Mexico Missouri message., 1917-09-20
CHAPTER XvI-(Continued.)

with him found man suddenly grown
! years older and harder, boody and
| harshly dlctatorlal, not to say quar-
relsome; man who seemed to have
parted, in the short space of a single
! night, with all of the humanizing affa-
bilities which he had shown to such
marked degree in the recognizing and
refinanclng of the irrigation project.
"We've got our young Napoleon of
finance on the tobOggan Slide at last"
was the way in which Mr.. Crawford
Stanton phrased 1t for the bejeweled
| lady at their luncheon In the HOphra
cafe. "Kinze is about to throw him
over, and all this talk about botch-
work on the dam is getting his goat.
They're telling 1t around town this
morning that you can't get near him
without risking fight. Old Man Back
us went up to his Office In behalf of
4 bunch of the scared stockholders,
and Smith abused him first and then
threw him out bodily--hurt him pretty
savagely, they say"
The large lady's accurately penciled
eyebrows went up In mild surprise.
"Bad temper?" she queried.
bad temper, or an acute attack of
'rattleitis;' you can take your choice.
l suppose he hasn't, by any chance,
| quarreled with Miss Richlander over
night2-Or has he"
The fat lady shook her diamonds.
II should say not. They were at lunch
con together in the ladies' ordinary as
came down few minutes ago"
Thus the partner of Crawford STAN
tons joys and sorrows. But an invis-
ible onlooker in the small dining room
above-stairs might have drawn other
conclusions. Smith and the daughter
Of the Lawrenceville magnate had q
small table to themselves, and II the
talk were not precisely Quarrelsome,
It leaned that way at times.
II have never seen you quite so bru-
tai and impossible as you are today,
Montague. You don't seem like the
same man. Are you going to reconsider
and take me out to the Baldwin ranch
this Rfternoon2"
"And let you parade me there as
your latest acquisitlon?-never in this
worldv
more brutality. Positively you are
| getting me into q frame of mind in
which Tucker Jibbey will seem like
blessed relief. Whatever do you sup
pose has become of Tucker?"
"How should know?"
"If he had come In last night, and
| you had met him-as asked you to
in any such heavenly temper as you
are jSEnlging now, 1 might think you
had murdered him."
1t was doubtless by sheer accident
that Smith, reaching at the moment
for the salad oil, overturned his water
glass. But the small accident by no
means accounted for the sudden gray
Ing of his face under the TimanyOni
wind tan--for that or for the shaking
hands with which he seconded the wait
er's anxious efforts to repair the dam
age. When they were alone again, the
momentary trepidation had given pace
to renewed hardness that lent a
biting rasp to his voice.
"Kinzie, the suspicious old banker
hat I've been telling you about, is de-
ermined to run me down." he said,
changing the subject abruptly. "pve
got 1t pretty straight that he is plan
ming to send one of his clerks to the
Topaz district to try and find your ia
ther, in the hope that he will tell what
he knows about me-"
"Does this Mr.. Kinzie know where
father is to be found"
"He doesn't; that's the only hitch"
Miss Verda's smile across the little
table was level-eyed.
81 could be lots of help to you, Mon
tague, in this fight you are making, If
you'd only let me-" she suggested.
''Ill fight for my own hand" was the
grating rejoinder. II can assure you
right now, that Kinzie's messenger will
never reach your father-alive."
"Ooh I" shuddered the beauty, with o
little lift of the rounded shoulders
"HOw utterly and hopelessly primitive
Let me show you much simpler alter
native. have a map Of the mining
district, you know. Father left 1t with
me-in case l should want to commu
nicate with him."
Smith looked up with smile which
vas a mere barring OF the teeth.
"You wouldn't get In a mans wal
With any fine-spun theories of the ulti
mate right and wrong, would your YOl
wouldn't say that the only great maj
is the man who loves his fellow men
and all thatf"
Again the handsome shoulders wer
lifted, this time in cool scopn.
"Are you quoting the little ranch pei
sonH" she inquired. Then she answers
his query: ''The only great men wort
speaking of are the men who win. Fo
the lack of something better to do, II
. willing to help you win, Montague
Most naturally, I am the one VIII
would know where my father is to b
found. And have changed my min
about wanting to drive to the Bal(