Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-05-23
CHAPTER XXIv-CoNT1NUED.

world save that which the accident of
birth has interleaved with your New
England Bible? What is conscience
Is II an absolute standard Of right and
wrong? Or is it merely your ideal or
mine. or Shafiz Ullah Khan's?"
"You may call 1t all the hard names
you can lay tongue to-" he allowed.
Pm not getting much comfort out Of
1t, and rather enjoy hearing 1t abused.
But you are thrusting at shadow in
the present instance. Do you know
what did this afternoon"
How should I know"
'T don't know why you shouldn't:
you know everything that happens.
But I'll tell you. I had been fighting
the thing over from start to finish
and back again ever since you blessed
me out q week ego last Monday, and
at the wind-up this afternoon | took
the papers out Of the bank vault, hav-
ing II in mind to go and give his ex-
cellency q bad quarter Of an hour"
"But you didn't do it?"
mo, he saved me the trouble. While
was getting ready to go and hunt
him, his card came up. We had it out
in my rooms"
"I'm listening" she said; and he re-
hearsed the facts for her, concealing
nothing.
what a curious thing human ma
ture Isl" she commented, when he had
made an end. my better judgment
says you were all kinds of somebody
for not clinching the nail when you had
It so well driven home. And yet
cant help admiring your exalted IA
naticism. do love consistency, and
the courage of it. But tell me, If you
can, how far these fair-fighting scru-
ples of yours 60. You have made 1t
perfectly plain that If thief would
steal your pocketbook. you would suf-
fer loss before you'd compromise with
him to get II back. But suppose you
should catch him at It: would you feel
compelled to call policeman-or
would you"
He anticipated her.
"You are doing me an injustice on
the other side. nSw. I'll fight as tLri-
onsly as you like. All ask is to be
given a weapon that won't bloody my
hands,"
Good" she said approvingly. "I
think have found the weapon, but
it's desperate, desperate! And o
David, you've got to have cool head
and a steady hand when you use it.
IL you haven't, 1t will kill every body
witnIR me swing of it-everybody but
the man you are trying to reach"
Draw 1t and let me feel its edge"
he said shortly.
Her chair was close beside the low
swung hammock. She bent to his ear
and whispered a single sentence. For
a minute or two he sat motionless,
weighing and balancing the chance Of
success against the swiftly multiplying
difficulties and hazards.
"You call 1t desperate" he said at
length. IF there is bigger word il
the language, you ought to find and
use 1t. The risk is that Of forlorn
hope: not so much for me, perhaps.
as for the innocent-or at least
ignorant-accomplices I'll have to en-
list"
She nodded.
'"rhat is true. But how much is
your railroad worth?"
ut is bonded for fifty millions first,
and twenty millions second mortgage" "
"Well, seventy millions are worth
fighting for: worth very considera-
BILE risk. ] should say"
yes" And after another thought
full interval: "How did you come to
think of it?"
at grew out of a bit of talk with
the man who will have put the apex
on our pyramid after we have done
our part"
"Will he stand by us? If he doesn't,
we shall all be no better than dead
men the morning after the fact"
She clasped her hands tightly over
her knee, and said:
THAT is one of the chances we must
take, David; one of the many. But il
is the last of the bridges to be crossed
and there are lots of them in between
Are the details possible? That was
the part couldn't go into by myself.
He took other minutes for reflection
81 can't tell" he said doubtfully. I'll
could only know how much time
we have"
Her eyes grew luminous.
David, what would you do without
me% she asked. Tomorrow night
in Stephen Hawks Office in CASTOR
you will lose your railroad. MacFar'
lane Is there, or if he isn't. he'll bt
there in the morning Bucks, Guilfort
and Hawk will go down from here to-
morrow evening; and the Overland
people are to come up from MIDLAND
City to meet them"
There was awe undisguised in tht
look he gave her, and it crept into his
voice when he said
"Portia, are you really tiesh-and
blood woman?"
She smiled.
Meaning that your ancestors woulc
have burned me for a witch? FER
haps they would: l think quite likely
they burned women who made bette
martyrs. But l didn't have to cal
in Flibbertigibbet. The programme II
a carefully guarded secret, to be sure
but 1t is known-it had to be knowr
to a number of people outside OF oul
friends the enemy. You've heard tf'
story of the inventor and his secret
haven't you?"
No" 5000
well, the man had invented some
thing. and he told the secret OF i
to his son. After little the son want
ed to tell It to friend. The old maj
said. Hold on; / know it-thats one
holding up one fnger-'you know
that's eleventh olding up anothe
finger besides the first; and now II yo'
tell this other fellow, that'H be on
hundred and eleven-holding up thre
fingers. That is the case with thi
programme. One of the one hundred
and eleven-he is a person high VI
in the management Of the Overland
Short Line-dropped a few words II
oo1 pinko6 them I'D