The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-11-20
The Eue,,i,,e Story


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1.=
Hl8~1euRtner.
(By Clari3sa Mackie.)
And how about this interest in the
Western Iumlsr company?'' asked the
lawyer Il
h Paul stanordrglenced over the docu-
!ments in his hSnde and decided that he
would continue his half ownership In
the company.
This Henry Heaton seems to be q
square sort of chap and the Investment
IL a growing one" he said, thought
fully. To tell you the truth. Fargo
I've sort of a sentiment about not dis
turbing some Of my fathers business
increasingly profitable one. you may
write Mr.. Heaton that the partnership
can be transferred to me II 1t Is entire
ly agreeable. Now about those other
matt ter, And the tive men men :. were ere
settlement OF the large estate Of Paufs
lately deceased father.
A few days after Paul Stafford's
lcompletion Of his college course his ia
Their had suddenly died. leaving the
young man with many new RESPONSE
biltties on his hands. When the large
estate was settled and Paul's wild
owed stepmothef had been comfort
ably established with her own rela-
cred that he was quite alone in the
world. save for "a few distant cousins.
With unlimited means at his COM
mand and many keen business men
looking after his affairs. Paufs first
feeling after the estate was settled.
was one of utter loneliness. To as
suage this. he mapped out q plan that
he had often dreamed Of during his
school days.
Two years were to be spent in
Iniu fvNs,r ,t rIS of
the end Of that time he was to return
to America and take up the life Of a
country gentleman upon the family
acres In the New Jersey hills.
and forgot the half interest he held in
the Western Lumber company Of an
Oregon mountain town.
.
Two years later Miss Leslie Heaton
rode up to the Office door Of the West
saddle to the doorstone. tossed the
bride to a waiting boy and entered the
long, brown-painted building.
She greeted several busy clerks in the
lgiass-paneled door on which was let
tered in gold two names:
Henry Heaton.''
Leslie Heaton.',
Alone in her private. office, Leslie
threw up the window and looked out
through which wound the river that
gave power to the great mills. There
was a distant musical humming of
saws and the air was redolent of pine
and cedar. From the road that sloped
|down to the town to which her father
had given his name, and Of which his
business had formed the nucleus many
years ago. came the creak of wagon
wheels: wagons loaded with mighty
tree trunks coming to the mill; other
wagons loaded with. satfny and odor-
Gus planks from the Oregon forest
She had known 1t all her life, this
lumber business; she had been born
in Heaton and She had seen her faith
er's upward struggles toward success.
There had been one critical period
| many years ago-her mother often
| recalled it-when the little business
appeared on the verge of collapse.
taiist.s Tfios Nd a5dGahFa aaif interest
| in the lumber company and whose
money had sent it safely on the high
road to a conservative but successful
career. <,
At her fathers death, Leslie had.
taken up the business, and with
corps of competent advisers was maxi
ing her fame as a shrewd and just
| business woman wherever the name
| of Heaton was known. Her widowed
mother, in the pleasant home on the
brow of the hill, called Leslie her
| fathers own son." and confided to
her remaining daughter, Ann, that
Leslie should have been a man."
| If she had known how wistfully
Leslie regarded the quiet domestic
tasks that were AIMS share Mrs. Heat
on might have changed her mind.
Leslie hung her broad felt hat on
a peg and sat down before her faith
er's desk. There was a pile OF mail,
much Of it addressed to the Western
| Lumber company, and many other
missives addressed to Leslie Heaton,
Esq" or "Mr. Leslie Heaton. secretary
| and treasurer of the Western Lumber
company"
| A dimple always came to the cor
ner of Leslie's mouth when she read
these superscriptions. She wondered
what those hard-headed business
dents would say IL they knew that
the official whose terse letters they
had read was this soft-eyed, oval
] faced girl with wealth of red brown
hair and a pair of wfstful gray eyes
that hungered to sweep and dust q
home and actually hated the sight of
a typewritinE machine.
| Presently Leslie rang bell and a
girl came and set down in shorthand
several of the young secretary's busi-
When she was alone Leslie picked up
q copy of a San Francisco newspaper
and her eyes instinctively turned to the
market reports Ere she turned the
page she scanned the Wall street news.
and conspicuous among the names OF
rich men who had been ruined in the
recent p. b. L. A. crash was that Of her
silent and unseen business partner
Paul Stafford.
Poor boy!" cried Leslie. remember
ing the slender STRIPPING who had ac-
companied the older Stafford to the
Western Lumber Mills on brief in
spection many years before. mo mat
ter what else has happened-he's got a
half ownership here, and there's room
for another desk in here If he wants it,
or a private office tor himself. won