The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1914-03-19

Fargo read. He looked up. "Securi-
ties aggregating three millions!" he
said Ia Il hushed voice. Why, unless
I've been misinformed. that represents
practically all his private fortune"
The other nodded. Turned over to
the corporation with his resignation as
a vice-president. and without a blessed
string tied 10 EN-, What do you think
OF that?"
Think! It's the most absurdIy
idlotic thing | ever met Two weeks
ago before the investigation
but now. when it's perfectly certain
they can bring nothing home to him"
He paused "Of course / suppose it'll
save the corporation, Ell? But 1t may
be ten years before its securities pay
dividends And this is real money
Where the devil does he come in
MEANWHILE"
The receiver pursed his lips 81
knew his father" he said lie had
the same crazy quixotic streak
lie gathered the scattered docu-
ments and locked them carefully with
WV oe+tAit'i IA HtAlG+ t'ItN'dNhiai
young asst he said explosively
Il should say SOL" agreed Fargo.
DO you know | used 10 be afraid my
Katharine had leaning toward him.
But thank Cod she's sensible girl"
Dusk had fallen that evening when
John Vuliant's Panhard turned into
a nd al int h1 yatt
ing mouth OF his garage
A little later, the bulldog at his
heels, he assembled the steps Of his
club. where he lodged-he had dis
posed OF his bachelor apartments
fortnight ago The cavernous seats of
the lounge were all occupied, but he
did not pause as he strobe through
the hall He took the little pile of
letters the boy handed him at the
desk and went slowly up the stairway
lie wandered into the deserted libra
ny and sat down. tossing the letters
on the magazine-littered table. He had
suddenly remembered that 1t was his
twenty-titth birthday.
In the reaction from the long strain
he felt physically spent He thought
OF what he had done that afternoon
with a sense OF satisfaction. A re-
yersal of public judgment, in his own
case. had not entered his head. He
knew his world--lts comfortable facul.
~ OF forgetting. and the multitude OF
sins that wealth may cover. To pre-
serve at whatever personal cost the
one noble monument his fathers
genius had reared, and to right the
wrong that would cast its gloomy
shadow ON his name-that had been
his only thought. What he had done
would have been done no matter what
the outcome OF tho investigation But
now, he told himself, no one could say
the act had been wrung from him.
That, he fancied would have been his
fathers way,
He smiled--a slow smile OF reminis-
cence--for there had come to him at
that moment the dearest OF all those
memories--a play OF his childhood.
lie saw himself seated on a low
stool. watching a funny old clock with
moon-face, whose smiling lips curved
up like military mustachios. and wish
| ing the lazy long hands would hurry,
He saw himself stealing down a long
corridor 20 the door OF big room
| strewn with books and papers, that
| through some haleful and mysterious
spell could not be made to open ut
| all hours When the hands pointed
| right however. there was the open
Sesame"-hls own secret knock. two
| fierce twin raps, with one little lone
some one afterward-apd this was un.
| failing Safe inside. he saw himself
standing on big. polar bearskin, the
door tight.locked against all corners,
an expectant baby figure with his lit.
tie hand clasped in his fathers. The
| white rug was tho magic entrance TO
the Never-Never Country, known only
to those two.
He could hear his own shrill treble:
Wishing House. Wishing House,
whore are your"
Then the deeper voice (Qulte unrec-
equitable as his father'sl answering;
Here | am, Master. here | am"
And instantly the room vanished
aud they were In the Never-Never
Land. and before them reared the big.
gcst house in the world. with a row OF
white pillars across its front a mile
high.
John Valiant felt an odd beating OF
| the heart and u tightening OF the
throat. for he saw a scene that never
faded from his memory. II was the
one hushed and horrible night. when
dread things had been happening that
he could not md when q big
man with gold eyeglasses. who
smellcd OF some curious sicktsh.swee,
/ perfume. came and took him by the
baud and led him into room wher,
I his father lay In bed. very gray and
/ quiet