Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-01-04

being the real soul Of the conspiracy,
am to have a complimentary allotment
in every El Doradian company brought
out by the members OF this syndicate
and if can sell at par only, it will all
be clear gain DO you like the idea?"
II should like it much better if
thought that there was any prospect
Of getting a finger in the pie.
If you like. you shall be our secre-
tary We want one badly. and, of
course. you would then stand in for the
plumber"
She did not say that the secretary
and the chairwoman would necessarily
be brought into close and continual as
ISOLATION. Least of all did she explain
that it was with the object of arranging
this that she had invited him half an
hour before the others.
The question of Bob's secretaryship
was soon settled. The hnanciers were
willing to oblige Lady Weybridge, to
whom they owed the tip, and if the
thing came off there would be plenty
OF plumber to share.
O'Flherty alone was not pleased,
though he did not see his way to OBJ
iect. The fact was he had not under
STOOD Lady Weybridge's motives. Her
sole object of course was to create a
boom in El Dorado bonds, so that, hav-
ing bought handfuls at their present
prices. she might reap q huge profit.
0'Flaherty's vanity had inspired him
with the belief that she must have, first
of all, fallen in love with him. Now
he was abruptly undeceived. He re-
membered the young man for whom he
had been dismissed in the park, and
he thoroughly comprehended that a
very principal part Of the new secre-
tary's business would consist in long
tete-a-tetes with Lady Weybridge He
drew the obvious conclusion, and was
much annoyed. 1t even occurred to him
that he would like to take little re-
venge.
Briefly, he decided on a counterpart
Knowing well that his associates were
all buying Ell Dorados steadily in ex-
pectation of the boom. he determined
to work the raid so that it should be
failure. Before he left England. os-
tensibly to carry it out, he would sell
an enormous "bear" by means of secret
agents. The news of the fiasco would
bring the bonds down with a crash. and
he would reap large fortune. At the
same time Lady Weybridge would be
half-ruined, and Bob FitzSimon
quite so. If they married after all
their happiness would be very consid.
erably crippled by his action.
With this view he steadily threw
cold water on Bob's plan that, under
the disguise of a wild West" show q
large body OF determined men, well
armed and mounted, and accompanied
by several Maxims, should be intro
duced into lei Dorado, as the nucleus
of the revolution Even when he was
overruled by the syndicate. he insisted
that the arrival of such troop frop
England. where he was known to be
would excite suspicion, which must
lead to his recognition at the port and
immediate arrest. His proposal wa:
that he should go to America, work hi:
way round by land. and join the troops
at the El Doradan capital To this the
syndicate assented--though Bob did al
in his power to persuade Lady Wey
bridge TO dissent.
Perhaps because he felt that O'Fla
herty did not like him, or possibly be
cause 0'Flaherty was contemptuoui
about "the circus" Bob has conceived
great distrust of the general. AT thu
same time it seemed TO him fatal Z
the success of the expedition that thu
leader should put whole continent
between himself and his men and trus
TO luck to turn UP in time. He did no
suspect O'Flaherty's treason, but h'
doubted his capacity. Though Lady
Weybridge lad never told him that sh'
was buying Ell Dorados. he took thi:
for granted. and advised her very
strongly not to risk too much. This
angered her, for she had not intended