The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-06-17


ways cruel" They did not know that
when often he gesticulated to no end,
or that when he thundered his loudest
and appeared most abandoned to the
feverish excitement of .he pit, the up
braidlngS Of the ghost were cutting
him TO the quick. We're lashlng him the
hardest.
AS the days passed Fitzhugh's pas
sion for Showing OFF, increased amaz-
ingly. Ever prolific with freaks Of act
ing he kept his associates on tenter-
hooks Of curiosity. None could imag.
inc what he would do next. He al
ways did the unexpected. Nothing
was too fantastical. Once during
Saturday noonhour he started furore
In the rotunda Of the board Of trade
by stridlng through the crowd playing
bOlsterOusly on a mouth-Organ, while
round him capered several monkeys,
borrowed from some Forquer street
Italians anon at dinner In his apart.
mcnt one evening he received his
| guests In war paint and feathers and
.
Yet those who knew him Intimately
as Hunt and two or three others
were not long In noticing change had
come over him. When he thought he
was unobserved he was given to long
! periods Of broOdlng, and, as they right
ly supposed, all his bizarrerie was not
the real Fitzhugh, but only mask,
] "a tric
Inc, but only cloak for an inner un-
happiness.
1t was during one OF these dark
periods that he stole secretly away
not even Hunt knew OF his where
aboutS-and for nearly a week was un-
seen in Chicago. The day he returned
he went to his safety deposit vault and
locked therein n packet of papers.
These papers, obtained at great price
and with commensurate difficulty, were
the deeds 10 the FitZrandolph home
stead In Maryland. And still
he was not happy. Still there remained
the void, the dull gap he could not fill.
Time and again during his first year
OF grief Fitzhugh had endeavored,
with characteristic audacity, to see
Kathleen, but always substantially In
vain. He had followed her to New
port whence she flew with her moth
er after the rupture, found she had
sailed the day before for Switzerland,
had taken the next steamer. only to
miss her again, and for three months
had played battledore-and-s shuttlecock
with two defenseless women over the
major part Of the continent, often stay
ing In the same hotel, yet never catch
ing more than a fleeting glimpse Of the
one he loved.
All efforts at communication were
likewise frutless. His letters were re-
turned unopened. His gifts, too. When
they returned home in the autumn he
had ordered box Of violets delivered
to Kathleen every morning. The
florist was an honest man, and at the
months end he had rendered bill
only for carriage.
But Fitzhugh died hard. For three
years he never gave up trying. Then
the last CLEAN Of hope flickered out
She was abroad most of the time
now, returning to Chicago only at rare
intervals, and then but for q brief stay.
He heard that Artie Sparkle was often
with her, and sometimes at the club
there were rumors Of
But he laughed loudly at these. He
refused to listen. The idea was pre-
posterous-absurd. Yet 1t was never
theless true that this gossip Of Kath-
leen's engagement to Artie Immediate
ly preceded some extraordinary per
formance that kept the name Of Fitz-
hugh on the lips Of thousands for
weeks afterward. AS another man
would have turned to drink. so he
turned TO STACEY extravaganza. Un-
conventionality was his dissipation,
and In his own way he became intoxi-
Gated.
Some four years after that day in
June-four years In which he had seen
Kathleen less than score Of times
and had spoken to her less than thrice
-FitZhugh laid the foundation Of the
throne upon which he was to reign for
brief but blazing period as King Of
Wheat. These four years had bred an
unwholesome change In the man. The
amassing OF gold had become his re-
ligion. Its virus had entered his soul.
He allowed nothing to stand between,
crushing all opposition with an iron
hand. Everything was subservient to
but one end, and that end was Money.
All his faculties. all his tireless energy
! and zeal and ambition were concen.
trated upon II. Waking or asleep, the
thought Of II was always uppermost.
Hunt. in the erratic meanwhile, had
courageously piloted the deserted ship,
knowing Its rightful captain would
again take the helm when "he came to
himself" More than any other, Henry
Hunt enjoyed the full confidence Of
his chief. He was one Of the very few
who knew Fitzhugh's real name and
family history.
At irregularly recurring periods
Fitzhugh entered the wheat pit, and
while these instances were generally
emblazoned with burst Of histrion-
les, he was never for a second blinded
by the glare. When he seemed most
| ebullient he was really most cooI-head.