Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, March 13, 1922, Page 2

i —— MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 13, 1922 | ~ S o Gopyright by Edwin Balmer~ SYNOPSIS CHAPTER 1—Wealthy and highly laced in the Chicago business world, enjamin Corvet is something of a re- Cluse and a mystery to his associates. After_a stormy interview with his part- ner, Henry Spearman, Corvet seeks Con- stance Sherrill, daughter of his other business partner, Lawrence Sherrill, and secures from her o promise not to MAarry Spearman. He then disappears. Sherriil learns Corvet hus- written to @ certain Alan Conrad, in Blue Rapids, Kansus, and exhibited strange agitation over the matter. CHAPTER 11.—Corvet's letter summons Conrad, a youth of unknown parentageéy fo- Chicago. . ‘CHAPTER IIL—From a statement of Sherrill it seems probable Conrad is Cor- vet's illegitimate son. Corvet has deeded ‘his use and its contents to Alan. Alan takes possession CHAPTER T of his new home. CHAPTER V.—That night Alan discov- ers & man ransacking the desks and bu- reau drawers in Corvet's apartments. The appearance of Alan tremendously agitates the intruder, who appears to think him a ghost and raves of “the Miwaka.” After a struggle the man escapes. CHAPTER Vi ext day Alan learns from Sherrill that Corvet has deeded his entire property to him. Introduced to Spearman, Alun is astounded at the dis- covery that he is the man whom he had found in_ his house the night before, (Continued from last issue) CHAPTER VII. Mr. Corvet's Partner. The instant of meeting, when Alan recognized in Sherrill's partner, the man with whom he had fought in Cor- vet's house, was one of swift readjust- anent of all his thought—adjustment to a situation of which he could not even have dreamed, and which left him -breathless. But for Spearman, obviously, it was not that. Following his noncommittal nod of acknowleag- ment of Sherrill's introduction and his first ‘steady scrutiny of Alan, the big, handsome man swung himself off from |Steady, Bold, Watchful Eyes Seemed Measuring Alan Attentively. the desk on which he sat and leaned agalnst it, facing them more directly. “Oh, yes—Conrad,” he said. His tone was hegrty; in it Alan could rec- ognize only so much of reserve as might be expected from Sherrill's ipartner who had taken an attitude of ‘opposition. The shipmasters, looking lon, could see, no doubt, not even that; lexcept for the excitement which Alan 'himself could not conceal, it must ap- ;penr to them only an ordinary intro- |duction, Alan fought sharply down the swift rush of his blood and the tightening of his muscles. . “I can say truly that I'm glad to meet you, Mr. Spearman,” he man- aged. There was no recognition of any- fhing beyond the mere surface mean- ing of the words in Spearman’s slow igmile of ncknowledgment, as he turned from Alan to Sherrill. “Fm afrald you've taken rather a bad time, Lawrence. Can't we get to- 'gether later—this afternoon? You'll be about-here this afternoon?” - - ' “I think I can be here this after- noon.” Alap said. “Let’s say two-thirty, then.” Spear. {man turned and noted the hour almost solicitously among the seiawled ap- |pointments on his desk pad; straight- |ening, after this act of dismissal, he |walked with them to the door, his {hand on Sherrill's shoulder. “Circumstances have put us—>Mr. |Sherrill and myself—in a very difli- |cult position, Conrad,” he remarked. |“We want much to be fair to all con- 'gerned—" . He did not finish the sentence, but halted at the door. Sherrill went out, and Alan followed him; exasperation —Mhalf outrage yet half admiration—at Spearman’s bearing, held Alan speech- less. If every movement of Spear- man’s great, handsome body had not Il'flf_illed to' him- their struggle of the ipight ‘before—if, as_Spearman’s hand ‘Grafally “on Sherrill’s shouller, Alan had not seemed to feel again that big hand at his throat—he would al- most have been ready to believe that this was not the man whom he had fought. But ke could not doubt that; he had recognized Spearman beyond question. ,And Spearman had recog- nized him—he was sure of that; he could not for an instant doubt it; Spearman had known it was Alan whom he had fought in Corvet's house even before Sherrill had brought them together. Was there not further proof of that in Spearman’s subsequent man- ner toward him? For what was all this cordiality except defiance? Power and po: on—both far ex- ceeding Alan’s most extravagant dream—were promised him by those papers which Sherrill had shown him. When he had read down the list of these properties, he had had no more feeling that such things could be his than he had had at first that Corvet’s house could be his—until he had heard the intruder moving in that house. And now it was the sense that another was going to make him fight for those properties that was bringing to him the realization of his new power. He “had” something on that man—on Spearman. He did not know what that thing was; no stretch of his thought, nothing that he knew about himself or others, could tell him; but, at sight of him, in the dark of Corvet's house, Spearman had cried out in horror, he had screamed at him the name of a sunken ship, and in terror had hurled his electric torch. It was true, Spear- man’s terror had not been at Alan Con- rad; it had been because Spearman lind mistaken him for some one else— for a ghost. But, after learning that Alan was not a ghost, Spearman’s at- titude had not very greatly changed; he had fought, he had been willing to Kkill rather than to be caught there. Alan thought an instant; he would make sure he still “had” that some- thing on Spearman and would learn how’ far it went. He took up the re ceiver and asked for Spearman. A voice answered—*Yes.” Alan said, evenly: “I think yon and I had better have n talk beforé we meet with Mr. Sherrill this afternoon. 1 am here in Mr. Corvet's ofiice now and will be here for half an_hour. then I'm going out.” Spearman made no reply, but hung up the receiver. Alan sat waiting, his watch upon the desk before him— tense, expectant, with flushes of hot and cold passing over him. Ten min- utes passed; then twenty. The tele- phone under Corvet’s desk buzzed. “Mr. Spearman says he will give you five minutes now,” the switchboard girl said. Alan breathed deep with rellef; Spearman had wanted to refuse to see him—but he had not refused; he had sent for him within the time Alan had appointed and after waiting until just before it expired. Alan put his watch back Into hls pocket and, crossing to the other office, found Spearman_alone. There was no pretense of gourtesy now in Spear- man's manner; he sat motionless at his desk, his bold eyes fixed on Alan intently. Alan closed the door behind him and advanggd toward the desk. “I thought we'd better have some explanatio he sald, “about our meeting last night.” “Our meeting?” Spearman repeated ; his eyes had narrowed watehfully. “You told Mr. Sherrill that you were in Duluth and that you arrived home In Cbhicago only this morning. Of you don't mean to stick to that ry with me?” “What are you Spearman demanded. “Of course, I know exactly where you were a part of last evening; and you know that I know. I only want to know what explanation you have to offer.” Spearman leaned forward. “Talk sense and talk it quick, if you have anything to say to mel” “I haven't told Mr. Sherrill that I found you at Corvet's house last night ; but I don’t want you to doubt for a minute that 1 know you—and fbout your d—g of Benjamin Corvet and your cry about saving the Miwaka!” A flash of blood came to,§pearman's face; Alan, In his excitemént, was sure of it; but there was just that flash, no more. chewing his cigar and staring at him, and went out and partly closed the door. Then, suddenly, he reopened it, looked in. reclosed it sharply, and went on his way, shaking a little. ¥For, as he looked back this secoad time at the -dominant, determined, able man seated at his desk, what he had seen in Spearman’s face was fear; fear of himself, of Alan Conrad of Blue Rap- ids—yet it was not fear of that sort which weakens or dismays; It was ot that sort which, merely warning of danger close at hand, determines one to use every means within his power to save himself. Alan, stlll trembling excitedly, crossed to Corvet’s office to await Sherrill. It was not, he felt sure now, Alan Conrad that Spearman was _op: talking about?” He turned, while Spearman sat | posing’ it was not even the apparent successor to the controlling stock of Corvet,-Sherrill and Spearman. That Alan resembled some one—some one whose ghost had seemed to come to Spearman and might, perhaps, have come 'to Corvet—was only incidental to what was going on now; for in Alan's presence Spearman found a threat—an active, present threat against himself. Alan could not im- agine what the nature of that threat ‘could be. Was it because there was something still concealed ‘in Corvet’s house which Spearman feared Alan would find? Or was it connected only with that some one whom Alan resem- bled? 3 ] . . . . . . Constance Sherrill’'s most active thought that day was about. Henry Spearman, for she had a ‘luncheon en- ‘gagement with him at one o'clock. The tea room of a department store offers to young people opportunities for dining together without furnishing reason for even innocently connecting their names too intimately, if a girl is not seen there with the same man too often. There is something essentially casual and unpremeditated about it— as though the man and the girl, both shopping and both hungry, had just bappened to meet and go to lunch to- gether. As Constance recently had drawn closer to Henry Spearman in her thought, and particularly since she had been seriously considering marrying him, she had clung deliber-. ately to this unplanned appearance about their meetings. She glanced across at him, when she had settled herself, and the first little trivialities of their being together were over, “I took a visitor down to your office this morning,” she said. “Yes,” he answered. Constance was aware that it was only formally that she hdd taken Alan Conrad down to confer with her fa- ther; since Henry was there, she knew her father would rot act without his agreement, and that whatever disposi- tion had been made regarding Alan had been made by him. ® B . . . . “Did you like him, Henry? I hoped you would.” He did not answer at once. The waitress brought their order, and he served her; then, as the waitress moved away, he looked across at Con- stunce with a long scrutiny. “You've seen a good deal of him, yesterday and today, your father tells me,” he observed. “Yes.” “It's plain enough you like him,” he remarked. She reflected seriously. “Yes, I do; though I hadn’t thought of it just that way, because I was thinking most about the position he was In and about —Mur. Corvet. But I do like him.” “So do I” Spearman said with a seeming heartiness that pleased her. *“At least I should like him, Connie, if I had the sort of privilege you have to think whether I liked or-disliked him. I've had to consider him from another point of view—whether I could trust him or must‘distrust him.” “Distrust?” Constance bent toward him fmpulsively in her surprise. “Distrust him? In rélition to what? Why?" 2 “In relatlon to Corvet, ‘Sherrill and Spearman, Connie—the company that involves your interests and your fa- “You've Seen a Good Deal of Him, Westerday and Today, Your Father Tells Me,” He Observed. ther's and mine and the interests of many other people—small stockholders who have no influence in its manage- went, and whose Interests I have to Jook after for them.” “I don’t understand, Henry.” “I've had to think of Conrad this morning in the same'way as I've had to, think of Ben Corvet of recent years —as a_threat against the Interests of those people.” Her color rose, and her puise qurck- ened. Henry never had talked to her, except in the merest commonplaces, about his relations with Uncle Benny; it was a matter in which, she had rec- ognized, they had been opposed; and since the quarrels between the oid friend whom she had loved from child- | hood and he, who wished to become now more than a mere friend to her, had grown more violent, she had pur- posely avoided mentioning Uncle Ben- ny to Henry, and he, quite as con- sclously, had avoided mentioning Mr. Corvet to her. “T've known for a good many years,” [ Spearman went on, reluciaotly,.“that ! Ben Corvet’s brain was geriously af- fected. He recognized that himself even earlicr, and admitted it to him- self when he took me off my ship to take charge of the company. - X.might | -and has learned to trust me. But you have gon& with otheér it wouldn't have been very long before T' could have started in as a ship own- er myself; but, in view of his condi- tion, Ben made me promises that of- fered me most. Afterward his malady progressed so that he couldn’t know himself to be untrustworthy ; his judg- ment was impaired, and he planned and would have .tried to carry out many things that would have been disastrous for the company. I had to fight him—for the company’s sake and for my own sake and that of the oth- ers, whoss finterests were at stake. Your fatiier came to see that what I was doing was for the company’s good —you couldn't see that quite so direct- 1y, of course, and you, thought I didn't —like Ben, and there was some Iack in me which made me fall to appreciate him.” “No; not that,” Constance denied quickly. “Not that, Henry.” “What was it then, Connie? You thought me ungrateful to him? I realize that I owed a great debt to him; but the only way I could pay that debt was to do exactly what I did— oppose him and seem to push into his place and be an fngrate; for, because I did that, Ben's been a respected and honored man in this town all these last years, which he couldn’t have re- mained if I'd let him have his way, or if I told others why I had to do what I did. I didn’t care what others thought about me; but I did care what vou thought; yet if you couldn't see what I was up agaiost because of your affection for him, why—that was all right too.” “No, it wasn’t all right,” she denied almost fiercely, the flush flooding her cheeks; a throbbing was in her throat which, for an instant, stopped her. “You should have told me, Henry; or —1I'should have been able to see.” | “I couldn’t tell you—dear,” he said | the last word very distinctly, but so low that she could scarcely hear. “I couldn't tell you now—if Ben hadn’t gone away as he has and this other fellow come. I couldn’t tell you when you wanted to keep caring so much for your Uncle Benny, and he was try- ing to hurt me with you.” She bent toward him, her lips part- ed; but now she did not speak. She never had really known Henry until this moment, she felt; she had thought of him always as strong, almost bru- tal, fighting down fiercely, mercilessly, his opponents and welcoming contest for the joy of overwhelming others by his own decisive strength and power. And -she had been almost ready to marry that man for his strength and dominance from those qualities; and now she knew that he was merciful too—indeed, more than mercifal. In the very contest where she had thought of him as most selfish and re- gardless of another, she had most conipletely misapprehended. ” “I ought to have seen!” she rebuked herself to him. “#'Surely, I should have seen that was {t!” ) “How could you see?” he defended her. “He never showed to you the side he showed to me and—in these last years, anyway—never to me the side ‘he showed to you. But after what has ‘happened this week, can you under- stand now; and you can see why I have to distrust the young fellow place. . “Claim!” Constance repeated. “Why, Henry, I did not know he claimed any- thing; he didn’t even know when he came here—" “He seems, like Ben Corvet,” Henry sald slowly, “to have the characteris- tic of showing one side to you, another to me, Connie. With you, of course, he claimed nothing; but at the office— Your father showed him this morning the instruments of transfer that Ben seems to have left conveying to him all Ben had—his other properties and his interest in Corvet, Sherrill and Spearman. I very naturally objected to the execution of those transfers, without considerable examination, in view of Corvet's mental condition and of the fact that they put the control- ling stock of Corvet, Sherrill and Spearman in the hands of a youth no one ever had heard of—and one who, by his own story, mever had seen a ship until yesterday. And when I didn’t dismiss my business with a dozen men this morning to take him into the company, he claimed occasion to see me alone to threaten me.” “Threaten you, Henry? How? With what?” “I couldn’t quite make out myself, but that was his tone; he demanded an ‘explanation,’ of exactly what, he’ didn't make clear. He has been given by Ben, apparently, the technical con- ‘trol ot Corvet, Sherrill and Spearman. His idea, if I'oppose him, evldently is to turn me out and take the manage- ment himself.” Constance leaned back, confused. “He—Alan Conrad?” she questioned. “He can't have done that, Henry! Obh, he can’t‘have meant that!” “Maybe he didn’t; I said I couldn't make out what he did mean,” Spear- man said, “Things have come upon him with rather a rush, of course; and you couldn't expect a country boy to get so many things straight. He's act- ing, I suppose, only in the way one might expect a boy to act who had been brought up In poverty on a Kan- sas prairie and was suddenly handed the possible possession of a good many millions of dollars, It's better to be- lieve that he's only lost his head. 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