The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-05-18

a lot, said Toye.
But you seem to know a good
deal about him?"
IL had little place near his
one summer. know only what
| heard down there"
What did You hear?" asked
Cazalet. I've been away ten
years, ever since the crash that
ruined everybody but the man at
the bottom of the whole thing. IL
would be a kindness to tell me
what you heard"
We'll, / guess you've said il
yourself right now. That man
seems to have beggared everybody
all around except himself; that's
how / make it out" said Hilton
Toye.
He did worse" said Cazalet
through his teeth. "He killed my
poor father; he banished men to
the wilds of Australia; and he
sent a better man than himself to
prison for fourteen years."
Toye opened his dark eyes for
once. rs that SO? No. 1 never
heard that" said he.
You hear II now. He did all
that. indirectly, and I don't care
who hears me say so. / didn I
realize it at the time. I was too
young, and the whole thing laid
me out flat; but | know 1t now.
1T was worse than a crash. 1t
was a scandal. That was what fin
ished us off, all but Henry Cra-
ven. There'd been gigantic
swindle-special investments Rec
commended by the firm, bogus
certificates and all the rest of 1t.
We were all to blame, of course.
MY poor father ought never to
have been a business man at all;
he should have been a poet. Even
Il was only youngster in the
office, but | ought to have known
what was going on.
But Henry Craven did know.
He was in 1t up to the neck,
though a fellow called Scruton
did the actual job. Scruton got
fourteen years-and Craven got
our old house on the river!"
And feather 1t pretty WE'LL"
said Toye, nodding. Yes, | did
hear that. And | can tell you they
don't think any better of him, in
the neighborhood, for going to
live right there. But how did he
stop the other mans mouth, and
how do you know"
Never mind how know" said
CaZalet. "Scruton was friend of
mine, though an older man; he
was good to me, though he was a
wrong 'un himself. He paid for
it-paid for two-that / can say,
But he was engaged to Ethel Cra-
ven at the time, was going to be
taken into partnership on their
marriage, and you can put two
and two together for YOURSELF"
did she wait for him?"
About as long as you'd expect
of the breed! She was her fathers
daughter. | wonder you didn t
come across her and her hus-
band!"
II didn't see so much of the
Craven crowd" replied Hilton
Toye. 81 wasn't stuck on them
| either. Say, Cazalet, | wouldn't
be that old man when Scruton
comes out, would your"
But Cazalet showed that he
| could hold his tongue when he
liked, and his grim look was not
so legible as some that had come
and gone before.
| This one stuck until Toye pro-
duced a big flask from his grip,
and the talk shifted to less pain
full ground.
1t was the last night in the Bay
of Biscay, and Cazalet told how he
lad gone out to Australia after
the crash, ten years before.
81 remember thinking I would
dig for gold" said Cazalet.
That's all | knew about Austria.
Tia; that and bushrangers and
dnst-storms and bush-fires.
But you can have adventures
Of sorts if you go far enough up
country for EN-; it still pays you
to know how to use your fists ont
there. | didn't, but | was picking
it up before I'd been out three
months, and in six l was as ready
as anybody to take off my coat.
Il remember once at a bush
shanty they dished up such fruity
chops ihat | said I'd figh: the cook
If they'd send him up; and Pm
blowed If it wasn't fellow I'd
ben at school with and worshiped
as no end of a swell ut games
Potts, his name was; old
Venus Potts; and there he was,
cooking carrion at twenty-five bob
a week!