Connecticut western news., 1919-12-11


 ery.hrr to th. V.. have lost faith-Cr never Lai it. Q men like Mir. Elden, for instance. You remem- Der how he tried to discourage me from the very first-tried to break down my faith-that was it, Mr. Con- ward-I see 1t all very plainly now and he and others like him have brought things to their present pass. We'll, they have a great responsibil- ity."
 AS a result of this discussion Dave found himself rather less popular with Mrs. Hardy than before. Dave accepted her displeaSure with a light heartedness that was extremely trying to the good woman's temper. Had it not been for his desire to spare Irene any unhappiness he would have treat ed it with open flippancy. He was engaged in the serious business of capturing the heart of Irene Hardy a task made none the easier by the self-imposed condition that he must conduct no offensive but must await with such patience as he could con- mand the voluntary equalization of the besieged. On the whole he told him. self he had no reason to be dissatisfied with the progress of events. He and Irene often motored together, frequent ly accompanied by Mrs. Hardy, some times by Conward as we'll, but occa- siOnally alone. And Irene made no se- cret of the fact that she preferred the trips in which only she and Dave par ticipated.
 The gradual shrinkage of values to the vanishing point imposed upon Dave many business duties which he would very gladly have evaded The office of Conward & Elden, which had once been besieged by customers eager to buy, was now center of groups no less eager to sell; and when they could not sell they cOntrived to lay the blame upon the firm which had originally sold to them. Although, for the most part, these were men and women who had bought purely from the gamblers motive, they behaved toward the real-eState dealer as though he had done them an injustice when the finger of fortune turned up a loss instead of a profit. For such people Dave had little sympathy, and if they persisted in their murmurings he told them so with becoming frank ness.
 Then there was Merton, the wid- over with sick lungs and the mother 1 less boy, who had brought his little savings to the West in the hope of husbanding out his life in the dry, clear atmosphere and saving his son from the white death that had already invaded their little family. With a cruelty almost unbelievable Conward had talked this man into the purchase of property so far removed from the 1 city as to possess no value except as farm land; and the little savings which were to ward off sickness and death, or, if that could not be, minis ter modest comfort in the declining hours of life, had been exchanged for property which, even at the time of the transaction, was valueless and un- 1 salable.
 Merton had called on Dave with re- spect to his investment. Dave had at first been disposed to tell him frankly that the property, for which he had | paid twenty dollars a foot, was barely worth that much an acre. But sec ond look at the man changed his pur- 1 pose.
 'I know you were stung, Merton" he said, "shamelessly stung. You arc one of those unSuSpccting fellows who think everybody is going to play fair with them. You belong to the class who keep all kinds of rOgues and scoundrels in easy circumstances. You might almost be charged with being accessories. Now, just to show how 1 I feel about it-how much did you pay for those lots"
 "Three thousand dollars. It was all I had"
 "Of course it was. If you had had more you would have paid more. I suppose Conward justified himself with the argument that if he didn't take your easy money someone else would, which is doubtless true. But just to show you how I feel about it- I'll buy those lots from you, for three thousand dollars"
 'T can't do it, Mir. Elden; I can't do It," said Merton, and there was moisture on his cheeks. ''That would be charity-and I can't take it. But Pm much obliged. It shows you're square, MT. Elden, and I hold no i'll will to you"
 "Well, can help you in some way you will accept? I'm afraid-I don't mean to be unkind, but we may as we'll be franklin afraid you won't need help very long," .n
 Merton answered as one who has made up his mind to the inevitable, and Dave thought better of him. This little wreck of a man-this child in business matters-could look death in the face without a quiver.