The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-10-21
A X of
Conscience
By FRANCIS LYNDE.
.(copyrigh1 1900, by Francis Lynde.)
CHAPTER III.


cleared for the banana coast; or, to be
more accurate, in the forenoon of
the second day, the unimpetuous rou-
tine of the business quarter of New Or
leans was rudely disturbed by the
shock of genuine sensation.
:. At ten o'clock, Mr.. Galbraith, presi-
dent of the Bayou state bank, entered
his private Office in the rear of the
main banking apartment, opened his
desk, and addressed himself to the
business of the day. Principally at ten
tive the stenographer, whose desk was
IN the anteroom, brought in the mail;
five minutes later the cashier entered
for his morning conference with his
hyperion; and at half-past the hour
che president was left alone to read his
correspondence.
Mr.. Galbraith was serious-minded
man whose hobby was method; and it
vas his custom to give himself quiet
half-hour of inviolable seclusion each
morning in which to read and consider
his letters. During this interval the
stenographer, acting as usher, was in
structed to deny his chief to callers of
whatsoever degree. Wherefore, when
the door of the private office opened
at twenty minutes of eleven to admit
a stranger, the president was justly
annoyed.
'Well, sir?" he said, with an accent
irritant, taking the intruder's meas
ure in swift glance shot beneath his
bushy white eyebrows.
The visitor was a young man not
over thirty, of prepossessing appear
ance, with a figure rather slight for
his stature; fair, with blue eyes, and
curling brown beard and mustache,
the former trimmed to point. So
much the president was able to remark
at glance, and to remember after
wards.
SWELL, sir!" he repeated, when the
stranger stopped to carefully close
the door, "if you have business with
me, Ishall have to ask you to excuse me
for a few minutes. Be good enough to
take seat in the ante-room till ring.
Mcfarland should have told YOU"
The young man drew up chair and
sat down, ignoring the request as if he
had not heard it. Now Mr.. Andrew
Galbraith's temper was ordinarily the
temper of an elderly gentleman with a
long upper lip, worn clean shaver,
but such deliberate infraction of his
rules was not to be borne patiently
and he got up to ring for the janitor.
But when his hand sought the bell
push, he found himself looking into
Il e muZZle of revolver in the hands
al the intruder, and SO was fain to fall
lack into his chair, gasping:
"Wha-what do you mean, sir! Who
are you and what do you want?" he
stammered.
The reply was most succinct and to
the point.
81 am poor man, and want money
If you call for help, l shall shoot you.'
"You would murder me?" The pres.
. ident's hands were clutching the arms
of the chair, and he was fighting des-
perately for courage and presence of
mind in his extremity.
"Not willingly, 1 assure you; but
most certainly. if you attempt to give
the alarm. But there is no occasion for
needless anxiety 1t is merely ques-
ton of money, and if you are amenable
tc reason your life is not in danger"
eff Tm--but I'm not amenable to
your reasons, sir" exclaimed the pres
idert, recovering somewhat from the
first shock of terrified bewildermcnt.
~ refuse to listen to them I'll not