Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-05-21

70
day like today, when you see the re-
suits of my work, the results of my
handling Of unlimited gold. you must
agree that If were taken off should
stand more than an even show OF land
ing in hell where the sulphur is thick
est 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 I find liber-
ty?" I 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-
ton, which seemed a forerunner OF
madness, I 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 1t 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
could not answer, Il guess you don't
know where 1 can swap the yellow
mud for balm of Gilead. won't both
er you with my troubles any longer.
1 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 and carve over the entrance
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 1 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. I see by the
press that at last his aristocratic wife
has gold-cured Newport Of its habit
of dating back the name Reinhart to
her scullionhood, and 1t has taken her
into the high-instep circle. l 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
now dead, an age when Wall street
men talked Of honor and gold, not
gold and more gold.
In telling my wife Of the days hap
penings / could not refrain from CIV
ing vent to the feelings that consum-
ed me. Kate, Bob will surely do
something awful one Of these days.
I can see no hope for him. He grows
more and more the madman as he
broods over his horrible situation.
The whole thing seems incredible to
me. Never was a human being in
such perpetual living purgatory-un-
limited, absolute power on the one
hand, unfathomable, never cool down
hell on the other"
Jim, how does he do what he does
cannot make out anything l have
read or you have told me, how he
creates those panics and makes all
that money"
No one has ever been able to fig
ure it out" 1 answered. Il under
stand the stock business, but l can
not for the life Of me see how he does
it. He has none of the money pow
ers in league with him, that's sure,
for in the mood he has been in during
the past two years it would be i'm
possible for him to work with them,
even if his salvation depended on 1t.
The mention of any of the big 'Sys-
tenn men drives him to a fury. He
has today made more money than
any one man ever made in day since
the world began, and he had only COM
menced his work when ne quit TO
please me. AS 1 stand in the Exchange
and watch him do it, it seems COM
monplace and simple. Afterward 1t is
beyond my comprehension. At the
gait he is going, the Rockefeller, Van
derbilt and Gould fortunes combined
will look tiny in comparison with the
one he will have in a few ears. 1t
is beyond my power of figuring out
and it gives me a headache every time
| try to see through it,"
CHAPTER VIII.