The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1914-11-27
CHAPTER discontinued.

ay-seVen. Then he made the figures
Nhirty-two and forty-two. He black.
@ned them with repeated tracings as
ne unused. This done, he put seven
Seen under twenty-seven and thirty
ewo 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,
sfr, he said as he slipped them on the
Motter In front OF Westerling And
the 132d-no order about that. sir?"
he asked.
None. 1t remains!" Westerllng re-
RRied.
The clerk went out impressed. His
chief taking to sums Of subtraction
and totally preoccupied! The 1920 to
remain! He, too, had Question-mark
tn his secret mind.
Westerling proceeded with his math-
ematics. Having heavily shaded the
cans, he essayed sum In division. He
found that ten went into seventy Just
seven times.
"One-seventh the allotted span of
Me!" he unused. Take off fifteen
years for youth and fifteen after fifty
nYe-nobody counts after that, though
mean to-and you have ten into
3orty, which is one-fourth. That is a
good deal. But It's more to woman
shan to a man-yes, lot more to
woman than to mani"
The clerk was right In thinking
Westerling preoccupied; but it was
not with the international crisis. Over
his coffee the name Of Miss Marta Gal
land, In the list of arrivals at hotel,
had caught his eye in the morning pa.
per. A note to her had brought an
answer, saying that her time was linn
Ned, but she would be glad to have
him call at five that afternoon.
Westerling 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 a little surprising that the
bell that the girl of seventeen had
7ung In his secret mind when he was
On one Of the first rounds Of the lad.
der, now lost In the mists Of lower
stratum of existence, should ever
tinkle again. Yet he had heard it's
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 were the vaguest shadows of
personalities, her picture was as def
mite in detail as when she said: You
have the will! You have the ambi-
toni" She had recognized in him the
power that he felt; foreseen his ascent
10 the very apex Of the pyramid She
was still unmarried, which was
strange; for she had not been bad |
looking and she was CT a fine old fam
ny. 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, he
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 lmous-
me, There goes the greatest captain
of industry Of us ALL" Westerling
would only have thought: Certainly.
! am chief of staff. am at the head
Of all your workmen at one time or
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 caste contempt for the men
Of commerce, with their mercenary
talk about credit and market prices;
and also for the scientists, doctors, en-
Sineers, and men of other professions,
VINO spoke of things in books which
he did not understand. Reading books
vas one of the faults of Turcas, his as
,istant. No bookish soldier, he knew,
had ever been great general. He re-
,ented the growing power of these
eaders of the civil world, taking dis
inction away from the military, even
when, as man of parts, he had to
.ourt their influence. His was the
profession that was and ever should
,e the elect. A penniless subaltern
vas gentleman, while he could never
bink of man in business as one.
All the faces in the street belonged
O strange, busy world outside his in
crest and thoughts. They formed
What was known as the public, often
making a clatter about things which