The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-01-24

American republic. Let the people do
what they would, all they could. This
was his dream. II had come to him
In all Its fullness one evening in the
great city of the east. He exulted.
As to the Industrial situation in In
ternational Power, Rawn now began
to prove himself a good business man,
and he received more and more the
grudged confidence of his associates,
who came from almost every rank of
big business. Through the aid and adj
vice Of these, his private fortune be-
gan to mount up enormously. So also
did International Power make money.
The only sore place OF the directors
overstrained nerves ceDtered I'm affairs
at the gaunt building in the suburb,
where a dozen mysterious machines,
foothed and armed, cogged and coiled,
still stood in a state OF ~half-comple-
ton, al inchoate and mysterious now
as they had been at their inception.
None CT the workmen, none OF the
foremen, could guess what they would
look like when completed.
There was something else, which
not the most suspicious guessed-John
Rawn himself did not knowi His sue
cess was a vast bubble. Halsey was
the only man who ever had known the
full secret of mantIlng one OF the mi
%raculous receivers which they all had
seen and all had accepted. Rawn,
bold enough, kcr. this 10 himself, al
though he feared to go to Halsey and
make any demands. Halsey held grim
peace for months-indeed, for more
than Tour years in all, counting from
the first motor made in the Kelly row
woodshed. II was risky. but for once
Rawp dared make no desperate move.
Halsey talked little. He was very sad
since the birth OF his h~unchbachsd
child. Sometimes he talked to Vir-
ginia Delaware about It; neve TO his
wife, Grace.
And still the seven days wonder OF
International Power remained TO puz-
zle the Industrial world. No inkling
OF the real intention Of the company
ever got out. There was, az Rawn had
predicted, no market for the stock, for
the reason that II was not listed and
for the further reason that IL vas not
sold. 1t was held In a close COM
munion OF hard-headed and close
mouthed men, and there were no con
fdences betrayed. The thing was too
big to conform TO ordinary rules. In
TIRE center of all this stood the figure
OF John Rawn, suddenly grown large
and strong. He ruled his army, off,
GERS. star and line, cavalry, infantry
and aux!iiaTsss, as one born originally
to command. He brooked neither
parleying noT thwarting Of his will
except In n instance. He Eve made
any demands on Halsey. never gave
him any peremptory orders after that
one day In the office, months earlier.
before Halsey made his first trip to
New York.
These months seemed 10 have aged
John Rawn, zone the less. He grew
grimmer and grayer, more taciturn
and reserved. At the clubs he was
one OF the most talkedof men in town,
and one who talked least himself. AS
his hair grew grayer at the temples,
his jaw grew harder, at the r OF
his chin coming the triangular
wrinkles which go with hard-faced
middle age. Enigmatic, ~self-centered.
he could not have been called a happy
man. He smiled but rarely, joked not
at all, engaged in no badinage, told
no stories. found no lighter side of
life, played no golf. had nc vacations.
Like some vast engine of tremendous
driving power he went on his way, adj
mired in a city and country full of
able men, as n competent to hold
his W with the best and strongest OF
them all. And still OF all his traits
stood out the one Of self-conidenee.
He played a game of enormous and
continuous risk-fundamental risk by
reason of Halsey, incidental by reason
Of his widely ballooned market opera.
tions: yet his nerve held. Moreover,
he was learning the price of success
an absolute devotion to the means OF
success. When he learned that the
child of his daughter was not a son,
but a girl, and that it was a hunch-
back for life, a sad-faced, unsmiling
child-he set his jaws for a moment,
but said few words of coincidence,
either to his daughter or her husband.
He did not smile for three months aft
er that. and never referred to this sub
ject again, after it's first discussion
with his wife at Graystone hall; but
1t cost him no time and no energy lost
from business. 1t only deepened in
his soul his growing hatred for Charley
Halsey, the man whom he dared not
chide.
In the headquarter Offices a vast,
smooth running business machine had
now been built up. Rawn was an or
ganizer. The Iaxness and looseness OF
the old railway Offices in st. Louis,
where he had got his business school
Ing, were missing in the headquarters
Of international Power. Employees had
small time to gossip in business hours.
Out of business hours, 1t is to be con-
fesscd, 0nce In q while there was dis
cussion as to the salary of Miss Vir-.
ginia Delaware. which was reported a