Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1918 — The Real Man [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Real Man

By Francis Lynde

Illustrations by Olrwul^effi

SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I—J. Montague Smith, Lawfsnceville bank cashier and society man, receives two letters. One warns him that a note which he has O. K.’d with consent Of Watrous Dunham, the bank’s president, Is worthless. The other Is a summons from Dunham. He breaks an appointment with Yera Richlander, daughter of the local millionaire, and meets Dunham alone at night In the bank. CHAPTER ll—Dunham threatens Smith with the police. Smith becomes aggressive. Dunham draws a pistol and Is floored by a blow that apparently kills him. Smith escapes on an outgoing frelgnt train. CHAPTER lll—Near Brewster, Colo., Dexter Baldwin, president of the Timanyoni Ditch company, gets Smith an office Job at the big dam the company Is building. CHAPTER IV—Williams, chief engineer, finds the hobo Smith used to money In big chunks-and to making It work. The company Is fighting concealed opposition and is near ruin. Smith Is Jokingly Suggested as a financial doctor. CHAPTER V—Williams talks business to Smith, who will tell nothing of his past. Smith pushes a stalled auto away from an oncoming train and saves the colonel’s daughter Corona. CHAPTER Vl—While Corona looks on he drives off three bogus mining right claimants from the company’s land. CHAPTER Vll—The colonel takes •mith to his home and persuades him. In cpite of Smith’s warning, to undertake we financial salvation of the company. CHAPTER Vlll—Crawford Stanton, hired by eastern Interests to kill off the ditch company, sets his spies to work to And out who Smith Is. CHAPTER IX—Smith reorganizes the company and gets a loan from Klnzle, the local banker. CHAPTER X—ln the midst of a "mira-cle-working” campaign Corona asks ilmlth alarming questions. He reads that Dunham, still living, has doubled the re-c ward for bis capture. CHAPTER Xl—Smith gets encouragement In his fight from Corona, but realizes that he must stay away from her. Vera Richlander and her father come to Brewster. CHAPTER Xll—Smith tells Corona of his danger. He hears the Rlchlanders , have gone up to the mines. He hires* a new stenographer, Shaw, who Is a spy es Stanton’s. CHAPTER XIII—He meets Vera, who has not gone away with her father. She exacts almost constant attendance from him as the price of her silence. CHAPTER XlV—Stanton and his wife fall to learn about Smith from Vera, fitanton makes some night visits and is trailed. CHAPTER XV—Smith tells Starbuck of the time limit on the dam. Starbuck cautions him about Vera and tells him of a plot to kill him or blow up the dam. They catch Shaw listening, but he escapes. CHAPTER XVl—Rumors that the dam Is unsafe cause a stock-selling panic. , Smith tells the colonel of his entanglewith Vera and the colonel wants to her talk if she wants to. She tells Smith that Tucker Jibbey, another suitor, knows Smith, Is coming to visit her. CHAPTER XVII—An abandoned railroad right-of-way is claimed across the i dam, and Smith prepares for actual fighting. He buys options on all offered stock and stops the panic. CHAPTER XVIII—He tells Corona he has locked up Jibbey in an old mine until the fight Is over. She calls him a coward. CHAPTER XX. The Pace-Setter. Smith made an early breakfast on the morning following the auto drive to the abandoned mine, hoping thereby to avoid meeting both Miss Richlander and Jibbey. The Hophra case was practically empty when he went In and took his accustomed place at one of the alcove tables, but he had barely given his order when Starbuck appeared and came to loin him. “You’re looking a whole lot better this morning, John,” said thq, mine owner quizzically, as he held up a finger for the waiter. “How’s the grouch?” Smith’s answering grin had something of its former good-nature in It. “Today’s the day, Billy,” he said. “Tomorrow at midnight we muct have the water running in the ditches or lose our franchise. It’s chasing around In the back part of my mind that Stanton will make his grandstand play today. I’m not harboring any grouches on the edge of the battle. They are a handicap, anyway, and always.” “That’s good medicine talk,” said the older man, eying him keenly. And then: “You had us all guessing, yesterday and the day before, John. You sure was acting as if you’d gone plumb locoed.” “I was locoed,” was the quiet admission. “What cured you?” "It’s too long a story to tell over the breakfast table. What do you hear from Williams?” “All quiet during the night; but the weather reports are scaring him up a good bit this morning.” “Storms on the range?” -jams' -les. The river gained four feet last night, and there Is flood water and drift coming down to beat the band. Just the same, Bartley says he is going to make good,” Smith nodded. “Bartley Is all right; the right man in the right place. Have you seen the colonel since he left the offices last evening?” "Yes. I drove him and Corona out to the ranch in my new car. He said beffi tost his roadster; somebody tad sneaked in and borrowed it” **l suppose he told you about the latest move—our move —in the stock* Baffin r same?” *

“No, he didn’t; but Stillings did. You played It pretty fine, John; only I hope -to gracious we won’t have to redeem those options. It would bu’st our little Inside crowd wide open to have to buy in all that stock at par.” Smith laughed. “ ‘Sufficient unto the day,’ Billy. It was the only way to block Stanton. It’s neck or nothing with him now, and he has only one more string that he can pull.” “The railroad right-of-way deal?” “Yes; he has been holding that in reserve —that, and one other thing.” “What was the other thing?” Starbuck was absently fishing for a second lump of sugar in the sugar bowl. “Has it got anything to do with the bunch of news that you won’t tell us—about yourself, John?” “It has. Two days ago, Stanton had me fairly, but a friend of mine stepped In. Last night, again, he stood to win out. But a man fell into the river, and Stanton lost out once more.” Starbuck glanced up soberly. “You’re talking in riddles now, John. I don’t sabe.” “It Isn’t necessary for you to sabe. Results are what counts. Barring accidents, you Timanyoni High Line people can reasonably count on having me with you for the next few critical days; and, I may add, you never needed me more pointedly.” Starbuck’s smile was face-wide. “I hope I don’t feel sorry,” he remarked. “Some day, when you can take an hour or so off, I’m going to get you to, show me around In your little mu-zeeum of self-conceit, John. Maybe I can learn how to gather me up one.” Smith matched the mine owner’s good-natured smile. For some unexplainable reason the world, his particular world, seemed to have lost its malignance. He could even think of Stanton without bitterness; and the weapon which had been weighing his hip pocket for the past few days had been carefully buried in the bottom of the lower dressing-case drawer before he came down to breakfast.

“You may laugb, Billy, but you’ll have to admit that I’ve been outfiguring the whole bunch of you, right from the start,” he retorted brazenly. “But let’s get down to business. This is practically Stanton’s last day of grace. If he can’t get some legal hold upon us before midnight tomorrow night, or work some scheme to make us lose pur franchise, his job is gone.” “Show me,” said the mine owner succinctly. “It’s easy. With the dam completed and the water running In the ditches, we become at once a going concern, with assets a long way In advance of our liabilities. The day after tomorrow—if we pull through—you won’t be able to buy a single share of Timanyoni High Line at any figure. As a natural consequence, public sentiment, which, we may say, Is at present a little doubtful, will come over to our side In a landslide, and Stanton’s outfit, if it wants to continue the fight, will have to fight the entire Timanyoni, with the city of Brewster thrown in for good measure. Am I making it plain?” “Right you are, so far." Go on.” “Billy, I’ll tell you something that I haven’t dared to tell anybody, not even Colonel Baldwin. I’ve been spending the company’s money like water to keep in touch. The minute we fail, and long before we could hope to reorganize a second time and apply for a new charter, Stanton’s company will be in the field, with its charter already granted. From that to taking possession of our dam, either by means of an enabling act of the legislature, or by purchase from the paper railroad, will be only a step. And

we couldn’t do a thing! We’d have no legal rights, and no money to fight with!” Starbuck poshed Ids chair away from the table and drew a long breath. “Good glory I" he sighed. “I wish te goodness It was day after tomorrow I

Can you carry It any further, John. ’ ”Yes; a step or two. For a week Stanton has been busy on the paperrailroad claim, and that is what made ipe buy a few cases of good rifles and send them put to Williams; I was afraid Stantod might try force. He won’t do that If he can help It; he’ll go In with some legal,show, if possible, because our force at the dam far outnumbers any gang he could hire, and he knows we are armed.” “He can’t work the legal game,” said Starbuck definitively. “I’ve known Judge Warner ever since I was kneehigh to a hop-toad, and a squarer man doesn’t breathe.” “That Is all right, but you’re forgetting something. The paper railroad is -—or was once—an interstate corporation, and so may ask for relief from the federal courts, thus going over Judge Warner’s head. I’m not saying anything against Lorching, the federal Judge at Red Butte. I’ve met him, and he is a good jurist and presumably an honest man. But he Is well along in years, and has an exaggerated notion of his own importance. Stanton, or rather his figurehead railroad people, have asked him to intervene, and he has taken the case under advisement. That Is where we stand this morning.” Starbuck was nodding slowly. “I see what you mean, now,” he said. “If Lorching jumps the wrong way for us, you’re looking to see a United States marshal walk up to Bartley Williams some time today and tell him to quit. That would put the final kibosh r on us, wouldn’t it?” Smith was rising in his place. “I’m not dead yet, Billy,” he rejoined cheerfully. “I haven’t let it get this far without hammering out a few expedients for our side. If I can manage to stay in the fight today and tomorrow—”

A little new under clerk had come in from the hotel office and was trying to give Starbuck a note in a square envelope, and Starbuck was saying: “No, that’s Mr, Smith, over there.” Smith took the note and opened it, and he scarcely heard the clerk’s explanation that It had been put in his box the evening before, and that the day clerk had been afraid he would get away without finding it. It was from Verda Richlander, and it had neither superscription nor signature. This is what Smith read: “My little ruse has failed miserably. Mr. K’s. messenger found my father in spite of it, aru^be —the messenger—returned this e\Tning. I know, because he brought a note from father to me. Come to me as early tomorrow morning as you can, and we’ll plan what can be done.” Smith crushed the note In his hand and thrust It into his pocket. Starbuck was making a cigarette, and was studiously refraining from breaking in. But Smith did not keep him waiting. "That was my knockout, Billy,” he said with a quietness that was almost overdone. “My time has suddenly been shortened to hours —perhaps to minutes. Get a car as quickly as you can and go to Judge Warner’s house. I have an appointment with him at nine o’clock. Tell him I’ll keep it, If I can, but that he needn’t wait for me if I am not there on the minute.” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

“Good Glory!” He Sighed.