Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1914 — 101 IN PAWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

101 IN PAWN

PROMINENT CITIZEN EMERSON HOUGH

AUTHOR THEMISSISSIPPI BUBBLE : 51-10 OR TIGHT. co/w/atr /2/j ay mu/gw v. .

SYNOPSIS. John Rawn, a clerk In a St. Louis railway office, hears his daughter Grace’s lover, a young engineer named Charles Halsey, speak of a scheme to utilise the lost current of electricity. He appropriates the Idea as his owp anO induces Halsey to perfect an experimental machine. He forms a company, with himself as president. at a salary’ of SIOO,OOO a year, and Halsey as superintendent of the works, at a salary of $5,000. Rawn takes charge of the office in Chicago. Virginia Delaware is assigned as his stenographer. She assists in picking the furniture and decoration for the princely mansion Rawn has Mrs. Rawn feels out of place in the new surroundings. Halsey goes to Nev York with Rawn and Miss Delaware to explain delays in perfecting the new motor to the impatient directors. He gets a message that a deformed daughter has beer, born to his Wife, Grace Rawn. Rawn bargains with Miss Delaware to wear hla jewelry and appear in public with him. as a means to help him in a business way. Rawn Is fortunate in market speculations, piles up wealth and attains prominence. He gives his wife a million dollars to leave him. He asks his daughter, Mrs. Halsey, to take charge of his household. Grace moves to Graystone hall, and Halsey' continues to live alom\ in the cottage near the works. Halsey's machine proves a success, but he keeps the fact a secret. _ Virginia Delaware becomes more and more indispensable to Rawn. He takes her to New York on a business trip. Idle talk prompts him tp offer her marriage. They are married. Halsey threatens to get a divorce because his wife refuses to return to him. He tells Rawn that he has broken up all the machines -after. proving the success of the invention. Rawn, in a great ragfi. threatens tn kill .him. ..Halsey declares he Win never build another machine for Rawn and slaps his face. Virginia Rawn implores Halsey to reconsider, because his decision will ruin them all. Halsey tells Virginia that he has abandoned his invention because it would put a great power in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. At Rawn’s instigation Virginia agrees to try to bring Halsev to terms, no matter what it costs. The directors plan to get the control of the company away frotn Rawn. CHAPTER XVll.—Continued. Standley- nodded slowly. .“That's a good deal the way I felt about it,” he said. “It riles me to see the airs that fellow puts on. I remember him when he didn’t have two suits of hand-me-down clothes to his name, and now he seems to have a hundred, all done by the best tailors in New York. He used to tie his drawers with white tape 'strings, and now he wears specially shaped silks. Wheice’d he get it? You talk about the Keeley motor —this thing has got it beat a mile for mystery. And we fellows have been standing for that! That is, unless we can stand from under, somehow.” "Yes, seemingly,” ventured the last speaker. “But how is that somehow? There isn’t any market for International.” The gray-bearded man laughed jubilantly at this. “Have you found that out?” “Yes, I certainly have found it out. Of course, the market has been Van yonder. But he won’t take on over a certain amount- He wants to break the control, of course. Qut he’s going to wait until he gets up to the point and then do something quick. He’s not going to hold our bag for us—oh, no! Not him!” “Well, I’ve a suspicion," said the older man finally, “that that secret ■we’ve been after has been in the hands of our superintendent for a long time." “Why didn’t Rawn tell us, then?” demanded one of his A companions. “Has he sold us out?” “No, Rawn hasn’t sold us out. At least I don’t think so.” “Who has, then ?” “I don’t know. The young man who made the wheels go for us whenever Rawn wanted him to—he’s the real key to this situation, if I’m a good guesser. There’s your contraband, and you ’can locate him somewhere in this particular woodpile, or I’m no judge.” “Rawn’s pretty well spread out in the general market,” quite irrelevantly suggested Standley. “I Should say he was!” growled Ackerman, “He’s been in on all the good things in the last two or three years. He must have made millions—l don’t know how much.” __ “In the general market—not International, of course. He’s got all his holdings in that He has been spending money, though!" Standley wagged his head. “For Instance, on the Lady of the Lightnings?” suggested Ackerman, grinning amiably. “Yes, on his young wife, and his new house, and his boats, and his automobiles, and all the regular things. He can’t have done it out of International dividends, that’s sure!"' “All the better that he hasn’t." ventured Standley. The old man nodded "Go over there' and call Van."he said simply. The slender man with pointed beard came up pleasantly, his eyes twinkling. “Well, my fellow -sports and department heads!" he said. “What’s the good word this morning?” _ “Sit down,” said the gray-bearded man. “We know why you’re here, and why you’ve been hanging around here for the last six months. It's foolish of you, son, to be out for revenge—nothing in that!" “I’m not after revenge," smiled the other, bis eyes stilftwinkling, “I’vemade my peace!” "Yea,” commented Ackerman. "The friendship of Mme of the gladiators is surely a wonderful thing! Rawn hates you, and you hate Rawn. Don’t your ears hum?'* "No, my heart!" He laid a hand on that organ with mock gravity.

“What could you do with the Lady of the Lightnings, Van ?” asked Standley discreetly. “Nothing, absolutely nothing.” “Hasn’t she any social instincts?” "Plenty, but all gratified; that’s the trouble. There isn-t anything those people want-that they haven’t got. No, I must say his position is pretty strong:” 1.,. .. ' ~ : “But it’s not impregnable. Standley,” cut in the §ray-bearded man, stopping the twiddling of his fingers above his round-paunched body. “Now, look here, we’re all friends together, when it comes to that. You belong with us a lot'more than you do with that Jasper from the country. Of course, you split with us, got mad, took your dolls and all that sort of thing—we’re all used to: that—and we all sat tight because it looked good. It looked better than it does now. So, we’re friends again.” “Of courses,” nodded the slight, man. “I understand that.” “Sure you do! Now, it’s plain that when it comes to beings on the inside, you’re there as an ex-director just as much as we are ’as real directors—maybe more so, for all I know." “Maybe more, yes, that’S 56,” smiled the slender man, hjs brown . eyes twinkling vet more. “How much more, then?” “Why, a whole lot more!” “What do you know?” “I know what I've learned for myself and by myself. Gentlemen, it’s on the table! Play the game! I did. I’ve had some of those college professors at work for me —they’re the people that first got us locoed, anyhow. Rawn, or rather his son-in-law, got his first notion from his own professor in his college.” “The real trouble with business today,” interrupted the gray-bearded man, reverting to his universal and invariable grievance, “is that things are all going wrong with the American

people. These Progressives down there at Washington have set this whole country by the ears—not even the Supreme Court can square things any more. The suspiciousness of the average man is getting to be almost criminal, that’s what it. is. The public thinks every man with money is a rascal. The public is damnably u - grateful. Look what we have done for this country, this little set of men sitting right here—-what we’ve built for them, what we’ve paid out to them for wages! What are we getting in return? They envy us our daily bread, and by the Eternal! they’ll come near putting us where we can’t get that much longer! Look at the railway rate cases—it’s robbery of the railways. Capital,hasn’t any chance any more! The public seems to be getting ready fbr anarchy; that’s all.” “Isn’t it tire truth?” remarked the slender man sympathetically. “Still, we have to handle men as we find them, my friends. In my own case. I’ve been fighting the devil with a little of his own fire.” “How’s that?” “Well, for instance, I went out to see if I couldn’t land that little secret of the receiving motor myself, as I just told you. If International doesn’t want to take me in, or if I can’t break in, maybe there can be another company formed —there’s considerable corporation room left in New Jersey. You folks onthe International have been having your own troubles with labor, haven’t you?” ; “Well, rather!” growled Ackerman. "We put that up to old Colonel J R. Bonehead, our president! He seems to have got in about as nearly wrong as any one could with our esteemed friends of the labor unions!” “Naturally; well. I'll* make a confession, since we’re all friends together—l’ve had men conferring with your horny-handed* citizens and suggesting that the International Power Company was ’unfair,’ anda had outfit to work for!?. * r . “That was nice of you!” growled Ackerman, getting red in the face. “Fine business, for you to come snooping around our wortts.” The slender man smiled at him pleasantly. “How else could I get information?” he inquired “You must remember that I’m no longer on the I

board! But you must remember, also, that of IStff I have picked up an occasional dollar’s worth of International. I wanted to know how about certain things!” • “Well, how abbut them, then?" demanded Standley fiercely. .“Where do we stand?" “You want me to incriminate myself!” - ' i “Oh, fiddlesticks about incrimination! Cut out that part of it!” “All right, I will,” said the other grjmly. “Well, then, I’ve tried my best to bribe your people, and I’ve got little out of it. I’ve tried the foreman, the night watchman, and everybody else. I’ve had a dozen of your workmen slugged for scabbing, and four or five of them shot, one or two at least, for a good, permanent funeral. And I paid the funeral expenses! You didn’t know that’s the truth of it!” “Well, what do you know about that!” gasped Standley, aghast. "I know a good deal about, my Christian friend," said the slender; man relentlessly. "I can tell you what you already know, that your motors are dismantled to-day. I can tell you also that there’s a good chance that the secret we’ve been after is in the hands of one man, and he’s holding it up for, some reason best known to himself. We’ve got nothing on him! I can also tell you that if he won’t give up—though why he won’t I can’t imagine—it’s possible we can work out a receiver of our own elsewhere, without him.” “Well, what does he want?” This from the old man. “That’s the everlasting mystery and •puzzle of it. He doesn’t want anything, so far as I can learn. There’s some factor in him ..that I can’t get my hands on, try the best that I can. Not that I don’t expect to break you wide open eventually, my friends.” “Now why do you want to do that?” asked -the older financier. “Why not join in with us and break the bonehead?” “Fine! But how can we do that? He’s sitting pretty tight. The man’s played in fine luck. I admit I rather admire him.” “Bah, that’s the way with all the new ones; they all play in luck for a time. Each Napoleon has his boom, but after a time boom values shrink—they always do. This chap’ll find his level when we get ready to tell him.” “For instance?” “Well, for instance, then! He’s sitting there with a small margin of control in the International. That gave him his start, and he’s wise enough to hang on to that. But 1 it didn’t give him his money—he’s only made dividend money out. of that; and who cares for dividend money? He doesn’t own control in the Guatemala Oil Company, does he? He’s made a lot out of Arizona and Utah coppers, but he doesn’t own control in a single com.pany there, does he? He’s in with the L. P., but he borrowed to get in. He’s made a big killing in Rubber, but ha doesn’t own any Rubber control of his own, does he? Now, you follow him out in every deal he’s made —iron, copper, steel, oil, rails, timber, irrigation, utilities, industrials —and you’ll find he’s simply banking on his inside information and on his outside credit. Who gave him both of those things?— Why, we did, didn’t we? All right! Suppose we our credit. What happens?” They went silent now, and grouped a little closer about the tabouret which stood between them. The old , man's/ voice went on evenly, with no excitement. Their conversation attracted the attention of none in the wide lounging room, where large affairs more than once had been discussed — even the making of Senators to order. “I’ll tell you what happens.” the old man resumed. “He quits using us for a stalking horse, and he comes down to his own system. . He’s spread out. Banks are all polite, but—well, he has to put up collateral; and then some more. If he doesn’t want to put up International, he’s apt to find that a bunch of automobiles is poor property when sold at twenty per cent their cost. He turns off two or three butlers, but still that doesn’t serve for margins. The market doesn’t suit his book any more. “He’s discovering now the truth of something my old friend Emory Storrs used to say—Emory always was in debt, or wanted to be, and says he: ‘There’s no trouble about prosperity in this country; there’s plenty of money—the only trouble is in the ; confounded scarcity in collateral.’ ■ Well, he goes over to this young man.

who is standing out for some reason best to himself, and he tries to get him to come through, and he doesn’t come through. What’s left? Why, the diamond lightnings of the' Lady of the Lightning —and his International Power stock. “Meantime, all this thing can’t besecret; that is to say, the market part of it can’t be. But we sit tight, *all of us. We hold our regular directors’ meetings of the International board, and we smile, and look pleasant. We don't know a thing abopt his hot water experiences in the open market. He explains to us why this and that happens, or doesn’t happen, in International; and we smile and look pleasant, and we don’t know a thing. After a time it’s up to him and the Lady of the Lightnings. Something pops! He’s up against it, all except his International Power. Then Van, and you, Standley,-and you, Ack, and you, and you and I, and all of us—why we're still, pleasant as pie to him and we say, ‘Well, Mr. John Rawn. if you’d only sell us two or three shares of International, we’d pay you twenty times what it’s worth—but it’s jrery much cheaper now —by reaso# of Van’s competing company! ’ “That’s about all, I think!” The others nodded silently. The game was not new to them, and even in its most complicated features might have been called simple, with resources such as theirs. If these resources had made Rawn, they could unmake him. It was all in the day’s work for them. “So I’ll tell you what we’ll do.” concluded the old financier after a time. “We’ll just let you and Van look around here a little bit and see what more you can learn. You’re one of the real directors of International Power, to-day, Van. Mr. Rawn is on the minority and the toboggan list, or is going to be there. We’ll take the 'first steps when we see the boys down East The country's getting right now for a little speculation—things have been dead long enough. There’ll be a market. When the market starts, I think you know which way it will go for a certain person I needn’t name.” They rose, stood about loungingly for a time, and at length slowly separated, the older man and the ex-direc-tor with the pointed beard falling back of the others for just an instant “What’s the truth about the row, Van?” demanded the old man, laying a large, pudgy hand on the other’s shoulder. “I don’t know, honestly, what It is. I can tell you this much—your factory is closed. Your superintendent, Halsey, has quit his work and left his old ■residence. Didn’t Rawn tell you that?” “No! What’s up now —some trouble with a woman? Wasn’t he married to Rawn’s daughter?” “Yes, and she went to live with Papa. Paj»a had the coin.” “And the superintendent is going the chorus girl route here or in New York?" “No. sir, not in the least—nothing of the sort, You can’t guess where’s he’s gone.” The other shook his head. “Well, I’ll tell you then, since you are one of the directors of the International and I’m not! He’s gone and taken his other pair of pants and hjs celluloid collar, and moved over to the North Shore! He’s living in the same house with Papa J. Rawn right now; —that is to say, he has been for two or three weeks.” “Well, what do. you know about that, too!” commented his friend. “I don’t know much about it As I told you, there’s something in here I don’t understand. I can’t for th®? life of me figure out that chap Halsey’s motives or his moves. But I don’t care about him. It’s Rawn I’m after—and I’m going to get him!” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

"Meantime, All This Thing Can't Be Kept Entirely Secret."