davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

to be presumed that much, II not all,
Of the complacency would have van
ished If he could have been an unseen
listener in the Farnham sltting-room,
dating from the time when little Miss
Gilman pattered off to bed, leaving
the father and daughter sitting to-
gether under the reading lamp.
At first their talk was entirely OF
the window apparition, the daughter
insisting upon its reality, and the ia
ther trying to push it over into the
limbo of things imagined. Driven
finally to give all the reasons for her
belief in the realities, Charlotte related
the incident of the afternoon.
BY this time the good Doctor BERTHE
had become the indignant Doctor Ber-
tie.
I'VE can't have that at ALL" he said
incisively. You did your whole duty
in that bank matter; and it was a
good deal more than most young wom-
en- would have done. I'm not going
to have you prosecuted and harassed-
not one minute! Where is this fel-
low stopping?"
The daughter shook her head. Il
don't know. He gave me his card, but
it has the New Orleans address only"
Give it to me and I'll look him up
tomorrow"
The card changed hands, and for a
few minutes neither of them spoke.
Then the daughter began again.
i've had another shock this eve,
ming, too," she said, speaking this time
in low tones and with eyes downcast
This Mr.. Griswold-did I understand
you to say that he had lost all of his
money!"
"Yes; practically all of It," said the
father, without losing his hold upon
what certain great London physician
was saying through the columns of the
English medical journal.
But afterward, long after Charlotte
had gone up to her room, he remem
bered, with a curious little start OF
half-awakened puzzlement, that some
one, no longer ago than yesterday, had
told him that young Griswold was
rich-or If not rich, at least well
| fixed"
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16
CHAPTER XVIII-Contlnued.

1T was a mamie was looking in
at the window" she returned in low
tones. Il thought saw him once be-
fore; but this time l am certain!"
Griswold sprang from his chair, and
a moment later was letting himself out
noiselessly through the hall door
There was nothing stirring on the
porch. He was still cropping among
the bushes, and Miss Farnham had
come to the front door, when the doc
tors buggy appeared under the street
lights and was halted at the home
hitching post.
Hello, Mr.. Griswold; is that you?"
called the CHEEKY one, when he saw
bareheaded man beating the covers
in his front yard.
Griswold met his host at the gate
and walked up the path with him.
Miss Charlotte thought she saw
someone at one of the front windows"
he explained; and a moment after
ward the daughter was telling it for
herself
Il saw him twice." she insisted;
"once while we were at dinner, and
again just now. The first time l
thought l might be mistaken, but this
time"
Griswold was laughing silently and
inwardly deriding his gifts when, un-
der cover of the Doctors return, he
made decent acknowledgements for
benefits bestowed and took his de-
parture On the pleasant summer
night walk to Upper Shawnee street
he was congratulating himself upon
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

I'm coming to that. This escape
we read about happened on certain
day in April. 1t was the very day on
which poppa met me on my way back
from Florida, and we took the eleven
thirty train north that night. You
haven't forgotten that Mr. Griswold
was passenger on that same train?"
"But, goodness gracious, Miss Mar.
gerry! any number of people were pas
sengers on that train. You surely
wouldn't"
"Hush!" she said, and through the
lace window hangings Broffn saw her
lift a warning finger. What l am
telling you, Mr.. Raymer, is in the
strictest confidence; we mustn't let a
breath of it get out. But that wasn't
all. Mr.. Griswold was dreadfuly sick
and, Of course, he couldn't tell us any
thing about himself. But while he was
delirious he was always muttering
something about money, money; mon
ey that he had lost and couldn't find, or
money that he had found and couldn't
lose. Then when we thought he
couldn't possibly get well, Doctor Ber-
tie and / ransacked his suitcases for
cards or letters or something that
would tell US who he was and where
he came from. There wasn't the Lit.
tlest thing!"
(TO BE CONTINUED)
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

Griswold looked and was reasonably
sure that he could make out the
shadowy figure of a man leaning
against one of the trees.
"That is my shadow" she said, low
ering her voice; "Mr. Matthew Brof-
fin of the Colburne Detective agency,
in New Orleans. He has foolish idea
that am in communication with the
man he is searching for, and he was
brutal enough to tell me so. What he
expects to accomplish by keeping an
absurd watch upon our house and dog
ging everybody who comes and goes, l
can't imagine"
"You have told your father?" said
Griswold, anxious to learn how far this
new alarm fire had spread.
Certainly; and he has made his pro-
test But 1t doesn't do any good; the
man keeps on spying, as you see. But
we have wandered long way from
your book. I've been trying to prove
to you that am not fit to criticize Il"
mo; you mustn't mistake me. /
haven't been coming to you for criti-
cism," was Griswold's rather incoher-
ent reply; and when the talk threat
ened to lapse into the commonplaces,
he took his leave. Oddly enough, as he
thought, when he was unlatching the
gate and had shifted one of the newly
purchased automatic pistols from his
hip pocket to an outside pocket of the
light top-coat he was wearing, the
shadowy figure under the lake-shading
trees had disappeared.
1t was only few minutes after the
lingering dinner guest had gone when
the doctor came out on the porch,
bringing his long-stemmed pipe for a
bedtime Whit in the open air.
you are losing your beauty sleep,
little GIRL" he said, dropping into the
chair lately occupied by the guest. did
you find out anything more tonight?'
The daughter did not reply at once
and when she did there was note oi
freshly summoned hardihood in hel
voice.
"We were both mistaken" she at
f1rmed. Condolences are always
likely to be misleading. l am sorry
told you about them. He has certain
ly been a present help in time of neet
to Edward"
AS before, the good little doctor hat
recourse to his pipe, and it was not un
til his daughter got up to go in thai
he said gently: "One other word, Char
lie, girl: are you altogether sure tha
the wish isn't father to the thought
about Griswold?"
Don't be absurd, papa!" she sait
scornfully, passing swiftly behind hi
chair to reach the door; and with tina
answer he was obliged to be content
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16
SYNOPSIS.

Kenneth Griswold, an unsuccessful
writer because of socialistio tendencies,
holds up Andrew Galbraith, president OF
the Bayou State Securities, In the presi-
dents private office and escapes with SlOO,-
600 In cash. BY original methods he es-
capes the hue and cry and goes aboard
the Belle Julie as a deckhand. Charlotte
Farnham OF Wahaska, Mimi. who had
seen him cash Galbraith's check In the
bank, recognizes him, and sends letter
OF betrayal to Galbraith anonymously.
Griswold is arrested on the arrival OF the
boat at st. Louis. but escapes from his
captors. He decides on Wahaska, Mimi,
as hiding place, and after Quitting
himself properly. takes the train. Girls
void falls Ill on the sleeper and is cared
for and taken to her home in Wahaska
by Margery Grierson, daughter Of Jasper
Grierson, the financial magnate OF wa
haska. Margery finds the stolen money
In Griswold's suitcase. Broffin, detective,
takes the trail. Margery asks her father
TO get Edward Raymer into financial hot
water and then help him out of 1t. Girls
void recovers to find the stolen money
gone. He meets Margery's social circle
iron manufacture. Broftin comes to Wa
haska in search of the woman who wrote
the anonymous letter to Galbraith. Mar
gerry takes Griswold to the safety deposit
vault and turns the stolen money over to
him. Charlotte bluffs out Broffin and
Margery begins to watch him. Griswold
puts his money in Raymer's plant and
commences to rewrite his book. Griswold
goes to dinner at Doctor Farnham's and
Is not sure that Charlotte has not recog-
nized him.
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

the now quite complete fulf1llment of
the wishing prophecy. Miss Farnham
was going to prove to be all that the
most critical maker of studies from
life could ask in a model; a supremely
perfect original for the character of
Fidelia in the book. Moreover, she
would be his touchstone for the truths
and verities; even as Margery Grier-
son might, If she were forgiving
enough to let bygones be bygones, hold
the mirror up to nature and the pure
humanities. Moreover, again, what
ever slight danger there might have
been in a possibility of recognition
was a danger outlived. If the first
meeting had not stirred the sleeping
memories in Miss Farnham, subse-
uuent ones would serve only to widen
the gulf between forgetfulness and rec
objection by Just such distances as the
Wahaska Griswold should traverse in
leaving behind him the deckhand Of
the Belle Julie.
How much this might have been
modified If he had known that the man
whose face Miss Farnham had seen at
the window was silently tracking him
through the tree-shadowed streets is
a matter for conjecture. Also, 1t is
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

as he was always obliged to
do in these talks with her. 81 should
be discouraged IL you didn't keep on
telling me that the story, a. a story
is good"
1T is good; 1t is a big story" she
asserted, with kindling enthusiasm.
The plot, so far as you have gone
with It, is fine; and that is where you
leave me away behind. l don't see
how you could ever think 1t out And
the character drawing is fine, too,
some of it. Your Fleming is as far
beyond me as your Fidelia seems to
be beyond you"
You don't know Fleming yet. Have
you ever met Fidelia?"
mot as you have drawn her-no'
She is too unutterably fine. II she
had a single shred of humanity about
her, | should suspect you Of meaning
to fall in love with her, farther along
to the humiliation and despair Of poor
Joan, who, as you say, is mere daugh
ter of men"
But how about Joan?" he fretted
''Is she out of drawing, too?"
Yes; you are distorting her the
other way-making her too inhumanly
worldly and insincere." Then, with al
abruptness that was like slap in the
face: IF you didn't spend so man!
evenings at Doctor Bertie's, you would
get both Fidelia and Joan in bettel
drawing"
He flushed and drew himself up
with stabbed amour propre prompting
him to make some stinging retort con
trasting the wells of truth with thu
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

brackish waters of sheer worldliness.
Then he saw how inadequate it would
be; how utterly impossible it was to
meet this charmingly Vindictive young
person upon any grounds save those
Of her own choosing.
THAT is the first really unkind
thing have ever heard you say" was
the mild reproach which was all that
the reactionary second thought would
sanction.
"Unkind to whom?-to you, or to
Miss Farnham?"
ASK yourself" he countered weak
ly, and she laughed at him.
Griswold did not reply to the laugh
He was gathering up the scattered
pages of his manuscript and replacing
them in order. When he spoke again
it was of a matter entirely irrelevant.
81 had an odd experience the other
evening"" he said. II had been dining
with the Raymers and was walking
back to Shawnee street. A little news
boy named Johnnie Fergus turned up
from somewhere at one of the street
crossings and tried to sell me a pa
per-at eleven o'clock at night! l
bought one and joked him about being
out so late; and from that on couldn't t
get rid of him. He went all the way
home with me, talking blue streak
and acting as if he we're afraid of
something or somebody. remem.
bered afterward that he is the boy who
takes care Of your boat. Is there any.
thing wrong with him?"
Miss Grierson had left her chair and
had gone to stand at one Of the win,
dows.
Nothing that l know Of" she said
"He is bright boy-too bright for his
own good, I'm afraid. But l can ex
plain-a little. Johnnie has taken a
violent fancy to you for some reason
and he has fallen into the boyish habit
Of weaving all sorts of romances
around you. think he reads too many
exciting stories and tries to make yor
the hero of them. He told me the
other day that he was sure somebody
was 'spotting' you"
Griswold looked up quickly. Mis-!
Grierson was still facing the window
! and he was glad that she had not seer
his nervous start.
"'Spotting' me?" he laughed. "Wher'
did he get that idea?"
How should know? But he haC
; made himself believe it; he even wen
so far as to describe the man. Oh,
; can assure you Johnnie has an imagi
J nation; I've tested it in other ways.
"I should think sol" said the mai
/ who also had an imagination, AM
; shortly afterward he took his leave.
An hour later the same afternoon
: Brofin, from his post of observation Of
; the Winnebago porch, saw the writing
: man cross the street and enter hard
! ware shop. Having nothing better t.
} do, he, too, crossed the street and, II
t passing, looked into the open door O
r Simmons & Kleifurt's. What he say
a brought him back at the end of q re
: fective stroll around the public square
: When he entered the shop the cler
> was putting formidable array @
Y weapons back into their showcas
= inches. Broft1n lounged UP and bega
o to handle the pistols.
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

directly behind Miss Grierson's chair
to put the answer into effect, when the
opportunity was snatched away. Ray
mer, his business apparently conclud-
ed, came down the veranda and took
the chair next to Miss Griersons.
Brofin dropped back into the writ
ing.room alcove for which the open
French window was the outlet and sat
down to bide his time.
TITS a shame to make you wait this
way, Miss Madge. McMurtry said he
had an appointment with Mr.. Gal
braith for three o'clock, and he had to
go to keep 1t. But he ought to be
down again by this time. Don't wait
for me If you want to go back to town.
1 can get lift from somebody"
"That would be nice, wouldn't it,"
was the good-natured retort. "To make
you tie up your own horse in town
and then leave you stranded away out
here three miles from nowhere! l
think see myself doing such thing!
Besides, haven't a thing to do but
wait"
Brofin shifted the extinct cigar he
was chewing from one corner Of his
mouth to the other and pulled his soft
hat lower over his eyes. He, too, could
wait. There was a little stir on the
veranda; a rustling Of silk petticoats
and the click of small heels on the
hardwood floor. Broffin could not for
bear the peering peep around the shell
tering window draperies. Miss Grier'
son had left her seat and was pacing
a slow march up and down. That she
had not seen him became a fact sum-
ciently well-assured when she sat
down again and began to speak to
Griswold
"How is the new partnership going,
by this timer" she asked, after the
manner of one who rewinnows the
chafr of the commonplaces in the hope
Of finding grain enough for the immedi'
ate need
$50 far as Griswold is concerned
you wouldn't notice that there is
partnership" laughed the iron
founder. "I can't make him galvanize
an atom Of interest in his investment
All can get out of him is, Don't
bother me; I'm busy"
"Mr. Griswold is in class by him
self, don't you think?" was the ques
tioning comment.
"He is all kinds Of good fellow
that's all / know, and all ask tt
know" answered Raymer Loyalty.
"I believe that-now," said his com
panion, with the faintest possible EN-
phasis upon the time-word.
Broffin marked the emphasis anC
the pause that preceded it, and leaned
forward to miss no word.
Meaning that there was a tim'
when you didn't believe it?" Rayme
asked.
Meaning that there was a TIM
when he had me scared half to death.
confessed the one who seemed Away
to say the confidential thing as if /
were the most trivial. do you remem
ber one day in the library, when yol
found me looking over the file of tn,
newspapers for the story Of the rob
berry of the Bayou State Security banl
in New Orleans?"
Raymer remembered it very well
and admitted it.
Eyes; l remember it all very clearly
Also l recollect how the second news
paper notice told how the robber es
capped from the officers at ST. Louis
But you haven't told me how you wer
scared" Raymer suggested.
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

from true time, for its employees
watches at 30 seconds q week. This
means that the balance wheel shall
not vary in its motion to the extent
of one vibration out of every 10000.
Taking into consideration the various
causes of disturbance to which a rail-
way engineers watch is subjected, the
jolts and jars, the changes of tempera'
ture and the magnetic influence Incl
dental to the proximity of large masses
of iron and steel, this performance is
truly remarkable. That It is possible
to secure such accuracy in such tiny
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16
CHAPTER XIX.
Pitfalls.


Within a week from the day when
Raymer, angrily jubilant, had rescued
his imperiled stock, it was pretty gen.
orally known that Kenneth Griswold,
the writing man, had become the
fourth member in the close corpora
ton of the Raymer Foundry and Ma
chine works, and Wahaska was ca
gerly discussing the business affair in
all its possible and probable bearings
upon the Raymers, the Griersons and
and the newly elected directory of the
Pineboro railroad.
Of all this buzzing of the gossip bees
the person most acutely concerned
heard little or nothing. Digging deeply
in the inspiration field, Griswold speed
lily became oblivious to most Of his en-
compassments; to all of them, indeed,
save those which bore directly upon
the beloved task. Among these, he
counted the frequent afternoon visits
to Mereside, and the scarcely less fire.
quent evenings spent in the Farnham
home. He was using each of the
young women as a foil for the other
in the outworking of his plot; and he
welcomed it as a sign Of growth that
the story in it's new form was acquir.
ing verisimilitude and becoming CRATE.
fully, and at times, he persuaded him
SELF quite vividly, human.
When he got well into the swing OF
it and was turning out a chapter every
three or four days, he fell easily into
the habit of slipping the last install
ment into his pocket when he went tc
Mereside. Margery Grierson was add
ing generously to his immense obliga
ton to her; hoping only to find g
friendly listener, he found helpful
collaboration. More than once, wher
his own imagination was at fault, she
was able to open new vistas in the
humanities for him, apparently draw
ing upon a reserve of intuitive con
clusions compared with which his owl
hard-bought store Of experimental
knowledge was almost puerile.
IT wish you would tell me the secre
Of your marvellous cleverness," he ex
claimed, on one of the June afternoon!
when he had been reading to her il
the cool half-shadows of the Meresidt
library. "You are only a child il
years; how can you know with sucl
miraculous certainty what othel
people would think and do under con
ditions about which you can't possibl,
know anything experimentally? IT.
beyond mel"
There are many things beyond yol
yet, dear boy; many, many things,
was her laughing rejoinder; from
which it will be inferred that the epi
sode in the Farmers and Merchants
burglar-proof had become an episod
forgotten-or at least forgiven. "Yo
know men-a little; but when it come
to the women well, If didn'
keep continually nagging at you, you
two heroines-with neither of whor
you are really in love-would deger
crate into rag dolls. They would, az
tually."
That's true; l can see 1t clearl
enough when you point 1t out" he &C
mitted, putting his craftsman prid
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16
CHAPTER Xxx.
Broken Links.

1t was on the second day after the
pistol-buying incident in Simmons &
Kleifurt's that Broffin, wlshful for soli-
tude and chance to think in perspec-
tive, took to the woods.
A letter from the New Orleans Of
fee had reopened the account Of the
Bayou State Security robbery. The
mail communication was significant
but inconclusive. One Patrick Shee-
han, a St. Louis cab driver, dying, had
made confession to his priest. For a
bribe of two hundred dollars he had
aided and abetted the escape of a
criminal on day and date correspond
ing to the mid-April arrival of the
steamer Belle Julie at St. Louis. After
ward he had driven the man to an up
town hotel (name not given). He could
not recall the mans name. But the
destination address, "Wahaska, Min
nesota," was submitted with the con-
fession.
Broffin felt himself short-sighted
from the very nearness Of things. The
single necessity now was for absolute
and unshakable Identification. To es-
tablish this, three witnesses, and three
only, could be called upon. OF the
three, two had failed signally-Miss
Farnham because she had her own
reasons for blocking the game, and
President Galbraith :. That was an
other chapter in the book of failure.
Broff1n had learned that the president
was stopping at the De Soto Inn, and
he had maneuvered to-bring Mr.. Gal
braith face to face with Griswold In
the Grierson bank on the day after the
pistol-buying. To his astonishment
and disgust the president had shaken
his head irritably, adding a rebuke
'Na, ma, man; your trade makes ye
over-suspicious. That's Mr.. Griswold
the Writer-man and friend of the
Griersons. Miss Madge was telling
me about him last week. He's no more
like the robber than you are. Haven't
1 told ye the man was bearded like 9
tyke"
With two Of the three eye-witnesseE
refusing to testify, there remained
only Johnson, the paying teller Of the
Bayou State Security. Brofin was
considering the advisability of wiring
for johnson when he passed the las
of the houses on the lakeside drive
and struck into the country road which
led by cool and shaded forest wind
ings to the resort hotel at the head o.
the southern bay. Presently a vehicle
overlook and passed him. It was, Mis-
Grierson's trap, drawn by the big Eng
lish trap-horse, with Miss Grierson her
self holding the reins and Raymel
lounging comfortably in the SPAR
seat.
Half an hour later Brofin had fol
lowed the huge footprints of thu
great English trap-horse to the drive
way portal Of the De Soto ground
where they were lost on the pebbles
carriage approach. Strolling OF
through the grounds into the lake
fronting lobby Of the inn, he went Il
search of Miss Grierson. He foun,
her on the broad veranda, alone, an
for the moment unoccupied. How t
make the attack SO direct and SO ovel
whelming that 1t could not be witt
stood was the only remaining queE
tion; and Brofln had answered it t
his own satisfaction, and was advanC
ing through an open French windoN
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

Der of battle honors is one that has
already been in the thick of the fight
ing in France, the Kings Royal Rife
corps. Already in the great war it
has acquired another Victoria Cross,
that of Major DINNER of the Second
battalion.
In the Boer war the regiment car
ried of two v. C.'s, fourteen D. s.
O.'s, and thirty-1ve D. c. Ms. 1t has
been through about forty battles, the
names of the most important of which
appear on the cap badge.
The Kings Royal Rife CORPS vas
The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-09-16

common in AustriaH Hungary, and EN-
peror Franz Joseph is master of them
all. It is said that there are 60 vocab.
laries in Brazil. In Mexico the Nahua
is spoken in 700 dialects. There are
hundreds in Borneo, while in Australia
there is no classifying the complexi-
ties. According to the latest statis-
tics, English is at present spoken by
13O,O0O,0OO, German by 1O0,O0O,OOO,
Russian by 7O,OOO.OOO. French by 4O,-
100000, and Italian by 4O,OOO.OOO, and
it is constantly on the increase owing
to the increase in commerce in Spain,