Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-06-08

! pal VI sOO1 IOO'
Not always. | am not your con.
science keeper, Brouillard Don't mis-
understand me. / may have lived q
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 man
| there is some one person who knows.
| who understands, whose word for that
man is the one only fitting word of in
| SEPARATION. That is what l mean when
say that l am not your conscience
/ keeper. Do | make 1t clear?"
Granting your premises-yes. Go
on"
Il will. Well paste that leaf down
and turn another. Though I can'
counsel you, can still be your faithful
accuser. You have committed a great
sin, Brouillard, and you are still COM
hitting 1t. If you haven't been the
| leader in the mad scramble for riches
here in this abandoned city, you have
| been only step behind the leaders.
And you were the one man who should
have been like Caesars wife, the one
whose example counted for most"
rToulllard got up and thrust out his
hand across the desk.
You are man, Castner-and that
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
OF the few men in Mirapolis whose
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. Brouillard, it is simply dreadful
the hard, reckless, half-demoniae 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 madden dissipation in which
the poor wretches seek to forget.
can only try here and there to drag
| some poor soul out Of the fire at the
last moment, and it makes me sick
- -. - -"
You mustn't look at 1t that way"
said Brouillard, suddenly turning COM
forter. "You have been doing good
work and a lot Of it-more than any
three ordinary men could stand up un-
der. l haven't got beyond seeing and
approaching, Cashier; truly l have
not. And I'll say this: eff had only
half your courage but it's no
use, I'm in too deep. I can't see any
farther ahead than 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 then
came back to the desk for his hat. At
the leave-taking he said the only help
full word he could think Of
go to your confessor, Brouillard-
your real confessor-and go all the
more readily if that one happens to be
a good woman-whom you love and
| trust. They often see more clearly
than we dO-the good women. Try it;
and let me help where man can
help"
For long hour after Cashier went
away BrOuillard sat OF his desk, fight
ing as those fight who see the cause
lost, and who know they only make
the ruin more complete by struggling
on.
Cortwright's guess had found its
mark. He was loaded to break with
front feet" and options and corners"
In the least speculative period he had
bought and mOrtgaged and bought
again, plunging recklessly with the
sole object Of wringing another hun
dred thousand out Of drying sponge
against the time when David Massin-
gale should need it. At first the under
taking seemed easily possible. But
with the drying of the speculative
sponge it became increasingly diff
cult. More and more he had been COM
PEELED to buy and hold, until now the
started the panic which was only wait
ing for some hedging seller to fire the
train.
The sweat stood out in great drops
on his forehead when he finally drew
pad Of telegraph blanks under his
hand and began to write a message
Painstakingly he composed it, refer
ring often to the notes in his field
book, and printing the words neatly
in his accurate, clearly-def1ned hand
writing
When it was finished he translated it
labOriously into the department code.
But after the copy was made and
signed he did not ring at once for a
messenger. Instead, he put the two,
the original and the cipher, under a
paper weight and sat glooming at them
searching blindly for some alternative
to the final act of treachery which
would be consummated in the sending
Of the wire.
Since, by reason Of Cortwright's tam
perings with the smelter people and
the railroad, the Little Susan" had be-
come locked treasure vault, the en-
gineer, acting upon his own initiative,
had tried the law. AS soon as he had
ascertained that David Massingale had
been given sixty days longer to live,
solely because the buccaneers chose