Connecticut western news., 1922-09-07

later, he looked up to see the man | these things had told him must be Sherrill standing in the door and look ing at him.
 Alan had arisen at sight of him :; Sherrill, as he came in, motioned him back to his seat; he did not sit down himself, but crossed to the mantel and leaned against it.
 "I am Lawrence Sherriu," he said
 AS the tall, graceful, thoughtful man stood looking down at him, Alan could tell nothing of the attitude of this friend of Benjamin Corvet to- ward himself. His manner had the same reserve toward Alan, the same questioning consideration of him, that Constance Sherrill had had after Alan had told her about himself.
 My daughter has repeated to me what you told her, MT. Conrad" Sherrill observed. ''Is there anything you want to add to me regarding that?"
 "There's nothing I can add" Alan answered. T told her all that I know about myself"
 And about Mir. COrVetT
 q know nothing at all about Mir. Corvet."
 "I am going to tell you some things about MT. Corvet," Sherrill said. q had reason-I do not want to explain just yet what that reason was-for thinking you could tell us certain things about MT. Corvet, which would, perhaps, make plainer what has hap pened to him. When tell you about him now, 1t is in the hope that, in that way, I may awake some forgotten memory of him in you; if not that, you may discover some coincidence of dates or, events in Carvet's life with dates or events in your own. Will you tell me frankly, if you do discover any thing like thatT
 "Yes; certainly"
 For several moments, Sherrill paced up and down before the fire; then he returned to his place before the mantel.s aet ifrs esfsaaae. ss4f. iseasrs.. A.
 T first met Benjamin Corvet," he commenced, nearly thirty years ago. had come West. for the first time the year before; was about your own age and had been graduated from college only short time, and a busi- ness opening had offered itself here. Times were booming on the Great Lakes. Chicago, which had more than recovered from the fire, was doubling its population every decade; Cleve- land, Duluth, and Milwaukee were leaping up as ports. Men were grow ing millions of bushels of grain which they couldn't ship except by lake; hundreds of thousands of tons of ore had to go by water; and there were tens of millions of feet of pine. and hardwood from the Michigan forests. Sailing vessels, 1t is true, had seen their day and were disappearing from the lakes; were being sold many of them, as the saying is, to the insur- ance companies by deliberate wreck ing. Steamers were taking their place. Towing had come in. I felt, young man though was, that this trans portation matter was all one thing, and that in the end the railroads would own the ships. I have never engaged very actively in the operation of the ships; my daughter would like me to be more active in 1t than have been; but ever since, have had money in lake vessels. It was the year that began that sort of invest ment that l first met Corvet."
 Alan looked up quickly, "Mr. Cor vet WaE-9' he asked
 ,"Corvet was-is lakeman," Sher- Till said.
 Alan Sat motionless, as he recol- lected the strange exaltation that had come to him when he saw the lake for the first time. Should he tell Sherrill of that? He decided it was too vague, too indefinite to be men toned; no doubt any other man used only to the prairie might have felt the same.
 He was a shipowner, then," he said.
 "Yes; he was a shipowner-not, however, on large scale at that time. He had been a master, sailing ships which belonged to others; then he udu SdIIGu OuC LII u1S OWAs AAO W0S operating then, believe, two vessels; but with the boom times on the lakes, his interests were beginning to ex- pand. I met him frequently in the next few years, and we became close friends"
 Sherriu broke off and stared an in- stant down at the rug. Alan bent forward; he made no interruption but only watched Sherrill attentively.N
 Between 1886, when first met him, and 1896, Corvet laid the foundation of great success; his boats seemed lucky, men liked to work for him, and he got the best shippers and crews. There was a saying that in storm a Corvet ship never asked help; 1t gave 1t; certainly in twenty years no Corvet ship had suffered serious disaster. Corvet was not yet rich, but unless accident or undue competition inter- vened, he was certain to become so.