Evening star., 1933-03-31

THOMAS remained silent, still
holding the hypodermic in his
hand; he could not quite make
Il up his mind to insert 1t into
this fantastically rich man. Why
Is he telling me this, he thought, does
he want to impress me? Is he lying?
II am too rich to liquidate my affairs,
doctor. Up to certain point money
means freedom and an independent,
easy life If you can have half a mil
lion dollars in bank, you can do what
you please. But once you have become
what the newspapers call a factor in
the economic world, you are slave
to your money, just as most rulers are
slaves to their military. A fortune
like mine constitutes a power, living
force, in which there are such destruc-
tive potentialities, that you simply can
not let it take care of itself. You al
ways have to supply it with new and
fruitful possibilities of action-other-
wise the whole structure will blow up
you will be careful with the needle,
won't you?"
Thomas ! introduced it very -; carefully; !. =
Stephanson, enthusiastically. Much
better than my private physician; I
didn't feel a thing"
He jumped up and Immediately began
to dress.
"Will you come and have tea with
me at o'clock. Very nice of you.
I will try to invite one or two beautiful
women, so you won't be too bored with
an old man like me-"
What a delightful man, thought
Thomas. But what does he expect of
q poor devil like me? Special medical
attention? In that case he would have
offered an extra large fee.
StephanSon accompanied the doctor
to the door, just as little earlier he
had escorted Bartlett, the great states
man,
Thomas rang for the lift. It arrived
D few seconds later from above and out
came the red-faced, thick-set man who
had been debating to Miss Fielding.
His cigar was hanging in the left corner
of his mouth, as though he had for
gotten it. He held a couple Of open
kilograms in his hand. He passed
Thomas without recognizing him.
"This is Harry Hawkins" the alert
lift boy volunteered without having been
asked. "He is one of Stephanson's
people, but is big broker on his own
in New York. I know him. This is
the third time he has sailed on the
Columbia. though he doesn't know 10
words of German
Thomas smiled inattentively. His
thoughts again returned to his own af-
fairs. A few minutes later he would
meet Sybil in the dining room. She
would be sitting by. Shortwell's side,
feeling completely secure, glancing
about with her clear. blue eyes to see
II she could find any one interesting
Suddenly she would see him, the glass
In her hand would tremble, and i.
Tive never seen anything like that
before" said the lift boy with a new,
almost reverential note in his voice.
On G deck woman had entered the
lift, and got out on e deck. He stood
now in the open door, looking after
her, as long as her marvelously slender
back and legs were still visible in the
corridor. He did not re-enter the lift
until she had turned corner. did
you ever see such q dream of beauty?"
'Ta didn't notice she was particularly
beautiful "s said Thomas and he told
the truth. He had indeed looked at
her face, but his inner vision of the
meeting with Sybil in the dining room
had blotted out her beauty. who Is
sle?" he asked mechanically.