The Irish standard., 1908-12-12

eoexs.eaz. .eoz- IRE eoses--.eee,l% Cos.
CHAPTER I.
Tho Man with the Moles.
The first time that Col. Rupert Win
ter saw Cary Mercer was under Cir
cumstances calculated to fix the Incl
dent firmly in his memory. In the
year 1903, home from the Philippines
on furlough. and preparing to return
to a task big enough to attract him
in spite Of its exile and hardships, he
had visited the son Of friend at Har-
ward. They were walking through the
corridors of one Of the private dormi-
tories where the boy roomed. Rather
srimly the soldiers eyes were noting
marble wainscoting and tiled floors,
and contrasting this academic en-
vfronment with his own at West Point.
A caustic comment rose to his lips.
but it was not uttered, for he heard
the sharp bark of pistol, followed by
thud, and q crackle as of breaking
glass.
do you fellows amuse yourselves
shooting up the dormitory?" said he.
The boy halted; he had gone white.
1T came from MERGERS room!" he
cried. and ran across the corridor to
door with the usual labelling of two
visiting cards. The door was not
locked. Entering, they passed into a
vestibule, thence through another
door which stood open. For many a
day after the colonel could see just
how the slender young figure looked,
the shoulders in huddle on the study
table, one arm swinging nerveless; be-
side him, on the floor, revolver and
broken glass bottle. The latter
must have made the cracking sound
Some dark red liquid, soaking the
open sheets Of newspaper, filled the
room with the pungent odor of alco-
hol. Only the top of the lads head
showed-a curly, silky, dark brown
head; but even before the colonel lift
ed 1t he had seen few thick drops
mating the brown curls. He laid the
head back gently and his hand slipped
to the boys wrist.
mo use, Ralph" he said in the sub
dued tones that the voice takes I'M
consciously in the presence of death.
"And Endy was going to help him."
almost sobbed Ralph. "He told me
he would. Oh, why couldn't he have
trusted his friends!"
The colonel was looking at the
Enowononor-HVI7oe ~ ,,,opo1,o,s ,o;s 10.
for glance at the dabbled sheet had
brought him the headings of the stock
quotations: another Sharp Break
in Stocks. New London Records" 1t
had been money. Later, after what
needed to be done was over, after doc
tors and officers of the law were gone,
4 Col. Winter heard the wretched story.
A young, reckless, fatally attractive
Southerner, rich friends, college 60
| cieties, joyous times; nothing really
wicked or vicious, only surrender to
youth and friendship and pleasure,
and then the day of reckoning-duns,
college warnings, the menace of black
disgrace. The young fellow was an
orphan, with no near kindred save one
brother much older than he. The
brother was reputed to be rich, &C.
cording to southern standards, and
young Mercer, who had just come into
modest patrimony of his own, invest.
ed In his brothers. ventures. AS to
the character of these ventures,
whether flimsy or substantial, the col
onel's informants were absolutely
ignorant. All they knew Of the elder
Mercer was that he was often in New
York and had "a lot to do with Wall
street." He wasn't a broker; no, he
was trying to raise money to hang or
to some big properties that he had;
and the stocks seemed to be going al
remarkable rates just now, the bot
tom dropping out of the market. If 8
certain stock of the Mercers-they
didn't know the name-could be kept
above 81 he would pull through. Col
Winter made no comment, but hi
remembered that when he had studied
the mornings stock-market pages fol
himself, he had noted bad slump IL
the southern steels," and. Underwater
on the toboggan slide; of three tt
four points, declining from ~ and ,
Traction to 49,"
another victim Of the Wall stree
pirates" was the colonel's silent judg
ment on the tragedy. Lucky for he
his mothers dead"
The next morning he had returned
and had gone to his young friend'l
rooms.
The boy was still fulloof the horror
Of the day before. MERGERS brothe
was in Cambridge, he said-arrivinl
that morning from New York. END!
is going to fetch him round to get hin
out of the reporters way sometime
this evening; maybe there's something
1 can do"-this in explanation o
his declining to dine with the colonel
As the two entered the rooms, Win
ter was little in advance, and caugh
Ahn erst v1{unnso ~ q man Ritffn& IN