Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, March 5, 1913, Page 7

“ademas PAGE FOUR POWER Author of “The Man Higher Up” Copyright, 1911, by the Bobbs-Merrill Company PROLOGUE. = Reader, here isa live, gripping, absorbing romance of politics— not the politics of a decade ago, Out the politics of today. A young American of good fighting blood and hard, fixed ideals sets eut to smash the political ma- chine of his state without com- promise with evil. The great mo- ment of his life comes when he must sacrifice his clean hands or vuin the father of the girl he foves. The creative genius and darge power of the author are even more notable than in ‘‘The | Man Higher Up,” Mr. Miller’s preceding novel. History. T was characteristic of Mur- chell to give the world no ink- ling of his illness. He was supposed to be sulking over his defeat. Not until after the fact did | ¢be surgeons, unable to refuse the op- portunity for self advertisement, an- | mounce that a critical operation had | been performed from which there were hopes of a partial recovery. Interest in | his condition persisted—extraordinarily, considering that he was out of politics. ‘When his convalescence permitted it he was removed to New Chelsea. That | community, as you may believe, was | properly excited, intrusively interested | and somewhat apprehensive lest he | pass unseasonably into the beyond and | rob it of the distinction of being his | “legal residence.” John Dunmeade, | as a collaborator in this disaster, was | made to feel a sudden atmospheric | frigidity and was led into further sor- | rowful reflections on the fickleness of the public. Murchell in very ungra- cious fashion kept bimself secluded from his neighbors and the stream of | Pilgrims that knocked at his ‘ gates. | Their plaints were divers. Sherrod | jwas too arbitrary, he was too lax, he | permitted himself and his friends to} shake the plum trees of the cities so | vigorously as to court failure of the | crop, he greedily refused to divide the ; plums. From which it will appear that | Sherrod, even thus early in his minis- | try, showed an incomplete mastery of | the subtle science of suiting the word to the man. Murchell was urged to in- tervene, to resist, to destroy. For one and al] he had only the irritable re- iteration, “I am out of politics.” But the pilgrimages continued. In the midst of this uncertainty the | Michigan railroad began secretly to undermine the Steel City, that hither- to impregnable fortress of the rival monarch. And John Dunmeade’s an- nouncement was made that, whether renominated as district attorney or not, he would be a candidate, anti-Sherrod and anti-Murchell, for the guberna- | torial nomination. Jerry Brent was al- | ready well into a campaign for the op- | position nomination, theretofore re- garded as an empty honor. ay not go so far as to declare that Miss Roberta turned the course of history. But it is certain that she was first to foresee, though not with | her bones, the fork of the road. So touching were the pictures presented to her of Murchell’s illness that at length. after a protracted struggle with herself, her heart relented. She filled | a basket with homemade comestibles designed to tempt the appetite of the | most jaded invalid. This basket on | her arm, she set out, on a day when the March wind blustered and stung her face, toward Murchell’s home. She found Murchell reading before an open fire, his cheeks slightly pale and sunken, but his eyes clear and bright. He rose, with an ease that | did not betoken approaching dissolu- Money to Loan ON IMPROVED FARM LANDS If you need money to improve your farm, or to pay up mort- gage drawing a high rate of 1n- terest, send us a de&cription of your property and state amount wanted. Loans made for five, six or seven years, with privilege to pay part or all of mortgage after three years. Lowest rate of interest and prompt service. REISHUS-REMER LAND (0. GRAND RAPIDS | | HIS RISE By Henry Russell Miller, CHAPTER XIV. .42.| “Did you bring all these for me, Rob- | occasions. ing hands warmly. “I’m very glad to see you. Roberta. | Take a, chair.” | tion, to relieve ner or the vasxet. smak- | | She seated herself primly. “You don’t | look as bad as they say.” She observ- }ed him suspiciously. | “Roberta.” he said lugubriously, | “the doctors tell me that even with | | me erta?” the best of care I can live only a few years and that’s thanks to my good constitution!” “A few years!” she sniffed. “What did you expect, at your time of life?” He thought it wise to change the subject and hurriedly leaned over, raised the napkin and peered into the basket. “Why! Did you bring all these for me, Roberta? That was very thought- ful of you.” “I guess you don’t need them. Pre- tending to be sick to get people’s sym- pathy because you’ve been beaten.” He smiled, not in amusement, at ker asperity. “It’s like you to cover up a kind act with sharp words. What an escape the men had that you wouldn't marry!” “There weren't any to escape.” “Yes, there were. I remember that. You were what they call a beauty, weren't you? Why,” he asked in sud- den curiosity, “didn’t you marry some one of them?” “Because.” she said simply. “you were too busy being in love with Anne Dunmeade to notice me.” “Eb? 1—why, Roberta!” He stared at her blankly. Then his manner quickly softened. She perceived the change and drew herself up even more stiffly. if that were possible. Her lips straight- ened in a severe, thin line. " “You needn’t be sorry for me. 1 have been glad 1 escaped. ever since 1 found out the kind of man you were. I'd have made a man out of you.” “L guess,” he smiled grimly, “you'd have found it a hard job, as you seem to measure men. But 1 guess you could have, if any one could.” Sbe turned on him in a little unex- pected gust of fierceness. “But not the kind of man you are! Not a cow- ard to quit fighting the very first time you are beaten. I thought you were one when you left your regiment before Gettysburg. but I excused you on the plea that we needed men at home too. But now”— Her anfinisb- | ed sentence was eloquent. His astonishment was genuine. “Eh! 1 believed you thought me a bad man. You ought to be glad I was beaten.” “But John says you're a better man than Sherrod.” “Only,” Murchell amended, shrewdly guessing, “he put it that Sherrod is a worse man than I am, didn’t he? I don’t believe I’m a coward. A few months ago | did intend to quit—I was very tired and my sickness was com- ing on. But now—Roberta, can you Keep a secret?” “T’ve kept one for forty years.” “So you have! must eat and must not eat to keep alive as long as possible and then told | him to go to the devil. Roberta, it was the first time I’ve sworn since I joined the church.” Miss Roberta kept her smiles for rare H “1 wish I could have heard you.” Which. concession she imme- diately negatived by adding, “I sup- | pose you're going to do the same kind |of thing over again.” “Roberta, you’re the most consistent- ly inconsistent person in the world. | You mean am I going to turn reform- | er? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” “Not if he doesn’t want to learn, 1 expect.” She rose to go. He followed her ex- ample. though urging her to remain. She went a few steps toward the door. then suddenly turned and walked back to face him. “Why don’t you help John?” It was his turn to stiffen angrily. “You ask that after the way he at- tacked me and created a sentiment against me that paved the way for Sherrod to beat me? He’s responsible for Sherrod’s getting on top, do you know that? I gave him a chance five years ago, and he wouldn’t take it. 1 will do nothing for him. “And besides,” he added more mild- ly, “he wouldn't let me help him in the only way I could.” . “lI wasn’t thinking of him. He doesn't Well, the other day I | got my doctor to tell me the things 1 | GRAND RAPIDS HERALD-REVIEW WEDNESDAY, MARCH _ 5, 1913. paar tie Van ees peer tre eesrr tt | His astonishment was genuime as suc \teft. He went to a window where he ‘could watch her, still stiffly upright as ‘a grenadier, breasting the March gale. | He tried to recall how she had ap- peared when she was young, for she. too, all unknown to him, must have marked a phase in the life of the young man who once had been. When she had passed out of sight he returned to his chair. His book was forgotten. | The Hon. G. Washington Jenkins had | een of the faithful at a time when \beresy was profitable; hence his tall, | Lincoln-like figure was one of the few that were not turned inhospitably away ‘from Murchell’s door. He was in New Chelsea a few days ‘after Miss Roberta’s neighborly errind. “Wash,” asked the senator abruptly, “bow’d you like to be a candidate for | governor?” “Tq like it,” said Wasb honestly. “Suppose,” Murchell suggested, “you begin a campaign for delegates. We could use the delegates, even if we couldn't use you,” he added thought- | fully. | The congressman smiled faintly. | They discussed the matter at length. As Jenkins was leaving. his host re- marked earnestly. “Hereafter consult only with Greene. Don’t come here. | I'm out of politics.” | Neither gentleman smiled. | When the Honorable Jenkins re- |turned to Washington, he reluctantly |admitted to an interrogative reporter: “No, I'm afraid the senator is in a |bad way. I don’t think he'll ever go {back into politics.” * * * * * * * | Of John Heath you have never |heard. Unhonored and unsung until |this hour, he has remained in that |shadowy obscurity for which he was |designed. And no map ever saw | him. It was at a crucial time for those | whom this chronicle concerns when | Jerry Brent and John Dunmeade were | marching from Dan to Beersheba and back and laboring. with a patience | worthy of larger results, to rally the slender hosts of reform; when Stephen |Hampden was risking bis all in one | wild throw for vast fortune and War- ren Blake was following that daring example; when the Consolidated Coal company was making many happy by declaring a dividend of 7 per cent. In the kingdom things were awry. | fhe rival monarch was thundering at |the gates. Worse still. there was dis- affection in the very source of |dominion, in the army. And the min- ister in power chose this hour—to get drunk! Anxious glances were being cast toward the deposed minister in | bis self exacted exile. Royal messen- gers were being sent galloping post- {haste to him to urge him, with fine, |unconscious frony. for the sake of past | favor. to speak the word that would re- store concord among the mutinous regiments. But the ominous silence | continued unbroken. | At such a juncture, we say, John Heath stepped in to deflect the course of history. Came to the exile, not many days aft- er Miss Roberta, a messenger not un- der royal seal. Secretary, we may call him, to the new minister, having cur- ried favor by desertion of the old. He was visibly perturbed and would not desist from his importunities un- til admitted to the presence of the exile. Even then, such was his fever- ish haste, he did not notice in his host, as Miss Roberta had done, a vigor inconsistent with certain rumors rife. He plunged at once into the mat- ter in hand. | “We’ve got Sherrod locked up in a Toom at the hotel. He’s drunk as a lord and threatens to throw himself into the river!” “Well—let him!” said Murchell, grim- ly heartless. “But.” cried the messenger, “it may | be something to bring on a revolution that will sweep us all—Sherrod, Par- | Pott, me—you—off the face of the | earth.” | “I, responded Murche!l calmly, “am out of politics and don't care. What | do you want me to do?” “Come with me to the capital. find what’s wrong and straighten it out.” “Go to Parrott.” “Parrott’s a fourflusher. This is | eritical:” | “I won't do it. It’s trouble of your own making. Get yourselves out of it.” The messenger sprang to his feet | and began to pace the floor swiftly. He assumed to instruct a master. | With wild gesticulation and passion- | ate phrase he sketched the impending | calamity. The times were ripe for a | revolution. These unutterable fools, | Dunmeade and Brent. with their inces- ; sant clack about bosses and graft. were getting the people stirred up There was trouble in the air—he, the speaker, could feel it. The organiza- tion was falling to pieces. | “Do you think.” Murchell inquired calmly, “Sherrod’s short in his ac- | counts?” | “I don't know. There are books 1 | can’t see without exciting suspicion. And I can’t get nothing out of him.” The swift pacing ceased abruptly. The messenger confronted Murchell. “Who,” he demanded, “is John Heath?” “I don’t know,” answered Murchell truthfully. “Within less than two years he has received from the state more’n nine hundred thousand dollars for special services!” “Nine hundred thousand dollars! What is John Heath?” “I don’t know. But I think he may be—h—I!”" The messenger flopped into his chair. helping himself, uninvited, to a cigar. Murchell, as though taking up a task that the other had left unfinished, rose and in his turn began to pace the floor. | After a few minutes he went out or the room. still without speaking. He did not reappear for almost a quarter of an bour. But then he wore a bat and an overcoat and was carrying a light leather grip. “Come along.” he commanded. “The hack’s waiting.” The guest went along witb alacrity. When they had reached the Stee! City and had changed cars for the capital | train Murchell went to their staterooin and was soon, to all outward appear- ances. sound asleep. At that mystic hour which we are told is the darkest of all two men were sitting in a hotel room. One. Watkins. sat stretched out before the dying fire. yawning wistfully for the sleep of which twenty-four hours’ guard duty had robbed him. A litter of newspa- pers on the floor around bim showed how he bad beguiled the slow vigil. The other, Sherrod. was slouched in a | rocker by the table. head drooped for- { ward on his breast and bands hanging inertly at his sides. The red rimmed eyeballs were half closed. Drunk evi dently. and more than that. Occasion- ally his lips moved: senseless mutter- ings came from them. Steps along the hall, and there was a guarded knock at the door. He opened a cautious crack, peeped out and then |. threw it open eagerly. Murchell and the messenger entered. Watkins seized Murchell’s hand joyfully. “Thank the Lord!” he exclaimed. “1! couldn’t have stood it much longer.” Sherrod seemed to hear the voice He opened his eyes and stared at the newcomers glassily. Then a lightning fiash of intelligence seemed to pene- trate his stupor. “Murchell!” He managed to stagger to his feet. Then a last wave of drunkenness swept over him. He fell, sprawling, uncon scious on the floor. “He ought.” said Murchell, “to have a Turkish bath.” CHAPTER XV. John Heath Makes Restitution. EN hours later Sherrod opened bis eyes. He started up, with a groan, and beheld the man who sat by the window. The man—Murcheli—heard the movement and came to the bedside. He stood looking down pitilessiy at the half re- eumbent sick man. Sherrod stared back, with bewildered, fearful eyes. for a moment. Then. with another groan. be fell back. His parched lips tried to frame a question, but nothing came of the effort save a dry, croaking sound Then Murchell spoke. “Who,” he de- manded, “is John Heath?” A spasm of fear even more acute con- tracted Sherrod’s face “Wh-what do you—know?”" “Who.” Murchell repeated. still in the pitiless tone—“who is John Heath?” “He is—the political account.” “Of which you're the receiving end?” Sherrod’s lips formed a soundless “Yes.” “How much are you short?” “Nine hundred thousand dollars.” “What have you got to show for.it?” “Some securities—oil stocks.” “Worth what?” “Three hundred thousand—about. 1 | don’t know—exactly.” “Where are they?” “In my private safe at the office.” Murchell turned sharply and left the Toom. Almost at once he was back, accompanied by Watkins. “Give Wat- kins the combination,” he commanded. There was another moment of hesita- tion, of inward struggle. But a great “Who,” he demanded, “is John Heath?” fear was upon Sherrod, swallowing up even hate and anger. He mumbied the combination. “Have you got that, Watkins? Then you and Paine fetch here all the se- curities In the safe. Everything you can find. Be quick.” Watkins obeyed. as promptly and unqguestioningly as the soldier on the field of battle obeys his superior of- ficer. As he went he found time to wonder how the impression had ever got abroad that this man of instant de- cision, of crisp orders, was a useless victim of the decrepitude of age. “Wh-what,” Sherrod quavered, “are you going to do?” Murchell shook his arm free. “I am || going to get you out of the muddle you have got yourself into, you"— He left kas gue ‘y he could think of no aaequate €fi.m. Sherrod gaped foolishly, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible — that the man above him, who least of all the world owed him service, would lift him over. the impasse around which no way appeared. Then suddenly he broke into tears and maudlin babblings—explanations, con- trition, gratitude. promises mingling disconnectedly. Murchell listened in cold contempt. '“You don't mean a word you say,” he interrupted the flow at last. “You're | only a coward frightened out of bis wits. You'll be the same treacherous hound when it’s over—I’m not doing it for you.” He turned and went out of the room. not to return until Watkins and Paine, the messenger, arrived with the securi- ties. . * * . . * | * | (Continued next week.) SECTION THREE — WILL CLEAR LAND TITLES Senate Passes Bill to Make Roll of Indians. The provision for making a roll of the Indians on the White Earth reser- vation in Minnesota by a commission to be appointed by Judge Page Mor- ris of the United States district court, which passed the senate as an amend- ment to the Indian appropriation bill, if enacted into law, will perfect the title to nearly half a million acres of Chippewa lands, according to mem- bers of the house committee on In- dian affairs. The ‘roll is to be made by two men, one from the department of justice and the other to be a citi- zen of Minnesota. It will determine the amount of In- dian blood of about three-fourths of the White Earth Indians and is to be the basis for determining the rights of the Indians to the lands to be al- lotted to them’ by the government. LULU TTT TTT UAT ENN WUT ee i =. ~ PN Pa iy | OT TTT ee am Prom — \ ere It Belongs F you are to make the most of your time and opportunities, you must ad have efficient tools to work with. You have enough hard, tiresome work without wasting your time and j —_ energy at wood-sawing, water-pumping, grind- stone-turning and the like. Use an I HC en- gine to furnish power for such work. In less time, and with far less effort, the wood is sawed, the stock watered, the tools sharpened, all at one-tenth the expense of hand work. Put the load where it belongs. 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