Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-07-18

to the wiry strength ofsthe leopard.
The once black hair was almost white
and grew low and thick on his fore
head. Immediately dressed. ever
straight and aggressive in carriage, he
soon became a figure of whom all eyes
took notice even in the most crowded
Of Chicago thoroughfares.
Graydon Bansemer, on leaving Yale
with diploma and some of the honors
of his class. urged his father to take
him into his office and ultimately to
make him partner in the business.
James Bansemer never forgot the ma
liciouS grin that crossed the face of
Elias broom when the young fellow
made the proposition not more than 4
fortnight before the Bansemer estab-
lishment picked itself up and hastily
deserted New York. That grin spoke
palmer than all the words in language.
Take him into the office? Make this
honest, gray eyed boy partner? 1t
was no wonder that broom grinned,
and it is no wonder that he forgot 10
cover his mouth with his huge hand,
as was his custom.
The proposition, while sincere and
earnest, was too impossible for words.
For once in his life James BanSemer
was at loss for subterfuge. He
| stammered, flushed and writhed in the
effort to show the young man that the
| step would be Improbable. and he was
Sorely conscious that he had not con-
WINGED the eager applicant. He even
urged him TO abandon the thought of
| becoming a lawyer and. was ably Sec
onded by Elias broom, whose opinion
of the law, as he had come to know 1t,
was far from fiattering.
Just at this time Bansemer was en-
gagged in the most daring as well as
the most prodigious deal of his long
career. With luck it was bound to en-
rich him to the extent of $4,000. The
pans had been so well prepared and
| the execution had been so faultless that
there seemed to be no possibility Of
failure. To take his fair minded son,
with the mothers eyes, into the game
would be suicidal. The young fellow
would turn from him forever. Banse-
mer never went so far as to wonder
whence came the honest blood in the
boys veins nor to speculate on the orl
! gin of the unquestioned integrity. HI
had but to recall the woman who bore
him, the woman whose love was the
only good thing he ever knew, the
wife he had worshiped while he sinned
For years and years he had piled hi:
| Xyb N a
sometimes evading exposure by tn,
narrowest of margins, and he haC
| come to believe that he was secure fol
all time to come. But it was the "bis
job that brought disaster. Just wher
| it looked as though success was assur
ed the crash came. He barely ha(
time to cover his tracks, throw the fig
urative pepper into the eyes of hi:
enemies and get away from the scene
of danger. But he had been clever
and resourceful enough to avoid the
penalty that looked inevitable anC
came off with colorS trailing, but I'm
captured.
/ Perhaps no other man could have es
capped But James Bansemer was clev
crest when in a corner. He backed
away, held them at bay until he coult
recover his breath and then defied then
to their teeth. Despite their proof b.
baffied them, and virtue was not it
own reward-at least in this instance.
In leaving New York he hoped tina
Elias broom, who knew too much
might refuse to so into the new terri
tory with him, but the gaunt old clerl
took an unnatural and malevolent de
light in clinging to his employer. H
declined to give up his place in the of
fee, and although he hated James Ban
semer, he came like an accusing
shadow into the new Offices near tn
Chicago river, and there he toiled
grinned and scowled with the same oil
faithfulness.