The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 7, 1906, Page 3

cynn; no other table would sa charge of personal interest which the friends of Governor Obstina might be expected to make. The very fact of Mr. Gwynn being an Englishman would deferid it. Mr. Gwynn, at the word of Richard, was wiliing to serve the views of Senator Graff, and the dinner was ar- ranged. Tk > full sixty present, including t and those high officials of 2. Mr. Gwynn had witation to Mr. Bayar therewith a personal uit the bring- aloei his inclosed . which had for its T ing of that astrologer of stocks, dinners political we not pre vour friend Gwynn?” asked Mr. ard the afternoon before the dinner. explain Mr. Gwynn later,” replied “He is quite devoted to my in- you, and to nothing else.” 1l believe so,” returned Mr. 4, who had already half solved the enigma « “I begin to fear that you not to say an ec- most egotistica! I'm not prepared One is justified in the picture of all that was t at the table’s head, witi Hanway on his right. At the foot was Senator Gruff, who, If not the founder, might be called the architect of the feast, since, with the exception of Mr. Bayard, he had pricked off the list of guests. Mr. Harley, sad and worn with thoughts of Storri, sat next to Sena- tor Gruff, while Mr. Bayard and Richard jed inconspicuous places midway of the procession of courses the dinner attained to birds, a famous editor of the Middie West, who had been con- suming wine with diligence to the end th he be fluent, addressed the table’s head. He recited the public interests; then, paying a tribute to their party as the guardian of those interests, he wound up in words of fire with the declaration that r Hanway must be the next standard-bearer of that party. The cheer- ing was tremendous, considering the small numbers to furnish it. n the joyful sounds subsided, - Hanway, in a few placid. gentle expl: ed his flattered 1ow helplessly he was of his friends, who would do with him as they deemed best for party welfare and for public good. He had not sought this honor, he did not look for the nomination; his own small estimate of his powers and importance, an estimate which gentlemen who heard him must be aware of, was proof of it. But mo man might set his in- clinations against a popular demand Private preferences must yield, private plans must be abandoned. The country was entitled to the services of every the party was at liberty to the name “of every member. £ thesd things, and owing what to both public and party, Sen- Hanway must acquies ked his friends for thus dis hing him; he gave himself to their will. There was a t of approbation when Sen- ay was through. nator Gruff proposed the health of resident of the Anaconda. That of railways made short, He gave his hearty con- the propo: of Sen- v to be President. He did patriot and not as the head «t raflway. The Anaconda no part in polities: it never Anaconda was a business, not cern; it would do noth- unbecoming a corporation of dis- and repute. However, he, the ident, was more or less acquainted with sentiment in those regions thread- ed LY the Anaconda. He made no doubt, could squarely prom from ihose States, read their people’'s fe ing, would go to the instructed for Senator Hanway. applause, and a buzz of congratula whispers, The powerful Anaconda, that political dictator of a region so st that it was ed by two oceans, enator Hanw Se amazement in the hand ator shaky b was therefore himself be committed to a position on the perilous subject of finance that might provoke his destruction, now ad- ssed the table. He yielded to no in his admiration for Senator Han- In view of what had been pro- however, he, S8enator Coot, would enator Hanway to define his position in that contrdversy of er versus Gold 0 one was looking for this, no such baleful curiosity had been anticipated. it "was Senator Gruff ti came to the rescue, and Richard, to whom the scene was new and full of interest, could not admire too deeply the dexterity where- with he held the shield of his humor between Senator Hanway and the shaft of that interrogatory. Senator Gruff thought the question pre- mature. The convention was months away. Sentiment had been known to shift in a day like the bed of a river and seek new channels with its currents. Senator Grufl distrusted the wisdom of binding anybody at that time to a hard and fast declara- tion whether for silver or gold or both. He was sure that on soberer thought his friend Senator Coot would see the im- propriety of his question. Senator Coot declined to see the im- propriety to which Senator Gruft had ad- verted. To commit himeelf to any gen- tleman’s canvass was to commit himself to that gentleman’s opinions. Those opin- jons might not be consistent with ones held by his (Senator Coot’s) constituents, to whom he must in all things adhere. He, Senator Coot, was no one to buy pigs in pokes—if Senator Hanway would forgive a homely expression which was not intended as personal to himself. Sen- ator Coot m insist upon his question. Senator Gruff still came forward in de- fense. He said he had heard that Sena- tor Coot’s native State of Indiana was originally settled by people who had started for the West but lost thelr perve. In view of the timidity and weak irresolution of his Senate brother, he, Senator Gruff, was inclined to credit the tradition. He must protest against question-asking at this time. Senator Gruff must even warn his friend Senator Coot that to ask a question now might yesult in later disaster to himself. On that point of question-putting, might he, Senator Gruff, impart a word of counsel? A question was often a trap to catch the questioner. One should step warlly with & question. A man who puts a question should never fail to know the answer in advance. When he pulls the trigger of a question, as when he pulls the trigger of 2 gun, he must look out for the kick. Many a perfect situation had been destroyed by the wrong ques- tion asked in the dark. Senator Gruff permission to tell a story. a good and optimistic dominie,’” said Senator Gruff, “was being shown through Sing Sing Prison. In his com- pany went a pessimist who took darkling of humanity in the lump, and par- “‘-A»\ posed like to ¢ fnally ticularly what fractions of the lump had gotten themselves locked up. The pes- simist could see no good in them. ““‘But you are wrong,’ argued the dom- infe. ‘There’s good in the worst among them all. Stay; I'll prove jt." Then, turn- ing to the guard: ‘Sir, please bring us to the very worst character who is prisoner here.’ On thelr way to the abandoned one the dominie gqbserved to the pessimist: ‘I'll guarantee, by a few adroit ques- tions, to so develop the good side of this fallen creature that you will be driven to confess its existence.” “They traveled the corridors, and the guard threw open a cell wherein was a man whose face was so utterly brutal that its softest expres- sion was a breach of the peace. The man, who was in for life, had com- mitted an atrocious murder. “The only thing in the cell besides the mun was a rat, which—wheel with- in wheel—was confined in a little cage. This rat was the prisoner's darling; the guard said that he would draw blood from his arm to feed it. The good dominie—who knew his business ——instantly seizéd upon the rat for his cue. “‘And vou love the rat? he said to the prisoner. . I love it better than my life!" eried the prisoner. ‘There isn’t anything I wouldn't gacrifice for that rat.’ “*‘There,” said the good dominie, wheellng on the pessimist, who was visibly subdued by the poor prisoner’s love for his humble pet, ‘there, you see! Here Is a captive wretch whose estate is hopeless. He wears the brand of a felon and is doomed to stone-caged solitude throughout his life. And yet, without friends or light or Jiberty, with rything to sour and harden and pro- the worst that's in him, he finds it im his heart to love! From those white seed which were planted by Providence in the beginning that beau- tiful love springs up to blossom in a dreary prison, and, for want of a nobler object, waste ils tender fragrance on a rat. It touches me to the heart! and the good dominie watered the floor of the cell with his tears. “The pessimist had no more to say; murmured his contrition and de- clared that he had recelved a lesson. He would never again distrust or con- tradict the existence of that spark of divine goodness which, at the bottom of every nature like a diamond at the bottom of a pit, would live quenchless through the ages to save the soul at last. he he good dominie and the reformed simist were retiring, when the dom- inie paused, like Semator Coot, to ask one question—the only one he couldn't have answered in advance. “‘“Why, my poor man, do you that rat? “The prisoner’s face became more al with the light of a diabolical love ‘Why do I love him? he cried. Then, with a chuckle of fiendish exulta- tion: ‘Because he bit the Warden."” The adroit Senator Gruff might nave found it hard -~ show the application of his story. That, however, was not ng to worry the sagacious Senator He reckoned only upon raising a gh at the anxlous Senator Coot's expense which would sllence that ques- tion-asking personage, who was more afraid of present ridicule, belng sensitive, than of ‘future condemna- tion by his constituents. The yarn suc- cecded /in winning appeals of laughter, and without giving Senator Coot a chance to reply or repeat his poking about to dis- cover the position of Senator Hanway upon the jssue of finance, Senator Gruff proposed the health of Mr. Bayard. “And perhaps,” remarked Senator Gruff, “that eminent authority on mar- kets, and therefore upon finance, will favor us with his views on money. I do not hesitate,” concluded Senator Gruff, turning to Mr. vard, “to cast you into the breach, because of all who are here vou are the one best qualified and, I might add, least afraid to be heard. You have no constituents to be either shocked at your opinions or to punish their ex- pressions.” Senator Coot's curiosity touching Sen- ator Hanway's money. position—a fatal curiosity that had it not been smothered might have spread—was overwhelmed, in a general desire to hear Mr. Bayard. The great speculator was known to every statesman about the table, and the whis- per of conversation became hushed. s said the gentleman who has so honored m here Mr. Bayard bowed to Senator Gruff, who complimented him by lifting 'his glass—there are no reasons why 1 shou.d not give you my beliefs of money. T will tell you what T wouid and would not do for a currency if I were business manager of a country. I would not coin silver money, because the low intrinsic value of such currency would make it a cumbrous one. I would not coin bLoth silver and gold, because of the im- possibility of maintaining an equality of values between the two coins. I would coin gold and nothing but gold, because it offers those qualities, important above others in a money metal, of high value and high durability.” “But is there gold enough to furnish all the money required?”. asked Senator Coot, who was nervously interested. “For centuries,” replled Mr. Bayard, who began to feel a warmer interest than he had in any situation or any topic for over thirty years, “for centuries pro- duction has been filling the annual lap of the world with millions upon millions of gold. No part of it has been lost, none destroyed. For every possible appropria- tion there cxists a plenty, even a pleth- ora, of gold. And let me say this: there is a deal of claptrap talked and written and printed and practiced concerning this business of a currency, & subject which when given a right survey presents no difficuity. Mankind has been taught that in the essence of things fiscal your ques- tion cf currency is as intricate and in- volved as was the labyrinth of Minos. And then, to add ill-doing to ill-teaching, our own crazy-patch system of finance has been in every one of its patches cut and basted and stitched with an in- terest of politics or of private gain to guide the shears and needle of what money-tailor was at work. A country, if it would. could have a circulating me- dium, and all coined yellow gold, of two hundred dollars, or five hundred dollars, or one thousand dollars per capita for population, and, beyond the expense of the mint, without costing that country a snilling. One, being business manager of the nation, as fast as the mints would work could pour forth an unbroken stream of gold money, half-eagles, eagles and double eagles, to what breadth and depth for a whole circulation one would, and never spend a shilling beyond the working of the minte. “Observe, now; as a nation we have a business manager. He holds In his fin- ger five twenty-dollar gold pieces. He buys one hundred dollars’ worth of gold bullion with them. The public, If it wouid, might buy gold as freely as does any private individual. Our business manager gets the bullion, while the other, 2 gold miner perhaps, takes the gold coin. Then our business manager stamps 0 THE SAN FRANC the bullion he has bought—one hundred dollars’ worth—into five new twenty-dol- lar gold pieces. “With these in his palm he is ready for another bargain with the gold miner. Again the miner gets the gold pieces, and nfinln our business manager gets one hundred dollars’ worth of yellow bullion. This he coins; and being thereby re- equipped with five more new twenty-dol- lar pieces he returns to the experiment. “This barter and this coinage might go on while a grain of the world’s gold re- mained uncoined. At the finish, our bus- iness manager would have only one hun- dred yellow dollars in his fist; but there would be billtons coined and stamped and in circulation. And the country would be neither in nor outsa dollar. I am talk- ing of coinage, not taxation, remember. “Once in ecirculation the law would pro- tect the money from being clipped or mu- tilated or melted down. Once money, al- ways ‘money, and he who alters its money status we lock up as a felon. There /is no legal reason and no moral reason and no market reason to militate agalinst what I have outlined as a policy, Finance as a sclence is simpler than the sclence of soap boiling, although the money changers in the temple for their own selfish advantage prefer you to think otherwise.” “Your wholesale consumption of gold,"” interrupted Senator Coot, ‘“‘would raise the price of gold beyond measure.” “Wherein would lie the harm? So that it did not disturb the comparative prices of soap and pork and sugar and flour and lumber and on through the list of a world’s commodities—and it would not— no one would experience either jolt or squeeze. With wheat at a dollar a bushel, a reduction to 10 cents a bushel would work no injury if at the same time every other commodity in its price fell 90 per cent. To merely multiply the ‘price’ of gold, a metal which when it isn’t money is jewelry, would cut no more important figure in the economy of life than would the making of one thousand marks upon a thermometer where now we make one hundred. Sup- pose, instead of one hundred degrees, we scratched off one thousand degrees on a thermometer in the same space— would it make the weather any hotter? 1 grant you a cautious business man- ager would not walk in among. the gold sellers and purchase ten billion dollars’ worth of gold in a day, and for the same reason that a cautious cowboy wouldn’t ride in among a bunch of cat- tle and flap a blanket. Not because there lurks inherent peril in so doing, but for that in the timid ignorance of the herd it would produce a stam- pede.” “But don’t you see,” objected Senator Coot, who was learned in the cant of currency and believed it, “don’t you see that what you propose, by putting up the price of gold and putting down the price of everything else, would mul- tiply riches in the hands of the creditor class? Wouldn't it work injustice to the debtors of the land?” “Without pausing to guess,” said Mr. Bayard, “for that is all one might do, whether the extravagant coinage of gold would promote its ‘price,’ I will submit that such contention should be disre- garded. It is too general and too inces- sant. If such were permitted the rank of argument, it would trip up every tariff, every appropriation, every gov- ernmental thing. “Also, one must not put a too nar- row limit upon the term ‘creditor class.” Every man with a dollar in his pocket, or who owns a farm or a horse or a bolt of cloth or one hundred bushels of wheat, belongs to the extent of that dollar or farm or horse or bolt of cloth or one hundred bushels of wheat to the creditor class. The world is his debtor, and he has it in pawn and pledge to him for the value of that dollar or farm or horse or cloth or wheat. Now, a tariff law can be and frequently is framed so as to lift or lower the ‘prices of all or any of these. If your argu- ment be good it should be just as potent to prevent a tariff law that aug- ments riches in one hand or detracts from riches in another, as to prevent a coinage law that does the same. “Properly speaking, there can Le no separation of mankind into crecitor and debtor classes, since, as we have seen, every man with a dollar's worth of property is in the creditor class to the extent of that dollar, while the wdrld is in the debtor cla and owes him therefor. There can be but two classes — those that own some- thing and those who don’t. There lies the sole natural divi- sion; and not a law is framed, whether it be for a tarift or an appropriation or an army Or a navy or a coinage or a bond ne or what you will, that does not, in less or greater degree, add to or take from the riches of some man or men. No government can go its clumsy necessary way without stepping on somebody's toes, and if one cannot have a currency because to have it will help this individual or hurt that one, by the same token one Bannot have a government at all. “However,” concluded Mr. Bayard, “I think your talked-of advance in a gold ‘price’ born of coined billions might prove in the test to be imaginary rather than real. There has been ever a gold-ghost to frighten folk. There was once a time when men talked of resuming specie payment, and the public hung away from if, fearful and/ trembling, like an elephant about to cross a bridge. . Horace Greeley cried, ‘The way to resume is to resume! and every dollar-dullard called him crazy. And yet, ag the simple sequel demon- strated, the elephant need mnot have shivered, the bridge was wholly safe, and Horace Greeley was right.” Senator Gruff, whom Mr. Gwynn had privately requested to assume control so far as speeches and toasts and senti- ments to be expressed were involved, now held forth in terms of flowery com- pliment concerning Mr. Bayard. He thanked that able gentleman for ‘his theory of finance. Senator Gruff would not discuss its soundness; this was not the time nor yet the place. He would say, however, that it was unique and interesting. Referring to what Mr. Bayard had called our “crazy-patch” system of cur- rency, he, Senator Gruff, was willing to make this statement. The green- backs, as all knew, were exempt from taxation. To discover how far green- backs and their exemption had been made to affect the whole taxes of the several States, he, Senator Gruff, the year before had addressed a letter to every county tax-gatherer in the coun- try. . He had asked to state the amount of greenbacks returned that year for his particular.county as exempt. “I received a reply,” said Senator Gruff, “from every county auditor be- tween Eastport and San Diego, Van- couvers and the Florida Keys. The aggregate of greenbacks returned exempt for thaf one year was over thirteen billions of dollars, while, as we know, the entire amount of green- backs extant in the country is but a shadow above two hundred and forty millions. I shall make no comment on the miracle and cite it only as an in- ,‘ cidéntal expression of one element of our monetary system.” ., Senator Gruff, continuing, recurred to the pushing forward of Senator Han- way as a' Presidential candldate. Tt was, while unexpected by him, a move- ment so fuil of righteous politics that he confessed heartfelt gratification thereat. Senator Gruff would suggest that one and only one gentleman among those present be selected to furnish the story to the press. “In that way," explained Senator Gruff, “we will escape the confusion sure to be the consequence should a half-dozen of us answer inquiries.” Senator Gruff, by common acclaim, wus pitched upon as the one to deal with the papers. “Why, then,” returned Senator Gruff, with a quizzical eye, “I foresaw this hongrable occasion and prepared for it. 1 shall give what we have done to the Dailly Tory, whose intelligent repre- sentative is with us as a guest.”” And thereupon Senator Gruff, while a smile went round at this evidence of fullest preparation for the unexpected, a smile which he met with a merry face, drew from his po-ket a document and passed it over to Richard. In another mo- ment a messenger was called; the story went_on the wire, and the candidacy of Senator Hanway was formally de- clared. Senator Hanway, as the dinner neared its close, proposed the health of Mr. Gwynn. In response that remark- able man filled a goblet to the brim, arose and bowed with gravity and con- descension to Senator Hanway. Every- body stood up, and Mr. Gwynn's health was drunk with proper solemnity. The highbred conduct of Mr. Gwynn from the beginning had been worthy of hHim as an old-school English gentle- man. He said nothing; but he took wine with a decorous persistency that was almost pious and seemed like a religious rite. It should be observed that while he drank twice as much did any other gentleman, not excepting Mr. Harley himself, it in no whit al- tered the stony propriety of his visage. There came no color to his cheek; nor did the piseatorial eye blaze up, (but abode as pikelike as before. Also, with every bumper Mr. Gwynn became more rigid, and more rigid still, as though instead of wine he quaffed liba- tions of starch. Of those who experi- enced Mr. Gwynn's kingly hospitality that night there departed none who failed to carry with him a multiplied respect for his host—a respect which with the president and general attor- ney of the Anaconda fair mounted to veneration. Altogether, from the stand- point of every one except the alarmed Senator Coot, the affair was not a din- ner-but a victory. It was ten o'clock tire morning after, and Richard had just reached the strect. From across the way came a gentleman who apparently had been walting for him to appear. It was none other than Mr. Sands, that war- like printer whom Richard rescued from the Africans and set to work. Richard had not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sands since bestowing those benefits upon him. “There was nothing to come for,” ex- plained® Mr. Sands when Richard men- tioned that deprivation. “I wouldn’t both- er you now, only, being in the business, T've naturally a nose for news. I thought 1 might put you onto a scoop for the Daily Tory. Would a complete copy, ver- batim, of the coming report of Senator Hanway's committee on Northern Con- solldated be of any service tg you?” CHAPTER XVY. How Richard Met Inspector Val. ‘When, prior to the hour of Mr. Gwyhn's dinner, Richard talked with Mr. Bayard, the burden of their conversation was Northern .Consolidated, and what manner of report might be expected from Sena- tor Hanway's committee. Mr. Bayard was sure the members of the osprey pool designed a ‘‘bea campaign. For all that, he could not overstate the import- ance of getting possession of the Han- way report the moment it was prepared. Mr. Bayard's belief in a ‘“bear” move- ment to occur was only a deduction; it was not information—he did not know. There was no such thing as being posi- tive until the written report was in Mr. ayard’'s hands. He would them have absolute knowledge of the pool's inten- tions. Once clear in that behalf, he would be able to meet and defeat them. “Our start,”” quoth Mr. Bayard, “will be the Hanway report. Nor can we come by that report too soon. It may lie buried for weeks before Senator Hanway produces it is open Senate. Its pro- duction will take place the day be- fore the pool's activities begin. It will be deferred until the market in its strength or weakness favors their aims. Wherefore, my young friend,” concluded Mr. Bayard, clapping a slim hand on Richard’s shoulder, ‘‘to work! That re- port is the key. Every day we have it in our hands before it is read in the Sen- ate means a million dollars."” [y Mr. Bayard forced uvon Richard the mighty propriety of getting hold of Sena- tor Hanway's report; and Richard—to whom the report meant Dorothy the peer- less, not paltry milllons—was carried to the impolite length of bringing up the topic of Northern Consolidated=at Mr. Gwynn's dinner. Richard asked Senator Hanway the plump question of the com- mittee's labors, and what time its report would appear. “The sessions,” said Senator Hanway, who, belng about his departure, was get- ting into his Inverness at the time, ‘“‘are still in progress. It will be several weeks before the close of the hearings. Then there must be time for deliberation; and finally a day or more for writing the re- port. You may be sure, however,” con- cluded Senator Hanway, “that the Dally Tory shall have it before the other pa- pers. It shall be an exclusive story; I promise you that."” And the next day comes the veracious Mr, Sands asking whether a verbatim copy of that report would be of service to him! % No marvel Richard stared. “Because,”” observed Mr. Sands, puffing an extremely repulsive cigar, “I've got it here.” “Do you mean the report of Senator Hanway's committee that is Investigating Northern Consolidated?” cried Richard. Mr. Sands tllited his derby over a con- fident left eye, blew a devastating cloud, and said he did. > “It was only last night,”” observed Rich- ard, still bitten of doubt, “that Senator Hanway told me the committee had not ended its hearings.” Mr. Sands of the malignant cigar was not discouraged. Senator Hanway had lied. All Senators led, according to Mr. Sands. No man could be a Senator un- less he were a liar any more than’a man could be & runner without first being able to walk. The committee was through with the inquiry: the report had come into the Government printing office the day before in the handwriting of the truthless Senator Hanway himself. It was now set up in types, and the fore- thoughtful Mr. Sands had abstracted a COpY. \ “As I said,” explained that enterpris- ing printer, “I've got a nose for news. [ thought it might do for a scoop, d'ye see, so 1 swiped it for you.” “Let me look at it,” said Richard, whose .pulses w:re beginning to beat a quick- step. ' He was remembering the value of the report as explained by Mr. Bayard. “Let me see it, please.” Mr. Sands took from his pocket two strips of paper. Richard looked at one and then the other. They were white as show, guiltless of mark or sign of ink. ““There’s nothing here,” sald Richard, the thing beginning to be mysterious. For a moment Richard feared that Mr. Sands might be again immersed in his cups. That follower of Franklin reas- sured him. . “The report is there all right,” he ob- served, ‘‘only we can't read it out here in the light. Now, if we could find a dark room. one with a window, I'd show you what I mean.” Richard returned to Mr. Gwynn's. Be- fore they entered he gave Mr. Sands a perfecto. The latter, who kneéw a good cigar from smoking many bad ones, threw away the devastator and lighted Richard's. He rolled -it from one corner 6f his mouth to the other, sucked it tentatively, then passed the fire end be- neath his nose after the manner of a connoisseur. His experiments exhausted, he pronounced it a ‘‘corker.” Richard conveyed Mr. Sands to his own apartments. The front window was what Mr. Sands required. He pinned the slips to the top of the lower sash. As the de- pended slips were brought with their backs to the light Mr. Sands showed Richard how they were in the nature of stencils, the white light showing through in printed words. Richard was dumh: it was a kind of prodigy. He read the sten- cilg, beginning at the top of the one which Mr. Sands said was the “lead.” “The report is set in minion,” explained Mr. Sands. “and with this light you can read it plain as ink.” Richard discovered the truth of what Mr. Sands averred: here, indeed. was Senator Hanway's Northern Consolidated report, and as readily made out as though printed in a book. “This is the idea,” vouchsafed Mr. Sands, who saw that Richard was warm for explanations. “The boss gave out the report in little ‘takes’ of about fifty words each. That was because it must be kept secret. Fifty printers set it up: then the boss jocked the galleys in the strong room. No one except the boss himself had had a glimpse of it. Of course, that made me the mére eager to nail it; any- thing a fellow wants to-hide is bound to be big news, d'ye see. Now, I'm the man who takes the proofs. and this morning the boss tells me that Senator Hanway wants a copy—one proof, no more. The boss goes to the strong room and brings the galleys to the proof press. I'm ready for him; I've dampened two sheets of proof paper and pasted them together. I spread both of them on. the types. After I've sent the roller over them I peel the sheets apart and throw the white one, the one that was on top, on the floor. The bottom one, that has the ink impression on it, I pass to the boss. He sees me peel the top sheet off, and it rouses his Sus- picions. “ “‘What's® that for?’ he asks. “I'm filling my pipe as calm as duck ponds, and explain that the proofpress in which the galley lies is too deep. It takes two thicknesses to force the sheet down on -the face of the types and get a good impression.. The boss is only a politician, not a printer, so this explanation does him. While he's locking up the galleys again I get away with these. You see, with two thick- nesses of paper the types cut through; it makes a stencil of it. With a little light behind the stencil shows up as well as a regular proof. After I'd got organized I took a day off, cldpped a ‘sub’ on my stool, and headed for you. As I've said, It struck me like a big piece of news." \ “It'’s bigger than you know, Mr. Sands,” observed Richard, giving that worthy’s hand a squeeze that made him flinch. If you don't mind I'll not use it as news. -You will not mention the fact, but there's a deal on in Wall street; I can do better with it there. I cannot thank you too much for what you've done.” Mr. Sands was pleased and departed for the nearest rum counter, his fice xpressing complacency. He had part- v evened up, he said, for what Rich- ard @id the night that he,” Mr. Sands, became entangled with the Hottentots. He, Mr. Sands, would lie in ambush for further scoops; he could promise Rich- ard everything ..e Government printing office which/ any statesman was trying to conceal. Richard drew his desk before the window and, reading the stenclls line by line, made a perfect copy. As his pen swept across the paper he reflected on the deceitfulness of Senator Han- way, who, with the report written out in full, was for having him think that the committee would not conclude its labors for weeks. “What a mendacious ingrate it is!” thought Richard. Mr. Bayard had taken the 10 o9'clock limited for New York that identical morning. Richard caight a train a trifle after 1, wiring Mr. Bayard to meet him at the hotel. They would have dinner together. To make sure of Mr. Bayard Richard's message read: “I have that report. You were right.” Mr. Bayard pored over the Hanway findings and the further he read the more his satisfaction stood on tiptoe. Conceive a gallery hung round ith paintings that would baffle a Ru and set a Murillo to biting the nail of envy! Have an orchestra polished to the last touch of execution. discours- ing the divinest work of some highest priest of music. Sentinel the scene with marbles that would have doubled the fame of a Praxiteles. Now, with your stage set, invite to its sumptuous midst some amateur of all ‘the arts whose senses were born for the beautiful. Do what you will to endow your artist with contentment in perfection. Fill his pock- ets with gold, give him wine of his faney, have the woman he loves by his side, so surround him that the eye, the ear, the stomach, the heart, the pocket, or what- ever is the soul of his soul may be ap- pealed to and enthralled—this artist, with whom love is a religion, wine a cult, music a passion and pictures are as dreams! ‘When you have him thus fortunately es- tablished, this artist of yours—for you are not to forget he is none of mine—peruse his face. You should find it expressing ecstasy in sublimination—you should dis- cover it wearing the twin to that look which mounted the brcw of Mr. Bayard as he devoured the Hanway report. “‘Beautiful!” he whispered when he had finished. t ‘Then he fell silent, prisoner to himself, ‘walled in with his own thoughts. A mo- ment passcd and the clouds rolled away; the delight faded, and this artist among gamblers for whom speculation possessed harmony and color and form, and whose life had been an Odyssey of stocks, re- covered the practical. “It is as I surmised,” he said, with a sigh of contentment. ““They will fall upon Northern Consolidated bear fashion—all claw and tooth. This report finds the road to be a thief for milllons; and a debtor for millions upon that. The At- torney General must collect. The road must be taken by a receiver until the public is repaid—the public indeed! Then those priceless grants are to be repealed. Northern Consolidated is to be stabbed with a score of knives at once. Beauti- ful! What a trap they have set for them- selves! Richard, net knowing what reply might be expected, smiled to fetch his counte- nance into sympathy with Mr. Bayard's, and retreated to his usual refuge of a cigar. “Now,” went on Mr. Bayard briskly, “I can give you the rougher outlines of what will occur. This' report, as I told you, may be weeks in finding its way into the Senate. Stocks opened the year very strong; the markets are upon an up-grade. ‘While the boom continues, the pool will do nothing. The moment prices show a weakness our friends will act. Given three days of falling prices, this report will come out. The Senate will be invoked to an attack upon Northern Cousolidated. The pool will spring upon the market, right and left, selling thousands upon thousands of shares. They will try for a stampede. They loock to drop Northern Condolidated twenty-five polnts, as wood- men fell a tree.” “And what is to be our course?”’ asked Richard. “We shall buy every share of Northern Consolidated as fast as it is offered; go with them to the end. They will find themselves im their own net. “Since our first talk,” Mr. Bayard con- tinued, “I have been gathering informa- tion. Of the one million shares which form the stock of the Northern Consoli- dated over six hundred thousand are held in England, France, Belgium, Holland. Germany, Denmark, and even a bundie or two in Swedep. I shall keep the ca- bles warm to-morrow. The day following our agents will be quietly buying those European shares at private sale in Lon- don, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Stockho!m—wherever they are to be found. Should they give us a week we shall have so narrowed the field of operations for our ‘bears’ that their first day’s sales will land them in a corner. Once we have them penned, we may take our time. They will be as helpless as so many caged animals.” When Storri on that zealous evening left the San Reve his nerves were some- what tossed and shaken. It was not over- late; he would stroll to the club by round- about paths; the walk and cold night air might steady him. That roundabout route led Storri past the Treasury building, and as he slowly paced the pavement bordering one side of the massive structure he was brought ! to a sudden stop by a heavy timber plat- form, six feet square and lifted a foot and a half from the ground, which cum- bered the sidewalk nearest the curb. Storri surveyed the platform in a lack- luster way. It had, from its appearance, been there years. It was strange he had never noticed it before. An old man, one of the night guards of the Treasury, buttoned to the chin, was standing In a narrowish basement doorway of the great buildink not fifteen feet away. The old took his pipe out of his mouth, and seeing Storri sur- vey the obstructing platform, observed: “If T had a sack or two of the billions of gold that's been dumped on that plat- form 1 wouldn't be smokin’ my pipe ‘round here to-night.” Gold as a term never failed to attraet the Storri ear. He opened converse with the old man of the pipe. It was to this heavy platform the treasure wagons backed up when they brought bullion to the Treasury. Storri learned another thing that gave him the sort of thrill that setters feel when in the near vieinity of a covey of grouse. The vault that held the gold reserve was within sixty feet of him as he stood in the street Just inside those thick, hopeless wal they lay—millions of piled-up yel low treasure. Storri stared hard at the impassive granite and licked his lifls. The nearness of those millions pleased him like musi “Sixty feet!” exclaimed Storri unctu- ously. “That doesn't sound far, but be- fore a robber plerced such a wall as that he would fancy it far enough.” K] “Oh, a robber wouldn't try the wall said the old man, turning to look at it. “Pve often wondered, though, that no one ever thought of the sewer out there”; and the old man marked a line in the air with his pipestem as though tracing the direction of the great street drain that ran beneath the pavement. Storri kept on his journey to the club, but the notion of those millions, almost within hand’'s touch of the open street, continued to haunt him pleasantly. The sewer, too! Would a tunnel reach this treasure? The question used to come back upon Storri. Alse he got into the habit, as he went about the streets, of walking by the Treasury. This was not offspring of any purpose; Storri had none. It was only that he took an instinctive satisfac- tion In the nearness of that heaped-up gold. He could feel its close neighbor- hood, and the feeling was as wine to his imagination. Storri was not permitted respite by the San Reve concerning the Harleys. The jealous one of the green-gray eyes in- sisted upon seeing Storri often; and he, putting on a best face, pretended that he loved the San Reve the better for her jealousy. To keep che peace, he was wont to drop round to Grant Place three or four times a week. These concessions to the San Reve and her rather too fervid love would not get in the way of Storri’s dinners at the Har- leys’. For a time he should go there but once a week. When despair had chilled Dorothy to tameness he would go oftener. Just then he must give her terrors op- portunity to do their freezing work. Storri could not have told whether he layed or hated Dorothy: he was only conscious of a fire-fed passion that con- sumed him. He must possess her; or, if not that, then he must grind her into the earth. He would torture her as he was tortured: he would blacken her by black- ening Mr. Harley; with her pride in the dirt, with disgrace upon her, where then was that man who.would wed her? The daughter of a forger—she would stain the name of wife! Richard might have her then; Storri would give’ her to him for a revenge! These were the mutterings of Storri as he went preyed upon by love and hate at once. “If you do not love Miss Harle: sald the flushed but logical San Reve. “why do you go there? You say, ‘Once a week!” Why once a week? Why once a month? Why at any time? Storri, yon do love her! And you come to me with les!™ This was on the evening following the scene that gave Storri such disquiet. Storri, being spurred. and resolute to silence the San Reve, took that pertinaci- ous beauty into his confidence, lying wherever it was inconvenient to tell the truth, and bragging always like a Che: enne. Storri strode about the San Reve's rooms and told his tale grandly. His San Reve must listen: he would show her how a Russian gentleman avenged himself. He, Storri, hated the Harleys. Mr. Harley bad cheated him: R