The Green Forest tribune., 1916-06-30
CHAPTER Xix-continued.


 Tt is just as well, perhaps. I doub very much if l am the person to give it to you"
 Why do you doubt it? Isn't it { part of your job?"
 Not always. am not your con science keeper, Brouillard. Don't mis understand me. l may have lived year longer than you have, but you have lived more-a great deal more That fact might be set aside, but there Is another: In the life of every mar there is some one person who knows who understands. whose word for thai man is the one only fitting word of in spiration. That is what 1 mean when say that l am not your conscience keeper. Do l make it clear?"
 Granting your premises-yes. Go on"
 T will. We'll paste that leaf down and turn another. Though l can't counsel you, can still be your faithful accuser. You have committed a great sin, Brouillard, and you are still com hitting it. If you haven't been the leader in the mad scramble for riches here in this abandoned city, you have been only a step behind the leaders. And you were the one man who should have been like Caesars wife, the one whose example counted for most"
 Brouillard got up and thrust out his hand across the desk.
 tfXnY hot is better than being a priest" he as- serted soberly. I'll take back all the spiteful things I've been saying. I'm down under the hoofs of the horses, and it's only human nature to want to pull somebody else down. You are one presence has been a blessing instead of a curse-who hasn't had a purely selfish greed to satisfy"
 Again Cashier shook his head. There hasn't been much that I could , do, BrouillaFd, it is simply dreadful sn | u. s----z la..- ..e ., = / nald, TecKlp4,s, half-demoniac spirit of this place! There is nothing to ap- .peal to; there is no room or time for anything but the mad money chase or the still madder dissipation in which the poor wretches seek to forget. l can only try here and there to drag some poor soul out of the fire at the last moment, and 1t makes me sick sick at heart!"
 You musn't look at it that way. said Brouillard, suddenly turning com forter You have been doing good work and lot of it-more than any three ordinary men could stand up un- der. I haven't got beyond seeing and appreciating, Castner; truly I have not. And I'll say this: If I had only half your courage but it's nc use, I'm in too deep. l cant see any farther ahead than a man born blind There is one end for which have been striving from the very first and it is still unattained. I'm past help now. have reached point at which I'd pull the whole world down in ruins to see that end accomplished"
 The young missionary took another turn up and down the room and the1 came back to the desk for his hat Al the leave-taking be said the only help ful word he could think of.
 Co to your confessor, Broufllard- your real confessor-and go all the more readily if that one happens to bt good woman-whom you love anC trust. They often see more clearly than we do-the good women Try it and let me help where a man cal help"
 For long hour after Castner wen away Brouillard sat at his desk. fight ing as those fight who see the caus lost, and who know they only mak the ruin more complete by struggling or.
 Cortwright's guess had found it mark. He was loaded to break witl front feet and options and corners In the least speculative period he hat bought and mortgaged and bough again, plunging recklessly with tn sole object of wringing another hun dred thousand out of drying spong against the time when David Massiu gale should need it. At first the under taking seemed easily possible. Bu with the drying of the speculativ sponge it became increasingly diff cult. More and more he had been com pelled to buy and hold, until now th bare attempt to unload would hay started the panic which was only wait ing for some hedging seller to fire th train.
 The sweat stood out in great drop on his forehead when he finally dre, pad of telegraph blanks under hi hand and began to write a messag, Painstakingly he composed it. refe ring often to the notes in his fiel, book, and printing the words neatl in his accurate, clearly-defined ham writing.
 When it was finished he translated laboriously into the department cod But after the copy was made an signed he did not ring at once for messenger. Instead, he put the tw the original and the cipher. under paper weight and sat glooming at the, searching blindly for some alternativ to the final act of treachery whic would be consunmated in the sendin of the wire.
 Since by raa COW <e C