Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-10-12
CHAPTER xVI-(Continued.)

detractors in the business field. Those
whose affairs brought them in contact
with him found a man suddenly grown
years older and harder, boody and
harS4Gy dictatorial, not to say quar-
rsba9me: man who seemed to have
parted, in the shsTt space Of single
night, with all OF che humanizing affa
bilities which he had shown to such
marked degree liz the reOrganizing and
Teinancing of the irrigation project.
"We've got our young Napoleon Of
dnance on the tOboggan slide, at last"
was the way in which Mr.. Crawford
GfantOn phrased it for the bejeweled
lady at their luncheon in the HOphra
cafe. "KinZie is about to throw him
over, and all this talk about botch-
work on the dam is getting his goat.
They're telling it around town this
morning that you can't get near him
without risking a fight. Old Man Back
US went up to his office in behalf of
q bunch of the scared stockholders,
and Smith abused him first and Men
threw him out bOdily-hurt him pretty
savagely, they say"
The large lady's accurately penciled
eyebrows went up in mild surprise.
bad temperY she queried.
bad temper, or an acute attack of
"rattleitis;' you can take your choice.
suppose he hasn't, by any chance,
quarreled with Miss Richlander over
aight?-Or has he?"
The fat lady shook her diamonds.
81 should say not. They were at lunch
con together in the ladies' ordinary as
came down Il few minutes ago"
Thus the partner of Crawford Stan
IONS joys and sorrows. But an invis-
able Onlooker in the small dining room
above-stairS might have drawn other
conclusions. Smith and the daughter
small table to themselves, and if the
talk were not precisely QuarrelsOme,
ct leaned that way at times.
81 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 afternOOn?"
"And let you parade me there as
gOur latest acquisitiOn?-never in this
world !"
More brutality. Positively you are
getting me into 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 INDUCING now, l might think you
aad murdered him"
1t was doubtless by sheer accident
4hat Smith, reaching at the moment
2or the salad oil, overturned his water
glass. But the small accident by no
means accounted for the sudden gray
Ang of his face under the TimanyOni
wind tan-fOr that or for the shaking
Aands with which he seconded the wait
YRS anxious efforts to repair the dam
age. When they were alone again, the
elementary treridatiOn had given mace
20 renewed hardness that lent a
biting rNsp to his voice.
"Kinzie. the suspicious old banker
that -R& been telling you about, is de-
Bermined to run me down." he said,
changing the subject abruptly. give
got it - - straight that he is plan
aing 70 send one of his clerks to the
Topaz district to try and find your ia
sher, in the hope that he will tell what
Ae knows about me-"
Does this Mr.. KinzIe know where
Sather Is to be found"
5e doesn't; that's the only hitch"
Aiiss Verda's smile across the little
%sble was level-eyed.
II could be lots of help to you, Mon
taguey in this fight you are making, if
you'd only let me-" she suggested.
"Tll fight for my own hand" was the
grating reJOinder. 81 can assure you,
right now, that Kinzie's messenger will
never reach your father-alive."
"OOh 7" shuddered the beauty, with a
little Mt Of the rounded shoulders.
''How utterly and hopelsssly primitive
Net me show you much simpler alter
native. have map of the mining
district, you know. Father left it with
tne-iu case l should war. - cOmmu-
acate with him"
Smith looked up with a smile which
was a mere barring of the teeth.
"YOu wouldn't get in mans way
with any tine-spun theories Of the ulti-
mate right and wrong, would you? You
wouldn't say that the only great man
es the man who loves his fellow men,
and all that?"
Again the handsome shoulders were
hfted, this time I'm cool sCOrn.
"Are you quoting the little ranch per.
SOM" she inquired. Then she answered
his query: "The only great men worth
speaking Of are the men who win. For
Che lack of something better to do, I'm
willing to help you win, Montague
Most naturally, l am the one who
would know where my father is TO be