The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-06-25
III HE DIV | D | N G

he had In his pocket and policeman had 70 come ana
chase or his followers. He wondered If David Cor
don drunk.
David was drunk-drunk with JOY Hc still
deliious In his happiness when the hotel clerk handed
him letter from Rider 1t bore special delivery
stamp-plainly an urgent letter David tore the end
or the envelope
Merlbeim going to advance Northhed.
Merlhem taking a store right next to the main
store of the Gordon Company. preparing to copy their
signs their window displays their advertising. to steal
away their best men. Riders letter read more blue
than the deep tnged paper upon which 1t was written
David Gordon laughed when he hod finished it,
laughed as though It had been crammed chock-ablock
with good news.
Keep steady hand Rider" he said aloud. as IL
his counsellor stood Mt his elbow. "nnd we'll give
them hell" but all he wired to the lawyer
THANK God! Mrs. Gordon's operation suc-
cessful"
And all the while that Rider would have forced the
plans for the fight against the Mcrheim concern upon
him, David Gordon was giving his chief attention to
the preparations for making certain little house In
Dexter street habtable for the delayed homecoming
ot bride He fused every detail with the
stnnt attention Of q fussy man, and David Gordon
such.
Not until the Merlhcim concern WINS rendy to
in next door to him did David Gordon take apparent
notice Of It. In fact. the day that they opened their
doors for buslnesS-with much ado-Rhoda came
home. and David spent that entire day In greeting
her. in showing her the little home that TO be all
hers. 1t simple little placc-a mere story and
a half higb-but Its great Gothic gables peered at
through the mass Of foliage that surrounded 1t
in singularly homelike way. brick paved
path led up to the front door from the street and the
lockwood and the old fashioned flowers crowded close
upon 1t all the way. Rhoda loved the gardens and
the quaint wenthered look of the old house; she had
keen interest In the tangled things, the wonder
full conveDienccs and the electric lights She adored
the house. Within 1t her child born, and long
years after she had ceased to look at life through Its
mullioned easements she realized that 1t the
real home of her existence.
The Store Success
The Merlhelm store at the outset;
right there in David Gordons North6eld The Syra-
wholesaler prepared to open branch on
the north side of the river and then David Gordon
summoned Rider into consultation with him. When
David done talking Rider looked at him, not
speaking for full minute. When he did speak the
lawyer snd.-
ATS risky. The law doesn't always wink at that
sort OF thing"
David Gordon looked at him steadily.
"Pve come point where I've got to take risks
OF get out OF business" he said. slowly. "You go
ahead II you can't handle 1t yourself get cnpa-
BILE help. I'll bock you. The thing won't for
give you is n fall down. I'll back you to the limit
through thick and thIn-as long as you win. Do you
understand"
Rider understood. David Gordon had crossed the
dividing line.
Once he had crossed that line David Gordon's path
never once swayed, He made 1t his business to drive
Merlheim out OF Northned and for more than two
years he bent every energy to that end. 1t
different hghtine Merlhem. who was keen, active and
vindctive lighting that miserable old derelict Of
an Abraham Basstord. For nearly two years Mer
helm laughed at the attacks Of his rival He met them
by opening two branches in Norhhed finally by open
inc such butcher shop the North Country had not
before known
The butcher shop bad move. The Gordon
Company went into the meat business 1t
seemed to find enough avenues for the expression Of
It's activities. Only little time before David Ind
opened canning factory the outskirts of the
town and oddly enough. the recipes that they fol-
lowed were those that Rboda had followed In her
own home q precious Inheritance to her from her
mother.
Merlhem answered the butcher shop attack by
going further into David Gordon's territory. His
sharply initiative signs and window fronts went. as
he had threatened In every next door to n Cor
don store. He would pay twice the normal rental to
shoulder OF Dnvids branches Merlhcim laughed
Abraham Bnssford who Ind gone to work for him,
laughed They would teach that upstart
Then, of n sudden things began to 20 wrong with
Merlhelm's store. David Gordon hired away his man.
ager by trick-the dividing line far crossed
now Then there trouble about the meat ship.
mcnts that came through from the West No mat
ter how high the grade of hog steer that his
might buy on the hoof in Chicago Kansas City II
poor grade that came trampllng of the stock
cars at the Nortbneld freight house. Ills customers
complained. Merlheim swore. David Gordon did not
JIn ,c1 t,Il
cheaper hogs. cheaper steers. buy bulls and Jcr.
Scys-anything to I'll the stock cars of MerIheim
For David Gordon had railroad yardmaster in a .
great city that perched above the wind swept shore
of lake In his secret employ. Night after night the
stock bound through for the Merlheim and the
Gordon companies were halted In that yard and n
good part of their contents exchanged. No wonder
that MerheIm swore. roundy denounced his agents
in the West for lying to him, cut down their bills ,
They responded by bringing suits u good round fig. Z
urcs When Merheim served With the papcrs
n the last of their suits he swooncd-rght In the Of