Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-03-05

do you mean to say that + could
MT stop tomorrow if I wanted too
She affected to not understand him.
"You?" she inquired in a tone OF
surprise.
"Well-it's a natural question:
stamnered Ryder, with nervous little
laugh; every man sees himself in the
hero IF a novel just as every moman
sees herself in the heroine. We're all I
heroes and heroines in our own eyes.
But tell me what's your private opinion
of this man You drew the character.
What do you think of him as type
how would you classify him"
"As the greatest criminal the world
! has yet produced" replied Shirley with.
out a moments hesitation.
The financier looked at the girl In
unfeigned establishment
"Criminal?" he echoed.
Eyes, criminal repeated Shirley
decisiyely. HE is avarice, egotism
and ambition incarnate. He loves
power. and he loves power more than
his fellow man."
isn't that rather strcng?" he asked.
II don't think 500 replied Shirley.
4 Then quickly she asked: But What
uOSS IL llidllSl INV oeiSAi AiASsaA SNANSS,'
"No, of course not" said Ryder, and
he relapsad into silence.
/ Yet while he said nothing, the pluto
crate was watching his visitor closely
from under his thick eyebrows. She
seemed supremely unconscious OF his
scrutiny. Her aristocratic, thoughtful
face gave no sign that any Interior
motive had actuated her evidently
. very hostile attitude against MIN. IhaS
he was in her mind when she drew the
: character Of John Frederick there was
no doubt possible No matter how she
might evade the Identification, he was
I convinced he was the hero Of her book.
Why had she attacked him so bitterly!
At first, it occurred to him that black
mail might be her object; she might
be going to ask for m oney as the price
of future silence. Yet 1t needed but g
: glance at her refined and modest de-.
meanour to dispel that idea as absurd.
Then he remembered, too that 1T was
: not she who had sought this interview,
:. but himself. No, she was no black
:, mailer More probably she was q
, dreamer-one of those meddling soci-
. ologists who, under pretence OF better>
ing the conditions of the working class.
es stir up discomfort and bitterness or
: feeling AS such, she might prove
. . more to be feared than a mere black
= mailer whom he could buy off with
q. q money He knew he was not popular,
E but he was no worse than the otner
- captains OF industry. II was a cut
Il throat game at best. Competition was
= - the soul of commercial life, and If he
- had outw;tted his competitors and
, ;. made himself richer than all OF thems
. he was not criminal for that. But
i all these attacks in newspapers and
4 books did not do him any good. One
q day the people might take these dem
= agogie writings seriously and then
~ there would be the devil to pay. lie
# took up tie book again and ran over
=, the pages. This certainly was no ordi-
T. nary girl. She knew more ard had a
"a more direct way of saying things than
any woman he had eNec met. And as
- he watched her furtively across the
"a desk he wondered how he could use
- her. how instead of being his enemy
he could make her his friend. II nc
! did not, size would go away and Write
~ y more such books and literature OF this
~ kind might become a real peril to his
- interests. Money could do anything, Il
r could secure the services of this Woni
10 an and prevent her doing further mis-
N chief, But how could he employ Ii ~
Suddenly an inspiration came to him
For some years he had been collecting
n. material for a history of the Empls.
= Trading Company. She could write It
;r- 1t would practically be his own bl /,
al graphy. Would she undertake it?
,,a Embarrassed by the long s1iencs
~ Shirley firally broke it by saying:
-, "But YOU didn't ask me to call mere
,ot 11cr}af Of
,ig own work.
nv mo" replied Ryder slowly, Il wan
you to do some work for me-"
er He opened drawer at the left.ran
he side of his desk and took out seyera
sheets of foolscap and D number 9
he letters Shirley's heart beat faster a
po- she caught sight of the letters Wer
IA her fathers among them? She wonde
he ed what kind Of work John Burke1
an Ryder had for her to do ana IL sli
Ike would do it whatever it was. Som
ey- literary work probably, compiling {
Am something of that kind. IT it was we
ng- paid, Why SHOULD she nor accept? 1her
would be nothing humlliatiny in 1t;
would not tie her hands In any wa
She was q professional writer in tt
cry market to be employed by whoeyt
the could pay the price. Besides. sue
go work might give her better emporium
ing ties TO secure the letters of which 81
ing was in search. Gathering in one pi
It'll all the papers he had removed from Il
drawer, Mr.. Ryder said
~: (Continued In next issue~l