The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-03-04
(Continued.1 CHAPTER XXI.
A Broken Friendship.

rice man to bluff that you were for no favor and open field. I be- 1ieve that you worked up this entire thing yourself. and that it is due to your dirty machinatlons that Gold smith sent me out of town
 Perry-s fist landed squarely be- tween his eyes. and Chester stagger- ed against the door.
 ..Now sol" said Perry.
 ..I thinlk,'' gasped Chester, ''that it will hurt you more if I don't carry out my threat. | never knew that there were such low, contemptible sneals on earth as you"
 ..Go." repeated Perry, white with rage.
 Chester stumbled out of the docr Of the Uruguay. and fell. sick and faint. onto the seat of his cab.
 .sBack to the Stockton,'' he mutt tered to the driver.
 Perry, in the meantime, had turn ed to his desk. and extracted there from with trembling fingers the check for five thousand dollars which he had written three months before. He turned it over, and on the back was Chester's name in Chester's hand writing. It looked as if it had been hlotted hastily and blurred little, but it was unmistakably his sigma ture The sight of it seemed to add fresh fuel to Perry's rage.
 what can I do to him?'' he ask ed the four walls helplessly. "HeI wouldn't fight. He wouldn't even hit lack God knows I insulted him iii every way I could think of. I would rot take such talk from any man. Curse the advantage he takes of his size. He knows that I know he isn't a coward even if he is scoundrel He refrained deliberately in order to hurt me more, as he knew, and said that it would. I don't see what his aninus was except that they say you aIways, hate man that you have wronged. and one from whom you have received benefits
 He turned to the desk again, ard pulled open a little drawer in order te replace the check. At the bottom of the drawer lay an envelope ad- dressed in his own handwriting to Chester Taylor. Warsaw, Texas. He 1snatched it up and fingered it curi- ously&
 .It doesn't make any difference.'' he muttered. t'He didn't deny a single thing, except by implication, and an assumption of rage. But, oh, to think of the noble fellow knew in college, chivalrous, kindly. gener- ous. honest. coming to this through diversity in less than year. won der if that poet Robinson was right Brothers? =. But we were boys, and there it ends Oh, Chester, Chester, if I had only known, if I only had the old Chester backt"
 The h1gh-strung, sensitive little man laid his head down on the desk and wept.
 Down in the Stockton, Chester Tav- Tor sat in hard white-faced silence staring at the walls of his little room. Over and over again his tired brain the solution of set of circumstances which had led him to quarrel ire trievably with the man he consider ed his closest friend. But the weak ness of the fever was upon him, and, shaken with rage and shumilia ten, he had lost his analytical powers. Moreover his thoughts strayed ..o1l- stantly back to his severed relations with the Twinings, severed by Per ry's interference, and, as often as he reached that point in the monotonous mental circle he was treading, his rage againstl Perry rose again to fey CT heat
 He did not go to the office that day, and it was a white and shaken Chester that put in an appearance there the following morning.
 .My dear fellow exclaimed Colo smith, I'm delighted to see you. I had no idea that you had been H.. I'm afraid that you worried yourself to death over that contract. Here Sit down.
 e.Thank you, Mr. Goldsmith" re- piled Chester faintIy. I'm just feel ing a little down in the mouth. A spell of the blues. It will wear Off presently
 sThats rather strange said Gold smith, ''considering you have just made a clear seventy-five thousand dollars for the firm.''
 T had a touch of fever too," ex- rlained Chester
 s.I should say you had. You must take it easy. and rest for a while. Of course you realize that you have 9 commission coming out of that work l It wasn't arranged before you start i ed, but Elkins and I agreed that you were to get five per cent. Of course ] you stay on the payroll too. Tn fact you stay for a little more than you did before. You are too valuable a ]