Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-11-17

Empire Builders
By FRANCIS LYNDE

BY FRANCIS ]
Copyright 19os-By Francis LyHde.

| ioShSu uCSolu Tue mere money!
making results of his scheme. Also,
.hat PRESIDENT Colbrith and his fellow
investors might very easily refuse to
consider any other phase of the revo-
iutionary proposition he was about to
lay before them
by ten o'clock postponement was no
longer a tenable city Of refuge: the
plunge had to be taken Accordingly,
ne Jared forth to present himself at
the broadway address given in the
Pacific Southwestern printed matter
as the New York headquarters Of the
company
| ne number proved to be a ground
moor, with the business office or the
eastern traffic representative in front,
and three o. four private desk rooms
n the rear, one OF them labeled "Pres.
ldent In inconspicuous gilt lettering.
Entering. with less assurance than II
ne mad been the humblest of place
seekers out OF job. Ford was almost
| renewed to find closed desk and a
Young man absently scanning a morn.
ing paper.
inquiry developed few facts, terse-
STATED put more or less enlighten-
ing Mir. Colbrith was not in; the
once was merely his nominal head.
quarters in the city and he occupied
iit only occasionally. His residence !?
IT was in Borough OF the Bronx. pretty
well up toward Yonkers-locality and
means Of access obligingly written out
on a card for the caller by the clerk.
was Mr. Fords business of a routine
nature! II SO, perhaps, Mr. Ten
Eyck, the general agent, could attend
to it. Ford said it was not Of a
routine nature, and made his escape
TO inquire his way to the nearest sub
way station To pause now was to
lose the precious impetus Of the start.
t was worth something to be
whirled away blindly out Of the stiff.
ling human vortex of the lower CITY.
but Ford's first glimpse of the Col.
BIRTH mansion depressed him again.
The huge, formal house had once been
the country residence Of a retired dry
goods merchant. 1t fronted the river
brazenly, and the fine old trees of a
ten acre park shamed its architectural
stiffness. Ford knew the president. q
little by family repute and more par.
tlcularly as young subordinate
knows the general in command. 1t
struck him torcibiy that the aspect OF
the house fitted the man. With the
broad river and the distant Palisades
to be dwell upon. it's outlook windows
We're narrow. With the slipping park
and the great trees to give it dignity
Of its own impressive only as the
product OF rigid measurements and
me chanical uprightness.
| Fprno tho hn,y1oNorI th~.a
gravelled driveway with a stone portal
The iron gates were thrown wide, and
at his entrance Ford stood aside to
let an outgoing auto car have the right
Of way. Being full Of his errand, and
Of the abstraction of a depressed soul,
Ford merely remarked that there were
two persons in the car; young man
driving, and young woman, yelled
and dust-coated, in the mechanician s
seat beside him. None the less, there
floated out Of the mist OF abstraction
an instantly vanishing phantom Of
half recognition for the Westerner.
Something in the pose of the young
woman, the way she leaned forward
and held her hat with the tips Of her
| gloyed fingers, was, for the fieeting
moment, ALMOST reminiscent.
II Ford wished to speculate upon
abstruse problems OF identity. there
was neither time nor the mental apti-
tude. A little later he had given his
card to the servant at the door and
WAS waiting in darkened and most
Oppressive library for the coming of
the master of the house. The FIVE
minutes Of waiting nearly finished
him. AS the absurdly formal clock be-
tween the book cases licked off the
Ileaden-winsed seconds, his plan for
the rescue of Pacific Southwestern
took the form Of Grass impertinente,
and only the grim determination to
see lost cause decently coffined and
buried kept the enthusiast with his
face to the front. -
After all, the beginning of the inter
view with the tall, thin, gray haired
and Ratchet faced old man, who pres.
emily stalked into the library and gave
his hand with carefully adjusted
cordially TO the son of one of his col
lege classmates, was only little more
depressing: it wat not mortal. Ford
had been born in Illinois; and So
something better than a third of a
century earlier. had the president
Moreover. MI. Colbrith had, in the hey
day Of his youth. shared rooms with
the elder Frrd in the fresh-water uni
versity which had later numbered the
younger Ford among its alumni. These
things count for somewhat, even when
the gap TO be bridged is that between
the president of railroad and one OF
his minor officials.
But when the revolutionary project
was introduced, the presidents guard
ed cordiality faded like a Photographic
proof-print in the sunlight, and the all
Of the darkened library grew coldl,
Indictment.
$50 you came to talk business, die
} you?" said the high, rasping voice ou
Of the depths Of the easy chair op
posite; and Ford ragged inwardly a
the thought that he had clearly PLACED
. himself at disadvantage by bec6min.
, even constructively the guest of thu
!. president GAS rule, positively re
fuse to discuss such matters outsid
Of their proper environment; but II
: make on exception for Douglas Ford
: son Your plan is simply impossible
/. In can md AT stand how n NAV amen