The Washington times., 1912-05-18
CHAPTER /.
Mystery And Dissolution.

enough to allow of your sitting in
II the left reception-r room of Mr.. wor-
den Banks mansion-it is the little
White-and-gold room, of course, lust
across the corridor from the immense
oallroom-you will know the huge sim
Eie window before which he stood on
luis particular morning and from which
ch oIrs,, S.owereo upon the inoffensive and
really, II is very desirable window.
LooKing out, you may view, absolute.
~ Without charge, an approximate half
Dnns,, n1n doliars' worth OF homes. too ex-
Pensive TO be beautiful and too hideous-
lnharmonious to be anything but ex-
pensiVe Looking backward, YOU may
survey spare and chaste collection OF
i chalrs ana rugs and little art gems on
which the combined incomes of Yourself,
your father-in-law, and your wife's sis
ter's husband-who has the mint-liks
plumbing shop-might possibly be taken
as z temporary deposit, II It was late
10 be In good humor
In short, the average citizen, sudden
~ Possessed OF that window and the
house which lies behind 1t, would emit
. single shriek OF hysterical exultation
and distrfbute his anatomy over at least
seven hundred dollars worth Of Per-
sian carpet.
In spite OF which Mr.. worden Banks
turned away from his window with an
the dainty curtains themselves shud-
dered visibly.
with reverberatins tread he walked
into the corridor and back, and back
and still farther back; until at last he
kicked open a polished door and hurried
INTO his study where he sat down with
crash before his tremendous writing
table 9
-. From somewhere or other. an inmacu-
late youth In the early twenties ap-
peared and stood at attention. Mr..
Banks permitted his eyes to shoot sew
eral varieties Of vicious fire in his direc-
tion; the youth waited placidly. Then:
Yes. sir!"
Have you called up Mr.. seabright
this morning-his Officer"
,,onre ,res; % sir; They have had no word
Have you called up his homer"
Yes, sir. They have had no word
from him. His son answered in per-
- And said that he had absolutely no
appeared fiye days ago?'
Liar" Mr.. Banks commented with
no letter from seabright himself"
Certainly not, sir!'
The Millionaire ground his teeth until
and absent fashion why they did not
give of sparks.
did you call up the detective agency
Eyes, sir. They said that they couldn't
have a man here before tonight"
them to go to blazes! After which he
snarled: Get out of here. Harrisr' And
You're the devils own private secre-
tary, anyway"
Yes, sir!" agreed the younger person
heartily as he vanished swiftly.
nj Of he
went straight over Banks. The million
aier rested his head in his hands and
scowled across the room.
And Seabright was TO have been here
DAY before yesterday to put up the $ll,-
000. 900 | want to float the Consolidated
Cold Water Corporation" he growled.
The opposite wall failed to answer.
studied the huge electrolier above him
and all but walled. half aloud
why. the devil didn't he turn up?
that Consolidated Cold water mayer
freeze over and leave him out in the
cold: Or"
He picked a s. cigar out Of gold
trio affair that came up when he press
ed button. and paused ccnsiderately
before blistering the end of his nose.
And after a minute or two he seemed
his habit a mum5llnG medltative rea-
!sonings: and any one within three
inches Of his, mouth might have caught
"SeabriSht's wealthy: / haven't p cent
over $4,000. Ono in the world. seabright's
t an easy mark, anyway: I'm not: i
9nvthing that wasn't cock-sure. Sea
bright never risked 4 cent in anything
1t. TIM"
And this Consolidated Geld Wator'u
DO a mcney-maker IL 1t happens to go
thToEh bNS IN al right St Sonlant seShlr5t risk any
seahriGht had. rather-I could have dug
ssouid have made a million easy1if
money and let us see whether the pub
lie would bite for itr'
Another pause.
And Seabright promised! talked
him into 1t, and Seabrtght promised to
before yesterday! What's become of
him, anyway? Wealthy men don't drop
out of existence like that without hav-
ing their families worried or anything
brsh sSt' 'Gr anyway fHt Hs wss St like swsSs ssS
around. ready to strew the money right
and left and be talked into anything.
And did have him talked into
the very night before he disappeared I!
And he was going to be here and
The cigar sputtered noisily under the
forced draft. Banks sat up.
Hang Seabright, anyway. The peo-
pie that are trying to float that Con-
solidated Cold Water may catch an
other good thing, somewhere or other,
and ] won't make a dollar out of It,
much less a million. And all that good
money gone to waste because he dis
appeared and
From which It will be observed, in a
general way, that Mr.. Banks suppress
ed tears resulted not so much from
anxiety after his invisible friend and
associate of years as from the fact
that the disappearance involved the
possible absence from his own pocket
OF divers dollars then in circulation.
lie sat back for a minute or two more.
He reached for the button which would
summon Harris. and just then came a
gentle knock upon his door!
1t was one of the several footmen.
of course. Mr.. Banks pressed another
button and something buzzed Unity.
The door opened and the man entered
with
There's a man to see You. sir"
Mr.. -" The millionaire shot out
of his chair.
Not Mr.. seabright, sir. "A shabby
The millionaire dropped back with a
| grunt.
whats his name?"
He declined to give 1t, sir. He said
merely that he wished to see you on
| matter of personal Importance TO
| Vourself and that II was immaterial to