Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1908 — Page 6

BY ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE

CQPrRIOMT,I9O7BT

CHAPTER XII. W LWYN BENNETT sat in bls own ZA study at home in the big Ben* /% nett house that remained as ■< almost the last landmark of that solid middle nineteenth century wealth and fashion which bad once dominated a neighborhood now given •ver to office buildings and apartment houses.

The hour was late. An hour and inore had passed since the young mayor and his mother had returned from the administration ball. The house was silent, and even the usually busy streets outside were wrapped in the flush that never falls until after midbight and is dispersed by the gray of dawn. Late as it was Alwyn bad made ho move to discard his evening clothes. Alone be Mt. his bead resting between Ills crossed arms on the desk before iblm. Motionless, Inert, hopeless, he had remained there ever since bls arrival from the ball. But if his body was moveless, his brain was awhirl. Try ns be would he could see no light in the tangle of events Into which his own sense of right had plunged him. iHe saw the future stretching out be'fore him dreary and barren as a rainy isea.

Through all of his months of battling he had ever struggled forward through Increasing difficulties toward one bright goal—Dallas’ love. And now that love was snatched from his grasp, through no fault of his own, and bestowed on a man unworthy to kiss the hem of her garment.

At each step in the long climb Alwyn had asked himself, “Would she approve?” And now through trying to ibe worthy that approval he had forever lost it. for Dallas, he knew, had not only rejected him and engaged herself to Gibbs, but had done so with the belief that Bennett was a heartless, unscrupulous intriguer, undeserving of a good woman’s regard. A rap at the door arohsed Bennett from bls bitter thoughts. He lifted his head wearily and gave word to enter. A drowsy servant came in with a card. “He says it’s important business, sir,” said the footman. “And he wishes to see you at once, if possible.” "Show him up.” answered Bennett, dropping his voice so as not to disturb his mother, who slept on the same floor. “I will see him here.”

A minute later Horrigan’s bulky form blocked the threshold. “Queer time ofe*nlght for a call,” ho observed casuaUjvas he entered uninvited. closed the door behind him and took a chair, “but my business 'wouldn’t wait.” “Then sThte it as briefly as you can,” directed Bennett, making no move to rise or welcome his unbidden guest. “It is very late, and 1 am tired.” “I’ve come to see you about our Bor ougli bill.” “So I supposed." 1 “You won’t call off your fight against

"That question is hardly worth answering. No.” “I thought not. Well, Mr. Alwyn Bennett. I’ve got you! I’ve got you! Do you understand me?” "Perfectly. Is that all?” “No. it ain’t all," mimicked the boss. “And I’m in earnest I’ve got you where I want you.” “That doesn’t interest me. If you’ve nothing else to say”— “But I hate,” chuckled Horrigan. “When it cume to a showdown between us two I put a staff of men to looking up your record." “You found nothing you could use. Is that”—

“No; it isn’t even the beginhlng. Then I remembered about your father.” “About my father?*’ It grated on Bennett that his dead father's honored name should be spoken by this low politician, but before he could protest more forcibly Horrigan went on: “What*d’you think if I said your father was a grafter—one of the worst of his time?” “I’d say you lied,” answered Bennett calmly, “and I’d drive the foul lie down your throat with my fist You’ll have to think of some better scheme than that.” “Do you think I'd be idiot enough to come here with the story if I didn’t have full proof of it?” asked Horrigan in contempt And, despite himself, Alwyn saw the man was speaking what he believed to •be the truth. He paused in his impulsive forward move, reseated himself And asked coldly:

The New Mayor Based on G.H. Broadhurst's Successful Play THE MAN OF THEHOUR

wnat so caned ‘proofs’ have you been fooled by your heelers into thinking”— ‘Don’t believe me, hey? Well, you will fast enough before I’m done. Unless you’re afraid of what I’ve got to say.”

“I’m not afraid of anything you can say. The highest tribute to my father’s memory is the fact that a cur (like you cannot defile it Go on. I’ll listen to you." “Very good.” said Horrigan, quite unmoved. “I’ll make it as short as I can. I remembered your father got bleb pretty quick. He was a member of the organization, and his firm got the jobs of building the aqueduct and the new library. That gave me my clew. I looked up the specifications for both jobs, and I turned them over to the old engineering firm of Morris & Cherrington. You know the firm? perhaps. If you don’t, you can look them up. They don’t belong to the organization: they’re the best experts in their line, and they can’t be Juggled with.” "1 know them. Go on.’’

”1 paid them a fancy sum to go over those specifications and then examine the library and the aqueduct and see if they were up to the mark or if the city ’d been cheated by the Bennett Contracting company. I had a strong idea I was right, but I wouldn’t speak till I had the proof. When I got home after the ball tonight I found the Morris & Cherrington report waiting for me. I brought a copy of it along with

me.” “Well,” asked Bennett Indifferently, “what then?” “Here’s the copy of the report. Look It over for yourself. The crookedest [job ever pulled off in this city! Third rate material, when the material called for in the specifications was nsed at all. Granite shell filled with mortar instead of solid granite; foundations barely half the depth called for; inferior tiles in place of fireproof ones; cheap, crumbly iron and steel instead of first quallty—oh, there’s fifty such •übstitutlons and frauds! It’s the rawIwt, bummest job I ever beard of. If any of the organization tried it nowadays the men who did it would be Wearing stripes in a week. Graft, hey? Why, your father was the boss grafter of the century, the star graft getter of the bunch! He'*— “Hush! For God’s sake, hush!” pouted Alwyn. “My mother sleeps only a few rooms beyond. I” “What do 1 care?” roared Horrigan in triumph. “Let everybody bear! The whole world Is going to hear it unless that porough franchise bill goes through. Beat that bill and every paper in the country w’lll havj that teport to publish. Stop your fight against us and the report is buried. That goes!

"The clothes on your back were bought with graft money!"

the staU-s. The young man sat, lost, hopeless, horror gripped, his eyes running mechanically over the closely typewritten pages of the engineer’s report. Outsider as he was in matters of practical business, Alwyn could see that Horrigan had in no way exaggerated the document’s contents. He knew. too. that the firm of engineers who had drawn up the report were the foremost of their sort and above a!) shadow of suspicion. Little by little the numbness lifted from his bruin, and in its place crept a horrible conviction of the truth. His father—the gallant young soldier who bad won a nation’s applause in the civil war—the man who, poor and unaided. had built up a fortune against keenest competition and had earned a repute for sterling probity which had ever been the delight and model of bis son—this was the man whom a low blackguard like Horrigan now had the

right to revile—a man apparently no better than the boss himself—than any dishonest heeler in the organization! And, as if it were not enough that the idol of a lifetime were hurled, crushed and defiled, from its bright pedestal, the family name must next be dragged through the mire of political filth and ill repute and the dead man’s memory forever blasted. Either that or Ids son must withdraw from the gallant fight he was waging against civic corruption, for that Horrigan would carry out his threat and blazon forth to the world the story and proofs of the elder Bennett’s shame Alwyn had no doubt. With all his faults the boss was a man of his word. _ “Stop your tight, against us,” Horrigan had Said, “and the 'report is burned.”

Yes, the boss was a man 01 ms word Even Bennettl admitted that. He would fulfill his promise in either event Listlessly Alwyn began to review the case. On the one side a perhaps Quixotic fight for an abstract principle —a fight whose reward was political death, loss of the woman be adored, family shame that might crush his fragile old mother to the very grave. On the other wealth, honor, love, the governorship, a future happy and glorious.

Was he not a fool to hesitate? Had he not salved bls conscience sufficiently by vetoing the Borough franchise bill? Had he the right to bring- this new shame upon his mother’s gray head? Where lay bis highest duty? The soft rustling of silk and a hand laid in light caress upon his head aroused the miserable man from his reflections.

Bennett looked up to see his mother standing beside him. She had thrown on a wrapper and in slippered feet had stolen noiselessly into the study. “I was awakened by voices,” she explained. “I thought ! heard some one talking excitedly in here. Is anything the matter?" "Nothing, nothing dear,” he answered gently, drawing the little old lady affectionately down to a seat on his knee and smiling manfully into her sleep flushed face; “nothing is the matter. Only a business call.”

“A business call at 2 o'clock in the morning!” she exclaimed. /‘Dear boy, you are working too hard. Your father never brought his business worries and work home. He always I left them at the office. Can’t yon do the same? You’ll wear yourself out.” “My father”— began Bennett, but the name choked him. “You are growing to be so much like him,” went on Mrs. Bennett fondly. “And it makes me so happy that you are. Your splendid fight against that infamous Borough bill, for instance. How proud he would have been of that! It is just the sort of thing he himself would have done in your place. He was surrounded with wicked and dishonest men just as you are. But through it all he remained true, honorable. incorruptible. What a grand heritage for my son! He— Alwyn”’ she broke off. alarmed, "why do you look at me that way? I never saw such a look in your eyes before. Are you ill? Has something happened that you are keeping from me?” “No, no,” evaded Bennett. “I only”—

“You had a caller here before I came in,” pursued the mother, refusing to abandon the clew to which her womanly Intuition had led her. “He brought you bad new’s? Tell me, dea r ! I’m your mother, and 1 love you.” ““You are making my course more difficult for me by asking such questions, mother,” he answered wretched ly, “and I”

See? Now, do as you please about the bill. You’re a fine man to preach about graft, you are! The very roof over your head, the clothes on your back, were bought with graft money!” Bennett scarcely heeded the coarse Insult, nor did he note Horrigan’s grunt of goodby anil the clump of his departing feet on

"1 only want to nerp you, Aiwyn. 1 can’t bear to see you miserable. A woman's wit and a mother’s love are often a combination that I can solve problems beyond even the wisest man’s powers of logic. Let me help you.”

“I was trying to make up my mind,” vaguely replied Bennett, sorely distressed by her pleading, “whether a man ought to follow bis conscience, even if it leads to heartbreak for those he loves, or whether he ought to let conscience go by the board for once and protect the happiness of his loved ones.”

“Alwyn! How can you hesitate a second over such a question. One must do right, no matter what the consequence.” “I don’t know about that” he said moodily. “You know It perfectly well. It is what your father would have advised and— But, Alwyn, you surely are not making yourself unhappy over a mere supposititious case?” “Well.” he continued, “let us take a ’mere supposititious case’ if you like. Suppose, for instance, that a man holding a position of trust had had a father whose memory he honored and revered as 1 do my own father’s”— “Yes?” prompted Mrs. Bennett as he paused.

“Suppose some one tempts him to betray his position of trust even as I have lately been tempted, and threatens in case of his refusal to make public certain facts which would prove his dead father to have been a scoundrel. Now. what should the man do? Should he let his father’s sacred memory be trampled in the mud. let his duty go by default and save”— “It would be an awful responsibility to decide such a question,” said Mrs. Bennett, with a little shudder, “but there could be only one reply.” “And that is?" “He must do his duty, be the results what they may.” “You really think so?” “There can be no doubt Right is right and”— “It shall be as you say,” groaned Alwyn. “What?” queried Mrs. Bennett, startled at the despair in his voice. “Do you mean it is an actual case? Some friend of yours, perhaps?” Bennett nodded. “Oh, the poor, poor fellow!” she sympathised. “What a terrible position for him! It was he. perhaps, that I

heard talking to you in here just now. No wonder be seemed excited! The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children even unto the”— “It is something less hard on ’the children than on the wives." mused Bennett, half to himself.

"The wives? Your friend has a mother living? That makes it doubly hard. Oh, my son, every day I thank God in all humility that my busband lived so blameless a life and left so honored a name! How grateful you and I both ought to be for”—

"It is easy enough to decide for some one you have never seen.” retorted Bennett almost rudely, “but suppose the dishonest man in my story bad been father and"—

“I refuse to suppose anything of ttye sort!”’ Interrupted his mother indignantly. rising to her feet. “I wonder that you can speak so! How can you suggest so horrible a thing?” “Just a thoughtless, tactless speech of mine. That’s all," lied Alwyn. “It’s very late. You’ll have a headache. I’m afraid. Won’t you go to bed?” “Yes. It is late, and I’m keeping you up. Good night, dear. I wish your friend”— She checked herself suddenly, with a little gasp. Bennett, glancing up to

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her, saw that her eyes were riveted on a bit of pasteboard lying on the corner of his desk directly beneath the reading lamp. It was Horrigan’s card.

Slowly the mother’s gaze shifted from the card to her son. From her face the color had been crushed by some swift emotion that left It very old, pale and sunken. “Mr. Horrigan!" she murmured. “It was he who was your visitor tonight? Surely he isn’t the sort of a man to care about his father’s reputation for honesty. He”—

“You’re tired, mother," interrupted Bennett in haste. “Won’t you”— “Walt!” she panted. “His visit here— Alwyn!” her voice rising to a wail of panic stricken appeal. “Did—did that man dare to hint anything against your father? Tell me the truth! I have a right to know. Did he?” Aiwyn bowed his head in silence. “Tell me what he said!”

•He said,'- muttered Bennett, almost incoherently, “he said my father m.-ule his fortune—by—graft!” “And you thrashed him and thre w him out of the house?” she cried. her old eyes ablaze.

“No.” “Alwyn!” , “He—he proved what he said!” “It is a lie! A wicked, abominable Re!” “It is the truth, mother. Wquld 1 have told you such a thing—would Horrigan have left this room alive—if it were hot true?”’ A silence—dreadful in its intensityfell over the room. Alwyn dared not look at his mother. At last she spoke:

“I must know more. I refuse to believe one word. You spoke of proofs. What are they?” Without a word, Bennett banded her the report left by Horrigan. For a time silence brooded over the study, broken only by the occasional turning of a page of the report. Then, after

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what seemed to Alwyn an eternity of waiting, the document slid to the

“I do not advise, I command. Do right!"

proofs and says he' will publish them broadcast unless 1 withdraw my opposition in the Borough franchise matter. If I let that bill pass, Friday be will bprn the report, and”— “There is only one thing to do,” interposed the mother, speaking with slow decision, her vplce as cold and colorless as hqr face. "Right must prevail, no matter what”— -“Mother!” cried Alwyn, trembling. “You advise me to— You advise me”— “I de not advise, I command. Do right!” (To be continued.)

TOMMY’S GONE TO SCHOOL. ’Tls quite a week ago. John, One long, dull week, and yet To this weird change about the place I can’t accustomed get. The brooding quietude imparts A sense of strain and stress; The silent back yard seems to me A mournful wilderness. Oh, now and then I start, John, And then sink back and sigh. I thought I’d heard a rumbling fall, „ A wild and plaintive cry. The hush sends thrills all o’er me, Sensations sad and strange, I feel like Mariana in The lonely moated grange. The cat, with inedpetaoteoiinanetaoln The cat, with independence new, Sits on the back-porch rail. And tries to straighten out the kinks Of her disheveled tail; The neighbor’s dog trots past the door. With mein serene and spry. And casts a careless, sidelong glance From a triumphant eye. The peddler through the alley goes And shouts out loud and clear, There are no missiles flying now To cause him pain or fear. It’s restful but depressing, John, It’s very bleak and cool. This silence that. broods round the house Since Tommy’s gone to school. —Chicago News.

FOR SALE. 13 acres nice ground just outside the corporation, on public road, has four room house, barn, cellar, large pear orchard, also large amount of apples, peaches, cherries, grapes, small fruit, weU, Will accept 3500 in live stock and give time on remainder or sell on easy terms. Also five room house, with porch, good well, city water, large cistern, good shade and fruit, on large corner lot, cement walks inside and out, improved streets, two blocks from court house. For. a short time at 3950. GEO. F. MEYERS, Rensselaer, Ind. CONTINENTAL INSURANCE CO. The largest and one of the best American companies writing fire and wind-storm insurance on city and farm property. Farmers, before renewing your insurance see the Continental’s most liberal contract. Any limit you’ wish on horses and cattle. In case of loss we pay on adjustment without discount, all at the same price that smaller companies will ask you. See that your insurance is written in the Continental. Call at my office any time and let me show you. The same office the Continental has been represented in for years, Room 4, 2nd floor, I. O. O. F. building. A. J. HARMON, Agent. Successor to J. F. Bruner. Thkodosia: Gold Medal Flour makes lightest bread. Sl.'K.

DR- J. H. HANBSON VETERNARY SURGEON—Now at Rensselaer.- Calls promptly anawered. Office in Harris Bank Building. Phone <43.

floor. Bennett glanced at his mother. She was standing rigid, her face cold and hard as granite. “Horrigan has ferreted this out,” he said, not daring to draw nearer or proffer comfort to the woman whom the boss’ disclosure had turned to stone. “He has secured the

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