Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1909-07-22
CHAPTER l..
With Illustrations by A. WELL

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CHAPTER /.
Darlington folded the document and
thoughtfully balanced it on his palm.
What an ironical old world it was!
There was a perpendicular wrinkle
about his nose, and his lips had
thinned into a mere line which dropped
at the corners. The drone of a type
writer in the adjoining room sound
ed above the rattle-tattle of the street
below. Through the open windows
came a vague breath of summer redo
lent of flowers and grasses for it was
but eleven o'clock of the morning, and
the smell of sun-baked brick and as
phalt had not yet risen through the
air. Far beyond the smoking, ragged
skyline Darlington. could see the shift
ing, glittering river and the great
ships going down to the sea. Present
ly the ashes from his dead cigar fell
in gray cascade down his coat and
tumbled across his knees, but he gave
no heed.
Ironical old world, indeed! Here,
suddenly and Unexpectedly, he found
himself upon the battlefield of love
and duty, where all honest men find
themselves, sooner or later. To pit
the heart against the conscience i'm
pulse against calculation Heigh-ho!
Duty is an implacable goddess. and
those who serve her most Loyalty are
most ruthlessly driven. She Bullets
us into this corner and into that, digs
pitfalls for the hesitant foot, and
brushes the vacillating.
AS all men will, Darlington set
about to argue down his conscience;
the heart is so insistent counselor.
Why should he give up the woman he
loved, simply because duty demanded
he should? After all, was not duty
merely social obligation? What was
it to him that the sheep were sheared?
Was it right that he, of all men,
should divide the house, throw the
black pail of dishonesty over it, de-
astroy his own happiness and hers,
when so simple thing as a match
would crumble into nothingness this
monument to one mans greed and
;selfishness? The survival of the fit
test; if he put aside Self who would
thank him? Few, and many would
call him fool or a meddler So many
voices spoke that he seemed to hear
none distinctly.
He alone had made these astonish-
ing discoveries; he alone had fol-
lowed the cunningly hidden trail of
the serpent. He could stop where
he was and none would be the wiser.
ha Ixy 90
thine when the scandal would become
public through other channels; but in
that event he would not be held re-
;sponsible for bringing about the catas-
trophe. Besides, the ways of the SER
pent are devious and many, and other
investigators might not come so close
to the trail.
He had gone about his investiga-
tions without the least idea where
they would lead him. At the begin
ming he had believed that the guilty
,ones were none higher than petty off,
acials; but presently he found himself
going over their heads, higher and
higher, until, behold! he was at the
lair Of the old serpent himself A
client had carelessly dropped a bit
of information, and it had taken seed
with this surprising result. Henry
sCavenaugh, millionaire promoter,
-financier. trust magnate, director in
a hundred money-gathering concerns;
Henry Cavenaugh, the father Of the
girl he loved and who loved hint
Gould 1t be he. indeed? 1t seemed in
credible.
II was not case of misappropria,
ton of funds, such as man may be
guilty of when temporarily hard
pressed. It was a bold and fraudulent
passing of dividends that rightfully be-
longed to the investors; of wrongfully
issuing statements Of bOlstered ex-
penses, lack of markets, long strikes
(promoted by Cavenaugh and his as
ssociates!), insufficient means of trans
portation. An annual dividend of
seven per cent. of many millions that
had been dishonesty passed over. The
reports that there would be no diH-
.dends encouraged a slump In the list
ed price Of the stock, and many had
sold under par value, thereby netting
to Cayenaugh and others several mil
lions. And the proof Of all this lay
in his handl
It had been keen hunt. Many and
many a blind trail had he followed,
only to come back to the start again.
All that now remained for him to do
was to pass this document on to the
hands OF the intrepid district attorney,
and justice would be melted out to the
guilty.
Her fatherl The picture of him rose
suddenly and distinctly in HIS mind
Tall. powerfully built, hooked nose.