The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-09-24

asked uTIggs, with FAINT smile on
his weather-beaten face Are you
publishing the bans? or are we think
ing of the same thing?"
81 suppose we are. Good-morning"
She nodded gravely and passed on,
gathering up her black skirt a little,
for there had been a shower He stood
still a moment before the shop win
dow and looked after her. gravely ad-
miring her figure and her walk, as he
might have admired very valuable
thoroughbred She was wearing
mourning for her husband, not be-
cause any one would have blamed her
if she had not done so. considering
how he had treated her, but out OF
natural self-respect
Griggs also looked after her as she
went away because he felt that she
was not quite pleased with him for
having suggested that he aud she had
both been thinking of the same thing.
The thought concerned a third per
son, and onG who rarely allowed HIM
IL
IN fact, than Mr.. Rufus Van Torn. the
America potentate of the great
Nickel Trust. who was Lady Maud's
most intimate friend, and who had
long desired to make the prima donna
his vile. He had bought place ad-
joining Lord CreedmOre's, and there
had lately been a good deal of quite
groundless gossip about him and Lady
Maud, which had very nearly become
a scandal The truth was that they
were the best friends in the world,
and nothing more; the millionaire had
for some time been interested in an
unusual sort of charity which almost
filed the lonely woman's life, and he
had given considerable sums of money
TO help it During the months preced-
ing the beginning of this tale, he had
also been the object of one of those
da5tardly attacks to which very rich
and important financiers are more ex-
posed than other men, and he mad
actually been accused Of having done
away with his partners daughter, who
had come to her end mysteriously dur
ing a panic in q New York theater.
But his innocence had been proved IN
the clearest manner, and he had re-
turned to the United States to look
after the interests OF the Trust
When GTiggs heard the news OF
Iargarets engagement to Logotheti,
he Immediately began to wonder how
Mr.. Van Torp would receive the intel
ligeuce: ard if it had not already oc,
Cured to Lady Maud that the million
aire might make final effort to rout
his rival and marry the prima donna
himself, the old authors observation
suggested such a possibility. Van
Torp was a man who had fought up TO
success and fortune with little regard
for the obstacles he found in his way;
he had worked as a cowboy in his
early youth, and was apt to look on
his adversaries and rivals in life eth
er as refractory cattle or as danger
Gus wild beasts; and though he had
some of the old-fashioned rancheros
sense of lair play in a fight, he had
much of the reckless daring and ruth
less savagery that characterize the
fast-disappearing western desperate.
LOgOtheti on the other hand, was
In many respects a true oriental, SD
premely astute and superlatively calm,
but imbued, at heart, with a truly
eastern contempt for any law that
CHANGED to oppose his wish
ho 4 ,fs oil ~ 81
ibIe resources at their command, and
both were determined to marry the
prima donna. 1t occurred to Paul
Griggs that a real struggle between
such pair Of adversaries would be
worth watching There was unlimited
money on both sides, and equal cour-
age and determination. The Greek was
the more cunning Of the two, by great
odds, and had now the considerable
advantage of having been accepted by
the lady; but the American was far
more regardless of consequences to
himself or to others in the pursuit of
what he wanted, and, short of COM
hitting a crime, would put at least as
broad an Interpretation on the law
Logotheti had always lived in a highly
civilized society, even in CONSTANT
nOple, for it is the greatest mistake
to imagine that the upper classes of
Greeks, in Greece or Turkey, are at
all deficient in cultivation Van Torp,
on the contrary, had run away from
civilization when a half-educated boy,
he had grown to manhood in a COM
muRity of men who had little respect
for anything and feared nothing at
all. and he had won success in a field
where those who compete for it buy
it at any price, from lie to a life
Lady Maude was thinking of these
things as she disappeared from Griggs'
sight, for she was a little afraid that
she had made trouble. Ten days had
passed since she had last written to
Rufus Van Torp, and she had told
him, amongst other things, that Nine.
de COrdova and Logotheti were en-