Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-12-30
CHAPTER !.
The Crash.
M ~ eoeeS -HENNHL ca

The young man was the glass of
fashion, from the silken ribbon on the
spouess Panama to his pearl-gray gait
ers, and well favored-a 1.-the stalwart
figure, with wide-set hazel eyes and
strong brown hair waving back from
q candid forehead.
Never had his innocuous and but
ter-hy existence known a surprise
more startling. He had swung into.
the room with all the nonchalant hab-
Its, the ingrained gertrude of the man
born with achievement ready-made in
his hands. And a single curt state
ment-like the ruthless blades of
pair of shears-had shipped across
the one splendid scarlet thread in the
wool that constituted life as he knew
it. He had knotted his lavender scarf
that morning vice-president of the
Valiant Corporation-one Of the great
est and most successful of modern
day organizations; he sat now in the
fading afternoon trying to realize that
the huge fabric, without warning, had
toppled to its fall.
How solid and changeless it had
always seemed-that great business
fabric woven by the father he could
SO dimly remember! His own invested
fortune had been derived from the
great corporation the elder Valiant
had founded and controlled until his
death. With almost unprecedented
earnings, it had stood as a very Glib
raltar of finance, a type and sign of
brilliant organization. Now, on the
heels of a trusts dissolution which
would be nine-days' wonder, the vast
structure had crumbled up like a card
board. The rains had descended and
the floods had come, and it had fallen!
The man at the desk had wheeled
in mis- revolving chair and was looking
at the trim athletic back blotting the
daylight, with a smile that was little
short of covert sheer. He was one
of the local managers of the corpora
tion whose ruin was to be that days
sensation, colorless man who had ac-
quired middle age with his first long
trousers and had been dedicated to the
commercial treadmill before he had
bought safety-razor. He despised all
loiterers along the primrose paths, and
John Valiant was but a decorative fig
urehead.
Valiant started as the other spoke at
his elbow. He had come to the win
dow and was looking down at the
pavement. How quickly some news
spreads!"
For the first time the young man
noted that the street below was filling
with a desultory crowd. He distin-
guished knot of Italian laborers talk
ing with excited gesticulations "a
smudsed plastorer tools in hand
clerks, some hatlsss an with thin
alpaca coastal peering at the voice
less front of the great building, and
all, he imagined, with thriving fear
in their faces. AS he watched, a wom-
an, coarsely dressed, ran across the
street, her handkerchief pressed to her
eyes.
The notice has gone up on the
door" said the manager. Il sent word
to the police Crowds are ugly some
times"
Valiant drew a sudden sharp breath
The corporation down in the mire,
with crowds at it's doors ready to
Clamor for money entrusted to it, the
aggregate savings of widow and or
phan, the piteous boarded sums earned
by labor over which pinched sickly
faces had burned the midnight oil!
The older man had turned back to
the desk to draw a narrow typewrit-
ten slip of paper from a pigeonhole.
Here he said, lis a list of the bonds
of the subsidiary companies recorded
in your name. These are all, of
course, engulfed in the larger failure.
You have, however, your private for
tune If you take my advice, by the
way" he added significantly, you'll
make sure of keeping that"
What do you mean?" John Va
liant faced him quickly.
The other laughed shortly. GA word
to the wise,'" he quoted. Its very
good living abroad There's a boat
leaving tomorrow"
A dull red sprang into the younger
face. You mean"
Look at that crowd down there
you can hear them now. Theren be
a legislative investigation, of course.
And the devil'l get the hindmost"
He struck the desk-top with his hand.
Have you ever seen the bills for this
furniture? Do you know what that
rug under your feet cost? Twelve
thOusand-it's an old Persian. What
do you suppose the papers will do to
that? Do you think such things will
seem amusing to that rabble down
there?" His hand swept toward the
window. It's been going on for too
many years, tell you! And now
some one'H pay the piper. The light
ming won't strike me-Tm not tall
enough. You're a vice-president"
do you imagine that knew these
things-that have been a party to
what you seem to believe has been a
45aIiharata Wrecking?" Valiant tow