The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-10-29
CHAPTER /.

CHAPTER /.
The great city was locking for a man
"a missing man.
The newspapers had published columns
concerning his mysterious evanishment
and printed his picture times without
number. Friends and acquaintances had
searched everywhere for him. and the POI
lice department, powerful. expressing.
had brought inlo play all its efficient ma
chinery-for, back of the impelling mo-
tive were he mandate, the direction, the
influence Of the master-will of great
political 'boss"-Gideon Hope.
1t was Gideon Hopes brother, Everett
Hope, aged 81, bright, buoyant, on the
threshold Of smiling yet majestic man.
hood, who had dropped from view as
though abruptly blotted out of existence.
He had left no trail-like a bird in the
air, a stone in the water. a simeon
breath in desert wastes. In the midst of
busting activity. in the very heart of
the mighty metropolis. in broad daylight,
ne had walked TO some mysterious doom
that had buriei. had obliterated him COM
pletely- From certain public street cor
ner, at definite hour and minute. he had
been lost TO the sight of mortal man,
and there was no clue to motive, where
abouts or fate, although full week had
passed by.
They were men of strength. courage
and character-these Hopes. Gideon had
come to the city twelve years before, q
brawny, bronzed son of toil-from the
northern rolling mills district, it was said
Rumor had it that, the scion Of a mill
ionaire king OF industry, he had dropped
with falling fortunes into the pit of hard,
manual labor. He had the air, the ap-
pearance. the dignity of man, who with
equal grace and deftness, could deal an
anvil stroke that would split a ten-inch
steel beam, or clasp a diamond bracelet
about the dainty wrist of a duchess.
Gideon had become the timekeeper for
q great iron shop in the city, then its
superintendent, and then a man with a
nameless position, but extravagant salary
the censor. the directing magnate, who
hired or discharged all employees at will.
One spring election he turned the politi-
cal tide of municipal affairs by marching
eighteen hundred laborers to the POLLS
and voting them as one man. Thence
forth he held the dominant party IN the
hollow of his hand-a giant playing with
eggshell. The next year he was hea TT.
soul, center, of the most formidable polit-
ical organization that ever controlled the
destinies of a great commonwealth.
Gideon Hope asked for no reward.
seemingly; he demanded no Office. With
his strong, ruling face and grim. set man.
ner, ne was content 10 lurk sinister at
the core of every political movement. to
hold the strings that controlled men and
millions-his puppets. His word was
law. his will supreme.
This man, with his harsh. hard face
and crisp, repellent manner, however. had
one tender spot in his nature-his broth
er. Everett. His fellows had noted his
cold eye flicker when he spoke of him.
When. later, he introduced among them
q fair. delicate faxed-haired youth, all
gentleness and courtesy strange con-
trast to himself-there were pride in his
eye and devotion in his SMILE 1t seemed
impossible that they could be of kin. so
widely dissimilar were they.
And now. upon this fond brother. Gid
con conferred every hope, lavished all tine
affection Of deep. repressive nature. He
had worked the wires" for others--too
well he knew the steps that would lead
Everett Hone to the portals of success
and the companionship of millionaires.
He marked out his plan like setting the
stakes for political campaign-initially.
familiarity with business men and bust
ness methods, credit man in a great trust
establishment, where Gideon had 1.-THE
PILL" to place whom he would. a secre-
taryship, and then-care, cleverness. ma
nipulation, and Everett was made man.
II was In pursuance of this plan that.
on fair first day of June, Everett Hope
undertook the simple duties of a CONNER
cial reporter, entering the service of the
great Dunstreet Agency. His routine
would throw him among mighty and
small, the man of means and the one
struggling to keep alive the penny-shop
same direct plan that, one brig ut after
noon in July, Everett Hope met a mys-
FERROUS and mournful fate.
II Gideon Hope felt the terror and sus
pense of that awful week, when police
activity seemed ever on the verge of some
hideous discovery, he showed it not.
The city was flaming with the passion
and ardor of a great political issue. With
in the limits of twenty-four hours might
lay the ruin of the dominant wing of the
party. schism had been provoked and
intensified, and the eye of every ''heeler."
as of every man of note. was fixed on the
movements of his political opponents But
the adherents of the Hope faction were
sanguine. An able general. never yet
baffled or defeated. was at his post, they
well knew, and there might be a bitter
battle, but who could doubt the victory :?
1t was the afternoon upon which the
vote was to be taken that would make
Hope supreme in twenty-seven wards, or
master of none. He had bis enemies, and
he knew it. He laughed them to scorn,
yet within the apparently cool. crafty
man of politics, there famed volcano
of hidden, consuming emotion. Above the
Medusa-head of strife and faction there
hoyered to his fancy-hauntingly contin-
rally--the sweet, pathetic face of missing
Everett Hope.
As he passed through the city hall on
his way to the place of convention, Gid