Evening star., 1925-10-12
CHAPTER |.

Early in the afternoon of certain
saturday Jim Stanley stood at one OF
he windows of his lofty Office look
ing out at a panorama of which ne
seldom tired. Southwark the windows
aced. and his eyes glanced over d
Nelter of brick. stone, mortar, chin
Rey tops-the tremendous turmoil OF
gargantuan architecture which com
priseS lower New York. Away, through
he haze of the late afternoon, III
rould see a glimpse of New York Har
bor, with its busy traffic. and in the
iar background a huge dim figure
Iaguely stabbed the murk with its up
lifted torch. He gazed upon it in
silence for a time and then with a
sigh and a gesture of impatience he
turned, sat down and began to dictate
somewhat irritably to the audiphone
upon his desk.
'Of course, there is always the pos
sihility of error in these calculations
and it would be wise to allow a con.
siderable margin of safety therefore
but on the whole we are in a position
- say that we think we'll of the prop.
oSition. If you wish I shall be glad
20 discuss the matter ut length and In
detail. Very sincerely yours
He switched off the machine took
another letter from the heap await
ing his attention, and attempted to
pin his mind on it For some reason
he was unable to do SO. He tidgeted a
moment, rose and walked again to the
window and looked upon the far flung
panorama of Manhattan.
Now this indecision or, better.
perturbation, was not at all char
acteristic of this young man. Any
one who knew him we'll, watching
him now, would have SenSed that
something had disturbed him deeply.
He ran his hand through his brown
hair with gesture of discomfort and
turning at length again to his desk he
rang the bell and said to the gray
haired little man who entered:
Fra nix, when you leave the office
this afternoon you will find O'Hara
waiting with the car | shan't need
him again today. Take the audiphone
and all this heap of correspondence on
the desk, hand them to O'Hara, and
tell him to take the whole lot down
70 the country and have Jefferson put
them on the desk in the library"
All right, Mr.. Stanley" said the
secretary. and his employer continued:
IN clear the whole lot up over Sun.
day
But | understood, sir" objected the
secretary, that You had planned to
spend the week end playing golf at
Southampton.
That's SO. Frank" responded Stan
ley, but | find | can't do it. Please
get Mr.. Roberts on the phone and ex-
plain 10 him that unexpected and i'm
perative business will detain me. Be
as apologetic as you know how.
Grovel for me. Frank. grovel"
Wilson smiled. Yes. sir" he said,
i shall grovel abjectly."
Great invention the audiphone," "
continued Stanley, casting an inter
ested eye upon the machine. You
can dictate for hours without having
a stupid stenographer around saying,
What's that. sir?' or How do you
spell cat. SIR Talk as fast as you
please talk as slowly as You please,
the machine doesn't get restless. 1t
doesn't fix its hair or tap the floor
with its foot, Bnd. thank God, it
doesn't chew gum
Yes, sir smiled Wilson, 1T GER
talnly h3s some advantages over the
female Of the species, bat doesn't it
sometimes get out of ordcrr''
We'll, replied Stanley. the female
or the species has been known to do
that, too.
Employer and employee smiled TO.
gether at this feeble jest. You would
have guessed that relations between
them We're not wholly formal and off
cial. and you would have guessed
right. Wilson was more than secre-
tary, he was thoroughly confidential
assistant. In fact. he knew much
more about the business of the firm
than Rollin Waterman, who was not
only Stanley's partner but his life
long friend as Well. And it was not
only IN" business of the firm with
which hc was wc1I acquainted lie
knew much more about the private
lives OF both III" members Of the firm
than either Of them cuessed-perhaps
good deal more than one of them
would have liked, and he was think
ing OF that particular one when Stan.
ley turned and mentioned his name
Frank he said. Mr.. Waterman
hasn't come in YET
Not yet, sir
Stanley hesitated an instant, and
then tossed his head with an air of
decision. When he does. say I'd
like to see him
Yes, sir. / will" answered the sec.
retary. But though he said no more,
he did some thinking Wilson was
one OF those men who are possessed
or certain canine attributes He was
10 do him justice, quite aware of this,
lie used 10 express it Ia himself by
saying that he could smell trouble ana
he thought he Smellcd il now. This
may have been because 10 himself he
oitf>iN ddtilIllfd lndl he 0lSIlkC1
Rollin Waterman
lie was not alone in this. a good
many people dislilted Waterman. but
they were almost all people whom
Waterman considered his interiors.
thdrm Waterman undeniably had, but
ne was not prodigal with it. He re-
served II for quarters where he
thought 1t would do the most good.
II his estimates in this line occasion
ally turned out wrong. perhaps that
is not TO be wondered at At all
events. such an error he had made in
the case Of Wilson, for Wilson. hay-
ing taken dislike to Waterman, had
begun TO watch him, and there were
certain things in Waterman's life
that from his point OF view would
be just as well unmatched.
The door had scarcely closed behind
Wilson when upon the other side of
Stanleys office another door opened
and there entered briskly a young
woman. clad in the business tweeds
of Wall Street. She was dark
good looking girl of % or 24. with
assurance written large upon her
handsome face and radiating from her
eyes of Spanish black.
Stanley turned upon her entrance.
'Well. Miss Morgano" he said
Here is d letter" she said in her
clipped voice, which Mr. Waterman
asked me to call your attention to-
He took the letter and read it