Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27

| rough pain OF true love CemcerS It's
| quality, infatuation is inflamed by de-
NAL Stirred and delighted, he was
eager to grasp; crossed, he was on fire
to possess!
He stumbled across the studio in the
| dark and opened the door. Daylight
half blinded him and he had to stop
| and wait for his eyes to regain their
normal vision. Then he went back to
his private Office.
On his desk lay telegram signed by
great banking firm in New York re-
cueSting an interview for represent
alive on his way by airplane to the
Western Coast; clipping from morn
ing paper reporting the formation Of a
syndicate to control the product which
he still held in his two hands: letter
from some crank promising to take from
him his unlawful and ungodly power"
in day by setting up ~1rations that
would wreck his plans for recording
events-unless admitted to his councils
and his pay roll; statement from a
| crank of another stripe that the death
of woman who had taken her life in
| the street last night lay clearly at his
door: claim from an inventor that he
controlled basic patents upon which
Brainard had infringed; a sheet of note
paper generously Thoroughbred with
crude skulls and black hands, threat
ening to kill MIN by mysterious method
if he did not surrender certain funds in
less mysterious way; letter from So
called reform organization protesting in
advance against anticipated offenses of
the Vicarion in giving the public ruin
Gus things; advance proofs of scien-
tific article from magazine, purpOrting
to explain completely and explicitly to
the unscientiflc reader the exact pro-
cedure for producing liquid life.
Threats, cajolery, pleading, outcry, fiat
terry, demand! In every form, from
high source and low, came the messages
of those who faSten upon the suddenly
rising man in envy, jealousy, rivalry or
mendicancy - enemies and parasites,
wolves and leeches, tigers and ticks!
He pushed them all aside and took
up a memorandum sheet of telephone
calls. The attorneys for Mortimer and
Ballard asked an appointment; steel
manufacturers representative wanted to
bid on supplies: newspapers begged for
interviews; requests came from per
sonal friends" for very personal records
to be shown in ultra personal exclusive
ness; calls from women who left their
names and women who did not; old
acquaintance looking him up and new
ones discovering him worth it: offers OF
service from bond statesmen and mas
Seurs: offers of creature comforts rang
ing from new apartments to new gar
tiers, from taxis to toothpaSte, from
lavender water TO love.
He had not yet reached the point of
delegating all his details. He had not
accumulated half staff. He had not
foreseen the embarrassment of celebrity
and advertised wealth. He had not fore
seen the need power has for trustworthy
tools. He had taken his aids for
granted. Experience had not prepared
him for this new position; imagination
had not envisioned its circumstances.
He had fancied offices with people in
them; factories. perhaps, with machines;
secretaries, pretty and otherwise; man.
ayers, agents, clerks, bookkeepers, spe-
cial representatives, confidential men.
But he had selected few. He must give
it attention-he must take advice.
But from the leafy mass of evidence
attesting his triumph an aroma arose
that soothed his shaking nerves. What
with overnight liquor, sleeplessness, lack
of food and plethora of emotion, he
needed 1t. He rang for Ushigi and
ordered breakfast. Then he sat still,
waiting hardening.
There was but one way to deal with
an enemy who waxed dangerous: that
was to strike. quick, hard, once for ALL
There were ways to strike his one dan
gerous enemy-his one Immediately
dangerous enemy who had already
struck at him. A condition of the pos
session of power was that 1t be used.
Only the hand that could WELD the
thunderbolt was worthy Of 1t. He did
not smile now at the conceit that sug-
gested this figure. With his determi-
nation rose the fury that would lend
it force. And slowly before his minds
eye his means began to take shape.
AS preliminary he would have
condenser in the studio. He rose from
his chair and started to 60 back to
his small white room; he must consider
where the machine would stand. AS
he closed the door in the hall a man
passed him and looked in his face It
was Homer! Homer, who CHANGED for
tuitously to pass just at that instant
and lock in his face. And the man
srniled-reSpectfully, obsequiously, bow
ing.
Brainard passed on with a nod
but that smile went with him, one of
those records to store away in the files
of memory-a smile that was faint
repressed, appraising, patient-jeering!
The illness of Phyllis, with the. conse-
quent indefinite postponement of her
wedding day, the growing conviction
that she was losing the love of Radley
Brainard, the fear of what he was doing
to himself and to the world, terribly en-
phasized for her by the events of that
evening in and in front of the Swan;
the knowledge that others near and
dear to her were involved and finally her
whole sense of weakness and ineffi-
cheney in the great crisis in her life,
reacted at last upon the girl as lesser
crises had acted in lesser degrees before.
All that she loved was at stake and
she was powerlesS to save it, yet her
spirit rose against the fate that was
sweeping her life bare.
But her sense of personal loss, her
impulse to fight for her own, grew
quickly into greater things. She began
to see that what Brainard had done
was Infringing the balance of things.
She was well aware that she had only
glimpsed the surface of forces he had
set seething by the injection OF new
element; but the half-conSidered opin-
| ions Of others. the hasty criticisms aim
ed at him-the hints of a turning of
many weather vanes to the new wind
were sure signs of mighty storm
Yet Brainard himself had furnished
her the statement of faith that rose
against the menace.
Nobody upsets or defies natural
laws" he had said on one of those
days when they had first viewed his
product. And fundamental to all nat
ural law was the law of balance. II
new laws had been discovered and used
10 tilt the universe of center. new laws
would appear that would swing it back
to equilibrium! Or old laws would act
in new ways!
Great theory-small comfort, but
! something to cling to. Hope doesn't
need much.
But her eyes were opened to see more
She saw the growing threat in some
things she had only partially recognized
before. John was definitely changed
She understood him to some degree. Her
| father was quite frank TO admit that he