Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, May 3, 1917, Page 3

THE CASPER DAILY TRIBUNE tution of the great engineer. | ) Yes, and as there Is no great Sieh Si) | without Jealous, : i T made one, 2 took me up.” We all make mi sy Men can't make mis’ rause his father takes at and was proud of him. | all about the priva Shurtlif! knew lo, T th » bo: uffairs of the two pi dara aaa al 23 still one thing before the world.” if 1 were your the protest of the y. The father had told him just what he intended to do with it. might have been man if left to himself or forced to act | But pyrsuing a great pas- us he hag, he had merged more aggressive person- ality of his employer and friend. vived a good engine . but had got tnto tr OWNSEND BRADY HE CHALICE OF COURAGE.” “THE ISLAND OF REGENERATION” FTC, CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY JR CIVIL ENGINEER. SYNOPSIS. ruined I would take the blame He can live it down.” is not to blame. CYRUS | for hiznself. sion so tong imself In th Here, Shurtliff. is his own let- ; you saw him give You heard the conver: and I have written out a little account explaining it, stating that 1 made lieh? ‘knowledging that he Was right and I was wrong, taking whole blame upon myself. back here tonight, 1am sure. ed to give it to him.” “Oh, don't do that, The telephone bell rar “The bridge!” clamored the insistent COPYRIGHT BY FLEMING M. REVELL COMPANY almost EOUaDIY arm in his anger you go out of this door after that mun, Tl never CRA to you gale CHAPTER I—Bertram Meade of his protests. ing engineer representing his father, » great Meade, who is the designer of international bridge, the greatest can- ver struc ture the world has ever heard the uncompleted early career, too big to be rectified, to or condoned, | be forgiven, the shadow of ce “young Meade Eecel ves ,» president of the M pany, the constructors, and the colon- Helen, whom he loves, nything for fered to try to put on his feet again, but his big fail- | ure hud increased his natural timidity, He had become a Mr. Mende.” rtlet Bridge man yonder has nothing, el's daughter, 1 must go t Ky CHAPTER II—At P ESOL weakness of the Sera Gea menibers of the pranks on talked of and Meade defends calculations, he stuyed on. f the old mun’s life. Mende und never oeen able , to get very far into the persc | Shurtiiff, but ae liked him and respect- realized the man’s devo- | tion to “his ‘father, and he rooin without a backward look or an- | other word, no one detaining he it happened that by hurryi Station wagon, ht a local tra connections with the Re: twenty miles awa Iingworth in ber car r tion PInteem Just in time to see it de- wembered that teh miles Shurtliff left » reached his thin lifted up the telephone, its bell vib it seemed, with ersisten ce through the quiet re CHAPTER IT]—Meade and Helen go out the moonlight S$ a fal} to the river nis love and they go ‘he approves their mar- «ee when the bridge is finished. Meade had | which made | ling express | and lhigalouss the old hed the ata-| the young one. Tather for Shurtliff to dislike wished him well fom a great DEANE he could never be would | his father was. a few minutes! the power of mun. She | he never attained that height. he could | yet rise very high. id never admit that there was anything on earth | to equal Meade. The secretary was greatly surprised as he stopped beside his ewn desk to his name called from the inner | He Becuge zed his con aere | en Narrowly esca: Meade tells ngry, venomous understood uld not but like too like his . Meade’s tivate’ he answered into the . the construction tells Meade there is a deilection R, but makes light of it mouthpiece of the telephone. ther moment of ghast- ly silence while he took the messuge. It was typical of Shurtlif™s character that in spite that filled him, down carefully hanging up the receiver he turned to face the other man. | spoke deprecatingly. exceed the tenderness he munuged to infuse into his ordinarily dry, a his father and CHAPTER V run and if she drove hurd she ‘could | ¢ father and son try but young Meade only reaches « Mlingworth as a message comes t the bridge, with 150 men, is in the the great engineer's | That would not be in ble agitation the instrument hd her in Jersey Cit r.| before the train her loy ) told the chauffeur, who sc Sburtiff! would not HLAPTER VI—Abbott goes on with the F ade’s protests, but while inspecting C-10-R p under his eyes and he goes into eter. the other men on the falling + un could aught the express and rode on the street For the Son. » message was received in ghast- spoke for a moment, fhe bridge is in the river, If course; any more.” “Abbott—and one hundred and fifty men with it.” » my God!" said the old man. “the story aieolayed in lurid red hienaliined us she sprang into the | taxi and bade the chauffeur hurry her to the Uplift building downtown. bill alle puenges him in advance meal aghast. break the s jge note in it whic! h somehow gave | | him: 4 sense of CELEBS was whiter than any other man in the! He was thinking of his father. moved first. and the young engineer w most deeply touched. They y, both in need of her. she stepped to the side of the And the fat «i even in the midst of his suf- She had chosen. Ye ure ruined, tugging at his collar. stand the Gnaneia loss, out our lea 1 him down into The eaught him and hel the big chair be news had been discounted in his mind, kind of hope had lingered y it was over, “We must wire Martlet,” he re the two | , had not left the Oczdinarily he was the quietest and) most undemonstrative of men. Was something soft and subtle about exclamation scaped him in years of their association. | | Sage was addr let, so they have got the news, sir.” “It won't be too late for the ly tions of the evening papers, sald the old man. Bertram Meade, Sr. office during the whole long afternoon. | y waiting for the As to the drowning life unrolls ’, 80 pletures of the past took form and shape in hi recalled many failures, uninterrupted . through constaft blundering that we He had learned to achieve by , AS everybody else learns. | failures and mista donable in the beg He sat alone, asped kind had hardly “The telegraph office said the mes-! sed to you and Mart-' hurtlif! had t edi- hearty, vigorous somewhat ruddy man Now he found him old, L might as well eine the eorke white, trem- 1 was And it is your father’s fault. The blood of those men is upon | . sir, I'M let the whole | ec world know: how grossly incompetent | ning of his care or, | should have taught him. He realized | too late that his later achievement had kind of conviction of ef in his own infalli- His pride had} i “Str, wala young Meade, standing | very erect and whiter than ever, “the | I made the calculations. | I checked and rechecked them. body could know with absolute certain- ty the ability of the lower chord mem- | bers to resist compression. ever the fault, it is mine. had. absolutely nothing to do with it. | begot in him a omniscience, a bi , bad for a man. gone before, hard upon approached the He had been se sur that even when the possibility that he might be mistaken had been pointed} 1 argued, he had Inughed it] His son's arguments he had} of his o ha| fault is mine. But what- | lightly on account and comparative in eePeSD sorrow he realized it, Again came that strange! feeling of | thing which viate his misery or mitgnten It was his own son who! “He's got to beffr the responsibility,” | cried the colonel pussionately.. his name—" younger man. “For ri proclaim my! ‘own responsibility mine and Ill publish the fact from one | end of the world to the othe “It’s a load I wouldn't want to have! said Colonel ling- | ony way al his despair. Youth more often than not disregards the counsel of age. on my conscience,” It was a strange reversal, xrimly recognizing a touch of | “The ruin of a great establishment and terrible humor in the sit-| ” added Doctor s “At the house they said he was aad there, and here at the office we a Bo answer.” As Meade turned he saw his father’s secretary coming slowly through t entrance. “Shurtliff,” he called out. | “My father?” “I left him in the office two hours sign of the member that failed. My father was getting along In years. Be left a great part of the work to me. He | pointed out what he thought was « structural weakness in the trusses, but I overbore his objections. I alone am | to blame. The Martlet Bridge company employed fs both. They said they wanted the benefit of my father’s long ago. He told me to—to—go away and | experience and my later training and —leave him alone. 1 hay dering about the streets.” | Outside In the street the newsboys | were shrieking: “Extry! Extry! All about the col- lapse of the International bridge. Two hundred engineers and workmen test.’ been wan- | Shburtliff had one of the papers in| is hand. Meade tore it from him, Who Is Responsible?” stared at hin in big red headlines. “Gentlemen,” said Meade, “I can answer that question”—he held up the paper so that all might see—“the fault —the blame—is mine.” “We'll have to see your father, Bert,” said Rodney. “He is in this building, we know, and he'll never leave it without run- ning the gantlet of us all.” cried an- other amid a chorus of ay al. Meade realized there was no escape. They all piled into the elevator with him and Shurtlity, They followed him up the corridor. the door of t tlice. his is my father's private irmily unde stund how you feel. au state I we shall want will be yur father.” then ment from Hf,” said M | the lock, .| carefully el | The doc Helen Mingworth | he two m ed the de was need to ask the way. “Pa “but Tam very younger Bertram » Jon me, gentlemen, de. 1 Rodney respectfully. rl raised her hand to knock, answe | ‘The “A Thoment, please Detter understand t) { International bridge he girl nation. She too seon or too publicly. ers came off, | } | ing the Interpational.” i “Yes, Miss Iilingwort | Rodney, “and did you resent hin?” , Inust be with him.” ney was too quick for her, He knock rang hollowly through the corridor, it always does when the door of eaten Up empty reom is ¢ Was no answer for a moment. an. Rodney knoeked again, and the door was opened in the way. He h shaken bete “The dishonor to American engineer- said Curtiss, gods destroy » he had been mad If he had only listened to the s néthing he as the long “Mr. Meade, What Is the Matter?” | “We Must Wire Martlet,” He Gasped Meade looked at Shurt- | | liff with a lack-luster eye and with a ed and the sun declined, and | ike that was dead while it was yet loss of life,” tinued the colonel. Ding, stricken. assume them all,” . forcing his lips to speak, blative burdens so mercilessly bade | going to give these documents to the | “Perhaps I boy when he got back, but I want them | said Rodney, as the sec simultaneously with bridg to appear news of the He seized the pen and signed | the rest. Young Meade his name to the brief letter of excul- | the evening approached, the: ly flushed upon him that ther he could do. jenced some strange physical sen- | sations during that afternoon, some*sharp pains nbont | He forgot them for the mo- | ment in the idea that had come to him. | When the bridge fell he would avow | the whole responsibility, Fortunately for his plans, his! on the desk. son had reduced to writing his views/ compression almost taken the form of protest,| impersonal way. | and anisn letter had been handed to} His first mind had been to tear it ae after he had read it ana| falling down, falling down!” He must dor Meade must be mad. “T can't bell “There's a deflection. in one . of the| It was, of course, in the; lower chord members of one und three- It’s bound The boy was right, S was wrong. although the cup forth so clearly an fair to crush him. “It wus only a mistuke,” protested drawing closer to her lover's side, and with difficulty re- | sisting a i cenupeatien to clasp him in| “Mr. Meade,” He had ex-{| Second time, begun the secretury a yhat is the matter?” International swered the other, and the sec retary no- ticed the strangeness of his voice more} “It's about to collapse. Per- haps it has failed already Mende passed ' brow and then brought it down heavily IMingworth, The writing in the body of the doc- | umept was weak and feeb! | ture strong and bold. the papers up loosely. “Here,” he said, “T want you to take | Was clenched, his right « them to a newspaper—the Gazette— | by his side. that will be certain to Issue an extra if It is too late for the last edition. I want this letter of his with mine te) hind no necd to ask what hid hap- There | pened. A shurp exelamation from the woman was the only sound that broke! the silence, as she stepped to her loy- | in his breast, . the signa- | He gathered exclaimed her father take all the id yourself.” urged the wom- an, turning to the chief engineer, “that whether the désigns “As we sit here, maybe, it is falling,” y in a sort of dul, Into the mind of the secretary came go side by side with the news. “London bridge is a foolish old line: must not be a moment of uncertainty they would.” interrupted “Meade, there is one consequence you “Mr. Meade, for God's “Don’t stop to argue with me now. Take a taxi and get there us quickly us | centleme You are enrrying my honor, and my son’s reputation. the objections contained . but on second thought he b enrefully filed it away | nal drawings. younger Mende’s own handwriting, He went to his private safe, opened the drawings and found the letter at-| tached to the sheet of drawings. with the origi- “What do you mean?” “Do you think V'd let my daughter marry a2 mun who had ruined me, an incompetent engineer by his own con- CHAPTER VIII. am ruined.” “Don't say that, sir. You have never Forsthell Rather, Two and one-half hours later a! any hurt, I know group of anxious reporters, clustered | at the door of the Uplift building, were | “The wutopsy will tell. But Iam suFe | galvanized into life by the arrival of a| that the fallure of the bridge Out of it leaped Bertram | broken his heart.” Meade. He was recognized instantly. o “You know Meade?” asked one, forcing his way through the crowd, which broke into a | the old man’s death. sudden clamor of questioning. Meade nodded. He recognized the -apeaker, their hands met. This was a ‘man of his own age named Rodney, who had been Meade’s classmate at Cambridge, his devoted friend there after.- Instead of active practice, he | Seemed unconscious of the action, and had chosen to become a writer on secl- entific subjects and was there as a nothing further to do here, gentlemen. I must go to my father.” cried Helen Tiling- worth, “I can’t allow you to dispose of me in that way, father. blamable as he says he is, and as you say he is, now is the time above all others for the woman who loves him to stand by him.” “Miss Ilingworth, you don't know what you are suying,” said Meade, forcing himself into a cold formulity he did not feel. “I am disgraced, There is nothing in life for me, My chosen profession—my repu- tation—eyerything is gone.” “The more need. you have for me, ” some means.” “Shurtliff, you ought to know there is no power on earth could save that Its only a question of time when it will fail.” The secretary leaned back against the doorjamb, put his hand over hit face, and shook like a leaf. The ald man eyed him. “Don't take it so hard,” he said. “It's; Then he went back to the desk and considered the document. He had been He laid the paper down | blind, mad. j} on his desk and put his hand to his If he is as Of course he would submit those pa-)| pers to the public at once. anything else he could do? Yes. He sat down at the desk and drew a sheet of paper before him and began to write. Slowly, tremblingly, he perse-| not your fault, you know.” vered, carefully weighing his words be- fore he traced them on paper. the bridge, “Mr. Meade,” burst out the other man, “you don’t know what it means. not written very long before the door! to me. A fallure myself, I have glo, of the outer office opened and he heard the sound of soft footsteps entering] thing to me, sir. I can't stand it.” ” said Meade kindly. rose dnd walked over to the man, lald his hand on his shoulder, other hand in his own. perhaps, to lose ried In you, I—you have been every- He recognized It was old Shurtliff, a man who had been his private secretary and confidential clerk for many years. He stopped writing and called to him. Shurtiiff was an old bachelor, gray, He had but but one glors—| representative of the "| News. There were sympathy and af- fection in his voice and look, and in the grasp of his hand. “Baye you seen my father, Rodney?” | Meade asked, quickly moving to the | father,” he began, “1 solemnly declare | | that I alone am responsible for the de- “It is noble of you. I shail love you wn forever, but. “Tt hurts more; es : 5 your confidence in mé ulked doggedly out of the room. than it would to lose the confidence ot en Mlingworth made ua step to follow passion—Meade, elevator, followed by all the men. interposed her his lips and tri not utter a werd, but he did 1 to point toward the private off the | back and gave them passage. | Helen Dlingworth follow t by his fathe: bulk of the old eng down, his on the d ft | straight across the desk. His He was still. er’s side, “Yon es suid Meade; police. “He was too big a mun to do him “Yes, you can,” said the young man. | He leaned forward and laid his right | hand on his dead father's shoulder. Helen Mingworth had possessed her- self of his Jeft hand. She lifted it and held it to her heart. The engineer | po one could mistake it, He stopped before forbid you to come In,” he said. ave no fear, Bert,” said Rodney Ve don't intend to break in} We will, wait here until you say the word, and “Thank you, old man, Come, Shurt- ade, turning his key in nh entered and behind them. y shut when ft the elevator and} e rapidly up the corridor. She had: called at the office before and had no | The reporters | gathered around the door moved to Shurtliff| give her passage while they stared at her with deep if respectful curiosity. she began, apxious to see the! Statement “I can substa . coming into th ished his | the police but before they come—” and he drew | himself up and faced the reporters boldly, “Gentlemen, I can testify that everything that Mr. Bertram Meade has said is true. 1 happened to be here when my dead friend and employer got the telegram announ the bridge and, althe was his son's fault, he bravely offered “He has just gone into the office,” perhaps yeu had situation, The |e, he to a sudden determi- ould net dechire herself | “My name is Mingworth,” she said and as the hats oi the surprised report continued, “Tam the daughter of the president of the Mart- | Jet Bridge company, which was erect- | Tam Mr. Bertram Meade, Jr.'s, ) mised wife, and Tam here because is the place where I ought to be, When the man I love is in trouble, | She raised ber hand again, but Rod- lightly on the door, and then struck it henvily several times. The sound ing the There “Oh, To must gt in,” said the wom- time Shurtliff stood been white and . but now so anguished | hot true. me—" and shocked was his appearance that everybody sumed. Shurtilff moistened | sd to speak. He could pnuge | began M Shurtliff started to speak but checked himself, “to lead y suspected any weakness in the bridge?” would better go first,” stepped | sense on the alert. caping her and she detec voice a note of sharp alar Jety as if he might have said some thing which could be used to discredit his assertion now, ed, and then standing | rs chair, The great | er was slouched | body hent over, his head} . » downward. One freat arm, his left, extended, shot rm hung limp | again her searching eyes detec lief in his. There was something unmistakably terrible in his motionless aspect. They | say that,” he said, there Is really nothing. What T snid Just now ts true.” ‘t qnestion my father now, ie is dead,” lie to this clear-ey him, than to the reporters, He could In the outer office they heard Shurt- iff brokenly calling the doctor on the) telephone and asking him to notify the Scare the end sought to look awny. “Did he—" begun one, hesitatingly. answered Meade’ that the blame ts 3 proudly, as he divined the question. | { nd we can’t fix the responsibility | now,” sald Roduey, who for his friend’s sake was gind of this consequence of | still it was the greatest thing he had ever experienced.. Meade spoke slowly Engineering | 2nd with the most weighty delibera- tion in an obvious endeayor to give his | “statement: such clear definiteness that | “Here in the presence of my dead | { research,” “Do you realize, Meade,” sald Rod- ney, as the pencils of the reporters flew across thelr pads, “that in assum- ing this responsibility which, your fa- ther being dead, cannot be—" “I know it means the end of my ca- * sald Meade, forcing himself te speak. “My father’s reputation ts dearer to me than anything on earth.” “Even than I woman, “Oh, my God!” burst-out the mam and then he checked himself and cor tinued with the same monotonous de liberation as before, and with whispered = the o emphasis, “1 can allow no oth t in life, however great, to pre- vent me from doing my full duty to my father.” - He tect his old fathe PNY of the dead w ful than if he had lived. Meade could y wlved to pro- fame had the fa- vived the shock. The appeat n was even more power- had been ful glance down at that crushed broken, impotent figure and fail to re spond. It not so much love—mever Helen Mingworth se he lo much as then—as it was honor, The obligation must be met though his heart broke like his father’ killed hi And the woman! How if it killed her? He could not think of that. He uld think of nothing but of that in even if i . too, and its deman uU no witnesses, no evidence substuntiate your xtraordinare asked Rodney. tinte it,” said Shart room, bavirg fin he doctor and immediately, telephoning. will be h ng the failure of gh he knew it assume the responsibility and he told -me to go to the newspapers and tell them that it was his fault and that | his son had protested In vain against his design “Why didn’t you do it?” asked one | of the Pin man, “It wa was to blame eporters, wall sir,” faltered the old ‘t true. The son the Ne sunk down ip his seat and coy ered his face with his hands and broke into dry, horrible sobs. It was not easy for him either, this shifting of bility. ponsi- ou see,” said young Meate, “ft ss that settles the mutier. Now you e nothing more to do here.” Nothing,” said Rodney at last, “not in this office at least. We must wait for the doctor, but we e: do that out- One by one the men filed out, Teay- nd engineer with his mi, the ota and the woman jn the room. jert.” snid the woman, laying her hand on his shoulder, “why or how I feel it I ennnot teil, but E knew in my heart that you are doing this for your father’s sake, that what you said was ‘Things you have said te Did IT ever say anything to you,” We in flerce alarm, while yu to think that 1 The woman was watching him keen- ly and listening to him with every Nothing was és 1 in his n and anx- “Perhaps not in words but in little things, suggestions,” she answered quietly. “I can't put my hand on any of them, I enn hardly ree all anything, but the impression is thei Mende smiled miserably at her und 1 re- “Its your affection that makes you “and as you admit hi It was mu der fo speak the whe loved womnn, ly complete his sentence, and tp m ™ snid the womnn, “Bert putting beth her hands upon his shoul- der, “I k ule in the face and tell me u have spoken the truth anv yurs.”” Meade tried his best to return her glance, but those blue eyes plunged through him like steel blades. He did not dream in their softness could be developed such fire, He was speoch- less. After a moment he looked away. He shut his lips firmly. He could not sustain her glince, but nothing eoild make him retract or unsay his words. “I have sald it,” he managed to get out hoarsely. “It’s brave of you. Et's splendid of you,” she sald. “I won't betray you. J don't have to.” “What do yeu mean?” auked the man. But the woman bna now turned to Shurtliff. In his turn she also seized him bDegber ernotion and she shook him almost eagerly. you know that it is net true. that Speak !” (Continued’ 'Pomorraw)