The San Francisco call., 1904-10-23
CHAPTER XIV.
Into the Primitive.

CHAPTER XIV.
Into the Primitive.
Tested upon purely diplomatic prin-
ciples, Miss Van Brooks temper was
little less than angelic, exhibiting itself
under provocation only in guarded pin
pricks of sarcasm, or in small sharp
ciawed kitten-buffetings of repartee.
But she was at no pains to conceal her
scornful disappointment when David
Kent made known his doubts concern
ing his moral right to use the weapon
he had so skilfully forged.
He delayed the inevitable confession
to Portia until he had told Loring; and
in making it he did not tell Miss Van
Brock to whom he owed the sudden
change in the point Of view. But Portia
would have greatly discredited her gift
of insight if she had not instantly re-
duced the problem to it's lowest terms.
You have been asking Miss Brent
wood to lend you her conscience, and
she has done it," was the form in
which she stated the fact. And when
Kent did not deny it: You lack at
least one quality of greatness, David;
you sway too easily"
mo, 1 don't!" he protested. II am as
obstinate as a mule Ask Ormsby or
Loring. But the logic of the thing is
blankly unanswerable. 1 can either get
down to the dirty level of these high
binders-fight the devil with a brand
taken out Of his own fire; or"
''Or what?" she asked.
''Or think up some other scheme;
some plan which doesn't involve a sur
render on my part of common decency
and self-respect."
YES" she retorted. 'I suppose you
have the other plan all wrought out
and ready to drop into placer"
No. 1 haven't" he admitted reluc-
tantly. ~
But at least you have some notion
of what it is going to be?"
mo"
She was pacing back and forth In
front Of his chair In a way that was al
most man-like; but her contemptuous
impatience made her dangerously
beautiful. Suddenly she stopped and
turned upon him and there were sharp
claws in the kitten n-buffetings.
DO you know you are spelling fu-
ture that most men would hesitate to
throw away?" she asked. while you
have been man of one idea in this
railroad affair, we haven't been idle
your newspaper and political friends.
and Ormsby and 1. You are ambitious;
you want to succeed, and we have been
laying the foundations for you. The
next election would give you anything
in the gift Of the State that a man Of
your years could aspire to. Have you
known this?"
'I have guessed It," he said, quite
humbly.
"Of course you have But It has all
been contingent upon one thing; you
were to crush the grafters in this rail-
road struggle-show them up-and
climb to distinction yourself on the
ladder from which you had shaken
them. It might have been done; 1T
was in a fair way to be done. And
now you turn back and leave the plaw
in the furrow."
There was more Of like quality-a
good bit more; some of 1t regretful all
of it pungent and logical from Miss
Van Brooks point of view; and Kent
was no rock not to be moved by the
small tempest Of disappointed vicarious
ambition. Wherefore he escaped when
he could. though only to begin the eth
ical fight all over again: to fight and
to wander among the tombs In the val
ley of indecision for week and day,
eight miserable twirlings of the earth
in space, during which interval he was
invisible to his friends and innocuous
to his enemies.
On the morning Of the ninth day
Editor Hildreth telephoned Miss Van
Brock to ask If she knew where
Kent could be found. The answer was
a rather anxious negative; though
the query could have been answered
af1rmatively by the conductor and
motorman Of an early morning
electric car which ran to the farthest
outskirts of the eastern suburb of the
city. Following a boyish habit he had
never fully outgrown, Kent had once
more taken his problem to the open,
and the hour after luncheon time found
him plodding wearily back to the end
of the car line, jaded. dusty and stiff
from much tramping Of the brown
plain. but with the long duel finally
fought out to some despairing con-
clusion.
The City Hall clock was upon the
stroke of three when the inbound troll
ley car landed him in front of the
Clarendon. 1t was a measure OF his
purposeful abstraction that he went on
around the corner to the Security
Bank, dusty and unpresentable as he
was, and transferred the packet Of In
eliminating affidavits from the safety
deposit box to his pocket before going
to his rooms In the hotel
This paper weapon was the centering
point of the struggle which had now
lasted for nearly fortnight. So long
as the weapon was his to use or to cast
away the outcome of the moral con-
fiict hung in the balance. But now he
was emerging from the night wander
ings among the tombs of the undecided.
'I can't give 1t up; there is too much
at stake" he muttered as he trudged
heavily back to the hotel. And before
he went above stairs he asked the
young woman at the house telephone
exchange to ascertain II Governor
Bucks were in his Office at the capitol
and If so, II he were likely to remain
there for an hour.
When he reached his rooms he flung
tn packet of papers on the writing
table and went to freshen himself with
a bath. That which lay before him
called for fitness, mental and physical.
and cold sanity. In other things Of
stress, as Just before a critical hour in
court, the tub and