The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1915-02-20
CHAPTER lI-Contlnued.


ward him and, taking up q 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-seven 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,
cir" he said as he slipped them on the
blotter in front of Westerling. And
the 132d-no order about that. sir?"
he asked.
None. 1t remains!" Westerling 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
nfe!" he mused. Take off fifteen
years for youth and fifteen after fifty
five-nobody counts after that. though
mean to--and you have ten into
forty, which is one-fourth. That is
good deal But it's more to woman
than 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 a hotel.
had caught his eye in the morning pa
per A note to her had brought an
answer. saying that her time was lin
tied, 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 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
rung 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 Ttr 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
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 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, he
looked for an interesting half-hour
hc Ill opOiuk dStiHlt lty VI tuc hlleelS
of the capital, as his 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 .he very day of
the prophecy. Had lie heard the re-
mark OF great manufacturer to the
banker at his side in passing limous-
inc. There goes the greatest captain
Of industry Of us ALL" Westerling
would only have thought: Certainly.
1 am chief of stan. l 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 a caste contempt for the men
of commerce. with their mercenary
talk about credit and market prices;
and also for the scientists, doctors, en-
gineers, and men of other professions,
who spoke OF things in books which
he did not understand. Reading books
was one of the faults OF Turcas, his as
sistant No bookish soldier. he knew,
had ever been a great general. He re-
sented the growing power of these
leaders OF the civil world, taking dis
tinction away from the military. even
when, as a man Of parts. he had to
court their influence. His was the
profession that was and ever should
be the elect. A penniless subaltern
was a gentleman, while he could never
think Of man In business as one
All the faces in the street belonged
to a strange, busy world outside his In
tsrest and thoughts. They formed
what was known as the public. often
-.rac1 . aI<ttnr about thinua u,hich