The Huttig news., 1909-05-01
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dDOut HIS HUSe, anu Ills IDS Hdu thinned into mere line which dropped at the corners. The drone of type writer in the adjoining room sound ed above the rattle-tattle of the street below Through the open windows came 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 a 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 buffets us into this corner and into that. digs pitfalls for the hesitant foot and crushes the vaeillating.
 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 stroy his own happiness and hers. when so simple a 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 call him fool or meddler. So many voices spoke that he seemed to hear none distinctly.
 He alone had made these astonish- ing discoveries, he alone had fol -fUwcu rne Cunn 10Ny hidde~1Dff-uI UT the serpent. He could stop where he was and none would be the wiser To be sure, it was only question of time 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 cials; but presently he found himself going over their heads. higher and higher, until, beholdi he was at the lair of the old serpent himself A client had carelessly dropped a bit of information, and 1t had taken seed with this surprising result. Henry T, financier trust magnate, director in a hundred money gathering concerns; Henry Cavenaugh, the father of the girl he loved and who loved him! Could it be he. indeed? It seemed in credible.
 It was not case of misappropria- tion of funds, such as a 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 sociates,), 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 divi- dends encouraged a slump in the list ed price of the stock, and many had sold under par value, thereby netting to Cavenaugh and others several mil lions And the proof of all this lay in his hand!
 It had been a 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 meted out to the guilty.
 Her father. The picture of him rose suddenly and distinctly in his mind. Tall, powerfully built. hooked nose, keen blue eyes, an aggressive chin, a repellent mouth. Henry Cavenaugh was the personifieation of the modern Croe- sus. Immutable in purpose, dogged in perseverance, relentless enemy, a Jesuit in that the end always justified the means, he stood pillar in the world of finance, where there is sometimes justice, but never any mercy Thirty-five years before he had been a messenger in stock brokers office. Of his antecedents nothing was known until he broke enc of the famous gold corners in the seventies, when handsome. ruddy checked little Iriahman bobbed up 70