know the truth.
+
+At this time Bansemer lived in comfort at one of the middle-class
+boarding houses uptown, and the boy was just leaving the kindergarten
+for a private school. Bansemer's calloused heart had one tender
+chamber, and in it dwelt the little lad with the fair hair and grey
+eyes of the woman who had died.
+
+Late one November afternoon just before Bansemer put on his light
+topcoat to leave the office for the day, Droom tapped on the
+glass panel of the door to his private office. Usually, the clerk
+communicated with him by signal--a floor button by which he could
+acquaint his master with much that he ought to know, and the
+visitor in the outer office would be none the wiser. The occasions
+were rare when he went so far as to tap on the door. Bansemer was
+puzzled, and stealthily listened for sounds from the other side.
+Suddenly, there came to his ears the voices of women, mingled with
+Broom's suppressed but always raucous tones.
+
+Bansemer opened the door; looking into the outer office, he saw
+Droom swaying before two women, rubbing his hands and smiling. One
+of the women carried a small babe in her arms. Neither she nor her
+companion seemed quite at ease in the presence of the lank guardian
+of the outer office.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FOUNDLING
+
+
+
+
+
+"Lady to see you!" announced Droom. The shrewd, fearless genius of
+the inner room glanced up quickly and met the prolonged, uncanny
+gaze of his clerk; unwillingly, his eyes fell.
+
+"Confound it, Lias! will you ever quit looking at me like that!
+There's something positively creepy in that stare of yours!"
+
+"Lady to see you!" repeated the clerk, shifting about uneasily,
+and then gliding away to take his customary look at the long row
+of books in the wall cases. He had performed this act a dozen times
+a day for more than five years; the habit had become so strong that
+chains could not have restrained him. It was what he considered
+a graceful way of dropping out of notice, at the same time giving
+the impression that he was constantly busy.
+
+"Are you Mr. Bansemer?" asked the woman with the babe in her arms,
+as he crossed into the outer office.
+
+For a moment Bansemer purposely remained absorbed in the contemplation
+of his finger nails; then he shot a sudden comprehensive glance
+which took in the young woman, her burden and all the supposed
+conditions. There was no doubt in his mind that here was another
+"paternity case," as he catalogued them in his big, black book.
+
+"I am," he replied shortly, for he usually made short, quick work
+of such cases. There was not much money in them at best. They spring
+from the lower and poorer classes. The rich ones who are at fault
+in such matters never permit them to go to the point where a lawyer
+is consulted. "Would you mind coming in to-morrow? I'm just leaving
+for the day."
+
+"It will take but a few minutes, sir, and it would be very hard for
+me to get away again to-morrow," said the young woman nervously.
+"I'm a governess in a family 'way uptown and my days are not very
+free."
+
+"Is this your baby?" asked Bansemer, more interested. The word
+governess appealed to him; it meant that she had to do with wealthy
+people, at least.
+
+"No--that is--well, not exactly," she replied confusedly. The
+lawyer looked at her so sharply that she flinched under his gaze.
+A kidnapper, thought he, with the quick cunning of one who deals in
+stratagems. Instinctively he looked about as if to make sure that
+there were no unnecessary witnesses to share the secret.
+
+"Come into this room," said he suddenly. "Both of you. See that we
+are not disturbed," he added, to Droom. "I think I can give you a
+few minutes, madam, and perhaps some very good advice. Be seated,"
+he went on, closing the door after them. His eyes rested on Broom's
+face for an instant as the door closed, and he saw a particularly
+irritating grin struggling on his thin lips. "Now, what is it? Be
+as brief as possible, please. I'm in quite a hurry."
+
+It occurred to him at this juncture that the young woman was not
+particularly distressed. Instead, her rather pretty face was full
+of eagerness and there was a certain lightness in her manner that
+puzzled him for the moment. Her companion was the older of the
+two and quite as prepossessing. Both were neatly dressed and both
+looked as though they were or had been bread-winners. If they had
+a secret, it was now quite evident to this shrewd, quick thinker
+that it was not a dark one. In truth, he was beginning to feel that
+something mischievous lurked in the attitude of the two visitors.
+
+"I want to ask how a person has to proceed to adopt a baby," was
+the blunt and surprising remark that came from the one who held
+the infant. Bansemer felt himself getting angry.
+
+"Who wants to adopt it?" he asked shortly.
+
+"I do, of course," she answered, so readily that the lawyer stared.
+He scanned her from head to foot, critically; her face reddened
+perceptibly. It surprised him to find that she was more than merely
+good-looking; she was positively attractive!
+
+"Are you a married woman?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes," she answered, with a furtive glance at her companion. "This
+is my sister," she added.
+
+"I see. Where is your husband?"
+
+"He is at home--or rather, at his mother's home. We are living
+there now."
+
+"I thought you said you were a governess?"
+
+"That doesn't prevent me from having a home, does it?" she explained
+easily. "I'm not a nurse, you know."
+
+"This isn't your child, then?" he asked impatiently.
+
+"I don't know whose child it is." There was a new softness in her
+voice that made him look hard at her while she passed a hand tenderly
+over the sleeping babe. "She comes from a foundling's home, sir."
+
+"You cannot adopt a child unless supported by some authority," he
+said. "How does she happen to be in your possession; and what papers
+have you from the foundling's home to show that the authorities
+are willing that you should have her? There is a lot of red tape
+about such matters, madam."
+
+"I thought perhaps you could manage it for me, Mr. Bansemer,"
+she said, plaintively. "They say you never fail at anything you
+undertake." He was not sure there was a compliment in her remark,
+so he treated it with indifference.
+
+"I'm afraid I can't help you." The tone was final.
+
+"Can't you tell me how I'll have to proceed? I must adopt the
+child, sir, one way or another." Her manner was more subdued and
+there was a touch of supplication in her voice.
+
+"Oh, you go into the proper court and make application, that's all,"
+he volunteered carelessly. "The judge will do the rest. Does your
+husband approve of the plans?"
+
+"He doesn't know anything about it?"
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"I can't tell him; it would spoil everything."
+
+"My dear madam, I don't believe I understand you quite clearly. You
+want to adopt the child and keep the matter dark so far as your
+husband is concerned? May I inquire the reason?" Bansemer, naturally,
+was interested by this time.
+
+"If you have time to listen, I'd like to tell you how it all comes
+about. It won't take long. I want someone to tell me just what
+to do and I'll pay for the advice, if it isn't too expensive. I'm
+very poor, Mr. Bansemer; perhaps you won't care to heip me after
+you know that I can't afford to pay very much."
+
+"We'll see about that later," he said brusquely; "go ahead with
+the story."
+
+The young woman hesitated, glanced nervously at her sister as if
+for support, and finally faced the expectant lawyer with a flash of
+determination in her dark eyes. As she proceeded, Bansemer silently
+and somewhat disdainfully made a study of the speaker. He concluded
+that she was scarcely of common origin and was the possessor of
+a superficial education that had been enlarged by conceitedness;
+furthermore, she was a person of selfish instincts, but without
+the usual cruel impulses. There was little if any sign of true
+refinement in the features, and yet, there was a strange strength
+of purpose that puzzled him. As her story progressed, he solved
+the puzzle. She had the strength to carry out a purpose that might
+further her own personal interests; but not the will to endure
+sacrifice for the sake of another. Her sister was larger and possessed
+a reserve that might have been mistaken for deepness. He felt that
+she was hardly in sympathy with the motives of the younger, more
+volatile woman.
+
+"My husband is a railroad engineer and is ten years older than I,"
+the narrator said in the beginning. "I wasn't quite nineteen when
+we were married--two years ago. For some time, we got along all
+right; then we began to quarrel. He commenced to---"
+
+"Mr. Bansemer is in a hurry, Fan," broke in the older sister,
+sharply; and then, repeating the lawyer's words: "Be as brief as
+possible."
+
+There was a world of reproach in the look which greeted the speaker.
+Evidently, it was a grievous disappointment not to be allowed to
+linger over the details.
+
+"Well," she continued half pettishly; "it all ended by his leaving
+home, job and everything. I had told him that I was going to apply
+for a divorce. For three months I never heard from him."
+
+"Did you apply for a divorce?" asked the lawyer, stifling a yawn.
+
+"No, sir, I did not, although he did nothing towards my support."
+The woman could not resist a slightly coquettish attempt to enlist
+Bansemer's sympathy. "I obtained work at St. Luke's Hospital for
+Foundlings, and after that, as a governess. But, once a week I went
+back to the asylum to see the little ones. One day, they brought
+in a beautifully dressed baby--a girl. She was found on a doorstep,
+and in the basket was a note asking that she be well cared for; with
+it, was a hundred dollar bill. The moment I saw the little thing,
+I fell in love with her. I made application and they gave me
+the child with the understanding that I was to adopt it. You see,
+I was lonely--I had been living alone for nine or ten months. The
+authorities knew nothing of my trouble with Mr. Cable--that's my
+husband, David Cable. The child was about a month old when I took
+her to his mother, whom I hadn't seen in months. I told Mrs. Cable
+that she was mine. The dear old lady believed me; half the battle
+was won." She paused out of breath, her face full of excitement.
+
+"And then?" he asked, once more interested.
+
+"We both wrote to David asking him to come home to his wife and
+baby." She looked away guiltily. For a full minute, Bansemer did
+not speak.
+
+"The result?" he demanded.
+
+"He came back last month."
+
+"Does he know the truth?"
+
+"No, and with God's help, he never shall! It's my only salvation!"
+she exclaimed emotionally. "He thinks she is his baby and--and---"
+The tears were on her cheeks, now. "I worship him, Mr. Bansemer!
+Oh, how good and sweet he has been to me since he came back! Now,
+don't you see why I must adopt this child, and why he must never
+know? If he learned that I had deceived him in this way, he would
+hate me to my dying day."
+
+The infant was awake and staring at him with wide, blue eyes.
+
+"And you want me to handle this matter so that your husband will
+be none the wiser?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Bansemer," she cried; "it means everything to me! All
+depends on this baby. I must adopt her, or the asylum people won't
+let me keep her. Can't it be done so quickly that he'll never find
+it out?"
+
+"How many people know that the child is not yours?"
+
+"My sister and the authorities at the asylum; not another soul."
+
+"It is possible to arrange the adoption, Mrs. Cable, but I can't
+guarantee that Mr. Cable will not find it out. The records will
+show the fact, you know. There is but one way to avoid discovery."
+
+"And that, please?"
+
+"Leave New York and make your home in some distant city. That's
+the safe way. If you remain here, there is always a chance that he
+may find out. I see the position you're in and I'll help you. It
+can be done quite regularly and there is only one thing you'll have
+to fear--you own tongue," he concluded, pointedly.
+
+"I hate New York, Mr. Bansemer. David likes the West and I'll go
+anywhere on earth, if it will keep him from finding out. Oh, if
+you knew how he adores her!" she cried, regret and ecstasy mingling
+in her voice. "I'd give my soul if she were only mine!" Bansemer's
+heart was too roughly calloused to be touched by the wistful longing
+in these words.
+
+Before the end of the week the adoption of the foundling babe was
+a matter of record; and the unsuspecting David Cable was awaiting
+a reply from the train-master of a big Western railroad, to whom,
+at the earnest, even eager, solicitation of his wife, he had applied
+for work. Elias Droom made a note of the fee in the daybook at the
+office, but asked no questions. Bansemer had told him nothing of
+the transaction, but he was confident that the unspeakable Droom
+knew all about it, even though he had not been nearer than the
+outer office during any of the consultations.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BANSEMER CRASH
+
+
+
+
+
+Twenty long years had passed since David and Frances Cable took
+their hasty departure--virtually fleeing from New York City, their
+migrations finally ending in that thriving Western city--Denver.
+Then, the grime of the engine was on Cable's hands and deep beneath
+his skin; the roar of iron and steel and the rush of wind was ever
+in his ears; the quest of danger in his eye; but there was love,
+pride and a new ambition in his heart. Now, in 1898, David Cable's
+hands were white and strong; the grime was gone; the engineer's
+cap had given way to the silk tile of the magnate; and the shovel
+was a memory.
+
+But his case was not unique in that day and age of pluck and luck.
+Many another man had gone from the bottom to the top with the speed
+and security of the elevator car in the lofty "sky-scrapers." In
+the heartless revolution of a few years, he became the successor
+of his Western benefactor. The turn that had been kind to him,
+was unkind to his friend and predecessor; the path that led upward
+for David Cable, ran the other way for the train-master, who years
+afterward died in his greasy overalls and the close-fitting cap of
+an engineer. One night Cable read the news of the wreck with all
+the joy gone from his heart.
+
+From the cheap, squalid section of town known as "railroad end,"
+Cable's rising influence carried him to the well-earned luxury. The
+lines of care and toil mellowed in the face of his pretty wife, as
+the years rolled by; her comely figure shed the cheap raiment of
+"hard, old days," and took on the plumage of prosperity. Trouble,
+resentment, and worry disappeared as if by magic, smoothed out by
+the satiny touch of comfort's fingers. She went upward much faster
+than her husband, for her ambitions were less exacting. She longed
+to shine socially--he loathed the thought of it. But Cable was
+proud of his wife. He enjoyed the transition that lifted her up with
+steady strength to the plane which fitted her best--as he regarded
+it. She had stuck by him nobly and uncomplainingly through the
+vicissitudes; it delighted him to give her the pleasures.
+
+Frances Cable was proud; but she had not been too proud to stand
+beside the man with the greasy overalls and to bend her fine, young
+strength to work in unison with his. Together, facing the task,
+cheerfully, they had battled and won.
+
+There were days when it was hard to smile; but the next day always
+brought with it a fresh sign of hope. The rough, hard, days in
+the Far West culminated in his elevation to the office of General
+Manager of the great railroad system, whose headquarters and home
+were in the city of Chicago. Attaining this high place two years
+prior to the opening of this narrative, he was regarded now as one
+of the brainiest railroad men and slated to be president of the
+road at the next meeting.
+
+Barely past fifty years of age, David Cable was in the prime of
+life and usefulness. Age and prosperity had improved him greatly.
+The iron grey of his hair, the keen brightness of his face, the
+erect, and soldierly carriage of his person made him a striking
+figure. His wife, ten years his junior, was one of the most attractive
+women in Chicago. Her girlish beauty had refined under the blasts
+of adversity; years had not been unkind to her. In a way, she was
+the leader of a certain set, but her social ambitions were not
+content.  There was a higher altitude in fashion's realm. Money,
+influence and perseverance were her allies; social despotism her
+only adversary.
+
+The tall, beautiful and accomplished daughter of the Cables was
+worshipped by her father with all the warmth and ardour of his
+soul.  Times there were when he looked in wonder upon this arbiter
+of not a few manly destinies; and for his life could not help asking
+himself how the Creator had given him such a being for a child,
+commenting on the fact that she bore resemblance to neither parent.
+
+For years, Mrs. Cable had lived in no little terror of some day
+being found out. As the child grew to womanhood, the fears gradually
+diminished and a sense of security that would not be disturbed
+replaced them. Then, just as she was reaching out for the chief
+prizes of her ambition, she came face to face with a man, whose
+visage she never had forgotten--Elias Droom! And Frances Cable
+looked again into the old and terrifying shadows!
+
+It was late in the afternoon, and she was crossing the sidewalk to
+her carriage waiting near Field's, when a man brushed against her.
+She was conscious of a strange oppressiveness. Before she turned
+to look at him she knew that a pair of staring eyes were upon her
+face.  Something seemed to have closed relentlessly upon her heart.
+
+One glance was sufficient. The tall, angular form stood almost over
+her; the two, wide, blue eyes looked down in feigned surprise; the
+never-to-be-forgotten voice greeted her, hoarsely:
+
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Cable! And how is the baby?"
+
+"The baby!" she faltered. Struggle against it as she would, a sort
+of fascination drew her gaze toward the remarkable face of the old
+clerk. "Why--why--she's very well, thank you," she finally stammered.
+Her face was as white as a ghost; with a shudder she started to
+pass him. Droom, blocked the way.
+
+"She was such a pretty little thing, I remember;" and then,
+insinuatingly: "Where is her father, now?"
+
+"He--Mr. Cable," answered Mrs. Cable, feeling very much as a bird
+feels when it is charmed by a snake, "why, he's at home, of course."
+
+"Indeed!" was all that Elias Droom said; for she had fled to escape
+the grin that writhed in and out among the wrinkles of his face.
+
+As her carriage struggled through crowded Washington Street,
+an irresistible something compelled Frances Cable to glance back.
+Droom stood on the curb, his eyes following her almost hungrily.
+Half an hour later, when she reached home, she was in a state of
+collapse.  Although there was no physical proof of the fact, she
+was positive that Elias Droom had followed her to the very doorstep.
+
+In suspense and dread, she waited for days before there was a
+second manifestation of Droom. There was rarely a day when she did
+not expect her husband to stand before her and ask her to explain
+the story that had been carried to him by a demon in the form of
+man.
+
+But Droom did not go to David Cable. He went to James Bansemer with
+the news.
+
+James Bansemer's law and loan offices were not far from the river
+and, it is sufficient to say, not much farther from State Street.
+He who knows Chicago well cannot miss the location more than three
+blocks, either way, if he takes City Hall as a focal point. The
+office building in which they were located is not a pretentious
+structure, but its tenants were then and still are regarded as
+desirable. It may be well to announce that Bansemer, on reaching
+Chicago, was clever enough to turn over a new leaf and begin work
+on a clear, white page, but it is scarcely necessary to add that
+the black, besmirched lines on the opposite side of the sheet could
+be traced through every entry that went down on the fresh white
+surface. Bansemer was just as nefarious in his transactions, but
+he was a thousandfold more cautious. Droom sarcastically reminded
+him that he had a reputation to protect, in his new field and,
+besides, as his son was "going in society" through the influence of
+a coterie of Yale men, it would be worse than criminal to deteriorate.
+
+Bansemer loathed Droom, but he also feared him. He was the only living
+creature that inspired fear in the heart of this bold schemer. It
+is true that he feared the effect an exposure might have on the
+mind of his stalwart son, the boy with his mother's eyes; but he
+had succeeded so well in blinding the youth in the years gone by,
+that the prospects of discovery now seemed too remote for concern.
+The erstwhile New York "shark" was now an eel, wily and elusive,
+but he was an eel with a shark's teeth and a shark's voraciousness.
+He had grown old in the study of this particular branch of natural
+history. Bansemer was fifty-five years old in this year of 1898.
+He was thinner than in the old New York days, but the bull-like
+vigour had given way to the wiry strength of the leopard. The once
+black hair was almost white, and grew low and thick on his forehead.
+Immaculately dressed, ever straight and aggressive in carriage,
+he soon became a figure of whom all eyes took notice, even in the
+most crowded of Chicago thoroughfares.
+
+Graydon Bansemer, on leaving Yale with a diploma and some of
+the honours of his class, urged his father to take him into his
+office, and ultimately to make him a partner in the business. James
+Bansemer never forgot the malicious grin that crossed the face of
+Elias Droom when the young fellow made the proposition not more
+than a fortnight before the Bansemer establishment picked itself
+up and hastily deserted New York. That grin spoke plainer than all
+the words in language. Take him into the office? Make this honest,
+grey-eyed boy a partner? It was no wonder that Droom grinned and
+it is no wonder that he forgot to cover his mouth with his huge
+hand, as was his custom.
+
+The proposition, while sincere and earnest, was too impossible
+for words. For once in his life, James Bansemer was at a loss for
+subterfuge. He stammered, flushed and writhed in the effort to
+show the young man that the step would be unprofitable, and he was
+sorely conscious that he had not convinced the eager applicant.
+He even urged him to abandon the thought of becoming a lawyer, and
+was ably seconded by Elias Droom, whose opinion of the law, as he
+had come to know it, was far from flattering.
+
+Just at this time Bansemer was engaged in the most daring as well
+as the most prodigious "deal" of his long career. With luck, it was
+bound to enrich him to the extent of $50,000. The plans had been
+so well prepared and the execution had been so faultless that there
+seemed to be no possibility of failure. To take his fair-minded
+son--with the mother's eyes--into the game would be suicidal. The
+young fellow would turn from him forever. Bansemer never went so
+far as to wonder whence came the honest blood in the boy's veins,
+nor to speculate on the origin of the unquestioned integrity. He
+had but to recall the woman who bore him, the woman whose love was
+the only good thing he ever knew, the wife he had worshipped while
+he sinned.
+
+For years and years he had plied his unwholesome trade in reputations,
+sometimes evading exposure by the narrowest of margins, and he had
+come to believe that he was secure for all time to come.  But it
+was the "big job" that brought disaster. Just when it looked as
+though success was assured, the crash came. He barely had time to
+cover his tracks, throw the figurative pepper into the eyes of his
+enemies, and get away from the scene of danger. But, he had been
+clever and resourceful enough to avoid the penalty that looked
+inevitable and came off with colours trailing but uncaptured.
+
+Perhaps no other man could have escaped; but James Bansemer was
+cleverest when in a corner. He backed away, held them at bay until
+he could recover his breath, and then defied them to their teeth.
+Despite their proof, he baffled them, and virtue was not its own
+reward--at least in this instance.
+
+In leaving New York, he hoped that Ellas Droom--who knew too much--might
+refuse to go into the new territory with him, but the gaunt, old
+clerk took an unnatural and malevolent delight in clinging to his
+employer. He declined to give up his place in the office, and,
+although he hated James Bansemer, he came like an accusing shadow
+into the new offices near the Chicago River, and there he toiled,
+grinned and scowled with the same old faithfulness.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN SIGHT OF THE FANGS
+
+
+
+
+
+At first, it was hard for James Bansemer to believe that his henchman
+had not been mistaken. Droom's description of the lady certainly
+did not correspond to what his memory recalled.  Investigation,
+however, assured him that the Cables in the mansion near the lake
+were the people he had known in New York. Bansemer took no one into
+his confidence, not even Droom. Once convinced that the erstwhile
+fireman was now the rich and powerful magnate, he set to work upon
+the machinery which was to extract personal gain from the secret
+in his possession. He soon learned that the child was a young woman
+of considerable standing in society, but there was no way for him
+to ascertain whether Frances Cable had told the truth to her husband
+in those dreary Far West days.
+
+Bansemer was rich enough, but avarice had become a habit. The flight
+from New York had deprived him of but little in worldly goods. His
+ill-gotten gains came with him; and investments were just as easy
+and just as safe in Chicago as in New York. Now, he saw a chance
+to wring a handsome sum from the rich woman whose only possession
+had been love when he first knew her. If the secret of Jane's
+origin still remained locked up in her heart, the effort would be
+an easy one. He learned enough of David Cable, however, to know that
+if he shared the secret, the plan would be profitless and dangerous.
+
+It was this uncertainty that kept him from calling at the Cable home;
+likewise, from writing a note which might prove a most disastrous
+folly. Time and circumstance could be his only friends, and he
+was accustomed to the whims of both. He read of the dinners and
+entertainments given by the Cables, and smiled grimly. Time had
+worked wonders for them! Scandal, he knew, could undo all that
+ambition and pride had wrought. He could well afford to wait.
+
+However, he did not have long to wait, for his opportunity came
+one night in Hooley's Theatre. Graydon and he occupied seats in
+the orchestra, near the stage and not far from the lower right-hand
+boxes. It was during the busy Christmas holidays, but the "star"
+was of sufficient consequence to pack the house. The audience was
+no end of a fashionable one. Time and again, some strange influence
+drew his gaze to the gay party in one of the lower boxes. The face
+of the woman nearest to him was not visible; but the two girls who
+sat forward, turned occasionally to look over the audience; and he
+saw that they were pretty, one exceptionally so. One of the men
+was grey-haired and strong-featured; the others were quite too
+insignificant to be of interest to him. The woman whose back he
+could see did not look out over the audience. Her indifference was
+so marked that it seemed deliberate.
+
+At last, he felt that her eyes were upon him; he turned quickly.
+True enough, for with lips slightly parted, her whole attitude
+suggestive of intense restraint, Mrs. Cable was staring helplessly
+into the eyes of the man who could destroy her with a word.
+
+The one thing that flashed through Bansemer's brain was the
+realisation that she was far more beautiful than he had expected
+her to be. There was a truly aristocratic loveliness in the rather
+piquant face, and she undeniably possessed "manner." Maturity had
+improved her vastly, he confessed with strange exultation; age had
+been kinder than youth. He forgot the play, seldom taking his eyes
+from the back which again had been turned to him. Calculating, he
+reached the conclusion that she was not more than forty years of
+age. More than once he made some remark to his son, only to surprise
+that young man glancing surreptitiously at the face of the more
+beautiful of the two girls. Even in this early stage, James Bansemer
+began to gloat over the beauty of this new-found, old acquaintance.
+
+In the lobby of the theatre, as they were leaving, he deliberately
+doffed his hat and extended a pleasant hand to the wife of David
+Cable. She turned deathly pale and there was a startled, piteous
+look in her eyes that convinced him beyond all shadow of a doubt.
+There was nothing for her to do but introduce him to her husband.
+Two minutes later Graydon Bansemer and Jane Cable, strangers until
+then, were asking each other how they liked the play, and Fate was
+at work.
+
+A few weeks after this scene at the theatre young Mr. Bansemer
+dashed across the hall from the elevator and entered his father's
+office just as Elias Droom was closing up.
+
+"Where's the governor, Mr. Droom?" he asked, deliberately brushing
+past the old clerk in the outer office.
+
+"Left some time ago," replied Droom, somewhat ungraciously, his blue
+eyes staring past the young man with a steadiness that suggested
+reproach because he was out of the direct line of vision. "It is
+nearly six o'clock--he's never here after five."
+
+"I know that he--I asked you if you knew of his whereabouts. Do
+you--or not?" The self-confident, athletic youth did not stand in
+physical awe of the clerk.
+
+"No," was the simple and sufficient answer.
+
+"Well then--I'm off," said Graydon a trifle less airily.
+
+Droom's overcoat was on and buttoned up to his chin; his long feet
+were encased in rubbers of enormous size and uncertain age. There
+must have been no blood in the veins of this grim old man, for the
+weather was far from cold and the streets were surprisingly dry
+for Chicago.
+
+"I am closing the office for the day," said Droom. For no apparent
+reason a smile spread over the lower part of his face and Graydon,
+bold as he was, turned his eyes away.
+
+"I thought I'd stop in and pick up the governor for a ride home in
+my motor," said he, turning to the door.
+
+"Yours is one of the first out here, I suppose," came from the thin
+lips of the old clerk.
+
+Graydon laughed.
+
+"Possibly. The company charges a nickel a ride--half a dime--Going
+down, sir?" Graydon had rung for the elevator and was waiting in
+front of the grating.
+
+A look containing a curious compound of affectionate reproach and
+a certain senile gratification at being made the object of the
+boy's condescending raillery crossed Droom's countenance. Without,
+however, answering his question, he slowly and carefully closed the
+door, tried it vigorously, and joined Bansemer at the shaft. With
+Droom, words were unnecessary when actions could speak for themselves.
+
+"Still living over in Wells Street, Mr. Droom?" went on Graydon,
+thoroughly at home with the man whom he had feared and despised by
+stages from childhood up.
+
+"It's good enough for me," said Droom shortly. ''Tisn't Michigan
+Avenue, the Drive or Lincoln Park Boulevard, but it's just as swell
+as I am--or ever hope to be."
+
+"There's nothing against Wells Street but--it got ashamed of itself
+when it crossed the river."
+
+"They call it Fifth Avenue," sneered Droom, "but it isn't THE Avenue,
+is it?" Bansemer was surprised to oote a tone of affectionate pride
+in the question.
+
+"No indeed!"
+
+"Oh, there's only one, Mr. Graydon," said the old clerk, quite
+warmly; "our own Fifth Avenue."
+
+"I had no idea you cared so much for swagger things, Mr. Droom,"
+observed the other, genuinely surprised.
+
+"Even Broadway is heaven to me," said Droom, some of the rasp
+gone from his voice. "Good-bye; I go this way," he said when they
+reached the sidewalk a little later. The young man watched his
+gaunt figure as it slouched away in the semi-darkness.
+
+"By George, the old chap is actually homesick!" muttered he. "I
+didn't think it was in him."
+
+Droom had rooms over a millinery shop in Wells Street. There was a
+bedroom at the back and a "living-room" in front, overlooking the
+street from the third story of the building. Of the bedchamber there
+is but little to say, except that it contained a bed, a washstand,
+a mirror, two straight-backed chairs and a clothes-press. Droom
+went out for his bath--every Saturday night. The "living-room,"
+however, was queer in more ways than one. In one corner, on a chest
+of drawers, stood his oil stove, while in the opposite corner, a
+big sheet-iron heater made itself conspicuous. Firewood was piled
+behind the stove winter and summer, Droom lamenting that one could
+not safely discriminate between the seasons in Chicago. The chest
+of drawers contained his stock of provisions, his cooking and table
+utensils, his medicine and a small assortment of carpenter's tools.
+He had no use for an icebox.
+
+A bookcase, old enough to warm the heart of the most ardent antiquarian,
+held his small and unusual collection of books.  Standing side by
+side, on the same shelf, were French romances, unexpurgated, and the
+Holy Bible, much bethumbed and pencilled.  There were schoolbooks
+alongside of sentimental love tales, Greek lexicons and quaint
+old fairy stories, law books and works on criminology; books on
+botany, geology, anatomy, and physics. In all, perhaps, there were
+two hundred volumes. A life of Napoleon revealed signs of almost
+constant usage. There were three portraits of the Corsican on the
+dingy green walls.
+
+The strange character of the man was best shown by the pictures
+that adorned--or rather disfigured the walls. Vulgar photographs
+and prints were to be seen on all sides. Mingled with these cheap
+creations were excellent copies of famous Madonnas, quaint Scriptural
+drawings, engravings of the Saviour, and an allegorical coloured
+print which emphasised the joys of heaven. There was also a badly
+drawn but idealised portrait of Droom, done in crayon at the age of
+twenty. This portrait was one of his prized possessions. He loved
+it best because it was a bust and did not expose his longitudinal
+defects. If Droom ever had entertained a feminine visitor in his
+apartments, there is no record of the fact. But few men had seen
+the interior of his home, and they had gone away with distressed,
+perplexed sensibilities.
+
+He cooked his own meals on the oil stove, and, alone, ate them from
+the little table that stood near the heater. Occasionally, he went
+out to a near-by eating house for a lonely feast. His rooms usually
+reeked with the odour of boiled coffee, burnt cabbage and grease,
+pungent chemicals and long-suffering bed linen. Of his "front" room,
+it may be said that it was kitchen, dining-room, parlour, library,
+workshop, laboratory and conservatory. Four flower-pots in which
+as many geraniums existed with difficulty, despite Droom's constant
+and unswerving care, occupied a conspicuous place on the window-sills
+overlooking the street. He watched aver them with all the tender
+solicitude of a lover, surprising as it may appear when one pauses
+to consider the vicious exterior of the man.
+
+Drdom was frugal. He was, in truth, a miser. If anyone had asked him
+what he expected to do with the money he was putting away in the
+bank, he could not have answered, calculating as he was by nature.
+He had no relative to whom he would leave it and he had no inclination
+to give up the habit of active employment. His salary was small,
+but he managed to save more than half of it--for a "rainy day," as
+he said. He did his reading and experimenting by kerosene light,
+and went to bed by candle light, saving a few pennies a week in
+that way. The windows in his apartment were washed not oftener than
+once a year. He was seldom obliged to look through them during the
+day, and their only duty at night was to provide ventilation--and
+even that was characteristically meagre.
+
+He was a man of habit--not habits. A pipe at night was his only
+form of dissipation. It was not too far for him to walk home from
+the office of evenings, and he invariably did so unless the weather
+was extremely unpleasant. So methodical was he that he never had
+walked over any other bridge than the one in Wells Street, coming
+and going.
+
+Past sixty-five years of age. Broom's hair still was black and snaky;
+his teeth were as yellow and jagged as they were in the seventies,
+and his eyes were as blue and ugly as ever. He had not aged with
+James Bansemer. In truth, he looked but little older then when we
+made his acquaintance. The outside world knew no more of Droom's
+private transactions than it knew of Bansemer's. Up in the horrid
+little apartment in Wells Street the queer old man could do as he
+willed, unobserved and unannoyed. He could pursue his experiments
+with strange chemicals, he could construct odd devices with his
+kit of tools, and he could let off an endless amount of inventive
+energy that no one knew he possessed.
+
+When he left Graydon Bansemer on the sidewalk in front of the
+office building, he swung off with his long strides towards the
+Wells Street bridge. His brain had laid aside everything that had
+occupied its attention during office hours and had given itself
+over to the project that hastened his steps homeward. His supper
+that night was a small one and hurriedly eaten in order that he
+might get to work on his new device. Droom grinned and cackled to
+himself all alone up there in the lamplight, for he was perfecting
+an "invention" by which the honest citizen could successfully put
+to rout the "hold-up" man that has made Chicago famous.
+
+Elias Droom's inventive genius unfailingly led him toward devices
+that could inflict pain and discomfiture. His plan to get the
+better of the wretched, hard-working hold-up man was unique, if not
+entirely practical. He was constructing the models for two little
+bulbs, made of rubber and lined with a material that would resist
+the effects of an acid, no matter how powerful. On one end of each
+bulb, which was capable of holding at least an ounce of liquid,
+there was a thin syringe attachment, also proof against acids. These
+little bulbs were made so that they could be held in the palm of
+the hand. By squeezing them suddenly a liquid could be shot from
+the tube with considerable force.
+
+The bulbs were to contain vitriol.
+
+When the hold-up man gave the command to "hold up your hands," the
+victim had only to squeeze the bulb as the hands went up, and, if
+accurately aimed, the miscreant would get the stream of the deadly
+vitriolic fluid in his eyes and--here endeth the first lesson.
+Experience alone could do the rest.
+
+Young Bansemer hurried to their apartments on the North Side. He
+found his father dressed and ready to go out to dinner.
+
+"Well, how was everything to-day?" asked James Bansemer from his
+easy chair in the library. Graydon threw his hat and gloves on the
+table.
+
+"Terribly dull market, governor," he said. "It's been that way for
+a week. How are you feeling?"
+
+"Fit to dine with a queen," answered the older man, with a smile.
+"How soon can you dress for dinner, Gray?"
+
+"That depends on who is giving the dinner."
+
+"Some people you like. I found the note here when I came in a little
+after five. We have an hour in which to get over there. Can you be
+ready?"
+
+"Do you go security for the affair?" asked Graydon.
+
+"Certainly. You have been there, my boy, and I've not heard you
+complain."
+
+"You mean over at---"
+
+"Yes, that's where I mean," said the other, breaking in quietly.
+
+"I think I can be ready in ten minutes, father."
+
+While he was dressing, his father sat alone and stared reflectively
+at the small blue gas blaze in the grate. A dark, grim smile
+unconsciously came over his face, the inspiration of a triumphant
+joy. Twice he read the dainty note that met him on his return from
+the office.
+
+"What changes time can make in woman!" he mused; "and what changes
+a woman can make in time! For nearly a year I've waited for this
+note.  I knew it would come--it was bound to come. Graydon has had
+everything up to this time, while I have waited patiently in the
+background. Now, it is my turn."
+
+"All right, father," called Graydon from the hall. "The cab is at
+the door."
+
+Together they went down the steps, arm in arm, strong figures.
+
+"To Mr. David Cable's," ordered Bansemer, the father, complacently,
+as he stepped into the carriage after his son.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MRS. CABLE ENTERTAINS
+
+
+
+
+
+James Bansemer had not recklessly rushed into Mrs. Cable's presence
+with threats of exposure; but on the contrary, he had calmly, craftily
+waited. It suited his purpose to let her wonder, dread and finally
+develop the trust that her secret was safe with him.  Occasionally,
+he had visited the Cable box in the theatre; not infrequently he
+had dined with them in the downtown cafes and at the homes of mutual
+acquaintances; but this was the first time that James Bansemer had
+enjoyed the hospitality of Frances Cable's home.  His son, on the
+best of terms with their daughter, was a frequent visitor there.
+
+There was a rare bump of progressiveness in the character of Graydon
+Bansemer. He was good-looking enough beyond doubt, and there was a
+vast degree of personal magnetism about him. It seemed but natural
+that he should readily establish himself as a friend and a favourite
+of the fair Miss Cable. For some time, James Bansemer had watched
+his son's progress with the Cable family, not once allowing his
+personal interest to manifest itself. It was but a question of time
+until Mrs. Cable's suspense and anxiety would bring her to him,
+one way or another. Every word that fell from the lips of his son
+regarding the Cables held his attention, and it was not long before
+he saw the family history as clearly as though it were an open
+book--and he knew far more than the open book revealed.
+
+Frances Cable was not deluded by his silence and aloofness; but
+she was unable to devise means to circumvent him. Constant fear
+of his power to crush lurked near her day and night. Conscious of
+her weakness, but eager to have done with the strife, sometimes
+she longed for the enemy to advance. At first, she distrusted and
+despised the son, but his very fairness battered down the barriers
+of prejudice, and real admiration succeeded. Her husband liked
+him immensely, and Jane was his ablest ally. David Cable regarded
+him as one of the brightest, young men on the Stock Exchange, and
+predicted that some day he would be an influential member of the
+great brokerage firm for which he now acted as confidential clerk.
+Mr.  Clegg, the senior member of the firm of Clegg, Groll & Davidson,
+his employers, personally had commended young Bansemer to Cable,
+and he was properly impressed.
+
+Graydon's devotion to Jane did not go unnoticed. This very condition
+should have assured Mrs. Cable that James Bansemer had kept her
+secret zealously. There was nothing to indicate that the young man
+knew the story of the foundling.
+
+It was not until some weeks after the chance meeting in Hooley's
+Theatre that Mrs. Cable came into direct contact with James Bansemer's
+designs. She had met him at two or three formal affairs, but their
+conversations had been of the most conventional character; on the
+other hand, her husband had lunched and dined at the club with the
+lawyer. At first, she dreaded the outcome of these meetings, but
+as Cable's attitude towards her remained unchanged, she began to
+realise that Bansemer, whatever his purpose, was loyal.
+
+They met at last, quite informally, at Mrs. Clegg's dinner, a small
+and congenial affair. When the men came into the drawing-room, after
+the cigars, Mrs. Cable, with not a little trepidation, motioned to
+Mr. Bansemer to draw up his chair beside her.
+
+"I have been looking forward with pleasure to this opportunity,
+Mr.  Bansemer," she said, in a courteously acidulated way. "It has
+been so long in coming."
+
+"Better late than never," he returned, with marked emphasis.
+Fortunately, for her, the challenging significance of his words was
+quickly nullified by the smile with which she was almost instantly
+favoured. "Twenty years, I believe--it certainly came very near
+being 'never,'" he went on, abruptly changing from harsh to the
+sweetest of tones. "No one could believe that you--you're simply
+wonderful!" and added, pointedly, "But your daughter is even more
+beautiful, if such is possible, than her--her mother."
+
+Apparently, the innuendo passed unnoticed; in reality, it required
+all her courage to appear calm.
+
+"How very nice of you," she said softly; and looking him full in
+the face: "Her mother thanks you for the compliment."
+
+It was a brave little speech; such bravery would have softened a
+man of another mould--changed his purpose. Not so with Bansemer.
+A sinister gleam came into his eyes and his attack became more
+brutally direct.
+
+"But the husband--has he never mistrusted?"
+
+The blow told, though her reply was given with rippling laughter
+and for the benefit of any chance listeners.
+
+"For shame, Mr. Bansemer!" she cried lightly; "after flattering me
+so delightfully, you're surely not going to spoil it all?"
+
+Despite his growing annoyance, admiration shone clearly from
+Bansemer's eyes. His memory carried him, back some twenty years to
+the scene in his office. Was it possible, he was thinking, that the
+charming woman before him exercising so cleverly all the arts of
+society, as if born to the purple, and the light-headed, frivolous,
+little wife of the Central's engineer were one and the same person?
+The metamorphosis seemed incredible.
+
+Unwittingly, his manner lost some of its aggressiveness; and the
+woman perceiving the altered conditions, quick to take advantage,
+resolved to learn, if possible his intentions. Presently, going
+right to the point, she asked:
+
+"Is that extraordinary looking creature you had in your office
+still with you, Mr. Bansemer?"
+
+"Extraordinary!" He laughed loudly. "He is certainly that, and more.
+Indeed, the English language does not supply us with an adjective
+that adequately describes the man."
+
+The people nearest to them, by this time, had moved away to another
+part of the large drawing-room; practically, the couple were by
+themselves. She had been thinking, for a moment, reasoning with
+a woman's logic that it was always well to know one's enemy. When
+she next spoke, it was almost in a whisper.
+
+"How much does that terrible man know?"
+
+"He is not supposed to know anything;" and then, with an enigmatical
+smile, promptly admitted: "However, I'm afraid that he does."
+
+"You have told him? And yet, you promised nobody should know. How
+could---"
+
+"My dear Mrs. Cable, he was not told; if he has found out--I could
+not prevent his discovering the truth through his own efforts," he
+interrupted in a tone more assuaging than convincing to her; and
+then, hitching his chair closer, and lowering his voice a note, he
+continued: "The papers had to be taken out--but you must not worry
+about him--you can depend on me."
+
+"Promise me that you will make him--I am so fearful of that
+awful---" she broke off abruptly. Her fears were proving too much
+for her, and she was in imminent danger of a complete breakdown;
+all the veneer with which she had bravely commenced the interview
+had disappeared.
+
+Bansemer endeavoured to soothe her with promises; but the poor
+woman saw only his teeth in the reassuring smile that he presented
+to her, together with the warnings that they were likely to
+be observed.  With the hardest kind of an effort, she succeeded
+in pulling herself together sufficiently to bid good-night to her
+hostess.
+
+When Mrs. Cable reached home that night, it was a full realisation
+that she was irrevocably committed into the custody of these
+cold-blooded men.
+
+They met again and again at the homes of mutual friends, and she
+had come to loathe the pressure of his hand when it clasped hers.
+The undeniable caress in his low, suggestive voice disturbed her;
+his manner was unmistakable. One night he held her hand long and
+firmly in his, and while she shrank helplessly before him he even
+tenderly asked why she had not invited him into her home. It was
+what she had expected and feared. Her cup of bitterness was filling
+rapidly--too rapidly. His invitation to dinner a fortnight later,
+followed.
+
+Jane Cable was radiant as she entered the drawing-room shortly
+after the arrival of the two Bansemers.
+
+"It's quite like a family party! How splendid!" she said to Graydon
+with a quick glance in the direction of James Bansemer and David
+Cable, who stood conversing together, and withdrawing her soft,
+white hand, which she had put forth to meet his in friendly clasp.
+"It's too good to be true!" she went on in a happy, spontaneous,
+almost confiding manner.
+
+The two fathers looked on in amused silence, the one full of
+admiration and pride for the clean, vigorous manhood of his son
+awaiting to receive welcome from the adorable Jane; the other, long
+since conscious of the splendid beauty of his daughter, mentally
+declaring that she never had appeared so well as when standing
+beside this gallant figure.
+
+Other guests arrived before Mrs. Cable made her appearance in the
+drawing-room. She had taken more time than usual with her toilet.
+It was impossible for her to hide the fact that the strain was
+telling on her perceptibly. The face that looked back into her eyes
+from the mirror on her dressing-table was not the fresh, warm one
+that had needed so little care a few short months before. There
+was a heaviness about the eyes and there were strange, persistent
+lines gathering under the soft, white tissues of her skin. But when
+she at last stepped into the presence of her guests, with ample
+apologies for her tardiness, she was the picture of life and nerve.
+So much for the excellent resources of her will.
+
+Bansemer was the last to present himself for her welcome, lingering
+in the background until the others had passed.
+
+"I'm so glad you could come. Indeed, it's a pleasure to---" She
+spoke clearly and distinctly as she extended her hand; but as she
+looked squarely into his eyes she thought him the ugliest man she
+ever had seen. Every other woman in the party was saying to herself
+that James Bansemer was strikingly handsome.
+
+"Most pleasures come late in life to some of us," he returned,
+gallantly, and even Graydon Bansemer wished that he could have said
+it.
+
+"Your father is a perfect dear," Jane said to him, softly. "It was
+not what he said just then that pleased me, but what he left unsaid."
+
+"Father's no end of a good fellow, Jane. I'm glad you admire him."
+
+"You are not a bit like him," she said reflectively.
+
+"Thanks," he exclaimed. "You are not very flattering."
+
+"But you are a different sort of a good fellow, that's what I mean.
+Don't be absurd," she cried in some little confusion.
+
+"I'm like my mother, they say, though I don't remember her at all."
+
+"Oh, how terrible it must be never to have known one's mother,"
+said she tenderly.
+
+"Or one's father," added James Bansemer, who was passing at that
+instant with Mrs. Cable. "Please include the father, Miss Cable,"
+he pleaded with mock seriousness. Turning to Mrs. Cable, who had
+stopped beside him, he added: "You, the most charming of mothers,
+will defend the fathers, won't you?"
+
+"With all my heart," she answered so steadily that he was surprised.
+
+"I will include the father, Mr. Bansemer," said Jane, "if it
+is guaranteed that he possibly could be as nice and dear as one's
+mother. In that case, I think it would be--oh, dreadfully terrible
+never to have known him."
+
+"And to think, Miss Cable, of the unfortunates who have known neither
+father nor mother," said Bansemer, senior, slowly, relentlessly.
+"How much they have missed of life and love!"
+
+"That can be offset somewhat by the thought of the poor parents
+who never have known a son or a daughter," said Jane.
+
+"How can they be parents, then?" demanded Bobby Rigby, coming up
+in time.
+
+"Go away, Bobby," she said scornfully.
+
+"That's a nice way to treat logic," he grumbled, ambling on in
+quest of Miss Clegg.
+
+"The debate will become serious if you continue," said Mrs. Cable
+lightly. "Come along, Mr. Bansemer; Mrs. Craven is waiting."
+
+When they were across the room and alone, she turned a white face
+to him and remonstrated bitterly: "Oh, that was cowardly of you
+after your promise to me!"
+
+"I forgot myself," he said quietly. "Don't believe me to be utterly
+heartless." His hand touched her arm. Instantly her assumed calm
+gave way to her deep agitation, and with a swift change of manner,
+she turned on him, her passion alight.
+
+"You---!" she stammered; then her fears found voice. "What do you
+mean?" she demanded in smothered, alarmed tones.
+
+He desisted savagely and shrank away, the colour flaming into his
+disgusted, saturnine face. He did not speak to her again until he
+said good-bye long afterward.
+
+As he had expected, his place at the dinner-table was some distance
+from hers. He was across the table from Jane and Graydon, and several
+seats removed from. David Cable. He smiled grimly and knowingly
+when he saw that he had been cut off cleverly from the Cables.
+
+"To-morrow night, then, Jane!" said Graydon at parting. No one was
+near enough to catch the tender eagerness in his voice, nor to see
+the happy flush in her cheek as she called after him:
+
+"To-morrow night!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE TELEGRAM
+
+
+
+
+
+Bobby Rigby and Graydon Bansemer were bosom friends in Chicago;
+they had been classmates at Yale. It had been a question of money
+with Bobby from the beginning. According to his own admission, his
+money was a source of great annoyance to him. He was not out of
+debt but once, and then, before he fully realised it. So unusual
+was the condition, that he could not sleep; the first thing he did
+in the morning was to borrow right and left for fear another attack
+of insomnia might interfere with his training for the football
+eleven.
+
+Robertson Ray Rigby, immortalised as Bobby, had gone in for athletics,
+where he learned to think and act quickly. He was called one of the
+lightest, but headiest quarterbacks in the East. No gridiron idol
+ever escaped his "Jimmy," or "Toppy," or "Pop," or "Johnny." When
+finally, he hung out his shingle in Chicago: "Robertson R. Rigby,
+Attorney-at-Law," he lost his identity even among his classmates.
+It was weeks before the fact became generally known that it was
+Bobby who waited for clients behind the deceptive shingle.
+
+The indulgent aunt who had supplied him with funds in college
+was rich in business blocks and apartment buildings; and now, Mr.
+Robertson R. Rigby was her man of affairs. When he went in for
+business, the old push of the football field did not desert him.
+He was very much alive and very vigorous, and it did not take him
+long to "learn the signals."
+
+With his aunt's unfaltering prosperity, his own ready wit and unbridled
+versatility, he was not long in establishing himself safely in his
+profession and in society. Everybody liked him, though no one took
+him seriously except when they came to transact business with him.
+Then, the wittiness of the drawing-room turned into shrewdness as
+it crossed the office threshold.
+
+The day after the Cable dinner, Bobby yawned and stretched through
+his morning mail. He had slept but little the night before, and
+all on account of a certain, or rather, uncertain Miss Clegg. That
+petite and aggravating young woman had been especially exasperating
+at the Cable dinner. Mr, Rigby, superbly confident of his standing
+with her, encountered difficulties which put him very much out
+of temper. For the first time, there was an apparent rift in her
+constancy; never before had she shown such signs of fluctuating.
+He could not understand it--in fact, he dared not understand it.
+"She was a most annoying young person," said Mr. Rigby to himself
+wrathfully, more than once after he went to bed that night. Anyhow,
+he could not see what there was about Howard Medford for any girl
+to countenance, much less to admire. Mr. Medford certainly had ruined
+the Cable dinner-party for Mr. Rigby, and he was full of resentment.
+
+"Miss Keating!" called Mr. Rigby for the third time; "may I interrupt
+your conversation with Mr. Deever long enough to ask a question
+that has been on my mind for twenty minutes?"
+
+Mr. Deever was the raw, young gentleman who read law in the office
+of Judge Smith, next door. Bobby maintained that if he read law at
+all, it was at night, for he wap too busy with other occupations
+during the day.
+
+Miss Keating, startled, turned roundabout promptly.
+
+"Yes, sir," at last, came from the pert, young woman near the
+window.
+
+"I guess I'll be going," said Mr. Deever resentfully, rising slowly
+from the side of her desk on which he had been lounging.
+
+"Wait a minute, Eddie," protested Miss Keating; "what's your hurry?"
+and then, she almost snapped out: "What is it, Mr. Rigby?"
+
+"I merely wanted to ask if you have sufficient time to let me
+dictate a few, short letters that ought to go out to-day," said
+Bobby, sarcastically; and then added with mock apology: "Don't move,
+Mr. Deever; if you're not in Miss Keating's way, you're certainly
+not in mine."
+
+"A great josher!" that young woman was heard to comment, admiringly.
+
+"You may wake up some morning to find that I'm not," said Bobby,
+soberly. Whereupon, Miss Keating rose and strode to the other end
+of the room and took her place beside Bobby's desk.
+
+Bobby dictated half a dozen inconsequential letters before coming
+to the one which troubled him most. For many minutes he stared
+reflectively at the typewritten message from New York. Miss Keating
+frowned severely and tapped her little foot somewhat impatiently on
+the floor; but Bobby would not be hurried. His reflections were too
+serious. This letter from New York had come with a force sufficient
+to drive out even the indignant thoughts concerning one Miss Clegg.
+For the life of him, Bobby Rigby could not immediately frame a
+reply to the startling missive. Eddie Deever stirred restlessly on
+the window ledge.
+
+"Don't hurry, Eddie!" called Miss Keating, distinctly and insinuatingly.
+
+"Oh, I guess I'll be going!" he called back, beginning to roll
+a cigarette. "I have some reading to do to-day." Mr. Deever was
+tall, awkward and homely, and a lot of other things that would have
+discouraged a less self-satisfied "lady's man." Judge Smith said
+he was hopeless, but that he might do better after he was twenty-one.
+
+"What are you reading now, Eddie?" asked Miss Keating, complacently
+eyeing Mr. Rigby. "Raffles?"
+
+"Law, you idiot!" said Eddie, scornfully, going out of the door.
+
+"Oh! Well, the law is never in a hurry, don't you know? It's like
+justice--the slowest thing in town!" she called after him as his
+footsteps died away.
+
+"Ready?" said Bobby, resolutely. "Take this, please; and slowly
+and carefully he proceeded to dictate:
+
+"MR. DENIS HARBERT, "NEW YORK,
+
+"DEAR DENIS: I cannot tell you how much your letter surprised me.
+What you say seems preposterous. There must be a mistake. It cannot
+be this man. I know him quite well, and seems as straight as a
+string and a gentleman, too. His son, you know as well as I. There
+isn't a better fellow in the world! Mr. B. has a fairly good business
+here; his transactions open and aboveboard. I'm sure I have never
+heard a word said against him or his methods. You are mistaken,
+that's all there is about it.
+
+"You might investigate a little further and, assuring yourself, do
+all in your power to check such stories as you relate. Of course,
+I'll do as you suggest; but I'm positive I can find nothing
+discreditable in his dealings here.
+
+"Keep me posted on everything.
+
+"As ever, yours,"
+
+Miss Keating's anxiety was aroused. After a very long silence, she
+took the reins into her own hands. "Is Mr. Briggs in trouble?" she
+asked at a venture. Mr. Briggs was the only client she could think
+of, whose name began with a B.
+
+"Briggs? What Briggs?" asked Bobby, relighting his pipe for the
+fourth time.
+
+"Why, our Mr. Briggs," answered Miss Keating, curtly.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know, Miss Keating. Has he been around lately?"
+
+"I thought you were referring to him in that letter," she said
+succinctly.
+
+"Oh, dear me, no. Another party altogether, Miss Keating. Isn't
+the typewriter in working order this morning?" he asked, eyeing her
+machine innocently. She miffed and started to reply, but thought
+better of it. Then she began pounding the keys briskly.
+
+"It works like a charm," she shot back, genially.
+
+The letter that caused Bobby such perturbation came in the morning
+mail. His friend had laid bare some of the old stories concerning
+James Bansemer, and cautioned him not to become involved in
+transactions with the former New Yorker. Harbert's statements were
+positive in character, and he seemed to know his case thoroughly
+well. While the charges as they came to Rigby were general, Harbert
+had said that he was quite ready to be specific.
+
+All day long, the letter hung like a cloud over young Mr. Rigby.
+He was to have lunched with Graydon, and was much relieved when
+young Bansemer telephoned that he could not join him. Rigby found
+himself in a very uncomfortable position. If the stories from
+New York were true, even though he knew none of the inside facts,
+Graydon's father was pretty much of a scalawag, to say the least.
+He was not well acquainted with the lawyer, but he now recalled
+that he never had liked the man. Bansemer had impressed him from the
+beginning as heartless, designing, utterly unlike his clean-hearted
+son.
+
+Bobby loved Graydon Bansemer in the way that one man loves a true
+friend. He was certain that the son knew nothing of those shady
+transactions--if they really existed as Harbert painted them--but
+an exposure of the father would be a blow from which he could not
+recover.
+
+It came at last to Rigby that he was not the only one in Chicago
+who held the secret. Other members of the bar had been warned long
+before the news came to him, and it was morally certain that if the
+facts were as bad as intimated, the police also were in possession
+of them.
+
+At the same time, Rigby felt a certain moral responsibility involving
+himself. Bansemer, at any time, might apply his methods to people
+who were near and dear to him. The new intimacy with the Cables came
+to Bobby's mind. And then, there were Clegg, Groll, the Semesons
+and others who might easily fall into the snare if James Bansemer
+set it for them.
+
+Appreciating his responsibility in the matter, now that he was
+prepared to hear the worst of James Bansemer, Rigby's heart stood
+almost still. It meant that some day he might have to expose Graydon
+Bansemer's father; it meant that he might have to cruelly hurt his
+friend; it meant that he might lose a friendship that had been one
+of his best treasures since the good, old college days. The mere
+fact that he would be compelled to watch and mistrust James Bansemer
+seemed like darkest treachery to Graydon, even though the son should
+not become aware of the situation. Later, in the afternoon, Bobby
+went, guiltily, into a telegraph office and sent away a carefully
+worded dispatch. The answer came to him at the club, that evening,
+while he played billiards with young Bansemer, who, even then was
+eager to be off to keep the promised appointment with pretty Miss
+Cable.
+
+The telegram which he opened while Graydon impatiently chalked his
+cue and waited for him to play was brief and convincing. It read:
+
+"Watch him, by all means. He is not safe, my word for it. There is
+no mistake."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE PROPOSAL
+
+
+
+
+
+The little room off the library was Jane's "den." Her father had
+a better name for it. He called it her "web," but only in secret
+conference. Graydon Bansemer lounged there in blissful contemplation
+of a roseate fate, all the more enjoyable because his very ease
+was the counterpoise of doubt and uncertainty. No word of love had
+passed between the mistress of the web and her loyal victim; but
+eyes and blood had translated the mysterious, voiceless language
+of the heart into the simplest of sentences. They loved and they
+knew it.
+
+After leaving Rigby at the club Graydon drove to the North Side,
+thrilled to the marrow with the prophecies of the night. His heart
+was in that little room off the library--and had been there for
+months. It was the abode of his thoughts. The stars out above the
+cold, glittering lake danced merrily for him as he whirled up the
+Drive; the white carpet of February crinkled and creaked with the
+chill of the air, but his heart was hot and safe and sure. He knew
+that she knew what he was coming for that night. The first kiss!
+
+Jane's face was warm, her eyes had the tender glow of joy expectant,
+her voice was soft with the promise of coming surrender. Their hands
+met and clasped as she stood to welcome him in the red, seductive
+dimness of the little throne room. His tall frame quivered; his
+lean, powerful, young face betrayed the hunger of his heart; his
+voice turned husky. It was not as he had planned. Her beauty--her
+mere presence--swept him past the preliminary fears and doubts. His
+handclasp tightened and his face drew resistlessly to hers. Then
+their hands went suddenly cold.
+
+"You know, don't you, Jane, darling?" he murmured.
+
+"Yes," she answered after a moment, softly, securely. He crushed
+her in his strong arms; all the world seemed to have closed in
+about her. Her eyes, suffused with happiness, looked sweetly into
+his until she closed them with the coming of the first kiss. "I
+love you--oh, I love you!" she whispered.
+
+"I worship you, Jane!" he responded. "I have always worshipped
+you!"
+
+It was all so natural, so normal. The love that had been silent from
+the first had spoken, that was all--had put into words its untold
+story.
+
+"Jane, I am the proudest being in the world!" he said, neither knew
+how long afterward, for neither thought of time. They were sitting
+on the couch in the corner, their turbulent hearts at rest. "To
+think, after all, that such a beautiful being as you can be mine
+forever! It's--why, it's inconceivable!"
+
+"You were sure of me all the time, Graydon," she remonstrated. "I
+tried to hide it, but I couldn't. You must have thought me a perfect
+fool all these months."
+
+"You are very much mistaken, if you please. You did hide it so
+successfully at times, that I was sick with uncertainty."
+
+"Well, it's all over now," she smiled, and he sighed with a great
+relief.
+
+"All over but the--the wedding," he said.
+
+"Oh, that's a long way off. Let's not worry over that, Graydon."
+
+"A long way off? Nonsense! I won't wait."
+
+"Won't?"
+
+"I should have said can't. Let's see; this is February. March,
+dearest?"
+
+"Graydon, you are so much younger than I thought. A girl simply
+cannot be hurried through a--an engagement. Next winter."
+
+"Next what? That's nearly a year, Jane. It's absurd! I'm ready."
+
+"I know. It's mighty noble of you, too. But I just can't, dearest.
+No one ever docs."
+
+"Don't--don't you think I'm prepared to take care of you?" he said,
+straightening up a bit.
+
+She looked at his strong figure and into his earnest eyes and
+laughed, so adorably, that his resentment was only passing.
+
+"I can't give you a home like this," he explained; "but you know
+I'll give you the best I have all my life."
+
+"You can't help succeeding, Graydon," she said earnestly. "Everyone
+says that of you. I'm not afraid. I'm not thinking of that. It
+isn't the house I care for. It's the home. You must let me choose
+the day."
+
+"I suppose it's customary," he said at last. "June is the month
+for brides, let me remind you."
+
+"Before you came this evening I had decided on January next, but
+now I am willing to---"
+
+"Oh, you decided before I came, eh?" laughingly.
+
+"Certainly," she said unblushingly. "Just as you had decided on the
+early spring. But, listen, dear, I am willing to say September of
+this year."
+
+"One, two, three--seven months. They seem like years, Jane. You
+won't say June?"
+
+"Please, please let me have some of the perquisites," she pleaded.
+"It hasn't seemed at all like a proposal. I've really been cheated
+of that, you must remember, dear. Let me say, at least, as they
+all do, that I'll give you an answer in three days."
+
+"Granted. I'll admit it wasn't the sort of proposal one reads about
+in novels---"
+
+"But it was precisely as they are in real life, I'm sure. No one
+has a stereotyped proposal any more. The men always take it for
+granted and begin planning things before a girl can say no."
+
+"Ah, I see it has happened to you," he said, jealous at once.
+
+"Well, isn't that the way men do nowadays?" she demanded.
+
+"A fellow has to feel reasonably sure, I dare say, before he takes
+a chance. No one wants to be refused, you know," he admitted. "Oh,
+by the way, I brought this--er--this ring up with me, Jane."
+
+"You darling!" she cried, as the ring slipped down over her finger.
+And then, for the next hour, they planned and the future seemed a
+thousand-fold brighter than the present, glorious as it was.
+
+"You can't help succeeding," she repeated," the same as your father
+has. Isn't he wonderful? Oh, Graydon, I'm so proud of you!" she
+cried, enthusiastically.
+
+"I can never be the man that the governor is," said Graydon,
+loyally. "I couldn't be as big as father if I lived to be a hundred
+and twenty-six. He's the best ever! He's done everything for me,
+Jane," the son went on, warmly. "Why, he even left dear, old New
+York and came to Chicago for my sake, dear. It's the place for
+a young man, he says; and he gave up a great practice so that we
+might be here together. Of course, HE could succeed anywhere. Wasn't
+it bully of him to come to Chicago just--just for me?"
+
+"Yes. Oh, if you'll only be as good-looking as he is when you are
+fifty-five," she said, so plaintively that he laughed aloud. "You'll
+probably be very fat and very bald by that time."
+
+"And very healthy, if that can make it seem more horrible to you,"
+he added. For some time he sat pondering while she stared reflectively
+into the fire opposite. Then squaring his shoulders as if preparing
+for a trying task, he announced firmly: "I suppose I'd just as well
+see your father to-night, dearest. He likes me, I'm sure, and I--I
+don't think he'll refuse to let me have you. Do you?"
+
+"My dad's just as fair as yours, Gray," she said with a smile. "He's
+upstairs in his den. I'll go to mother. I know she'll be happy--oh,
+so happy."
+
+Bansemer found David Cable in his room upstairs--his smoking and
+thinking room, as he called it.
+
+"Come in, Graydon; don't stop to knock. How are you? Cigarette?
+Take a cigar, then. Bad night outside, isn't it?"
+
+"Is it? I hadn't--er--noticed," said Graydon, dropping into a chair
+and nervously nipping the end from a cigar. "Have you been downtown?"
+
+"Yes. Just got in a few minutes ago. The road expects to do a lot
+of work West this year, and I've been talking with the ways and
+means gentlemen--a polite and parliamentary way to put it."
+
+"I suppose we'll all be congratulating you after the annual election,
+Mr. Cable."
+
+"Oh, that's just talk, my boy. Winemann is the logical man for
+president. But where is Jane?"
+
+"She's--ah--downstairs, I think," said the tall young man, puffing
+vigorously. "I came up--er--to see you about Jane, Mr. Cable. I
+have asked her to be my wife, sir."
+
+For a full minute the keen eyes of the older man, sharpened by
+strife and experience, looked straight into the earnest grey eyes
+of the young man who now stood across the room with his hand on the
+mantlepiece. Cable's cigar was held poised in his fingers, halfway
+to his lips. Graydon Bansemer felt that the man aged a year in that
+brief moment.
+
+"You know, Graydon, I love Jane myself," said Cable at last, arising
+slowly. His voice shook.
+
+"I know, Mr. Cable. She is everything to you. And yet I have come
+to ask you to give her to me."
+
+"It isn't that I have not suspected--aye, known--what the outcome
+would be," said the other mechanically. "She will marry, I know.
+It is right that she should. It is right that she should marry you,
+my boy. You--you DO love her? "He asked the question almost fiercely.
+
+"With all my soul, Mr. Cable. She loves me. I don't know how to
+convince you that my whole life will be given to her happiness. I
+am sure I can---"
+
+"I know. It's all right, my boy. It--it costs a good deal to let
+her go, but I'd rather give her to you than to any man I've ever
+known.  I believe in you."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Cable," said Graydon Bansemer. Two strong hands
+clasped each other and there was no mistaking the integrity of the
+grasp.
+
+"But this is a matter in which Jane's mother is far more deeply
+concerned than I," added the older man. "She likes you, my boy--I
+know that to be true, but we must both abide by her wishes. If she
+has not retired..."
+
+"Jane is with her, Mr. Cable. She knows by this time."
+
+"She is coming." Mrs. Cable's light footsteps were heard crossing
+the hall, and an instant later Bansemer was holding open the den
+door for her to enter. He had a fleeting glimpse of Jane as that
+tall young woman turned down the stairway.
+
+Frances Cable's face was white and drawn, and her eyes were wet. Her
+husband started forward as she extended her hand to him. He clasped
+them in his own and looked down into her face with the deepest
+tenderness and wistfulness in his own. Her body swayed suddenly
+and his expression changed to one of surprise and alarm.
+
+"Don't--don't mind, dear," he said hoarsely. "It had to come. Sit
+down, do. There! Good Lord, Frances, if you cry now I'll--I'll go
+all to smash!" He sat down abruptly on the arm of the big leather
+chair into which she had sunk limply. Something seemed to choke
+him and his fingers went nervously to his collar. Before them stood
+the straight, strong figure of the man who was to have Jane forever.
+
+Neither of them--nor Jane--knew what Frances Cable had suffered
+during the last hour. She accidentally had heard the words which
+passed between the lovers in the den downstairs. She was prepared
+when Jane came to her with the news later on, but that preparation
+had cost her more than any of them ever could know.
+
+Lying back in a chair, after she had almost crept to her room, she
+stared white-faced and frightened at the ceiling until it became
+peopled with her wretched thoughts. All along she had seen what
+was coming. The end was inevitable. Love as it grew for them had
+known no regard for her misery. She could not have prevented its
+growth; she could not now frustrate its culmination. And yet, as
+she sat there and stared into the past and the future, she knew that
+it was left for her to drink of the cup which they were filling--the
+cup of their joy and of her bitterness.
+
+Fear of exposure at the hand of Graydon Bansemer's father had kept
+her purposely blind to the inevitable. Her woman's intuition long
+since had convinced her that Graydon was not like his father. She
+knew him to be honourable, noble, fair and worthy. Long and often
+had she wondered at James Bansemer's design in permitting his son
+to go to the extreme point in relation with Jane. As she sat there
+and suffered, it came to her that the man perhaps had a purpose after
+all--an unfathomable, selfish design which none could forestall.
+She knew him for all that he was. In that knowledge she felt a
+slight, timid sense of power. He stood for honour, so far as his
+son was concerned. In fair play, she could expose him if he sought
+to expose her.
+
+But all conjectures, all fears, paled into insignificance with the
+one great terror: what would James Bansemer do in the end? What
+would he do at the last minute to prevent the marriage of his son
+and this probable child of love? What was to be his tribute to the
+final scene in the drama?
+
+She knew that he was tightening his obnoxious coils about her all
+the time. Even now she could feel his hand upon her arm, could hear
+his sibilant whisper, could see his intense eyes full of suggestion
+and threat. Now she found herself face to face with the crisis
+of all these years. Her only hope lay in the thought that neither
+could afford the scandal of an open declaration. Bansemer was
+merciless and he was no fool.
+
+Knowing Graydon to be the son of a scoundrel, she could, under
+ordinary circumstances, have forbidden her daughter to marry him.
+In this instance she could not say him nay. The venom of James
+Bansemer in that event would have no measure of pity. In her heart,
+she prayed that death might come to her aid in the destruction of
+James Bansemer.
+
+It was not until she heard Graydon coming up the stairs that the
+solution flashed into her brain. If Jane became the wife of this
+cherished son, James Bansemer's power was gone! His lips would be
+sealed forever. She laughed aloud in the frenzy of hope. She laughed
+to think what a fool she would have been to forbid the marriage.
+The marriage? Her salvation! Jane found her almost hysterical,
+trembling like a leaf. She was obliged to confess that she had
+heard part of their conversation below, in order to account for her
+manner. When Jane confided to her that she had promised to marry
+Graydon in September--or June--she urged her to avoid a long
+engagement. She could say no more than that.
+
+Now she sat limp before the two men, a wan smile straying from
+one to the other, exhausted by her suppressed emotions. Suddenly,
+without a word, she held out her hand to Graydon. In her deepest
+soul, she loved this manly, strong-hearted young fellow. She knew,
+after all, he was worthy of the best woman in the land.
+
+"You know?" cried Graydon, clasping her hand, his eyes glistening.
+"Jane has told you? And you--you think me worthy?"
+
+"Yes, Graydon--you are worthy." She looked long into his eyes,
+searching for a trace of the malevolence that glowed in those of
+his father. They were fair and honest and sweet, and she smiled to
+herself. She wondered what his mother had been like.
+
+"Then I may have her?" he cried. She looked up at her husband and
+he nodded his head.
+
+"Our little girl," he murmured. It all came back to her like
+a flash. Her deception, her imposition, her years of stealth--and
+she shuddered. Her hand trembled and her eyes grew wide with repugnance
+as they turned again upon Graydon Bansemer. Both men drew back in
+amazement.
+
+"Oh, no--it cannot, cannot be!" she moaned, without taking her eyes
+from Graydon's face. In the same instant she recovered herself and
+craved his pardon. "I am distressed--it is so hard to give her up.
+Graydon," she panted, smiling again. The thought had come suddenly
+to her that James Bansemer had a very strong purpose in letting his
+son marry Jane Cable. She never had ceased to believe that Bansemer
+knew the parents of the child she had adopted. It had dawned upon
+her in the flash of that moment that the marriage might mean a
+great deal to this calculating father. "David, won't you leave us
+for a few minutes? There is something I want to say to Graydon."
+
+David Cable hesitated for an instant and then slowly left the room,
+closing the door behind him. He was strangely puzzled over that
+momentary exposition of emotion on the part of his wife. He was a
+man of the worldj and he knew its vices from the dregs up, but it
+was many days before the startling suspicion struck in to explain
+her uncalled-for display of feeling. It did not strike in until
+after he noticed that James Bansemer was paying marked attention
+to his wife.
+
+Left alone with Graydon, Mrs. Cable nervously hurried to the point.
+She was determined to satisfy herself that the son did not share
+her secret with his father.
+
+"Does your father know that you want to marry Jane?" she asked.
+
+"Of course--er--I mean, he suspects, Mrs. Cable. He has teased me
+not a little, you know. I'm going to tell him to-night."
+
+"He has not known Jane very long, you know."
+
+"Long enough to admire her above all others. He has often told me
+that she is the finest girl he's ever met. Oh, I'm sure father will
+be pleased, Mrs. Cable."
+
+"I met your father in New York, of course--years ago. I presume he
+has told you."
+
+"I think not. Oh, yes, I believe he did tell me after we met you
+at Hooley's that night. He had never seen Mr. Cable."
+
+"Nor Jane, I dare say."
+
+"Oh, no. I knew Jane long before dad ever laid eyes on her." The
+look in his eyes satisfied her over all that he knew nothing more.
+
+"You love her enough to sacrifice anything on earth for her?" she
+asked suddenly.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Cable," he answered simply.
+
+"You would renounce all else in the world for her sake?"
+
+"I believe that's part of the service," he said, with a smile. "Jane
+is worth all of that, and more. She shall be first in my heart,
+in my mind, for all time, if that is what you mean, Mrs. Cable.
+Believe me, I mean that."
+
+"Mr. Bansemer says that you are like your mother," she mused,
+wistfully.
+
+"That's why he loves me, he also says. I'm sorry I'm not like
+father," he said earnestly. "He's great!" She turned her face away
+so that he might not see the look in her eyes. "I think Jane is
+like---" he paused in confusion. "Like her father," he concluded.
+She arose abruptly and took his hand in hers.
+
+"Go to her, Graydon," she said. "Tell her that Mr. Cable and I want
+you to be our son. Good-night and God bless you." She preceded him
+to the stairway and again shook hands with him. David Cable was
+ascending.
+
+"Graydon," said the latter, pausing halfway up as the other came
+down, "you were ready to congratulate me in advance on the prospect
+of becoming president of the P., L. & A. Do you know that I was
+once an ordinary fireman?"
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Cable. The rise of David Cable is known to everyone."
+
+"That's all. I just wanted to be sure. Jane was not born with a
+silver spoon, you know."
+
+"And yet she is Jane Cable," said the young man proudly. Then he
+hurried on down to the expectant, throbbing Jane.
+
+Frances Cable sat at her escritoire for an hour, her brain working
+with feverish energy. She was seeking out the right step to take
+in advance of James Bansemer. Her husband sat alone in his den and
+smoked long after she had taken her step and retired to rest--but
+not to sleep. On her desk lay half a dozen invitations, two of
+them from the exclusive set to whose inner circles her ambitious,
+vigorous aspirations were forcing her. She pushed them aside and
+with narrowed eyes wrote to James Bansemer--wrote the note of the
+diplomat who seeks to forestall:
+
+"DEAR ME. BANSEMER: Doubtless Graydon will have told you his good
+news before this reaches you, but Mr. Cable and I feel that we cannot
+permit the hour to pass without assuring you of our own happiness
+and of our complete approval. Will you dine with us this evening--en
+famille--at seven-thirty?
+
+"FRANCES CABLE."
+
+David Cable read the note and sent it early the next morning by
+special messenger to James Bansemer. The engagement of Jane Cable
+and Graydon Bansemer was announced in the evening papers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE FOUR INITIALS
+
+
+
+
+
+The offices of James Bansemer were two floors above those of
+Robertson Ray Rigby in the U__ Building. The morning after Graydon
+Bansemer's important visit to the home of the Cables, Eddie Deever
+lounged into Rigby's presence. He seemed relieved to find that
+the stenographer was ill and would not be down that day. The lanky
+youngster studiously inspected the array of law books in the cases
+for some time, occasionally casting a sly glance at Bobby. At last
+he ventured a remark somewhat out of the ordinary--for him:
+
+"That old man up in Bansemer's office gets on my nerves," said he,
+settling his long frame in a chair and breaking in upon Rigby's
+attention so suddenly that the lawyer was startled into a quick
+look of interest.
+
+"Old Droom? What do you know about him?"
+
+"Nothing in particular, of course. Only he sort of jars me when he
+talks." Rigby saw that the young man had something on his mind.
+
+"I did not know that you were personal friends," ventured Rigby.
+
+"Friends?" snorted Eddie. "Holy Mackerel! He scares the life out
+of me. I know him in a business way, that's all. He came down here
+three weeks ago and borrowed some books for Bansemer. I had to go
+up and get 'em yesterday. I was smoking a cigarette. When I asked
+the old guy for the books he said I'd go to hell if I smoked. I
+thought I'd be funny, so I said back to him: "I'll smoke if I go
+to hell, so what's the diff?" It went all right with him, too. He
+laughed--you ought to see him laugh!--and told me to sit down while
+he looked up the books. I was there half an hour and he talked all
+the time. By jing! He makes your blood run cold. He up and said there
+was no such place as hell. "Why not?" says I. "Because," says he,
+"God, with all His infinite power, could not conceive of a space
+huge enough to hold all the hypocrites and sinners." Then he grinned
+and said he had set aside in his will the sum of a hundred dollars
+to build a church for the honest man. "That will be a pretty small
+church," says I. "It will be a small congregation, my son," says
+he. "What few real honest men we have will hesitate to attend for
+fear of being ostracised by society." "Gee whiz, Mr. Droom, that's
+pretty hard on society," says I, laughing. "Oh, for that matter,
+I have already delivered my eulogy on society," says he. "But it
+ain't dead," says I. "Oh, yes; it's so rotten it must surely be
+dead," says he in the nastiest way I ever heard. He's a fearful old
+man, Mr. Rigby. He made a mean remark about that Mrs. David Cable."
+
+"What did he say?" quickly demanded Bobby.
+
+"He said he'd been reading in the papers about how she was
+breaking into society. "She's joined the Episcopal church," says
+he, sarcastic-like. "Well, there's nothing wrong in that,' says I.
+'I know, but she attends,' says he, just as if she shouldn't. 'She
+wouldn't attend if the women in that church wore Salvation Army
+clothes and played tambourines, let me tell you. None of 'em would.
+I knew her in New York years ago. She wasn't fashionable then. Now
+she's so swell that she'll soon be asking Cable to build a mansion
+at Rose Lawn Cemetery, because all of the fashionables go there.'
+Pretty raw, eh, Mr. Rigby?"
+
+"Oh, he's an old blatherskite, Eddie. They talk that way when they
+get old and grouchy. So he knew Mrs. Cable in New York, eh? What
+else did he say about her?"
+
+"Nothing much. Oh, yes, he did say--in that nasty way of his--that
+he saw her on the street the other day chatting with one of the
+richest swells in Chicago. He didn't say who he was except that
+he was the man who once made his wife sit up all night in the day
+coach while he slept in the only berth to be had on the train. Do
+you know who that could be?"
+
+"I'm afraid Droom was romancing," said Bobby, with a smile.
+
+"Say, Mr. Rigby," said Eddie earnestly, "what sort of business
+does Mr. Bansemer handle?" Rigby had difficulty in controlling his
+expression. "I was wondering, because while I was there yesterday
+a girl I know came out of the back room where she had been talking
+to Bansemer. She's no good."
+
+"Very likely she was consulting him about something," said Rigby
+quietly.
+
+"She soaked a friend of mine for a thousand when she was singing
+in the chorus in one of the theatres here."
+
+"Do you know her well?"
+
+"I--er--did see something of her at one time. Say, don't mention
+it to Rosie, will you? She's not strong for chorus girls," said
+Eddie anxiously. "A few days ago I saw a woman come out of his
+office, heavily veiled. She was crying, because I could hear the
+sobs. I don't go much on Bansemer, Mr. Rigby. Darn him, he called
+me a pup one day when I took a message up for Judge Smith."
+
+"See here, Eddie," said Rigby, leaning forward suddenly, "I've
+heard two or three queer things about Bansemer. I want you to tell
+me all you hear from Droom and all that you see. Don't you think
+you could cultivate Droom's acquaintance a bit? Keep this very
+quiet--not a word to anybody. It may mean something in the end."
+
+"Gee whiz!" murmured Eddie, his eyes wide with interest. From that
+day on he and Bobby Rigby were allies--even conspirators.
+
+Later in the day Rigby had a telephone message from Graydon Bansemer,
+suggesting that they lunch together. All he would say over the wire
+was that he would some day soon expect Rigby to perform a happy
+service for him. Bobby understood and was troubled, He suspected
+that Graydon had asked Jane Cable to marry him and that she had
+consented. He loved Graydon Bansemer, but for the first time in
+their acquaintance he found himself wondering if the son were not
+playing into the father's hands in this most desirable matrimonial
+venture. With a shudder of repugnance he put the thought from him,
+loyal to that good friend and comrade.
+
+James Bansemer came into his office late that morning. He had
+not seen Graydon the night before, but at breakfast the young man
+announced his good fortune and asked for his blessing. To the son's
+surprise, the elder man did not at once express his approval. For
+a long time he sat silent and preoccupied to all appearance, narrowly
+studying his son's face until the young man was constrained to
+laugh in his nervousness.
+
+"You love her--you are very sure?" asked the father at last.
+
+"Better than my life," cried Graydon warmly.
+
+"She has good blood in her," said Bansemer, senior, slowly, almost
+absently.
+
+"I should say so. Her father is a wonderful man."
+
+"Yes, I daresay," agreed the other without taking his eyes from
+the son's face.
+
+"But you don't say whether you approve or disapprove," complained
+Graydon.
+
+"Would it change matters if I disapproved?"
+
+"Not in the least, father. I love her. I'd hate to displease you
+in--"
+
+"Then, of course, I approve," said the other, with his warmest
+smile. "Jane is a beauty and--I am proud of her."
+
+"She is too good for me," lamented Graydon happily.
+
+"I can't very well contradict her future husband," said the lawyer.
+There was a hungry look in his eyes as he glanced from time to time
+at the face of the boy who had his mother's unforgettable eyes.
+
+A messenger brought Mrs. Cable's note to Bansemer soon after his
+arrival at the office. He and Elias Droom were in the back office
+when the boy came. They had been discussing the contents of a
+letter that came in the early mail. The lawyer accepted the note
+and dismissed the boy with the curt remark that he would telephone
+an answer in person.
+
+"It looks to me as though this is going to be a rather ticklish
+affair," Droom resumed after the boy had closed the outer door behind
+him. Bansemer's mind was on Mrs. Cable's note; a queer smile hung
+on his lips.
+
+"I'm rather touched by her astuteness," he said. "She's cleverer
+than I thought. Oh," suddenly remembering that it was not Mrs.
+Cable's letter they were discussing, "you always see the dreary
+side of things, Elias."
+
+"I haven't forgotten New York," said the clerk drily.
+
+"Ah, but Chicago isn't New York, you know."
+
+"Well, I was just reminding you. This man is going to fight back,
+that is plain."
+
+"That's what Mrs. Norwood promised to do, also, Elias. But she was
+like a lamb in the end."
+
+"I wouldn't be very proud of that affair, if I were you."
+
+"See here, Droom, you're getting a trifle too familiar of late. I
+don't like it," said Bansemer sharply.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Bansemer," said Droom, scraping his foot
+across the floor and looking straight past his master's head. "It's
+for the good of the cause, that's all. It wouldn't do, on Graydon's
+account, for you to be driven from Chicago at this time. You see,
+he thinks you are beyond reproach."
+
+"Curse your impudence, Droom, I won't be spoken to in that way,"
+exclaimed Bansemer, white with sudden rage and loathing.
+
+"Am I to expect my discharge, sir?" asked Droom, rubbing his hands
+abjectly, but looking squarely into Bansemer's eyes for the first
+time in their acquaintance. Bansemer glared back for an instant
+and then shrugged his shoulders with a nervous laugh.
+
+"We shan't quarrel, Elias," he said. "Speaking of Graydon, he is
+to be married before long."
+
+"I trust he is to do well, sir. Graydon is a fine boy."
+
+"He is to marry David Cable's daughter."
+
+"Indeed? I did not know that David Cable had a daughter."
+
+"You know whom I mean--Jane Cable." He turned rather restlessly,
+conscious that Droom's eyes were following him to the window. He
+glanced again at Mrs. Cable's note and waited.
+
+"I suppose you are pleased," said Droom, after a long pause.
+
+"Certainly. Jane is a splendid girl. She's beautiful, accomplished
+and--well, she's thoroughbred," said Bansemer steadily, turning to
+face the old man.
+
+"It is not necessary to remind you that she is a child of love,"
+said Droom, "That's the genteel way to put it."
+
+"It's not like you to be genteel, Elias. Still," and he sat down
+and leaned forward eagerly, "she has good blood from both sides."
+
+"Yes--the so-called best."
+
+"You speak as if you know the truth."
+
+"I think--yes, I'm sure I know. I have known for twenty years, Mr.
+Bansemer. I had the same means as you of finding out whose child
+she was."
+
+"That's more than Mrs. Cable knows."
+
+"She did not take the trouble to investigate. It's too late now."
+
+"I don't believe you really know the names of her father and
+mother," said Bansemer shrewdly. "You are trying to trick me into
+telling you what I DO know."
+
+"There are portraits of her ancestors hanging in Fifth Avenue,"
+said Droom promptly. "Here," and he picked up a pencil, "I'll write
+the initials of the two persons responsible for her existence. You
+do the same and we'll see that they tally." He quickly scratched
+four letters on a pad of paper. Bansemer hesitated and then slowly
+wrote the initials on the back of an envelope. Without a word they
+exchanged the papers. After a moment they both smiled in relief.
+Neither had been tricked. The initials were identical.
+
+"I imagine the ancestors hanging in Fifth Avenue would be amazed
+if they knew the story of Jane," said Droom, with a chuckle.
+
+"I doubt it, Droom. Ancestors have stories, too, and they hide
+them."
+
+"Well, she isn't the only girl who doesn't know."
+
+"I dare say. It isn't a wise world."
+
+"It's a lucky one. That's why it assumes to be decent."
+
+"You are quite a cynic, Elias."
+
+"By the way, now that your son is to marry her, I'd like to know
+just what your game is."
+
+Bansemer turned on him like a tiger, his steely eyes blazing.
+
+"Game? There is no game, damn you. Listen to me, Droom; we'll settle
+this now. I'm a bad man, but I've tried to be a good father. People
+have called me heartless. So be it. But I love that boy of mine.
+What little heart I have belongs to him. There can be no game where
+he is concerned. Some day, perhaps, he'll find out the kind of a
+man I've been to others, but can always remember that I was fair
+and honest with him. He'll despise my methods and he'll spurn
+my money, but he'll have to love me. Jane Cable is not the girl I
+would have chosen for him, but she is good and true and he loves
+her."
+
+For the first time in his life Elias Droom shrank beneath the eyes
+of his master. He hated James Bansemer from the bottom, of his
+wretched soul, but he could not but feel, at this moment, a touch
+of admiration.
+
+Through all the years of their association Elias Droom had hated
+Bansemer because he was qualified to be the master, because he
+was successful and forceful, because he had loved and been loved,
+because they had been classmates but not equals. In the bitterness
+of his heart he had lain awake on countless nights praying--but not
+to his God--that the time would come when he could stand ascendant
+over this steely master. Only his unswerving loyalty to a duty
+once assumed kept him from crushing Bansemer with exposure years
+before.  But Droom was not a traitor. He remained standing, lifting
+his eyes after a brief, shifting study of his bony hands.
+
+"You have nothing to fear from me," he said. "Your boy is the only
+being in the world that I care for. He hates me. Everybody hates me.
+But it doesn't matter. I asked what your game was because we know
+Jane's father and mother. That's all. Mrs. David Cable, I presume,
+can be preyed upon with safety."
+
+"Mrs. Cable has much to lose," significantly.
+
+"And how much to pay?" with a meaning look.
+
+"That is her affair, Droom."
+
+"I wouldn't press her too hard," cautioned Droom. "She's a woman."
+
+"Never fear. I'm going there for dinner to-night. It's a family
+affair. By the way, here's a letter from a distinguished political
+leader. He suggests that I act on the city central committee for
+the coming year. You've heard of him, I daresay. He says it will
+mean a great deal to me here in Chicago."
+
+"You are not going into politics?" scornfully.
+
+"Elias, I'm pretty bad, but I'm not bad enough for local politics."
+
+They heard someone at the outer door at that moment, and Droom glided
+forth from the inner room to greet the visitor. It was Eddie Deever.
+
+"Say, Mr. Droom, do you suppose Mr. Bansemer would object if I sat
+down here for a few minutes to look over his books on Famous Crimes
+in History? Old Smith hasn't got 'em."
+
+"Go ahead," said Droom, taking his seat at the desk. "You are a
+great reader, I perceive. A literary person like you ought to live
+in Boston. Everybody reads in Boston."
+
+"Boston?" sniffed Eddie, pulling a book from the shelf. "They're
+still reading the Old Testament there."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AN EVENING WITH DROOM
+
+
+
+
+
+Several weeks later Eddie Deever announced, quite breathlessly,
+to Rigby that he was going over to visit Droom in his Wells Street
+rooms. The two had found a joint affinity in Napoleon, although
+it became necessary for the law student to sit up late at night,
+neglecting other literature, in order to establish anything like
+an adequate acquaintance with the lamented Corsican.
+
+Rigby was now morally certain that James Bansemer was all that
+Harbert had painted. To his surprise, however, the man was not
+openly suspected by other members of the bar. He had been accepted as
+a man of power and ability. Certainly he was too clever to expose
+himself and too wary to leave peepholes for others engaged in that
+business. Rigby was debating the wisdom of going to Bansemer with
+his accusations and the secret advice to leave the city before
+anything happened that might throw shame upon Graydon. The courage
+to do the thing alone was lacking.
+
+Graydon was full of his happiness. He had asked Rigby to act as
+his "best man" in September, and Bobby had promised. On occasions
+when the two young men discussed the coming event with Jane and
+Miss Clegg, Rigby's preoccupied air was strangely in contrast with
+the animation of the others. Graydon accused his liver and advised
+him to go to French Lick. Far from that, the old quarterback was
+gradually preparing himself to go to James Bansemer. To himself he
+was saying, as he put off the disagreeable task from day to day:
+"He'll kick me out of the office and that's all the reward I'll
+get for my pains. Graydon will hate me in the end."
+
+James Bansemer had proposed a trip to Europe as a wedding journey,
+a present from himself, but Graydon declined. He would not take
+an extensive leave of absence from the office of Clegg, Groll &
+Davidson at this stage of his career.
+
+The morning after his visit to the abode of Elias Droom, Eddie
+Deever strolled into the office of Bobby Rigby. He looked as though
+he had spent a sleepless night. Mr. Rigby was out, but Miss Keating
+was "at home." She was scathingly polite to her delinquent admirer.
+Eddie's visits of late to the office had not been of a social
+character. He devoted much of his time to low-toned conversations
+with Rigby; few were the occasions when he lounged affably upon
+her typewriting desk as of yore.
+
+"You look as if you'd had a night of it," remarked Rosie. Eddie yawned
+obligingly. "Don't sit on my desk. Can't you see those letters?"
+
+"Gee, you're getting touchy of late. I'll move the letters."
+
+"No, you won't," she objected. "Besides, it doesn't look well. What
+if someone should come in--suddenly?"
+
+"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I got out suddenly, would it?"
+He retained his seat on the desk. "Say, where's Rigby?"
+
+"You mean MR. Rigby? He's out."
+
+"Gee, you're also snippy. Well, give him my regards. So long."
+
+He was unwinding his long legs preparatory to a descent from his
+perch.
+
+"Don't rush," she said quickly. He rewound his legs and yawned.
+"Goodness, you're not affected with insomnia, are you?"
+
+"I've got it the worst way. I got awake at eight o'clock this
+morning and I couldn't go to sleep again to save my soul. It's an
+awful disease. Will Rigby be back soon?"
+
+"It won't matter. He's engaged," she snapped, cracking away at her
+machine.
+
+"I've heard there was some prospect. She's a fine looker."
+
+"Rubber-neck!"
+
+"Say, Rosie, I'm going to ask a girl to go to the theatre with me,"
+said Eddie complacently.
+
+"Indeed! Well, ask her. I don't care."
+
+"To-morrow night. Will you go?"
+
+"Who? Me?"
+
+"Sure. I--I wouldn't take anybody else, you know."
+
+"What theatre?" she asked with her rarest smile.
+
+At that instant Rigby came in. Without a word Eddie popped up, a
+bit red in the face, and followed the lawyer into the private room,
+closing the door behind him. Rosie's ears went very pink and she
+pounded the keys so viciously that the machine trembled on the
+verge of collapse.
+
+"Gee, Mr. Rigby, that old Droom's a holy terror. He kept me there
+till after one o'clock. But I'm going back again soon some night.
+He's got an awful joint. But that isn't what I wanted to see you
+about. I ran across May Rosabel, that chorus girl I was telling
+you about. Saw her downtown in a restaurant at one this morning.
+She wanted to buy the drinks and said she had more money than a
+rabbit.  There was a gang with her. I got her to one side and she
+said an uncle had just died and left her a fortune. She wouldn't
+say how much, but it must have been quite a bunch. I know all of
+her uncles.  She's got three. They work out at Pullman, Mr. Rigby,
+and they couldn't leave thirty cents between them if they all died
+at once."
+
+After hearing this, Rigby decided to confront Bansemer at once. It
+did not occur to him until later that the easiest and most effective
+way to drive Bansemer from Chicago without scandal was through
+Elias Droom. When the thought came to him, however, he rejoiced. The
+new plan was to sow the seeds of apprehension with Droom; Bansemer
+would not be long in reaping their harvest--of dismay. Ten apparently
+innocent words from Eddie Deever would open Droom's eyes to the
+dangers ahead.
+
+Young Mr. Deever met with harsh disappointment when he came forth
+to renew his conversation with Rosie Keating. She was chatting at
+the telephone, her face wreathed in smiles.
+
+"Thank you," she was saying, "it will be so nice. I was afraid
+I had an engagement for to-morrow night, but I haven't. Everybody
+says it's a perfectly lovely play. I'm crazy to see it. What? About
+seven-thirty. It takes nearly half an hour down on the Clark Street
+cable. Slowest old thing ever. All right. Good-bye." Then she hung
+up the receiver and turned upon Eddie, who stood aghast near the
+desk. "Oh, I thought you'd gone."
+
+"Say, what was that you were saying over the 'phone? Didn't I ask
+you--"
+
+"I'm going to the theatre with Mr. Kempshall. Why?"
+
+"WHY? Why, you know I asked you to--"
+
+"You didn't specify, Eddie, that's all. I'll go some other night
+with you. Good-bye." Clackety-clack went the machine, throwing
+insult into his very face as it were. He tramped out of the office
+in high dudgeon.
+
+"Confound this detective business, anyhow," he might have been
+heard to remark. Three nights later, however, he took Rosie to the
+play, and on the fourth night he was Droom's guest again in the
+rooms across the river. He was well prepared to begin the campaign
+of insinuation which was to affect Bansemer in the end. Sitting
+stiff and uncomfortable in the dingy living-room overlooking Wells
+Street, he watched with awe the master of the place at work on the
+finishing touches of a new "invention," the uses of which he did
+not offer to explain.
+
+He was without a coat and his shirt sleeves were rolled far above
+the elbows, displaying long, sinewy arms, hairy and not unlike
+those of the orang-outang Eddie had seen in Lincoln Park.
+
+"I've got a new way of inflicting the death penalty," the gaunt
+old man said, slipping into a heavy, quilted dressing-gown. "These
+rascals don't mind hanging or the penitentiary. But if they thought
+their bodies would be everlastingly destroyed by quicklime, they'd
+hesitate before killing their fellow-men."
+
+"But they already bury them in quicklime in England," said Eddie
+loftily.
+
+"Yes, but not until after they're dead," said Droom with a cackle.
+He grinned broadly at the sight of the youth's horror-struck face.
+"Go ahead and smoke, my boy. I'll light my pipe. Make yourself at
+home. I keep the window closed to keep out the sound of those Wells
+Street cars. It's good of you to come over here and cheer up an old
+man's evenings. I'm--I'm not used to it," he said with a wistful
+touch which was lost to Eddie.
+
+"You ought to have a wife and a lot of children, Mr. Droom," said
+Eddie with characteristic thoughtlessness. Droom stirred the fire
+and scowled. "Were you ever married?"
+
+"No. I don't believe in marriage," said Droom sullenly.
+
+"Gee! Why not?"
+
+"Why should I? It's the way I was brought up."
+
+"You don't mean it!"
+
+"Yes. My father was a Catholic priest."
+
+"But, Great Scott, Catholics believe in marriage."
+
+"They don't believe in their priests marrying."
+
+"Well, they DON'T marry, do they?"
+
+"No, they don't," answered Droom with a laugh that sounded like a
+snarl. It took Eddie two days to comprehend. "I saw the girl to-day
+that young Graydon Bansemer is to marry--Miss Cable."
+
+"Say, she's swell, isn't she?" said Eddie. The old man slunk into
+his chair.
+
+"She's very pretty. Mr. Graydon introduced me to her."
+
+"Gee!" was all Eddie could say.
+
+"They were crossing Wells Street down below here on the way home
+from a nickel-plater's in Indiana Street. I saw her years ago, but
+she didn't remember me. I didn't expect it, however."
+
+"I--how could she have forgotten you?"
+
+"Oh, she'd have forgotten her mother at that age. She was but
+three months old. I don't think she liked me to-day. I'm not what
+you call a ladies' man," grinned Elias, puffing at his pipe as
+he picked up the volumes on Napoleon. Eddie laughed politely but
+uncomfortably.
+
+"How old are you, Mr. Droom?"
+
+"I'm as old as Methuselah."
+
+"Aw, go 'way!"
+
+"When he was a boy," laughed Elias, enjoying his quip immensely.
+"Miss Cable seems to be very fond of Graydon. That will last for
+a couple of years and then she'll probably be like two-thirds of
+the rest of 'em. Other men will be paying attention to her and she
+looking for admiration everywhere. You'd be surprised to know how
+much of that is going on in Chicago. Women can't seem to be satisfied
+with one husband. They must have another one or two--usually somebody
+else's."
+
+"You talk like a society man, Mr. Droom." "Well, I've met a few
+society men--professionally. And women, too, for that matter. Look
+out for a sensational divorce case within the next few weeks. It's
+bound to come unless things change. Terribly nasty affair."
+
+"Is Mr. Bansemer interested?" asked Eddie, holding tight to his
+chair.
+
+"Oh, no. We don't go in for that sort of thing." "I wonder if Mr.
+Bansemer knows about the mistake that came near happening to him a
+week or two ago. I got hold of it through a boy that works in the
+United States Marshal's office," said Eddie, cold as ice now that
+he was making the test. Droom turned upon him quickly.
+
+"What mistake? What do you mean?" "It would have been a rich joke
+on Mr. Bansemer. Seems that some lawyer is likely to be charged
+with blackmail, and they got Mr. Bansemer's name mixed up in it
+some way.  Of course, nothing came of it, but--I just wondered if
+anybody had told him of the close call he'd had."
+
+Droom stared straight beyond the young liar and was silent for a
+full minute. Then he deliberately opened the book on his knee and
+began to turn the pages.
+
+"That WOULD have been a joke on Mr. Bansemer," he said indifferently.
+
+"I don't think he would have enjoyed it, do you?"
+
+"No one enjoys j okes from the United States Marshal's office,"
+said Droom grimly. "By the way, who is the lawyer that really was
+wanted?"
+
+"I never heard. I believe it was dropped. The young fellow I know
+said he couldn't talk about it, so I didn't ask. Say, who was that
+swell woman I saw coming out of your office to-day? I was up at
+Mr.  Hornbrook's."
+
+Droom hesitated a moment. He seemed to be weighing everything he
+said.
+
+"I suspect it was young Bansemer's future mother-in-law," he said.
+"Mrs. David Cable was there this afternoon about three."
+
+"Gee," laughed Eddie. "Does she need a lawyer?"
+
+"Mr. Bansemer transacted business for her some time ago. A very
+small matter, if I remember correctly. Here, listen to this. Now
+here's a little incident I found this evening that interests me
+immensely. It proves to my mind one of two points I hold in regard
+to Marshal Ney. Listen," and he read at length from his book, a dry,
+sepulchral monotone that grated on the ear until it became almost
+unendurable.
+
+The little clock on the mantelpiece clanged ten before they laid
+aside Napoleon and began to talk about something that interested
+Eddie Deever far more than all else--Elias Droom himself and such
+of his experiences as he cared to relate. The rid man told stories
+about the dark sides of New York life, tales of murder, thievery,
+rascality high and low, and he told them with blood-curdling
+directness. The Walker wife-murder; the inside facts of the De
+Pugh divorce scandal; the Harvey family's skeleton--all food for
+the dime-novel producer. Eddie revelled in these recitals even
+while he shuddered at the way in which the old man gave them.
+
+"Ah, this is a wicked old world," said Droom, refilling his pipe and
+showing his teeth as he puffed. "That's why I have those pictures
+of the Madonna on the wall--to keep me from forgetting that there
+are beautiful things in the world in spite of its ugliness and
+hypocrisy. I haven't much---"
+
+He stopped short and listened intently. The sounds of footsteps
+on the stairs outside came to his ears. They clumped upward, paused
+for a moment down the little hall and then approached Droom's
+doorway.  Host and guest looked at the clock instinctively. Eddie
+heard Droom's breath as it came faster between puffs at his pipe.
+Then there was a resounding rap at the panel of the door. Eddie
+Deever never forgot the look that swept over the old man's face--the
+look of wonder, dread, desperation. It passed in an instant, and he
+arose unsteadily, undecidedly, to admit the late caller. His long
+frame seemed to shake like a reed as he stood cautiously inside
+the bolted door and called out:
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+"Messenger," was the muffled response. Droom hesitated a moment,
+looking first at Eddie and then toward the window. Slowly he unbolted
+the door. A small A. D. T. boy stood beyond.
+
+"What is it?" almost gasped Elias Droom, drawing the boy into the
+room.
+
+"Mr. Droom? No answer, sir. Sign here." The boy, snow-covered, drew
+a letter from his pocket and handed it to Droom.
+
+"Where from?" demanded the old clerk, the paper rattling in his
+fingers.
+
+"I don't know. I'm from Chicago Avenue," said the boy, with proper
+impudence. He took one look at Droom's face as the man handed the
+slip back to him and then hurried downstairs, far less impudent at
+heart than he had been.
+
+Droom recognised the handwriting on the envelope as James Bansemer's.
+It was the first time his employer had communicated with him in
+this manner. He tore open the envelope and anxiously read the brief
+missive.
+
+"I've got to go to the office," he said, surprise still lingering
+in his face. "It's important business--a consultation with--er--with
+an Eastern client."
+
+"Gee, it's tough to turn out this kind of a night. I'm going your
+way, Mr. Droom. Come on, I'll take the car down with you."
+
+"I--I won't be ready for some time."
+
+"Oh, well, I'll say good-night, then."
+
+Eddie Deever departed, chuckling to himself as he made his way
+to the U---- Building, determined to learn what he could of this
+unusual summons.
+
+But Droom was too crafty. Bansemer's letter had asked him to come
+to Rector's restaurant and not to the U---- Building. The command
+was imperative.
+
+Bansemer had been spending the evening at the home of David Cable.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+JAMES BANSEMER CALLS
+
+
+
+
+
+Following close upon Mrs. Cable's visit to his office in the
+afternoon, Bansemer presented himself at her home in the evening,
+urbane, courtly, but characteristically aggressive. Her action in
+bearding him in his den was not surprising, even though it might
+have been considered unusual. He had been well aware for some time
+that she was sorely uneasy and that it was only a question of time
+when she would make the expected advances. Since the announcement
+of Jane's engagement Bansemer had been punctiliously considerate;
+and yet, underneath his faultless exterior, Mrs. Cable felt that she
+could recognise the deadly poise of other intentions. She lived in
+fear that they would spring upon her as if from the dark and that
+she would be powerless to combat them. Something stronger than
+words or even intuition told her that James Bansemer was not to be
+turned aside by sentiment.
+
+Driven at last to the point where she felt that she must know
+his intentions, she boldly ventured into his consultation room, a
+trembling but determined creature whose flesh quivered with chill
+despite the furs that foiled the wintry winds. Elias Droom passed
+her on into the private room with a polite grin that set her teeth
+on edge.
+
+She left the building fifteen minutes later, nursing a wild but
+forlorn hope that James Bansemer meant no evil, after all. Without
+hesitation she told him plainly that she came to learn the precise
+nature of his attitude toward herself and the girl. Bansemer's
+resentment appeared too real to have been simulated. He was almost
+harsh in his response to the inference. In the end, however, he was
+a little less than tender in his efforts to convince her that she
+had cruelly misjudged him. She went away with a chill in her heart
+dislodged, but not dissolved. When he asked if she and Mr. Cable
+would be at home that night for a game of cards, she felt obliged
+to urge him to come. It was not until she was in the carriage below
+that she remembered that David Cable was to attend a big banquet
+at the Auditorium that night, and that Jane would be at the theatre
+with friends.
+
+Bansemer smiled serenely as he escorted her to the door. "We will
+not permit anything to happen which might bring misery to the two
+beings so dear to us," he assured her at parting.
+
+Shortly after eight he entered the Cable home. He had gone to
+Chicago Avenue beforehand to send a telegram East. From the corner
+of Clark Street, he walked across town toward the lake, facing the
+bitter gale with poor grace. In Washington Place he passed two men
+going from their cab into the Union Club. He did not look at them
+nor did he see that they turned and stared after him as he buffeted
+his way across Dearborn Avenue. One of the men was Bobby Rigby;
+the other, Denis Harbert of New York.
+
+"It's the same Bansemer," said Harbert as they entered the club.
+"I'd know him in a million."
+
+At the Cables' a servant, on opening the door, announced that Mr.
+Cable was not at home.
+
+"Is Mrs. Cable at home?" asked Mr. Bansemer, making no effort to
+find his cardcase.
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the servant after a moment's hesitation.
+Bansemer passed through the vestibule.
+
+"Say Mr. Bansemer, if you please."
+
+He removed his coat and was standing comfortably in front of the
+blazing logs in the library when she came down.
+
+"I thought the night was too dreadful for anyone to venture out
+unless--" she was saying as she gave him her hand.
+
+"A night indoors and alone is a thousandfold more dreadful than one
+outdoors in quest of good company," interrupted Bansemer. He drew
+up chairs in front of the fireplace and stood by waiting for her
+to be seated.
+
+"I had forgotten that Mr. Cable was to attend a banquet at the
+Auditorium," she explained nervously, confident, however, that he
+felt she had not forgotten.
+
+"To be sure," he said. "This is the night of the banquet. I was
+not invited."
+
+"I tried to telephone to ask you to come to-morrow night. The storm
+has played havoc with the wires. It is impossible to get connection
+with anyone." A servant appeared in the doorway.
+
+"You are wanted at the telephone, Mrs. Cable, Shall I say you will
+come?"
+
+Flushing to the roots of her hair, the mistress of the house excused
+herself and left the room. Bansemer leaned back in his chair and
+smiled. She returned a few minutes later with a fluttering apology.
+
+"What a terrible night it must be for those poor linemen," she said.
+"I remember what it meant to be a railroad lineman in the West
+years ago. The blizzards out there are a great deal more severe than
+those we have here, Mr. Bansemer. Just think of the poor fellows
+who are repairing the lines to-night. Doesn't it seem heartless?"
+
+"It does, indeed. And yet, I daresay you've been scolding them bitterly
+all evening. One seldom thinks it worth while to be merciful when
+the telephone refuses to obey. It's only a true philanthropist who
+can forgive the telephone. However, I am grateful to the blizzard
+and happy. Fair weather would have deprived me of pleasure."
+
+"I am sorry Mr. Cable is not at home," she said quickly.
+
+"I doubt if I shall miss him greatly," said he.
+
+"He expects to leave early--he isn't well," she hastened to say.
+"Don't you want to smoke?"
+
+"A cigarette, if you don't mind. By the way, where is my future
+daughter-in-law? Surely I may see her to-night."
+
+"She is at the theatre--with the Fernmores. Graydon is one of the
+party. Didn't you know?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"I do remember it now. He left the apartment quite early. Then
+I have Fernmore to thank for--we are alone." He leaned forward in
+his chair and flicked the cigarette ashes into the fire, his black
+eyes looking into hers with unmistakable intentness.
+
+"You assured me to-day that you would be fair," she said with
+strange calmness, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.
+
+"I am fair. What more can you ask?" with a light laugh.
+
+"Why did you say to-day that I had nothing to fear from you?" she
+demanded.
+
+"You have nothing to fear. Why should you fear me? For twenty years
+your face has not been out of my memory. Why should I seek to hurt
+you, then? Why should I not rejoice in the tie that binds our
+interests--our lives, for that matter? Come, I ask if I am not
+fair?"
+
+Her face became pale, her heart cold. She understood. The mask
+was off. He veiled his threat in the simplest words possible; the
+purpose looked through with greedy disdain for grace.
+
+"I can offer no more than I offered to-day," she said.
+
+"Do you suppose I would accept money in payment for my son's peace of
+mind?" declared Bansemer, with finely assumed scorn. "You offered
+me ten thousand dollars. You will never know how that hurt me,
+coming from you. Money? What is money to me in an affair like this?
+I care more for one tender touch of your fingers than all the money
+in the world! You--and you alone, can mould every impulse in me.
+For half my life I have been hated. No one has given me a grain of
+love. I must have it. For years you have not been out of my mind--I
+have not been out of yours."
+
+"Stop!" she cried angrily. "You have no right to say such things
+to me. You have been in my mind all these years, but oh, how I have
+hated you!"
+
+Like a flash, his manner changed. He had her in his power, and it
+was not in his nature to permit his subjects to dictate to him.
+Craft and coercion always had been his allies; craft could not win
+a woman's heart, but coercion might crush it into submission. It
+was not like James Bansemer to play a waiting game after it had
+been fairly started.
+
+"Now listen to me," he said distinctly. "You cannot afford to talk
+like that. You cannot afford to make an enemy of me. I mean what
+I--"
+
+"What would you do?" she cried. "You have promised that nothing
+shall happen to mar the lives of our children. You have given me
+your pledge. Is it worthless? Is it--"
+
+"I wouldn't speak so loud if I were you," said he slowly. "The
+walls have ears. You have much to lose if ears other than those in
+the wall should hear what could be said. It would mean disaster.
+I know, at least, that you do not love David Cable--"
+
+"What! I--I worship my husband," she cried, her eyes flashing, her
+bosom heaving. "I love him better than anything else in all the
+world. How dare you say that to me!"
+
+"Control yourself," he cautioned calmly. "Permit me to say you love
+the position he has given you. You love the pedestal on which you
+stand so insecurely. You would rather hear his curse than to see
+the hand of social ostracism raised against you. Wait! A word from
+me and not only David Cable, but the whole world would turn against
+you."
+
+"I have committed no crime," she flared back at him, "I have
+deceived my husband, but I have not dishonoured him. Tell the world
+everything, if you will."
+
+"It would be a luscious tale," he said with an evil laugh. "The
+world, which is wicked, might forget the fact that Jane is not
+David's daughter; but David would not forget that she is yours."
+
+"What do you mean?" starting from her chair.
+
+"I think you understand," he said deliberately.
+
+"My God, she is NOT my child!" she cried in horror. "You know she
+isn't. You know the entire story. You--"
+
+"I only know that you brought her to me and that I did you a service.
+Don't ask me to be brutal and say more." She sank back and glared
+at him like a helpless, wounded thing, the full force of his threat
+rushing in upon her.
+
+"You--you COULDN'T do THAT," she whispered tremulously.
+
+"I could, but I don't see why I should," he said, leaning closer
+to her shrinking figure.
+
+"You know it isn't true," faintly.
+
+"I only know that I am trying to save you from calamity."
+
+"Oh, what a beast you are!" she cried, springing to her feet. "Go!
+I defy you! Do and say what you will. Only go!"
+
+He rose calmly, a satisfied smile on his face.
+
+"I shall, of course, first of all, forbid my son to marry the
+young woman. It will be necessary for me to explain the reason to
+Mr.  Cable. I am sorry to have distressed you. Really, I had expected
+quite a different evening, after your invitation. You can't blame
+me for misunderstanding your motive in asking me to come here when
+you expected to be utterly alone." His laugh was a sneer.
+
+"Poor--poor little Jane!" murmured the harassed woman, clasping
+her hands over her eyes; then suddenly she cried out: "What a devil
+you are to barter with your son's happiness!"
+
+"I'll not mince matters," he said harshly. "You and I must understand
+each other. To be perfectly frank, everything rests with you. Call
+me a beast if you like. As a beast I can destroy you, and I will."
+
+"You forget that I can go to my husband and tell him everything.
+He will hate me, but he will believe me," she said, facing him once
+more.
+
+"The world will believe me," he scoffed.
+
+"Not after I tell the world that you tried to blackmail me--that
+you have demanded fifty thousand dollars."
+
+"But I haven't made such a demand."
+
+"I can SWEAR that you have," she cried triumphantly. He glared at
+her for a moment, his past coming up from behind with a rush that
+left him nothing to stand on.
+
+"I am willing to run the risk of scandal, if you are, my dear,"
+he said after a moment, his hands clenched behind him. "It will be
+very costly. You have much to lose."
+
+"I think," she said shrewdly, guessing his weakness even as he saw
+it, "that we can talk sensibly of the situation from now on. I am
+not afraid of you."
+
+He looked at her steadily for a moment, reading her thoughts, seeing
+her trembling heart. Then he said drily:
+
+"I'll do nothing for a week, and then you'll send for me."
+
+The door in the vestibule opened suddenly and someone--aye, more
+than one--came in from the outside. Mrs. Cable started to her feet
+and turned toward the library door. Bansemer was standing close
+by her side. He turned to move away as David Cable stepped to the
+door to look in. Cable's coat collar was about his ears and he was
+removing his gloves. For a moment he stood motionless, gazing upon
+the occupants of the room.
+
+Then, for the first time, there flashed before him the sharp
+point of steel which was to pierce his brain later on with deadly
+suspicion and doubt. There was no mistaking the confusion of Mrs.
+Cable and her visitor. It was manifest that they had not expected
+him to appear so unexpectedly. He remembered now that on two other
+occasions he had found Bansemer at his house, and alone with Mrs.
+Cable, but he had not regarded it as extraordinary. But there was
+a startled look in her eyes to-night, an indecision in her greeting
+that caused him to knit his brows and lift his hand unconsciously
+to his temple before speaking. He heard Bansemer say that he was just
+going, but that he would stay for a short chat about the banquet.
+Mrs. Cable turned to stir the fire with the poker, an unusual act
+on her part he was not slow to observe. The seed was sown.
+
+"I brought Bobby over from the club with me--and a friend, Frances,"
+he said, after asking Bansemer to sit down for a while. His keen
+eyes noted that her hand shook as she put the poker back into its
+place. As he walked into the hall to throw aside his coat, Frances
+Cable turned to Bansemer with a significant look, shaking her head
+in mute appeal for silence.
+
+Bobby Rigby came into the room, followed by a tall stranger, whom
+he presented to Mrs. Cable. Bansemer, standing near the library
+table, caught a glimpse of the stranger's face as he took Mrs.
+Cable's hand. He started violently, unable at first to believe his
+eyes. A chill ran through his frame and his expression changed from
+wonder to consternation.
+
+"Mr. Bansemer, my friend, Mr. Harbert."
+
+"I have met Mr. Bansemer," said Harbert, with a cold stare straight
+into the other's eyes. They were on opposite sides of the table.
+
+"In New York," said Bansemer firmly, his eyes unflinching in
+their return. He noticed that Harbert's look was uncompromisingly
+antagonistic, but that was to be expected. It troubled him, however,
+to see something like unfriendliness in Rigby's greeting.
+
+Harbert was the man who had fought him to rout in New York. This
+keen, aggressive young barrister had driven him into a corner from
+which he escaped only by merest chance. He knew James Bansemer
+for what he was. It had not been his fault that the man crawled
+through a small avenue of technicalities and avoided the punishment
+that had seemed so certain. He had waged war bitterly against the
+blackmailer, and he missed complete victory by a hair's breadth.
+
+Feeling the strain of the situation, Rigby talked with earnest
+volubility. He led the conversation into many lines--the war in
+the Philippines, the banquet, the play which Jane and Graydon were
+seeing. The thought of the play brought a shade of despair to his
+brow--pretty Miss Clegg was in the party with that "mucker" Medford.
+
+James Bansemer had been cold with speculation every instant of the
+time; had felt that Harbert's condemning gaze had never left him.
+Apparently listening to the others, he found himself wondering what
+Harbert's trip to Chicago signified. Gradually it dawned upon him
+that his old-time foe was not through with his fighting. The look
+in Rigby's eyes meant something, after all--and Rigby was Graydon's
+best friend! Harbert was in Chicago to act--and to act first! This
+thought shot into the man's brain like burning metal. It set every
+nerve afire. His nemesis had already begun his work. Before he left
+the Cable home that night he would be asking his host and hostess
+what they knew of one James Bansemer's past.
+
+As Bansemer arose to say good-night to the others, Harbert's eyes
+met his with deadly directness.
+
+"Where are your offices, Mr. Bansemer?" asked the New Yorker. There
+was something significant in the question.
+
+"Mr. Rigby and I have offices in the same building," he replied.
+"Will you come in and see me?"
+
+"I shall try," said the other.
+
+To have saved his life, Bansemer could not meet David Cable's
+questioning eyes as he shook hands with him. Cable's hands were
+like ice.
+
+Outside the house, in the whirling gale, the tall lawyer breathed
+easier, but not securely. His brain was clogged with doubts, fears,
+prophecies--all whirling like mad around the ominous figure of
+Denis Harbert.
+
+Suddenly, he stopped stockstill, the bitter scowl deepening in his
+eyes. With an oath he turned abruptly and hurried in the opposite
+direction. The time had come to make ready for battle. A few minutes
+later, he was writing the note which created so much commotion in
+the home of Elias Droom.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+JANE SEES WITH NEW EYES
+
+
+
+
+
+It was not until the hurrying Bansemer entered the door of Rector's
+that the apprehension of having committed a senseless blunder came
+to him.
+
+"Good heavens!" he muttered, stopping short. "What a fool I'm
+getting to be-meeting old Elias, in a place like this! The theatre
+crowds--everybody in town will be here by eleven! Curse me, for a
+hopeless ass! I must get him away at once!"
+
+Grumbling at himself, he passed into the restaurant. Gabe offered
+him the choice of various tables; he selected one which commanded
+a view of the entrances and ordered a perfunctory "Scotch." Nervous
+and anxious, he was more troubled than he cared to admit even to
+himself. Fortunately, there were not many people in the cafe; and
+his gaze, wandering about the place, soon halted before the small
+alcove in the east end containing a table with wine glasses, in
+waiting, set for a large party. The clock, back of the cigarstand,
+said it was five minutes after eleven. Bansemer impatiently watched
+the two doors leading to the street, and was beginning to wonder
+whether the message had reached the old clerk, when presently, the
+uncouth shape of Droom, appeared slinking through the so-called
+ladies' entrance, with the shrinking attitude of one unaccustomed
+to fashionable restaurants and doubtful of his reception. Bansemer
+motioned to him.
+
+"Just as soon as I can get my check," he was saying, at the same
+time, beckoning to a waiter; "we'll move out of this. It will be
+crowded in--I never thought, a stall at Chapin & Gore's will be
+better. Here, waiter! My check! I'm in a hurry!--the devil!"
+
+As the exclamation burst from his lips, there came down the narrow
+steps and through a door quickly thrown open by a waiter, a number
+of gay, fashionably dressed people, all smiling and trembling with
+the cold. Immediately, this party attracted the attention of the
+room. Waiters rushed hither and thither relieving the ladies of their
+costly lace and fur wraps, and the men of their heavy overcoats.
+Of the expected theatre-comers, these were the first to arrive;
+but presently others followed, and soon the quiet cafe of the early
+evening became transformed into one of bustle and excitement by
+the eager, animated throng. With dismay Bansemer noticed that those
+to whom his attention had been attracted were blocking his way to
+the doors; escape was out of the question.  Reluctantly, he returned
+to his seat and ordered the clerk to take the one opposite him. Then,
+scanning the party making its passage to the alcove, he perceived
+three or four men whom he knew, and presently, to his surprise and
+consternation-his son. The recognition was mutual, Graydon making
+his way around a small table in order to affectionately greet him.
+As he approached, his eyes fastened themselves on his father's
+companion. With amazement, he recognised the queer figure of the
+lanky, gangling Droom; but too kind-hearted and well-bred to allow
+his features in the slightest degree to express the astonishment
+which he felt at sight of such a comic incongruity, the young man
+voiced a few kindly words to the old man, while from the table
+in the alcove, where the smart, little supper party were seating
+themselves, Miss Cable was smiling her cheery recognition to her
+prospective father-in-law; then Graydon made his way back to his
+seat by her side.
+
+"Why did you come here?" asked Droom, feeling somewhat akin to the
+proverbial fish out of water.
+
+"Because I thought--I thought you couldn't find any other place,"
+replied Bansemer, confusedly.
+
+The unexpected arrival of his son and party had disturbed his usual
+coolness; but with his order for supper his equilibrium returned,
+and he went on to explain:
+
+"I supposed you knew only two streets in town--Wells and South
+Water."
+
+"Humph! I know every street in town," Droom resented, drawing
+himself up in his chair; and then bluntly: "What's happened?"
+
+"Not so loud! Harbert's here, but---"
+
+"Oho! Here?"
+
+"In Chicago, yes--we'll talk about it later."
+
+The present genial environment and convivial atmosphere were
+producing a most inspiriting effect on the lawyer. The delightful
+consciousness that the people with whom his son was supping were
+of the smartest set in town for the moment had banished all fears
+of exposure. From time to time he glanced proudly across to the
+alcove table where the men were engaged in unfolding their napkins
+and toying with their glasses, in lively anticipation of the enjoyment
+to come; while the women, with the hope of eliciting admiration for
+their hands and the sparkle of their rings, were taking off their
+gloves and spreading out their fingers on the table cloth.
+
+"Graydon seems to be right in the swim, eh, Droom?" he said. The
+irony of it all appealed strongly to his sense of humour. "I don't
+suppose you know those swells?" he added, patronisingly. Droom was
+listening intently to the bursts of merriment which were enlivening
+the restaurant. Like a small boy at a circus who fears that something
+will happen that he will not see, he was continually turning his
+head and letting his eyes travel critically over the company at
+the neighbouring table.
+
+At this speech of Bansemer's the eyes of the old clerk returned;
+they expressed no little resentment at the inference.
+
+"Certainly, I do;" and leaning over the table and covertly indicating
+with his long, bony finger the man at the head of the table, he
+answered succinctly: "That's Fernmore--he's--"
+
+A particularly loud burst of laughter cut him short. At the adjoining
+tables conversation had abruptly ceased; heads were turned and
+inquisitive eyes were fastened on the brilliant coterie at the
+alcove table.
+
+Few men in Chicago were better known or better liked than the stout,
+florid complexioned, jovial-looking Billy Fernmore, the host of
+this entertainment. His social adventures and the headlong follies
+in which his fun-loving proclivities invariably enmeshed him were
+only surpassed by his fondness for ridding himself of his unlimited
+wealth.
+
+To his inherited five millions marriage had added the colossal
+fortune of a beautiful heiress, whose extravagances aggregated less
+than his own solely through the limitations of her sex. Yet, were
+it not for the self-imposed handicap of adhering strictly to the
+somewhat old-fashioned precept that jewels should be acquired only
+through affectionate beneficence, Mrs. Fernmore might have succeeded
+in surpassing the princely prodigalities of her lord and master.
+
+"It was this way," Billy was saying, in his own inimitable manner,
+and awake to the realisation of having a "good one" to tell; "a
+few days ago the lady of my house took wings for New York--a little
+spree of her own, you understand. And, for Billy Fernmore, I kept
+out of mischief, for a time, fairly well. After waiting days,
+lamb-like, for her return, restlessness--;" and here Fernmore's
+shameless affectation of the neglected husband became so irresistibly
+funny that it provoked prolonged laughter from his listeners, even
+Droom showing his yellow snags and stretching his mouth to the
+fullest extent of the law, as he joined in the general chorus;
+"restlessness gave way to recklessness, and in desperation I invited
+a half dozen of the oldest and most distinguished widowers in town
+to dine with me, at the hotel, where they were informed they were
+to be honoured by the presence of a bevy of the season's prettiest
+debutantes. My stars, but they were a fine collection of old
+innocents!" Fernmore threw himself back in his chair and roared at
+the recollection.
+
+"Billy's a wonder when he's wound up!" Medford's whispered aside
+to the lady on his right met with a simple nod of the head; for
+despite Miss Clegg's well-feigned interest in Mr. Medford when Rigby
+was present, on other occasions there was no pretence of enjoyment
+of his society.
+
+"Among those present--to use the correct phrase," said Billy, after
+having refreshed himself with sufficient champagne to proceed; "were
+two retired merchants, a venerable logician, a doddering banker,
+and a half-blind college professor. Of course, I had to make some
+excuse for Mrs. Fermnore's absence. For the life of me I cannot
+now remember what yarn I told them; but they were too anxious to
+be presented to the gay, young women not to swallow it--whole. The
+old boys fairly swamped the girls with their senile attentions. It
+was a lively supper party--my word! And they went home unanimously
+declaring that the debutantes of the present day discounted, at
+least in dash and go, the charmers of fifty years ago."
+
+Amidst the confusion of peals of merriment which greeted the genial
+raconteur, Miss Cable, to whom the story did not especially appeal,
+whispered in awed tones:
+
+"Graydon, who on earth is that queer, spectacular looking man with
+your father?"
+
+"Oh, that's Droom--isn't he a character? He's been with the governor
+since I was a child. In those days his looks used to frighten me
+almost to death. I fancy he's had a sad life, don't you know."
+
+"There is something positively awful in his face," returned the
+girl, as her eyes faltered and dropped to her plate on unexpectedly
+meeting those of the subject of her remark.
+
+"Sh-h!" came from Medford; and then: "Come, Billy--what's the
+point--or the moral, as they say in novels?"
+
+"Fernmore is a rattling good chap, at heart," Graydon was saying
+to Jane; "but I can't stand that Med--"
+
+"Yes, yes, go on, Mr. Fernmore," broke in several voices in eager
+expectancy.
+
+"The moral?" Billy's eyes were twinkling. "The joke, rather, is on
+me. When Mrs. Fernmore reached home I thought it wise to say nothing
+about the affair; but I had completely underestimated the persistency
+of these rejuvenated venerables. They were not satisfied--wanted
+to know more about the girls; and the next day in deep but joyous
+simplicity, half a dozen old men asked their married daughters and
+close friends at the clubs what family of Brown a certain debutante
+belonged to; who was the father of Miss Jones; and how long had
+the family of Miss Robinson lived in the city, together with a
+lot of amazing questions. And failing to derive even the remotest
+satisfaction from the Social Register, the women members of their
+families besieged my innocent wife with more or less shocked inquiries
+as to an entertainment of mine at which their aged relations were
+present. Well, the game was up! I owned up--confessed to the girls
+being actresses and begged for mercy."
+
+"And I forgave him," supplemented Mrs. Fernmore, smilingly. "Boys
+will be boys."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Billy, in conclusion. "It was no end of a lark!
+I would not have missed it for the world; but the old chaps will
+never, never forgive me."
+
+As the gentleman finished, Bansemer was looking at Droom with
+amusement. The old clerk was shaking his head in a manner that
+signified disapproval.
+
+"How's that for doings in swagger society, eh, Droom? If anyone
+but Billy Fernmore had done that, he would have been ostracised
+forever.  Nothing like millions--"
+
+"I don't believe true aristocrats would do that," interrupted Droom,
+half angrily.
+
+"These are the aristocrats--money aristocrats; the others have lost
+the name--forgotten. Come, let's go over yonder--we can talk there."
+
+Bansemer called for the bill and settled it; then slowly rising,
+ostentatiously waved his adieus to the alcove and deserted the
+scene for Chapin & Gore's Droom meekly followed him employer.
+
+For some time, neither spoke. In their stall, each was busy with
+his own thoughts and speculations.
+
+"I think I've made a mess of it with Mr. Cable," began Banseemer.
+"She---"
+
+"I wouldn't mention names," cautioned Droom, with a look at the
+top of the partition.
+
+"She's very likely to fight back, after all."
+
+"What was your demand?"
+
+"Money," said Bansemer, quietly.
+
+"Humph!" was Broom's way of saying he lied.
+
+"Harbert has a purpose in coming here, Elias. We must prepare for
+him."
+
+"We are as well prepared as we can expect to be. I guess it means
+that we'll have to get out of Chicago."
+
+"Curse him!" snarled Bansemer. "I don't care a rap about myself; but
+it will be all up with Graydon if anything--er--unpleasant should
+happen to me," said Bansemer, with a wistful glance at his glass.
+Then, in subdued tones, he told of the meeting with Harbert. Droom
+agreed that the situation looked unpleasant, and all the more
+so in view of what Eddie Deever had mentioned in connection with
+the Marshal's office. He repeated the story as it had come from
+the babbling, youngster's lips, utterly deceived by the guileless
+emissary from the office downstairs.
+
+"What do you expect to do?" he asked, studying the tense face of
+his employer.
+
+"I'm going to stand my ground," said Bansemer, steadily drumming
+on the table with his stiff fingers. "They can't prove anything,
+and the man who makes a charge against me will have to substantiate
+it.  I'll not run a step."
+
+"Then," said Droom, coarsely, "you must let Mrs. Cable alone. She
+is your danger signal. I tell you, Mr. Bansemer, she'll fight if
+you drive her into a corner. She's not a true aristocrat. She comes
+of a class that doesn't give up."
+
+"Bah! She's like the rest. If Harbert doesn't get in his nasty
+work, she'll give in like all the others."
+
+"I thought you said you'd do nothing to mai" the happiness of
+Graydon," sneered Droom.
+
+"I don't intend to, you old fool. This affair is between Mrs.
+Cable and me. If she wins, I'll give up. But, understand me, I'm
+perfectly capable of knowing just when I'm beaten."
+
+"I only know your financial valour," said Elias drily.
+
+"That's all you're expected to know, sir."
+
+"Then, we won't quarrel about it," said the other with his sweetest
+grin.
+
+"Umph! Well, pleasantries aside, we must look ourselves over
+carefully before we see our New York friend. He must not find us
+with unclean linen. Elias, I'm worried, I'll confess, but I'm not
+afraid. Is there anything that we have bungled?"
+
+"I have always been afraid of the chorus-girl business. I don't
+like chorus girls." Bansemer, at another time, would have smiled.
+
+It was past midnight when the two left the stall and started
+in separate ways for their North Side homes. The master felt more
+secure than when he left the home of David Cable earlier in the
+night. Elias Droom said at parting:
+
+"I don't like your attitude toward Mrs. C. It's not very manly to
+make war on a woman."
+
+"My good Elias," said Bansemer, complacently surveying himself in
+the small mirror across the stall, "all men make war on women, one
+way or another."
+
+He did not see Droom's ugly scowl as he preceded that worthy through
+the doorway.
+
+The next morning Bansemer walked down the Drive. It was a bright,
+crisp day and the snow had been swept from the sidewalks. He felt
+that a visit from Harbert during the day was not unlikely and he
+wanted to be fresh and clear-headed. Halfway down he met Jane Cable
+coming from the home of a friend. He never had seen her looking so
+beautiful, so full of the joy of living. Her friendly, sparkling
+smile sent a momentary pang of shame into his calloused heart,
+but it passed with the buoyant justification of his decision to do
+nothing in the end that might mar his son's happiness.
+
+She was walking to town and assured him that she rejoiced in his
+distinguished company. They discussed the play and the supper party.
+
+"Now that I'm engaged to Graydon, I'm positively beginning to grow
+sick of people," Miss Cable declared and as they all declare at
+that age and stage.
+
+"Well, you'll soon recover," he smiled. "Marriage is the convalescence
+of a love affair, you know."
+
+"Oh, but most of the men one meets are so hopelessly silly-tiresome,"
+she went on. "It's strange, too. Nearly all of them have gone to
+college-Yale, or Harvard."
+
+"My dear Jane, they are the unfortunate sons of the rich. You can't
+blame them. All Yale and Harvard men are not tiresome. You should
+not forget that a large sprinkling of the young men you meet at
+the pink teas were sent to Yale or Harvard for the sole purpose
+of becoming Yale and Harvard men-nothing more. Their mothers never
+expected them to be anything else. The poor man sends his son to
+be educated; the rich man usually does it to get the boy away from
+home, so that he won't have to look at him all the time. I'm happy
+to say that I was quite poor when Graydon got his diploma."
+
+"Oh, Graydon isn't at all like the others. He is a man," cried
+Jane, her eyes dancing.
+
+"I don't mean to say that all rich men's sons are failures. Some
+of them are really worth while. Give credit unlimited to the rich
+man's son who goes to college and succeeds in life in spite of his
+environment. I must not forget that Graydon's chief ambition at
+one time was to hunt Indians."
+
+"He couldn't have got that from his mother," said she accusingly.
+Bansemer looked at her sharply. He had half expected, on meeting
+her, to observe the first sign that the Cable family had discussed
+him well but not favourably. Her very brightness convinced him that
+she, at least, had not been, taken into the consultation.
+
+"I am afraid it came from his horrid father. But Graydon is a good
+boy. He couldn't long follow the impulses of his father. I dare
+say he could be a sinner if he tried, too. I' hate an imbecile.
+An imbecile to my mind is the fellow without the capacity to err
+intentionally. God takes care of the fellow who errs ignorantly.
+Give me the fellow who is bright enough to do the bad things which
+might admit him to purgatory in good standing, and I'll trust him
+to do the good things that will let him into heaven. I often wonder
+where these chaps go after they die--I mean the Yale and Harvard
+chaps who bore you. It takes a clever chap to have any standing
+at all in purgatory. Where do they go, Jane? You are wise for your
+years and sex. There surely must be a place for the plain asses?"
+
+"Oh," said she, "I suppose they have a separate heaven, just as
+the dogs have."
+
+"No doubt you're right," he agreed, smiling, "but think how bright
+the dogs are as a rule."
+
+"Bobby Rigby says a dog is worth more than his master. People will
+steal a dog, he says."
+
+"I saw him at your house last night. Did you meet Mr. Harbert?"
+
+"No. Mother said he came in with Bobby."
+
+"How is Mrs. Cable this morning? I think she--er--complained of a
+sick headache last night?"
+
+"She has such a frightful headache that she couldn't get up this
+morning."
+
+"Indeed? Will you carry my respects and sympathy to her?"
+
+"Thank you, yes. But why don't you come in and see us, Mr.  Bansemer?"
+
+"In a day or so, gladly."
+
+Bansemer was not approached by Harbert that day nor the next--nor
+any other day soon, in fact. It was not until after the third day had
+expired that he heard from Mrs. Cable. Her silence was gratifying
+and significant; it meant that she was struggling with herself--that
+she had taken no one as yet into her confidence. He was too wary
+to feel secure in his position, however. He abandoned every case
+that could not be tried in the cleanest light and he destroyed his
+footprints in those of the past more completely than ever. David
+Cable was disposed to be agreeable when they met, and Rigby's manner
+had lost the touch of aloofness. Altogether the situation did not
+look so dark as it had on the night of the blizzard.
+
+He guessed at Mrs. Cable's frame of mind during the three days
+just past by the tenor of her message over the telephone. She did
+no more than to ask him to drop in before five for a cup of tea;
+but he saw beyond the depth of her invitation.
+
+He went and had a few minutes alone with her because he was shrewd
+enough to drop in before five. No one else came until after that
+hour had struck. He was studiously reserved and considerate. There
+was nothing in his manner to indicate that he was there as anything
+more than the most casual sipper of the beverage that society brews.
+It was left for her to make the advances.
+
+"We must come to an understanding," she said abruptly. "I cannot
+endure the suspense, the uncertainty--"
+
+Bansemer raised his brows with grave condescension.
+
+"Then you have not confessed to Mr. Cable?" he asked, with perfect
+unconcern. "Do you know, I was rather hoping that you would have
+saved me the trouble of doing so."
+
+"It means so much to--"
+
+"Ah, I see you find it hard to lose the ground you have gained
+socially." He stirred his tea steadily.
+
+"It isn't that--I don't care for that. It's for Jane and David. I
+can only offer to buy your silence; nothing more," she said with
+hurried words. "I own shares in the railroad; they're worth twenty
+thousand dollars. Will you take them?"
+
+"My dear," he said, leaning quite close to her, "I am not seeking
+to blackmail you as you seem to imagine. I have only tried to tell
+you that I love you."
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, with a shudder of disgust. His face was quite
+close to hers; she could feel his warm breath on her cheek and she
+drew away quickly. His hand hovered close to hers as it lay in her
+lap.
+
+There was an eye-witness to this single picture in the brief scene.
+Jane had started downstairs. From the upper steps she could look
+into the drawing-room below. She could not help seeing Bansemer's
+fervent attitude; she heard nothing that he said. The girl paused
+in surprise; a feeling as of dread--she could not explain--crept
+over her. A chill struck into her heart.
+
+It was as if she had awakened from a sweet sleep to look out upon
+a bleak, horrid morning.
+
+Involuntarily she shrank back, quite beyond the actual vision but
+not free from it. She stood straight and tense and silent at the
+top of the stairs, her hand clasping the rail. She could hear her
+heart throbs plainly. There was no mistaking the picture as it had
+burst upon her unsuspecting eyes. With a quavering smile she tried
+to throw it from her. But cold and damning there arose to support
+her apprehensions the horrid stories of Mrs. Blanckton and her
+affair with Rellick. With her own eyes she had seen Rellick talking
+to Mrs.  Blanckton just as Bansemer was talking to her mother in
+the dim doom below. The Blanckton scandal, as everyone knew, was
+one of the most infamous the city had known. Jane, with other girls,
+had been shocked by the boldness of the intrigue; she had loathed
+Rellick for his unprincipled love-making; she had despised and
+denounced Mrs.  Blanckton. Here now was her own mother listening
+just as Mrs.  Blanckton had listened; here was James Bansemer talking
+just as Rellick had talked. A great fear, a dark uncertainty, welled
+up in her heart.
+
+It was not until the butler admitted other callers that she found
+the courage to turn her eyes toward the drawing-room. She was never
+to forget the dread that grew with the thought of what she might
+have seen had she remained a voluntary witness during the minutes
+which followed her first look below. That single vision effected a
+sharp, complete change in Jane Cable's life. From that moment she
+never saw the world as it had appeared to her before.
+
+Although she succeeded in, hiding the fact, it was difficult
+to approach and greet James Bansemer with the naturalness of the
+unsuspecting. His manner was beyond reproach, and yet, for the
+first time, she saw the real light in his black eyes. She talked
+to him as if nothing had happened to make her distrustful, but no
+self-control in the world could have checked the growth of that
+remorseless thing called suspicion. For her own sake, for her
+mother's, for Graydon's, she tried to put it down. Instead, it grew
+greater and stronger as she looked into his eyes, for in them she
+saw the light that heretofore had escaped her notice.
+
+And this was the father of the man whom she was to marry, the one
+whom she loved with all her heart and soul! This, the man who would
+degrade her own mother! Her mother--she looked at her with a new
+question in her eyes. She looked for the thing which had marked Mrs.
+Blanckton. It was not there, and she rejoiced in that discovery.
+Her mother did not possess the bold, daring, defiant air of the
+other woman. Hers was tender, sweet, even subdued; the girl clutched
+hopefully at this sign and began to build upon it.
+
+Half a dozen people came and went. James Bansemer was the last to
+leave. He met the girl's tense, inquiring look from time to time,
+but he could not have felt its meaning. There was nothing in her
+voice which might have warned him, although it sounded strained and
+without warmth on her own ears. In spite of herself she wondered
+how he would act in saying good-bye to her mother. Although she
+tried with all the might of her will to look away, she could not
+take her eyes from the pair as Bansemer arose to depart.
+
+His manner was most circumspect. The handclasp was brief, even
+formal and there was no look in his eyes to indicate the presence
+of anything but the most casual emotions. After his departure,
+Mrs.  Cable turned to Jane and complained of a frightful headache
+and went to her room to lie down for a while before dinner. Jane's
+gaze followed her steadily as she ascended the stairs. Then she
+walked to the window and looked out upon the street, a hundred
+perplexities in her mind.
+
+Her father was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, looking
+down the darkening street. His cab was turning the corner below,
+showing that he had been standing there for longer than a minute.
+She watched him with interest. What had happened in the street to
+hold his interest so closely? It was Jane who opened the door and
+let him in. As she kissed his cold cheek she noticed the frown on
+his brow and caught the strange gleam in his eyes. His greeting
+was less warm than usual, and he went to his room upstairs without
+removing his hat or coat below. But not before he sent a quick,
+keen glance about the drawing-room to find if James Bansemer had
+been the single visitor of the afternoon.
+
+"Where is your mother?" he asked from the stairs, without looking
+back.
+
+"She has just gone to her room," Jane replied, a chill shooting
+through her veins. Some strange, unnatural impulse compelled her
+to add, as if the explanation were just and necessary: "We have
+had a lot of people in drinking tea, and mother has a headache."
+
+She watched him ascend the steps and turn into his smoking-room.
+The door closed sharply and a wave of inexplicable relief rushed
+over her. Her hands were cold. She went to the fireplace and held
+them out to the blaze. Her ears were alert for sounds from above--alert
+with a strange fear which choked her with its persistence. She
+dreaded the opening of her father's door and his footsteps as they
+crossed to her mother's room. She waited for these sounds, minute
+after minute, but they did not come. The fire would not give warmth
+to her hands; the chill seemed to spread. In her new consciousness
+she felt that a tragedy was just begun.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE CANKER
+
+
+
+
+
+Cable saw Bansemer leave the house as he drove up to the curb in
+front. The lawyer did not look back, but turned the nearest corner
+as if eager to disappear from sight as quickly as possible.
+
+Closing the door of his smoking-room behind him, David Cable dropped
+wearily into a chair without removing his hat or coat. His blood
+was running cold through his veins, his jaw was set and his eyes
+had the appearance of one who has been dazed by a blow. For many
+minutes he sat and stared at the andirons in the ember-lit grate.
+From time to time he swallowed painfully and his jaw twitched.
+Things began growing black and green before his eyes; he started
+up with an oath.
+
+He was consumed by the fires of jealousy and suspicion. The doubt
+that had found lodging in his mind so recently now became a cruel
+certainty. Into his grim heart sprang the rage of the man who
+finds himself deceived, despised, dishonoured. He was seeing with
+his own eyes, no doubt, just what others had seen for months--had
+seen and had pitied or scorned him as the unfortunate dupe. With
+the thought of it he actually ground his teeth; tears of rage and
+mortification sprang to his eyes. He recalled his own feelings in
+instances where shame had fallen upon other men; he recalled his
+own easy indifference and the temptation to laugh at the plight
+of the poor devils. It had never entered his mind that some day he
+might be the object of like consideration in others more or less
+fortunate, according to THEIR friends.
+
+By the time dinner was announced he had succeeded in restoring
+himself to a state of comparative calmness. He did not dress for
+dinner, as was his custom, nor did he stop to ask Frances Cable if
+she were ready to go down. He heard Jane playing the piano as he
+descended. She nodded to him, but did not stop and he paused near
+the fireplace to look at her strangely. Somewhere back in his brain
+there was struggling, unknown to him, the old-time thought that
+this child bore him no likeness whatsoever. He only knew he was
+crushing down the fear that evil or slander or pain might come to
+her, if he were rash yet just. He was wondering if he could face
+his wife without betraying himself.
+
+Jane played softly, lifelessly. She, on the other hand, was wondering
+what Graydon would think or say, if she spoke to him of what she
+had seen. She wondered if he would blame her mother as she was
+beginning to blame his father.
+
+"Mother won't be down to dinner," she finally said.
+
+"Is she ill?" he asked after a moment.
+
+"She is lying down. Margaret will take some tea up to her."
+
+Father and daughter had but little to say to each other during the
+meal. Their efforts at conversation were perfunctory, commonplace,
+an unusual state of affairs of which neither took notice.
+
+"You look tired, father. Has it been a hard day?"
+
+"A rather trying one, Jane. We're having some trouble with the
+blizzards out West. Tying up everything that we are rushing to the
+Philippines."
+
+"Is it settled that you are to be made president?"
+
+"It looks like it." There followed a long silence. "By the way,
+I have good news for you. Mr. Clegg told me to-day that they are
+going to take Graydon into the firm. Isn't it great? Really, it is
+quite remarkable. You are not the only person, it seems, who thinks
+a lot of that boy."
+
+"A partner? Really? Oh, isn't it glorious? I knew he could--I told
+him he'd be a partner before long." She waited a moment and then
+added: "His father was here to-day for a cup of tea." Cable caught
+the slightly altered tone and looked up. She was trifling with her
+fork, palpably preoccupied.
+
+"I'm--I'm sorry I missed him," said he, watching her closely.
+
+"You like him very much, don't you, father?"
+
+"Certainly--and I'm sure your mother does." The fork shook in her
+fingers and then dropped upon the plate. She looked up in confusion.
+Cable's eyes were bent upon her intently and she had never seen so
+queer a light in them. Scarcely more than the fraction of a second
+passed before he lowered his gaze, but the mysterious telegraphy
+of the mind had shot the message of comprehension from one to the
+other. He saw with horror that the girl at least suspected the true
+situation. A moment later he arose abruptly and announced that he
+would run up to see her mother before settling down to some important
+work in his den.
+
+"Graydon is coming over to-night," she said. "We'll be very quiet
+and try not to disturb you. Don't work too hard, daddy dear."
+
+Upstairs Frances Cable was battling with herself in supreme despair.
+Confession was on her lips a dozen times, but courage failed her.
+When she heard his footsteps in the hallway she was ready to cry
+out the truth to him and end the suspense. As he opened the door
+to enter, the spirit of fairness turned frail and fled before the
+appeal of procrastination. Wait! Wait! Wait! cried the powerful
+weakness in her heart, and it conquered. She could not tell him
+then. To-morrow--the next day, yes, but not then. It was too much
+to demand of herself, after all.
+
+He came in, but left a few minutes later. She was strangely
+unresponsive to his tender inquiries. Her thoughts were of another,
+was his quick conclusion as he fled from her presence before the
+harsh accusations could break from his eyes.
+
+In his den once more, with the door closed, he gave himself up
+completely to black thoughts. He recalled his words to her, uttered
+years ago, half in jest and half in earnest; he had horrified her
+beyond expression by telling her how he would punish a wife if he
+were the husband she deceived. With a grim, lurid smile he remembered
+the penalty. He had said he would not kill; he would disfigure the
+woman frightfully and permit her to live as a moral example to
+other wives. Slitting her mouth from ear to ear or cutting off her
+nose--these were two of the penalties he would inflict. He now felt
+less brutal. He might kill, but he would not disfigure. For an hour
+he sat and wondered what had been the feelings of his old friend
+George Driscoll just before he deliberately slew his faithless wife.
+He remembered saying to other friends at the time that Driscoll
+had "done right."
+
+This night of black shadows--he did not sleep at all--was really
+the beginning of the end. He forgot the presidency that was to be
+handed out to him; he forgot everything but the horrid canker that
+gnawed into his heart and brain.
+
+Day and night he writhed in silent agony, a prey to the savage
+jealousy that grew and grew until it absorbed all other emotions.
+Scandal, divorce, dishonour, murder swept before the mind of this
+man who had been of the people and who could not condone. The people
+kill.
+
+For a week he waited and watched and suffered. What he knew of men
+told him that they do not devote themselves to the wives of others
+with honourable motives behind them. He convinced himself that he
+knew the world; he had seen so much of it. The man aged years in
+that single week of jealousy and suspense. His face went haggard,
+his eyes took on a strange gleam, his manner was that of a man in
+grave trouble.
+
+Day after day this piteous, frenzied man who swayed thousands with
+his hand stooped to deal with the smallest movements of one man and
+one woman. Despite his most intense desire to drive himself into
+other and higher channels, he found himself skulking and spying
+and conniving with but one low end in view.
+
+He employed every acute sense in the effort to justify his
+suspicions. Time and again he went home at unusual hours, fearing
+all the while that he might incur the pain of finding Bansemer
+there. He even visited the man in his office, always rejoicing in
+the fact that he found him there at the time. He watched the mail
+in the morning; he planned to go out of nights and then hurried
+home deliberately but unexpectedly. Through it all he said no word
+to Frances Cable or Jane. He asked no questions, but he was being
+beaten down by apprehensions all the while.
+
+His wife's manner convinced him that all was not well with her. She
+avoided being alone with him, keeping close to her room; he detected
+a hundred pretexts by which she managed to escape his simplest
+advances.
+
+At last, overwrought by the strain, he began to resort to
+cunning--this man who was big enough to have gone from the engine
+cab to the president's office. It required hours of struggle with
+his fairer, nobler nature to bring himself low enough to do trickery,
+but the natal influence mastered. He despised himself for the trick,
+but he WOULD KNOW THE TRUTH.
+
+The late afternoon mail one day brought to Mrs. Cable a brief
+letter, typewritten both inside and out. David Cable saw her open
+and read the missive and he saw her trembling hand go to her throat
+and then to her temple. Her back was towards him. He could not see
+her face until she turned, a full minute later. Then it was calm
+and undisturbed, but her eyes were brilliant. He ground his teeth
+and tore upstairs without a word. David Cable had stooped low enough
+to write this letter and he was paying for it.
+
+He knew the contents far better than she knew them. The letter
+purported to be an urgent appeal from James Bansemer, asking her
+to meet him at eight o'clock that night. It said: "I must see you
+to-night. Leave your home at 8:00 o'clock for a short call on Mrs.
+W--, just around the corner. I will meet you across the Drive, near
+the sea wall. It is quite dark there. J."
+
+David Cable did not know that earlier in the afternoon James Bansemer
+had called her up by 'phone to say that he intended to speak to
+his son the following day, unless word came to him from her; nor,
+could he have possibly known that she was now determined to tell
+the whole story to her husband and to trust to his mercy. He only
+knew that he had written the letter and that he had told her of
+his intention to go downtown immediately after dinner.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE TRAGEDY AT THE SEA WALL
+
+
+
+
+
+The dark, muffled figure of a man leaned against a section of the
+old wall that edged the lake--the figure of a man who prayed with
+all his soul that his vigil might be in vain. If she came, all was
+over.
+
+He was not armed. He had thrown his revolver away a week before. His
+only desire now was to learn the extent of her duplicity. If she
+obeyed the call of the letter then there could be no doubt that
+she was coming at the call of the lover. His hands twitched and
+he shivered as if with a dreadful chill. His heart was shouting a
+warning to her, but his head was urging her to come and have done
+with it all.
+
+He was there early--long before the hour named in the decoy. His
+eyes never left the sidewalk that ran past his own home, but a short
+distance from the Drive. They stared without blinking across that
+dark border, through the circle of light from the arc lamp and far
+into the shadows of blackness beyond. It was very dark where he
+stood. The lake had battered through the sea wall for many rods
+at this particular point and no one ventured out beyond the bridle
+path for fear of slipping down into the cavities that had been
+washed out by the waves. His station was on the edge of the piles
+of stone and cement that had been tossed up to await the pleasure
+of the park commissioners.
+
+For a while, he tried to take Jane's future into consideration,
+but it was impossible to substitute anything before his own wrongs.
+David Cable was not the kind of man who would go on living with a
+faithless wife for the sake of appearances. He was not an apologist.
+Time and circumstance and the power of true love would adjust the
+affair of Jane and Graydon Bansemer. This was HIS affair. Time
+could not adjust it for him.
+
+At last he saw a woman's figure hurrying down the street. The wild,
+eager hope that the light from the electric lamp would prove it
+to be other than that of his wife was quickly dispelled. His worst
+fears were true, His Frances--his wife of more than a score of
+years, his pretty sweetheart through all those days, was false to
+him! As he fell back against the wall something seemed to snap in
+his breast; a groan of misery arose to his lips.
+
+With eyes which saw red with rage and anguish, he watched
+the hesitating approach of the woman. She stopped at the corner
+and looked up and down the Drive, peering intently into the dark
+shadows by the lake. The sky was overcast; no stars peeped through
+its blackness. With uncertain, halting steps she crossed the boulevard,
+still glancing about as if in search of someone. He moved forward
+unconsciously, almost blindly, and she caught a glimpse of his tall,
+dark figure. He was not unlike Bansemer in height and carriage. As
+she drew near, his legs trembled and tears of despair flooded his
+eyes.
+
+A savage desire to grasp her by the throat and hurl her into the
+waters beyond the break came over him with irresistible power. Then
+came the pitiable collapse which conquered the murderous impulses
+and left him weak and broken for the moment. With a sob he turned
+and leaned upon the wall, his back to her, his face buried in his
+tense arms--crushed, despised, dishonoured! Kill her? The horror of
+it swept his brain clear for an instant. Kill his pretty Frances?
+Kill Jane's mother? How could he think of it?
+
+It was a long time before the wretched man knew that she was standing
+close behind him and was speaking to him. The sound of her voice
+came through the noise of his pounding heart as if it were far
+away and gentle. But what was it that she was saying? Her voice
+was angry, suppressed, condemning.
+
+"You may take it or refuse it, just as you please," were the first
+words his turbulent senses distinguished. "I can pay no more than
+that for your silence. The other is impossible. I will not discuss
+it again with you." She paused as if waiting for him to respond.
+
+"To-night I shall tell my husband everything--the whole story. I
+cannot endure the suspense any longer. I will not live in fear of
+you another hour. My only reason for coming out here to-night is to
+plead with you to spare your son and Jane. I am not asking anything
+for myself. It would break Jane's heart if Graydon should refuse
+to marry her. You must have a heart somewhere in that--" But the
+words became jumbled in the ears of her listener. From time to time
+his mind grasped such sentences as these, paralysing in their
+bitterness: "I have the letters of adoption.... David will not believe
+what you say.... He loves me and he loves Jane.... I am willing
+to pay all that I have to keep it from Graydon and Jane....  But
+I intend to tell my husband. I will not deceive him any longer....
+He will understand even though he should hate me for it.  He will
+love Jane although she is not his own child."
+
+David Cable seemed frozen to the spot. His brain was clearing; he
+was grasping the full importance of every sentence that rushed from
+her impassioned lips. The last appalling words fell like the blow
+of a club in the hands of a powerful man. He was dazed, stunned,
+senseless. It seemed to him that his breath had ceased to come and
+that his whole body had turned to stone. His wide staring eyes saw
+nothing ahead of him.
+
+"Well, what have you to say?" she was demanding. "Why have you
+asked me to come out here? You have my final answer. What have you
+to say?  Are you going to tell Graydon that Jane is not our child?
+I must know."
+
+"Not our child?" came from the palsied lips of David Cable, so
+low and lifeless that the sound was lost in the swish of the water
+below. The intermittent red signal in the lighthouse far out in the
+lake blinked back at him, but to him it was a steady, vivid glare.
+
+"Do you hear me? I have lied to my husband for the last time!"
+There was almost a tone of victory in the voice, now. "Do you hear
+me? You don't dare! David will not believe you--he will believe
+my--"
+
+A terrible oath choked back the hopeful words in the woman's throat.
+Murder had come back into the man's heart.
+
+"You lie!"
+
+"David!"
+
+"Yes, it's David! Liar! Whose child is she? Tell me?"
+
+"David! David! For God's sake, hear me! There was no wrong, I swear
+it!"
+
+"She's not my child and there's no wrong!" The sardonic laugh that
+followed was that of a raging maniac. "You've fooled me, you fiend!
+You devil!"
+
+At that word and with one look at her husband's terribly distorted
+features, Frances Cable shrank back with a single terrified cry,
+turned from him and fled madly for her life. With the spring of the
+wild beast, Cable rushed after her, cursing her with every breath.
+In a few yards he had almost reached her, his hands outstretched
+to grasp her neck. But, at that instant, the frightened woman's
+strength suddenly gave way; her knees received the fall of the limp
+body. For a second she seemed huddled in a posture of prayer, then
+toppled over, slipped easily forward through a fissure in the wall
+and plunged headforemost into the chugging waters below.
+
+In the lives even of the best of men there are moments when the
+human instincts are annihilated and supplanted by those of the
+beast. Likewise, have there been instances in which the bravest
+have been tried in the furnace and found wanting, while conversely,
+the supposedly cowards have proved to be heroes. Therefore, since
+no two situations can occur at a different time and yet have precisely
+similar conditions, it behooves us to forbear judging, lest we be
+judged, and to approach the following incident in this man's career
+as if we ourselves dwelt under a covering of glass.
+
+From the time of his marriage up to this moment no man could have
+fought better the bitter struggle of life than David Cable; yet,
+now, in this hour--his hour of travail and temptation, he piteously
+succumbed. Cowardice, the most despicable of all emotions, held
+him in her grasp.
+
+He sank exhausted against the wall, his eyes fixed upon the black
+hole through which his wife had disappeared; then, the stony glare
+changed suddenly to a look of realisation--horrible, stupefying.
+He crept to the edge and peered intently into the water, not six
+feet below, his eyes starting from his head.
+
+Black, sobbing water, darkness impenetrable! The instinctive fear
+of apprehension caused him to look in every direction for possible
+eye-witnesses. Every drop of blood in his body seemed turned to ice
+with horror. Down there in that black, chill water lay the body of
+his wife, the woman he had loved through all these trying years,
+and he her murderer!
+
+Terrified, trembling, panting, he tried to force himself into the
+water with the vague hope of saving her, after all; but even as
+he looked wildly about for help, a shout ready to spring from his
+dry throat, the natural dread of the accused facing his accuser
+took possession of him. Fear, abject fear, held him in grasp; he
+could not shout.
+
+A man was running across the drive towards him--a long loping figure
+that covered the ground rapidly. With a last horrified look in the
+water, David Cable, craven for the moment, turned and fled through
+the night along the broken sea wall--fled aimlessly, his eyes
+unseeing, his feet possessed of wings. He knew not whither he ran,
+only that he was an assassin fleeing from the horrors behind.
+
+Over the narrow strip of ground sped the long, eager figure that had
+darted from the shadow of the homes across the street. In hoarse,
+raucous tones he shouted after the fleeing man:
+
+"Stop! Wait! Halt!"
+
+He dashed up to the spot where he had seen two figures but a moment
+before, the full horror of what had happened striking him for the
+first time. The man was Elias Droom, and he had been an eye-witness
+to the dim, indistinct tragedy at the sea wall.
+
+His presence is easily explained. He knew of Bansemer's telephone
+message to Mrs. Cable, together with his threat to expose her on
+the following morning. It was only natural that she should make a
+final plea---that night, of course. The old clerk realised the danger
+of an encounter between his employer and his victim at a time so
+intense as this. He could not know that Bansemer would visit the
+Cable home that evening, but he suspected that such would be the
+case. It was his duty to prevent the meeting, if possible.
+
+Bansemer would go too far, argued the old man; he must be stopped.
+That is why he lurked in the neighbourhood to turn Bansemer back
+before he could enter the home of David Cable.
+
+He saw Mrs. Cable leave the house and go towards the lake. Following
+some distance behind he saw her cross the Drive and make her way
+to the sea wall. Slinking along in the shadow of the buildings,
+cursing his luck and Bansemer jointly, he saw the two forms come
+together out there by the lake.
+
+"Too late, curse him for a fool," Droom had muttered to himself.
+"He ought to know this is bad business just now. She's come out to
+meet him, too. Worse. It's my duty to look out for him as long as
+he employs me. I'm doing my best and I can't help it if he betrays
+himself. I'd like to see him--but I can't go back on him while I'm
+taking money from him. Look at that!"
+
+He chuckled softly as he saw the two figures approach each other.
+For all that he knew they might be contemplating a fond and loving
+embrace, and he was not undeceived until he saw one of the figures
+separate itself, run from the other and go plunging to the earth.
+As he started up in surprise, the other figure leaned forward and
+then straightened itself quickly. Droom did not hesitate. He dashed
+across the street, conscious that something dreadful had happened.
+His instant thought was that Bansemer had lost his temper and had
+struck the woman down.
+
+The flight of the man was proof positive. He called him to stop,
+certain that it was Bansemer. The runner turned his face towards
+him for a moment. The light from the street may have deceived Elias
+Droom's eyes, but the face of the assailant was not that of James
+Bansemer. Droom stopped short and looked after the man, paralysed
+with amazement. Then he gave a snorting laugh at his own stupidity;
+of course, it was Bansemer. Who else could it be?
+
+Arriving at the spot where he had last seen the couple, he was
+amazed to find no one there. He realised, with horror, that the
+woman must have been struck down; had fallen or had been thrown
+into the lake.
+
+The gaunt old clerk groaned bitterly as he threw himself upon the
+wall and peered over into the water. He listened for the cries and
+struggles of the woman. Gradually his eyes solved the situation.
+He saw the row of piles beyond the break in the sea wall and the
+swishing pool inside. Every incoming wave sent a flood of water
+between the sturdy posts and into the cut of the wall.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation he dropped into this seething prison,
+confident that the woman's body could be found there. A single
+glance had shown him that he could crawl upward through the break
+to safety and he knew that the water below was not dangerously
+deep.
+
+A minute later he was scrambling out of this angry, icy water, up
+through the fissure, bearing in his long arms the inert form of
+Frances Cable. He had found her half-submerged in the pool, every
+sweep of the waves through the sieve-like posts covering her
+completely.
+
+He dropped the body on the ground after reaching the level and
+took a quick shuddering glance about. Two men had stopped on the
+opposite of the Drive. He hesitated a second and then shouted to
+them. They stood stockstill in alarm. Before they could respond to
+his second shout, Elias Droom was tearing the woman's watch from
+her belt and the rings from her fingers. His strong, nervous hands
+found the necklace that she wore and it broke beneath their sudden
+jerk.  Cunningly he tossed the necklace upon the ground and trampled
+it with his heel. The watch and rings went flying across the wall
+and far out into the lake.
+
+"This woman has been slugged!" he shouted. He did not know how
+much of the tragedy these men had witnessed. Boldness was his cue
+for the moment; stealth could follow later. "She's been in the
+water. I'm afraid it's murder. The man who did it went that way.
+Yell for the police!"
+
+If the assailant was James Bansemer, Droom was doing his duty by
+him. If it was another, he was doing his duty by society.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+HOURS OF TERROR
+
+
+
+
+
+Droom's intentions were clear. It was not a tender heart nor was it
+chivalry which prompted him to do the deed of valour just described.
+He had started out to do his duty by James Bansemer because he was
+in his hire; and he felt it still his duty to cover the tracks of
+his master as best he could. He knew that he was jeopardising his
+own safety; the obstinate cunning of his nature insisted that the
+man he had watched was Bansemer, although his brief glimpse of the
+fugitive's face discouraged that belief.
+
+The gaunt clerk kept his chin well covered with his great muffler;
+the broad collar of his ulster was turned up about his face. The
+rapid plan that dashed into his mind comprehended but two things:
+the effort to restore life to Frances Cable and the hope of escaping
+without being recognised. He felt that she had not been in the
+water long enough to drown; every hope depended upon the force of
+the blow that he imagined had been delivered.
+
+Chilled to the bone, his teeth chattering like castanets, the old
+man was stooping over the inanimate form on the ground when the
+two men came up. In answer to their startled questions, he merely
+said that he had seen the struggle from across the street, but had
+been too late to prevent the tragedy.
+
+"We must get her into one of these houses quick," he grunted." Take
+hold of her, you. And YOU over there hurry and ring a doorbell.
+Get inside and 'phone for a doctor--a doctor first and then the
+police.  We may be able to save her life."
+
+The first of the rich men's homes denied them admission. The man
+of the house said he would not "stand for the notoriety." Droom,
+supporting the head of the wet, icy figure, made a remark which
+the man was never to forget. At the second house they were admitted.
+
+In an instant all was confusion. A card game was broken up and
+guests of the house assisted their host and hostess in doing all
+manner of unnecessary things. Droom gave the commands which sooner
+or later resolved themselves into excited, wrathy demands upon the
+telephone operator, calls for a certain near-by doctor, calls for
+the police, calls for stimulants, maids, hot water bottles--everything.
+
+"She's been robbed," said one of the men. "Her rings have been torn
+off. Look at the blood!"
+
+"She's well-dressed, too," said another. "Say, her face looks
+familiar---"
+
+To the amazement of everyone, the lips of the woman parted and a
+gasping, choking sound issued from between them, a slight shudder
+swept over her frame.
+
+"She's alive!" exclaimed Droom. "Get these wet clothes off of
+her--quick!"
+
+The men stood grouped in the hallway while the women tore the wet
+garments from the reviving victim and prepared a warm bed for her.
+Elias Droom was edging towards the door, bent on escape, when the
+awed, chattering voice of the young fellow who had assisted in
+carrying her to the house arrested him. A great sense of relief
+crept over him as he listened to the young man's story; his eyes
+blinked with satisfaction. He was forgetting his own remark of a
+minute ago that he was freezing and must get into some dry clothes
+at once. The young man was saying:
+
+"It happened right out there by the sea wall--where the big break
+is. Harry and I were coming up the Drive and I called attention to
+a man running south along the wall. Just then, this gentleman ran
+over from this side of the street and, a minute or two later, we
+saw him jump into the break over there. Suicide, I thought, but
+he wasn't a minute coming up. There was the woman! He'd pulled her
+out! By thunder, it was the bravest thing I ever saw! He---"
+
+And then it was that everybody began to shower praise upon the man
+who only had tried to do his duty by the one who hired him to do
+ugly, not gallant, deeds.
+
+"Did you watch which way the robber ran?" demanded Droom eagerly.
+
+"Lost him in the dark. He ran like fury. You must have scared him
+off," said the second young man. "I wish we could have seen his
+face. Did you see it?"
+
+"Not distinctly," answered Droom. "He struck me as being a slim young
+fellow, that's all." Of one thing he was assured: the evidence of
+these two men would prove that he had acted as a valiant protector
+and not as a thug--a fear which had not left his mind until now.
+They had seen the fleeing assailant, but there was only one person
+who could identify him. That person was Frances Cable, the victim.
+If it was not James Bansemer, then who could it have been?
+
+The door opened and an agitated young woman came out.
+
+"It is Mrs. Cable," she cried in trembling tones.
+
+The physician arrived at that moment, and a few minutes later came
+an officer who had been hailed from the doorway. While the policeman
+was listening to the voluble young eye-witnesses, Droom stood aloof,
+puzzling himself vainly in the effort to solve an inside mystery.
+He had been ready, a few minutes before, to curse himself for pulling
+the woman out of the water, but now, as the belief grew stronger
+within him that her assailant was not James Bansemer, his viewpoint
+changed. If such was the case, there would be no need to fear Mrs.
+Cable's story if she revived sufficiently to tell it. On the other
+hand, if it was Bansemer, he had rescued her to an ill purpose. He
+was conscious finally that someone was speaking to him.
+
+"What do you know of this?" demanded the policeman. Droom repeated
+his brief story. "What is your name and where do you live?"
+
+"My name is Elias Droom and I live over in Wells Street."
+
+"Could you identify the man?"
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"What were you doing over in this part of town?"
+
+"Walking up to see the skaters on the park lagoon. But what's
+that get to do with it? You'd better be out looking for the thief
+instead of wasting time on me here," snarled Droom. The officer
+gasped and there is no telling what might have happened, if the
+captain and a swarm of bluecoats had not appeared on the scene
+at that moment. Two minutes later they were off scouring the lake
+front in search of the mysterious hold-up man. Two plain-clothes men
+remained to question the witnesses and to inspect the neighbourhood
+in which the crime was committed.
+
+Word came from the inner room that Mrs. Cable was regaining
+consciousness.
+
+"Does--can she throw any light on the affair?" asked Elias Droom.
+
+"She has uttered no word except her husband's name. I think she is
+still calling upon him for help, poor thing," said the young woman
+who bore the news.
+
+"Cable ought to be notified," said one of the men.
+
+"Don't do it over the 'phone," said Droom quickly. "I'm going past
+his house. I'll stop in and tell him. Let me out, officer; I must
+get out of these wet garments. I'm an old man, you know."
+
+The probable solution had come to Droom like a flash. As he hurried
+up the street his mind was full of the theory. He scarcely could
+wait for the door of David Cable's house to be opened in response
+to his vigorous ringing. The maid announced that Mr. and Mrs. Cable
+were out. It was enough for Droom. He put the puzzle together in
+that instant. David Cable's face was the one he had seen; not James
+Bansemer's. The maid set up a hysterical shrieking when he bluntly
+told her of the mishap to her mistress, but he did not wait to
+answer questions. He was off to find James Bansemer. The volcano
+he had been watching so long was about to burst, and he knew it.
+
+Forgetting his wet garments, he entered a drug store and telephoned
+to Bansemer's home. His employer answered the call so readily that
+Droom knew he had not been far from the instrument that evening.
+There was a note of disappointment in his voice when Droom's hoarse
+tones replied to his polite: "Hello!"
+
+"I'll be over in half an hour," said Droom. "Very important business.
+Is Graydon there?"
+
+"He's just gone to Cable's. Someone telephoned for him a minute or
+so ago. What's wrong? Do you know?"
+
+"I'll be there in fifteen minutes," was all that Droom would say.
+
+Elias' memory could not carry him back to the time when he had
+hired a cab. A cab was one of the luxuries he had not cultivated.
+One can only imagine his surprise, then, when he found himself
+hailing a passing hansom; and greater the surprise he must have
+felt when he clambered in and ordered the driver to go in a gallop
+to a certain place in Wells Street. Ten minutes later he was attired
+in dry, warm clothes and in the cab again, bound for Bansemer's
+home. What he said to James Bansemer on that memorable occasion
+need not be repeated. It is only necessary to say that his host
+was bitterly impressed and willing to admit that the developments
+might prove serious. They could only speculate as to what had
+transpired between David Cable and his wife out there by the sea
+wall, but it was enough for them to know that a crisis was at hand.
+
+"We'll see what the morning papers say about the affair," said
+Bansemer, uneasy and cold.
+
+The morning papers were full of the sensational robbery, the
+prominence of the victim and the viciousness of the attack. Elias
+Droom read the accounts eagerly as he breakfasted in the dingy little
+restaurant near his home, bright and early. He grinned appreciably
+over the share of glory that fell to him; and he actually cackled
+over the new developments in the great mystery.
+
+He had observed with relief that the name of James Bansemer was
+not mentioned. The reports from the bedside of the robber's victim
+were most optimistic. She was delirious from the effects of the
+shock, but no serious results were expected. The great headlines on
+the first page of the paper he was reading set his mind temporarily
+at rest. There was no suggestion of truth in them.
+
+The reader of this narrative, who knows the true facts in the
+case, is doubtless more interested in the movements and emotions of
+David Cable than in the surmises of others. It would be difficult,
+for a certainty, to ask one to put himself in Cable's place and
+to experience the sensations of that unhappy man as he fled along
+the dark shore of the lake. Perhaps much will be taken on faith if
+the writer simply says that the fugitive finally slunk from the
+weeds and refuse of what was then called "The District of Lake
+Michigan"--"Streeterville," in local parlance--to find himself
+panting and terror-struck in the bleak east end of Chicago Avenue.
+It was not until then that he secured control of his nerves and
+resorted to the stealth and cunning of the real criminal.
+
+From that time until he stood shivering and white with dogged
+intention in a theatre foyer, bent upon establishing an alibi, his
+movements are scarcely worth the details. Between the acts he saw
+a dozen men whom he knew and he took drinks with several of them.
+His tremendous will power carried him through the ordeal in a way
+that could not have fallen to the good fortunes of the ordinary
+lawbreaker.
+
+Every second of the time his thoughts were of the thing which was
+being buffeted by the icy waters of the lake. Where was that thing
+now? How far out into the lake had it been carried?
+
+His body was covered with the cold perspiration of dread and horror.
+His soul was moaning; his whole being was aghast with the awfulness
+of the deed; he could have shrieked aloud in his madness. How he
+lived through the hour in that theatre he never could have told,
+nor could he believe that he was sitting there with all those
+frightful thoughts piling themselves upon him. Other people laughed
+and shouted with happiness; he stared and wept in his heart, and
+shivered and cringed and groaned within himself.
+
+He had killed her! She had been true to him, and yet, he had taken
+her life--the life she had given him! He gave no thought to Jane,
+no thought to Bansemer; he thought only of himself as the slayer.
+
+Would her body be recovered? What would be his excuse, what his
+punishment? The gallows? A thousand horrors ran riot in his brain,
+a thousand tremors with each.
+
+But why dwell upon the feelings of this miserable wretch? Why say
+more of his terror, his misery, his remorse? He held himself in
+the seat until the middle of the last act of the play. At last,
+unable to restrain himself longer, he arose and almost ran from
+the theatre. That instinct which no slayer can control or explain,
+was overpowering him; it was the instinct which attracts the murderer
+to the spot where his crime was committed. No man can describe or
+define this resistless impulse, and yet all criminology records
+it, clear and unmistakable. It is no less than a form of curiosity.
+Driven by this irresistible force, David Cable, with bravado that
+cost him dearly, worked his uninterrupted way to the scene of his
+crime. By trolley car to Chicago Avenue and, then, like a homeless
+dog scenting his way fearfully, to a corner not far from the break
+in the wall.
+
+His legs trembled and his eyes grew wide with dread. The swish of
+the water came to his ears and he stood still for many minutes,
+listening for a cry for help from off the shore, but none came;
+and again skulking alongside the houses of his friends, he covered
+the blocks that lay between him and the magnetic rift in the wall.
+Near the corner, he stopped with a start of alarm.
+
+The figure of a man could be seen standing like a statue on the
+very spot where he had seen her disappear. While he stood there,
+his heart scarcely beating, the solitary figure was joined by two
+others. Cable shrank back into the dense shadows. Like a flash it
+occurred to him that they were searching for the body. A shriek of
+agony arose to his lips; but he checked it.
+
+Far off on one of the crosstown streets a newsboy was calling an
+extra--hoarse, unintelligible shouts that froze his blood. He bent
+his ear to catch the far-away words of the boy: "All about de Nor'
+Side murder!" He cringed and shook under the raucous shout. He knew
+what it meant.
+
+A policeman suddenly turned the corner and came toward him. The
+first impulse was to fly; the next was to stand and deliver himself.
+The resolution came with shocking unexpectedness. He would give
+himself up! He would admit that he had killed his wife! The words
+of anguish were on his lips when the policeman spoke.
+
+"Is it you, Mr. Cable? How is she, sir?"
+
+Cable did not hear the man, for, as he opened his lips to cry out
+his own guilt, a thought formed in his brain that almost staggered
+him with its cunning savagery. Why not let the penalty fall on James
+Bansemer? She had gone out to meet him! If she had not destroyed
+the note, it would hang James Bansemer, and James Bansemer was
+worse than a murderer. But even as this remarkable thought rushed
+into his brain, the last words of the officer began to drive it
+out.
+
+"Is she going to pull through, sir?" was the next question--and he
+caught it vaguely.
+
+"Pull through?" he mumbled inarticulately. He leaned against a
+great stone rail suddenly. Everything was leaping before his eyes.
+
+"Good Lord, Mr. Cable--I--I forgot. Don't you know about it?" gasped
+the officer.
+
+"Know what?" asked Cable, completely dazed.
+
+"Go home at once, sir. I didn't mean to--oh, hurry, sir. Don't
+be worried. They say she'll be all right. Sure! She's been hurt a
+little, sir."
+
+"My daughter?" demanded Cable, as keen as a razor in an instant.
+His heart was trying to jump from his body.
+
+"Your wife, sir. Nothin' serious, sir. She was held up along here
+somewhere and robbed. They're sure to get the villain. She---"
+
+But Cable was off like a deer for his home, racing as though on
+air.
+
+Nothing else mattered now. She was alive! He could have her with
+him again to love as he never had loved her before.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+DAVID CABLE'S DEBTS
+
+
+
+
+
+Two days passed before David Cable was permitted to see his wife.
+During those trying hours he lived an age of agony in suspense. She
+had been removed to her home late on the night of the "hold-up," as
+the newspapers felt justified in calling it. He did not go to his
+office the next day--nor the next--but haunted her door, sleepless,
+nervous, held close by dread. A dozen times, at least, he sought
+admittance to her room, but was always turned away, cursing the
+doctor and the nurses for their interference.
+
+His worst fear, however, was that his wife would not forgive him.
+Not the dread of exposure, nor his own shame or remorse--not even
+the punishment that the law might inflict, could be compared to the
+fear of what might be her life-long hatred. He grew to feel that
+the doctor, the nurses, the servants looked upon him with strange,
+unfriendly though respectful eyes. In his heart he believed that
+his wife had cursed him in their presence, laying bare his part in
+the unhappy transaction.
+
+At last the suspense became unbearable. He had noticed a slight
+change in Jane's manner and at once attributed it to something
+his wife had said, for Jane had been allowed in the sick-room. The
+discovery that she was not his child had not as yet struck deep
+into his understanding. In a vague sort of way he realised that she
+was different, now that he knew, but it was impossible for him to
+consider her in any other light than that of the years gone by.
+The time would come when the full realisation would cut into his
+heart more deeply than now, but at present a calamity of his own
+making was forcing all other troubles into the background. His
+greatest desire was to reach his wife's side, to know the worst
+that could come of his suit for forgiveness.
+
+The evening of the second day he swore that he would see her--and
+alone. They admitted him and he entered trembling in every nerve.
+She was lying, white and haggard, in her bed, her back toward him.
+He paused for an instant and was certain that he saw her shudder
+violently. It was significant. She feared and loathed him.
+
+"Is it you, David?" he heard her ask weakly. "At last! Oh, I was
+afraid that something had happened to you! That---"
+
+He threw himself on his knees beside the bed and wept with all the
+pent-up bitterness and misery that was in him--and still he was
+afraid to speak to her. Not a word left his lips until he felt her
+hand in his hair--a tender, timid hand. It was then that he began
+pouring forth his cry for forgiveness. With a groan, he checked
+her own appeal for mercy.
+
+"We can talk about Jane another time, not now," he cried. "I must
+know that you forgive me--I don't care for anything--nothing else
+in the world."
+
+When the nurse came in a few minutes later, he was sitting upon the
+edge of the bed holding her hands in his. Their faces were radiant.
+
+"Please stay out," he said, almost gruffly.
+
+"For just a little while," his wife added gently. The nurse hesitated
+a moment and then left the room.
+
+Frances Cable told him Jane's history so far as it was known to
+her.  He listened dully.
+
+"She will never know her true parents," said she in the end.
+
+"No, I suppose not," said he, looking out of the window.
+
+"You understand, don't you, David, dear," she said feebly; "how
+I dreaded to have you learn the truth after all these years, and
+above all, how I hoped that Jane might never know. I tried every
+means in my power to buy James Bansemer's silence. It was not money
+that he wanted, it was..." she buried her head shamefully in her
+arms; after a moment, she went on: "He professes to love his son,
+but his is the love an animal gives the offspring it would destroy.
+And yet Graydon worships him."
+
+"Are you quite sure that Graydon is as unsuspecting as you think?"
+
+"In regard to his father?"
+
+"In regard to Jane."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure of it. He is not a party to his father's schemes. If
+James Bansemer has not already told Graydon, he never will. It is
+not his plan to do so; his only object has been to browbeat me into
+submission. David, it will all come out right in the end, won't
+it?  You'll forgive me?"
+
+"Yes, dear; but this man," and David Cable shook with emotion as he
+spoke, "will have to answer to me. There will be no more to fear,"
+he said reassuringly; "I'll crush him as I would a snake."
+
+"David, you must not---"
+
+"Don't worry," he broke in; "I'll attend to him and see that no
+harm comes to anyone else. That man has no business among honest
+people."
+
+"But, David, I was not honest with you," she confessed.
+
+"That was a long time ago, and she's as much mine as she is yours.
+So, what's the odds now? It's a facer, I'll admit, but it can't
+be helped." It was thus that the man whose anger, only a few hours
+before had led him almost to crime, now readily absolved her of
+any blame.
+
+"Poor child, poor child!" she moaned; "it will break her heart.
+She is so proud and so happy."
+
+"Yes, she's proud. There is good blood in her. I don't wonder now
+that I used to think she was such a marvel. She's--she's not just
+the same sort of stock that we are, take it as you will."
+
+"She never must know the truth, David."
+
+"She's bound to find it out, dear. We'd better tell her. It will
+be easier for her. Bansemer's fangs must be made harmless forever.
+He shan't bother her. She'd better hear the story from us and not
+from him."
+
+"But Graydon? She'll lose him, David."
+
+"I'm not so sure of it. She's worthy of any man's love and we must
+know that Graydon loves her. I'll trust to that. But, first of
+all, we must put it beyond the power of James Bansemer to injure
+her in any shape or form. Then, when I go after him--Graydon or no
+Graydon--he'll know that there is such a place as hell."
+
+"Be rational, David. Let us take our time and think well, dear.
+I can't bear the thought of the story that will go out concerning
+me--how I deceived you about Jane for years and years. What will
+people think of me? What will they say?" she almost wailed.
+
+"Frances," said he, his voice tense and earnest, "that is between
+you and me. I intend to say to the world, if occasion demands, that
+I have known from the first that Jane was not our child. That will
+be---"
+
+"Oh, David, you CAN'T say that," she cried joyously.
+
+"I shall say it, dear old partner. I shall say that you took her
+from the asylum with my consent. There is only James Bansemer to
+call me a liar, and he will not dare!"
+
+"That old man Droom, David--his clerk. The man who saved me--he
+knows."
+
+"He is in the boat with his master. He DID save you, though. I'll
+spare him much for that. And I have more to fear from him than you
+think. Frances, I am sure he saw me night before last down there
+at the sea wall. He knows--I am morally certain--that you were not
+attacked by a robber."
+
+"But, David, I WAS robbed. My rings and my pendant were taken by
+someone. If Droom was the first man at my side--after you--then he
+must have taken them."
+
+"I can't charge him with the theft," groaned Cable. "He saved your
+life and he might ruin mine. I would give anything I have to know
+just how much he saw of the affair. I can't account for his presence
+there. It seems like fate."
+
+"It is impossible for him to accuse you, David."
+
+"It is not impossible, I'm afraid. He may have seen me plainly."
+
+"But I have described my assailant to the police. You do not answer
+the description in any particular."
+
+In the next ten minutes the nurse came in twice to caution him
+against overtaxing her nerves, politely hinting that he should
+depart at once. There was no medicine, no nursing, no care that
+could have done her so much good as this hour with her husband.
+
+"It hurt me more than I can tell you, David, when I saw that you
+were jealous of him. I could see it growing in you day after day,
+and yet I could not find the courage to make everything clear to
+you. Oh, how could you have suspected me of that?"
+
+"Because I am a man and because I love you enough to care what
+becomes of you. I was wrong, I am happy to confess. Forgive me,
+dear. I can't tell you how terrible the last month has been to me.
+I can't tell you of the bitter thoughts I have had, nor the vicious
+deeds I have planned. I was almost insane. I was not accountable.
+I have much to pay to you in the rest of the years that I live;
+I have much to pay to my own conscience; and I also owe something
+to James Bansemer. I shall try to pay all these different debts in
+the coin that they call for."
+
+"We owe something, you and I, to Jane," said she, as he arose to
+leave the room.
+
+"A confession and more love than ever, Frances. I love her with
+all my heart. When you are stronger, we will tell her that she is
+not our child. We have loved her so long and so well that she can't
+ask for better proof of our devotion. That terrible thing at the
+sea wall must remain our secret, dear. To-morrow I shall begin
+pulling James Bansemer's fangs."
+
+He found Graydon downstairs with Jane. A sharp look into the young
+man's eyes convinced him that his questions concerning Mrs. Cable
+and the latest news concerning the efforts to take the bandit were
+sincere. Cable held his hand for a long time; the firm, warm grasp
+was that of an honest man. As he stepped out into the night for a
+short walk over town he wondered, with a great pain in his heart,
+if Graydon Bansemer would turn from Jane when he heard the truth
+concerning her.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE VISIT OF HARBERT
+
+
+
+
+
+"It's Harbert," said Elias Droom.
+
+"Why didn't you say to him that I am busy? I don't want to see
+him," said his employer in a sharp undertone. Droom's long finger
+was on his lips, enjoining silence.
+
+"He said that you wouldn't want to see him, but that it didn't make
+any difference. He'll wait, he says."
+
+They were in the private office, with the door closed. Bansemer's
+face was whiter and more firmly set than ever. The ugly fighting
+light was in his eyes again.
+
+"If he has come here to threaten me, I'll kill him," he said
+savagely.
+
+"You'll do nothing of the kind," said the clerk with what was meant
+to be a conciliatory smile. "Meet him squarely and hear what he
+has to say."
+
+"Do you suppose she has told Cable? He may have sent Harbert here."
+
+"Cable's hands are tied. I know too much. If I were to tell the police
+what I know he'd have a devil of a time getting the presidency of
+his road. Besides, they both owe me a vote of thanks.  Didn't I
+have sense enough to make it look like robbery?"
+
+"Yes, but curse your stupidity, they may charge you with the job.
+Nobody would believe that Cable would attempt to rob his own wife."
+
+"But they would, in any event, decide that he had taken the rings
+to make it appear like robbery." There was a hard rap on the glass
+panel. "He's bound to see you, sir."
+
+"Well, then, show him in!" snarled Bansemer.
+
+"Mr. Bansemer will see you, sir," said Droom suavely, opening the
+door suddenly.
+
+"Thanks," said Harbert shortly. He entered the private office
+and faced the lawyer, who was standing near his desk. "I've taken
+advantage of your invitation to drop in and see you."
+
+"This is one of my busy days, Mr. Harbert," said Bansemer, determined
+to come to the point at once. "However, I hardly expected a social
+call from you, so it must be of a business nature. What is it?"
+
+"It concerns your son, Mr. Bansemer. I'm here in the capacity
+of a physician. You must go away for his health." Harbert smiled
+as though he thought it a good joke. Bansemer turned red and then
+white.
+
+"I don't quite appreciate your wit, sir."
+
+"My humour, I'd suggest as a substitute. Well, to be perfectly
+plain, sir, your son does not know the true nature of the malady.
+He--"
+
+"Do I understand you to say that he really has an ailment?" exclaimed
+Bansemer seriously.
+
+"It isn't hopeless, my dear sir. My only desire is to keep him
+from ever finding out that he has a malady. He is sure to learn
+the truth if you remain here."
+
+"Damn you, Harbert, I understand you now, and I want to say this
+to you: I'll not drag that boy away from this city. He's successful
+here and he's one of the most promising young men in town. I'm not
+going to have him hounded from town to town by--"
+
+"You don't quite understand me, sir. On the contrary, he should
+remain here. What I do mean to say is this: he won't feel like
+staying here if the truth about his father is uttered. That's the
+brutal way to put it, Bansemer, but you've GOT TO GET OUT."
+
+The two glared at each other for a full minute. Bansemer was as
+white as a sheet--but not with fear.
+
+"Harbert," he said in low tones, "I've half a mind to kill you."
+
+"Don't. You'd hang for it. There are at least a dozen members of
+the bar who know that I have come here to see you, and they know
+why, too. See here, Bansemer, you're a scoundrel to begin with.
+You've always been a knave. How you happen to have a son like
+Graydon I can't imagine. If I did not know that your wife was a
+noble, honest woman, it wouldn't be difficult to supply a reason
+for--"
+
+"Stop! By God, you shall not say a word against my wife! I'll brain
+you with this weight! You--"
+
+"I have not said a word against her--nor against your son. For her
+and for him I have the deepest respect. I am trying to protect the
+memory of one and the future of the other. Bansemer, I believe that
+I drove you out of New York. You escaped without exposure simply
+because the witnesses lost their nerve. That won't be the case
+here.  You think you've covered your tracks nicely. You haven't.
+You've tripped into half a dozen traps. I don't know what your
+game is with the Cables, but you're base enough to take advantage
+of your son's position in that home. Don't interrupt! I'll soon be
+through. I'm a man of few words. If it were not for your son I'd
+swear out the warrants for you to-day on five different charges.
+For his sake I'm going to give you a chance. I've worked on you for
+three years. I swore I'd get you some time. Well, I've got you, and
+I'm going to cheat myself out of a whole lot of pleasure. I'm not
+going to smash you as I intended. Your son's friends have prevailed.
+To show you that I'm not bluffing, I have every bit of evidence
+in the Burkenday case, the Flossie Bellamy job, the widow Hensmith
+affair--and it was a damnable one, too--with two or three more. You
+broke that woman's heart. I don't suppose you know that she died
+last month. You never noticed it, eh? Her precious coachman is living
+like a lord on the money you and he took from her. Old Burkenday's
+housemaid has bought a little home in Edgewater--but not from
+her wages. The two jobs you now have on hand never will be pulled
+off. The girl in the Banker Watts case has been cornered and has
+confessed. She is ready to appear against you. McLennan's wife
+has had the courage to defy your accomplice--that dastardly butler
+of theirs--and he has left town, frightened out of his wits. Your
+time has come. The jig is up. It won't be as it was in New York,
+because we have the proof. There is a committee of three down in
+Rigby's office now waiting for me to report. If I take word to them
+that you expect to sail for Europe next week, never to return to
+this country, all well and good. It is for your son's good health,
+bear in mind. If you go, the public may never learn the truth about
+you; if you stay you will be in jail before you are a week older.
+And, Mr. Bansemer, you've got to decide DAMNED QUICK."
+
+Bansemer looked his accuser straight in the eye, a faint smile of
+derision touching his lips, but not his eyes.
+
+"Mr. Harbert, the first thing you have to learn in connection with
+your patient's father is that he is not a coward. I refuse to run,
+sir. I am innocent of any intentional wrong, and I'll stand my
+ground. My son will stand beside me, too; he is that sort. Go back
+to your committee and tell them that Bansemer will not go to Europe
+for his son's health. Good-day, sir!"
+
+"Nonsense, Bansemer," exploded Harbert. "You know we've got you
+fast enough. Why be a fool as well as a knave? You haven't a ghost
+of a chance. I'm trying to do you a good turn."
+
+"A good turn? Mr. Harbert, I am neither a fool nor a knave. If
+I were a fool I'd kill you where you stand. I would be justified
+in killing the man who represents a crowd of blackmailers. That's
+what you are, sir. I refuse to pay your price. If I were a knave
+I'd pay it. I want you to understand one thing. I shall stand my
+ground here. If you persecute me, I'll not stop flaying you until
+death ends my endeavours. We'll see what justice can give me in
+exchange for your bulldozing. I will have restitution, remember
+that. Now, you've nothing more to say to me. Get out!"
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"Get out!"
+
+"By George, you're a wonderful bluffer."
+
+"Do you expect me to throw you out, sir?"
+
+"It isn't necessary. I've had a change of heart in the last minute,
+Mr. Bansemer. I withdraw my proposition. By all that's holy, I
+intend to go after you now without pity. Hang your son's feelings!
+You won't take my advice. I didn't give it as a friend, because I
+detest you. It was done in a weak spirit of fairness toward your
+son and toward the girl he is to marry. Now, I put them out of my
+consideration. They---"
+
+"Get out!"
+
+Harbert, very red in the face, slammed the door after him and
+strode angrily through the outer office into the corridor. Droom
+immediately entered the consultation room.
+
+"Well? What is it?" demanded Bansemer.
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"He invited me to go to Europe for an indefinite stay. I refused.
+We'll fight it out, Droom. We have covered our trail better than he
+thinks. They can't convict me. I'm sure of that. They have nothing
+but conjectures, and they won't go in court."
+
+"I'm afraid of him, just the same. You're bull-headed about it.
+Every criminal thinks his tracks are covered until it is too late
+to cover them properly."
+
+"Curse you, Droom, I'm no criminal."
+
+"A slip of the tongue on my part. Do you know who is down there in
+Rigby's office with those fellows?"
+
+"An officer, I daresay."
+
+"No. David Cable."
+
+"Cable? Then, his wife has told him everything. Well, I've something
+to tell, too. By the Lord Harry, Elias, there will be several
+sensations in high life."
+
+"You don't mean that you'll tell all there is to tell about the
+girl?"
+
+"No! That's just it! That is one thing I won't tell. If you tell
+whose blood she has in her veins, I'll kill you like a dog. But,
+I'll see that Miss Cable is dropped by Chicago society inside of
+a week. I'm mad, Droom--do you understand?"
+
+"But Graydon loves her."
+
+"He won't love her long. I was a fool to let him go this far--a
+blind, loving fool. But I'll end it now. He shan't marry her. He
+has no---"
+
+"I haven't much of a heart to boast of, Bansemer, but I beg of you
+not to do this thing. I love Graydon. He doesn't deserve any pain
+or disgrace. Take my advice and leave the city. Let me call Harbert
+back."
+
+"No! They can't drive me out! Telephone over and ask Graydon to
+stop here on his way up this afternoon."
+
+The opening and closing of the outer door attracted their attention.
+Droom peeped forth. In spite of himself, Bansemer started and his
+eyes widened with sudden alarm. A glance of apprehension passed
+between the two men.
+
+"It's that Deever boy from Judge Smith's," reported Droom.
+
+"Tell him to get out," said Bansemer, with a breath of relief.
+
+"I thought it might have been---" began Droom with a wry grin.
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"It is a bit too soon. They haven't had time."
+
+As Droom left the room, Bansemer crossed to the window and looked
+down into the seething street far below. He saw that his hand
+trembled and he tried to laugh at his weakness. For a long time
+he stood there, his unseeing eyes focused on the hurrying masses,
+his ears alert for unusual sounds from the outer office.
+
+"If it were not for Graydon," he was muttering between set teeth.
+"God, how I hate to have him know!"
+
+Droom had told Eddie Deever to "get out," but Eddie was there to
+talk and be talked to, so he failed to take the hint.
+
+"Say, I haven't seen you since you played the hero up in the
+fashionable part of town. Gee, that was a startler! I'll bet old
+man Cable rewards you in some way. What's your theory about the
+hold-up?"
+
+Droom looked up sharply. For the first time there shot into his
+mind the thought that the breezy boy might be a spy.
+
+"I haven't any," he replied shortly. He was trying to remember if
+he had ever said anything incriminating to the boy.
+
+"How d' you happen to be over there just at that time?"
+
+"I haven't time to talk about it. Please don't bother me. It
+happened three days ago and I've really forgotten about it. Don't
+throw that cigarette into the wastebasket. Haven't you any sense?"
+
+"Gee, you don't suppose I'm going to throw it away, do you? There's
+half an inch of it left. Not me. Say, I've heard your boss has quite
+a case on Mrs. Cable. How about it?" he almost whispered this.
+
+"You shouldn't talk like that."
+
+"Oh, you mean that gag about people living in glass houses? Gee,
+don't worry about that. Chicago is a city of glass houses. A blind
+man could throw rocks all day and smash a hole in somebody's house
+every crack. I believe the hold-up man was one of those strikers
+who have been out of jobs all winter. Smith thinks so."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Judge Smith."
+
+"That's better."
+
+"Did you see his face?"
+
+"What are you, bub--a detective?"
+
+"Rosie Keating says I'd make a better policeman than lawyer. She's
+sore at me for taking Miss Throckmorton to Mam' Galli's the other
+night. Fellow stood on the piano and sang the derndest song I've
+ever heard. But, gee, I don't think Miss Throck was on. She didn't
+seem to notice, I mean. Say, on the dead, do you think you could
+identify that fellow?"
+
+"Look here, boy, if anyone ever asks you whether I'd know that
+man's face if I saw it again, you just say that I'd know it in a
+thousand.  I saw it plainly."
+
+Eddie gulped suddenly and looked more interested than ever.
+
+"Do you think they'll get him?"
+
+"They will if he talks too much."
+
+"I hope so. Say, how's that new patent coming on?"
+
+"I'm not making a patent. I'm making a model. It's nearly completed.
+The strike in the shops is holding me back with it. Curse these
+strikes."
+
+"Oh, they bust 'em up mighty quick. There hasn't been a big one on
+since Debs engineered his and Cleveland called out the troops."
+
+"Boy, you wait a few years and you'll see a strike that will
+paralyse you. Look at these teamsters. They're powerful now. They'll
+get licked, but they'll come back. When the next big money panic
+comes--it'll be in my day, too--you'll see the streets of Chicago
+running with blood. These fellows will go after the rich, and
+they'll get 'em. You will live to see the day when women who wear
+diamonds around their throats will have harsh, horny ringers there
+instead. There will be rich men's blood on every paving stone and
+beautiful necks will be slit with less mercy than marked the French
+butchery years ago. That's my prophecy. Some day you'll recall it
+to mind, especially if you happen to become very prosperous. It's
+bound to come. Now get out. I have a lot of writing to do." Eddie
+snickered.
+
+"What will the law be doing all this time?"
+
+"Bosh! The law can't even capture Mrs. Cable's assailant. Do you
+know what the human lust for blood is? Take an enraged man, doesn't
+he hunger for blood? He wants to kill and he does kill. Well, he
+is but an atom--an individual. Now, can you imagine what it will
+mean when a whole class of people, men and women, are forced to one
+common condition--the lust for blood? The individual lusts, and so
+will the mass. The rage of the mass will be the same as the fury
+of the individual. It will be just like one tremendous man of many
+parts rioting for---"
+
+The outer door opened suddenly and an old gentleman entered.
+
+"Is Mr. Bansemer here?" he asked, removing his silk hat nervously.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Watts. I'll tell him you are here."
+
+Watts, the banker, confronted Bansemer a moment later, an anxious,
+hunted look in his eyes. John Watts was known as one of the meanest
+men in the city. No one had bested him in a transaction of any kind.
+As hard as nails and as treacherous as a dog, he was feared alike
+by man and woman.
+
+Watts, perhaps for the first time in his self-satisfied life, was
+ready to bow knee to a fellow-man. A certain young woman had fallen
+into the skilful hands of Counsellor James Bansemer, and Mr. Watts
+was jerked up with a firmness that staggered him.
+
+"Mr. Bansemer, I have come in to see if this thing can't be settled
+between us. I don't want to go into court. My wife and daughters
+won't understand that it's a case of blackmail on the part of this
+woman. Let's come to terms."
+
+Bansemer smiled coolly. It was impossible to resist the temptation
+to toy with him for a while, to humble and humiliate this man who
+had destroyed hundreds in his juggernaut ride to riches. Skilfully
+he drew the old man out. He saw the beads of perspiration on hit,
+brow and heard the whine come from his voice. Then, in the end, he
+sharply changed his tactics,
+
+"See here, Watts, you've got a wrong impression of this affair.
+I don't like your inferences. I am not asking you for a cent.
+I wouldn't take it. You have just offered me $25,000 to drop the
+affair. That's an insult to my integrity. I've investigated this
+girl's claim pretty thoroughly and I believe she is trying to fleece
+you. I have given up the case. None of that sort of thing for me.
+She'll go to some unscrupulous lawyer, no doubt, but I am out of
+it.  I don't handle that kind of business. You have insulted me.
+Get out of my office, sir, and never enter it again."
+
+"Give me that in writing," began the wily banker, but Bansemer had
+called to Droom. Eddie Deever was standing near the door, almost
+doggedly curious.
+
+"Show Mr. Watts the door, and if he ever comes here again call the
+police. He has tried to bribe me."
+
+Watts departed in a dazed sort of way and Droom closed the door.
+
+"Are you still here?" he demanded of Eddie Deever in such a manner
+that the young man lost no time in leaving.
+
+"There goes twenty-five thousand," said Bansemer, with a cold grin.
+
+"I guess you can afford to lose it," muttered Droom. "It was slick,
+I suppose, but it's probably too late to help."
+
+"Have you telephoned to Graydon?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Don't."
+
+"Change of heart?"
+
+"Change of mind."
+
+"That's so. You haven't any heart."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CRASH
+
+
+
+
+
+Bansemer was not losing his courage; it was only the dread of having
+Graydon find out. He stuck close to his office, seeing but few
+people. However, he did saunter into Rigby's office for a friendly
+chat, but learned nothing from, the manner of that astute young
+man.  With a boldness that astonished himself--and he was at no
+time timid--he asked if Harbert intended to remain in Chicago for
+any length of time. After he had gone away, Rigby rubbed his forehead
+in a bewildered sort of way and marvelled at the nerve of the man.
+
+The day passed slowly; but late in the afternoon the suspense became
+so keen that he found it difficult to keep himself from making
+inquiries of the proper officials as to whether affidavits had been
+filed by Harbert or any other person. His hand did not shake now,
+but there was a steady pain at the back of his head.
+
+"Droom, I think I'll go home. If I don't appear in the morning,
+you'll know that I'm at some police station. Good-day!"
+
+"Good-bye!" said Elias, with correcting emphasis. Bansemer laughed
+heartily.
+
+"I believe you'd like to see me jugged."
+
+"Not unless you could be convicted. I'll have to remain in your
+employ until then, I suppose."
+
+"I've often wondered why you don't quit of your own accord--it
+seems so distasteful to you."
+
+"I'm working for you from force of habit."
+
+"You'll turn State's evidence if I'm arrested, no doubt, curse
+you."
+
+"If my word counted for anything," and he raised his hand; "I'd
+say--'So help me-I shan't."
+
+"I've never been able to understand you."
+
+"I guess you've always understood my feelings towards you."
+
+"You hate me?"
+
+"I'm no exception to the rule."
+
+"But hang you, you're faithful?"
+
+"Oh, I'll pay for it, never fear. You won't hesitate to sacrifice
+me if it will help you in any way. But, let me tell you something.
+Elias Droom has been smart enough to cover every one of his tracks,
+even if he hasn't been able to cover yours. I can't perform miracles.
+You don't seem as keen to bring about the family explosion as you
+were, I observe."
+
+"By heavens, I can't bear the thought of that boy--oh, well, close
+up the office as soon as you like."
+
+After he was safely out of the office Elias Droom glided into the
+private office, drew forth his bunch of keys and opened his employer's
+desk. A big revolver lay in the top drawer. The old clerk quickly
+removed the five cartridges and as deftly substituted a new set of
+them in their stead. The new ones were minus the explosive power.
+He grinned as he replaced the weapon and closed the desk.  Dropping
+the cartridges into his coat pocket, he returned to his own desk,
+chuckling as he set to work on his papers.
+
+"I won't betray him to the law, but I've fixed it so that he can't
+escape it in that way."
+
+Bansemer's man informed him upon his arrival home that Mr. Graydon
+would not be in for dinner. He had left word that Mrs. Cable was
+very much improved and that he and Miss Cable were going out for a
+long drive-in a hansom. It was his intention to dine with Mr. and
+Miss Cable, very informally.
+
+Bansemer sat in surly silence for a long time, trying to read.
+A fierce new jealousy was growing in his heart. It was gradually
+dawning upon him that the Cables had alienated his son's affections
+to no small degree. The fear grew upon him that Graydon ultimately
+would go over to them, forgetting his father in the love for the
+girl. Resentment, strong and savage, flooded his heart. He could
+eat no dinner. He was full of curses for the fate which forced him
+to dine alone while his son was off rejoicing with people whom he
+was beginning to hate with a fervour that pained him. Jealousy,
+envy, malice, fired his blood.
+
+He went out and bought the evening papers. The thought came to him
+that Graydon had heard the stories and was deliberately staying
+away from him. Perhaps the Cables had been talking to him.
+
+"By Heaven," he grated as he paused in front of his home, "if
+she's turned him against me I'll turn this city into anything but
+a paradise for her. What a fool I've been to wait so long. I've
+given her the chance to tell her side of the case first. She's made
+the first impression. What could I have been thinking of? Droom
+was right. I should have demanded less of her. A man is never too
+old to be a fool about women. Oh, if she's turned that boy against
+me, I'll---"
+
+He did not finish the threat, but started off swiftly through the
+night toward the Cable home. He had no especial object in view;
+it was simply impossible for him to conquer the impulse to be near
+his son. Like a thief he lurked about the street in the vicinity
+of Cable's house, standing in the shadows, crossing and recrossing
+the street many times, always watching the lighted windows with
+hateful eyes. It was after eight o'clock and the night was damp
+with the first breath of spring. There was a slight chill in the
+air, but he did not feel it, although he was without an overcoat.
+
+The lights on the second floor, he knew, were in Mrs. Cable's room.
+In his mind's eye, he could see Graydon there with the others
+listening to the story as it fell from prejudiced, condemning lips--the
+pathetic, persuasive lips of a sick woman. He knew the effect on
+the chivalrous nature of his son; he could feel the coldness that
+took root in his boy's heart.
+
+A light mist began to blow in his face as he paced back and forth
+along the short block in which the Cables lived. He was working
+his imagination up to a state bordering on frenzy. In his fancy he
+could hear Graydon cursing him in the presence of his accusers. At
+the end of the street he could see the break in the sea wall where
+Cable and his wife had met, and he could not help wishing that Droom
+had not pulled her from the water. Then he found himself wondering
+if they had told Jane the story of her origin. The hope that she
+was still undeceived flashed through him; it would give him a chance
+for sweet revenge.
+
+He confessed to himself that he was reckless. The transactions of
+the past few days had left him at the edge of the abyss; he recognised
+his peril, but could not see beyond his own impulses.
+
+"I believe I'll do it," he was muttering to himself as he paused
+across the street from their door. "Graydon ought to hear both
+sides of the story."
+
+He crossed the street with hesitating steps. His thin coat collar
+was buttoned close about his neck; his gloveless hands were wet and
+cold from the mist. As he stopped at the foot of the stone steps
+a man came hurrying along, glancing at the house numbers as he
+approached.
+
+"Do you know whether this is David Cable's house?" he asked.
+
+Bansemer saw that he was a young man and an eager one.
+
+"I think it is."
+
+The other bounded up the steps and rang the bell. When the servant
+opened the door Bansemer heard the new arrival ask for Cable, adding
+that he was from one of the newspapers, and that he must see him
+at once.
+
+Bansemer stood stark and dumb at the foot of the steps. The whole
+situation had rushed upon him like an avalanche. Harbert had filed
+his charges and the hasty visit of the reporter proved that David
+Cable was an instrument in them. The blood surged to his head; he
+staggered under the shock of increased rage.
+
+"Graydon is against me! They've won him over! Open the door, damn
+you! I want my son!" He shouted the demand in the face of the
+startled servant as he pushed rudely past him.
+
+"You stay here, young fellow, and you'll hear a story that will
+fill a whole paper. I am James Bansemer. Where is Cable? You!" to
+the servant.
+
+"Sh!" cried the frightened servant, recognising him. "Mrs. Cable
+is resting, sir."
+
+"What are you doing here?" Bansemer demanded of the reporter, exerting
+all his crafty resourcefulness in the effort to calm himself.
+
+"Cable has been elected president of the---" began the young man
+just as Cable himself started down the stairway.
+
+"Cable, where is my son?" demanded Bansemer loudly, starting toward
+the steps. He had not removed his hat and was, indeed, an ominous
+figure. Cable clutched the stair rail and glared down at him in
+amazement. Before he could pull himself together sufficiently to
+reply, Graydon Bansemer hurried past him and stared in alarm at
+the unexpected figure below.
+
+"What's the matter, dad?" he cried. "What. has happened?"
+
+"Aha? You think something could have happened, eh? Damn all of
+their souls, you shan't be taken in by them. Come down here, boy!"
+
+"Father, are you crazy?" gasped Graydon, rushing down the stairs.
+
+"Get him away from here, Graydon, for God's sake," exclaimed Cable.
+"Take him away! He's your father, but if he stays in this house a
+minute longer I'll kill him!"
+
+The man from the newspaper was shrewd enough to withdraw into a
+less exposed spot. He saw a great "beat" in prospect.
+
+Graydon stopped as if stunned by a blow. Bobby Rigby came running
+to the head of the stairs, followed by Jane and another young woman.
+James Bansemer could not have been expected to know it, but Rigby
+and Miss Clegg had come to tell these friends that they were to be
+married in December.
+
+"Kill me, eh? Not if you can't do a better job than you did
+the other night. Here, you reporter, ask Mr. Cable to explain the
+mystery of that affair on the lake front. Oh, I know all about it!
+You've started in to ruin me, but I'll be in on it myself. We'll
+have a general cleaning up."
+
+"Father! What are you talking about?" cried Graydon, aghast.
+
+"They haven't told you about the lake front, eh? I should think
+not!  See him cringe!"
+
+Cable had indeed fallen back against the wall, halfway up the steps,
+white and trembling. His eyes were raised, and he was the first to
+see Mrs. Cable as she came from her room.
+
+"Go back!" he whispered hoarsely to her. She reached the banister
+and leaned over, her eyes filling with terror after a swift glance
+at Jane.
+
+"Take Jane away," she murmured, realising that the blow was to
+fall.
+
+"I'll stop his infernal tongue!" shouted Cable, leaping down the
+steps, his eyes blazing. James Bansemer laughed as he braced himself
+for the shock. They did not come together, for Graydon threw his
+big frame in the path of the assailant. For an instant there was a
+frightful uproar. Rigby and the servant rushed to the young man's
+assistance. The women were screaming with terror, the men were
+shouting and there was a. violent struggle which played havoc in
+the hallway.
+
+"Call the police!" shouted Rigby.
+
+"You infernal traitor!" hissed James Bansemer. "You claim to be
+Graydon's friend, and yet you are the one who has led the plot to
+ruin me."
+
+"What does it all mean?" cried Graydon, holding; the shaking Cable
+tightly.
+
+There was a moment of intense silence, except for thel heavy
+breathing of the men. Graydon was staring wide-eyed at his father.
+He saw the cruel, sardonic smile spread over his face and shuddered.
+
+"I've simply come to take you out of the clutches of these people.
+I've waited to see if that scheming woman, up there would tell
+you of her own accord. She hasn't told you; so I will. You cannot
+marry that girl, for your haughty Jane Cable is a child of shame,
+picked up on a doorstep, cast off by the woman who conceived her!"
+
+The crash had come. The heartless accuser stood like a tragic
+player in the centre of his stage, pouring out his poison without
+a touch of pity for the stricken girl who, after the first thrill
+of indignation and horror, had shrunk back into her mother's arms,
+bewildered.
+
+"Call the police, if you like," laughed Bansemer, at the end of
+his tirade. "It isn't a criminal offence to tell the truth. It will
+sound just as well in court, Mr. Rigby."
+
+"Jane, Jane," Mrs Cable was murmuring, "I might have saved you all
+this, but I couldn't--oh, I couldn't pay the price."
+
+"You snake!" groaned Cable, weak and hoarse with rage. "Jane, he
+has lied! There is not a word of truth in what he says. I swear it
+to you."
+
+"Ho, ho! By Heaven, she hasn't told you, after all!" cried Bansemer.
+"You still think she is yours!"
+
+"Father!" exclaimed Graydon, standing straight before the other.
+David Cable had dropped limply into a chair, his hand to his heart.
+"I won't stand by and hear you any longer. Take back what you've
+said about her, or, damn you, I'll forget that you are my father
+and---"
+
+"Graydon!" exclaimed Bansemer, falling back, his expression
+changing like a flash. The smile of triumph left his face and his
+lip twitched. "You forget I--I am doing this for your sake. My God,
+boy, you don't understand. Don't turn from me to them. They have---"
+
+"That's enough, father! Don't say another word! You've talked like
+a madman. See! Look what you've done! Oh, Jane!" he caught sight
+of the girl on the landing and rushed up to her.
+
+"Is it true, Graydon--is it true?" she wailed, beating her hands
+upon his arm.
+
+"No! It can't be true! He's gone mad, dearest."
+
+"Is it true, mother? Tell me, tell me!"
+
+Frances Cable's white lips moved stiffly, but no sound came forth.
+Her eyes spoke the truth, however. The girl sank limp and helpless
+in Graydon's arms and knew no more. At the foot of the steps Rigby
+was pointing his trembling finger at James Bansemer.
+
+"You'll pay for this to-morrow!" he was saying. "Your day has come!
+You cutthroat! You blackmailer!"
+
+"Graydon!" called the father. "Come, let us go home. Come, boy!"
+
+"Not now--not now," answered the son hoarsely. "I'll--I'll try to
+come home to-night, father. I'm not sure that I can. My place is
+here--with her."
+
+Without a word James Bansemer turned and rushed out into the street,
+tears of rage and disappointment in his eyes. He had not expected
+the gall. Until the break of day he sat in his chill room waiting
+for the rasp of his son's night key--but Graydon did not come home.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+FATHER AND SON
+
+
+
+
+
+Graydon sat with his chin in his hands, dull, stricken, crushed.
+He had heard the story of his father's baseness from Frances Cable,
+and he had been told the true story of Jane; from Rigby he learned
+of the vile transactions in which his father had dealt. At first,
+he could scarcely believe his own ears, but in the end lie saw that
+but--half the truth could be told.
+
+It was past midnight when he left David Cable's, not to go to his
+own home, but to that of Elias Droom. He knew now that the newspapers
+would devote columns to the "sensation in high life"; he knew that
+Jane would suffer agonies untold, but he would not blame his father
+for that; he knew that arrest and disgrace hung over the tall grey
+man who had shown his true and amazing side at last; he knew that
+shame and humiliation were to be his own share in the division.
+Down somewhere in his aching heart he nourished the hope that Elias
+Droom could ease the pain of these wretched disclosures.
+
+As he traversed the dark streets across town he was vaguely wondering
+whether Jane's eyes would ever lose the pained, hopeless expression
+he had last seen in them. He wondered whether she would retract her
+avowal that she could not be his wife with the shame upon her; he
+rejoiced in her tearless, lifeless promise to hold him in no fault
+for what had happened.
+
+Distressed and miserable, he spent the remainder of the night in
+Elias Droom's squalid rooms, sitting before the little stove which
+his host replenished from time to time during the weary hours.
+
+Droom answered his questions with a direct tenderness that surprised
+even himself. He kept much to himself, however, and advised the
+young man to reserve judgment until after he had heard his father's
+side of the story.
+
+"I've been loyal to James Bansemer, Graydon, and I'll still be loyal
+to him. He's not done right by other people, but he has tried to
+do right by you."
+
+"If he wanted to do right by me, why did he not tell me of Jane's
+misfortune?" exclaimed the young man bitterly.
+
+"Because he really wanted you to marry her. She was born wrong, but
+anybody can see she is without a flaw. That's the truth, Graydon.
+Your father was wrong in his desire to make capital of it in
+connection with Mrs. Cable. I told him so. I don't believe he knew
+just what he was doing. He was so used to success, you see. Can't
+you go to sleep, boy? You need to."
+
+"God, no!"
+
+"I'd advise you to go home and talk it over with your father."
+
+"To-morrow will be time enough. After the newspapers are out. I
+can't bear to think of the disgrace, Harbert has been interviewed,
+they say. He's told everything."
+
+"Talk to your father to-night, my boy. There may be--may be warrants
+to-morrow."
+
+The young man dropped his head on his arm and burst into tears.
+Old Droom puffed vigorously at his. pipe, his eyes shifting and
+uncomfortable. Twice he attempted to speak, and could not. In both
+instances he arose and poked the fire. At last the young man's
+choking sobs grew less violent. Droom cleared his throat with raucous
+emphasis, took his snaky gaze from a print on the wall representing
+"Dawn," and spoke:
+
+"You wouldn't think it to look at me now--or any other time, for
+that matter--but I loved a woman once. A long time ago. She never
+knew it. I didn't expect her to love me. How could I? Don't cry,
+Graydon. You're not like I was. The girl you love loves you. Cheer
+up. If I were you I'd go ahead and make her my wife. She's good
+enough, I'll swear."
+
+"She says she can't marry me. Good Heaven, Elias. you don't know what
+a blow it was to her. It almost killed her. And my own father--oh,
+it was terrible!"
+
+Elias Droom did not tell him--nor had he ever told anyone but
+himself--that the woman he loved was the boy's mother. He loved her
+before and after she married James Bansemer. He never had faltered
+in his love and reverence for her.
+
+Graydon waited in his rooms until the old man returned with the
+morning papers. As Droom placed them on the table beside him, he
+grinned cheerfully.
+
+"Big headlines, eh? But these are not a circumstance to what they
+will be. These articles deal only with the great mystery concerning
+the birth of one of the 'most beautiful and popular young women in
+Chicago.' Wait--wait until the Bansemer smash comes to reinforce
+the story! Fine reading, eh!"
+
+"Don't, Elias, for Heaven's sake, don't!" cried the young man. "Have
+you no soft spot in your heart? God, I believe you enjoy all this.
+Look! Look what it says about her! The whole shameful story of that
+scene last night! There was a reporter there when it happened."
+
+Together they read the papers. Their comments varied. The young
+man writhed and groaned under the revelations that were going to
+the public; the old clerk chuckled and philosophised.
+
+Every one of these papers prophesied other and more sensational
+developments before the day was over. It promised to be war
+to the knife between David Cable, president of the Pacific, Lakes
+& Atlantic, and the man Bansemer. In each interview with Cable he
+was quoted as saying emphatically that the adoption of Jane had
+been made with his knowledge and consent. The supposed daughter was
+the only one to whom the startling revelations were a surprise. There
+also was mention of the fact that the young woman had immediately
+broken her engagement with James Bansemer's son. There were pictures
+of the leading characters in the drama.
+
+"I can't stay in Chicago after all this," exclaimed Graydon, springing
+to his feet, his hands clenched in despair. "To be pointed out and
+talked about! To be pitied and scorned! To see the degradation of
+my own father! I'll go--anywhere, just so it is away from Chicago."
+
+Droom forgot his desire to scoff. His sardonic smile dwindled into
+a ludicrously, pathetic look of dismay. He begged the young man to
+think twice before he did anything "foolish." "In any event," he
+implored, "let me get you some breakfast, or at least, a cup of
+coffee."
+
+In the end he helped Graydon into his coat and glided off down Wells
+Street after him. It was seven o'clock, and every corner newsstand
+glowered back at them with black frowns as they looked at the
+piles of papers. Two rough-looking men walking ahead of them were
+discussing the sensation in a lewd, brutal way. A saloon-keeper
+shouted to them: "It don't always happen over on de West Side, does
+it?"
+
+Graydon went to the office of Clegg, Groll & Davidson early and
+arranged his affairs so that they could be taken up at once by
+another; and then, avoiding his fellow-workers as much as possible,
+presented himself to Mr. Clegg at ten o'clock. Without hesitation
+he announced his intention to give up his place in the office. All
+argument put forth by his old friend and employer went for naught.
+The cause of his action was not discussed, but it was understood.
+
+"If you ever want to come back to us, Graydon, we will welcome you
+with open arms. It isn't as bad as you think."
+
+"You don't understand, Mr. Clegg," was all that Graydon could say.
+
+Then he hurried off to face his father.
+
+James Bansemer, haggard from loss of sleep and from fury over the
+alienation of his son, together with the fear of what the day might
+bring, was pacing the floor of his private office. Droom had eased
+his mind but little in regard to his son. When he heard Graydon's
+voice in the outer room, his face brightened and he took several
+quick steps toward the door. He checked himself suddenly with the
+remembrance that his son had turned against him the night before,
+and his face hardened.
+
+Graydon found him standing stern and unfriendly before the steam
+radiator in the darkest corner of the room, his hands behind his
+back. The young man plumped down heavily in his father's desk chair.
+
+"Why didn't you come home last night?" demanded the other.
+
+"I hated the thought of it," he answered dejectedly.
+
+"You've listened to their side of the story. You're a splendid son,
+you are!" sneered the father.
+
+"There is nothing base and unprincipled in their side of the story.
+They have tried to shield her; they have never harmed her. But you!
+Why, father, you've blighted her life forever. They were going to
+tell her in a day or so, and they could have made it easy for her.
+Not like this! Why, in Heaven's name, did you strike her like that?
+She's--she's the talk of the town. She's ostracised, that's what
+she is, and she's the best girl that ever lived."
+
+"Oh, you think they would have told her, eh? No! They would have
+let her marry---"
+
+"Well, and what was your position? Why were you so considerate up
+to last night? If you knew, why did you let me go on so blindly?
+The truth is, father, if you must have it, you have acted like a
+damned scoundrel."
+
+James Bansemer glared at his son with murder in his eyes.
+
+"I wouldn't have believed the other things they say of you if I
+hadn't this to break down my faith. I heard this with my own ears.
+It was too contemptible to forget in a lifetime. I did not come
+here to discuss it with you. The thing is done. I came here to tell
+you that I am going to leave Chicago. You WON'T go, so I will."
+Bansemer still glared at him, but there was amazement mingling with
+rage in his eyes. "I can't look a soul in the face. I am ashamed
+to meet the Cables. Good Lord, I'm afraid even to think of Jane."
+
+"I suppose you-you would marry her, like a fool, even now," muttered
+the father.
+
+"Marry her? Of course I would. I love her more than ever. I'd give
+my life for her; I'd give my soul to ease the pain you have thrust
+upon her. But it's over between us. Don't let our affairs worry
+you.  She has ended it. I don't blame her. How could she marry your
+son?  Why, do you know that I have hoped that I might not be your
+son, after all? I almost prayed that my mother might have loved
+someone else instead of you. God, I'd like the pain of knowing
+that."
+
+Bansemer leaned heavily against the radiator, gasping for breath.
+Then he staggered to the couch and dropped upon it, moaning.
+
+"Graydon, Graydon! Don't say that! Don't! I'll make everything
+right. I'll try to undo it all! My boy, you are the only thing on
+earth I love. I've been heartless to all the rest of the world,
+but I love you. Don't turn against me."
+
+The son stood looking at him in dull wonder. His heart was touched.
+He had not thought that this stern man could weep; he began to see
+the misery that was breaking him.
+
+"Dad, don't do that," he said, starting toward him. "I'm sorry.
+I'm sorry for you."
+
+Bansemer leaped to his feet, his mood changing like a flash.
+
+"I don't want your pity. I want your love and loyalty. I didn't
+mean to be weak. Will you leave Chicago with me? I must go. We'll
+go at once--anywhere, only together. We can escape if we start now.
+Come!"
+
+"I won't go that way!" exclaimed Graydon. "Not like a criminal."
+
+"No? You won't?" There was no answer. "Then, there's nothing more
+to say. Go! Leave me alone. I had prayed that you might not have
+been like this. Go! I have important business to attend to at
+once." He cast his gaze toward the drawer in which the pistol lay.
+"I don't expect to see you again. Take this message to the Cables.
+Say that I am the only living soul who knows the names of that
+girl's father and mother. God alone can drag them from me."
+
+Graydon was silent, stunned, bewildered. His father was trembling
+before him, and he opened his lips to utter the question that meant
+so much if the answer came.
+
+"Don't ask me!" cried Bansemer. "You would be the last I'd tell.
+Marry her, and be dammed!"
+
+"I don't believe you know," cried Graydon.
+
+"Ah, you think I'll tell you?" triumphantly.
+
+"I don't want to know." He sat down, his moody gaze upon his
+father.  Neither spoke for many minutes. Neither had the courage.
+James Bansemer finally started up with a quick look at the door.
+Droom was speaking to someone in the outer office.
+
+"Go now," he said harshly; "I want to be alone."
+
+"Father, are you--are you afraid of these charges?" His father
+laughed shortly and extended his hand to the young man.
+
+"Don't worry about me. They can't down James Bansemer. You may
+leave Chicago; I'll stay! Goodbye, Graydon!"
+
+"Good-bye, dad!"
+
+They shook hands without flinching and the young man left the room.
+On the threshold the father called after him:
+
+"Where do you expect to go?"
+
+"I don't know!"
+
+Droom was talking to a youth who held a notebook in his hand and
+who appeared frightened and embarrassed. Graydon shook hands with
+the old man. Droom followed him into the hall.
+
+"If you ever need a friend, Graydon," he said in a low voice, "call
+on me. If I'm not in jail, I'll help you."
+
+Half an hour later Graydon rang the Cables' doorbell.
+
+"Miss Jane is not seeing anyone to-day, sir," said the servant.
+
+"Say that I must see her," protested the young man, "I'm going away
+to-night."
+
+"So is she, sir."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"I don't know, sir. California, more than likely. Mrs. Cable and
+she will be gone for some time."
+
+"Did she tell you not to admit me?" he asked, white-faced and calm.
+
+"Yes, sir. NOBODY, sir."
+
+He turned down the steps and walked away.
+
+That afternoon he enlisted, and the following morning was going
+westward with a party of recruits, bound eventually for service
+with the Regulars in the Philippines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+IN THE PHILIPPINES
+
+
+
+
+
+David Cable lost no time in hurrying away from Chicago with his
+wife and Jane. They were whisked westward in his private car on
+the second day after the Bansemer exposure. Broken-spirited, Jane
+acquiesced in all their plans; she seemed as one in a stupor,
+comprehending, yet unresponsive to the pain that enveloped her.
+
+"I can't see anyone that I know here," she said listlessly. "Oh,
+the thought of what they are saying!"
+
+They did not tell her that Graydon had enlisted as a private soldier
+in the United States Army; Jane only knew that she loved him and
+that the bar sinister existed.
+
+Cable's devotion to her was beautiful. He could not have been
+more tender had she been his own daughter, instead of his wife's
+imposition.
+
+Jane was ill in Pasadena for many weeks. Her depressed condition
+made her recovery doubtful. It was plain to two persons, at least,
+that she did not care whether she lived or died. The physicians
+were puzzled, but no explanation was offered by the Cables. It was
+not until certain Chicago sojourners generously spread the news,
+that the cause of her breakdown became apparent to the good doctors.
+Before many days, the girl who sat, wan and distrait, upon the
+flower-shaded piazza was an object of curiosity to fashionable
+Pasadena. As soon as she was strong enough to endure the trip, the
+hunted trio forsook Pasadena and fled northward.
+
+San Francisco afforded relief in privacy. Jane's spirits began to
+revive. There had not been, nor was there ever to be, any mention
+of that terrible night and its revelations. What she may have felt
+and suffered in secret could only be conjectured by those who loved
+her.  Bansemer's name was never uttered. His fate remained unknown
+to her.  The far-away, unhappy look in her eyes proved to them that
+Graydon was never out of her thoughts.
+
+David Cable was in Chicago when Mrs. Cable received word from her
+sister, once Kate Coleman, that she soon would reach San Francisco
+with her husband, bound for the Philippines. Kate was the wife of
+a West Pointer who had achieved the rank of colonel in the volunteers,
+by virtue of political necessity. His regiment had been ordered
+to the islands, and she was accompanying him with their daughter,
+a girl of sixteen.
+
+Colonel Harbin had seen pleasant service at the Eastern posts where
+his wife had attained a certain kind of social distinction in the
+army fast set. She was not especially enamoured of the prospect
+ahead of her in the Philippines; but the new colonel was a strict
+disciplinarian on and off the field. He expected to be a brigadier-general
+if fortune and favouritism supported him long enough. Mrs. Harbin
+could never be anything more than a private in the ranks, so far
+as his estimation of distinction was concerned.  His daughter Ethel
+had, by means of no uncertain favouritism, advanced a few points
+ahead of her mother, and might have ranked as sergeant in the family
+corps.
+
+Mrs. Harbin played cards, drank highballs, flirted with the younger
+officers, got talked about with pleasing emphasis, and was as happy
+as any subordinate could be. They had not even thought of such a
+thing as divorce, and the whole army wondered and expressed disgust.
+The army's appetite for scandal is surpassed only by its bravery
+in war. It is even hinted that the latter is welcomed as a loophole
+for the former. War brings peace.
+
+The arrival of the Harbins and a staff of gay young cadets fresh
+from the banks of the Hudson put new life into the recluses. The
+regiment was to remain at the Presidio for several weeks before
+sailing. One of the lieutenants was a Chicago boy and an acquaintance
+of Graydon Bansmer. It was from him that Jane learned that her
+sweetheart was a soldier in the service, doubtless now in Luzon.
+
+A week before the sailing of Colonel Harbin's transport Jane
+suddenly announced that she had but one desire on earth, and that
+was to go to Manila with her aunt. She did not present her plea with
+the usual claim that she wanted to be of service to her country;
+she was not asking to go out as a heroine of the ordinary type;
+instead, she simply announced that she wanted to go as a temporary
+member of Colonel Harbin's family, to endure their hardships and
+to enjoy their enthusiasms. Mrs. Cable recognised the true motive,
+however.
+
+Her pleadings were in vain. The Harbins had lucklessly urged Jane
+to join them. Telegrams flew back and forth across the continent
+and David Cable came on to present his feeble objections.
+
+When the great transport sailed away, Jane Cable was one of her
+passengers, the ward of the regiment.
+
+"It's just for a little while, dad," she said wistfully at the
+dock.  "A few months. I'll think of you every minute I'm away."
+
+The blood of the man in the service was calling to her. The ocean
+was between them; the longing to be near him, to tread the same
+soil, had conquered in the eternal battle of love. After all, no
+matter how the end was attained, she was a creature of life, brought
+into the world to love and to be loved. She put the past behind her
+and began to build a new future--a future in which the adoration
+of Graydon Bansemer was the foundation. The hope that makes all
+human averages was at the work of reconstruction; youth was the
+builder.  The months of destruction had not left a hopeless ruin
+as the heritage of dead impulses.
+
+The world grew brighter as the ship forged westward. Each day sent
+warmer blood into her veins and a deeper light into her eyes. The
+new life was not inspired by the longing to be his wife, but to
+see him again and to comfort him. She would be no man's wife.
+
+At last, one hot, soft morning in early July, the great transport
+slipped past Corregidor and turned its nose across Manila bay, past
+Cavite, toward the anchorage which ended the long voyage. The city
+of Manila lay stretched out before them--Manila, the new American
+capital.
+
+The troops were marched off to quarters and the Harbins, with Jane
+Cable, repaired at once to the Oriente, where they were to live
+prior to taking a house in Ermita or San Miguel. The campaign was
+not being pushed vigorously at this time; it was the rainy season.
+Desultory fighting was going on between the troops and the insurgents;
+there were numerous scouting and exploring expeditions into the
+enemy's country. The famous round robin of the correspondents had
+been sent to the United States by this time, taking severely to task
+the army censorship which prevented the real condition of affairs
+from reaching the deluded public. The situation was much worse
+on the island of Luzon than anyone at home could have imagined.
+But little truth escaped the vigilant wisdom of the arbitrarians.
+It was not until later on, however, that the effects of the round
+robin were felt in headquarters at Manila; when that time came the
+Ayuntamiento in the walled city was not a pleasant retreat for the
+newspaper men who had dared.
+
+A week elapsed before Jane could find the opportunity to make
+inquiries concerning the whereabouts of Graydon Bansemer. Her
+thoughts had been of nothing else; her eagerness had been tempered
+by the diffidence of the over-zealous. She and pretty Ethel Harbin
+had made life endurable for the gay young officers who came over
+on the ship; the pretty wives of certain captains and lieutenants
+had small scope for their blandishments at close range. Flirtations
+were hard to manage in space so small. The two girls were therefore
+in a state of siege most of the time. The abject following fell
+away perceptibly when the broader field of action on shore gave
+their married sisters a chance to manoeuvre with some degree of
+security.  A faithful few remained in train, however. Ethel Harbin,
+like the ingenue in the play, had each finger clumsily but tightly
+wrapped with a breathing uniform of blue. It must be admitted in
+shame, however, that she changed the bandages often and without
+conscience or ceremony.
+
+Jane's admirers were in love with her. She was not the sort to
+inspire idle fancies--either in married or unmarried men. In any
+event, it looked a long time to these chaps before they could get
+back to the States, and she was worth while.
+
+Perhaps her most, devoted admirer was Lieutenant Bray. Good-looking
+and coming from an excellent Southern family, he was a great
+favourite with all. Jane liked him better than any of the rest;
+she would have liked him still better had he been able to resist
+a tendency to boast of the stock from which he had sprung. The
+knowledge of her disadvantages in life, the contrast between their
+respective positions, all tended to emphasise the irony of fate;
+and she often found herself wondering how this sprig of true
+aristocracy would conduct himself if he discovered that, after all,
+she was only a FOUNDLING.
+
+It was Lieutenant Bray who made inquiries at general headquarters
+and found, after considerable trouble, that Graydon Bansemer's
+company was in the north, subject to the requirements of Young,
+chief of scouts. Irksome were the lazy summer months for Jane.
+She tired of the attentions of men; she sickened with longing and
+anxiety. Day after day she prayed that the troops in the north
+might be relieved; she watched for the order that would call for
+their return from the wet lands above. Sickness was prevalent among
+the fighting corps; the wet season had undermined the health of
+many.  Constant news came down to Manila of the minor engagements,
+and she looked at every report for news of Graydon. Colonel Harbin,
+occasionally, had private advices from the north. She heard of
+Graydon's bravery more than once and glowed with pride. Down in
+her tired, anxious heart she was wondering if it were possible for
+her to go to the front in any capacity.
+
+At last, with October, came the waning of the rainy season.
+November brought active fighting. A general movement of the troops
+was directed against Aguinaldo. In his prime, as a leader, he
+controlled the north, and his capture was imperative. Lawton and
+Young began operations on the right; McArthur on the centre; with
+Wheaton pushing forward on the extreme left. The insurgents fell
+back from Tarlac. There were many big fights at San Jacinto and
+other places now famous in history.
+
+The Red Cross society held forth at Malolos, reaching gradually
+into the country north. Sick and wounded men came into the hospitals
+daily and in larger numbers than one would have supposed. The villages
+or barrios all along the line of advance saw their convents turned
+into hospitals; as fast as possible the nurses were hurried up
+to them. Men and women in this noble service did heroic, faithful
+work both for the white and the brown men who went down. From the
+field hospitals the men were taken to the convents and treated
+until they were able to be moved to Manila.
+
+Further north fled Aguinaldo and the Filipinos. Wheaton was ordered
+to cut off his retreat; Young was killed; Cunningham took charge
+of the scouts who scoured the country. Parties of ten or fifteen
+picked men fell out in advance of the main body, seeking to
+develop the enemy and his defences. These brave fellows attracted
+the hidden fire of ambush, exposed themselves to all the treacheries
+of warfare, and afterwards were mustered out with a kind word from
+the department. They were the men who tested the territory. It was
+with one of these scouting parties that Graydon Bansemer ventured
+far into the enemy's country early in November.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE CHASE OF PILAR
+
+
+
+
+
+Gregorio Del Pilar, the picturesque Filipino leader, about whom
+so much has been written in praise, by the war correspondents, was
+leading his men back into the dangerfields, inviting the American
+pursuers into every trap which his crafty brain could devise.
+History tells of Pilar's call to arms. He was attending a great
+ball in Dagupan, given in honour of his approaching nuptials. In
+the midst of the festivities a messenger dashed in with the news
+that the American troops were closing in on Tarlac, the insurgents'
+seat of government. Pilar rushed from the ballroom and made his
+way to the head of his command. His parting from the bride-to-be
+is pathetically described by many of the writers who were in the
+islands at the time. There was no more daring, romantic character
+in all the Philippines than young Pilar. Educated, refined, clever
+and attractive, he was a favourite with all, admired by friend and
+foe alike.
+
+Captain Groce, with a company of infantry, was following him closely
+and doggedly into the fastnesses far to the north. Village after
+village was devastated by the white troops, always a few hours after
+the wily Pilar had evacuated. Amigos laughed in their deceptive
+sleeves at the Americans and misdirected them with impunity. In
+eight cases out of ten the amigo wore arms underneath his garment
+of friendship and slew in the dark whenever opportunity arose.
+Graydon Bansemer was one of this doughty, eager company which blazed
+the way into the hills. Close behind came the bigger and stronger
+forces, with guns and horse, and the hospital corps. It was the
+hunt of death for Aguinaldo and Pilar.
+
+Shortly after daybreak, one morning, a slim, black figure crept out
+from among the trees and gave the countersign to the challenging
+sentry. He was soon on his way to the Captain's headquarters
+bearing news of importance. The brown-skinned scout had travelled
+all night over a hazardous route, and he was more than welcome. He
+brought news that Pilar's men were off to the east and the north,
+well intrenched and prepared to fall upon the Americans when
+they advanced blindly into the trap laid for them. The newspaper
+men pricked up their ears, and at once looked to a box of carrier
+pigeons which formed a most important part of their pilgrimage. A
+fight was at hand, doubtless an important meeting of the clashing
+forces. The whole army was waiting for intelligence of Pilar--waiting
+with little less anxiety than that which attached itself to the
+pursuit of Aguinaldo.
+
+Captain Groce ordered Sergeant Gonnell with a picked squad
+to reconnoitre. They scurried off in advance of the company with
+instructions to locate the elusive enemy, and open up the secret of
+his position. Supposedly, Pilar was ten miles off among the rocky
+foothills which guarded the pass through the mountains. As usual,
+Bansemer was one of the scouts. He snatched his rations with the
+others and went forth eagerly to court the danger and the excitement
+that was promised. For days they had had no fighting worthy the name.
+Amigos everywhere, villages peopled only by women and children,
+treacherous peacefulness on every side; this had been their encounter:
+an occasional rifle shot from the rice fields, a crackle of guns
+far ahead, a prisoner or two who had not been quick enough in
+transforming himself from combatant to friend, that was all. Now,
+there seemed to be real fighting ahead.
+
+Pilar was known to have many men--good soldiers all of them. The
+native scout gave close and accurate directions as to his position;
+it remained for Connell's men to draw him out, if possible. Captain
+Groce and the remainder of his eager company did not march until
+long after the scouts were on their precarious way.
+
+Two hours after the party of eleven left the village, a Mauser
+bullet from the clump of trees far to the right cut through the
+hat of one of the scouts who was some distance in advance of his
+fellows. As he saw the scout stoop to pick up his hat, Rogers turned
+to the man nearest him and remarked:
+
+"They'll get him sure as shootin' some day if he hikes along in
+that damn fool way."
+
+It was no new experience for the scouts to find the quarry gone
+when they reached the place where they expected to find him. Pilar's
+own scouts had found that the ambuscade was destined to fail of
+its purpose, and the wily leader drew back into the more accessible
+country. The scouting party did not come in sight of the little
+brown soldiers. The occasional crack of a Mauser broke the silence
+of the advance, keeping the Americans in active touch with the
+dangers that surrounded them.
+
+They found the deserted trenches and signs of recent occupation.
+The insurgents had been gone from the position less than two hours.
+Treachery faced the little squad of Americans on every side,
+but they did not falter. Connell scattered his men and they stole
+carefully into the fastnesses, finding on all sides evidences of hasty
+departure. Before noon they were far up in the hills, everywhere
+met by the physical assurance that the enemy was not far ahead
+of them. Behind them came Captain Groce and his men and the two
+correspondents.
+
+Amigos along the mountain road gave information that was not worth
+having. A deserted village showed signs of the passage and finally
+there was proof ahead that Pilar had stopped to give battle. He
+had reached his vantage ground. Connell and his men drew back and
+waited. Nightfall came and with it the spiteful crack of the Mauser
+rifle. A brawny trooper toppled over with a great hole in his head.
+Pilar's pickets could see like cats in the night. The native scout
+reported that the big village of Concepcion was not far ahead;
+Pilar's men were making their stand before this rather important
+stronghold.
+
+"We'll get a scrap that is a scrap, boys," said Connell, exultingly.
+"These fellows are going to put up a fight, at last. They're like
+bees up yonder. We've got to fall back on the company; if we don't,
+they'll chew us up before the little captain can get to us."
+
+Too well did the men know the bellicose temperament of the big
+Irishman to think of grumbling at such a command; yet, it was with
+a certain reluctance which invariably accompanies a backward step
+that the men retired to meet the advancing company.
+
+Young Bansemer in his khaki uniform was not the immaculate, debonnaire
+man of the drawing-room. Service, though short, had been hard and
+gruelling. His face was even handsomer with its rugged lines and
+set features. He was thinner and browner; his eyes were clearer
+and a darker grey; his hair seemed thicker and fairer than before;
+his figure more erect and sinewy. The wistful look in his eyes
+seemed to betray hunger for action; his ever-ready eagerness to be
+on the move told of his strength and of his weakness. He had the
+lean, active bearing of the panther and the restless daring of that
+lithe animal.
+
+No man in the company had stood fire as valiantly as he. He courted
+the whiz of the bullet, scoffed at the rigours of the march, and
+instinctively was a good shot with the rifle. He bore no grudge
+against the department at home; he had no grievance.
+
+The officers recognised in him a man of parts, a man of station far
+above the position which he had chosen in the army. He was a source
+of mystery to the men of his own rank in the line-the ploughboys,
+the teamsters, the roustabouts, and the ne'erdowells who had gone
+into the army from choice or discretion. At first they had called
+him the "dude," and had laughed at his white hands and clean jaws.
+His indifference to their taunts annoyed them. One day he knocked
+down the biggest bully of the lot and walked away without even
+waiting to see whether he could arise after the blow. He simply
+glared at the next man who chaffed. It was enough. The company held
+him in a new respect that forbade the reporting of the incident to
+the officer of the day.
+
+Every night before he lay down to sleep, In the rice field or the
+barrios, he took from his pocket a leather case and gazed at the
+small portrait it sheltered. No one had been permitted to see him
+in his devotions, for that was what he called these sacred moments.
+His lean face, full of fierce energy all day long, softened as his
+eyes devoured the dainty miniature.
+
+On meeting their company, Connell reported the situation ahead,
+to his superior officer; orders were given for the men to bivouac
+for the night in a small village close at hand. That evening Bansemer
+was discovered leaning against the corner of a nipa shack some
+distance from his comrades, smoking silently while they talked and
+made merry behind him. He seldom joined in the ribald but suppressed
+conversations of the men.
+
+"Have you fellows ever noticed that he don't get any letters from
+the States-never seems to expect any?" asked Johnny Rogers, the
+one-time foundry man, who sat watching him. Graydon had not been the
+subject of conversation, but all knew whom Johnny meant by "he."
+
+"I've noticed that, too," said Joe Adams.
+
+"I got him sized up all right," said one of the Spurrier boys. "His
+people don't know where he's at. That feller's a swell at home an'
+he's had to skip out. I'll bet my breakfast his name ain't Bansemer.
+An' if his people don't know where he's at, how in thunder can they
+write to him? See what I mean?"
+
+"Think he's a bank cashier?" asked Sim Relander.
+
+"Naw; it ain't money, it's some girl. I know these swell guys,"
+said Rogers. "You're right about his people not knowin' where to
+write.  He's a mystery, that feller is. I'll tell what I think:
+his folks have fired him out--won't recognise him. See? Disgraced
+'em, an' all that. That's why he ain't expectin' nothin' from home.
+He knows he won't get it."
+
+"I feel kind o' sorry for a feller like that," mused Tom Reagan.
+"I had a brother that had to skip once."
+
+"That so? Did he ever come back?"
+
+"I s'd say not. He ducked for good. Mother had a letter from him
+couple o' months before I left home. He was in Milwaukee."
+
+"Aw, this Bansemer's not that sort. He's made o' different stuff.
+Milwaukee? Holy Moses, it's only eighty mile from Chicago!"
+
+"Gee, I'd like to have a glass o' the goods that made Milwaukee
+famous," sighed Joe Adams.
+
+"I'd like a keg," said Jim Spurrier, with a wistful look in his
+eyes.
+
+"S'pose we'll ever see a glass o' beer again?" asked the other
+Spurrier, solemnly.
+
+"I'll bet Bansemer's wonderin' if he'll ever taste champagne again."
+
+"Ask him, Johnny."
+
+"Hey, Bansemer. I've got a riddle for you. What 'u'd you sooner
+have right now than a bottle of champagne?"
+
+Graydon turned and sauntered slowly over to the group. He paused
+for a moment in passing, a broad smile on his face.
+
+"A pail of beer," said he.
+
+"Good fer you!" shouted two or three vociferously. He strode off
+to make ready for bed.
+
+"He's all right," exclaimed Sim Relander feelingly, as if that
+laconic reply had been the only thing necessary to establish the
+young man's social standing.
+
+"That feller's been out here only four months, an' I'll bet they
+ain't any ten men in the Philippines what's had as many clost calls
+as he's had," said Johnny Rogers. "I was thinkin' about it to-day.
+He's had more narrow escapes in tight places than---"
+
+"Well, the darned fool rushes right into 'em, don't he? He ain't
+got no sense. Nobody ought to git out where he can be shot at when
+there ain't no need. Take that blamed fool trick o' his'n there
+at Tarlac.  When he went back all alone after the papers that Cap
+Groce dropped.  I'll bet he was shot at two hundred times."
+
+"Well, he didn't get hit, did he? If he gets hit good 'n' proper
+once he won't be so keen about showin' off," growled one of the
+men.
+
+"Depends on where he's hit. Then, there was that time when he dumb
+the hill back yonder and turned the fire o' the gugus so's we could
+get up into the pass. He makes me think o' Lawton. There's the boy
+for me. If we had a few more generals like Lawton we'd put a crimp
+in these niggers so quick it would look like a spasm." Having
+delivered himself of this safe prophecy, Mr. Rogers glared about
+him for opposition. None forthcoming, he proceeded, with a satisfied
+snort, to refill his pipe.
+
+"Lawton's makin' history, and don't you forget it," observed Luke
+Hardy.
+
+"He's from Indiana," piped up a homesick ploughboy from the Hoosier
+State.
+
+"Then, it'll be a historical novel," said the gaunt young recruit
+from Grand Rapids. He was a cynic who had tried newspaper work,
+and who still maintained that the generals did not have as much
+intelligence as the privates.
+
+"I'll never forget Bansemer when he first enlisted," reflected Joe
+Adams. "He wanted to go out for a cold plunge and a morning stroll,
+and then asked the sergeant where he could get a good riding horse.
+He's not so keen about strolls these days."
+
+"He don't turn up his nose at things like he used to, either."
+
+"I don't see why the devil he keeps so clean," grumbled Adams. "I
+can't."
+
+"I'll bet one thing," mused Rogers. "He'll be a captain or something
+before this scrap is over."
+
+"He'll be a corpse, that's what he'll be."
+
+"It's my opinion he'd just as lief be shot as not," said Relander.
+"The only trouble is that these measly niggers can't hit anything
+they shoot at. If the darned fools would only try to miss him,
+they'd get him sure. The devil and Tom Walker--what's that?"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE FIGHT IN THE CONVENT
+
+
+
+
+
+"Halt! Who goes there!"
+
+A shot rang out in the stillness of the night; it was answered at
+once by another closer in. More shots followed, gradually increasing
+to a fusillade as the scouts and pickets came running back. Men
+sprang up from the ground, but even as they did so another volley
+reached them, and three men dropped with a groan and lay still.
+The alarm sounded clear from the bugle and echoed back from the
+surrounding hills. A sharp command came from the throat of the
+sergeant; the company seized the stacked rifles. Captain Groce
+gave another order; the formation to repel attack was made in an
+incredibly short space of time. There was no disorder; no confusion.
+The little officer was as cool as if on dress parade.
+
+"Steady, men! Wait until they're nearer!" They had not long to
+wait.  From all sides a horde of shouting, firing men were rushing
+on the little square. "Steady, men!" was still his only command.
+
+Then, when it seemed almost a physical impossibility to restrain
+their itching fingers from pulling the triggers, the longed for
+word was given.
+
+"Here they are! Now, then, boys, fire!"
+
+Volley after volley rang out. The foremost of the enemy fell
+at their feet. Hand to hand was the fighting; the bayonets lunged
+with deadly effect, but seemed powerless to thrust the mass back
+on itself. Men shot, hacked, stabbed and clubbed each other. It
+was a whirl of uplifting and descending rifles and bolos.
+
+Fierce oaths vied with the shrieks of the wounded for supremacy.
+The grunt of men who slaughter; the gasps of the victims when the
+steel went home were heard on all sides. At times the soldiers
+could not see on account of the sweat and blood pouring from their
+faces; the very air was foul from the steam from the living and the
+dead. They could not breathe; a sort of vertigo overpowered them,
+and they only kept their feet by grappling with the enemy.
+
+To Bansemer, it seemed that all his life he had been doing nothing
+but warding off and ring blows. Fighting side by side with Rogers,
+he saw, with horror, that the soldier's rifle had been torn from
+his hands, and that he had no weapon to defend himself; but before
+he could see just how it happened, this individual combat had altered
+its aspect: Rogers had grabbed a Filipino's gun and was doing the
+clubbing. With renewed zest Bansemer finished with the bayonet
+his own assailant, and saw the man fall on top of poor Adams and
+Relander.
+
+Suddenly there was an exultant yell from the enemy. Instinctively
+Bansemer knew that one side of the square had given way. Quickly
+turning, he rushed to give his aid, and just in time caught the
+arm of a native about to slash him with a huge knife. With the two
+gripped hands high in the air struggling for mastery, the adversaries
+became separated a bit from the rest of the chaotic mass of friend
+and foe, swaying out to one side of the plaza, and under the walls
+of a convent. Bansemer was facing it; and just at the moment that
+he felt his strength giving way and could see a grin of triumph on
+the fiendish face, there carne a flash and a report, and his adversary
+fell at his feet. Glancing up to ascertain who had fired the shot
+that had saved his life, he thought he saw a figure disappearing
+from one of the windows. The incident acted as an inspiration.
+Gathering together a few men, he reached the Captain's side and
+communicated his plan. The opportunity was not to be lost.  Groce
+gave an order; Connell repeated it. Then interpreting a temporary
+lull in the murderous struggle as their vantage, the men with a
+cheer, and dragging the field piece, broke for the building; and by
+bayoneting and clubbing the insurgents out of the way accomplished
+the dash with slight loss. The soldiers hurled themselves against
+the stoutly barred door; it fell with a crash.
+
+Guards were stationed and all openings and windows manned.  Singularly
+enough, these defensive actions seemed at least, temporarily
+unnecessary, for the watchers peering out of the windows reported
+that the dead alone occupied the recent field of battle.  Not a
+single Filipino was to be seen on the plaza.
+
+Every village has its convent or barrios. Generally speaking, their
+size corresponds in a certain ratio with the population. But this
+particular building was an exception. Dimly lighted, it gave the
+impression of ranking in size with many of those in far larger
+villages Immediately the thought came to the invaders that the church
+might have sheltered the insurgent leaders. Aguinaldo or Filar
+might have directed the attack from inside these walls. Orders were
+given to search every corner and crevice to ferret out concealed
+foes. A rear window was open, proving that flight could have been
+by that means of egress. Bansemer was almost positive that the
+bullet which had killed his assailant had come from one of the upper
+windows, but whether from friend or foe, was undeterminable.  Was
+it possible that he had been mistaken? Had his eyes been so blinded
+with the smoke of battle that they had played him false?  Were they
+not in a cunningly planned trap of some kind?
+
+Considerably perplexed, Bansemer decided to keep on his guard. He
+was ruthlessly searching the chancel when a deep groan caught his
+attention. Presently, as he paused to listen, a dark figure leaped
+towards him from a recess back of the altar. The flash of a pistol
+blinded him, and momentarily, a sharp pain shot through his arm;
+but he recovered in time to throw his tall frame forward upon the
+slight, almost indistinguishable figure. There was a short struggle,
+and before his comrades could reach him his adversary was safely
+pinned to the floor. A moment later the torches in the hands of his
+friends were burning brightly above the figure of his captive--a
+slender boy who choked with terror and rage.
+
+"Who the devil are you, my young friend?" asked Bansemer, holding
+the boy at arm's length.
+
+There was no answer from the tightly closed lips; and Bansemer shook
+him a little roughly. Then, for the first time, he perceived that
+he was not a Filipino. His skin was dark, but not the skin of the
+native; the handsome, boyish face had regular features, European
+in character.
+
+"Spaniard?" inquired Bansemer, a trifle more gently; and again the
+boy flashed a look of hatred into his captor's eyes.
+
+"Look here, my young spalpeen," said Connell, gruffly; "Filipino
+or Spaniard, if you want to save your hide, you'd better answer
+questions--and no lies, do you hear?"
+
+At this threat, a deep groan was heard to come from somewhere back
+in the recesses of the chancel. The men were startled.  Involuntarily,
+the boy cast a furtive glance in that direction.  Connell noticed
+it, and leaving the boy with Bansemer, hurried away and soon was
+looking down into the face of a prostrate man, young, but aged with
+emaciation.
+
+"You must not touch him! Don't you see that he is dying?" cried
+the boy piteously in broken English. "He cannot fight you--he's
+dying;" and then, in a perfect frenzy of rage to Bansemer: "Let me
+go--pig!"
+
+Not until afterwards did Bansemer recall that in the general
+excitement it was the boy who dragged him along to the spot. And
+in spite of the solemnity of the scene, there was something in his
+manner of delivering the insult that amused rather than angered
+the American.
+
+"Plucky little devil!" he said, half-aloud.
+
+Again the sick man groaned, tried to rise from the blankets and
+speak, but only to fall back moaning. Connell cautioned him against
+exertion and promised that no harm should come to either of them.
+While he reported the discovery to Captain Groce, he had the man
+carried to another part of the church and there made comfortable.
+For the first time now, Bansemer began to notice the pain in his
+arm. Somewhat angrily, he turned to the boy:
+
+"Come! Give an account of yourself! How came you here?"
+
+"Prisoners," was the sullen answer.
+
+"Of the Filipinos?" Bansemer asked, in surprise.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then why did you try to kill me?"
+
+"I hate you both! We Spaniards, have we not as much to fear from
+you? What difference does colour make in brutes?"
+
+"By the holy apostles! you're a gritty, young 'un!" growled the
+returning sergeant. "Who's the other chap?"
+
+"My brother--he's dying," said the boy, his voice softening. "Holy
+Virgin, save him! For weeks, we've been in the hands of Aguinaldo's
+men. He's been so ill, all the time; have you a doctor?"
+
+"A surgeon will probably be with us before long," was the sergeant's
+evasive reply.
+
+Bansemer looked searchingly at Connell. What he saw in the other's
+eyes caused him a sharp pang of grief. Both men turned their faces
+away for a moment and it was with a gulp that Connell continued:
+
+"Your brother will have the best of care if we get out of this
+mess.  You are both safe. We are not fighting the Spaniards;" and
+then, pertinently: "So these were Aguinaldo's men?"
+
+"Yes, he was here directing the fight," the boy answered.
+
+"Aguinaldo here!" This and other ejaculations of surprise and
+anger burst in chorus from every throat; but as suddenly they were
+followed by expressions of chagrin. For, by contrasting the present
+situation with that which they had anticipated, this information
+had succeeded in intensifying their mortification.
+
+But notwithstanding his share of the universal disappointment,
+a hasty reflection of preceding events convinced Graydon that
+personally he had little ground for complaint against the late
+occupants of the convent. For unintentional as undoubtedly had
+been the act through which at the very point of death his existence
+had been preserved, there was no evidence to refute the hypothesis
+that the shot which had killed his assailant in the plaza had been
+fired by one of the insurgents under cover.
+
+"Great Scott!" was the exclamation to which he gave utterance. "Once
+more, I suppose, I owe my life to the blundering marksmanship of
+a Filipino!"
+
+This half-hearted acknowledgment of his strange indebtedness educed
+from his companions no recognition other than a puzzled stare from
+the sergeant and an enigmatical smile on the face of the young
+Spaniard. Connell proceeded with his examination:
+
+"Why did they leave you here?"
+
+"They had no time to take us with them when you broke in," was the
+boy's answer. "Aguinaldo was on his way to some village where his
+family is in hiding. The scouts told him of your presence; then
+he determined not to wait for Pilar, but to surprise you. We never
+rested day or night. My poor brother--how he suffered!"
+
+"Yes, yes, but why are they carrying you on a march like this?"
+
+"My brother is the only man who knows where the Spanish gold was
+hidden when our war was ended--I mean, the gold that came up with
+guns and ammunition. Aguinaldo is looking for the hiding place. My
+father, a high officer in the Spanish Army, died of the fever last
+winter. We were stolen from our house in Manila by Aguinaldo's
+men, and have been going from place to place ever since. We have
+not told of the hiding place. The Americans do not need gold, no?"
+The boy laughed sarcastically.
+
+"How many men has Aguinaldo?"
+
+"Three hundred or more. I would advise you to look out for Pilar.
+He, too, may come at any moment."
+
+Scarcely had the words left his mouth when a storm of yells came
+from outside the convent; and immediately the boy rushed to his
+brother's side.
+
+"Great Csesar, there's a thousand of them!" cried Rogers.
+
+Instantly every man made for the position assigned to him. The gun
+was in readiness. Outside, the Mausers rattled, bullets coming from
+all quarters and thumping sharply against the opposite walls with
+a patter that warned the Americans against standing erect.
+
+Occasionally, a scout would peep from a window and take a shot
+into the darkness, but these ventures were few. All lights were
+extinguished; the men fired at the spots from which burst the flames
+of rifles, then dropped suddenly. After a while the firing of the
+Filipinos dwindled into a shot now and them.
+
+"Keep low! They don't dare risk a charge! Be ready to defend the
+door!" Captain Groce commanded.
+
+The night wore on, and, with the cessation of hostilities, confidence
+increased. Reinforcements were not far off, and it did not seem
+possible that the sounds of battle could not be heard. The men,
+worn out by the exciting events of the day, were generally silent;
+Sergeant Connell, however, was an exception.
+
+"Get us I Not a bit of it!" he was saying. "The dirty, little cowards!
+Major March will be here in the shake of a dead lamb's tail."
+
+An hour later Bansemer, his rifle in hand, sitting near one of the
+windows, suddenly felt someone tugging at his arm. Turning, he saw
+the Spanish boy.
+
+"Won't you come and help me to carry my brother behind the stone
+altar wall?" he was saying. "He is exposed to the bullets and cannot
+move himself."
+
+"Willingly!" and Graydon followed his lead. As if he was a child,
+he picked up the gaunt Spaniard and carefully bore him to the place
+of shelter. But despite all that he could do to hide his suffering,
+the pain in his arm, which the removal of the man had increased,
+was such, for a moment, that he felt faint and staggered. The boy
+was quick to notice it, and quickly asked:
+
+"What is the matter? Wounded?"
+
+"It's nothing--merely a scratch."
+
+"Oh, I know--why, it's your arm--and I---" The boy's face crimsoned
+with shame and contrition. Through the semi-darkness the blush
+escaped Graydon's notice, but not so the truly feminine, little
+shriek of dismay, as he touched and felt the wet sleeve.
+
+"It was I who did it! Oh, how can you ever forgive me?"
+
+Graydon, dumbfounded, stared in wonder.
+
+"What?" he exclaimed; "you're a girl?"
+
+"Yes--I'm his sister," pointing to the dying man; then, with some
+embarrassment: "These clothes? They are the only ones they would
+give me. You see a girl would have been a burden; a boy none at
+all.  Do you think that had I been a man you could so easily have
+overpowered me? No!"
+
+The slim, little figure drew itself up straight and defiant before
+him. Despite the loose, ugly garments of the Filipinos, Graydon
+noticed, for the first time, that the figure was perfectly moulded
+and high-bred. She swept off the wide hat she wore, and the man saw
+a mass of dark hair done up tightly on her head. But even while
+he gazed her mood changed; she became subserviently anxious and
+begged him to let her attend to his arm. She pleaded so hard that,
+to please her, he yielded. Water was obtained from somewhere; the
+slight flesh wound washed; and then, disappearing into the darkness,
+to his amazement she returned almost instantly with some bandages
+and dressed his arm.
+
+While this surgical operation was going on, Graydon, for the life
+of him, could not resist the temptation to ask her again why she
+had tried to shoot him. At first, so terribly in earnest did she
+take the question and beg for mercy, that he smiled at her; and
+then, seeing his amusement, she said, coquettishly:
+
+"How could I possibly have known that you were so nice? Besides,
+I had always heard you Americans referred to as brutes."
+
+Graydon laughed, then suddenly his face became very grave. The
+realisation of her terrible situation had dawned upon him. A woman
+among a crowd of rough soldiers! Her brother and protector dying!
+And all surrounded by hordes of savage enemies who at any moment
+might kill them! The thought dismissed all pleasantry from his
+mind.  Something must be done, and at once. Presently, he asked:
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"My father was Colonel Ramos Jose Velasquez; that also is
+my brother's name, except that he is not an officer. I am Teresa
+Fortune Velasquez. My mother was English--a sister of Sir William
+Fortune. She is dead. For ten years we have lived in Manila."
+
+"You won't mind if I call the sergeant, will you?"
+
+The girl nodded a slightly bewildered assent as Graydon moved
+rapidly towards the others. Shortly, he returned with the gallant
+Irishman.
+
+"Senorita," began Connell, mopping his forehead and assuming his
+most polite manner; "you are perfectly safe with us, and as quickly
+as possible your brother and yourself shall be sent back to Manila.
+You are a brave slip of a girl, and we boys respect bravery in
+whatever dress--boy or girl."
+
+She looked at him in grateful surprise and her lips trembled.
+
+"But I am not your friend?"
+
+"Possibly, senorita;" he bowed low with almost Chesterfieldian
+grace; "but we are your friends."
+
+Outside, once more the Mausers were rattling, and Connell, with a
+word of parting hastily took his leave. Graydon, on the point of
+returning to his post, was prevented by the girl.
+
+"You were gentle with me even when I tried to---Don't risk your life
+there. Shoot from that narrow gate," pointing aloft; "it's not so
+exposed."
+
+Bansemer dragged an altar chair up to the grated window and perched
+himself upon it. The girl sat below him, holding her brother's head
+in her lap. He was groaning and crying out to the soldiers to kill
+him rather than permit him to fall into the hands of the natives
+again.
+
+Suddenly there was a great commotion, and crashing of timbers in
+the front part of the church, followed by shouts and the rushing
+of feet. Graydon dropped from his perch and ran forth into the
+chancel.  As he did so the banging of rifles close at hand deafened
+him. In an instant he saw what had happened. The Filipinos had
+charged the door and had forced it. They were crowding their way
+into the church in the face of the deadly Krag-Jorgensens. The
+chapel was lighted, but not from the inside. Cunning insurgents, in
+the shelter of the walls, were holding great torches just outside
+of the windows.  Graydon could see his comrades firing at the door
+from behind every conceivable barrier. Without hesitation he dashed
+down the aisle and into the thick of the fray near the door.
+
+The struggle was brief but fierce. The merciless fire of many Mausers
+on the outside opened a way through the small band of defenders,
+and the rush of the besiegers was successful. Through the door and
+windows they came, swarming like bees. Many of them fell to rise
+no more, but their comrades took an eye for an eye. Once confident
+soldiers toppled over dead until but few were left.  Bansemer led
+them in a quick dash for the chancel, hoping that the enemy would
+not dare attack a place so sacred.
+
+Cdptain Groce and other officers had fallen; Connell became the
+leader of the remnant. Bansemer stood squarely in front of the
+altar and blazed away at the horde of Filipinos as they advanced.
+They shot at him wildly and without effect; bullets crashed into
+the altar decorations behind him. He stood there as one protected
+by God, unharmed in the shelter of the cross.
+
+Behind him his comrades cowered and cursed in their dread of certain
+death. He heard the shrill cries of the girl urging him to protect
+her brother. She was calling upon God and the Holy Virgin to aid
+and shield him. And he stood there with a crazy joy in his heart,
+savagely pulling the trigger of the Krag-Jorgensen. Finally the
+hammer snapped with no report. As he turned back in consternation,
+a small figure leaped to his side with a fresh weapon.
+
+He shouted a word of warning to her and wheeled again to confront
+the foe. Even as he raised the gun a great shout arose above the
+noise of conflict. There was a mighty rush, a new banging of guns,
+a sudden stampede and--the chapel was filled with men in khaki!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TERESA VELASQUEZ
+
+
+
+
+
+Great was the disappointment of Major March and his men when
+they found that neither Aguinaldo nor Pilar had fallen into their
+hands.  Although they had come just in time to prevent the complete
+annihilation of the little company, the leaders had escaped with
+the remnant of their surprised forces. Scores of Filipinos were
+captured, dozens were killed and wounded. Eight of the dashing scouts
+who went out with Jerry Connell gave up their lives in exchange
+for the final victory.
+
+A small guard was left at the convent to care for the wounded, the
+bulk of the command hurrying off at dawn to search for the routed
+Filipinos. Graydon Bansemer was put in charge of the convent
+guard.  A surgeon and the application of "first aid to the injured"
+principles soon transformed the convent into a well arranged
+hospital. Uncle Sam's benevolence was also cheerfully extended to
+the wounded Filipinos. The days of the "water cure" and "ungodly
+butchery" had not yet come.
+
+Young Velasquez died soon after daybreak. He had been dying for days.
+His sister's grief was pathetic in the extreme--aye, demoralising,
+for it struck deep into the hearts of soldiers who had scoffed at
+the life-blood of man, but could not brave the tears of a woman.
+
+Bansemer did all in his power to comfort and console her. It was
+to him that she clung in her despair. He had been her captor; and
+yet it had been he who stood forth in his might to defend her and
+the loved one who was dead. At nightfall the dead were buried in
+that far-off wilderness, their humble graves marked and recorded
+before the time when the government could come to give other graves
+in other lands to these who had given their lives. Velasquez was
+laid beside the Americans. Teresa, a shivering, sobbing little
+figure in the garb of an insurgent soldier, was supported by big
+Graydon Bansemer. There was no service except the short army ritual;
+there was no priest or pastor; there was but one real mourner--a
+pretty, heart-broken girl who lay for hours beside the rude mound
+on the hillside.
+
+Word came back at nightfall that the detachments were to form
+a junction at one of the big villages westward in two days. The
+instructions were that the wounded Filipinos should be left in the
+village, where native women and doctors would care for them.
+
+"What in thunder are we to do with the girl?" was the question that
+came from the officer in command. More than one man scratched his
+head thoughtfully and looked toward the disturbing element that
+had come into the army. She was sitting alone and disconsolate in
+front of the church.
+
+"There's no way to send her back to her friends, and we can't leave
+her here," said Bansemer.
+
+"But, gee whiz, we can't take her on a hike like this," protested
+the sergeant. "She'll be in the way, and she'll give out, and all
+that. Besides, what would we do with a woman around all the time?"
+
+"I fancy she can hike all right," said Graydon. "Major March wouldn't
+expect us to leave her behind. That would be heartless."
+
+By the time the party and guides was ready to start on its forced
+march, the opinion, unanimously expressed was that Teresa Velasquez
+should go forward also, come what might. She had pleaded so hard
+and so effectually that the men were fairly swept off their feet
+in a storm of sympathy.
+
+"If she gives out we'll carry her," roared a deeply impressed young
+man with long red whiskers.
+
+"And when we get up to the command we'll make them derned
+correspondents take turn about walkin', so she can ride a pony all
+the time. They've got no business ridin', anyhow."
+
+And so with rosy confidence in the fitness of things and a just
+belief in the charity of Major March, the detachment marched out
+into the hills, the ward of the company trudging bravely beside
+the tall and envied Mr. Bansemer--who, by the way, aside from being
+politely attentive, did not exhibit any undue signs of exaltation.
+
+The presence of a woman--and a very pretty one at that, with
+a sadness in her eyes that was appealing--served only to send his
+thoughts bounding back to the girl he had left behind. He grew more
+and more morose and silent as the day wore on; at times the tired,
+lonely girl at his side lagged and cast wondering, piteous glances
+at him. Her woman's intuition told her that this man did not belong
+where he was; it told her also that he had a secret and that one
+of her sex was deeply involved.
+
+The events of the next two weeks are of small consequence in this
+narrative, which deals not so much with the history and mystery of
+the campaign in the fall of '99 as with the welfare and emotions
+of a single soldier at the front. Aguinaldo and Pilar had become
+refugees by this time, hunted and hounded from place to place with
+relentless fervour. Pilar was somewhere in the hills with his men,
+the pride of the insurgent forces; Aguinaldo's remnant had scurried
+off in another direction, and General Tono was on the coast with
+what was left of the scattered force.
+
+The net about Gregorio del Pilar was being drawn in and tightened.
+The closing week in November saw him driven to the last extremity.
+The tragedy of Tilad Pass was near at hand.
+
+Teresa Velasquez never faltered, never tired. She proved herself to
+be no incumbrance. Day after day, the officer in command expected
+the expedition which would take her back to Manila; forces came up
+from the south, but none were ready to go back.
+
+She was an inspiration to the camp. Men who had forgotten their
+manners completely brushed them up and danced attendance upon the
+girl in the Filipino uniform.
+
+Every man prayed for opportunity to do brave deeds, and when
+chance came she was permitted to witness heroism that savoured of
+the boyhood malady known as "showing off."
+
+The reserved, but considerate Bansemer was her closest friend
+and confidant. One evening, as they sat side by side watching the
+preparations for supper, she turned suddenly and announced that
+she knew he was dying of love for someone. He started and his hand
+trembled.
+
+"Tell me about her," she commanded. There was a piquancy, a gay
+impelling force in this girl that grief and hardship had not been
+strong enough to conquer. Her hours of sadness were spent alone--hours
+when she was supposed to sleep, but instead, lay awake and sobbed
+without tears.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Graydon. "Why do you think that of me?"
+
+"Because everybody else thinks it," she said; "and because I am a
+very wise person. The men are not so charitable as I, senor. They
+say that you joined the army because of some woman whom you could
+not marry. I agree with them, except that it is she who would not
+marry you. Forgive me, if I have hurt you."
+
+Impulsively, she put her hand upon his, her dark eyes full of
+pleading. The touch of her hand did not send a thrill through him;
+such contact, however, caused the blood to tingle in the quick veins
+of the girl. He merely sat and stared into space. After a moment,
+she drew her hand away.
+
+"I am sorry," she said.
+
+"There is a girl, Teresa," he said shortly.
+
+"Yes, I know. Tell me about her."
+
+"I can't," he exclaimed, bitterly. He arose and walked quickly
+away.  Teresa's dark eyes followed him in pity and wonder, aye,
+affection.  Then she shook her head sadly and turned her attention
+elsewhere--not piqued, much to her own amazement.
+
+Reinforcements came up two days later with the word that the
+commander in chief expected the campaign against Pilar to end within
+a week, and that hard fighting was ahead. The Red Cross people were
+following hard upon the heels of the regiment and field hospitals
+were to be established. This information was so suggestive of fierce
+and final combat that the men felt their sluggish blood leap wildly
+into life.
+
+Every man in the band of newcomers was singing the praises of
+a wonderfully beautiful Red Cross nurse. The stories told of her
+charms were varied, but none lacked enthusiasm. Some said she was
+the daughter of a rich magnate come to do service in the cause of
+humanity; others were sure she was a great and beautiful actress
+who was sacrificing everything to conspicuous advertising. All,
+however, were agreed in the praise of her noble beauty.
+
+The little detachment on guard turned up its collective nose and
+proudly pointed to Teresa Velasquez.
+
+"Look at that," said Bob Spurrier. "Can she stack up with the
+hiking queen? Our girl is real quality. She's no common American.
+She's a grandee's daughter. There's royal blood in her. By thunder,
+gentlemen, she's blood kin to little Alfonso."
+
+Teresa sought shelter from the curious though admiring eyes of the
+fresh arrivals.
+
+"I don't like these new soldiers," she complained to Graydon. "I
+wish they had not come. They talk of this beautiful nurse and they
+laugh at me. Oh, I wish I had something else to wear."
+
+"Don't worry, little girl, you're worth ten nurses," said he.
+
+"Alas, though I am dressed as a man, I do not feel as bold as one,"
+she lamented.
+
+The next day reinforcements came up and the whole command advanced
+upon Tilad Pass, where Pilar, at last, had been cornered. On
+the second of December a desperate conflict took place. Pilar was
+intrenched in the Pass near the celebrated rock known as El Obispo
+--"the Bishop." His resistance for a time was valorous and deadly.
+Corporal Parry saw him mount his horse behind the barricade, six
+hundred yards away. Parry was the best marksman in the regiment,
+and turning to his chief officer, asked if he should take a shot
+at him.
+
+He fired and Pilar fell, face downward; and the Americans crushed
+the little band of insurgents. Gregorio Del Pilar was dead. His
+death in the great hills, after a most courageous battle against an
+overwhelming force, brought to an end a life that would have been
+worth much to the islands in after years. In his pockets were found
+valuable papers, letters and keepsakes. The letters were from his
+sweetheart, Dolores Jose, who lived at Dagupan, and they were tender
+in the extreme. Her lace handkerchief rested over his heart.
+
+When the Americans, victorious and jubilant, fell back to camp, they
+had no small number of wounded to turn over to the tender mercies
+of the little company of Red Cross nurses and the surgeons.
+
+One of the most dangerously injured was Graydon Bansemer. He was
+one of the first to cross the danger line; a Mauser ball from a
+distant hill tore through his side, leaving an ugly gaping wound
+that foretold certain death.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE BEAUTIFUL NURSE
+
+
+
+
+
+When the beautiful and mysterious nurse whose fame had gone up with
+the soldiers into Tilad Pass, arrived with others to take charge
+of the Red Cross hospital, on the day following the battle, she
+found the man she had been longing to see for many weary, heartsick
+months. She found him dying.
+
+To the surprise of the enthralled command, she fell in a dead swoon
+when she looked upon the pallid face of Graydon Bansemer. She had
+gone eagerly from one pallet to another, coming upon his near the
+last. One glance was enough. His face had been in her mind for
+months--just as she was seeing it now; she had lived in the horror
+of finding him cold in death.
+
+It was Teresa Velasquez who first understood. She knew that
+Bansemer's one woman had found him at last. Her heart leaped with
+hatred for one brief instant, then turned soft and contrite. If she
+had learned to care for the big American herself during the hard
+days when he had been so tender, she also had learned that her
+worship was hopeless. She had felt his yearning love for another;
+now she was looking upon that other. While the attendants were
+bending over their unconscious companion, the Spanish girl stood
+guard over the man who had been her guardian, the man whose life
+was going out before her miserable, exhausted eyes.
+
+Jane Cable stirred with returning life; Teresa was quick to see that
+words not medicine would act as the restorative. She went swiftly
+to the American girl's side and, clasping her hands, cried sharply
+into her half conscious ears:
+
+"He is not dead! He is alive! He needs you!"
+
+The effect was magical. Life leaped into Jane's eyes, vigour into
+her body. She recovered from the swoon as mysteriously as she had
+succumbed to it. Her sudden breakdown had puzzled her companions.
+It is true that she was new in the service; she had seen but little
+of death and suffering; but, with all that, she was known to possess
+remarkable strength of purpose and fortitude. That she should
+collapse almost at the outset of her opportunities was the source
+of wonder and no little contempt among her fellow workers. The
+words of the strange girl in men's clothing opened the way to smart
+surmises.  It was not long before everyone in the command knew
+that the "beautiful Red Cross nurse" was not wearing the garb of
+the vocation for the sake of humanity alone--in fact, it was soon
+understood that she did not care a straw for the rest of mankind
+so long as Graydon Bansemer needed her ministrations.
+
+Ignoring the principles of the cause she served, she implored the
+doctors to confine their efforts to one man among all of them who
+suffered; she pleaded and stormed in turn, finally offering fabulous
+bribes in support of her demands. For the time being, she was
+half crazed with fear and dread, woefully unworthy of her station,
+partially divorced from reason.
+
+The more desperately wounded were left in the village with an
+adequate guard, the rest of the command departing with Major March.
+A temporary hospital was established in the convent. There were
+two doctors and four or five nurses, with a dozen soldiers under
+command of Lieutenant Bray. It was while the apparently dead Bansemer
+was being moved to the improvised hospital that Jane presented
+herself, distraught with fear, to the young Southerner who had
+so plainly shown his love for her. She pleaded with him to start
+at once for Manila with the wounded, supporting her extraordinary
+request with the opinion that they could not receive proper care
+from the two young surgeons. Bray was surprised and distressed; he
+could not misunderstand her motive.
+
+He had gone on caring for her without suspecting that there was
+or had been another man; she had not confided in him during those
+weary, pleasant months since they left San Francisco behind them.
+To learn the true situation so suddenly and unexpectedly stunned
+his sensibilities; he found difficulty in grasping the importance
+of the change an hour or two had made. He had fought valiantly,
+even exultantly, in the Pass that morning, her face ever before
+him, her words of praise the best spoils of the victory, should
+they win. He had come down to the village with joy and confidence
+in his heart, only to find that he was not, and could never be,
+anything to her, while the life or memory of this fallen comrade
+stood as a barrier.
+
+Bray's hour following the discovery that she had deliberately sought
+out and found this stricken private was the most bitter in his
+life.  His pride suffered a shock that appalled him; his unconscious
+egotism, born of hereditary conquests, revolted against the thought
+that his progress toward her heart was to be turned aside by the
+intervention of a common soldier in the ranks. Gentleman though he
+was, he could not subdue the feeling of exultation that came over
+him when she approached with her plea. He knew that it was a base
+sense of power that made him feel that he could punish his pride's
+offender by either denying or granting her appeal. The attitude of
+self-sacrifice appealed to his wounded vanity; he was tempted to
+profit by an exhibition of his own pain and generosity.
+
+He went with her into the convent and to the pallet on which was
+stretched the long, still figure of Graydon Bansemer. A surgeon
+was standing near by, studying the grey face with thoughtful
+eyes.  Bray's first glance at the suffering face sent a thrill of
+encouragement through his veins. The man was beyond all human help;
+the grip of death was already upon his heart.
+
+Then, the true manhood that had been his, through all generations,
+revolted against the thought that was in his mind. The man should
+not die if it was in his power to prevent; no matter what the cost
+to him, he would give his aid to her and hers. He tried to put
+aside the feeling that death was certain--and very soon, at that;
+he sought honestly to justify himself in the hope that Bansemer's
+life could be saved, after all.
+
+"Leave me alone with the doctor, Miss Cable," he said. She was
+kneeling beside the man on the cot. Without a word, but with a
+dark appealing look into the Virginian's eyes, she arose and went
+swiftly away. "What chance has this poor fellow, doctor?"
+
+"None whatever, sir. He'll be dead in an hour. I'm sorry, on her
+account. Strange case. I've heard she belongs to a fine family in
+the East. Poor devil, he's got an awful hole in his side."
+
+"Have you made a careful examination? Is it possible that no vital
+spot has been touched?"
+
+"We haven't had time for a thorough examination; it was better
+not to waste the time on him when there were others whom we have
+a chance to save."
+
+"You will oblige me, doctor, by giving him the quickest and most
+careful attention. There may be a chance. He is one of the bravest
+men in the army. Don't let him die if there is a chance for him.
+Miss--er--the nurse--has asked if he can be moved to-day."
+
+"No. But wait; I don't see why, if it will satisfy her. He will
+die anyhow, so why not tell her that we will start south with him
+to-morrow?"
+
+"It isn't fair. She should be told the truth."
+
+"He'd die, that's all--any way you put it."
+
+"You will make the examination?"
+
+"Yes, in--at once."
+
+"But you--you feel that it is hopeless?"
+
+"Certainly, sir."
+
+"I'm-I'm sorry," said Bray, walking away. The doctor looked after
+him with a queer expression in his eyes and then called his confrere
+to the pallet.
+
+Bray found Jane waiting for him outside the door; Teresa Velasquez
+was standing beside her, holding her hand.
+
+"What does he say?" cried Jane, grey with anguish.
+
+"He cannot be moved. There is no--but little hope, Miss Cable. They
+are to make another examination."
+
+"He must be saved! He must! Let me go to him now. I will help. I
+will give my life to save his," she cried. Bray stood between her
+and the door, his arms extended.
+
+"Don't go in now, I implore. Wait! There may be good news."
+
+"He is everything in the world to me!" she moaned.
+
+"Come with me," whispered Teresa. Bray looked at the Spanish girl,
+and a new light broke in upon his understanding. What was this
+refugee to Bansemer? The answer shot into his brain like a flash
+and he turned cold.
+
+"Miss Cable, I think I understand your anxiety," he said, his voice
+trembling. "Won't you let this young lady take you away for half
+an hour or---"
+
+"But I am a nurse! Why should I be kept from him? I am here to care
+for all of them," she protested.
+
+"You are not fit to do duty just now," he said. "Miss Cable, I
+understand why you are here. It is noble of you. I am truly sorry
+that there is so little hope." He was leading her away from the
+building, leaving Teresa standing there with her eyes fastened
+upon the door with a look that could not be mistaken. "I would give
+my own life to have his spared for your sake, Jane. Forgive me. I
+would willingly give all I have in life for you. But I am afraid
+it is impossible to save him."
+
+"Don't say that," she whispered.
+
+"You--you would be his wife?" he asked.
+
+"No, that cannot be. I COULD not be his wife."
+
+"You mean--he is married?"
+
+"No, no! not that. You can't understand. I can never marry him--never!"
+
+Bray struggled for a moment with the puzzle; his eyes went slowly
+to Teresa. Then he suddenly understood why Jane Cable would not
+marry the man she had come to find. He asked no questions of himself,
+but Teresa would have been the result of every conjecture had he
+done so.
+
+"He might better be dead," he thought, his eyes hardening. "She's
+found him out. Gad, I hope---" but he put it from him.
+
+Graydon Bansemer did not die within the hour, nor that day. The
+careful examination of the surgeons gave little additional hope;
+it did, however, reveal the fact that no vital organ had been
+destroyed or injured. The ball had torn a great hole in his left
+side and had gone through the body. Probing was not necessary.
+The flow of blood was frightful. There was a spark of life left on
+which to build a frail hope, and they worked with new interest.
+
+The attention of everyone was directed to this tragic struggle; the
+efforts of all were lent to the successful end. Jane Cable, dogged
+and tireless, came to be his nurse, now that the life thread still
+held together. It is not the purpose of this narrative to dwell
+upon the wretched, harrowing scenes and incidents of the wilderness
+hospital. The misery of those who watched and waited for death;
+the dread and suffering of those who gave this anxiety; the glow
+of spiritual light which hovered above the forms of men who had
+forgotten their God until now.
+
+The first night passed. There were sleepless eyes to keep company
+with the faint moans and the scent of chloroform. Over the figure
+of Graydon Bansemer hung the eager, tense face of Jane Cable. Her
+will and mind were raised against the hand of death; down in her
+soul she was crying! "You shall not die!" and he was living, living
+on in spite of death. The still, white face gave back no sign of
+life; a faint pulse and an almost imperceptible respiration told
+of the unbroken thread. Hoping against hope!
+
+Dawn came, and night again, and still the almost breathless girl
+urged her will against the inevitable. She had not slept, nor had
+she eaten of the food they brought to her. Two persons, a soldier
+and a girl, stood back and marvelled at her endurance and devotion;
+the harassed surgeons, new in experience themselves, found time to
+minister to the seeming dead man, their interest not only attracted
+by his remarkable vitality but by the romance attached to his hope
+of living.
+
+That night he moved, and a low moan came from his lips. The Goddess
+of Good Luck had turned her face from the rest of the world for a
+brief instant to smile upon this isolated supplicant for favour.
+Jane's eyes and ears had served her well at last; she caught the
+change in him and her will grasped the hope with more dogged tenacity
+than before. The word went out that there was a chance for him.
+Her vigil ended when Bray came to lead her away--ended because she
+dropped from exhaustion.
+
+The next morning, after a dead sleep of hours, she returned to
+his side. The surgeon smiled and the nurse clasped her hands with
+tears in her eyes. Bansemer was breathing thickly and tossing in
+delirum.  It was as if he had been lifted from the grave.
+
+Lieutenant Bray was seated in front of the convent late that
+evening, moodily studying his own emotions. Teresa, still attired
+as she had been for weeks, hung about the chapel with the persistance
+of a friendless dog. He watched her and pitied her, even as he
+pitied himself for the wound he was nursing. What was to become of
+her? He called her to him.
+
+"Sefiorita, they say he is better. Tell me, does it mean much to
+you?"
+
+"Oh, sefior, he has been noble and good and honourable. If he lives
+I shall always hold these weeks with him in absolute reverence."
+
+"Then she does not understand?"
+
+"She? What is there for her to understand? She loves him and he
+loves her. That is enough."
+
+"She says she will not marry him. There must be a reason."
+
+The girl's face darkened instantly and her breath came quickly.
+
+"You--you think that I am the reason? Is it so? Because I am here
+in these hateful clothes? You would say that to me? How dare you!"
+
+She burst out with tears of rage and shame and fled from his sight.
+
+Jane came rapidly through the church door, out of the gloom and
+odour into the warm sunshine and the green glow of the world, her
+face bright, her eyes gleaming.
+
+"He is conscious!" she cried. "He knows me!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE SEPARATION OF HEARTS
+
+
+
+
+
+When Graydon Bansemer opened his eyes upon the world for the second
+time--it was as if he had been born again--he looked up into the
+eager, wistful face of Jane Cable. It was too much for her to expect
+that he could see and understand at once; he would not know what
+had gone before, nor why she was there. His feeble glance took in
+her face with lifeless interest. Perhaps it was because he had seen
+her in that death-like dream; perhaps his weakness kept him from
+true realisation. In any event, he did no more than to allow the
+flicker of a smile to come into his eyes before he closed them
+again.  Breathlessly, she waited for the lids to lift once more.
+She uttered his name softly, tenderly, time and again. As if hearing
+someone calling from a great distance, he moved and again looked
+upward, the consciousness of pain in his grey eyes. This time he
+stared hard at her; his eyes grew brighter and then darkened with
+wonder. At last she saw the look of surprise and joy and relief
+that she had been hungering for; he knew her and he was beginning
+to understand.
+
+If he heard her while she knelt and thanked Ged for this first
+great ray of hope, he gave forth no sign. When she turned her eyes
+to his face again he was asleep. But she went forth into the day
+with a song in her heart.
+
+She looked about for Teresa. The girl was gone, no one knew whither.
+Bray alone could say that she had started toward the thicket.
+He pointed out the direction, but did not offer to accompany Jane
+when she hurried away to carry the good news to the Spanish girl
+who had been her staunch helper during the long vigil. Bray shook
+his puzzled head as he followed her with his gaze. It had come
+to him suddenly that the Spanish girl was not the solution to the
+puzzle, after all.
+
+Jane found the slim boyish figure lying on the ground, deep in the
+wood. She had been crying and made no attempt to subdue her emotions
+when the American girl came up to her; instead, she bitterly poured
+out her woe into the ears of the other. She told her of Bray's
+insult--as she termed his unfortunate speculation--and she told
+how it came about.
+
+"I am a good girl, Miss Cable," she cried. "I am of a noble family-not
+of the canaille. You do not believe it of me? No! He had no right
+to accuse me. I was a prisoner; Senor Bansemer was my rescuer. I
+loved him for it. See, I cannot help it, I cannot hide it from you.
+But he is yours. I have no claim. I do not ask it. Oh!" and here
+her voice rose to a wail of anguish, "can you not procure something
+else for me to wear? These rags are intolerable. I hate them! I
+cannot go back there unless I have---"
+
+"We can give you a few garments, dear," said Jane. "Come! You shall
+wear the nurse's uniform. We are to start on the long march to the
+coast to-morrow. They say that ALL of the wounded can be moved by
+that time."
+
+It was three days, however, before the little company left the
+village and began its slow, irksome march across the country toward
+the coast where the ship was to pick up the wounded men and convey
+them to Manila, Native carriers, cheerful amigos since the disaster
+to Pilar, went forward with the stretchers, the hospitall wagons
+and guard following. Travelling was necessarily slow and the halts
+were frequent. There were occasional shots from hidden riflemen,
+but there were no casualties. Food had been scarce; the commissary
+was thinly supplied for the hard trip. Lieutenant Bray grew strangely
+morose and indifferent. He was taciturn, almost unfriendly in his
+attitude toward everyone.
+
+The little company stopped to rest in a beautiful; valley, beside
+the banks of a swift stream. He watched Jane as she moved away
+from the stretcher which held Bansemer, following her to the edge
+of the stream where she had come to gaze pensively into the future.
+
+"How is he?" he asked. She started and a warm glow came into her
+cheek.
+
+"He is doing nicely. If he can bear up until we reach Manila, he
+will surely live. Are we going as rapidly as we should, Lieutenant
+Bray?"
+
+"Quite, Miss Cable. It isn't an easy march, you must: remember."
+After a long silence, he suddenly remarked: "Miss Cable, I've
+got a rather shameful confession to make. I've had some very base
+thoughts to contend with. You may have guessed it or not, but I care
+a great deal for you--more than for anyone else I've ever known.
+You say he is to get well. For days I wished that he might die.
+Don't look like that, please. I couldn't help it. I went so far,
+at one stage, as to contemplate a delay in marching that might have
+proved fatal to him.  I thought of that way and others of which I
+can't tell you. Thank God, I was man enough to put them away from
+me! Wait, please! Let me finish. You have said you will not marry
+him. I don't ask why you will not. I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+She stared at him with consternation in her eyes. He had gone on
+so rapidly that she could not check his rapid speech. Her hand went
+to her brow and a piteous smile tried to force itself to her lips.
+
+"I am sorry," she said at last. "I am sorry you have spoken to me
+of it. I have felt for some time that you--you cared for me. No,
+Lieutenant Bray, I cannot be your wife."
+
+"I know you love him," he said.
+
+"Yes, it is plain. I have not tried to hide it."
+
+"You must understand why I asked you to be my wife, knowing that
+you love him. It was to hear it from your own lips, so that I would
+not go through life with the feeling, after all, that it might
+have been. Will you tell me the reason why you cannot marry him?
+He must love you."
+
+"Lieutenant Bray, he would marry me to-morrow, I think, if I were
+to consent. It isn't that. It would not be right for me to consent.
+You profess to love me. I have seen it in your eyes--oh, I have
+learned much of men in the past few months--and I determined, if
+you ever asked me to marry you, to ask a question in return. Do
+you really know who I am?"
+
+He looked his surprise. "Why, the daughter of David Cable, of
+course."
+
+"No, I am not his daughter."
+
+"His stepdaughter?"
+
+"Not even that. You come from a proud Southern family. I do not
+know who my parents were."
+
+"Good Heaven, you-you don't mean you were waif?"
+
+"A waif without a name, Lieutenant Bray. This is not self-abasement;
+it is not the parading of misfortune. It is because you have made
+the mistake of loving me. If you care less for me now than you did
+before, you will spread this information throughout the army."
+
+"Believe me, I am not that sort."
+
+"Thank you. Knowing what you now do, could you ask me to be your
+wife?"
+
+"Don't put it just that way," he stammered.
+
+"Ah, I see. It was a cruel question. And yet it proves that you do
+not love as Graydon Bansemer loves."
+
+"Some day you may find out all about your parents and be happy.
+You may have been abducted and---" he was saying, his face white
+and wet. Somehow he felt that he was chastening himself.
+
+"Perhaps," she said quietly. "I might not have told you this had
+not the story been printed in every newspaper in the States just
+before I left. You see, I did not know it until just a few months
+ago. I thought you might have read of me. I--I am so notorious."
+
+"Jane, dear Jane, you must not feel that way!" he cried, as she
+started quickly away. "It's---" But she turned and motioned for
+him to cease. There were tears in her eyes. He stood stock still.
+"She's wonderful!" he said to himself, as she walked away. "Even
+now, I believe I could--Pshaw! It ought not to make any difference!
+If it wasn't for my family--What's in a name, anyway? A name---"
+He started to answer his own question, but halted abruptly, squared
+his shoulders and then with true Southern, military bearing strode
+away, murmuring:
+
+"A name is something; yes, family is everything."
+
+Jane went at once to Graydon. His great grey eyes smiled a glad
+welcome. She took his hand in hers and sat upon the ground beside
+him, watching his face until they were ready to resume the journey.
+
+"Would it not be better if he were to die?" she found herself
+wondering, with strange inconstancy to her purpose. "Why could it
+not have been I instead of he? How hard it will be for us to live
+after this. Dear, dear Graydon, if--if I only were different from
+what I am."
+
+Not a word of his father's conduct toward her, not a word of blame
+for the blow his father had struck. She held him to no account for
+the baseness of that father; only did she hold herself unfit to be
+his wife. All of the ignominy and shame fell to her lot, none to
+the well-born son of the traducer.
+
+Fortune and strength went hand in hand for the uext two days and
+the famished, worn-out company came to the coast. The wounded men
+were half-delirious once more for lack of proper attention, and the
+hardships of travel. But the ill-wind had spent its force. Bray's
+instructions were to place his charges on board ship at San Fernando
+de Union, and then await further orders in the little coast town.
+It meant good-bye to Jane, and that meant more to him than, he was
+willing to admit, despite all that she had said to him. He went to
+her when the ship was ready to leave port.
+
+"Good-bye!" he said. "I'm more grieved than I can tell you, because
+I believe you think I am a cad."
+
+"Lieutenant Bray, a cad never would have helped me as you have
+helped me, in spite of yourself. Good-bye!"
+
+He went out of her life in that moment.
+
+There were vexatious delays, however, before sailings Almost at the
+last moment Jane was approached by Teresa Velasquez, now partly
+dressed as a Red Cross nurse. The Spanish girl was nervous and
+uneasy. Her dark eyes held two ever changing lights--one sombre,
+the other bright and piercing.
+
+"I have decided to wait for the next ship," she announced briefly.
+
+"You are not going with us?" cried Jane in surprise and distress.
+"What has happened?"
+
+"It is impossible; I cannot go with you. Pray do not ask for my
+reason. Good-bye. Will you say good-bye to--to him for me?"
+
+Jane was silent for a long time, studying the eyes of the Spanish
+girl.
+
+"I think I understand," she said at last, taking Teresa's hands in
+hers.
+
+"It is better that it be ended here," said Teresa, "I have endured
+it as long as I can. You have been good to me, and I want to say
+good-bye while there is love for you in my heart. I am afraid to
+stay near you--and him. Don't you see? I cannot go on in this way."
+
+"Oh, Teresa!"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know it is wrong, but how can I help it? I've loved
+him ever since I first saw him--saved his life." Jane was astounded.
+The thrust pierced her to the quick.
+
+"Saved his life?"
+
+"Yes, though he does not know it. It was when we were prisoners of
+the Filipinos. My poor brother was dying. From the convent Aguinaldo
+and his men were watching and directing the fight on the plaza.
+They paid no attention to me--a girl. The noise of the fighting
+men was terrible, and I climbed up to a window where I could see.
+Sudrenly, below me, I saw two men fighting apart from the struggling
+mass. In an instant it flashed through my mind that the Filipino
+was overpowering the other--was going to kill him. Although I hated
+them equally, there was something in the young soldier's face--I
+could not see him murdered. I seized a pistol that was lying near
+me and fired; the Filipino fell. In terror of the deed and fear
+of discovery, I ran to my brother. In a moment the Americans broke
+into the convent. You know the rest."
+
+Jane was suffering the keenest pangs of jealousy, and asked,
+excitedly:
+
+"You--you did that?"
+
+"And finally, when I had learned to care for him and he was wounded,
+to have been denied the right of nursing him back to life--my place
+usurped by you. Surely, I have as much to be proud of as you and
+I love him a great deal more!"
+
+"As much to be proud of---" Jane was saying, for the moment all
+the warmth gone from her voice, the flame from her cheeks; but her
+meaning could not have been understood by the other who proudly,
+defiantly tossed back her head. Beautiful indeed was this
+brown-skinned, black-eyed girl, as she stood there pleading her
+rights to an unrequited love--a heart already tenanted by another,
+and that other, the womam before her.
+
+"Now, can you imagine," the girl went on, "how it has hurt me to
+see you caring for him, to see his eyes forever searching for you?
+No?" They were silent a moment. A wistful look was in her eyes now,
+and her voice unmistakably reconcilable when she resumed: "Ah, he
+was so good and true when I was alone with them--before you came! I
+pray God, now, that he may be well and that you may make him happy."
+
+"Alas, I am afraid that can never be! You cannot understand, and
+I cannot explain."
+
+"Your family objects because he is poor and a common soldier? Yes?"
+She laughed bitterly, a green light in her eyes. "If it were I, no
+one could keep me from belonging to him--I would---"
+
+"Don't! Don't say it! You don't understand!" Jane reiterated.
+
+"Dios, how I loved him! I would have gone through my whole life
+with him! He must have known it, too."
+
+"He was true to me," said Jane, her figure straightening involuntarily,
+a new gleam in her eyes.
+
+"Ah, you are lucky, senorita! I love you, and I could hate you so
+easily! Go! Go! Take him with you and give him life! Forget me as
+I shall forget you both!" And impulsively taking from round her
+neck an Agnus Dei which she was wearing, she placed it in Jane's
+hands, and added: "Give this to him, please, and do not forget to
+tell him that I sent good-bye and good luck."
+
+Jane would have kissed her had not the blazing eyes of the other
+forbade. They merely clasped hands, and Teresa turned away.
+
+"My uncle lives in Manila. He will take me to Maclrid. We cannot
+live here with these pigs of Americans about us," she said shortly.
+A moment later she was lost in the crowd.
+
+Jane's heart was heavy when the ship moved away. Her eyes searched
+through the throng for the slight figure of the girl who had
+abandoned a lost cause.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+"IF THEY DON'T KILL YOU"
+
+
+
+
+
+Jane had been a nurse in the Red Cross society for a little more
+than six weeks. She was inexperienced but willing and there was
+such urgent need for nurses that the army accepted any and all who
+seemed capable of development under the training of experts. There
+had been tremendous opposition on the part of the Harbins, but in
+the end, finding her unalterably determined, the colonel permitted
+her to go out in the service. She was sent forth on the special
+expedition in the wake of Major March's forces, her secret desire
+being to be near Graydon Bansemer in event of his injury. She
+gave no heed to their protest that the name of Bansemer should be
+hateful to her; she ignored the ugly remarks of her aunt and the
+angry reproaches of the colonel. It was more the spirit of spite
+than any other motive which at last compelled him to accept the
+situation; he even went so far as to growl to his wife: "Cursed
+good riddance, that's what I say. I didn't want her to come in the
+first place."
+
+But when, after a month, she brought Bansemer back to the city,
+wounded almost to death, the heart, of the soldier was touched. It
+was Colonel Harbin who wrestled with the hospital authorities and,
+after two or three days, had her installed regularly as a nurse
+for Bansemer, a concession not willingly granted. Those days were
+like years to her. She was thin and worn when she came down from
+the north, but she was haggard with anxiety and despair when the
+two days of suspense were ended.
+
+Ethel Harbin was her ablest ally. This rather lawless young person
+laid aside the hearts with which she was toying and bent her every
+endeavour to the cause of romance. It was not long before every
+young officer in the city was more or less interested in the welfare
+of Graydon Bansemer. She threw a fine cloak of mystery about the
+"millionaire's son" and the great devotion of her cousin, The youth
+of the army followed Ethel to and from the hospital for days and
+days; without Ethel it is quite doubtful if anybody could have known
+what a monstrous important personage Private Bansemer really was.
+
+At the end of a fortnight he was able to sit up and converse with
+his nurse and the occasional Ethel, Dr. G---, chief of the ward,
+remarked to Colonel Harbin:
+
+"He'll get well, of course. He can't help it. I never knew before
+what society could do for a fellow. He's got a society nurse and
+he is visited by a society despot. It beats Christian Science all
+to pieces."
+
+"Do you think he will be able to do any more fighting? Will he be
+strong enough?"
+
+"I don't see why. The government won't let him do it, that's all.
+He can claim a pension and get out of service with an honourable
+discharge--and maybe a medal. He'll be strong enough, however. That
+fellow could go on a hike inside of a month."
+
+"I suppose we'll all be going home before long. This war is about
+over," growled Harbin.
+
+"No sirree! We'll be fighting these fellows for ten years. Ah,
+there's your daughter, Colonel. Good-day."
+
+With the first returning strength, freed from lassitude and stupor,
+Graydon began whispering joyous words of love to Jane. His eyes
+were bright with the gladness that his pain had brought. She checked
+his weak outbursts at first, but before many days had passed she was
+obliged to resort to a firmness that shocked him into a resentful
+silence. She was even harsh in her command. It cut her to the quick
+to hurt him, but she was steeling herself against the future.
+
+When he was able to walk out in the grounds, she withdrew farther
+into the background of their daily life. He hungered for her,
+but she began to avoid him with a strange aloofness that brought
+starvation to his heart. While she was ever attentive to his wants,
+her smile lacked the tenderness he had known in the days of danger,
+and her face was strangely sombre and white.
+
+"Jane," he said to her one day as he came in from his walk and
+laid down his crutches, "this can't go on any longer. What is the
+matter?  Don't you love me--not at all?"
+
+She stood straight and serious before him, white to the lips, her
+heart as cold as ice.
+
+"I love you, Graydon, with all my soul. I shall always love you.
+Please, please, don't ask any more of me. You understand, don't you?
+We cannot be as we once were--never. That is ended. But, you--you
+must know that I love you."
+
+"It is sheer madness, dearest, to take that attitude. What else in
+the world matters so long as we love one another? I felt at first
+that I could not ask you to be my wife after what my father did
+that night. That was as silly of me as this is of you. I did not
+contend long against my love. You have never been out of my mind,
+night or day. I was tempted more than once to desert-but that was
+impossible, you know. It was the terrible eagerness to go back to
+you and compel you to be mine. My father did you a grave wrong.
+He---"
+
+"But my father did me a graver wrong, Graydon. I have thought it
+all out. I have no right to be alive, so what right have I to be
+any man's wife?"
+
+"Nonsense, dearest. You are alive, and you live for me, as I do
+for you. You have saved my life; you must save my love. These last
+few weeks have knit our lives together so completely that neither
+of us has the right to change God's evident purpose. I love you
+for yourself, Jane. That is enough. There has not been an instant
+in which I have felt that any circumstance could alter my hope to
+marry you. You say; you have no name. You forget that you may have
+mine, dearest--and it is not much to be proud of, I fear, in the
+light of certain things. You must be my wife, Jane."
+
+"I cannot, Graydon. That is final. Don't! Don't plead, dear. It
+will not avail. Look into my eyes. Don't you see that I mean it,
+Graydon?"
+
+"By Heaven, Jane, your eyes are lying to me. You can't mean what
+is back of them. It's cruel--it's wrong"
+
+"Hush! you must not become excited. You are far from strong, and
+I am still your nurse. Be---"
+
+"You are my life--you are everything. I can't give you up It's
+ridiculous to take this stand. Be sensible. Look at it from my
+point of view."
+
+"There is only one point of view and love has nothing to do with
+it.  Come, let us talk of something else. Have you heard from
+your--your father? Does he know you've been injured?"
+
+He looked long into her tense face and then muttered, with the
+sullen despair of the sick: "I don't know. I've had no word from
+anyone."
+
+"The despatches have doubtless given your name. One of the Chicago
+correspondents was talking about you recently. Your father will
+surely write to you now."
+
+"Are you eager to have him do so? I should think you'd hate his
+name. I can't help caring for dad, Jane. I tried to curse him one
+time, but he really has been good to me. I don't see how he can
+have done the things they say he's done."
+
+"There may be a mistake."
+
+That's good of you, dear, but you forget your mother's statements
+and all that Rigby says--all that. Oh, I've gone over all of it,
+and I am convinced. I wonder what has become of him. He was afraid
+of--of--well, there was talk of an arrest before I left. I have not
+looked at a newspaper since I saw the headlines that awful morning.
+God, how they must have hurt you!"
+
+"I, too, have not looked at a newspaper since then, Graydon," she
+said simply. He smiled wearily and there was response in her eyes.
+
+He took her hand in his and they sat silently side by side on the
+bench for half an hour, their thoughts far away but of one another.
+
+"Graydon," she said at last, "are you going to remain in the army?"
+
+"No, I am through with it. My discharge is to be recommended. I'm
+disabled."
+
+"You will be as strong as ever, dear."
+
+"Do you want me to stick to the army? I am only a private."
+
+"You can do greater things out in the world, I know. You will be
+a great man if you don't lose heart, Graydon."
+
+"I can't be a soldier, dear, and support a wife on the pay I get,"
+he said with a smile.
+
+"You shouldn't marry,"
+
+"But I am going to marry," he said.
+
+"I have decided to become a nurse. It is my intention to give my
+whole life to---"
+
+"The Red Cross?"
+
+"No. The hospitals at home--the hospitals for the poor and homeless."
+
+Ethel Harbin was coming through the grounds toward them. Her face
+was clouded by a dark frown and she was visibly excited.
+
+"It's all off," she announced as she came up.
+
+"Where is the usual hero?" asked Graydon.
+
+"I'm through with the real army. They've dismissed me. That is father
+and mother have. They are driving me into the Salvation Army," she
+exclaimed, seating herself beside Graydon. "I wish I were Jane and
+my own mistress."
+
+"Dear me, Ethel, what an ambition!" said Jane. "What has happened
+to upset you so?"
+
+"Father has."
+
+"I should have asked who, not what."
+
+"I suppose they expect me to marry a Salvation Army man. They say
+Harry isn't good enough. I think he is a very moral young man."
+
+"Harry? Who is Harry?"
+
+"Why, haven't you heard? Harry Soper. I'm engaged to him."
+
+"The lieutenant?"
+
+"Certainly. He's going to be promoted, though, if he ever gets on
+the firing line. It's not his fault that he has to do duty in the
+walled city. He's aching to get out and fight. But father---" Here
+she paused, her lips coming together with a firmness that boded
+ill.
+
+"Colonel Harbin doesn't approve?"
+
+"No--he says Harry is a 'little pup.' It's outrageous, Jane."
+
+"Don't cry, dear. The world is full of men."
+
+"Not for me," said Ethel dolefully. "I've picked Harry out of a
+hundred or more and I think my discrimination ought to be considered.
+I'm the one to be satisfied. Father has no---"
+
+"But how about that young fellow back in New York? You used to say
+he was the only one."
+
+"He is the only one in New York. But look how far off he is! It
+takes weeks for his letters to get to me."
+
+"But he writes every day."
+
+"Harry telephones every day. I tell you, Jane, the voice has a good
+deal to do with it. You like to HEAR a fellow say nice things. It
+beats ink all to pieces. It will go hard with him, perhaps, but
+he's young. He'll get over it."
+
+"You are young, too. That is why you have gotten over George."
+
+"I'm not as young as I was. But I've decided on Harry. If father
+doesn't let us get married right away, I'm liable to get over
+him, too. It's silly doing that all the time; one might never get
+married, you know. But father is firm. He says I can't, and he
+says he'll kick Harry into the middle of next summer. Father says
+I shall not marry into the regular army. He says they don't make
+good husbands. I've got the joke on him, though. He appealed to
+mother, and she forgot herself and said the same thing. They were
+quarrelling about it when I left the hotel. It was an awful jar to
+father. For two cents I'd elope with Harry."
+
+"It would be pretty difficult for an officer on duty to elope,
+don't you think?" asked Graydon, amused.
+
+"Not if he loved the girl. He does, too. But I haven't told you
+the worst. Mother says I am being absolutely spoiled out here in
+Manila, and she says flatly, that she's going to take me back to
+the States.  Isn't it awful?"
+
+"Back to the fellow in New York?" smiled Jane encouragingly.
+
+Ethel thought for a moment and a dear little smile came into her
+troubled eyes.
+
+"I hope he hasn't gone and fallen in love with some other girl,"
+she said.
+
+It was true, as Jane soon learned, that Mrs. Harbin had concluded
+to return to the United States with Ethel. Jane's aunt had grown
+immeasurably tired of Manila--and perhaps a little more tired of the
+Colonel. It was she who aroused the Colonel's antipathy to little
+Lieutenant Soper. She dwelt upon the dire misfortune that was
+possible if Ethel continued to bask in the society of "those young
+ninnies." The Colonel developed a towering rage and a great fear
+that Ethel might become fatally contaminated before she could
+be whisked off of the island. It was decided that Mrs. Harbin and
+Ethel should return to the United States soon after the first of
+March, to take up their residence in New York City.
+
+"Mother wants to be a soldier's widow--on parole," sniffed Ethel,
+almost audibly enough for her father's ears.
+
+Mrs. Harbin at once informed Jane that she was expected to return
+with them. She demurred at first, purely for the sake of appearances,
+but in the end agreed to tender her resignation to the Red Cross
+society. The knowledge that Graydon Bansemer's discharge was soon
+forthcoming and that he intended to return to America in the spring
+had more to do with this decision than she was willing to admit.
+She therefore announced her ambition to become a trained nurse and
+gave no heed to Mrs. Harbin's insinuating smile.
+
+Letters, of late, from Mrs. Cable, had been urging her to return to
+Chicago; David Cable was far from well--breaking fast--and he was
+wearing out his heart in silent longing for her return. He wrote to
+her himself that he expected to retire from active business early
+in the year, and that his time and fortune from that day on would
+be devoted to his family. He held out attractive visions of travel,
+of residence abroad, of endless pleasure which they could enjoy
+together.
+
+Jane had written to them that she would not live in Chicago--any
+place else in the world, she said--and they understood. There was
+no word of James Bansemer in all these letters. She was always
+daughter to them and they were father and mother.
+
+Graydon Bansemer one day received three letters--all from Chicago.
+He knew the handwriting on the envelope of each. Three men had
+written to him, his father, Elias Droom, and Rigby. A dark scowl
+came over his face as he looked at the Rigby envelope. It was the
+first letter that he opened and read. Jane was sitting near by
+watching the expression on his face.
+
+"It's from Rigby," he said as he finished.
+
+"What does he say?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"He says he is my devoted friend for life," replied Graydon bitterly.
+"I can't forget, though, Jane. He is not the sort of friend I want."
+
+"He thought it was for the best, Graydon."
+
+"Yes, and he may have thought he was my friend, too. This letter
+says as much. But I like an enemy better, dear. You know what to
+expect of an enemy at all times. Here's one from Elias Droom--old
+Elias." Droom scrawled a few words of cheer to the young soldier,
+urging him not to re-enlist, but to come home, at the end of
+his two years. He enclosed a letter from Mr. Clegg, in which that
+gentleman promised to put Graydon in charge of their New York office,
+if he would take the place. This news sent his spirits bounding.
+Tears of a gratefulness he never expected to feel sprang to his
+eyes. Jane's happiness was a reflection of his own.
+
+James Bansemer's letter was not read aloud to Jane. When he had
+finished the perusal of the long epistle he folded it and stuck
+it away in his pocket. His eyes seemed a bit wistful and his face
+drawn, but there was no word to let her know what had been written
+by the man who had denounced her.
+
+"He is well," was all he said. He did not tell her that his father
+had urged him to go into business in the Philippines, saying that
+he would provide ample means with which to begin and carry on any
+enterprise he cared to exploit. One paragraph cut Graydon to the
+quick:
+
+"I'd advise you to steer clear of Chicago. If they don't kill you
+in the Philippines, you're better off there. They hate us here."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+
+
+
+
+Early in March a great transport sailed from Manila Bay, laden with
+sick and disabled soldiers--the lame, the healthless and the mad.
+It was not a merry shipload, although hundreds were rejoicing in the
+escape from the hardships of life in the islands. Graydon Bansemer
+was among them, weak and distrustful of his own future--albeit
+a medal of honour and the prospect of an excellent position were
+ahead of him. His discharge was assured. He had served his country
+briefly, but well, and he was not loath to rest on his insignificant
+laurels and to respect the memory of the impulse which had driven
+him into service. In his heart he felt that time would make him as
+strong as ever, despite the ugly scar in his side. It was a question
+with him, however, whether time could revive the ambition that had
+been smothered during the first days of despair. He looked ahead
+with keen inquiry, speculating on the uncertain whirl of fortune's
+wheel.
+
+Jane was obduracy itself in respect to his pleadings. A certain
+light in her eyes had, at last, brought conviction to his soul. He
+began to fear--with a mighty pain--that she would not retreat from
+the stand she had taken.
+
+She went on board with Mrs. Harbin and Ethel. There were other
+wives on board who had found temporary release from irksome but
+voluntary enlistment. Jane's resignation from the Red Cross society
+deprived her of the privileges which would have permitted her to
+see much of Graydon. They were kept separated by the transport's
+regulations; he was a common soldier, she of the officer's mess.
+The restrictions were cruel and relentless. They saw but little of
+one another during the thirty days; but their thoughts were busy
+with the days to come.  Graydon grew stronger and more confident
+as the ship forged nearer to the Golden Gate; Jane more wistful
+and resigned to the new purpose which was to give life another
+colouring, if possible. They were but one day out from San Francisco
+when he found the opportunity to converse with her as she passed
+through the quarters of the luckless ones.
+
+"Jane, I won't take no for an answer this time," he whispered
+eagerly; "you must consent. Do you want to ruin both of our lives?"
+
+"Why will you persist, Graydon? You know I cannot--"
+
+"You can. Consider me as well as yourself. I want you. Isn't that
+enough? You can't ask for more love than I will give. To-morrow
+we'll be on shore. I have many things to do before I am at liberty
+to go my way. Won't you wait for me? It won't be long. We can be
+married in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Cable are to meet you. Tell
+them, dearest, that you want to go home with me. The home won't be
+in Chicago; but it will be home just the same."
+
+"Dear Graydon, I am sorry--I am heartsick. But I cannot--I dare
+not."
+
+Graydon Bansemer was a man as well as a lover. He gave utterance
+to a perfectly man-like expression, coming from the bottom of his
+tried soul:
+
+"It's damned nonsense, Jane!" He said it so feelingly that she
+smiled even as she shook her head and moved away. "I'll see you
+to-morrow on shore?" he called, repentant and anxious.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+The next day they landed. Graydon waved an anxious farewell to
+her as he was hurried off with the lame, the halt, and the blind.
+He saw David Cable and his wife on the pier and, in spite of
+himself, he could not repel an eager, half-fearful glance through
+the crowd of faces. Although he did not expect his father to meet
+him, he dreaded the thought that he might be there, after all. To
+his surprise, as he stood waiting with his comrades, he saw David
+Cable turn suddenly, and, after a moment's hesitation, wave his
+hand to him, the utmost friendship in his now haggard face. His
+heart thumped joyously at this sign of amity.
+
+As the soldiers moved away, Cable paused and looked after him, a
+grim though compassionate expression in his eyes. He and Jane were
+ready to confront the customs officers.
+
+"I wonder if he knows about his father," mused he. Jane caught her
+breath and looked at him with something like terror in her eyes.
+He abruptly changed the subject, deploring his lapse into the past
+from which they were trying to shield her.
+
+The following morning Graydon received a note from Cable, a frank
+but carefully worded message, in which he was invited to take the
+trip East in the private car of the President of the Pacific, Lakes
+& Atlantic. Mrs. Cable joined her husband in the invitation; one of
+the sore spots in Graydon's conscience was healed by this exhibition
+of kindness. Moreover, Cable stated that his party would delay
+departure until Graydon's papers were passed upon and he was free
+from red tape restrictions.
+
+The young man, on landing, sent telegrams to his father and Elias
+Droom, the latter having asked him to notify him as soon as he
+reached San Francisco. Graydon was not a little puzzled by the fact
+that the old clerk seemed strangely at variance with his father,
+in respect to the future. In both telegrams, he announced that he
+would start East as soon as possible.
+
+There was a letter from Droom awaiting him at headquarters. It was
+brief, but it specifically urged him to accept the place proposed
+by Mr. Clegg, and reiterated his pressing command to the young man
+to stop for a few days in Chicago. In broad and characteristically
+uncouth sentences, he assured him that while the city held no
+grudge against him, and that the young men would welcome him with
+open arms--his groundless fears to the contrary--he would advise
+him to choose New York. There was one rather sentimental allusion
+to "old Broadway" and another to "Grennitch," as he wrote it. In
+conclusion, he asked him to come to the office, which was still in
+the U----Building, adding that if he wished to avoid the newspaper
+men he could find seclusion at the old rooms in Wells Street.
+"Your father," he said, "has given up his apartment and has taken
+lodgings. I doubt very much if he will be willing to share them
+with you, in view of the position he has assumed in regard to your
+future; although he says you may always call upon him for pecuniary
+assistance." A draft for five hundred dollars was enclosed with
+the letter.
+
+Graydon was relieved to find that there would be no irksome delay
+attending his official discharge. When he walked out a "free man,"
+as he called it, a gentlemanly pension attorney locked arms with
+him, and hung on like a leech, until the irritated soldier shook
+him off with less consideration than vigour.
+
+He went directly to the Palace Hotel, where he knew the Cables were
+stopping. David Cable came down in response to his card. The two
+men shook hands, each eyeing the other inquiringly for an instant.
+
+"I want you to understand, Graydon, that I am your friend. Nothing
+has altered my esteem for you."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Cable. I hardly expected it."
+
+"I don't see why, my boy. But, we'll let all that pass. Mrs. Cable
+wants to see you."
+
+"Before we go any farther I want to make myself clear to you. I
+still hope to marry Jane. She says she cannot become my wife. You
+understand why, sir. I only want to tell you that her objections
+are not objections to me. She is Jane and I love her, sir, because
+she is."
+
+"I hope you can win her over, Graydon. She seems determined,
+however, and she is unhappy. You can't blame her, either. If there
+were base or common blood in her, it wouldn't make much difference
+to her pride. But she's made of other material. She's serious about
+it and I am sensible enough to get her point of view. She wouldn't
+want to marry you with the prospect of an eternal shadow that
+neither of you could get off of your minds. I sometimes wish that
+I knew who were her parents."
+
+"It doesn't matter, so far as I am concerned."
+
+"I know, my boy, but she is thinking of the heritage that comes
+down from her mother to her. You'll never know how it hurt me to
+find that I had no daughter. It hurts her worse a thousandfold to
+learn that she has no mother. I trust it may not happen that you
+will lose her as a wife."
+
+"If I really thought I couldn't win her, sir, it would ruin my
+ambition in life. She loves me, I'm sure."
+
+"By the way, Clegg tells me he has offered you the New York office.
+It is a splendid chance for you. You will take it, of course."
+
+"I expect to talk it over with Mr. Clegg when I get to Chicago."
+
+"Come up to our apartments. Oh, pardon me, Graydon, I want to ask
+you if you have sufficient money to carry you through? I know the
+pay of a private is not great--"
+
+"Thank you. I have saved nearly all of it. My father has sent me
+a draft for five hundred. I don't expect to use it, of course."
+
+"Your father?" asked Cable, with a quick, searching look.
+
+"And then I did save something in Chicago, strange as it may seem,"
+said Bansemer, with a smile. "I have a few of your five per cents.
+I trust the road is all right?"
+
+The Cables left San Francisco on the following day, accompanied by
+the Harbins and Graydon Bansemer. There was no mistaking the joy
+which lay under restraint in the faces and attitude of the Cables.
+David Cable had grown younger and less grey, it seemed, and his
+wife was glowing with a new and subdued happiness. Graydon, sitting
+with the excited Ethel--who was rejoicing in the prospect of New
+York and the other young man--studied the faces of the three people
+who sat at the other end of the coach.
+
+Time had wrought its penalties. Cable was thin and his face had
+lost its virility, but not its power. His eyes never left the face
+of Jane, who was talking in an earnest, impassioned manner, as was
+her wont in these days. Frances Cable's face was a study in transition.
+She had lost the colour and vivacity of a year ago, although the
+change was not apparent to the casual observer. Graydon could see
+that she had suffered in many ways. The keen, eager appeal for
+appreciation was gone from her eyes; in its stead was the appeal
+for love and contentedness. Happiness, now struggling against the
+smarting of a sober pain, was giving a sweetness to her eyes that
+had been lost in the ambitious glitter of other days. Ethel bored
+him--a most unusual condition. He longed to be under the tender,
+quieting influences at the opposite end of the car. He even resented
+his temporary exile.
+
+"Jane," Cable was saying with gentle insistence; "it is not just
+to him. He loves you and you are not doing the right thing by him."
+
+"You'll find I am right in the end," she said stubbornly.
+
+"I can't bear the thought of your going out as a trained nurse,
+dear," protested Frances Cable. "There is no necessity. You can
+have the best of homes and in any place you like. Why waste your
+life in--"
+
+"Waste, mother? It would be wasting my life if I did not find an
+occupation for it. I can't be idle. I can't exist forever in your
+love and devotion."
+
+"Good Lord, child, don't be foolish," exclaimed Cable. "That hurts
+me more than you think. Everything we have is yours."
+
+"I'm sorry I said it, daddy. I did not mean it in that way. It
+isn't the money, you know, and it isn't the home, either. No, you
+must let me choose my own way of living the rest of my life. I came
+from a foundling hospital. A good and tender nurse found me there
+and gave me the happiest years of my life. I shall go back there
+and give the rest of my years to children who are less fortunate
+than I was. I want to help them, mother, just as you did--only it
+is different with me."
+
+"You'll see it differently some day," said Mrs. Cable earnestly.
+
+"I don't object to your helping the foundlings, Jane," said Cable,
+"but I don't see why you have to be a nurse to do it. Other women
+support such causes and not as nurses, either. It's--"
+
+"It's my way, daddy, that's all," she said firmly.
+
+"Then why, in the name of Heaven, were you so unkind as to keep
+that poor boy over there alive when he might have died and ended
+his misery? You nursed him back to life only to give him a wound
+that cannot be healed. You would ruin his life, Jane. Is it fair?
+Damn me, I'm uncouth and hard in many ways--I had a hard, unkind
+beginning--but I really believe I've got more heart in me than you
+have."
+
+"David!" exclaimed his wife. Jane looked at the exasperated man in
+surprise.
+
+"Now here's what I intend you to do: you owe me something for the
+love that I give to you; you owe Graydon something for keeping him
+from dying. If you want to go into the nursing business, all right.
+But I'm going to demand some of your devotion for my own sake before
+that time comes. I've loved you all of your life--"
+
+"And I've loved you, daddy," she gasped.
+
+"And I'm going to ask you to begin your nursing career by attending
+to me. I'm sick for want of your love. I'm giving up business for
+the sake of enjoying it unrestrained. Your mother and I expect it.
+We are going abroad for our health and we are going to take you
+with us. Right now is where you begin your career as a nurse. You've
+got to begin by taking care of the love that is sick and miserable.
+We want it to live, my dear. Now, I want a direct decision--at
+once: will you take charge of two patients on a long-contemplated
+trip in search of love and rest--wages paid in advance?"
+
+She looked at him, white-faced and stunned. He was putting it
+before her fluently and in a new light. She saw what it was that he
+considered that she owed them--the love of a daughter, after all.
+
+An hour later she stood with Graydon on the rear platform of the
+car. He was trying to talk calmly of the country through which
+they were rushing and she was looking pensively down the rails that
+slipped out behind them.
+
+"We'll be in Chicago in three days," he remarked.
+
+"Graydon, I have decided to go abroad for five or six months before
+starting upon my work. They want me so much, you see," she said,
+her voice a trifle uncertain.
+
+"I wish I could have some power to persuade you," he said. Changing
+his tone to one of brisk interest, he went on. "It is right, dear.
+It will do you great good and it will be a joy to them. I'll miss
+you."
+
+"And I shall miss you, Graydon," she said, her eyes very solemn
+and wistful.
+
+"Won't you--won't you give me the promise I want, Jane?" he asked
+eagerly. She placed her hand upon his and shook her head.
+
+"Won't you be good to me, Graydon? Don't make it so hard for me.
+Please, please don't tell me again that you love me."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE WRECKAGE
+
+
+
+
+
+The spring floods delayed the Eastern Express, bringing the party
+to Chicago nearly a day late. The Cables and the Harbins went
+at once to the Annex, where David Cable had taken rooms. They had
+given up their North Side home some months before, both he and his
+wife retiring into the seclusion that a great hotel can afford when
+necessary.
+
+Graydon hurried off to his father's office, eager, yet half fearing
+to meet the man who was responsible for the broken link in his
+life--this odd year. He recalled, as he drove across town, that a
+full year had elapsed since he spent that unforgettable night in
+Elias Droom's uncanny home. Was he never to forget that night--that
+night when his soul seemed even more squalid than the home of the
+recluse?
+
+All of his baggage, except a suit case, had been left at the
+station. He did not know what had become of his belongings in the
+former home of his father. Nor, for that matter, did he care.
+
+At the U---- Building he ventured a diffident greeting to the
+elevator boy, whom he remembered. The boy looked at him quizzically
+and nodded with customary aloofness. Graydon found himself hoping
+that he would not meet Bobby Rigby. He also wondered, as the car
+shot up, how his father had managed to escape from the meshes that
+were drawn about him on the eve of his departure. His chances had
+looked black and hopeless enough then; yet, he still maintained
+the same old offices in the building. His name was on the directory
+board downstairs. Graydon's heart gave a quick bound with the
+thought that his father had proved the charges false after all.
+
+Elias Droom was busy directing the labours of two able-bodied men
+and a charwoman, all of whom were toiling as they had never toiled
+before. The woman was dusting law books and the men were packing
+them away in boxes. The front room of the suite was in a state of
+devastation. A dozen boxes stood about the floor; rugs and furniture
+were huddled in the most remote corner awaiting the arrival of the
+"second-hand man"; the floor was littered with paper. Droom was
+directing operations with a broken umbrella. It seemed like a lash
+to the toilers.
+
+"Now, let's get through with this room," he was saying in his most
+impelling way. "The men will be here for the boxes at four. I don't
+want 'em to wait. This back room stuff we'll put in the trunks.
+Look out there! Don't you see that nail?"
+
+Eddie Deever, with his usual indolence, was seated upon the edge
+of the writing table in the corner, smoking his cigarette, and
+commenting with rash freedom upon the efforts of the perspiring
+slaves.
+
+"How long are you going to keep these things in the warehouse?" he
+asked of Droom.
+
+"I'm not going to keep them there at all. They belong to Mr.
+Bansemer. He'll take them out when he has the time."
+
+"He's getting all the time he wants now, I guess." commented Eddie.
+"Say, talking about time, I'll be twenty-one next Tuesday."
+
+"Old enough to marry."
+
+"I don't know about that. I'm getting pretty wise. Do you know,
+I've just found out how old Rosie Keating is? She's twenty-nine.
+Gee, it's funny how a fellow always gets stuck on a girl older than
+himself! Still, she's all right. I'm not saying a word against her.
+She wouldn't be twenty-nine if she could help it."
+
+"I suppose it's off between you, then."
+
+"I don't know about that, either. We lunched at Rector's to-day.
+That don't look like it's off, does it? Four sixty-five, including
+the tip. She don't look twenty-nine, does she?"
+
+"I've never noticed her."
+
+"Never--well, holy mackerel! You must be blind then. She says she's
+seen you in the elevator a thousand times. Never noticed HER? Gee!"
+
+"I mean, I've never noticed anyone who looked less than twenty-nine.
+By the way, do you ever see Mr. Rigby? I believe she is in his
+office."
+
+"I don't go to Rigby's any more," said Eddie, with sudden stiffness.
+"He's a cheap skate."
+
+"I HEARD he threw you out of the office one day," with a dry cackle.
+
+"He did not! We couldn't agree in certain things regarding the
+Bansemer affair, that's all. I told him to go to the devil, or
+words to that effect."
+
+"Something loose about your testimony, I believe, wasn't there?"
+
+"Oh, the whole thing doesn't amount to a whoop. I'm trying to get
+Rosie another job. She oughtn't to write in there with that guy."
+
+"Well, you're twenty-one. Why don't you open an office of your own?
+Your mother's got plenty of money. She can buy you a library and
+a sign, and that is all a young lawyer needs in Chicago."
+
+"Mother wants me to run for alderman in our ward, next spring. I'll
+be able to vote at that election."
+
+"You've got as much right in the council as some others, I suppose."
+
+"Sure, mother owns property. The West Side ought to be as well
+represented as the North Side. Property interests is what we need
+in the council. That's--"
+
+"I don't care to hear a political speech, boy. Are you busy this
+afternoon?"
+
+"No. I wouldn't be here if I was."
+
+"Then get up there and hand those books down to me. Nobody loafs
+in this office to-day."
+
+"Well, doggone, if that isn't the limit! All right. Don't get mad.
+I'll do it." The young gentleman leisurely ascended to the top of
+the stepladder and fell into line under the lash.
+
+"Young Mr. Graydon Bansemer will be here this afternoon," said
+Droom. "I want to get things cleaned up a bit beforehand."
+
+"How does he feel about his father?"
+
+"He doesn't know about him, I'm afraid."
+
+"Gee! Well, it'll jar him a bit, won't it?"
+
+The office door was opened suddenly and a tall young man strode
+into the room, only to stop aghast at the sight before him. Droom's
+lank figure swayed uncertainly and his eyes wavered.
+
+"What's all this?" cried Graydon, dropping his bag and coming toward
+the old man, his hand outstretched. Droom's clammy fingers rested
+lifelessly in the warm clasp.
+
+"How are you, Graydon? I'm--I'm very glad to see you. You are
+looking well. Oh, this? We--we are moving," said the old man. The
+helpers looked on with interest. "Come into the back office. It
+isn't so torn up. I didn't expect you so soon. They said it was
+twenty-four hours late. Well, well, how are you, my boy?"
+
+"I'm quite well again, Elias. Hard siege of it, I tell you. Moving,
+eh? What's that for?"
+
+"Never mind those books, Eddie. Thank you for helping me. Come in
+some other time. You fellows--I mean you--pack the rest of these
+and then I'll tell you what to do next. Come in, Graydon."
+
+Eddie Deever took his departure, deeply insulted because he had
+not been introduced to the newcomer. Graydon, somewhat bewildered,
+followed Droom into his father's consultation room. He looked around
+inquiringly.
+
+"Where is father? I telegraphed to him."
+
+An incomprehensible grin came into Droom's face. He twirled the
+umbrella in his fingers a moment before replying. His glance at
+the closed door was no more significant than his lowered tones.
+
+"It didn't go very well with him, Graydon. He isn't here any more."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean the trial. There was a trial, you see. Haven't you heard
+anything?"
+
+"Trial? He--he was arrested?" came numbly from the young man's
+lips.
+
+"I can't mince matters, Graydon. I'll get it over as quickly as
+possible. Your father was tried for blackmail and was convicted.
+He is in--he's in the penitentiary."
+
+The son's face became absolutely bloodless; his eyes were full
+of comprehension and horror, and his body stiffened as if he were
+turning to stone. The word penitentiary fell slowly, mechanically
+from his lips. He looked into Droom's eyes, hoping it might be a
+joke of the calloused old clerk.
+
+"You--it--it can't be true," he murmured, his trembling hands going
+to his temples.
+
+"Yes, my boy, it is true. I didn't write to you about it, because
+I wanted to put it off as long as I could. It's for five years."
+
+"God!" burst from the wretched son. A wave of shame and grief sent
+the tears flooding to his eyes. "Poor old dad!" He turned and walked
+to the window, his shoulders heaving. Droom stood silent for a long
+time, watching Bansemer's son, pity and triumph in his face.
+
+"Do you want to hear about it?" he asked at last. Graydon's head
+was bent in assent.
+
+"It came the day after you left Chicago with the recruits. I knew
+you would not read the newspapers. So did he. Harbert swore out
+the papers and he was arrested here in this office. I believe he
+would have killed himself if he had been given time. His revolver
+was--er--not loaded. Before the officers came he discharged me.
+I was at liberty to go or to testify against him. I did neither.
+Of course, I was arrested, but they could only prove that I was a
+clerk who knew absolutely nothing about the inside workings of the
+office.  I offered to go on his bond but he would not have me. He
+made some arrangement, through his attorney, and bail was secured.
+In spite of the fact that he was charged with crime, he insisted on
+keeping these offices and trying to do business. It wasn't because
+he needed money, Graydon, but because he wanted to lead an honest
+life, he said. He has a great deal of money, let me tell you. The
+grand jury indicted him last spring but the trial did not come up
+until last month--nearly a year later--so swift is justice in this
+city. In the meantime, I saw but little of him. I was working on
+an invention and, besides, there were detectives watching every
+movement I made.  I stuck close to my rooms. By the way, I want to
+show you a couple of models I have perfected. Don't let me forget
+it. They--"
+
+"Yes, yes--but father? Go on!"
+
+"Well, the trial came up at last. That man Harbert is a devil. He
+had twenty witnesses, any one of whom could have convicted your
+father. How he got onto them, I can't imagine. He uncovered every
+deal we've--er--he had in Chicago and--"
+
+"Then he really was guilty!" groaned Graydon.
+
+"Yes, my boy, I knew it, of course. They could not force me to
+testify against him, however. I was too smart for them. Well, to
+make it short, he was sentenced five weeks ago. The motion for a
+new trial was overruled. He went to Joliet. If he had been a popular
+alderman or ward boss he would have been out yet on continuances,
+spending most of his sentence in some fasionable hotel, to say the
+least."
+
+"Is he--wearing stripes?"
+
+"Yes, it's the fashion there."
+
+"For God's sake, don't jest. For five years!" The young man sank
+into a chair and covered his face with his hands.
+
+"There'll be something off for good behaviour, my boy. He wanted
+to behave well before he went there, so I suppose he'll keep it
+up. The whole town was against him. He didn't have a friend."
+
+"How did you escape?" demanded Graydon, looking up suddenly.
+"State's evidence?"
+
+"No, not even after he tried to put most of the blame upon me. He
+tried that, my boy. I just let him talk. It saved me from prison.
+Usually the case with the man who keeps his mouth closed."
+
+"But, Elias--Elias, why have I been kept in the dark? Why did he
+not tell me about it? Why has--"
+
+"You forget, Graydon, that you turned from him first. You were
+really the first to condemn him. He wanted you to stay away from
+this country until he is free. That was his plan. He didn't want
+to see you. Now he wants you to come to him. He wants you to bring
+Jane Cable to see him."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Yes, that's it. I believe he intends to tell her the names of
+her father and mother. I think he wants her to forgive him and he
+wants to hear both of you say it to him."
+
+Graydon stared blankly from the window. The old clerk was smiling
+to himself, an evil, gloating smile that would have shocked Bansemer
+had he turned suddenly.
+
+"He wants both of us to--to come to the penitentiary?" muttered
+the son.
+
+"Yes, as soon as possible. Do you think she'll go?" demanded Droom
+anxiously.
+
+"I don't know. I'm afraid not."
+
+"Not even to learn who her parents are?"
+
+"It might tempt her. But she hates father."
+
+"Well, she can gloat over him, can't she? That ought to be some
+satisfaction. Talk it over with her. She's here, isn't she?"
+
+"Elias, do you know who her parents were?" asked Graydon quickly.
+"I've thought you knew as much about it as father."
+
+The old man's eyes shifted.
+
+"It's a silly question to ask of me. I was not a member of the Four
+Hundred, my boy."
+
+"Nor was my father. Yet you think he knows."
+
+"He's a much smarter man than I, Graydon. You'll go with me to see
+him?"
+
+"Yes. I can't speak for Miss Cable."
+
+"See her to-morrow. Come out to my place to-night, where the reporters
+can't find you. Maybe you won't care to sleep with me--I've but
+one bed, you see--but you can go to a quiet hotel downtown. I'm
+packing these things to store them for your father.  Then I'm going
+back to New York to live on my income. It's honest money, too."
+
+"Who sent me the draft for five hundred?"
+
+"I did, Graydon. Forgive me. It was just a loan, you know. I thought
+you'd need something--"
+
+"I haven't touched it, Elias. Here it is. Thank you. No, I won't
+accept it."
+
+"I'm sorry," muttered the old man, taking the slip of paper.
+
+Graydon resumed his seat near the window and watched Droom with
+leaden eyes as he turned suddenly to resume charge of the packing.
+"We'll soon be through," he said shortly.
+
+For an hour the work went on, and then Droom dismissed the workers
+with their pay. The storage van men were there to carry the boxes
+away. Graydon sat still and saw the offices divested. Secondhand
+dealers hurried off with the furniture, the pictures and the rugs;
+an expressman came in for the things that belonged to Elias Droom.
+
+"There," said the clerk, tossing the umbrella into a corner. "It's
+finished. There's nothing left to do but remove ourselves."
+
+"Elias, did Mr. Clegg know about father's conviction when he offered
+me the place in New York?" asked Graydon as they started away.
+
+"Yes, that's the beauty of it. He admires you. You'll take the
+place?"
+
+"Not until I've talked it all over with him--to-morrow."
+
+Droom called a cab and the two drove over to the Wells Street
+rooms, Graydon relinquishing himself completely to the will of the
+old man.  During the supper, which Droom prepared with elaborate
+care, and far into the night, the young man sat and listened
+without interest to the garrulous talk of his host, who explained
+the mechanism and purpose of two models.
+
+One was in the nature of a guillotine by which a person could chop
+his own head off neatly without chance of failure, and the other
+had to do with the improvement of science in respect to shoelaces.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE DRINK OF GALL
+
+
+
+
+
+Mr. Clegg was not long in convincing Graydon that his proposition
+to him was sincere and not the outgrowth of sentiment. A dozen men
+in the office greeted Graydon with a warmth that had an uplifting
+effect. He went away with a heart lighter than he had once imagined
+it could ever be again. In two weeks he was to be in absolute
+control of the New York branch; he assured the firm that his physical
+condition was such that he could go to work at once, if necessary.
+
+As he hastened to the Annex, misgivings again entered into his soul.
+The newspapers had heralded his return and had hinted broadly at
+romantic developments in connection with Miss Cable, "who is at
+the Annex with Mr. and Mrs. Cable." There were brief references to
+the causes which sent both of them to the Philippines, find that
+was all.
+
+Without hesitation, he came to the point by asking if she knew what
+had befallen his father. Jane had heard the news the night before.
+He thereupon put the whole situation before her just as it had
+been suggested in Droom's ironical remark. It was not until after
+the question had been passed upon by Mr. and Mrs. Cable that
+she reluctantly consented to visit Graydon's father--solely for
+the purpose of gleaning what information she could regarding her
+parentage.
+
+They left the next day with Elias Droom, depressed, nervous, dreading
+the hour ahead of them. Neither was in the mood to respond to the
+eager, excited remarks of the old clerk. The short railroad trip
+was one never to be forgotten; impressions were left in their lives
+that could not be effaced.
+
+James Bansemer, shorn and striped, was not expecting visitors. He
+was surprised and angry when he was told that visitors were waiting
+to see him. For four weeks he had laboured clumsily and sourly in
+the shoe factory of the great prison, a hauler and carrier. His
+tall figure was bent with unusual toil, his hands were sore and his
+heart was full of the canker of rebellion. Already, in that short
+time, his face had taken on the look of the convict. All the
+viciousness in his nature had gone to his face and settled there.
+He had the sullen, dogged, patient look of the man who has a number
+but no name.
+
+The once dignified, aggressive walk had degenerated into a slouch;
+he shuffled as he came to the bars where he was to meet his first
+visitors. He was not pleased but he was curious. Down in his heart
+he found a hope that his attorney had come with good news. It was
+not until he was almost face to face with his son that he realised
+who it was; not until then that he felt the full force of shame,
+ignominy, loathing for himself.
+
+He started back with an involuntary oath and would have slunk
+away had not Graydon called out to him--called out in a voice full
+of pain and misery. The convict's face was ashen and his jaw hung
+loose with the paralysis of dismay; his heart dropped like a chunk
+of ice, his feet were as leaden weights. A look of utter despair
+came into his hard eyes as he slowly advanced to the bars.
+
+"My God, Graydon, why did you come? Why did you come here?" he
+muttered. Then he caught sight of Jane and Elias Droom. His eyes
+dropped and his fingers twitched; to save his life he could not
+have kept his lower lip from trembling nor the burning tears from
+his eyes. His humiliation was complete.
+
+A malevolent grin was on Droom's face; his staring blue eyes looked
+with a great joy upon the shamed, beaten man in the stripes. The
+one thing that he had longed for and cherished had come to pass;
+he had lived to see James Bansemer utterly destroyed even in his
+own eyes.
+
+"Father, I can't believe it. I can't tell you how it hurts me.
+I would willingly take your place if it were possible. Forgive me
+for deserting you--" Graydon was saying incoherently when his father
+lifted his face suddenly, a fierce, horrified look of understanding
+in the eyes that flashed upon Elias Droom. Even as he clasped his
+son's hand in the bitterness of small joy, his lips curled into
+a snarl of fury. Droom's eyes shifted instantly, his uneasy gaze
+directing itself as usual above the head of its victim.
+
+"You did this, curse you!" came from the convict's livid lips. "And
+this girl, too! Good God, you knew I would rather have died than
+to meet Graydon as I am now. You knew it and you brought him here.
+I hope you will rot in hell for this, Elias Droom. She comes here,
+too, to gloat--to rejoice--to see how I look before my son in
+prison stripes!" He went on violently for a long stretch, ending
+with a sob of rage. "I suppose you are satisfied," he said hoarsely
+to Droom.
+
+Graydon and Jane looked on in surprise and distress. Droom's gaze
+did not swerve nor his expression change.
+
+"Father, didn't you expect me to come?" asked Graydon. "Don't you
+want to see me?"
+
+"Not here. Why should I have tried to keep you from returning to
+this country? God knows how I hoped and prayed that you'd not see
+me here. Elias Droom knew it. That's why he brought you here. Don't
+lie to me, Droom. I know it!"
+
+"What could you expect?" mumbled Droom. "Down in your heart you
+wanted to see him. I've done you a kindness."
+
+"For which I'll repay you some day," cried the prisoner, a steady
+look in his eyes. "Now go away, all of you! I'm through with you.
+You've seen me. The girl is satisfied. Go--"
+
+"Nonsense, father," cried Graydon, visibly distressed by his father's
+anguish. "Elias said that you wanted to see us. Jane did not come
+out of curiosity. She is here to ask justice of you; she's not
+seeking vengeance."
+
+"I'll talk to you alone," said the prisoner shortly. "Send her
+away.  I've nothing to say to her or Droom."
+
+Jane turned and walked swiftly away, followed by Droom, who rubbed
+his long fingers together and tried to look sympathetic. The interview
+that ensued between father and son was never to be forgotten by
+either. Graydon heard his father's bitter story in awed silence;
+heard him curse deeply and vindictively; heard all this and marvelled
+at the new and heretofore unexposed side of his nature.
+
+There was something pathetic in the haggard face and the expressions
+of impotent rage. His heart softened when his father bared his
+shame to him and cried out against the fate which had brought them
+together on this day.
+
+"It doesn't matter, father," said Graydon hoarsely. "I deserted
+you and I'm sorry. No matter what you've done to bring you here,
+I'm glad I've come to see you. I don't blame Elias. For a while
+I'm afraid I rather held out against coming. Now, I am glad for my
+own sake. I won't desert you now. I am going to work for a pardon,
+if your appeal does not go through."
+
+"Don't! I won't have it!" exclaimed the other. "I'm going to stay
+it out. It will give me time to forget, so that I can be a better
+man.  If they let me out now I'd do something I'd always regret. I
+want to serve my time and start all over again. Don't worry about
+me. I won't hamper you. I'll go away--abroad, as Harbert suggested.
+Damn him, his advice was good, after all. Understand, Graydon, I do
+not want parole or pardon. You must not undertake it. I am guilty
+and I ought to be punished the same as these other fellows in here.
+Don't shudder. It's true. I'm no better than they."
+
+"I hate to think of you in this awful place--" began Graydon.
+
+"Don't think of me."
+
+"But, my God, I've seen you here, father," cried the son.
+
+"A pretty spectacle for a son," laughed the father bitterly. "Why
+did you bring that girl here? That was cruel--heartless."
+
+Graydon tried to convince him that Jane had not come to gloat but
+to ask a favour of him.
+
+"A favour, eh? She expects me to tell all I know about her, eh?
+That's good!" laughed Bansemer.
+
+"Father, she has done you no wrong. Why are you so bitter against
+her? It's not right--it's not like you."
+
+Bansemer looked steadily at him for a full minute.
+
+"Is she going to marry you, Graydon?"
+
+"She refuses, absolutely."
+
+"Then, she's better than I thought. Perhaps I'm wrong in hating
+her as I do. It's because she took you away from me. Give me time,
+Graydon. Some day I may tell you all I know. Don't urge me now; I
+can't do it now. I don't want to see her again. Don't think I'm a
+fool about it, boy, and don't speak of it again. Give me time."
+
+"She is the gentlest woman in the world."
+
+"You love her?"
+
+"Better than my life."
+
+"Graydon, I--I hope she will change her mind and become your wife."
+
+"You do? I don't understand."
+
+"That's why I'd rather she never could know who her parents are.
+The shadow is invisible now; it wouldn't help matters for her if it
+were visible. She's better off by not knowing. Has Droom intimated
+that he knows?"
+
+"He says he does not."
+
+"He lies, but at the same time he won't tell her. It's not in him
+to do it. God, he has served me ill to-day. He has always hated
+me, but he was always true to me. He did me a vile trick when he
+changed the cartridges in my revolver. By God, I discharged him for
+that. I told him to appear against me if he would. He was free to
+do so. But, curse him, he would not give me the satisfaction of
+knowing that he was a traitor. He knew I'd go over the road, anyhow.
+He's been waiting for this day to come. He has finally given me
+the unhappiest hour in my life."
+
+After a few moments he quieted down and asked Graydon what his plans
+were for the future. In a strained uncertain way the two talked of
+the young man's prospects and the advantages they promised.
+
+"Go ahead, Graydon, and don't let the shadow of your father haunt
+you. Don't forget me, boy, because I love you better than all the
+world. These are strange words for a man who has fallen as I have
+fallen, but they are true. Listen to this: you will be a rich man
+some day; I have a fortune to give you, my boy. They can't take my
+money from me, you know. It's all to be yours--every cent of it.
+You see--"
+
+"Father--I--let us not talk about it now," said Graydon hastily,
+a shadow of repugnance in his eyes. Bansemer studied his face for
+a moment and a deep red mounted to his brow.
+
+"You mean, Graydon," he stammered, "that you--you do not want my
+money?"
+
+"Why should we talk about it now?"
+
+"Because it suggests my death?"
+
+"No, no, father. I--"
+
+"You need not say it. I understand. It's enough. You feel that my
+money was not honestly made. Well, we won't discuss it. I'll not
+offer it to you again."
+
+"It won't make any difference, dad. I love you. I don't love your
+money."
+
+"Or the way I earned it. Some day, my boy, you'll learn that very
+few make money by dealing squarely with their fellow men. It's not
+the custom. My methods were a little broader than common, that's
+all. I now notify you that I intend to leave all I have to sweet
+charity. I earned most of my ill-gotten wealth in New York and
+Chicago, and I'm going to give it back to these cities. Charity
+will take anything that is offered, but it doesn't always give in
+return."
+
+At the expiration of the time allotted to the visitor, Graydon took
+his departure.
+
+"Graydon, ask her to think kindly of me if she can."
+
+"I'll come down again, father before I go East."
+
+"No!" almost shouted James Bansemer. "I won't have it! For my sake,
+Graydon, don't ever come here again. Don't shame me more than you
+have to-day. I'll never forget this hour. Stay away and you'll be
+doing me the greatest kindness in the world. Promise me, boy!"
+
+"I can't promise that, dad. It isn't a sane request. I am your
+son--"
+
+"My God, boy, don't you see that I can't bear to look at you through
+these bars? Go! Please go! Good-bye! Write to me, but don't come
+here again. Don't! It's only a few years."
+
+He turned away abruptly, his shoulder drawn upward as if in pain,
+and Graydon left the place, weakened and sick at heart.
+
+Jane and Droom were awaiting him in an outer office. The former
+looked into his eyes searchingly, tenderly.
+
+"I'm so sorry, Graydon," she said as she took his hand in hers.
+
+All the way back to Chicago Elias Droom sat and watched them from
+under lowered brows, wondering why it was that he felt so much
+lonelier than he ever had felt before,--wondering, too, in a vague
+sort of way, why he was not able to exult, after all.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE TRANSFORMING OF DROOM
+
+
+
+
+
+Jane was ill and did not leave her room during the two days following
+the visit to the penitentiary. She was haunted by the face of James
+Bansemer, the convict. It was beyond her powers of imagination
+to recall him as the well-groomed, distinguished man she once had
+known. Graydon was deeply distressed over the pain and humiliation
+he had subjected her to through Droom's unfortunate efforts. The
+fact that she could not or would not see him for two days hurt him
+more than he could express, even to himself. The day before he left
+for New York, however, she saw him in their parlour.  She was pale
+and very quiet.
+
+Neither mentioned the visit to the prison; there was nothing to
+say.
+
+"You will be in New York next week?" he asked as he arose to leave.
+His spirit was sore. She again had told him that he must not hope.
+With an hysterical attempt to lead him on to other topics, she
+repeated her conversations with Teresa Valesquez, urging him with
+a hopeless attempt at bravado, to seek out the Spanish girl and
+marry her. He laughed lifelessly at the jest.
+
+"We will leave Chicago on Monday. Father will have his business
+affairs arranged by that time. I would not let him resign the
+presidency. It would seem as if I were taking it away from him. We
+expect to be in Europe for six or eight months. Then, I am coming
+back to New York, where I was born, Graydon--to work!"
+
+He went away with the feeling in his heart that he was not to see
+her again. A single atom of determination lingered in his soul,
+however, and he tried to build upon it for the future. Rigby's wedding
+invitation had come to him that morning--almost as a mockery. He
+tore it to pieces with a scowl of recollection.
+
+Droom's effects were on the way to New York. He hung back, humbly
+waiting for Graydon to suggest that they should travel East on the
+same train. His grim, friendless old heart gave a bound of pure
+joy--the first he had known--when the young man made the suggestion
+that night.
+
+Together they travelled eastward and homeward, leaving behind them
+the grey man in stripes.
+
+Jane's six months in Europe grew into a year--and longer. It was
+a long but a profitable year for Graydon Bansemer; he had been
+enriched not only in wealth but in the hope of ultimate happiness.
+Not that Jane encouraged him. Far from it, she was more obdurate
+than ever with an ocean between them. But his atom of determination
+had grown to a purpose. His face was thinner and his eyes were of
+a deeper, more wistful grey; they were full of longing for the girl
+across the sea, and of pity and yearning for the man back there in
+the West.
+
+He had toiled hard and well; he had won. The shadow of '99 was
+still over him, but the year and a new ambition had lessened its
+blackness. Friends were legion in the great metropolis; he won his
+way into the hearts and confidence of new associates and renewed
+fellowship with the old. Invitations came thickly upon him, but he
+resolutely turned his back upon most of them. He was not socially
+hungry in these days.
+
+Once a week he wrote to his father, but there never was a reply.
+He did not expect one, for James Bansemer, in asking him to write,
+had vowed that his son should never hear from him again until he
+could speak as a free man and a chastened one. True to his promise,
+Graydon instituted no movement to secure a pardon. He did, by
+a strong personal appeal, persuade Denis Harbert to drop further
+prosecution. There were enough indictments against his father to
+have kept him behind the bars for life.
+
+Elias Droom had rooms in Eighth Avenue not a great distance from
+Herald Square. He was quite proud of his new quarters. They had
+many of the unpleasant features of the old ones in Wells Street,
+but they were less garish in their affront to an aesthetic eye.
+The incongruous pictures were there and the oddly assorted books,
+but the new geraniums had a chance for life in the broader windows;
+the cook stove was in the rear and there was a venerable Chinaman
+in charge of it; the bedroom was kept so neat and clean that Droom
+quite feared to upset it with his person. But, most strange of all,
+was the change in Droom himself.
+
+"I've retired from active work," he informed Graydon one day, when
+that young man stared in astonishment at him. "What's the use, my
+boy, in Elias Droom dressing like a dog of a workingman, when he
+is a gentleman of leisure and affluence? It surprises you to see
+me in an evening suit, eh? Well, by Jove, my boy, I've got a dinner
+jacket, a Prince Albert and a silk hat. There are four new suits
+of clothes hanging up in that closet," he said, adding, with
+a sarcastic laugh," That ought to make a perfect gentleman of me,
+oughtn't it? What are you laughing at?"
+
+"I can't help it, Elias. Who would have dreamed that you'd go in
+for good clothes!"
+
+"I used to dream about it, long ago. I swore if I ever got back to
+New York I'd dress as New Yorkers dress--even if I was a hundred
+years old. I've got a servant, too. What d'ye think of that? He
+can't understand a word I say, nor can I understand him. That's
+why he stays on with me. He doesn't know when I'm discharging him,
+and I don't know when he's threatening to leave. What do you think
+of my rooms?"
+
+It was Graydon's first visit to the place, weeks after their return to
+New York. He had not felt friendly to Droom since the day at the
+prison; but now he was forgetting his resentment, in the determination
+to wrest from him the names of Jane's father and mother. He was
+confident that the old man knew.
+
+"Better than Wells Street, eh? Well, you see, I was in trade then.
+Different now. I'm getting to be quite a fop. Do you notice that I
+say 'By Jove' occasionally?" He gave his raucous laugh of derision.
+"Dined at Sherry's the other night, old chap," he went on with raw
+mimicry. "They thought I was a Christian and let me in. I used to
+look like the devil, you know."
+
+"By the Lord Harry, Elias," cried Graydon, "you look like the devil
+now."
+
+"I've got these carpet slippers on because my shoes hurt my feet,"
+explained Droom sourly. "My collar rubbed my neck, so I took it
+off.  Otherwise, I'm just as I was when I got in at Sherry's. Funny
+what a difference a little thing like a collar makes, isn't it?"
+
+"I should say so. I never gave it a thought until now. But, Elias,
+I want to ask a great favour of you. You can--"
+
+"My boy, if your father wouldn't tell you who her parents are,
+don't expect me to do so. He knows; I only suspect."
+
+"You must be a mind reader," gasped Graydon.
+
+"It isn't hard to read your mind these days. What do you hear from
+her?" Graydon went back to the subject after a few moments. "I am
+morally certain that I know who her father and mother were, but
+it won't do any good to tell her. It didn't make me any better to
+learn who my father was. It made me wiser, that's all. How's your
+father?"
+
+After this night Graydon saw the old man often. They dined together
+occasionally in the small cafes on the West Side. Droom could not,
+for some reason known only to himself, be induced to go to Sherry's
+again.
+
+"When Jane comes back, I'll give you both a quiet little supper
+there after the play maybe. It'll be my treat, my boy."
+
+The old man worked patiently and fruitlessly over his "inventions."
+They came to naught, but they lightened his otherwise barren
+existence. There was not a day or night in which his mind was wholly
+free from thoughts of James Bansemer.
+
+He counted the weeks and days until the man would be free, and his
+eyes narrowed with these furtive glances into the future. He felt
+in his heart that James Bansemer would come to him at once, and
+that the reckoning for his single hour of triumph would be a heavy
+one to pay. Sometimes he would sit for hours with his eyes staring
+at the Napoleon above the bookcase, something like dread in their
+depths.  Then again he would laugh with glee, pound the table with
+his bony hand--much to the consternation of Chang--and exclaim as
+if addressing a multitude:
+
+"I hope I'll be dead when he gets out of there! I hope I won't live
+to see him, free again. That would spoil everything. Let me see,
+I'm seventy-one now; I surely can't live much longer. I want to
+die seeing him as I saw him that day. The last thing I think of on
+earth must be James Bansemer's face behind the bars. Ha, ha, ha!
+It was worth all the years, that one hour! It was even worth while
+being his slave. I'm not afraid of him! No! That's ridiculous. Of
+course, I'm not afraid of him. I only want to know he's lying in
+a cell when I die out here in the great, free world! By my soul,
+he'll know that a handsome face isn't always the best. He laughed
+at my face, curse him. His face won her--his good looks! Well,
+well, well, I only hope she's where she can see his face now!"
+
+He would work himself into a frenzy of torment and glee combined,
+usually collapsing at the end of his harangue. It disgusted him
+to think that his health was so good that he might be expected to
+live beyond the limit of James Bansemer's imprisonment.
+
+At the end of eighteen months, Jane was coming home. She had written
+to Graydon from London, and the newspapers announced the sailing
+of the Cables on one of the White Star steamers.
+
+"I am coming home to end all of this idleness," she wrote to him.
+"I mean to find pleasure in toil, in doing good, in lifting the
+burdens of those who are helpless. You will see how I can work,
+Graydon. You will love me more than ever when you see how I can do
+so much good for my fellow creatures. I want you to love me more
+and more, because I shall love you to the end of my life."
+
+The night before the ship was to arrive Graydon was dining with
+the Jack Percivals. There were a dozen in the party--a blase, bored
+collection of human beings who had dined out so incessantly that
+eating was a punishment. They had come to look upon food as a foe
+to comfort and a grievous obstacle in the path of pleasure. Bridge
+was just beginning to take hold of them; its grip was tightening
+with new coils as each night went by. Nobody thought of dinner; the
+thought was of the delay in getting at the game; an instinct that
+was not even a thought urged them to abhor the food that had come
+into their lives so abundantly.
+
+Night after night they dined out; night after night they toyed with
+their forks, ate nothing, drank to hide their yawns, took black
+coffee and said they enjoyed the food tremendously.
+
+Graydon Bansemer was new to this attitude. He was vigorous and he
+was not surfeited with food; he had an appetite. Just before six
+o'clock his host called him up by 'phone, and, in a most genial
+way, advised him to eat a hearty meal before coming up to dinner.
+Graydon made the mistake of not following this surprising bit of
+advice.
+
+He sat next to Mrs. Percival. She appeared agitated and uncertain.
+Servants came in with the dishes and almost immediately took them
+away again. No one touched a mouthful of the food; no one except
+Graydon noticed the celerity with which the plates and their contents
+were removed; no one felt that he was expected to eat.  Graydon,
+after his first attempt to really eat of the third course, subsided
+with a look of amazement at his hostess. She smiled and whispered
+something into his ear. He grew very red and choked with--was it
+confusion or mirth?
+
+Everybody gulped black coffee and everybody puffed violently at
+cigars and cigarettes and then everybody bolted for the card tables.
+
+Jack Percival grasped Graydon's arm and drew him back into the
+dining-room. He was grinning like an ape.
+
+"It worked, by George--worked like a charm. Great Scott, what a
+money and time saver! I was a little worried about you, Bansemer,
+but I knew the others wouldn't catch on. Great, wasn't it?"
+
+"What the dickens does it mean?" demanded Graydon. "Mean! Why, good
+Lord, man, nobody ever eats at these damned dinners. They CAN'T
+eat.  They're sick of dinners. That crowd out there takes tea and
+things at five or six o'clock. They wouldn't any more think of
+eating anything at a dinner after the caviar and oysters than you'd
+think of flying. It's a waste of time and money to give 'em real
+food.  This is the second time I've tried my scheme and it's worked
+both times. I can serve this same dinner twenty times. Everything's
+made of wax and papier mache. See what I mean? And I'll leave it
+to you that there isn't a soul out there who is any the wiser. By
+George, it's a great invention. I'm going to patent it. Come on;
+let's get in there. They're howling for us to begin."
+
+Graydon, his mind full of Jane, played at a table with Colonel
+Sedgwick, a blase old Knickerbocker whose sole occupation in life was
+saying rude things about other people. To-night he was particularly
+attentive to his profession. He kept Graydon and the two women
+sitting straight and uncomfortable in their chairs between hands
+and positively chilled while the game went on.
+
+Graydon's game was a poor one at best, but he was playing abominably
+on this occasion. He could not tear his thoughts from the ship
+that was drawing nearer and nearer to New York harbour with each
+succeeding minute. In his mind's eye he could look far out over
+the black waters and see the lonely vessel as it rushed on through
+the night. He wondered if Jane were asleep or awake and thinking
+of him.
+
+The Colonel's irascibility finally drove him from the game.
+He apologised for his wretched playing, but the Colonel did not
+apologise for the disagreeable things he had said.
+
+It was one o'clock when Graydon reached his rooms. There he found
+a note from Elias Droom.
+
+"I have an especial reason," he wrote, "for asking you and Miss
+Cable to dine with me on Monday night. We will go to Sherry's. Let
+me know as soon as you have seen her."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+ELIAS DROOM'S DINNER PARTY
+
+
+
+
+
+He was mystified and not a little upset by this almost peremptory
+summons from the old man. He hurried over to Droom's quarters the
+next morning, after ascertaining that the steamer would not reach
+the dock until two or three o'clock. Droom was at work on one of
+his amazing models.
+
+"Hello," he said ungraciously. "I thought I invited you for to-night."
+
+"I want to know something about it, Elias," said Graydon, sitting
+upon the end of the workbench. "She'll not get in before the middle of
+the afternoon, and she may not feel like going to Sherry's to-night."
+
+"Just as she likes," said Droom pettishly. "You mean that she would
+not like to be seen there with me unless there is to be something
+in it for her, eh?"
+
+"Nonsense. You've got something on your mind, Elias. What is it?
+Why do you insist on going to-night?"
+
+"I don't. It's to-night or not at all, however. I'm not in the
+habit of letting people decide when I shall dine at Sherry's. If
+she doesn't want to come, let her say so." That was all Graydon
+could get out of him, so he left in a more perplexed frame of mind
+than before.
+
+He was at the dock long before the steamer came to a stop after
+its eight days of ceaseless throbbing. She was waving to him from
+the rail, her face beaming with happiness. It was just as he had
+seen it in his dreams of this day. More than ever he arrayed his
+love against her principle; more than ever was he determined to
+overcome the obstacles which she had thrown up in her self-arraignment.
+
+There was a cold, biting wind blowing, with the suggestion of snow
+in the skies. The passengers came down with rosy cheeks, coloured
+by the frost-laden hours on deck. After the tedious, disagreeable
+hour with the customs officials, the Cables were driven to the
+Holland House. Graydon Bansemer, sitting opposite to Jane in the
+carriage, was almost speechless with joy and eagerness. The old
+restraint was still upon him, but it was being worn down by degrees
+as he gathered encouragement from the clear, inviting eyes of the
+girl he worshipped. The love in those happy, glowing eyes could
+not be mistaken for loyal indifference.
+
+She was more beautiful than ever to his hungry, patient eyes; she
+was more desirable, more priceless. David Cable and his wife had
+been immensely benefited in every way by their months abroad. Jane
+had found the sunshine for them and it had been her purpose in all
+these months to keep them free from the shadows. They had travelled
+Europe over and they had lived in the full warmth of pleasure.
+
+Cable took Graydon aside as they entered the hotel. The latter
+had implored Jane to give him a few minutes alone at the earliest
+possible moment.
+
+"Tell me about your father, Graydon," said David Cable.
+
+"He is still in--in Joliet," replied the young man quietly.
+
+"He has not offered to help us in clearing up the mystery?"
+
+"I have had no word from him, Mr. Cable. He seems to be in his
+tomb.  I am afraid he will not help us, sir. He has said he would
+not; that means a great deal, I am sorry to say."
+
+He then told him of Elias Droom's strange invitation, adding that
+he believed the old man was ready to reveal all that he knew.
+
+"She must go with you to-night, then," said Cable. "It is necessary.
+She wants to know the truth. She has said so."
+
+"It won't matter, sir, so far as I am concerned. She--"
+
+"She has come back, my boy, determined to go on with her plans.
+I am sorry, Graydon, but I am at last convinced that she means to
+give her life to the work."
+
+"By Heaven, Mr. Cable, she shall not do it! I can't live without
+her," cried Graydon miserably. Cable smiled sadly as he shook his
+head.
+
+At half past seven o'clock Jane Cable and Graydon met Droom at
+Sherry's. She was paler than usual and there was a queer chill in
+her heart. Bansemer was more nervous than he had ever been before
+in his life.
+
+Elias Droom, the strangest creature in the big restaurant, arose
+to greet them as they entered the doors. He had been waiting inside
+and out for half an hour, and his welcome was quite in keeping with
+his character, He uttered a few gruff words of greeting to her,
+accompanied by a perfunctory smile that gave out no warmth; then
+he started off with rude haste toward the table he had reserved.
+Not a word concerning her welfare, her health, her return to the
+homeland--no sign of interest or consideration. They followed him
+silently, anxiously.
+
+The old man was conspicuously repulsive in his finery. It is
+unnecessary to say that his clothes did not fit his lank figure:
+tailors cannot perform miracles. His long chin was carefully shaven,
+but the razor could not remove the ruts and creases that hid the
+thick stubble of grey and black. Not one but one hundred diners
+looked with curiosity upon the nervous, uncouth old man. There was
+a buzz of interest and a craning of necks when the crowd saw the
+handsome couple join him at the table in the corner.
+
+"I wish you'd order the dinner for me, Graydon," he said, rather
+plaintively. "I can pay for it, Miss Cable," he added with an
+attempt at joviality, "but I'm no good at ordering. These young
+swells know all about it. Get champagne, Graydon. Order something
+nice for Miss Cable. Anywhere up to twenty dollars. I'm not a
+millionaire, Miss Cable. Tell the waiter I'll pay for it, Graydon.
+This is a swell place, isn't it, Miss Cable? I've never been in
+Europe, but they say they can't touch our restaurants over there.
+Get oysters, Graydon."
+
+"By Jove, Elias, you are giving us a treat," laughed Graydon. The
+old man's mood had changed suddenly. He was beaming in his effort
+to be agreeable. A glance around the room had convinced him that
+the prettiest woman there was sitting at his table. He felt a new
+sense of pride.
+
+"I am proud of myself," said Droom--and he meant it.
+
+"It's very good of you to ask me to come, Mr. Droom," said Jane,
+her bright eyes meeting his before they could lift themselves into
+the customary stare above her head.
+
+"I'm not so sure about that," said Elias. From time to time he
+glanced uneasily toward a table at his left. It was set for six
+persons, none of whom had arrived. "I trust it will not be the last
+time you will honour me, Miss Cable. I am getting very hospitable
+in my old age. If you don't mind, Graydon, I won't drink this
+cocktail.  I may take the champagne. I'm quite a teetotaler, you
+see. Milk, always. By the way, Graydon," he said, turning suddenly
+to the young man, "I suppose you've led her to believe that I had
+a motive in asking her to dine to-night--I mean other than the
+pleasure it would give to me."
+
+"I--I rather thought something of the sort," stammered Graydon.
+
+"Well, there is a motive. I've decided at last to tell all I knew.
+Don't look like that, Miss Cable. You'll attract attention. Calm
+yourself. It will be some time before the story is forthcoming.
+Besides, I doubt very much whether you'll get any great satisfaction
+out of it, although it may clear things up a bit for you. If
+you've been hoping that your father and mother--well, we'll take
+our time.  Here are the oysters. Oysters make me think of your
+father, Graydon.  Don't choke, my boy," he chuckled as Graydon
+stiffened quickly." He had a woman arrested at her own dinner party
+one night--right over there in Fifth Avenue, too. Search warrant,
+and all that. The oysters were being served when the papers were
+served. Ah, he was a great man for effective revenge. She had dared
+him, you see. Did you ever hear of the other time when he permitted
+an ignorant host to invite two deadly enemies to the same dinner?
+One fellow had robbed the other fellow of his wife. Terrible scandal.
+Your father knew that they expected to kill one another on sight.
+And yet when the host told him whom he expected to invite he let
+him ask the two men.  He told me about it afterward. It amused
+him. Everybody but the host knew of the row and there was a panic
+in the drawing-room."
+
+"Good Lord," gasped Graydon, helplessly pushing the oysters away.
+"Why are you telling me this?"
+
+"Oh, it was a great joke. It's a good dinner story. The joke comes
+in at the end. Both those fellows got tight and went home with their
+arms about one another. By the way, Graydon, what do you hear from
+your father?"
+
+Graydon looked uncomfortably at Jane, whose face was set with
+distress.
+
+"Elias, you've got no right to--" began the young man coldly.
+
+"I beg your pardon if I've offended," said Droom abjectly. "I--I
+don't know the etiquette of small talk--forgive me. I was interested,
+that is all."
+
+"It may interest you to know that I had a long talk with Mr. Clegg
+this afternoon. He says there is a movement on foot to secure a
+pardon for father. Father hasn't asked anyone to intercede. It is
+known that he will go to England to live as soon as he is released.
+That's an inducement, you see," he said bitterly.
+
+Droom's face turned a frozen white; his steely eyes took on a
+peculiar glaze, and his hand grasped his leg as if it were a vise
+intended to hold him in his chair.
+
+"I haven't told you about it, Jane," went on Graydon. "Mr. Clegg
+has seen father and he says he is indifferent about it. He intends
+to leave the country in any event. I am going to write to him
+to-night, asking him to let them apply for the pardon. It may save
+him from three years more of servitude. Mr. Clegg is sure he can
+get his release--what's the matter, Elias?"
+
+The old clerk's body had stiffened and the look in his face was
+something horrible to behold. Terror was visible in every lineament.
+His companions started from their chairs in alarm. With a mighty
+effort the old man succeeded in regaining a semblance of self-control.
+His body relaxed, and his jaw dropped; his voice was trembling and
+weak as he responded, an apologetic grin on his face.
+
+"Nothing--nothing at all. A momentary pain. Don't mind me. Don't
+mind me," he mumbled. "I have them often. I think it's my heart.
+What were you saying, Graydon? Oh, yes, the pardon. I-I hope you'll
+mention me in writing to your father. Tell him I hope to--to see
+him if he comes to New York."
+
+"I don't believe he likes you, Elias," said Graydon, half jestingly.
+
+"Wha--what has he said to you?" demanded Droom sharply.
+
+"He rather resented your taking Jane and me to Joliet that day."
+The old man's grin was malicious. "He won't forgive you that."
+
+"I shall never forget how he looked at you, Mr. Droom," said Jane
+with a shudder. Droom trembled with a new spasm of fear.
+
+Attention was diverted by the arrival of the party of six. The
+men were distinguished in appearance, the women aristocratic but
+spirited. That they were well known to many of the diners in those
+days at Sherry's was at once apparent; they were bowing right and
+left to near-by acquaintances. After much ado they finally relapsed
+into the chairs obsequiously drawn back for them and the buzz of
+conversation throughout the place was resumed.
+
+Graydon, lowering his voice, named the newcomers to Jane, who looked
+at them with fresh interest. The names were well known to New York
+and European society. For the moment Elias Droom was unnoticed. He
+took the opportunity to collect his nerves and to subdue his too
+apparent emotion. Jane was recalled from her polite scrutiny of the
+women at the next table by hearing her name mentioned in Droom's
+hoarsest voice, modified into something like a whisper.
+
+"Miss Cable, I not only asked you to come here in order to tell
+you the name of your father, but to point him out to you."
+
+There was an instant of breathless silence at the table. So
+startling was his announcement that every other sound in the room
+escaped the ears of his two listeners.
+
+"There was a new hundred dollar bill found in the basket with you.
+Your grandfather's signature was on that bill. He was the president
+of the bank which issued it. Your mother was--" Here he leaned
+forward and whispered a name that fairly stunned his hearers.
+Graydon caught his breath and a new light appeared in his eyes.
+He was beginning to believe that the old man's brain was affected.
+Jane leaned forward in her chair, an incredulous smile on her lips.
+
+"Don't jest, Elias," began Graydon, somewhat roughly.
+
+"I am not jesting. It is the truth, I swear it," snapped Elias.
+
+"But, great Heaven, man, consider what you've said. It's one of
+the best families in this country-it's preposterous to say--"
+
+"Of course, her family is one of the best. She was a blue stocking.
+That's where Miss Cable gets most of her good blood."
+
+"My God, Elias, I can't believe it!" cried Graydon.
+
+Jane was staring blankly at the old man's face.
+
+"Your father will tell you the same. For more than twenty years
+I have known the secret. There is no documentary proof, but this
+much I do know: James Bansemer received fifty thousand dollars for
+keeping his mouth closed. He found out the truth and he profited
+by it as usual. Oh, he knew that hundred dollar bills are not left
+with pauper babes. I don't know how he unearthed the truth about
+Miss--"
+
+"Sh! Don't mention the name aloud!"
+
+"But he did unearth it, beyond all possible chance of mistake. Your
+father, Miss Cable, is sitting at that table. Don't look up just
+yet. He is staring at you. He doesn't know you, but he does know
+you are a pretty woman. The gentleman with the grey hair, Graydon.
+See?  That man is her father."
+
+Graydon half started up in his chair, his lips apart, his eyes
+riveted on the man designated. Every drop of blood seemed to have
+frozen in his veins.
+
+"Good God, Elias!" he whispered. "Why, that is--" The name stuck
+in his throat.
+
+"The son of the man who signed the banknote. He is Jane's father.
+There's blue blood in him--there has been since King Henry's day--but
+he is a villain for all that. Now, Miss Cable, I've done my duty.
+I've told you the absolute truth. You could not have expected more--you
+could not have asked a greater climax. The name of Vanderbilt or
+Astor is no better known than that man's name, and no ancestry is
+better than that of your mother. I will now give to you one of the
+articles of proof that connects you with their history." He handed
+to her a small package. "It is the letter written to James Bansemer
+by your paternal grandfather, agreeing to an appointment to discuss
+a question of grave moment. I found the letter that same day, and
+I've kept it all these years. It bears your grandfather's signature.
+That is all. I heard part of that interview, and I stake my soul
+that what I've told you is true."
+
+Jane sat looking at him as if paralysed. Her mind was quite incapable
+of grasping the full import of his words--the words she had craved
+for so many months, and yet dreaded.
+
+"I knew he was coming here to-night. He gives a theatre party.
+To-morrow he goes abroad. That is all."
+
+"He's living in Paris," muttered Graydon mechanically. Jane spoke
+for the first time, as in a daze.
+
+"I--I have seen him many times in Paris. My father? Oh, oh, it
+can't be true."
+
+"Jane, let me take you away from here--" began Graydon, observing
+her pallor.
+
+"No. Let me stay. It can't matter, Graydon. I want to look at him
+again and again," she said, shrinking back as if the whole world
+were staring at her. By the most prodigious effort she regained
+control of her fleeing composure. It was a trying moment.
+
+"He's worth millions," said Droom. "It will be worth while for YOU
+to--"
+
+"No!" she exclaimed passionately. "Do you think I will present
+myself to him after he has cast me off! No! a thousand times, no!"
+
+At that instant the party of six hurriedly arose to leave the place.
+The tall man with the grey hair--the handsomest man of all--was
+staring boldly at Jane's averted face, now red with consciousness.
+As he passed her in going out of the room, his look grew more
+insistent. She glanced up and a faint smile crossed his face.
+
+"Devilish handsome girl," he remarked to the man behind him and
+then he passed out of her sight, perhaps forever.
+
+"The woman with him?" cried Jane, her eyes following the beautiful
+creature at his side, "is she my mother?"
+
+"No," said Graydon, averting his eyes to avoid her expression; "she
+is his wife."
+
+Droom waited until the party was out of the restaurant before
+uttering a word.
+
+"Inside of two years I have pointed out two fathers to their
+children--yours and his, Jane. Your mothers are dead. There isn't
+much choice as to fathers. If I were you, I'd say I had the better
+of the bargain. Take an old man's advice, both of you, and let
+bygones be bygones. Start life now, just as if nothing had happened
+before, and get every atom of happiness out of it that you can.
+Don't you two pay for the sins of your fathers."
+
+"I couldn't live in New York if he were living here," murmured
+Jane.
+
+"Hey, waiter, your bill," said Droom, with sudden harshness.
+
+It was snowing and the wind was blowing a gale when they emerged
+from the place. Jane hung heavily upon Graydon's arm; he could
+feel that she was sobbing. He did not dare to look into her face,
+but he felt something cruelly triumphant surging in his heart. Elias
+Droom waited until their cab came up. Then he offered his hand to
+both, hesitatingly, even timidly.
+
+"Good-night. Be happy. There is nothing else left for you but that.
+Graydon, when you jrrite to your father, give him my love."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+DROOM TRIUMPHS OVER DEATH
+
+
+
+
+
+Droom stood for a few moments in the hurtling snowstorm, abstractedly
+gazing toward Longacre Square. The chill in his marrow was not from
+the blizzard that swept down upon him; the gaunt grey look in his
+face was not that of hunger or want. There was fever in his brain
+and chill in his heart. He had forgotten Jane's trivial tragedy;
+his one overwhelming thought was of James Bansemer.
+
+The heavy ulster was unbuttoned and the snowflakes pelted in against
+his neglected shirt front. A doorman called his attention to the
+oversight. He came to himself, drew the coat close about his long
+frame, and hurried off down Fifth Avenue. The storm was so vicious
+that he boarded a crosstown car at Forty-second Street. A man
+elbowed him in the narrow vestibule. He looked up and gasped aloud
+in sudden terror. An instant later he laughed at his fears; the man
+was not James Bansemer. A cold perspiration started out over his
+body, however. Through his brain there went racing the ever-revolving
+cry:
+
+"He'll come straight to me-straight to me!"
+
+The hour was not late, but the blizzard had driven the crowds from
+the streets. Eighth avenue sidewalks were deserted except for the
+people who were obliged to brave the storm. As Droom hurried south
+to his lodgings he became possessed of a racking belief that someone
+was following close upon his heels--someone who was rushing up to
+deal him a murderous blow in the back. The old man actually broke
+into a frantic run in covering the last half block.
+
+It was not until he was in his rooms, with the door bolted that
+he could rid himself of the dread. The fire had gone out and the
+light was low. His teeth chattered and his hand shook as he raised
+the wick in the lamp. The palsy of inexplicable fear was upon him.
+Kneeling before the stove he began to rebuild the fire. His back
+was toward the door and he turned an anxious face in that direction
+from time to time. Footsteps on the stairway sent a new chill through
+his gaunt frame. They passed on up the next flight, but he waited
+breathlessly until he heard the door of the apartment above slam
+noisily.
+
+For half an hour he sat huddled in front of the stove without
+removing his hat and ulster.
+
+"Curse the luck," he was saying over and over again to himself,
+sometimes aloud. "Why should he have a pardon? What are the laws
+for? Curse that meddling old fool Clegg! They'll set him free, and
+he'll hunt me out, I know he will. He won't forgive me for that
+day's work. He may be free now-it may have been he who followed me.
+But no! That's a silly thing to think. It takes weeks and months
+to get a pardon. Maybe--maybe they won't get it, after all."
+
+He tried to throw off his desperate feeling of apprehension,
+chattering all sorts of comforting reasons and excuses to himself
+as he scurried about the rooms with aimless haste. Try as he would,
+however, when the time came, he could not read--not even of his
+courage-inspiring Napoleon. The howl of the wind annoyed and appalled
+him; he caught himself listening intently for sounds above and not
+of the storm. A nervous, intermittent laugh broke from his lips
+as he went on cursing himself for a fool to be so disturbed by
+Graydon's report.
+
+"What have I to fear from him? Why should I let that look of his
+unnerve me so? Why can't I forget it? It--it didn't mean anything.
+I'm a fool to think of it. Nearly two years ago, that was. Why,
+he may be--" A new thought chased the old one out before it was
+formed.  His eyes caught sight of one of his completed models,
+standing in the corner. It was the model for the guillotine.
+
+For a long time he sat staring at the thing, a hundred impressions
+forming and reforming in his brain.
+
+"I wonder if I'll really die before he is liberated," he was saying
+dumbly to himself. "I wonder if I will. There's no sign of it now.
+I'm strong and well enough to live for years. Suppose he is freed
+inside of a month or two, what then? By Heaven, I'd be losing the
+dearest hope of my whole life. My last sight of him--that beautiful
+vision behind the bars--would be spoiled, undone, wiped out. He'd
+be as free as I. I won't die inside of a month, I'm sure. He'd come
+here and laugh at me and he'd kill me in the end. God! I know he
+would. He'd have the joy of seeing my pain and terror and defeat--he'd
+see me LAST! I'd be bloody and crushed and--"
+
+He checked himself in the midst of these dire forebodings to rise
+suddenly and cross to the ghastly looking frame with the cords, the
+hinges, and the great broadaxe that lay harmlessly in the grooves
+at the top. For many minutes he stood and gazed at the axe, his
+flesh as cold as ice. Then he tested the cords. The axe dropped
+heavily to the block below. He smiled with cunning triumph at his
+own skill.
+
+The odour of geranium leaves assailed his nostrils. With an ugly
+impulse he turned and swept the pots from the window box, scattering
+them over the floor.
+
+"I'm in a devil of a humour," he laughed as he surveyed the wreck.
+"Something's gone wrong with me. I've never mistreated my flowers
+before." He lifted the broadaxe to its place, tenderly, almost
+lovingly. "By my soul, it's a beautiful piece of work. It's as sure
+as the grave itself."
+
+Again he stood off and looked at the infernal bit of his own
+handiwork, his eyes glistening with dread of the thing. He turned
+and fled to the opposite side of the room, keeping his back toward
+the silent guillotine which seemed to be calling to him. with
+mocking yet fascinating persistency.
+
+"Curse the thing," he groaned. "Damn it, I didn't make it for my
+own use. What is the matter with me?" He glanced slyly, fearfully
+over his shoulder and then faced the thing deliberately, his jaws
+set, his eyes staring.
+
+"It is a quick way--a sure way," he muttered. "I haven't anything
+to live for and but a few years at most. Nobody cares whether I
+live or die--not even I. James Bansemer could not batter me down,
+as he surely will, if I--"
+
+He crossed to an old chest and unlocked its lid with feverish haste.
+A bundle of papers came up in the grasp of his tense fingers.
+Casting dreadful glances at the insistent axe, he seated himself
+at the table and began looking over the papers.
+
+"He won't take his father's rotten money, but he'll take mine.
+It's honest. It represents wages honestly, bitterly earned. There's
+more than twenty thousand to give him. He'll be surprised. Twenty
+thousand." He laid the first paper, his will drawn in favour of
+Graydon Bansemer, signed and addressed; upon the table, and then
+carelessly tossed the other documents into the chest. "By the Lord
+Harry, I'll have the best of James Bansemer yet. His boy will take
+my money even though he spurns his. God, I wish I could see him
+when he knows all this. It would be glorious."
+
+He fingered the document for a tense moment, and then arose to
+remove his coat and vest. These he hung away in his closet with all
+his customary carefulness. In the middle of the room he stopped,
+his quivering face turned toward the gaunt thing of execution. His
+feet seemed nailed to the floor; his brain was urging him to go on
+with the horrid deed, his body was rebelling. The torture of terror
+was overpowering him.
+
+Suddenly he found his strength of limb. With a guttural howl he
+clasped his hands to his eyes and fled blindly into his bedroom.
+Hurling his long, shivering frame upon the bed, he tried to shut
+out the enticing call of the thiag of death. How long he quivered
+there, shuddering and struggling, he could not have told. In the
+end--and as suddenly as he had fled--he leaped up and with a shrill
+laugh dashed back into the other room.
+
+There was no hesitation in his body now. With a maniacal glee he
+rushed upon the devilish contrivance in the corner, tearing the axe
+from its place with ruthless hands. Throughout the building rang
+the sounds of smashing wood, furious blows of steel upon wood, and
+high above the din arose the laugh of Elias Droom. In two minutes,
+the guillotine lay in chips and splinters about the room--destroyed
+even as it was on the point of destroying him.
+
+Dropping back against the wall, wet with perspiration, a triumphant
+grin upon his face, Elias surveyed the wreckage. His muscles relaxed
+and his eyes lost the dread that had filled them. The smile actually
+grew into an expression of sweetness and peace that his face had
+never known before.
+
+As he staggered to a chair close by, a great sigh of relief broke
+from his lips.
+
+"There!" he gasped. "It's over! it's over! My head is on
+my shoulders--it really is after all! It is not rolling into the
+corner--no! no! By my head--my own head, too--it was a close call
+for you, Elias Droom. Now, I'll take what comes. I'll wait for
+James Bansemer! I'll stick it out to the end. If he comes, he'll
+find me here. I've conquered the infernal death that stood waiting
+so long for me in that corner--and I never suspected it, either.
+God, how near it was to me! It stood there and waited for me to
+come. It knew that I would come sooner or later! But I've smashed
+it--it's gone!  It's not there!"
+
+With eager hands he gathered up the pieces of wood and cast them
+into the stove. As the remains of that frightful minister of death
+crackled and spit with defeated venom, Elias Droom calmly pulled on
+his worn dressing gown, lighted his pipe and cocked his feet upon
+the stove rail, a serene look in his eyes, a chuckle in his throat.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+TO-MORROW
+
+
+
+
+
+Jane Cable, upon entering the cab, offered no resistance when
+Graydon drew her head over against his shoulder. His strong right
+hand clasped her listless fingers and the warmth of his heart came
+bounding into her veins as if by magic. He did not speak to her, but
+she knew that he was claiming her then for all time; she knew that
+nothing could stand in the way of his purpose. The sobs grew less
+despairing, her understanding of things less vague and uncertain.
+A few moments before she had felt that she was no kin to the world;
+now there was a new appreciation of love and its greatness in her
+soul.
+
+This man had loved her, and he would take her up and shield her
+against the hate of the world. There had not been a moment when her
+own love for him wavered; she worshipped him now as she had in the
+beginning. The revelation of Droom, the theatric scenes in the cafe,
+the crushing of the small hope she had cherished, all conspired
+in this secure moment to waken her into a realisation of what an
+overbalancing power love is.
+
+Unconsciously her fingers tightened upon his and her body drew
+closer; she was arraying herself against the fear that she might
+lose this haven of rest and joy, after all--the haven she had been
+willing to scourge and destroy in the bitterness of her heart. A
+great wave of pity for herself came sweeping over her. It grew out
+of the dread that he might, after all, deny her the place that no
+one else in the world could give.
+
+Graydon's cold face was suddenly illumined; the incomprehensible
+sweetness of pain rushed through his blood. He had given up his hope
+as blighted after the harsh hour with Droom; he could not believe
+his newfound success. Doubt, unbelief, enveloped him as he raised
+her head, a kiss crying for its kind. His arm crept behind her
+shoulders. She did not offer a repulse; her wet cheek touched his
+in submission. It was the first time his hungry arms had held her
+in centuries it seemed to him--and to her; it was the first time
+their lips had met--except in dreams--since that horrid night so
+long ago.
+
+"Jane, Jane!" he was whispering in her ear; her plans, her purposes,
+her sacrifices, were running away from her in riotous disorder.
+She could not hold them in check; they fled like weaklings before
+the older and stronger hopes and desires.
+
+They did not know of the blockade of cabs at the corner of Forty-second
+Street, nor how long they stood there. Shouting cabmen and police
+officers tried to rival the white blizzard in profuseness, but they
+did not hear them.
+
+"Oh, Graydon, I cannot, I must not," she was crying, holding his
+hand with almost frenzied disdain for the words so plaintively
+loyal. "It is out of the question, dearest. You know it is. I love
+you, oh, how I love you. But I--I must not be your wife. I--I--"
+
+"I've had enough of this, Jane," he said so firmly that she stiffened
+perceptibly in his arms. "It's all confounded rot. Excuse me, but
+it is. I know you think you're right, but you're not. Old Elias
+gave the best advice in the world. You know what it was. We've just
+got to make our own happiness. Nobody else will do it for us, and
+it's just as easy to be happy as it is to be the other way. I'm
+tired of pleading. I've waited as long as I intend to. We're going
+to be married to-morrow."
+
+"Graydon!"
+
+"Don't refuse! It's no use, dearest. We've lost a year or two. I
+don't intend to lose another day. What do I care about your father
+and mother? What did they care about you? You owe all the rest of
+your life to yourself and to me. Come! will you consent willingly
+or--" He paused. She was very still in his arms for a long time.
+
+"I do so want to be happy," she said at last, reflectively. "No,
+no!  don't say anything yet. I am only wondering how it will be
+after we've been married for a few years. When I'm growing old and
+plain, and you begin to tire of me as most men grow weary of their
+wives--what then? Ah, Graydon, I--I have thought about all that,
+too. You'll never reproach me openly--you couldn't do that, I know.
+But you may secretly nourish the scorn which--"
+
+"Jane," he said, dropping the tone of confident authority and
+speaking very tenderly, "you forget that my father is a convict.
+You forget that he has done things which will forever keep me a
+beggar at your feet. I am asking YOU to forget and overlook inuch
+more than you could ever ask of me. Old Elias, wretch that he is,
+has pointed out our ways for us; they run together in spite of what
+may conspire to divide them. Jane, I love my soul, but I love you
+ten thousand times better than my soul."
+
+"I did not believe I could ever be so happy again," she murmured,
+putting her hands to his face.
+
+"To-morrow, dear?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Graydon, rejoicing in his final victory, hurried to his rooms later
+in the evening. As he was about to enter the elevator he noticed a
+grey-suited boy in brass buttons, who stood near by, an inquiring
+look in his face.
+
+"This is Mr. Bansemer," observed the laconic youth who ran the
+single elevator in the apartment building.
+
+"Something for me?" demanded Graydon, turning to the boy in grey.
+
+"Special delivery letter, sir. Sign here."
+
+Graydon took the thick envelope from the boy's hand. With a start,
+he recognised his father's handwriting. Curiously he turned the
+letter over in his fingers as he ascended in the car, wonder growing
+in his brain. He did not wait to remove his overcoat on entering his
+rooms, but strode to the light and nervously tore open the envelope.
+Dread, hope, anxiety, conspired tu make his fingers tremble. There
+were many closely written pages. How well he remembered his father's
+writing!
+
+As he read, his eyes grew wide with wonder and unbelief. They raced
+through the pages, wonder giving way to joy and exultation as he
+neared the end of the astounding message from the far-away prisoner.
+
+A shout forged to his lips; he hugged the letter to his heart;
+tears came into his eyes, a sob broke in, his throat.
+
+"Thank God!" he cried, throwing himself into a chair to eagerly
+read and reread the contents of the letter. Suddenly he sprang to
+his feet and dashed across the room to the telephone.
+
+"She will die of joy!" he half sobbed, in the transports of
+exhilaration. Five minutes later he was on his way to her hotel,
+clutching the priceless letter in his bare fingers, deep down in
+his overcoat pocket. He had shouted over the 'phone that the good
+news would not keep till morning, and she was waiting up for him
+with Mr.  and Mrs. Cable, consumed by curiosity.
+
+"This letter"--he gasped, as he entered the room--"from father.
+He's written, Jane--everything. I knew he would. Elias didn't know
+it all. He knew half of the truth, that's all. Good Lord, I--I
+can't read it, Mr. Cable. You--please."
+
+David Cable, white-faced and trembling, read aloud the letter from
+James Bansemer. It was to "My beloved son." The first appealing
+sentences were given to explanation and apology for the determined
+silence he had maintained for so many months. He spoke casually of
+his utter indifference to the success of certain friends who were
+working for his pardon. "If they secure my release," he wrote, "I
+shall find happiness if you clasp my hand but once before I leave
+America forever." Farther on he said: "I will not accept parole.
+It is a poor premium on virtue, and, as you know, my stock of that
+commodity has been miserably low."
+
+"I may be required to serve my full term," read David Cable. "In
+that case, we should not see one another for years, my son. You
+have much to forgive and I have much more to forget. We can best
+see our ways to the end if we seek them apart. The dark places won't
+seem so black.... My sole purpose in writing this letter to you,
+my son, is to give back to you as much happiness as I can possibly
+extract from this pile of misery. I am not pleading for anything;
+I am simply surrendering to the good impulses that are once more
+coming into their own, after all these years of subjection....
+I am not apologising to the Cables. I am doing this for your sake
+and for the girl who has wronged no one and to whom I have acted
+with a baseness which amazes me as I reflect upon it inside these
+narrow walls.
+
+"You will recall that I would have permitted you to marry her--I
+mean, in the beginning. Perhaps it was spite which interposed later
+on. At least, be charitable enough to call it that. Clegg has been
+here to see me. He says you are bound to make Jane Cable your wife.
+I knew you would. For a long time I have held out, unreasonably, I
+admit, against having her as my daughter. I could not endure the
+thought of giving you up altogether. Don't you comprehend my thought?
+I cannot bring myself to look again into her eyes after what she
+saw in this accursed prison.... She was born in wedlock....  The
+story is not a long one. Elias Droom knows the names of her father
+and mother, but I am confident that he does not know all of the
+circumstances. For once, I was too shrewd for him. The story of
+my dealings in connection with Jane Cable is a shameful one, and
+I cannot hope for pardon, either from you or from her."
+
+Here he related, as concisely as possible, the incidents attending
+Mrs. Cable's first visit to his office and the subsequent adoption
+of the babe.
+
+"I knew that there was wealth and power behind the mystery. There
+was a profitable scandal in the background. Unknown to Mrs. Cable,
+I began investigations of my own. She had made little or no effort
+to discover the parents of the child. She could have had no purpose
+in doing so, I'll admit.... [Here he gave in detail the progress of
+his investigations at the Foundlings' Home, at the health office,
+at certain unsavory hospitals and in other channels of possibility.]
+...At last, I found the doctor, and then the nurse. After that, it
+was easy to unearth the records of a child's birth and of a mother's
+death--all in New York City.... Droom can tell you the names of
+Jane's parents, substantiating the names I have just given to you.
+He did not know that they had been married nearly two years prior
+to the birth of the child. It was a clandestine marriage.... I went
+straight to the father of the foundling. He was then but little
+more than twenty-one years of age--a wild, ruthless, overbearing,
+heartless scoundrel, who had more money but a much smaller conscience
+than I.... To-day he is a great and, I believe, respected gentleman,
+for he comes of good stock.... I had him trembling on his knees
+before me. He told me the truth. Egad, my son, I am rather proud
+of that hour with him.
+
+"It seems that this young scion of a wealthy house had lost his
+insecure heart to the daughter of a real aristocrat. I say real,
+because her father was a pure Knickerbocker of the old school.
+He was, naturally, as poor as poverty itself. With his beautiful
+daughter he was living in lower New York--barely subsisting,
+I may say, on the meagre income that found its way to him through
+the upstairs lodgers in the old home. Here lived Jane's mother,
+cherishing the traditions of her blood, while her father, sick and
+feeble, brooded over the days when he was a king in Babylon. The
+handsome, wayward lover came into her life when she was nineteen.
+They were married secretly in the city of Boston.
+
+"The young husband imposed silence until after he had attained his
+majority. There was a vast fortune at stake. In plain words, his
+father had forbidden the marriage. He had selected another one to
+be the wife of his son.... Jane was born in the second year of their
+wedded life. It was, of course, important that the fact should be
+kept secret. I am inclosing a slip of paper containing the names
+of the minister, the doctor and the nurse who afterwards attended
+her, together with the record of death. It is more convenient to
+handle than this bulky letter--which I trust you will destroy. You
+will also find the name of the hospital in which Jane was born and
+where her mother died, ten days later. I may say, in this connection,
+that not one of the persons mentioned knew the true name of the
+young mother, nor were they sure of the fact that she was a wife.
+Her gravestone in the old cemetery bears the name of the maiden,
+not the wife. Her father never knew the truth....
+
+"What I did in the premises need not be told. That is a part of
+my past. I learned how the cowardly young father, glad to be out
+of the affair so easily, hired the nurse to leave the baby on the
+doorstep.  Then I went to the banker whose son he was. I had absolute
+proof of the marriage. He paid me well to keep the true story from
+reaching the public. The son was whisked abroad and he afterwards
+married the girl of his father's choice. I do not believe that he
+has ever given a thought to the whereabouts or welfare of his child.
+It was her heritage of caste!
+
+"If Jane cares to claim her rights as this man's lawful daughter,
+proof is ample and undeniable. I fancy, however, she will find
+greater joy as the daughter of David Cable. Her own father has less
+of a heart than yours, for, after all, my son, I love you because
+you are mine. Love me, if you can; I have nothing else left that
+I care for. Remember that I am always
+
+Your loving father,
+
+JAMES BANSEMER."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, JANE CABLE ***
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