Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-09-17
CHAPTER II-Contlnued.

CHAPTER iI-Contlnued.
Rather idly, now, he drew pad to-
ward him and, taking up pencil,
made the figures seventeen and TWEEN
ty-seven. Then he made the figures
thirty-two and forty-two. He black
ened them with repeated tracings as
he mused. This done, he put seven
teen under twenty-seyen and thirty
two under fOrty-two. He made the
subtraction and studied the two tens.
A swing door opened softly and his
executive clerk reappeared with a soft
tread.
Some papers for your signature,
sir" he said as he slipped them on the
blotter in front of Resterling. And
the 132d-no order about that, sir?"
he asked.
None. It remains!" Wegterling re-
piled.
The clerk went out impressed. His
chief taking TO sums of subtraction
and totally preoccupied! The 1920 to
remain! He, too, had question-mark
in his secret mind.
Westerling proceeded with his math-
ematics Having heavily shaded the
tens. he essayed a sum in division. He
found that ten went into seventy just
seven times.
"One-seventh the allotted span of
life!" he unused Take off fifteen
years for youth and fifteen after fifty
nobody counts after that, though
mean to-and you have ten into
forty, which is one-fourth That is a
good deal But it's more to a woman
than to a man-yes, a lot more to a
woman than to a mani"
The clerk was right in thinking
Westerling preoccupied; but it was
not with the intcTu-t' 1nal crisis. Over
his coffee tbc name of Miss Marta Gal
land, in tta nst of arrivals at a hotel,
had caught his eye in the morning pa
per. A note to her had brought an
answer, saying that her time was linn
tied, but she would be glad to have
him call at five that afternoon.
Westerpng realized that the ques-
ton Of marriage as a social require,
ment might arise when he should be
come officially chief of staff with the
retirement Of His EXcellency the field
marshal. For the present he enjoyed
his position as a bachelor who was
the most favored man in the army too
much to think of marriage.
1t was little surprising that the
hnll fhaf Fhn rfr1 Of !, Z
rung in his secret mind when he was
on one of the first rounds of the lad.
der, now lost in the mists of a lower
stratum of existence, should ever
tinkle again. Yet he had heard its
note in the tone of her prophecy with
each step in his promotion; and while
the other people whom he had known
at La Tir we're the yaguest shadows OF
personalities, her picture was as def.
mite in detail as when she said: you
have the viii! You have the ambi,
toni" She had recognized in him the
power that he felt; fOreseen his ascent
to the very apex of the pyramid. She
was still unmarried, which was
strange; for she had not been bad.
looking and she was of a fine old fam
lily. What was she like now? Com
mOnplace and provincial, most likely
Many of the people he had known in
his early days appeared so when he
met them again. But, at the worst, be
looked for an interesting half-hour.
The throbbing activity of the streets
of the capital, as his car proceeded on
the way to her hotel, formed an ener
getic accompaniment to his gratifying
backward survey of how all his plans
had worked out from the very day OF
the prophecy. Had he heard the re
mark of a great manufacturer to the
banker at his side in a passing limous
inc, There goes the greatest captain
of industry of US ALL" Westerling
would only have thought: Certainly
I am chief of staff. l am at the head
of all your workmen at one time OF
another" Had he heard the bankers
answer. But pretty poor pay, pretty
small dividends!" he would have
thought, Splendid dividends-the divi
dends of power!"
He had a caste contempt for the meI
of commerce, with their mercenary
talk about credit anG market prices;
and also for the Socialists, doctors, en-
gineers. and men o. other professions
who spoke of things in books which
he did not understand. Reading back.
was one of the faui>s of Turcas, his as
sistant- No bo1aish soldier. he knew
had ever been s great general. He re
scented the growing power of thes,
leaders of the civil world. taking dis
tinction away Srom the military, ever
when, as a man of parts. he had t.
court theiv influence. His was TIT
profession that was and ever shoult
be the elect. A penniless subalterI
was q gentleman, while he could neve
think OF man in business as one.
All the faces In the street Belongs
TO a strange, busy world outside his in
terest and thoughts They formet
what was known as the public, Otter
making a clatter about things whicl
they did not understand, when the.
should obey the orders of their su
pericrs. Of late. their clatter had beer
sbouS the extra taxes for the recent il
crease of the standing forces by al
othe= corps. The public was bovin
vita. parrots head Yet it did no
adarire the toiling OK, but the eagl
ana the lion.
As his car came to the park his eye
lighted at sight of one of the dividend
enc feature Of urban life that eve
gave him a thrill A battalion Of tn
12Sth, which he had ordered that after
noon to the very garrison at South L
Tir that he had once commanded. wa
LlFELIKE FIGURES IN WA,