Willmar tribune., 1907-11-06
CHAPTER VI1.-Continued.

Bob Brownley threw himself into
the Union Pacific crowd first givins
an order to group of his brokers
who jumped for a number of othe1
poles. Almost instantly the panic
was stayed and stocks were bounding
upward two to five points at a leap
Bob continued buying Union Pacific
and his brokers other stocks in un
limited quantities. Nothing like such
quick turn of the market had been
seen before. His power to absorb
stocks seemed to be boundless. 1t
was estimated that personally and
through his brokers he bought over a
million shares before he joined me
and left the Exchange.
looked at him in wonderment.
Bob, l cannot understand you," l
said at last as we turned out of Broad
street into Wall. 1T seems as if you
work with magic Everything you
touch turns to gold"
He wheeled on me. Yes, Jim you
are right. Gold, heartless, soulless
gold. But what is the dross good for?
What is it good for to me? To-day
suppose l have made the biggest
one-man killing in the history of the
Street. l must be an easy twenty
five millions richer in gold than l was
this morning, and I had enough then
to dam the East river and a good
section Of the North. But tell ME,
Jim, tell me, what can it buy in this
world that I have not got? l had
health and happiness. perfect health,
pure happiness, when l did not have
a thousand all told. Now have fifty
millions, and I know how to get fifty
or five hundred and fifty more any
time I care to take them, and I have
only physical and mental hell. No
beggar in all the world is so poor in
happiness as 1. Tell me, tell me, Jim,
in the name of God, if there is one
for already the game of gold is rob-
bing me of my faith in God-where
can buy little, just little happi-
ness with all this cursed yellow dirt?
What will it get me in the next world,
Jim Randolph, what will it get me?
If had died when I was poor, I think
you will agree with me that, if there
is heaven, I should have stood an
even chance Of getting there. Now
on day like to-day, when you see
the results of my work, the results of
my handling of unlimited gold, you
must agree that if l were taken off
I should stand more than an even
show of landing In hell where the sui
phur is thickest and the flames are
hottest"
We were at the entrance of Ran
dolph & Randolph's Office as he pour
ed out this terrible torrent of bitter
ness. He glared at me as a Dungeon
prisoner might glare at his keeper for
his answer to "Where can find Iber-
ty?" l had no words to answer him.
AS 1 noted the awful changes in every
line of his face, the rigid hardness,
the haunted, nervous look of despera-
tion, which seemed a forerunner of
madness, could not see, either,
where his millions brought any hap
piness. His hair, which once was
smooth and orderly, hung over his
forehead in an impaired mass of tan
gled curls, and here and there show
ed of white. Bob Brownley was still
handsome even more fascinating than
before the mercury entered his soul,
but it was that wild, awful beauty of
the Gagged lion, lashing himself into
madness with memories of his lost
freedom.
"Jim," he went on, when he saw I
could not answer,"I guess you don't
know where I can swap the yellow
mud for balm of Gilead won't both
er you with my troubles any longer.
I will go uptown and see the little
girl whose happiness Tom Reinhart
needed in his business. I will go up
and show her the pictures in this
weeks Golfers of the fine hospital
for incurables that Reinhart has so
generously and nobly built at cost
of two and a half millions! The lit
tie girl may think better of Reinhart
when she knows that her fathers
money was put to such good use Who
knows but the great finance king may
dedicate it as the Judge Lee Sands
Home aud carve over the entrance
a bas-relief of her father, mother, and
sister with Hope, Faith, and Charity
coming from the mouths of their
hanging severed heads?"
Bob Brownley laughed a horrible
ringing laugh as he uttered these aw-
full words. Then he beat his hand
down on my shoulders as he said in a
hoarse voice, "Jim, but for you
should have had crimps in that jackal
philanthropist's soul by now and in
the souls of his kind. But never
mind. He will keep; he will surely
keep until get to him. Every day
he lives he will be filter for the crimp-
ing. Within the short two years since
he finished grilling Judge Sands soul,
he has put himself in better form to
appreciate his reward. see by the
press that at last his aristocratic wife
has gold-cured Newport of it's habit
of dating back the name Reinhart to
her scullionhood, and it has taken her
into the high-instep circle. read the
other day of his daughters marriage
to some English mob, and of the dis
covery of the ancient Reinhart family
tree and crest with the mailed hand
and two-edged dirk and the vulture
rampant, and the motto, Who strikes
in the back strikes often.'"
He left me with his laugh still ring
ing in my ears. I shuddered as
passed under the old black-and-gold
sign my uncle and my father had nail
ed over the Office entrance in an age