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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Last Woman, by Ross Beeckman, Illustrated
+by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Last Woman
+
+
+Author: Ross Beeckman
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2008  [eBook #24910]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST WOMAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Hélène de Mink, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 24910-h.htm or 24910-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/9/1/24910/24910-h/24910-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/9/1/24910/24910-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by equal signs was in bold face in the original
+      (example: =bold=).
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+THE LAST WOMAN
+
+by
+
+ROSS BEECKMAN
+
+Author of "Princess Zara"
+
+Frontispiece by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece]
+
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1909--by
+W. J. Watt & Company
+
+Published August
+
+
+
+
+                    _THE THEME_
+
+     _If I could have my dearest wish fulfilled,
+           And take my choice of all earth's treasures, too,
+     And ask of Heaven whatsoe'er I willed--
+               I'd ask for you._
+
+     _There is more joy to my true, loving heart,
+           In everything you think, or say, or do,
+     Than all the joys of Heaven could e'er impart,
+               Because--it's YOU._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+         CHAPTER                                   PAGE
+
+         I.  THE PRICE                              11
+
+        II.  ONE WOMAN WHO DARED                    36
+
+       III.  A STRANGE BETROTHAL                    56
+
+        IV.  THE BOX AT THE OPERA                   79
+
+         V.  BEATRICE BRUNSWICK'S PLOT              96
+
+        VI.  A REMARKABLE MEETING                  115
+
+       VII.  THE BITTERNESS OF JEALOUSY            126
+
+      VIII.  BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT         142
+
+        IX.  PATRICIA'S COWBOY LOVER               147
+
+         X.  MONDAY, THE 13TH                      164
+
+        XI.  MORTON'S ULTIMATUM                    176
+
+       XII.  THE QUARREL                           185
+
+      XIII.  SALLY GARDNER'S PLAN                  192
+
+       XIV.  PATRICIA'S WILD RIDE                  201
+
+        XV.  ALMOST A TRAGEDY                      216
+
+       XVI.  THE AUTOMOBILE WRECK                  232
+
+      XVII.  CROSS PURPOSES AT CEDARCREST          243
+
+     XVIII.  MYSTERIES BORN IN THE NIGHT           258
+
+       XIX.  RODERICK DUNCAN SEES LIGHT            272
+
+        XX.  THE LAST WOMAN                        285
+
+       XXI.  THE REASON WHY                        294
+
+      XXII.  THE MYSTERY                           307
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PRICE
+
+
+The old man, grim of visage, hard of feature and keen of eye, was
+seated at one side of the table that occupied the middle of the floor
+in his private office. He held the tips of his fingers together, and
+leaned back in his chair, with an unlighted cigar gripped firmly in
+his jaws. He seemed perturbed and troubled, if one could get behind
+that stoical mask which a life in Wall street inevitably produces; but
+anyone who knew the man and was aware of the great wealth he possessed
+would never have supposed that any perturbation on the part of Stephen
+Langdon could arise from financial difficulties. And could his most
+severe critics have looked in upon the scene, and have seen it as it
+existed at that moment, they would unhesitatingly have said that the
+source of his discomfiture, if discomfiture there were, was the
+queenly young woman who stood at the opposite side of the table,
+facing him.
+
+She was Patricia Langdon, sometimes, though rarely, addressed as Pat
+by her father; but he alone dared make use of the cognomen, since she
+invariably frowned upon such familiarities, even from him.
+
+In private, among the women with whom she associated, she was
+frequently referred to as Juno; and when she was discussed by the
+gossips at the clubs, as she frequently was (for there are no greater
+nests of gossip in the world than the men's clubs of New York City),
+she was always Juno. There was a double and subtle purpose in both
+cases; one felt it rather a dangerous proceeding to speak
+criticizingly of Patricia Langdon, lest somehow what was said should
+get to her ears. She was one who knew how to retaliate, and to do so
+quickly. She was like a man in that she feared nothing, and hesitated
+at nothing, so long as she knew it to be right. A precedent had no
+force with her; if she desired to act, and there was no precedent for
+what she wished to do, she established one.
+
+All her life, Patricia had been her father's chum; ever since she
+could remember, they had talked together of stocks and bonds, and puts
+and calls, and opening and closing quotations, and she knew every
+slang word that is uttered in "the street," that is used on the floor
+of the stock-exchange, or that appears in the financial columns of the
+newspapers.
+
+And these two, father and daughter, were as much alike in outward
+bearing, in demeanor and in appearance, in gesture and in motion, as a
+man and a woman can be when the man is approaching seventy and the
+woman is only just past twenty.
+
+These two had been discussing an unprecedented circumstance. The
+daughter was plainly annoyed, as her glowing cheeks and flashing eyes
+evidenced. The man, if one could have read his innermost soul, was
+afraid; for he knew his daughter as no other person did, and he feared
+that he had gone, or was about to go, a step too far with her.
+
+The room was the typical private office of a present-day financial
+king, who is banker as well as broker, and who speaks of millions, by
+fifties and hundreds, as a farmer talks of potatoes by the bushel. It
+was a large, square room, solidly but not luxuriantly furnished. The
+oblong table at which Stephen Langdon was seated, and upon which his
+daughter lightly rested the tips of the fingers of one hand, was one
+around which directors of various great corporations gathered, almost
+daily, to be told by "old Steve" what to do. Over in a far corner was
+a roll-top desk with a swivel chair, at which Langdon usually seated
+himself when he was attending to his correspondence, or looking over
+private papers; beside it was a huge safe, and beyond that another,
+smaller one. Then, there were several easy chairs upholstered in
+leather, a couch and two other desks. There were three doors: one of
+these communicated with the main office of Stephen Langdon & Company,
+Bankers and Brokers; another was a private entrance from the street
+that ran along the side of the building, which Langdon owned; the
+third communicated with a smaller room, really the _sanctum sanctorum_
+of Stephen Langdon, into which it was his habit to take any person
+with whom he wished to have an absolutely confidential chat.
+
+This room was supposed never to be entered save by himself and those
+whom he took with him--and by the cleaners who once a week attended to
+it. These three doors were now closed.
+
+"Old Steve" moved nervously in his chair, shifted his feet uneasily,
+and rolled the unlighted cigar from one corner of his mouth to the
+other, biting savagely upon it as he did so.
+
+"Well, Pat," he said, with as much impatience as he ever showed, "have
+you nothing to say?"
+
+"There seems to be nothing for me to say, dad," replied his daughter,
+and the intonation of her voice was different from the one she was
+accustomed to use in addressing her father, whom she adored. He
+attributed it, doubtless, to his abbreviation of her name, for he
+smiled grimly.
+
+"Haven't you heard what I said?" he demanded.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, then, you know the situation, don't you?"
+
+"I am not quite sure as to that," she replied, meditatively. "You have
+been somewhat ambiguous, and certainly quite enigmatical in your
+statement. Am I to gather from what you have told me that you are
+really facing failure?"
+
+"God knows I have made it plain enough," was the quick response and
+Langdon pushed his chair away from the table, stretched his legs out
+straight in front of him, and thrust his hands deep into his
+trousers-pockets.
+
+"I had not supposed it possible for you to face failure," said
+Patricia, with her eyes fixed upon her father's mask-like face; "but
+if it is so, won't you tell me more about it?"
+
+"It all came about through those infernal bonds that I have just
+described to you. The men who were to go into the deal with me
+withdrew at the last moment; I have already explained that fully to
+you, and now, this Saturday afternoon, I find myself in a position
+such as I have never faced before--where there are demands upon me
+which I cannot meet; and those demands, Patricia, must be met,
+somehow, at ten o'clock on Monday morning, or Stephen Langdon must go
+to the wall."
+
+"It amazes me," she said, speaking more to herself than to him; and
+she tapped lightly with her gloved fingers upon the table before her.
+"It amazes me more than I can say. I thought myself closely familiar
+with all the ins and outs of your business, dad, and I find now that I
+knew nothing about it at all."
+
+"You have never known very much about it," he replied, with a
+half-laugh, but with a kindly smile, which changed his iron face
+wondrously, and which was reflected by a softened expression in his
+daughter's eyes.
+
+"Is there no one to come to your aid?" she asked him.
+
+"No, Patricia, there is no one to whom I could apply without betraying
+my condition and situation, and that would be fatal. Such a course
+would be equivalent to going broke; for when once a man loses his
+credit, even for an instant, in Wall Street, it is lost forever,
+never to be regained. People will tell you that there are exceptions
+to this, but I have been fifty years among the bulls and bears, and
+wolves, too, and I know better. When a man who occupies the position
+that I have held, and hold now, goes to the wall, it is the end."
+
+During this statement, she had walked to one of the windows and stood
+silently looking out, for she wished to ask a question which her own
+intuition had already answered. She knew what the answer would be, but
+she did not quite know what form it would take. She felt that sort of
+misgiving which belongs only to women, and she feared that there was
+something beyond and behind, and perhaps beneath, all this present
+circumstance, which was being kept from her. For Patricia Langdon did
+know of one man who would go to her father's assistance, and she could
+not understand why he had not already applied to that person.
+
+Presently, she returned to the table.
+
+"Patricia," said her father, with some impatience, "I wish to the Lord
+you'd sit down. You make me nervous keeping on your feet all the
+while, and with those big eyes of yours fixed on your old dad's face
+as if they had discovered something new and strange in the lines of
+it."
+
+She paid no heed to this remark--one would have supposed she did not
+hear it; but she asked:
+
+"Will you tell me why you sent for me? and why you wished to consult
+with me?"
+
+Again, the cigar was whipped sharply to the opposite corner of the old
+banker's mouth; and he replied quickly, almost savagely:
+
+"Because I have thought of a way by which you can help me out."
+
+His daughter caught her breath; it was a little gasp, barely audible;
+but she uttered only one word in reply. It was:
+
+"How?"
+
+For an instant, the banker hesitated at this abrupt question; then,
+with a suggestion of doggedness in his manner, he thrust forward his
+aggressive chin and shut his teeth so tightly together that the cigar,
+bitten squarely off, dropped unheeded upon the rug where he stood. By
+way of reply, he spoke a man's name.
+
+"Roderick Duncan," he said, sharply.
+
+Patricia did not seem to heed the strangeness of her father's reply,
+nor did she alter the expression of her eyes or features. She seemed
+to have anticipated what he would say. After a moment, she remarked
+quietly:
+
+"I should think it very likely that Roderick would assist you in your
+extremity. I see no reason why he should not do so. His father was
+your partner in business. Indeed, I should regard it as his duty to
+come to your aid, in an extremity like this. But why, if I may venture
+to ask, was it necessary to consult me in regard to any application
+you might make to him?"
+
+The old man did not reply; he remained silent, and continued doggedly
+to stare at his daughter. Presently, she asked him: "Have you already
+made such a request of Mr. Duncan?"
+
+A smile took the place of the old man's frown; his face softened.
+
+"No; that is to say, not exactly so," he replied.
+
+"You have, perhaps, suggested the idea to him?"
+
+Old Steve shrugged his shoulders, and dropped back into the chair,
+kicking away the half of the cigar in front of him as he did so.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have suggested the idea to him, and he met the
+suggestion more than half way, too. The reply he made to me is what
+brings your name into the question. If it were not for the fact that I
+know you to be fond of him, and that you are already half-promised--"
+
+"Is that why you have sent for me?" She interrupted him with quiet
+dignity, although the expression of her eyes was suddenly stormy.
+
+"Yes; it is."
+
+"Would you please be more explicit? I am afraid that I do not clearly
+understand."
+
+"Well, Pat, to put it in plain words, Roderick's answer implied that he
+would be only too delighted to advance the sum I require--twenty-million
+dollars--to his prospective father-in-law!"
+
+Patricia stiffened where she stood. Her eyes fairly blazed with the
+sparks of anger they emitted. The hand that rested upon the table was
+clenched tightly, until the glove upon it burst. Otherwise, she showed
+no emotion.
+
+"So, that is it," she said, presently. "Roderick Duncan has made a bid
+for me in the open market, has he? I am to be the collateral for a
+loan which you are to secure from him. Is that the idea? He has made
+use of your financial predicament to hasten matters with me. I
+understand--now!"
+
+"Humph! Roderick would be very much astonished if he heard your
+description of the situation. He thought, and I thought, also--"
+
+"But that is what it amounts to, isn't it?"
+
+"Why, no, child; no, that is not what it amounts to, at all. You ought
+to know that. Roderick has loved you ever since you were boy and girl
+together, and you were always fond of him. His father and I both
+believed that some day you would marry. I know that Duncan has asked
+you time and time again, and I know, too, that you have never refused
+him. You have just put him off, again and again, that is all. You have
+played fast and loose with him until he is--"
+
+"Wait, dad. There is one thing that you never knew; or, if you did
+know it once, you have forgotten what little you knew about it then. I
+refer to a woman's heart. You ignored that part of me when you made
+your bargain. You forgot my pride, too. It is quite true that I have
+been fond of Roderick Duncan, all my life. It is equally true that he
+has asked me to be his wife, and that I have seriously considered his
+proposals. It is even true that I have thought of myself as his wife,
+that I have tried to believe that I loved him. All that is true, quite
+true--too true, indeed. But now--How dared you two discuss _me_, in
+the manner you have?" She blazed forth at her father suddenly,
+forgetting her studied calm. "Oh, I read you correctly when I first
+entered this room. I could see, even then, that some plot was afoot.
+But I never guessed--good heaven! who could have guessed?--that it
+was anything like this. Do you realize what you have done? Your words,
+thus far, have only implied it, but I know! Shall I tell you?"
+
+"My dear--!"
+
+"You have found yourself in this financial muddle--if, indeed, it is
+true that you are in one--and--"
+
+"It is quite true."
+
+"So much the worse for making me the victim of it. You have applied to
+Roderick Duncan for some of his millions; and you two, together, have
+discovered in the incident a means of coercing me. Oh, it is plain
+enough. You are a poor dissembler in a matter of this kind, however
+excellent you may be in others. I see it all, now, as clearly as if
+you had expressed it in words. You have asked Roderick, by intimation,
+if not in actual words, to go to your assistance to the amount of so
+many millions; and he, the man who professes to love me, whom I have
+thought I loved--he has, as bluntly, replied--oh, it is too terrible
+to contemplate!--he has told you that if I will hasten my decision, if
+I will give my consent at once to the wedding he proposes, he will
+supply the cash you need. You offer your daughter, as security for the
+loan; he accepts the collateral! That is the exact situation, isn't
+it?"
+
+"I suppose it is about that, although you put it rather brutally," he
+replied.
+
+"Brutally!" she laughed. "Why, dad, is not that the way to put it?
+Horses and cattle are bought and sold at auction, knocked down to the
+highest bidder, or purchased at a private sale. The stocks and bonds
+and securities in which you deal are handled in precisely the same
+way. And now, when you are in an extremity, when your back is to the
+wall, a man whom I had always supposed to be at least a gentleman
+calmly makes a bid for your daughter, and you, my father, are willing
+to sell! Is not brutality the fitting word for you both? It seems so
+to me."
+
+"Look here, Pat--"
+
+"Stop, father; let me finish."
+
+The old man shrugged his shoulders, and the daughter continued:
+
+"It is a habit with people to say, 'If I were in your place I should'
+do so-and-so. I tell you, had I been in your place when such a
+suggestion as that one was made I should have struck the man in the
+face; but you see in me a value which I did not know I possessed. My
+father, who has been my chum since I was a child, is willing to
+dispose of his daughter for dollars and cents. And a man whom I have
+infinitely respected, calmly offers to make the purchase." Patricia
+clenched her hands and glared stormily at her father. Then, when he
+made no reply, she turned and walked to the window, staring out of it
+for a moment, while the old man remained silently in his chair,
+knowing that it were better for him not to speak, until the first
+violence of the storm had passed. He knew this daughter of his, or
+thought he did; but he was presently to discover that he was less wise
+than he had supposed. After a little, she returned and stood beside
+him, leaning against the table with her hands behind her, clenching
+it; but her words came calmly enough, when she spoke.
+
+The old man raised his eyes to hers, as she approached him, and his
+own widened with amazement when he studied his daughter's face with
+that quick and penetrating glance which could read so unerringly the
+operators of Wall street. He could not comprehend precisely what it
+was that he saw in Patricia's face at this moment--only, he realized
+it to be the expression of some kind of settled purpose. He had never
+seen her thus before. Her strangely beautiful eyes had never blazed
+into his in just this way. He had seen her tempers and had contended
+against them, more or less, since she was left to his sole care, at
+her birth; but this attitude assumed now was new to him. Stephen
+Langdon knew, by his knowledge of himself, that Patricia was like him;
+but here was something new, strange, almost unreal. He wondered at it,
+shrank from it, not knowing what it was. Settled purpose was all that
+he was enabled to recognize. But what sort of settled purpose? What
+was it that his daughter had decided upon?
+
+He was not long in doubt. Her words were sufficiently direct, if the
+hidden purpose behind their outward meaning was not.
+
+"Father," she said, with distinct calmness, "I will use a phrase that
+is familiar to you. It seems to fit the occasion. You may tell
+Roderick Duncan that you will deliver the goods! Tell him to have the
+twenty millions ready for you to deposit in your bank at ten o'clock
+Monday morning, and that you will be ready with the collateral he
+demands."
+
+"But, Patricia, my daughter, you take an unjust view of--"
+
+"Stop, father! He must be told still more: he must be told that the
+collateral, having certain rights and values of its own, will insist
+upon a few stated conditions; and when the bargain is concluded, at
+ten o'clock Monday morning, Mr. Duncan must first have accepted those
+conditions."
+
+She walked around to the other side of the table again and faced her
+father across it; then she added, slowly and coolly:
+
+"There must be a legal form of document drawn, in this transaction,
+and it must be signed, sealed and delivered exactly as would be done
+if the collateral offered, and the thing ultimately to be sold in this
+instance, were the stocks and bonds in which you usually deal. He must
+agree, in this document, that on the wedding day the woman he buys
+must receive an additional sum in her own name, of ten million
+dollars. One as rich as he is known to be will not object to a
+pittance like that. You can make your own arrangements with him
+concerning the loan of the twenty millions to you, the interest it
+draws, and when the sum will be due; but the consideration paid for
+me, to me, must be absolute, and in cash, before the marriage-ceremony."
+
+She turned quickly and strode to the end of the room. There, she threw
+open that door which has been described as communicating with the
+inner sanctum of the banker, and standing at the threshold, she said,
+in the cold, even tone in which she had pronounced the ultimatum to
+her father:
+
+"I have surmised that you are in this room, Roderick Duncan. If I am
+correct, you may come out, now, and conclude the terms of your
+purchase. Do not speak to me here, and now. It would not be wise to do
+so. You have heard, doubtless, all that has been said in this room."
+
+She turned again, and before Stephen Langdon could intervene, had
+passed him, going into the main office of the suite, and thence to the
+street.
+
+Outside the Langdon building was a waiting automobile which had taken
+Patricia to the office of her father for that interview, the purport
+of which she had not then even vaguely guessed. Under the
+steering-wheel of the waiting car was seated a young man,
+smoothed-faced, keen of eye, strong-limbed, and muscular in every
+motion that he made. A pair of expressive hazel eyes that seemed to
+take in everything at a glance, looked out from his handsome,
+clean-cut face, the attractiveness of which was augmented rather than
+marred by the strong, almost square chin, and the firm but perfectly
+formed lips, just thin enough to show determination of character, yet
+sufficiently mobile to suggest that the man himself, though young in
+years, had met with wide experiences. His personality was that of a
+man prepared to face any emergency or danger that might arise, and to
+meet it with a smile of entire self-confidence in his ability to
+overcome it. The rear seats of the waiting car were occupied by two
+young ladies, friends of Patricia; and the three were laughing and
+talking together when Stephen Langdon's daughter approached them. She
+did not wait to be assisted, but sprang lightly into the seat beside
+the young man who has just been described; and she said rather
+shortly, for she was still angry:
+
+"Please, take me home, now, Mr. Morton."
+
+He turned to face her, meeting her stormy eyes laughingly; and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Gee! Miss Langdon, you sure do look as if you'd been having a run-in
+with the governor. I'd hate mightily to meet up with you, if I were
+alone and unprotected, and you were as plumb sore at me, as you are
+now at somebody you have just left inside that building. I sure would.
+Yes, indeed!"
+
+He chuckled audibly as the car started forward toward Broadway. For a
+time, he gave his entire attention to the management of the car,
+purposely ignoring the young woman who was seated beside him, for
+notwithstanding the fact that he had chaffed her about the anger in
+her eyes, he was fully aware that she had met with an unpleasant
+experience of some sort, while he and the others were waiting outside
+the building.
+
+The hiatus offered sufficient time for Miss Langdon entirely to
+recover her equanimity, and when at last Richard Morton's glance again
+sought her, he met the same cold, calm, unflinching gaze from her
+beautiful eyes that he had discovered there less than two weeks
+before, and, since, had never been able to forget for a single moment.
+
+"Miss Langdon," he said, with his characteristic smile, "if you had
+been raised out west, in the country where I come from, you sure would
+have been bad medicine for anybody who tried your temper a little bit
+too far."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" she asked him, quickly, but without
+offense. She was smiling now, and Morton's colloquialisms always
+interested her.
+
+"Well, I mean a lot--and then some. If you'd been raised with a gun on
+your hip, and had been born a man instead of a woman, I reckon you'd
+have been an unsafe proposition to r'il. You certainly did look mad
+when you came out of that office-building; and the only regret I feel
+about it, is that I didn't stand within comfortable easy reach of the
+gazabo that made you feel like that. One of us would--have gone out
+through the window."
+
+"It was my father," she said, simply, but smilingly.
+
+"Oh! was it? Well, even so, I'm afraid I wouldn't be much of a
+respecter of persons, if you happened to be on the other side of the
+scales. I reckon your dad wouldn't look bigger than any other man.
+Have you forgotten what I said to you the second time I ever saw you?"
+
+"No," she replied, gently, "I haven't forgotten it, and I never will
+forget it; but I must remind you of your promise to me, at that same
+meeting."
+
+"Won't you call it off for just five minutes, Miss Langdon?" he asked
+in a low tone which had begun to vibrate with emotion. "Just call it
+off for one minute, if you won't let it go for five. It sure is hard
+to sit here, alongside of you, and not only to keep my hands and eyes
+away from you, but to keep my tongue cinched with a diamond hitch. I
+suppose I am hasty, and a mighty sight too previous for your customs
+here in the East, but I can't see why you won't take up with a chap
+like me; and, besides--"
+
+"Mr. Morton!" She turned to him unsmilingly, her eyes cold and
+serious, and she spoke in a tone so low that even the sound of it
+could not extend to the young ladies who occupied the rear seats in
+the tonneau. "It is my duty to tell you that I have just become a
+willing party--a willing party, please understand--to a business
+transaction, by the terms of which I am now the affianced wife of--"
+Patricia paused abruptly. Morton, still guiding the machine delicately
+in and out through the traffic of the street, turned a shade paler
+under his sun-burned skin, and Patricia could see that his hand
+gripped almost fiercely upon the steering-wheel. She realized that he
+had understood the important part of what she had said, and she did
+not complete the unfinished sentence. There was a considerable silence
+before either of them spoke again, and then Morton asked calmly, but
+in a voice that was so changed as to be scarcely recognizable:
+
+"Of whom, Patricia?" He made use of her given name unconsciously, and
+if she noticed the slip, she did not heed it.
+
+"I need not mention the gentleman's name," she told him. "It is
+unnecessary."
+
+"What do you mean by referring to it as a business transaction?" he
+demanded, turning his face toward hers for an instant, and showing an
+angry glitter in his eyes. "If it is something that was forced upon
+you--"
+
+"I meant--it doesn't matter what I meant, Mr. Morton."
+
+For just one instant, he flashed his eyes upon her again, and she saw
+the lines of determination harden upon his face.
+
+"It sounded mighty strange to me," he said, quietly, but with studied
+persistence. "I don't mind confessing that I can't quite savvy its
+meaning. I didn't know that 'business transaction,' was a stock
+expression here, in the East, in connection with an engagement party.
+But I suppose I'm plumb ignorant. I feel so, anyhow."
+
+"You have forgotten one thing, Mr. Morton; you have forgotten that I
+used the words, 'a willing party.'" She spoke calmly, half-smiling;
+but he was still insistent.
+
+"Did you mean by their use that I am to understand that the
+circumstance meets with your entire approval?" he asked, slowly and
+with distinctness. A heavy frown was gathering on his brows.
+
+"Yes; quite so."
+
+"Do you love the man who is the other party to the--er--business
+transaction?" This time, he turned his head and looked squarely at
+her, gazed with his serious hazel eyes, deep into her darker
+ones--gazed searchingly and longingly.
+
+"You have no right to ask me such a question as that," she told him.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Langdon." He turned his eyes to the front
+again; "but I think I have a distinct right to do so, and I don't
+believe it is your privilege to deny it. I have loved you from the
+first moment I saw you. Please, don't interrupt me now, for I must say
+the few words I have in mind. I'll not look at you. The others won't
+hear me. By reason of my great love for you, even though there is no
+response in your heart for me, I certainly have the right to ask that
+question; and, also, I believe I have the right to demand an answer.
+If you love that other man, and if you will tell me that you do, I
+shall have nothing more to say; but if you do not love him, you shall
+not be his wife so long as I have my two hands and can remember how to
+hold a gun." It sounded theatrical, but he did not mean it so; and a
+"gun" and its use, was the strongest form of expression he could think
+of, at that moment. It had formed the court of last resort throughout
+his youth in the great West, and just now he felt that the expression
+fitted the present case admirably. What reply Patricia might have made
+to this characteristic statement by the young Montana ranchman will
+never be known, for at that instant they were interrupted by the other
+passengers of the car, who sought to draw Patricia into conversation
+with them.
+
+She accepted the interruption gratefully as well as gracefully; it
+offered an easy escape from a trying situation, and it was not until
+the car was drawn up in front of the door of her own home and she was
+about to leave it that she spoke again with Morton, save in a general
+way. Now, he leaned quickly nearer to her and said, in a tone so low
+that the others could not hear:
+
+"I shall call upon you to-morrow evening--Sunday--if I may." Then he
+laughed and, with narrowed eyelids, added: "I'll come to the house
+whether I may or not. But you will receive me, won't you? Say that you
+will!" And Patricia nodded brightly, in reply, as she crossed the
+pavement toward the front steps of her father's princely mansion. At
+the door, she paused and looked after the car as it rolled up the
+avenue; and, with a half-smile of troubled perplexity, she murmured:
+
+"I wish, now, that I had not given my word to that 'business
+transaction.' Richard Morton might have offered a better solution of
+my problem. Only, it would have been unfair--and cruel; and I have
+never been either the one, or the other; never, yet!" Then, she passed
+into the house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Downtown in the private office of Stephen Langdon, Roderick Duncan
+stepped from the inner sanctum into the presence of the banker just as
+the latter started to his feet after the sudden and unexpected
+departure of his daughter. For an interval, the young man and the old
+faced each other in silence, the latter with a cynical and satirical
+smile on his strong face, the former with an unmistakable frown of
+anger.
+
+"You're a darned old fool, Langdon!" Duncan exclaimed hotly, after
+that pause; and he clenched his hands until his knuckles turned white
+under the strain, half-raising the right one, until it seemed as if he
+intended to strike a blow with it. But Patricia's father gave no heed
+to the gesture. Instead, he dropped back upon his chair, and laughed
+aloud, ere he replied:
+
+"I suspect, my boy, that there is a pair of us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ONE WOMAN WHO DARED
+
+
+These two men, the banker who had weathered so many financial storms
+of "the street" and had inevitably issued from the wreckage unscathed
+and buoyant, and the young multi-millionaire who faced him with
+uplifted hand even after the former returned to his chair, were exact
+opposites in everything save wealth alone. Roderick Duncan, son and
+heir of Stephen Langdon's former partner, was the possessor, by
+inheritance, of one of those colossal fortunes which are expressed in
+so many figures that the average man ceases to contemplate their
+meaning. Nevertheless, Duncan had kept himself clean and straight. In
+person, he was tall, handsome, distinguished in appearance, and
+genuinely a fine specimen of young American manhood. The older man
+regarded him with undoubted approval, and affection, too, while Duncan
+lowered the partly uplifted arm, and permitted the anger to die out of
+his face slowly. But there remained a decidedly troubled expression in
+his gray eyes, and there were two straight lines between his
+brows--lines of anxiety which would not disappear, wholly. He was
+plainly perplexed and, also, as plainly frightened by the almost
+tragic climax that had just occurred.
+
+The elder man, whose face was always a mask save when he was alone
+with his daughter, or with this young man who now stood before him,
+had been at first angered by the words and conduct of Patricia. But
+the exclamation uttered by the young Croesus impressed him
+ludicrously, notwithstanding the financial straits he was supposed to
+be in, and he grinned broadly into the anxious face that glowered upon
+him. Langdon's heart was not at stake; he had no woman's love to lose,
+or even to risk losing; and so far as the financial character of his
+troubles was concerned, he knew that Roderick Duncan would provide the
+millions he needed, in any case. That fact was not dependant upon any
+whim of Patricia's. Langdon could afford to laugh, believing that the
+rupture in the relations of these young people would be healed
+quickly. The old man did desire that the two should marry; he wished
+it more than anything else, save possibly the winning of his "street"
+contests.
+
+It was the younger man who broke the silence. He did it first by
+striking a match on the sole of his shoe and lighting a cigar; then by
+crossing to one of the chairs at the oblong table, into which he
+literally threw himself; and as he did this, he exclaimed, with an
+expression of petulance that might have belonged to a boy better than
+to a man:
+
+"Well, you've made a mess of it, haven't you? You have got us both
+into a very devil of a fix. I ought to have shot you, or myself,
+before I consented to such a fool plan as that one was. Oh, yes; we're
+in a fix all right!"
+
+"How so?" asked the old man, rising and selecting a chair at the
+opposite side of the table, and calmly lighting a fresh cigar, while
+he swung one leg across the corner of the solid piece of furniture.
+
+"Patricia won't stand for that little scheme of yours, not for a
+minute; and you know it, Uncle Steve." This was an affectionate term
+of familiarity which Duncan sometimes used in addressing Patricia's
+father. "I was afraid of it when you proposed it, but I allowed
+myself, like an idiot, to be influenced by you. I tell you, Langdon,
+she won't stand for it; not for a minute. I have made her angry, many
+times before now, but I have never known her to be quite so
+contemptuously angered."
+
+"No," said Langdon, and he chuckled audibly. "I agree with you. I
+think my little girl is going to make it hot for you before we are
+through with this deal. In fact, I shouldn't wonder if she made it
+warm for both of us. She is like her old dad about one thing--she
+won't be driven."
+
+The younger man said something under his breath which, because it was
+not audible to his companion, need not be repeated here; but it was
+probably not an expression that he would have used in polite society.
+He drummed on the table with his fingertips, and smoked savagely.
+
+"You're mighty cheerful about it, aren't you?" he demanded, with
+sarcastic emphasis. "What I want to know is, how are we going to fix
+it up?"
+
+"Fix what up?"
+
+"Why, this business about collateral, and all that rot, with Patricia.
+How are we going to square ourselves? That's what I'd like to know!
+Maybe you can see a way out of it, but I'm darned if I can."
+
+The banker took the cigar from his mouth, flicked the ashes into the
+cuspidor, removed his leg from the table, and replied calmly, with a
+half-smile:
+
+"It looks to me as if it were all fixed up, now. Patricia has agreed
+to marry you all right; she told me in plain English that I could
+deliver the goods. You heard her, didn't you? As far as I can see,
+she has only raised the ante just a little--a small matter of ten
+millions, which you won't mind at all. What's the matter with you,
+anyhow? You get what you wanted--Patricia's consent to an early
+marriage." The old man grinned maddeningly at his companion.
+
+"Confound you!" shouted Duncan, starting to his feet, and he smashed
+one hand down upon the top of the table, in the intensity of the
+resentment he felt at this remark.
+
+"Do you suppose--damn you!--that I want her like that? Can't you see
+how the whole thing outraged her? She hates me now, with every fibre
+of her being. She hates me, and you, too, for this day's work!"
+
+Langdon shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You want her, don't you?" he asked, placidly, as if he were inquiring
+about a quotation on 'change.
+
+"Of course, I want her. God only knows how greatly I want her."
+
+"Well, you get her, don't you, by this transaction? She'll keep the
+terms of the agreement. She's enough like me for that. She said I
+could deliver the goods. She meant it, too. You get her, don't you?"
+
+"Yes--but how?" was the sulky reply. "How do I get her? What will she
+do to me, after I do get her? Tell me that, confound you!"
+
+The old man chuckled again. "I am not a mind-reader," he said.
+
+"What will she do to me, Uncle Steve? What did she threaten? What am I
+to expect from her, now?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I confess that I don't. Sometimes, Patricia is a
+little too much for the old man, Roderick," he added, wistfully. Then,
+with another change of manner, he exclaimed: "But you get her! And I
+get the twenty-millions credit. What more can either of us ask? Eh?"
+
+"The twenty millions have nothing to do with it, and you know it. They
+never did have anything to do with it, and you know that, also. It was
+only your cursed suggestion, that we should make her promise to marry
+me the condition of keeping you from failure. You know as well as I do
+that there is nothing belonging to me which you cannot have at any
+time, for the asking; and that you do not stand, and have not stood,
+in any more danger of failure than I do."
+
+"I would have failed if I had not known where to get the credit for
+the twenty millions," the banker remarked, quietly.
+
+"Yes; but--confound it--you did know. You only had to ask me. But
+instead of doing it in a straight, business-like way, you set that
+horrible fly to buzzing in my ears, that we could make use of the
+circumstance to compel Patricia to an immediate consent. And I, like a
+fool, listened to you. Patricia never meant not to marry me; but
+now--!"
+
+He strode across the floor, then back again to his chair and flung
+himself into it. The old man watched him warily, keen-eyed, observant,
+and with a certain expression of fondness that no one but his daughter
+and this young man had ever compelled from him. But, presently, he
+emitted another chuckling laugh; and said:
+
+"That was a sharp stroke of hers to have the ten millions paid over to
+her. It was worthy of her old dad; eh? She is a bright one, all right.
+She's a chip off the old block, my boy. I couldn't have done it
+better, myself."
+
+"Damn you!" Duncan exclaimed, and he sprang to his feet, grasped his
+hat, and rushed from the office to the street with much more apparent
+excitement than Patricia herself had shown. He had the feeling that he
+had allowed himself to be tricked into the commission of an unmanly
+act, and he was thoroughly ashamed of it.
+
+Stephen Langdon, left alone, chuckled again, although his face quickly
+fell into that reposeful, mask-like expression which was habitual to
+it--an expression not to be changed by the loss or gain of millions.
+He remained for a time quietly in the chair he had been occupying, but
+soon he rose and crossed to his desk, throwing back the top of it. He
+pulled a bundle of papers from one of the pigeonholes and calmly
+examined certain portions of them. He glanced over three letters left
+there by his stenographer for him to sign and post. These he signed,
+and after enclosing them in their respective envelopes, dropped them
+lightly into a side-pocket of his coat. Then, he pulled toward him the
+bracket that held the telephone, and placed the receiver against his
+ear. Having presently secured the desired number, he said:
+
+"I wish to speak with Mr. Melvin, personally."
+
+"Mr. Melvin is not in his office at the present moment," came the
+reply over the telephone. "Who is it, please?"
+
+"This is Stephen Langdon, and I wanted to speak--"
+
+He was interrupted by the person at the other end of the wire, who
+uttered an exclamation of surprise, followed by these words:
+
+"Why, Mr. Langdon, Mr. Melvin has gone to your house to see you, as we
+supposed. A telephone call came from your residence, and he departed
+at once, saying that he would not return to the office to-day."
+
+"The devil he did!" exclaimed the banker, as he hung up the receiver.
+Then, he leaned back in his chair and smoked hard for a moment, with
+the nearest approach to a frown that had appeared on his face during
+all that exciting afternoon; and he did another thing unusual with
+him: he spoke aloud his thoughts, with no one but himself for
+listener.
+
+"I'll be blowed if I thought Patricia would go as far as that!" was
+what he said. "If she hasn't sent for Malcolm Melvin to draw those
+papers she hinted at, I'm a Dutchman! By Jove, I begin to think that
+Duncan was right after all, and that he is up against it in this
+little play we have had this afternoon. But I hadn't an idea that my
+girl would go quite so far. H'm! It looks as if it is up to me to
+spoil her interview with Melvin, if I can get there in time."
+
+Five minutes later, he left the banking-house, paused at a letter-box
+long enough to drop in the correspondence he had signed, and then went
+swiftly onward to the subway, by which he was conveyed rapidly to the
+vicinity of his home. Somewhat later, when he entered the sumptuously
+appointed library, he discovered precisely what he had expected to
+find: his lawyer, Malcolm Melvin, and his daughter Patricia were
+facing each other across the table, the former having before him
+several sheets of paper, which were already covered with the penciled
+notes and memoranda he had evidently been engaged in making.
+
+Langdon stopped in the middle of the floor and looked at them. For the
+first time since the beginning of the interview with his daughter at
+the office, he realized that she had been in deadly earnest at its
+close. He understood, suddenly, how deeply her pride had been wounded,
+and he knew that she was enough like himself to resent it with all the
+power she could command.
+
+"Since when, Melvin, have you ceased to be my attorney!" he inquired
+sharply, determined to put an end to the scene, at once.
+
+The elderly lawyer and the young woman had raised their heads from
+earnest conversation when Stephen Langdon entered the room. The
+lawyer, with a startled, although amused, expression on his
+professional face; the daughter with a cold smile and an almost
+imperceptible nod of her shapely, Junoesque head. But her black eyes
+snapped with something very nearly approaching defiance, and she
+replied, before Melvin could do so:
+
+"Do not misunderstand the situation, please," she said, quickly. And
+her father noticed with deep misgiving that she omitted the customary
+term of endearment between them. "Mr. Melvin is here at my request,
+and because he is your attorney. I have been instructing him how to
+draw the papers that are to accompany the collateral offered for your
+loan, and the bonus that goes with it; and just how those papers are
+to be used, in accordance with the discussion between you and me, at
+the bank, this afternoon. I told you, then, to inform Mr. Duncan that
+you would meet his requirements. Later, when I realized that he had
+overheard us--"
+
+"What's the matter with you, Pat?" demanded the father, interrupting
+her with a touch of anger. "Have you lost your head, entirely?"
+
+"No," she replied, with utter calmness; "I have only lost my Dad. I
+went down to his office this afternoon to see him, and I left him
+there. Just now, I have been instructing Mr. Melvin concerning the
+particulars of the agreement I want drawn and signed in the
+transaction that is to take place between you and Roderick Duncan, in
+which I am, personally, so deeply concerned, in which I am to figure
+as the collateral security."
+
+The old man stared at his daughter, with an expression that had made
+many a Wall-street financier turn pale with apprehension. It was a
+grim visage that she saw then--hard and set, stern and unrelenting,
+and many a strong man had surrendered to Stephen Langdon, frightened
+by the aspect of it. Not so this daughter of his. She met his gaze
+unflinchingly and calmly, without a change in her outward demeanor.
+After a moment, Langdon turned with a shrug toward the lawyer.
+
+"Melvin," he said, "how many years have you been my attorney?"
+
+"Fourteen, I think, Mr. Langdon," was the smiling reply. One would
+have thought that the man of law found something highly amusing in
+this incident.
+
+"About that--yes. Well, do you see that door?" He half-turned and
+indicated the entrance he had just used. "Melvin, I want you to pick
+up those papers and tell John, outside, to give you your hat; then I
+want you to get out of here as quick as God'll let you. If you don't,
+our relations are severed from this moment. And if you complete the
+draft of those papers, without my permission, or submit them to any
+person whatever, without my having seen them first, I will have
+another attorney to replace you, Monday morning. Go right along now.
+You needn't answer me. If you don't want my business, all you've got
+to do is to say so. If you do want it, you'll come mighty near doing
+what I have told you to do, just now."
+
+The lawyer, quietly, but with dignity, rose from his chair, folded the
+papers, placed them in an inner pocket of his coat, bowed to Patricia
+and then to her father, and without a word passed from the room,
+closing the door quietly behind him; but before he quite accomplished
+this last act, the clear even tones of the girl called after him:
+
+"I am sure, Mr. Melvin, that we had quite concluded our conference. I
+will ask you please to draw those papers as I have directed. You may
+submit copies to Mr. Langdon at the time you bring the originals to
+me."
+
+He did not answer, for there was no occasion to do so, and a second
+later Stephen Langdon and his daughter were alone together for the
+second time that afternoon.
+
+"Now, Patricia," he said, turning toward her, with his feet wide
+apart and his hands thrust deep into his trousers-pockets, "what in
+blazes is this all about?"
+
+His daughter replied coldly and precisely:
+
+"I have merely been dictating to your lawyer the substance of the
+conditions I wish to have embodied in the papers that are to complete
+the transaction we have discussed at your office. I selected Mr.
+Melvin because I knew him to be in your confidence, and I surmised
+that you would prefer that the condition of affairs under which you
+are now struggling, which forces you to borrow twenty-million dollars,
+should not be made known to an outsider."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you that I won't hear of it! It's got to stop right
+now. I won't have those papers drawn at all. I won't have it. The
+whole thing is preposterous, and you seem to be determined to make a
+fool of yourself. I won't have it!"
+
+"But you must have it," she said, quietly.
+
+"Must have it? Patricia, there isn't a man in the city of New York who
+dares to say that to me."
+
+"Possibly not, sir; but there is a woman in New York who dares to say
+it to you, and who does say it, here and now. That woman is,
+unfortunately, your daughter."
+
+"Patricia! Are you crazy?"
+
+"No; but I am more hurt and angry, more outraged and incensed, than I
+believed it possible ever to be. I shall insist upon the drawing of
+those papers, and the fulfillment of the stipulations I have directed.
+If you are determined that Mr. Melvin shall not finish what he has
+begun for me, I shall select another lawyer, and shall have the papers
+drawn just the same."
+
+"But, my child, it is all foolishness. The papers are not necessary.
+Roderick will supply what cash I need without anything of that sort,
+and you know it!"
+
+"Am I to understand, sir, that you have lied to me?"
+
+Langdon dropped upon a chair, breathing an oath which his daughter did
+not hear, and she continued, without awaiting a reply from him:
+
+"You have taught me, since I was a child, that in a business
+transaction in the Street, where there is no time for the drawing of
+papers, a man must live up to his word, absolutely. I took you
+seriously in what occurred at your office this afternoon. I surmised,
+when we were near the end of our interview,--nay, I assumed it--that
+Roderick Duncan was inside the inner office. My surmise proved to be
+true, and now I have only this to say: We shall carry out the
+transaction precisely as it was stipulated between us, and according
+to the papers I have dictated to Mr. Melvin, or I shall go to another
+lawyer and have those same papers drawn and offered to you and to Mr.
+Duncan, for your signatures. He overheard our conversation, and thus
+became a party to it. I was forced into the situation without my
+consent, and I shall now insist upon a certain recognition of my
+rights in the matter. If you choose to deny me those rights, the fact
+will not deter me from proceeding in my own way--a way which Mr.
+Melvin, your attorney, thoroughly understands. I have explained it
+fully to him."
+
+The old man leaned back in his chair, glaring at his daughter, and yet
+in that burning gaze of his there was undoubted admiration. He liked
+her pluck, and deep down in his heart he gloried in her ability to
+maintain the position she had assumed, where she literally held him
+helpless. For it would never do that she should be permitted to go to
+another lawyer; such a proceeding would betray to other parties the
+financial embarrassment into which he had been drawn. The news would
+get out. There would be a whisper here, a murmur there, and before
+noon on Monday, all New York would know it. His daughter understood
+her momentary power over him, and she was determined to make the most
+of it.
+
+Patricia returned her father's gaze for a moment, then turned
+negligently away and moved toward the door.
+
+"Wait," he called to her.
+
+"Well?" She stopped, and half-turned.
+
+"Don't you know, girl, that the whole business was tomfoolery?"
+
+"No; and I would not believe you, or Mr. Duncan--now."
+
+"Wait just a minute longer, Patricia; let me explain this thing to
+you, fully. Let me make you understand just how it came about," her
+father exclaimed. "It was all a mistake, you know, and I must confess
+that the mistake was mostly mine. Of course, Roderick was ready to let
+me have the twenty millions, or fifty if I had asked for them. There
+was never any doubt about that, and could have been none. He has the
+money, and there never has been a time, since he inherited it, when I
+could not use it as if it were my own. You knew that. I have never
+hesitated to go to him, either. That is why I went to him to-day.
+Before I had an opportunity to explain the purpose of my call, he
+asked about you, and the question suggested to my mind the idea of
+utilizing the desperate situation I was in to hasten your marriage to
+him. You know how I have looked forward to that. I have known, or at
+least I have supposed I knew, for years, that you thought more of him
+than of anyone else. You are twenty years old now; it is high time
+that you were married, and it would break my old heart to see you take
+up with any of those society-beaux who hover around you at every
+function where you appear. On the other hand, I shall be very glad
+when you are Roderick Duncan's wife. He is the son of the best friend
+I ever had, the only man I ever trusted. And he is every bit as good a
+man as his father was. He is square and on the level. He has wealth,
+and he doesn't go bumming around town, giving champagne parties, and
+monkey dinners. He knows how to be a good fellow without making a fool
+of himself, and that is more than you can say of most young men who
+have money to burn. You have grown up together, and why in the world
+you have kept putting him off is more than I can guess. Besides all
+that, he is easily worth a hundred millions. But this has nothing to
+do with the present question. I want you to have him, and I want him
+to have you; and if he didn't have a dollar in the world, I should
+feel just the same about it. All that happened to-day was at my
+instigation; not at his. And now, daughter, you must find it in your
+heart to forgive him--and me."
+
+She listened to him to the end, quietly and outwardly unmoved. When he
+concluded, she replied in the same even tone she had used ever since
+her father entered the library:
+
+"I don't know, and I don't care to know, any of the particulars
+regarding how the arrangement came about between you and Mr. Duncan.
+What I do know is this: the arrangement was made between you, and was
+agreed upon between you. I was called in, to be consulted, at your
+private office, with the third interested party concealed like a spy
+in an inner room. I agreed to the transaction as I understood it. I
+will carry it out as I agreed to do, while at your office, and in no
+other way. If Roderick Duncan wishes to make me his wife, he must do
+it according to the stipulations I have dictated to Mr. Melvin, this
+afternoon, or he can never do it at all. That, sir, is all I have to
+say."
+
+She turned and went from the room, closing the door behind her as
+softly as the lawyer had done.
+
+The old man slipped down more deeply into his chair, covered his eyes
+with one hand, and murmured, audibly:
+
+"I have had to live almost seventy years to find out that, after all,
+I am nothing but an old fool."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A STRANGE BETROTHAL
+
+
+When dinner was served at seven that Saturday evening, the banker and
+his daughter faced each other in silence across the table. There was
+no wife and mother in this money-king's family, for she had passed out
+of life when Patricia came into the world. This, perhaps, may account
+for the close intimacy that had always existed in the relations of
+father and daughter, between whom there had never been any break or
+shadow, until this particular Saturday afternoon.
+
+"Old Steve," iron-faced, heavy jawed, and steady of eye, wore his
+Wall-street mask at this particular dinner; and he wore it as grimly
+as ever he did when encountering a financial storm or a threatened
+panic. He felt that he had more to conceal, just now, than any
+financial problem could ever compel him to face. He was no longer
+"dad." Patricia had practically omitted the use of even the less
+endearing term of father; but whether intentionally or not, even the
+shrewd old banker could not determine. For years, he had forgotten
+that he had a heart, save when he and his daughter were alone
+together. The money whirlpool of the financial section of the city had
+made him colder of aspect, harder in nature, and less considerate of
+the feelings of others. It had never even remotely occurred to him
+that there could be any rupture between himself and Patricia, or that
+a yawning gulf, like this one was, could separate them.
+
+But now there was one, and he recognized its breadth and its depth. He
+knew that he could not cross it to her, and that it would never be
+bridged, save by Patricia herself. He had offended her beyond
+forgiveness, almost. He had not entirely realized that Patricia's
+nature and characteristics were so like his own, save only where they
+were feminine instead of masculine, that she would now adopt the
+course he would have pursued under circumstances which might, by a
+stretch of the imagination, be called parallel.
+
+Patricia's face was almost as mask-like as her father's, save that her
+great, dark eyes were stormy in their depths, and would have suggested
+to one who had sailed the Southern seas the brooding and far away
+approach of a monsoon. Her olive-tinted skin had in it a suggestion of
+pallor; but only a suggestion. When she spoke at all it was to John,
+the butler who served them; and then it was always in her accustomed
+low, evenly modulated tone. Not perceptibly different to the butler
+were her tone and manner, and yet even the servant, wise in his
+generation, sensed the unsettled condition of things, and moved about
+like a phantom; perhaps also he was a trifle more assiduous than usual
+in his efforts at perfect service.
+
+Patricia ate sparingly, but bravely. There was nothing of the
+shrinking or pouting, or even of the petulant, in her character. Her
+father ate nothing at all. He dawdled with his soup, turned his fish
+over and sent it away, and sniffed contemptuously at everything else
+that was placed before him. He made his dinner of coffee and cognac,
+and seemed to be greatly interested while he burned the latter over
+three dominoes of sugar.
+
+When the moment came to leave the table, there had been no word
+exchanged between them; but then, with an effort, the banker assumed
+his brightest and most kindly tone; and he asked, cheerily:
+
+"Well, what have you on for to-night, my dear?"
+
+"Nothing at all," she replied, indifferently, as if the question held
+no interest for her--as, indeed, it did not, for the moment; but she
+followed him from the dining-room into the library, as was their
+usual custom whenever they had dined alone. Now, as they entered it,
+the banker, with an assumption of high spirits he did not feel,
+remarked:
+
+"If you don't object to a Saturday-night opera, Garden is singing
+'Salome' at the Manhattan to-night, and I should like to hear it. Will
+you go, with your old dad?"
+
+"No, thank you," she replied, indifferently. "I shall remain at home."
+
+She was standing at the table, turning the leaves of a magazine, and
+her father glanced keenly at her across the intervening space, while
+he lighted a cigar. Then, with a shrug of his shoulders, and a sigh
+which could not have been seen or heard, and which only he himself
+knew to have existed, he crossed the floor. As he was passing from the
+room, he said, as indifferently as she had spoken:
+
+"Then, I suppose, I will have to take it in, alone."
+
+"You might ask Roderick to go with you," she threw at him, as he
+passed into the hallway; but Langdon pretended not to hear, for he
+called back at her:
+
+"I'll get Beatrice, I think, and ask her to play daughter for me; eh?"
+
+Patricia made no comment upon this suggestion; but having awaited,
+where she was, the sound of the closing outer door, she slowly crossed
+the room.
+
+The drop-light at her favorite chair was adjusted, and she began the
+reading of a new book which someone had placed on the table beside it.
+She read on and on, apparently with interest, but really without
+knowing at all what she did read, until more than an hour had passed;
+and then a card was brought to her.
+
+She glanced at it, although she believed she knew perfectly well what
+name it bore, before she did so. Her lips tightened for an instant,
+and she frowned ever so little. But she said to the footman:
+
+"You may bring Mr. Duncan here, James."
+
+Patricia did not rise from her chair when her caller entered the
+library. Duncan moved toward her eagerly, but meeting her eyes, which
+she raised quite calmly to his as he crossed the floor, he paused, and
+remained at about midway of the distance.
+
+"Good evening, Patricia," he said. "I'm awfully glad to have found you
+at home. I was afraid you might go out before I could get here."
+
+"I expected you," she told him, without returning his salute. "I have
+been expecting you for an hour. In fact, I have been waiting for you."
+
+"That is very pleasant news, indeed, Patricia." Duncan was startled
+by it, however. He had not expected it, and he did not quite like the
+tone in which Patricia uttered it.
+
+"I am glad you take it so," she returned. "It was not pleasant for me
+to wait for you, and it is not distinctly agreeable to me to receive
+you. But I believed that you would think it necessary to call, in
+order to make some effort at explaining the occurrences of this
+afternoon. Let me tell you, before you begin, that there exists no
+necessity for any sort of explanation. My father has fulfilled that
+duty quite fully, and I listened to him, throughout. He has exonerated
+you--"
+
+Duncan took a hasty step toward her, but stopped again, even more
+abruptly than before, repelled by the cold barrier that the expression
+of her dark eyes built up between them. Whatever it was that he had in
+mind to say remained unspoken. He turned away and sought a chair
+opposite her, ten feet away, utterly repelled, for although these two
+had grown to manhood and womanhood together, she had always had the
+power to lift a sudden barrier between them. Though he believed he
+knew every mood and characteristic of this proud young woman, just
+now, for the first time within his recollection, there was a
+strangeness about her that he could not fathom. Long habit had made
+him almost as much at home in this house, as in his own. He had been,
+ever since he could remember, considered and treated like a member of
+the family. And so, now, before seating himself, he sought to put
+himself more at ease by indulging in a liberty which had always been
+accorded to him. He selected a cigar from Stephen Langdon's box, and
+lighted it. Then, remembering that conditions were changed, he threw
+it down with an angry gesture, upon a receptacle for ashes that was on
+the table. Patricia watched all these proceedings, unmoved.
+
+"Patsy!" he exclaimed, abruptly, making use of an expression of their
+childhood; and he would have continued with rapid speech, had she not
+made a quick gesture of aversion that interrupted him. Then, she said,
+quietly:
+
+"I would prefer, if you don't mind, that you should henceforth use my
+full name in addressing me."
+
+"Patricia, you have just told me that your father has exonerated me;
+and if that is so, why do you receive me in just this manner? I need
+exoneration, all right; and I deserve it, too, for honestly, dear, I
+never thought of offending you. I thought, until the last moment, that
+you would take it all as a huge joke. It never occurred to me that
+you would be so deeply wounded. I should never have agreed to the
+crazy compact that your father and I made together, if I had realized
+the seriousness of it."
+
+"No," she replied, quietly. "You should not have agreed to it. It was
+the mistake of your life, and, perhaps, of mine."
+
+"You know how I love you, dear," he began, half-starting from his
+chair. But the expression of her eyes, without the slightest motion
+otherwise, made him pause again, without completing what he had
+started to say.
+
+"It is best that we should be quite frank with each other," she said,
+calmly. "That is why I waited so patiently for you, to-night. Please
+do not interrupt me; let me say what I have in mind to say to you."
+
+"I would like it much better if you would hit me over the head with
+one of those bronze ornaments, as you would have done ten or twelve
+years ago; or if you would fly into one of your tempers just as you
+used to do, Patricia. I would like anything better than this cold
+calmness. It makes me shudder; it freezes me; it fills me with
+apprehension. I love you so, dear! and I have loved you all my life.
+You know it; I don't need to tell you! And if I have made a mistake,
+surely you can find it in your heart to forgive, because of my great
+love? No, I will not stop," he ejaculated, when she made a gesture of
+impatience. "I will finish what I have to say, even braving your anger
+to do so. I would like to make you angry just now, Patricia. I would
+delight to see you in one of those tantrums of fury that you used to
+have when you and I were children together. Do you remember that I
+bear a scar now, inflicted by a tennis-racket in your hand, when you
+were ten years old? I think more of that scar than of any other
+possession I have, for even you cannot take it away from me. I love
+you with all the manhood there is in me, and I can't remember a time
+when I did not; and I have thought that I knew, all these years, that
+you loved me; I believe it now, even though the scorn in your eyes
+denies it. You may have convinced yourself that you do not, but you
+are working from a wrong hypothesis. I know why you have put me off,
+time and again, when I have besought you to name our wedding-day. It
+has been because you were not quite ready. Isn't that true, dear? You
+have not denied me because you did not love me; you have put me off
+only because you were not ready to become a wife. But you have loved
+me; I am sure of that. You have never said that you would not be my
+wife; and in fact you have often shown me that some day you would be;
+you have only declined to say when. I have come to you to-night,
+Patricia, to tell you that I will wait, on and on, counting only your
+own pleasure in the matter, until you are willing to appoint the time,
+if only you will say that you forgive me for the apparently despicable
+part I have played in the tragedy of this afternoon."
+
+"That is a very pretty speech you have just made. It sounds well, and
+is quite characteristic," she replied to him, calmly. "I shall be as
+frank with you in my reply."
+
+"Well?" he said, and waited. Her tone and manner startled him. There
+was a suggestion of finality in her attitude that was alarming. She
+continued, speaking almost gently:
+
+"I have believed in your love for me, as sincerely as I have believed
+in my father's love for me; and I think now that you were more to me
+than I realized. But, Roderick, have you ever watched a woodman in the
+forest chopping down a tree? And have you ever seen that tree fall,
+when its natural prop was stolen away by the sharp edge of the axe? It
+may have taken that tree a hundred, or a thousand years to grow; but
+when it crashes down, it is gone forever. A little, puny man has gone
+into the forest with an axe upon his shoulder, and has ruthlessly
+attacked one of God's greatest creations, a gorgeously abundant tree.
+He had no thought of what he was doing, of what he was destroying. His
+only thought was of a purpose he had in view; and it was somehow
+necessary to destroy that tree in order to accomplish the purpose. The
+thing that nature created, which had required years to bring to
+perfection; the thing that God made beautiful was, in a few minutes,
+shorn of its splendor by this little, ruthless creature, who went into
+the forest with the axe on his shoulder. That is what you have done to
+whatever love I may have felt for you, Roderick Duncan. It lies
+prostrate now, and it has borne down with it, all the lesser verdure,
+all the little trees and bushes and vines that grew about it, and has
+left only a bare spot--and the wounded stump. You were the woodman
+with the axe."
+
+"My God, Patricia!" he cried out, appalled by the agony of his loss.
+He understood, suddenly, that this proud young woman would have
+forgiven downright disloyalty more readily than such hurt to her
+pride.
+
+She continued as if he had not spoken:
+
+"My father informed me, this afternoon, as you are aware, of certain
+financial straits in which he has suddenly become involved. I know
+enough about the methods and habits of 'the street,' to realize how
+impossible it was for him to betray his condition to certain forces
+and powers that are exerted there, lest, despite what he could do, he
+should lose the great influence he now has over all the immense wealth
+of this country. While he was telling me about his condition, I
+naturally thought of you; and I wondered why he had not gone to you
+instantly; or, if you knew of the circumstance, I wondered the more,
+why you had not as instantly gone to him, and offered the assistance
+he needed. Then, little by little by little, the plot which you two
+had concocted together, was unveiled to me."
+
+"But, Patricia, dear, won't you--?"
+
+"Let me finish, please. I have not quite done so, as yet."
+
+"Well, dear?"
+
+"I have agreed to the terms that were adjusted between you and my
+father, respecting the loan of a certain sum of money by you to him.
+Of course, you may repudiate those terms if you please, and it is a
+matter of indifference to me whether you do so, or not. You may loan
+the money to my father without accepting me as the collateral for it;
+that also is a matter of indifference to me. But I wish to tell you,
+and I wish you thoroughly to understand, that, unless you carry out
+the terms of this compact precisely as it was agreed upon between you
+and my father, with the added stipulations which I have requested Mr.
+Melvin to draw for me, I will never under any circumstances be your
+wife, or receive you again. That, I think, concludes this interview. I
+shall be ready Monday morning, at ten o'clock, to fulfill my part of
+the agreement. You and Stephen Langdon may do as you please. And now,
+please, bid me good-night--I prefer to be alone."
+
+Duncan started from his chair and took two steps toward her, where he
+paused. His face was pale, but his finely chiseled features were set
+in firm lines; and his tall, athletic figure, was drawn to its full
+height, as he replied, with slow emphasis:
+
+"In that case, Patricia, we shall carry out the compact as agreed
+upon, and I shall conform to whatever stipulations you have made," he
+said. "Good-night."
+
+He turned and went swiftly from the room. He seized his coat and hat
+before James, the footman, could assist him, and he went out at the
+front door, with more bitterness and more anger in his soul than he
+remembered ever to have felt before against any man or woman. But
+just now the bitterness and the anger were directed chiefly against
+himself.
+
+For a moment, he stood on the bottom step at the entrance to the
+mansion, undecided as to which way he should go or what he should do.
+Then, he turned about and again rang the bell at Stephen Langdon's
+door; and the instant it was opened, he brushed savagely past the
+astonished James, and made his way to the library, unannounced. He
+pushed the door ajar noiselessly, without intending to do so, and
+halted on the threshold, amazed by what he saw there. He had not meant
+to intrude in that silent fashion upon the privacy and grief of the
+woman he loved, and as soon as he could master his emotions, he
+stepped quickly backward into the hall, re-closing the door as softly
+as he had opened it. Patricia had given way at last. She had thrown
+herself upon the couch, and with her face buried among the pillows,
+she was sobbing as if her heart would break. His first impulse, when
+he discovered her so, was to rush to her side, to take her in his
+arms, and to tell her over and over again of his love. But he knew
+instinctively that Patricia would bitterly resent such an effort on
+his part, that he would again offend her sense of pride if she should
+know that he had found her in tears.
+
+Outside the door, when he had closed it, he hesitated for a time;
+finally he wrote rapidly on the back of one of his cards, as follows:
+
+"There will be little time on Monday morning to inspect the papers you
+mentioned. I shall be glad if you will direct Mr. Melvin to submit them
+to me at my rooms, between five and six o'clock to-morrow afternoon.
+
+                                        R. D."
+
+He gave this written message to James, instructing him not to
+deliver it until Miss Langdon summoned him to her, or she should
+leave the library. Then, he asked the footman:
+
+"Do you happen to know where Mr. Langdon has gone, to-night, James?"
+
+"To the opera, sir," replied the footman.
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Quite so, sir, I believe."
+
+Duncan walked the distance, which was considerable, from the Langdon
+mansion to the Opera House, where he went directly to Stephen
+Langdon's box, believing that he would find the banker to be it's
+solitary occupant, and there were reasons why he greatly desired a
+private conference with Patricia's father. He entered the box without
+announcement and came to a sudden pause when he discovered that the
+banker was not alone. Beside him, with her white arm resting upon the
+rail at the front of the box, was seated a young woman whom Duncan
+knew well; and she happened to be the one person in New York who came
+nearest to being on terms of intimacy with Patricia. For Miss Langdon
+was one who had never permitted herself to be intimate with anybody.
+Others might be intimate with her, as Beatrice Brunswick had been, but
+that close and personal relation which so often exists between two
+young women, and which is so beautiful in its character, was something
+Patricia Langdon had never permitted herself to know. She was not even
+aware that this was so. The condition arose from no lack of sympathy
+for others, and from no want of affection for her friends; it was a
+characteristic reserve of manner and method, inherited from her
+father, which had been cultivated by and through her association with
+him, all her life long.
+
+While Roderick Duncan halted for an instant, to consider whether, or
+not, he should proceed with his original design, and while he still
+stood there, holding the curtains apart and appearing much as if he
+were a stealthy observer of the scene before him, the young woman
+turned her head and discovered him. She smiled brightly and uttered an
+exclamation of pleasure as she started to her feet and approached him
+with out-stretched hand. One could have seen that the pleasure she
+manifested, was very real. It was at once evident that she liked
+Duncan.
+
+"How good of you to come, and how fortunate!" she said, when he took
+her hand and raised it to his lips, just as the banker turned about in
+his chair, and with a grim smile also made Duncan welcome.
+
+"Hello," he said. "Glad you came! I have been wondering all the
+evening where you were. Had an idea you would show up somewhere. Sit
+down and keep still until this act is finished, for I don't want to
+lose it. After that, we'll chat a little. There are things I wish to
+discuss with you, Roderick."
+
+Roderick Duncan was in a mood that was strange to him. It affected him
+to recklessness, though he could not have told why it was so, or in
+what form of recklessness he might indulge. The discovery he had made
+when he returned to the library and found Patricia in tears, was still
+having its effects upon him, for he did not understand the cause for
+those tears. He knew only that he had made her cry, that her
+abandonment of grief was due to his acts, and her father's. By a
+strange paradox, he pitied himself as deeply as he did the woman he
+loved. He felt that he had been forced into a second false position
+by so readily accepting the terms Patricia had insisted upon for their
+betrothal. She had told him plainly that if she ever became his wife
+at all, the fact could be accomplished only in the manner she
+dictated; that if he repudiated it, he would not even be received at
+her home. Impulsively, he had accepted her dictum, and now, at the end
+of his long and solitary walk to the opera-house, he realized that the
+change from frying-pan to fire was a simile true as to his present
+condition. Practically, the end so long sought had been attained. In
+effect, he and Patricia were betrothed--but such a betrothal! For the
+moment, he regretted his ready acquiescence to Patricia's terms. He
+believed that it would be better to lose her entirely than to take her
+under such conditions.
+
+The meeting with Beatrice Brunswick and her sincere welcome warmed
+him, and he found a ready sympathy in her eyes and manner for his
+condition of mind. He wanted company and he wanted sympathy; chiefly,
+he had wished to discuss the present situation of affairs with old
+Steve; but now, since his arrival at the box, he decided that it would
+be a splendid opportunity to talk the matter over with Beatrice
+Brunswick. She had always shown him great consideration. He had
+regarded her as Patricia's dearest friend, and had ultimately placed
+her in that relationship to himself, for she was one of those rare
+young women whom men class as "good fellows." And Beatrice was as good
+as she was beautiful. Her merry laugh and quick wit always acted upon
+Duncan like a tonic. Just now, he was especially glad to find her
+there, and he showed it.
+
+Beatrice Brunswick was unmistakably red-headed. Referring to her hair
+in cold-blooded terms, no other hue could have described it. It was
+like that old-fashioned kind of red copper, after it has been hammered
+into sheets, in the manner in which it was treated before less arduous
+methods were invented. It was remarkable hair, too--there was such a
+wealth of it! It had always impressed Duncan with the idea that each
+individual hair was in business for itself, refusing utterly to stay
+where it was put. A young woman's crowning glory, always, this
+happened to be particularly true in the case of Miss Brunswick, for,
+although her features and her figure and her graceful motions left
+nothing to be desired, it was her wonderful hair, emphasized by the
+saucy poise of her head, that became her crowning glory, indeed.
+Duncan took a seat near to her, so that she was between him and the
+banker; and presently Beatrice inclined her head toward him, and
+whispered:
+
+"What's the matter, Roderick? You look like a banquet of the Skull and
+Bones, which my brother described to me once, when he was at Yale."
+
+"I'll tell you about it later," was the response; and Duncan shut his
+jaws, and bent his attention grimly upon the stage.
+
+"Why not now?" She asked.
+
+"There isn't time; and besides--"
+
+"Have you been quarreling with our Juno? Have you two been scrapping?"
+She whispered, smiling bewitchingly, and bending still nearer to him.
+Miss Brunswick was sometimes given to the milder uses of slang.
+
+Duncan nodded, without replying in words. He kept his eyes directly
+toward the stage. But Miss Brunswick was insistent.
+
+"Is Patricia on her high horse to-night?" she asked, with a light
+laugh.
+
+Duncan replied to her with another nod, and a wry smile.
+
+"She wants to look out about that high horse of hers, Roderick, or
+sometime it will hit the top rail and give her a fall that she won't
+get over for a while. What our beautiful Juno needs most is what I
+used to get oftenest when I was about three years old. Perhaps you can
+guess what it was; if you can't, I won't tell you."
+
+"I expect you were a regular little devil then, weren't you?" he
+asked, endeavoring to assume a cheerfulness he was far from
+experiencing at that moment.
+
+"I expect I was; and the strange part of it is that there are lots and
+lots of people who insist that I have never got over it. But I can
+read you like a book. You and Mr. Langdon and Patricia have been
+having no end of a row. He might just as well have told me that much
+when he came after me and insisted that I should accompany him to the
+opera to-night. He said that Patricia wouldn't, and he wanted me to
+take her place. I wish you would tell me all about it." Then, with a
+slight toss of her head, Beatrice added: "I suppose Patricia has
+refused you again?"
+
+"No. She has accepted me, this time," was the blunt reply.
+
+Beatrice stared straight in front of her for a moment, and there was a
+suggestion of gathering pallor in her face. Then, she drew backward,
+away from her companion, and her blue eyes widened. If there was a
+shock to her in the knowledge she had just received, she accepted it
+with a very clever little laugh which she always had ready at hand.
+
+"So," she said, "that is what makes you so glum, is it? Really, you
+are a most amazing person. I had supposed that when Patricia accepted
+you, finally, and set the day--"
+
+"The day hasn't been set. It may be a week, a month, or a year hence,
+for all I know." This was said harshly, and while Duncan's eyes were
+fixed steadily upon Mary Garden, on the stage.
+
+"How intensely interesting!" Beatrice exclaimed, under her breath. "I
+shall insist upon your taking us to supper after the opera, and
+telling me all about it."
+
+The loud bars of music which announce the finale of an act and the
+entrance of the chorus precluded the possibility of further
+conversation just then; and as soon as the curtain was down and the
+applause had ceased, Stephen Langdon left his chair and reached for
+his coat and hat. Then, he addressed the two young people who were his
+companions in the box.
+
+"If you two youngsters care to see this out, I'll leave you here,
+together," he said. "I have just remembered something I should have
+attended to, to-night. I must see Melvin, my lawyer. You won't mind,
+Beatrice, will you, if I leave you in Roderick's care? Possibly, I'll
+return before the show is out."
+
+Before either of them could answer, Langdon had passed out into the
+aisle, and hurried away, leaving Duncan and Miss Brunswick alone
+together in the box. If Roderick Duncan had really desired an
+opportunity to confide his troubles to Beatrice, it was afforded him
+then; but now that it was at hand, he felt suddenly uncertain about
+the wisdom of such a proceeding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BOX AT THE OPERA
+
+
+Duncan stared helplessly at the spot where the curtains had fallen
+together behind the departing figure of Stephen Langdon; then he
+turned his eyes toward Beatrice, to discover that she was convulsed
+with laughter. But whether her demeanor and her quick surrender to
+expressions of levity had been excited by the departure of the banker,
+or by Duncan's attitude of dismay, the young man could not have told.
+He laughed with her, for there was a distinctly ludicrous side to the
+situation, following, as it did, so closely upon the announcement of
+his engagement to Patricia.
+
+By mutual consent, they withdrew to the rear of the box, and then
+Beatrice, with a touch of teasing witchery in her voice and with
+laughter still in her eyes, asked him:
+
+"Don't you think that this is rather a compromising situation,
+particularly in view of the fact that you have only just become
+engaged to Patricia? Really, you know, it is dreadful; isn't it?"
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," he replied, quite truthfully. "I was
+thinking of what Langdon said, when he left us. It recalled
+something--"
+
+"About leaving us two 'youngsters' alone together?" she asked him,
+with a pretense of frightened expression in her eyes.
+
+"No, that wasn't the last thing he said."
+
+"What was it? I didn't hear it."
+
+"He said he was going to see Melvin. I suppose you know who Melvin is,
+don't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Mr. Melvin and I are great friends. I think he is
+about the nicest old gentleman of my acquaintance; don't you? He is
+what I should call the _arbiter elegantiarum_ of the Langdon court, if
+one could imagine Old Steve as a Cæsar, and Patricia as--" Beatrice
+paused, and flushed hotly. She had not considered to what length her
+words were reaching. She had almost cast a reflection upon her friend,
+which would have been as unkind as it was unmerited. She added,
+quickly: "But why, if I may ask, did the mention of Mr. Melvin's name
+interest you?"
+
+Duncan gazed at his companion rather stupidly, for a moment, for his
+mind had suddenly become intent upon the complications of the day, and
+he had forgotten for the time being, where he was, and with whom he
+was talking. But Beatrice's smile and the mockery in her eyes brought
+him back to the present.
+
+"I remembered that I should have gone, myself, to see Melvin,
+to-night," he told her, quietly. "It really was quite important. I
+should have sought him, instead of coming here."
+
+"Indeed?" Beatrice laughed, brightly. "Mr. Melvin seems to be in great
+demand. Are you and Patricia to follow the French fashion of drawing
+the marriage-contract? and is Mr. Melvin to act the part of a French
+notary?" There was a touch of irony in her question, a little shaft of
+sarcasm that brought a quick flush to Duncan's face. He was reminded
+instantly of the tentative betrothal with Patricia, and his misgivings
+concerning it. Beside him was seated the one person who might aid them
+both; and with sudden resolution, acted upon as quickly as it was
+formed, he reached out and took one of Miss Brunswick's hands, holding
+it between both his own.
+
+"Beatrice," he said, with quiet emphasis, "you have always been a good
+fellow, if ever there was a girl born in the world who was one. I
+wonder if you could be persuaded to give me the benefit of your
+advice, and, possibly, your active assistance?"
+
+She flushed a little under the praise and the intimately personal
+request that came with it, but he did not notice this as he went on:
+"I've somehow got things into the biggest kind of a muddle to-day, and
+I have a notion to tell you all about it; I have the impulse to take
+you into my confidence and to ask you to help me out. I know you can
+do it. By Jove, Beatrice, I think you are the only person in the world
+who can do it! Will you?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders ever so little, and the flush left her
+cheeks, rendering them paler than was their wont. It suddenly came
+home to her that he was asking a favor that might prove extremely
+difficult to grant.
+
+"I cannot say as to that until I hear what you wish me to do," she
+replied.
+
+"I want you to help me square myself," he said, quickly.
+
+"To square yourself?" She raised her brows in assumed surprise. "With
+whom?"
+
+"Why, with Patricia, of course."
+
+"Help you to square yourself with Patricia?" She laughed outright, but
+without mirth. "I am afraid I don't at all understand you, Roderick. I
+supposed you had already accomplished that much, for you told me--did
+you not?--that Patricia has just accepted you?"
+
+"Yes, and that's the devil of it!" was the unexpected astounding
+reply. Beatrice moved farther away from him, and took her hand from
+his grasp, in well-simulated horror of what he had said.
+
+"Let us, at least, confine ourselves to the usages and language of
+polite society;" she said, with mock severity. "We will leave the
+devil out of it, if you please. Besides, you amaze me! Patricia has
+just accepted you, and that is 'the devil of it.' Really, I can't
+guess what you mean by such a paradoxical statement as that."
+
+"Forgive me. I am so wrought up that I scarcely know what I am talking
+about, or what I am doing. As I said before, I have managed to get
+things into a terrible mess, and I believe that you, Beatrice, are the
+only person alive who can unravel the tangle for me. Will you help me
+out? Will you?"
+
+"You must tell me what it is, before I commit myself. You are so very
+aggravating, in words and manner, that I cannot even attempt to
+understand you."
+
+For just a few moments, he hesitated. There was within him the
+feeling that he would outrage Patricia's ideas of the fitness of
+things, if he should take Beatrice Brunswick into his confidence and
+relate to her all that had occurred this afternoon and evening. But,
+on the other hand, he saw in this beautiful girl a personification of
+the straw at which a drowning man grasps. He knew that she was,
+personally, closer to Patricia than any other friend had been, and
+that she understood Patricia better than did anyone else, save Stephen
+Langdon, perhaps. He knew, also, that he could trust her, and that he
+could rely, implicitly, upon her loyalty. He knew that she would never
+betray the secrets he would be obliged to tell concerning Stephen
+Langdon's affairs. He had tried her often, and he had never found her
+wanting. Therefore, he felt that the greatest secret of all,
+concerning the financial extremity in which Stephen Langdon had become
+involved, would be safe with Beatrice Brunswick. Manlike, he began
+very stupidly and very strangely.
+
+"By Jove, Beatrice!" he exclaimed. "I wish I might have fallen in love
+with you, instead of with Patricia! You would never have seen things
+in the light she does!"
+
+Beatrice's eyes widened and deepened; then, they narrowed so that she
+almost frowned. She bit her lips with vexation, and for an instant
+was angry. At last, she laughed. She did not wish him to know how
+deeply he had wounded her by that careless statement, so she uttered a
+care-free ripple of laughter.
+
+"I don't quite know whether I should take that as a compliment or
+not," she replied. "It is more than likely that I would have conducted
+myself very much worse than Patricia has done in this affair which you
+have not as yet explained to me. Perhaps, it is a fortunate thing for
+both of us that you did not fall in love with me, instead of her. I'm
+sure I don't know what I should have done with you, in such a case.
+But I will help you if I can; only, understand in the beginning that
+if you tell me the story at all, you must tell me all of it. I don't
+want any half-confidences, Roderick."
+
+Duncan did tell her all of it then, leaving nothing to be added, when
+he had finished; and she listened to the end of his tale in utter
+silence, with her head half-turned away and her chin supported by the
+palm of one of her jeweled hands. They did not move to the front of
+the box again, nor give any heed to the rise of the curtain or to what
+was taking place on the stage, during the ensuing act. Duncan talked
+straight on, through it all; and Beatrice listened with close
+attention. One might have supposed that the music and the singing did
+not reach the ears of either of them, and one would not have been very
+wrong in that surmise. The tragic fate of John, the Baptist; the
+unholy, unnatural passion of a depraved soul for the dead lips of a
+man who had spurned her while he lived; the exquisite music of
+Strauss; the superb scenery and stage-setting; the rich and gorgeous
+costumes--all remained unseen and unheard by these two, one intent
+upon reëstablishing himself in the esteem of Patricia Langdon, the
+other disturbed by emotions she could not have named, which she would
+have declined to recognize, even had they presented themselves frankly
+to her. She had known, of course, of Duncan's love for her friend, but
+until this hour there had always existed an unformed, unrecognized
+doubt in the mind of Beatrice that it would ever be requited.
+
+When he had finished, she was still silent, and for so long a time
+that at last, with some impatience, he bent nearer to her, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Well, Beatrice? What do you think of it all?"
+
+She shuddered a little. There was still another interval before she
+spoke, and then, with calm directness, she replied:
+
+"I think you are both exceedingly brave to be willing to face the
+situation that exists."
+
+"Eh?" he asked her, not comprehending.
+
+"Why, if you carry out this compact that you have made, if Patricia
+Langdon becomes your wife according to the terms she has dictated to
+Melvin--for I can guess, now, what they are--you will both be casting
+yourselves straight down into hell. I speak metaphorically, of
+course," she added, with a whimsical smile. "I have been told that
+there isn't any hell, really. But I mean it, Roderick. If there isn't
+a hell, you two seem to be bent upon the arrangement of a correct
+imitation of one."
+
+"How is that?" he demanded, frowning. "I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Our friend has not been named 'Juno' for nothing. She is a strange
+girl; but I love her, almost as much as you do," Beatrice continued,
+as if she had not heard his question. "She possesses characteristics,
+the depth of which I have never been able to sound, and I am her best
+and closest friend. If you two live up to this agreement, in the
+spirit in which it was made, and conclude it in the spirit in which
+she has dictated her conditions to Melvin, I tremble for the
+consequences that will ensue, for I can almost foresee them. Patricia
+is not one who forgives easily, and she will resent a hurt to her
+pride with all the force there is in her."
+
+Beatrice rose to her feet, standing before him, and he, also, stood
+up, facing her. She reached out both her hands toward him, and he took
+them; and there were tears in her big blue eyes, when she added, with
+a depth of feeling that he did not understand:
+
+"Roderick Duncan, it would be better for you, and for Patricia as
+well, if you never saw each other again. You might far better, and
+with much greater hope of happiness, cast your future lot with some
+other woman whom you have never thought of as a wife, than marry
+Patricia Langdon upon such terms as you have outlined. Have you known
+her so intimately all your life without understanding her at all? She
+might have forgiven disloyalty, or unfaithfulness, or at least have
+condoned such--but an offense against her pride? Never! You would be
+undergoing much less risk if you should select an utterly unknown
+woman from one of these boxes, and should take her out of this theatre
+now, and marry her instead!"
+
+Having delivered this remarkable statement, Beatrice burst into
+laughter. Duncan, suddenly alive to her beauty and her nearness,
+deeply impressed by what she had said, and fully alive to the truth of
+her utterances, retained the grasp he had upon her hands, and drew her
+toward him, quickly.
+
+"Why not?" he demanded, hotly. "I'll do it if you say the word! But
+not a strange woman. You, Beatrice--you!! I'll dare you!!! We'll go to
+the 'Little Church Around the Corner.' I dare you! I dare you,
+Beatrice! They always have a wedding ceremony on tap, there; if you've
+got the sand, come on. It offers a solution of everything. Come on,
+Bee--marry me!"
+
+She raised her eyes to his, and he understood, instantly, how he had
+wounded her; he saw that her laughter had not been real, and that she
+was very near to tears. But the fact that she shrank away from his
+impetuous words and manner, only spurred him on anew. He caught her
+hands again.
+
+"Let's do it, Beatrice," he said rapidly, bending forward with sudden
+eagerness. "I hate all this mess and muddle of affairs. I hate it! Say
+yes, Bee."
+
+He stood with his back toward the curtains at the rear of the box; she
+was facing them. He saw her eyes dilate suddenly, and he had the
+sensation that she had discovered another person near them, or in the
+act of entering the box; and then, with more astonishment than he
+would have believed himself capable of feeling, he realized that
+Beatrice Brunswick had thrown herself forward and that her white arms
+were wound clingingly about his neck; at the same time, with evident
+design, she turned him still more, so that he could not see the
+curtains which screened the entrance to the box.
+
+The last and final shock of that eventful day, came to him then, for
+he did turn, in spite of Beatrice's restraining arms--he turned to
+find that the curtains were drawn apart, and in the opening thus
+created stood Patricia Langdon. Duncan knew that she had both seen and
+heard.
+
+He could not have moved, had he attempted to do so, although somewhere
+deep down inside of him he felt that it was his duty to untwine those
+clinging arms and somehow to account for the appalling situation.
+Beyond where Patricia stood, he saw and recognized two other figures
+that were moving steadily forward toward them, but he had the
+subconscious assurance in his soul that neither Stephen Langdon nor
+his lawyer, Melvin, had noticed the scene which Patricia had
+discovered. He could not guess that it had been the consequence of
+sudden inspiration on the part of Beatrice, who had thrown her arms
+around his neck at the very instant when she had intended to
+administer a rebuff.
+
+He did not imagine that she had discovered the approach of Patricia
+before she made this outward demonstration in acceptance of his mad
+proposal. Duncan felt very guilty indeed, in that trying moment;
+nevertheless, he was not one to attempt an ignominious escape from a
+predicament in which he believed himself to be wholly at fault. But
+Beatrice was not yet through with acting a part. She drew away from
+Duncan quickly, with an exclamation of mingled disappointment,
+pleasure and alarm. She cried out the single ejaculation, "Oh!" and
+dropped backward upon the chair she had recently occupied. But there
+was a gleam of mischief in her eyes, which belied the confusion
+otherwise expressed upon her face.
+
+"So sorry to have interrupted you at such a critical moment," said
+Patricia coolly, at once master of herself and of the situation.
+"Good-evening, Beatrice. I hope you have enjoyed the opera. I decided
+to come at the last moment, and met my father at the door of the
+theatre, as I was entering. He insisted on seeing Mr. Melvin to-night,
+so we drove to his house together and brought him here. I thought I
+would enjoy the last act."
+
+One might have thought that Roderick Duncan did not exist. Patricia
+did not so much as glance in his direction, but she moved forward to
+the front of the box and took her accustomed seat, just as Stephen
+Langdon and the lawyer, Melvin, entered it.
+
+All this had passed so quickly that the interval it occupied could be
+reckoned only by seconds. Beatrice Brunswick's face was flushed, and
+her eyes were alight with mischief, or with something deeper, as she
+greeted the two gentlemen. Duncan's countenance was like marble; he
+realized that the mess was bigger now, by far, than it had been
+before.
+
+Langdon and his lawyer perceived nothing unusual in the attitude of
+any person in the box; both were preoccupied with the discussion upon
+which they had just been engaged. Patricia's eyes were already fixed
+on the stage, and evidently her entire attention was devoted to it.
+She appeared to have forgotten the propinquity of other persons.
+
+There was a vacant chair beside her which Duncan should have taken,
+and, doubtless, he would have done so, had not the lawyer stupidly
+preëmpted it for his own use. The banker occupied the middle chair,
+and the consequence was that Duncan was given no choice, but was
+literally forced into the one next to Beatrice. Not that he would
+have preferred it otherwise, at the moment. Not he. He was angered by
+Patricia's conduct toward him; he resented the whole circumstance--and
+possibly, too, he still felt something of the thrill induced by the
+clinging arms of Beatrice Brunswick. He stared silently toward the
+stage, seeing nothing upon it. He was endeavoring to arrange, in some
+comprehensive form, the combination of circumstances and scenes which
+it had been his misfortune to encounter, and in part enact, since noon
+that day. But the more he tried, the more difficult became the task.
+The whole thing was as exasperating as an attempt to put together,
+within an alloted time, a puzzle-picture which has been cut into all
+sorts of sizes and shapes. It was not a panorama of events, as he
+recounted them in his own mind; it was a kaleidoscope, a jumble of
+colors and figures, of angles and spaces--or to put it in his own
+words, it was literally a mess.
+
+He turned toward Beatrice, whose right hand was negligently waving a
+fan. He reached out and claimed it, and she did not resent the act. He
+drew it toward him, and she looked up and smiled into his eyes with an
+expression he did not understand. She made no effort to withdraw her
+hand, nor any attempt to resist his advances. He bent nearer.
+
+"Will you do it?" he asked her, whispering. "Will you do it,
+Beatrice?"
+
+She made no reply, and he bent still nearer, seizing her hand in both
+his own, now.
+
+"Will you do it, dear?" he repeated, a third time. "I'm game, if you
+are. It is a solution of the whole beastly muddle. Come on. I'll stump
+you! That is what we used to say, when we were kids. By Jove, girl,
+you're in as deep as I am, now; and, besides, you gave me your word
+that you'd help me, didn't you? Turn your eyes toward me. Tell me
+you'll do it. Say yes. Come on, Bee. I'll dare you. We can slip away
+from here while their backs are turned. What do you say? Will you
+marry me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, without moving or withdrawing her gaze from the
+stage, and she repeated: "yes, if you wish it." He could not see her
+face.
+
+"Will you do it now?" Duncan demanded, half-startled by her ready
+acquiescence.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good! I knew you were game!"
+
+He left his chair quickly and secured her wraps and his own coat and
+hat. Then, he stepped to the opening between the curtains and turned
+expectantly toward her.
+
+She had not moved; but now, as if she had seen his every act without
+looking toward him, she turned her head slowly, observing him coolly,
+and she gave a little nod of comprehension and assent. He returned the
+nod, touched his fingers to his lips to enjoin silence, and passed
+outside. In another moment, she had glided softly but swiftly from her
+seat, and, unnoticed by the other occupants of the box, followed him,
+dropping the curtains silently after her.
+
+He put her opera-cloak about her shoulders, and swiftly donned his own
+coat and hat, and so without as much as "by your leave," they left the
+theatre together and waited in the foyer while the special officer in
+gray called a taxicab for their use.
+
+Duncan led her across the pavement to the cab, and assisted her
+inside.
+
+"Do you know where the Church of the Transfiguration is located?" he
+asked the chauffeur.
+
+"I do, sir," was the reply.
+
+"Drive us there, and be quick about it," said Duncan, and he sprang
+inside and banged the door shut after him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BEATRICE BRUNSWICK'S PLOT
+
+
+The chauffeur to whom the order was given that the taxicab be driven
+to the Church of the Transfiguration, proved to be an adept and
+skillful driver; one of those who can exceed the speed limit and then
+slow down his machine so quickly and quietly at the sight of a
+bluecoat that he inevitably escapes arrest for his transgression. As
+a consequence, there was very little time for conversation between
+these two apparently mad young persons during the journey between the
+opera-house and the church.
+
+Little as there was, the greater part of it was passed in silence. But
+when they were quite near to their destination, Beatrice spoke up
+quickly and rather sharply to her companion.
+
+"Roderick, have you for a moment supposed that I have taken you
+seriously in this mad proposition you have made to me, to-night?" she
+demanded. "Surely, you don't think that, do you?"
+
+Duncan stared at her, speechless. Then, with a vehemence that can
+better be imagined than described he exclaimed, half-angrily,
+half-resentfully:
+
+"Then, in God's name, Beatrice, why are we here? and why should we go
+to the church at all?"
+
+"Were you serious about it?" she asked.
+
+"I certainly was--and am, now!"
+
+"Foolish boy!" she exclaimed, laughing with nervous apprehension. What
+more she might have said on this point was interrupted by the skidding
+of the taxicab as they were whirled around the corner of Twenty-ninth
+street.
+
+"Why, in heaven's name, are we here, then?" he demanded, just as they
+were drawn swiftly to the curb, and the cab came to a stop in front of
+the church.
+
+"You requested my help, did you not?" she replied.
+
+"I certainly did."
+
+The chauffeur, in the meantime, had leaped to the pavement and thrown
+open the door of the cab.
+
+"You may close the door again, chauffeur, and wait where you are for
+further orders," Beatrice told him, calmly. And when that was done,
+she again addressed her companion. "You have called me a 'good fellow'
+to-night," she said slowly, with quiet distinctness, "and I mean to
+be one. I have always meant to be one, and to a great extent I think I
+have succeeded. But I would have to be a much better fellow than I am
+to go to the extent of marrying a man who does not love me, and who
+does love another, simply to help him out of a mess in which his own
+stupidity has involved him. Wouldn't I? Ask yourself the question!"
+
+Duncan shrugged his shoulders and parted his lips to reply, but she
+went on rapidly:
+
+"That is asking me to go rather farther than I would care to venture,
+my friend; or you, either, if you should stop to think about it. Your
+proposition is utterly a selfish one. You must know that. You have
+thought only of yourself and the mess you are in. You do not consider
+me at all. You would cheerfully use me as a means of venting your
+spite--or shall I call it, temper?--against Patricia. For the moment,
+you are intensely angry at her. Not only that, you feel that you have
+been out-done, at every point. That she has acted unreasonably, I will
+not deny. But what a silly thing it would be for you and me to stand
+together at the altar, and pledge ourselves to each other for life, or
+until such time as the divorce-courts might intervene, just because of
+the events of to-day!" She was smiling upon him now, as if he were,
+indeed, a foolish boy who needed chiding.
+
+Duncan pulled himself together. For the first time since their exit
+from the opera-house, and for perhaps the first time since the moment
+when Patricia discovered him in the private office of her father, he
+was capable of acting and thinking quite naturally.
+
+"Beatrice," he said, "if the sentiments you have just expressed are
+the same as those you felt before you left the box at the opera-house,
+would you mind telling me why in the world you have acted as you have
+done? Why, in the name of all that's phenomenal and strange, are we
+here?"
+
+She turned her head away from him, and peered through the glass door
+at the chauffeur, who was striding slowly up and down the pavement
+outside, and who had taken the opportunity to indulge himself in a
+smoke.
+
+"I did it," she said, "because I thought I saw a way to help you and
+Patricia out of your difficulties. I saw that we could leave the box
+without her knowledge, and believed that neither she nor her
+companions would discover our departure for some time afterward. I
+remembered just then that Patricia had witnessed the tender and
+somewhat touching scene in the box between you and me. My goodness,
+Roderick! I hope you didn't think that I meant _that_! It was all done
+for Patricia's benefit, you goose! Didn't you know that? Did you
+suppose that I had suddenly fallen head over heels in love with you?
+You're not very complimentary, are you? Or is it that you were
+throwing bouquets at yourself?"
+
+"Will you tell me why you did it?" he asked, flushing hotly under the
+jibe.
+
+"Because I wished Patricia to see it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I thought it might bring her to her senses."
+
+"How, Beatrice?"
+
+"Jealousy, you dunce!"
+
+"But why the rest of your superb play-acting?"
+
+"It all works out toward the same end. Don't you suppose that Patricia
+is in hot water, by this time? When she realized that we had sneaked
+away, to put it plainly, don't you think she would put two and two
+together, and make four out of it?"
+
+"It strikes me," he interrupted her, with a light laugh, "that this is
+a case where two are supposed to make one."
+
+"We won't joke about it, if you please. Still, that isn't a bad idea.
+But, at all events, I wish Patricia to believe that we left the
+opera-house because, for the moment at least, you preferred my society
+to hers. If we can convince her that we ran away to be married, so
+much the better!"
+
+"You are deeper than I am, Bee. I confess that you've got me up a
+tree. I haven't the least idea what you are driving at, but I am quite
+willing to be taught. What is to be the next play in this little game
+of yours?"
+
+"You need not be nasty about it, when I'm trying to help you," she
+retorted.
+
+"What's the next move, Bee? I couldn't induce you to give me another
+hug, could I? There, now--don't get angry. I liked it, whether you
+did, or not. You put a lot of ginger into it, too. Oh, yes, I liked
+it!"
+
+For a moment, it seemed as if she would resent his bantering tone;
+then she shrugged her shoulders, and smiled.
+
+"I did it to help you--to make Patricia jealous." She laughed lightly,
+still keeping her face turned away from him. "I saw the curtains part,
+and recognized Patricia. With the recognition, there came also a
+revelation as to how I could best help you both. If I had dreamed that
+you would suppose for a moment I was in earnest, do you think I would
+have done it? And when I told you that I would come here, to this
+church, and would marry you like this--good heavens!--did you flatter
+yourself I meant _that_?"
+
+"Of course, I did."
+
+"Are you in earnest, Roderick Duncan? If I thought your selfishness,
+your egotism, was as great as that, I--I don't know what I'd do! Have
+you so little regard for me that you think I would become your wife,
+in this manner, knowing as I do that you love another--and when that
+other is my best friend--when I know that Patricia Langdon loves you?
+For I do know it. Do you--did you think that of me--did you think that
+of me?" She was a-tremble with indignation, now.
+
+"By Jove, Bee, I acted like a brute, didn't I? I didn't consider you;
+I was selfish enough to think of no one but myself. But, all the same,
+my girl, I was in dead earnest. If you've got the pluck and the spirit
+to go through with it, now, we'll see the thing out, side by side,
+just as we started, and I will make you, perhaps, a better husband
+than if the circumstances were different. You say that Patricia loves
+me: I doubt it. I thought so once, but I don't now. It doesn't matter,
+anyhow. I shall ask you again calmly, with all humility and respect;
+with all seriousness, too: will you be my wife, and will you marry me,
+now?"
+
+"I will reply with equal seriousness, Roderick," she retorted,
+mockingly. "No."
+
+He uttered a sigh, and there was so much satisfied relief in it that
+she laughed aloud, but without bitterness.
+
+"Then, what shall we do? Sit here in this cab, in front of the Church
+of the Transfiguration, for the balance of the night? Or shall we go
+around to Delmonico's and have some supper?" he asked her.
+
+"I think that last suggestion of yours is a very excellent one," she
+replied, naïvely. "But we will wait yet a few moments before we start.
+We haven't been at the Church of the Transfiguration quite long enough
+to have been married, and to have come out of it again."
+
+Duncan stared at her. Then, slowly, a smile lighted up his eyes and
+relaxed the lines of his face, so that after a moment he chuckled.
+Presently, he laughed.
+
+"By Jove, Bee, you're a corker!" he said. "You can give me cards and
+spades, and beat me hands down, when it comes to a matter of finesse.
+Is it your idea to play out the other part of the game? What will it
+avail, if we do?"
+
+"Never mind that," she replied. "In order to carry out the scheme, and
+to make it work itself out, as it should, one thing more is necessary.
+It will be great fun, too--if we don't carry it too far."
+
+"What is that?" he asked her. "What more is necessary?"
+
+"I want you to tell the chauffeur to stop for a moment at the
+side-entrance to the Hotel Breslin; there I wish you to leave me alone
+in the cab, while you go inside, and telephone to the opera-house, to
+have Jack Gardner and his wife meet us as soon as they can, at
+Delmonico's for supper. You may not have noticed, but they occupied
+their box, which is directly opposite the Langdon's. One of the ushers
+will carry the message to him, and Jack will come, if he has no
+previous engagement."
+
+"But what in the name of--what in the world do you want of Jack
+Gardner and his wife? what have they to do with it?"
+
+"I want them to take supper with us, that is all; and then I want a
+few moments' conversation with Jack, while you talk with Sally."
+
+They were driven to the Breslin, and the telephone-message was sent.
+Duncan waited for a reply, and received one, to the effect that Mr.
+and Mrs. Gardner would come at once. And so, not long afterward, the
+four occupied a conspicuous table of Beatrice's selection, at the
+famous restaurant.
+
+Recalling the injunction put upon him to occupy himself with Sally
+Gardner, Duncan began to get a glimmer of understanding regarding the
+plot that Beatrice had concocted. He, therefore, gave all of his
+attention to the spirited and charming wife of the young copper-king.
+Jack Gardner was everybody's friend. He loved a joke better than
+anyone else in the world, and a practical joke better than any other
+kind. He was especially fond of Roderick Duncan, and both he and his
+wife were intimate friends of Beatrice. Duncan noticed, while talking
+with Sally, that Jack and Beatrice had drawn their chairs more closely
+together, toward a corner of the table, and were now whispering
+together with low-toned eagerness. He could hear no word of what
+Beatrice said, but an occasional exclamation of Gardner's came to him.
+He saw that Beatrice was talking rapidly, with intense earnestness,
+and that Gardner seemed to be highly amused, even elated, by what she
+was saying. Such expressions as, "By Jove, that's the best, ever!"
+"Sure, I can do it!" and, "You just leave it to me!" came to his
+ears, from Gardner; and presently the latter excused himself and left
+the table.
+
+If they had followed him, they would have seen that he went to the
+telephone, where he called up several numbers before he obtained the
+person he sought; but he presently returned, apparently in the best of
+spirits, and with intense satisfaction written upon every line of his
+smiling features.
+
+As he seated himself at the table, other guests were just assuming
+places at another one, quite near to them, and he bent forward toward
+Beatrice, saying in a tone which their companion could not hear:
+
+"I say, Beatrice, it's all working out to the queen's taste! When you
+get a chance, look over your left shoulder. Gee! but this is funny!
+All the same, though, I expect I'll get myself into a very devil of a
+stew. When that reporter discovers that I've given him an out-and-out
+fake, he'll go gunning for me as sure as you are alive."
+
+"Is he coming here to see you?" she asked him.
+
+"Sure. He will be here in about twenty minutes."
+
+"Now, tell me who it is at the table behind me. I don't care to look
+around, to discover for myself."
+
+"Why, Old Steve and his Juno; and they've got Malcolm Melvin with
+them." He leaned back in his chair, and laughed; then, he emptied the
+champagne-glass he had been playing with. Presently, he chuckled
+again.
+
+"Tell you what, Beatrice," he said, in an undertone, "I almost wish
+that you had taken Duncan at his word, and married him. You should
+have called that bluff. Sure thing! Think of the millions he's got,
+and--"
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"Oh, all right. All the same--"
+
+"Hush, I tell you! Don't you see that Sally is trying to talk to you?"
+
+After that, the conversation became general among the four. During it,
+Jack Gardner sought and found an opportunity to wave a greeting to the
+late arrivals, whose names he had just mentioned to Beatrice. Duncan,
+observing him, glanced also in that direction, and, meeting Patricia's
+eyes fixed directly upon him, flushed hotly as he, also, bowed to her.
+Then, Sally and Beatrice turned their heads and nodded, as another
+course of the service was placed upon the table before them.
+
+It was not yet finished when the head-waiter brought a card to Jack
+Gardner, who instantly left his seat for the second time that evening,
+and, with a curt, "I'll be back in a moment," departed, without
+further excuse. The person whose card he had received, was awaiting
+him in one of the reception-rooms; and the two shook hands cordially,
+for they were old acquaintances and on excellent terms with each
+other. It was not the first time they had got their heads together
+concerning matters for publication, although, in this instance, the
+newspaper man was to be made a wholly innocent party in the affair.
+
+Burke Radnor was a newspaper man of prominence in New York. He was one
+of the few men of his profession who have succeeded in attaining
+sufficient distinction to establish themselves independently, and his
+"stories" were eagerly sought by all of the great dailies.
+
+The two seated themselves in a corner of the room, and talked together
+earnestly, although in whispers, for a considerable time. It was
+Gardner who did most of the talking; Radnor only occasionally
+interjected a questioning remark. When they parted, it was with a
+hearty hand-clasp, and this remark from Radnor:
+
+"I'll fix it up all right, old man; don't you worry. Nobody shall know
+that I got the story from you. But it is a jim dandy, and no mistake!"
+
+"Which of the papers will you use it in, do you think?" asked
+Gardner.
+
+"I am not sure as to that. To the one that will pay the best price for
+a first-class 'beat,' for that's what it is. Anyhow, that part of it
+is none of your business. Now that I've got the story, I shall handle
+it as I think best, and you can bet your sweet life it will be used
+for all it's worth!"
+
+Gardner returned to the dining-room, with vague misgivings concerning
+what he had done; his smile was a bit less self-satisfied. Radnor,
+apparently, left the building. But the shrewd news-gatherer went no
+farther than the entrance, where he wheeled about and returned; and
+this time he sent his card to Roderick Duncan. Having "nailed the
+story," the proper thing now was to obtain an interview with one of
+the principals concerned in it; with both, if possible.
+
+Duncan received the card, wonderingly. He knew Radnor, and liked him;
+but he could not imagine what the newspaper man could want with him at
+that particular time. The truth about it, did not even vaguely occur
+to him.
+
+Excusing himself, he left the table and presently found Radnor in the
+same room where the recent interview with Jack Gardner had taken
+place.
+
+"Hello, Radnor," said Duncan, cordially, extending his hand. "There
+must be something doing when you call me away from a supper table, at
+Del's. Make it as brief as possible--won't you?--because I am dining,
+and--"
+
+"Oh, I won't keep you but a moment, Mr. Duncan," was the quick reply.
+"I just want to ask you a question or two about the interesting
+ceremony that took place this evening--that is all."
+
+"Eh? What's that? Ceremony? What the devil are you talking about?"
+
+"Look here, Mr. Duncan, you know perfectly well that I am your friend,
+and that I'll use you as handsomely as possible in the columns of any
+paper that gets this story. But I've got the straight tip, and I know
+what I am talking about. I thought, possibly, you might wish to say a
+few words in explanation--just to tone the thing down, to give it the
+mark of authenticity, you know. I thought you'd like to be quoted, and
+to know, from me, that the story'll be all right. On the level, now,
+isn't that better?"
+
+Duncan laughed. He did not in the least understand. He had the idea
+that Radnor had been drinking.
+
+"Burke," he said; "upon my life, this is the first time I ever saw you
+when you had taken too much to drink."
+
+"Is that the way you are going to reply to me?" asked Radnor, with all
+the insistence of a thoroughly trained newspaper man. "You'd best use
+me right, you know. It's a great 'beat,' and I want all of it. I'd
+like to talk with the bride, too, if you can fix--"
+
+"But I don't know what the blazes you are talking about, man."
+
+"I am talking about the little ceremony that took place this evening
+at the Little Church Around the Corner, and was indulged in between
+you and the former Miss Brunswick; as a sort of _entr'acte_ to the
+opera of Salome," said Radnor, with slow distinctness.
+
+Duncan stiffened where he stood. The smile left his face, and his eyes
+narrowed, while his clean-cut features seemed to harden in every line
+of them.
+
+"Radnor," he said with a slow drawl, which to those who knew him best
+betrayed intense anger, "you will be good enough to explain to me,
+here and now, in plain English and in as few words as possible,
+exactly what you mean."
+
+"I mean," was the ready retort, "that you and Miss Beatrice Brunswick
+were married to-night at the Little Church Around the Corner, between
+two of the acts of Salome. I mean that I've got the straight tip, and
+I know it to be true. I wish to quote you, if possible, in what I
+shall write about it for the morning papers. I'd like to get a
+statement from the bride, too."
+
+"Are you crazy, Radnor?" asked Duncan, bending forward, his face white
+and set, and his eyes hard and cold; for Roderick Duncan, with all his
+apparent quietude, was a man whom it was not safe to try too far.
+
+"No, I'm not crazy. I'm just telling you what's what. I'll get the
+whole story, and what's more, I'll print it in the morning papers! If
+you wish to say anything in explanation of the incident, I shall be
+glad to quote you; but, otherwise, I shall take the liberty of drawing
+my own inferences, and assuming my own conclusions, from the story I
+have heard. I tell you, Mr. Duncan, I've got it straight, and I know
+it to be true."
+
+"It is not true," said Duncan, quietly. "The person who told you such
+a story as that lied."
+
+Radnor shrugged his shoulders, and laughed, ironically.
+
+"I don't know that I blame you for denying it," he said, "but I happen
+to know differently. If you choose to deny it, I'll send my card
+inside to Mrs. Duncan, and we'll see, then, what we shall see. You
+can't bluff me, Mr. Duncan. I'm not that sort. If you won't talk,
+perhaps the former Miss Brunswick, will, and--"
+
+Radnor got no further than that. Duncan's rage, the moment he
+understood the situation and fully realized the possible consequences
+of it in the hands of this ubiquitous newspaper man, overcame him,
+utterly. His right arm shot out with terrific force, his clenched fist
+caught Radnor squarely on the point of the chin, and the latter was
+knocked half-senseless to the floor. Waiters, and attendants about the
+place rushed toward them; but Duncan slowly drew a handkerchief from
+one of his pockets, and, calmly wiping his hands upon it, said to the
+manager:
+
+"Kick the dog into the street; that is what he deserves. He probably
+followed me when I came away from the opera-house, and now he is
+trying to make capital out of a meaningless incident. Put him out, and
+don't permit him to pass the door again to-night; otherwise, he will
+seek to annoy a lady who is here."
+
+Then, he turned calmly about, and, although his features were still
+pale, reëntered the dining-room as if nothing had happened. Duncan
+confidently believed that he had correctly estimated the cause of
+Radnor's quest for news. It never occurred to him that Beatrice
+Brunswick was herself, through the agency of Jack Gardner, the cause
+of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A REMARKABLE MEETING
+
+
+When Jack Gardner returned to the dining-room after his interview with
+Radnor, he was vaguely troubled, notwithstanding the fact that he was
+also highly amused. There were elements associated with the thing he
+had just done that might stir up unpleasant consequences. His
+inordinate love for a practical joke had led him into it willingly,
+and he had thought he saw in this affair the best and greatest joke he
+had ever attempted to perpetrate. But he began to understand that
+there was a tragic element to it which he could not deny to himself;
+and, when he was in the act of resuming his chair beside Beatrice, he
+was more than half-inclined, even then, to rush from the building in
+the pursuit of Burke Radnor, and to withdraw the whole story that he
+had given to the newspaper man.
+
+When, a few moments later, Radnor's card was brought to Duncan, the
+sense of impending disaster was stronger than ever upon Gardner, and
+he watched the departure of the young millionaire with many
+misgivings, not one of which he could have defined in words. But he
+watched the doorway through which Duncan passed, and, during the
+interval that ensued, he was very palpably disturbed and uneasy. He
+had recognized the card, although he had been unable to see the name
+that was engraved upon it. He had not supposed that Radnor would so
+quickly pursue his investigation of the story, and it had not even
+remotely occurred to the young copper-king, that the newspaper man
+would dare to go so far as to seek an immediate interview with Duncan.
+Even had the man selected Beatrice, it would not have been quite so
+bad.
+
+Nobody knew Duncan better than did Jack Gardner, and he realized what
+a strong and stirring effect this fake-story, as made up between
+himself and Beatrice, might have upon one who was such a stickler for
+certain forms as he knew Duncan to be. His impulse was to follow his
+friend from the room, but he resisted it, although he did keep his
+gaze spasmodically fixed upon the door by which Roderick must reënter
+the dining-room.
+
+Gardner was the first of the party to discover him, when he did
+return, and was quick to see that something unusual had happened
+during the interval outside, which had been all too short to have
+been fruitful of any other result than violence of some sort. He saw,
+by the set expression of his friend's face and by the pallor upon it,
+that something had gone wrong, and he started to his feet and moved
+rapidly forward, so that he met Duncan half-way between the entrance
+and the table where Beatrice and Sally Gardner were now left alone
+together. He grasped his friend by the arm, and drew him aside, saying
+rapidly, as he did so:
+
+"For God's sake, Dun, what has happened? Tell me quickly."
+
+Roderick Duncan looked down calmly, and without change of expression
+upon Gardner, for he was considerably taller than his friend; and he
+said, slowly, in reply:
+
+"Without answering your question, Jack, I wish to ask you one. Was it
+Burke Radnor whom you were called out to meet, a little while ago, in
+the reception-room?"
+
+Not thinking of the possible consequences of his response, Gardner
+admitted, hastily, that it had been Radnor, and Duncan asked another
+question.
+
+"Did Radnor question you about a marriage-ceremony that is supposed to
+have taken place between Beatrice Brunswick and myself, to-night?"
+
+"Well, you see--"
+
+"Answer me yes, or no, Jack, if you please."
+
+"Well, then, he did."
+
+"Have you any idea, Jack, where he obtained the nucleus for such a
+story?"
+
+Gardner hesitated, and Duncan from his greater height, bent forward
+quickly, and with a strong grip, seized the young copper-king by the
+shoulder.
+
+"Jack Gardner," he demanded, "did you, at the instigation of Beatrice,
+concoct that story? Have I you to thank for it? You need not answer,
+Jack. I can read the reply in the expression of your face." He
+withdrew his hand from its detaining grasp upon his friend, and took a
+half-step backward; then, he added: "Jack, if we were anywhere else
+than in a public dining-room, I should resent what you have done
+bitterly--and by actions, not words. As it is, I demand that you
+instantly seek, and find, Burke Radnor, and retract whatever you have
+said, or inferred, during your conversation with him. I warn you,
+Gardner, that if one single line appears in any of the papers
+to-morrow morning on this subject I'll find a way to resent it, which
+will make you regret, all your life, your nameless conduct of
+to-night."
+
+Gardner turned decidedly pale, not because of any physical fear he
+felt of Duncan, but in dread of the possible consequences of what he
+had permitted himself to do.
+
+"Where is Radnor, now?" he exclaimed, quickly.
+
+"I left him half-conscious, on the floor of the reception-room,"
+replied Duncan, calmly. "I knocked him down."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Gardner; and he turned and rushed away with
+precipitate haste.
+
+Duncan went on toward the table at which Beatrice and Sally were
+seated, but as he approached it, a desire to hear the sound of
+Patricia's voice possessed him, and he turned abruptly toward that
+other table, occupied by Stephen Langdon, with his daughter and the
+lawyer.
+
+Devoting a careless nod to the two men, Duncan addressed his fiancée,
+speaking loudly enough so that her companions might hear.
+
+"Patricia," he said, "will you do me a very great favor? It is of
+vital importance, otherwise I would not ask it."
+
+"Indeed?" she replied, raising her big, dark eyes to his. "Your
+question and your manner as well imply something that is almost
+tragic, Roderick. What is it that you wish me to do?"
+
+"A very little thing, Patricia. Will you, for a moment, accompany me
+to the table where Beatrice and Sally Gardner are dining?"
+
+"Why, most certainly," she replied. "You give a very big reason for a
+very small thing, don't you? Of course, I will go to them." She left
+her seat instantly, and crossed to the other table; Duncan followed,
+closely. Patricia accepted the chair that Jack Gardner had occupied,
+which Duncan drew out for her. Then, he resumed his own. As soon as
+they were seated, the young millionaire, drawing his chair a bit
+closer, said, addressing them, generally:
+
+"I have something to say which I wish each of you to hear. To-night, a
+rumor has been started, somehow, that Miss Brunswick and I were
+married an hour or so ago, at the Church of the Transfiguration."
+Patricia gave a slight start, but he continued, unheedingly: "A
+certain newspaper man, Radnor by name, has already sought to interview
+me, and he went so far as to insist that he was positive in his
+assertions as to such a ceremony having taken place. Of course,
+Beatrice and I both know it to be untrue, and I now make this
+statement in order to warn you all of what may possibly appear in the
+morning papers; that is all I have to say on the subject."
+
+Beatrice had flushed hotly at the beginning of his statement, and,
+while he continued, she turned deadly pale. Sally, who it will be
+remembered had not been taken into the confidence of the intriguers,
+laughed. Patricia was the only one who appeared to be unmoved by the
+announcement, but she kept her eyes fixed upon the face of her friend,
+and she correctly interpreted the changing colors and expressions of
+Beatrice Brunswick's face.
+
+Whatever might have been the consequences of Duncan's announcement and
+Miss Brunswick's emotions, her conscious blushes and subsequent
+pallor, it was interrupted by the sudden and swift return of Gardner,
+who exclaimed, excitedly:
+
+"Sally, I want you right away; and you, too, Beatrice. It's almost a
+matter of life and death. Never mind the supper--we can have one some
+other time. Duncan, you won't mind, will you, if I take them away?" He
+leaned forward and added, in a whisper: "I am carrying out what you
+asked me to do, and I need their help." Then, straightening himself,
+he addressed Patricia: "You will excuse us all, won't you? Come,
+Sally; for heaven's sake, make haste! There isn't a moment of time to
+lose."
+
+Sally Gardner had never seen her husband in quite such a state of
+excitement, but as she was one of the kind that is always ready for
+anything in the shape of adventure, and scented one here, she lost no
+time in complying with his request. Beatrice's expression was first of
+amusement; then, of comprehension. Almost before any of the party
+fully realized what had happened, Jack Gardner and his companions were
+gone. Patricia and Roderick Duncan were alone at the table.
+
+She turned her expressive eyes toward him and regarded him closely,
+but in silence, for a moment. Then, in a low tone, she inquired:
+
+"May I ask if you understand this amazing succession of incidents? To
+me, it is entirely incomprehensible. If you can explain it, I wish you
+would do so."
+
+"I am afraid, Patricia, that it cannot be explained--that is, any
+farther than I've already done so," he replied.
+
+"Who is responsible for this remarkable story you say the newspaper
+man asked you about?"
+
+Duncan hesitated. Then, he replied:
+
+"When Beatrice and I left the opera-house to-night, we entered a
+taxicab, and we did drive as far as the iron gateway that admits one
+to the Church of the Transfiguration. We did not enter; in fact, we
+did not leave the cab at all. It is possible, though hardly probable,
+that we were followed by some reporter."
+
+"But why did you drive to the Church of the Transfiguration, at all?"
+she asked him, with a smile upon her face that had something of
+derision in it, for she plainly saw that Duncan was floundering badly
+in his effort to explain. When he hesitated for a suitable reply, she
+continued: "Why, may I ask, did you leave the box at the opera-house,
+in such a surreptitious manner? It seems to me that the Church of the
+Transfiguration was an odd destination for you to have selected, when
+you did leave it, with Beatrice for a companion. Or was there a
+pre-arrangement between you. Was it her suggestion, or was it yours,
+Roderick?"
+
+"It was mine," he replied; and he could not help smiling at the
+recollection of it, even though the present moment was filled with
+tragic possibilities.
+
+"It seems to amuse you," she told him.
+
+"It does--now."
+
+"Had you, for the moment, forgotten that you were under contract with
+me, for Monday morning?"
+
+Instead of replying at once, he leaned forward half-across the table
+toward her, and, fixing his gaze steadily upon her, said, with low
+earnestness:
+
+"Patricia, for God's sake, let us cease all this fencing; let us put
+an end to this succession of misunderstandings. You know how I love
+you! You know--"
+
+"I know that this is a very badly chosen time and place for you to
+make such declarations, or for me to listen to them. Will you come
+back with me now to the other table, and join Mr. Melvin and my
+father? People have begun to observe us. If these rumors bear any
+fruits, such a course seems to me to be the best one to adopt, under
+the circumstances."
+
+She arose without awaiting his reply, and he followed her.
+
+"Melvin," he said to the lawyer, as soon as he was seated at the other
+table, "Miss Langdon will agree with me, I think, that it is quite
+necessary I should accompany you to your home when we leave this
+place, in order to examine with you certain papers which you have
+drawn, or are to draw, at her request. Have I your permission,
+Patricia?" he added.
+
+"I see no objection, if that is what you mean," Patricia replied;
+"although I think it would be better that we should all drive together
+to Mr. Melvin's house for the papers--"
+
+"I have them here, in my pocket," the lawyer interrupted her.
+
+"So much the better, then," Patricia continued, rapidly. "I think the
+best arrangement, all circumstances considered, would be to go
+together to my father's house, so that all the interested parties may
+be present at the interview."
+
+Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, this was agreed upon, and in
+due time the four were grouped in the library of the Langdon home,
+where Malcolm Melvin, with the notes he had made that afternoon before
+him, began in a monotonous voice to read the stipulations of the
+document upon which Patricia Langdon had decided that she could rely,
+to supply a soothing balm for her wounded pride. It was a strange
+gathering to assemble at two o'clock in the morning, but none of them,
+save possibly the lawyer, seemed cognizant of the curious aspect of
+the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE BITTERNESS OF JEALOUSY
+
+
+James, the footman, entered the library before Malcolm Melvin had
+completed the first sentence of the reading of Patricia's
+stipulations, and deferentially addressed himself to Roderick Duncan:
+
+"Pardon me, sir," he said, "but there is an urgent demand for you at
+the telephone--so urgent that I thought it necessary to interrupt
+you."
+
+"For me? Are you sure?" asked Duncan, in surprise. For, at the moment,
+he could not imagine who sought him at such an hour, or how his
+presence at Langdon's house, was known.
+
+"Yes, sir. Mr. Gardner is on the wire."
+
+Duncan started to his feet, and hurried from the room, while Patricia,
+after a moment's hesitation, arose and followed him, glancing toward
+the big clock in one corner of the library as she passed it, and
+observing that it was already Sunday morning.
+
+She waited in the hallway, outside the library door, until Duncan
+reappeared, after his talk with Jack Gardner over the telephone, and
+she stopped him, by a gesture.
+
+"What is it, Roderick?" she asked. "I think I know what it must be. If
+it is anything that concerns me, I should like to know about it at
+once. It is something about the--the rumor of your marriage to
+Beatrice?"
+
+"It concerns you only indirectly, Patricia," he replied. "I am afraid
+that I must defer the reading of those stipulations until another
+time. Gardner is very anxious for me to go to him at once."
+
+"Why?" It was a simple, but a very direct question, which there was no
+possibility of avoiding.
+
+"Gardner has kidnapped Radnor, and has him now at his own house.
+Radnor is the newspaper man whom I--who sought to interview me.
+Beatrice is there, with Sally. You know, they left Delmonico's
+together. My presence is insisted upon in order properly to clear up
+this unfortunate business. I really must go, you see. It is necessary
+for all concerned that this matter go no farther."
+
+He would have said more, but she turned calmly away from him, and
+spoke to the footman.
+
+"James," she said, "have Philip at the front door with the Packard, as
+quickly as possible." Then, to Duncan, she added: "I'll go with you;
+I shall be ready in a moment. You must wait for me, Roderick."
+
+"But, Patricia," exclaimed Duncan, startled and greatly dismayed by
+her decision, reached so suddenly, "have you thought what time it is?"
+
+"Yes," she responded, moving toward the stairway. "I have just looked
+at the clock. It is two o'clock, Sunday morning. I understand, also,
+that the conventions would be shocked, if the conventions understood
+the situation; but, fortunately, the conventions do not. You and I
+will drive to Sally Gardner's home together. I shall bring Beatrice
+back with me when we return. Please, make our apologies to my father
+and Mr. Melvin. I shall rejoin you in a moment."
+
+There was no help for it, and Duncan waited, for he knew that, even if
+he should hasten on alone, Patricia would follow in the automobile, as
+soon as Philip brought it to the door. He sent James into the library
+with the announcement, and a moment later assisted Patricia into the
+hastily summoned car. The drive to the home of Jack Gardner was a
+short one, and was made in utter silence between the two young persons
+so deeply interested in each other, yet so widely separated by the
+occurrences of that fateful Saturday afternoon. Duncan knew that it
+was useless to expostulate with Patricia; and she, following her
+adopted course of outward indifference to everything save her personal
+interests, preferred to say nothing at all.
+
+When the automobile came to a stop before Gardner's door, Jack himself
+rushed down the steps; but he paused midway between the bottom one and
+the curb, when he discovered that Duncan was not alone in the car, and
+he uttered a low whistle of consternation. He said something under his
+breath, too, but neither of the occupants of the automobile could hear
+it; and then, as he stepped forward to assist Patricia to alight, she
+said to him, in her usual quiet manner:
+
+"Inasmuch as I am an interested party in this affair, Jack, I thought
+it important that I should accompany Mr. Duncan. I hope you do not
+regret that I have done so."
+
+"Why--er--certainly not; not at all, Patricia. I don't know but that
+it is better--your having done so. You see--er--things have somehow
+got into a most damna--terrific tangle, you know, and I suppose I am
+partly responsible for it; if not wholly so. I--"
+
+"You need not explain; believe me, Jack," she interrupted him, and
+passed on toward the steps, ascending them alone in advance of the
+two men who had paused for a moment beside the automobile, facing each
+other. Then, things happened, and they followed one another so swiftly
+that it is almost impossible to give a comprehensive description of
+them.
+
+Philip, the chauffeur, sprang out from under the steering-wheel and
+for some reason unknown to anyone but himself, passed around to the
+rear of the car. He had permitted the engine to run on, merely
+throwing out the clutch when he came to a stop. The noise of the
+machinery interfered with the low-toned conversation that Duncan
+wished to have with Jack Gardner, and so the two stepped aside, moving
+a few paces away from the car, and also beyond the steps leading to
+the entrance of Gardner's home. Patricia passed through the open door,
+unannounced, for the owner of the house had left it ajar when he ran
+down the steps to greet Duncan. Miss Langdon had barely disappeared
+inside the doorway, when the hatless figure of a man sprang through
+it. He ran down the steps, and jumped into the driver's seat of the
+Packard car before either Duncan, or Gardner, whose backs were
+half-turned in that direction, realized what was taking place.
+
+The man was Radnor, of course. He had found an opportunity to escape
+from his difficulties, and had taken advantage of it, without a
+moment's hesitation. He had argued that there would still be time,
+before the last edition of the newspapers should go to press, if he
+could only get to a telephone and succeed in convincing the night
+editor of the wisdom of holding the forms for this great story. Any
+newspaper would answer his purpose, for he believed that he could hold
+back any one of them a few moments, if only he could get to a
+telephone.
+
+Radnor had not reckoned on the automobile, but he knew how to operate
+a Packard car as well as did the chauffeur himself, and he had barely
+reached the seat under the wheel when the big machine shot forward
+with rapidly increasing speed. He left the chauffeur, and the two
+young millionaires gaping after it with unmitigated astonishment and
+chagrin. Duncan and Gardner, both, realized that the newspaper man had
+escaped them, and each of them understood only too well that at least
+one of the city newspapers was now likely to print the hateful story
+of the supposed marriage, beneath glaring and astonishing headlines,
+the following morning.
+
+Duncan swore, softly and rapidly, but with emphasis; Jack Gardner,
+broke into uproarous laughter, which he could not possibly repress or
+control; the chauffeur started up the avenue on a run, in a fruitless
+chase after the on-rushing car, which even at that moment whirled
+around the corner toward Madison avenue, and disappeared. Gardner
+continued to laugh on, until Duncan seized him by the shoulder, and
+shook him with some violence.
+
+"Shut up your infernal clatter, Jack!" he exclaimed, momentarily
+forgetful of his anger at his friend. "Help me to think what can be
+done to head off that crazy fool, will you? It isn't half-past two
+o'clock, yet, and he will succeed in catching at least one of the
+newspapers, before it goes to press; God only knows how many others he
+will connect with, by telephone. What shall we do?"
+
+"I can get out one of my own cars in ten minutes," began Gardner. But
+his friend interrupted him:
+
+"Come with me," Duncan exclaimed; and, being almost as familiar with
+the interior of the house as its owner was, he dashed up the steps
+through the still open doorway, and ran onward up the stairs toward
+the smoking-room on the second floor, closely followed by Gardner.
+There he seized upon the telephone, and asked for the _New York
+Herald_, fortunately knowing the number. While he awaited a response
+to his call he put one hand over the transmitter, and said, rapidly,
+to his companion:
+
+"Jack, I have just called up the night city editor of the _Herald_.
+While I am talking with him, I wish you would make use of the
+telephone-directory, and write down the numbers of the calls for the
+other leading newspapers in town. This is the only way possible by
+which we may succeed in getting ahead of Radnor."
+
+Any person who has ever had to do with newspaper life will understand
+how futile such an attempt as this one would be to interfere with
+interesting news, during the last moments before going to press. City
+editors, and especially night city editors, have no time to devote to
+complaints, unless those complaints possess news-value. Nothing short
+of dynamite, can "kill" a "good story," once it has gone to the
+composing-room. Whatever it was that Duncan said to the gentleman in
+charge of the desk at the _Herald_ office, and to the gentlemen in
+charge of other desks, at other newspaper offices, need not be
+recorded here. Each of the persons, so addressed, probably listened,
+with apparent interest, to a small part of his statement, and as
+inevitably interrupted him by inquiring if it were Mr. Duncan in
+person who was talking; and, when an affirmative answer was given to
+this inquiry, Roderick was not long in discovering that he had
+succeeded only in supplying an additional value to the story, and in
+giving a personal interview over a telephone-wire. He realized, too
+late, that instead of interfering with whatever intention Burke Radnor
+might have had in making the escape, he had materially aided this
+ubiquitous person in his plans. The mere mention by him to each of the
+city editors that Radnor was the man of whom he was complaining, gave
+assurance to those gentlemen that some sort of important news was on
+the way to them, and therefore Duncan succeeded only in accomplishing
+what Radnor most desired--that is, in holding back the closing of the
+forms, as long as possible, for Radnor's story, whatever it might
+prove to be.
+
+Meanwhile, directly beneath the room where Duncan was so frantically
+telephoning, a scene of quite a different character was taking place.
+
+When Patricia entered the house, she passed rapidly forward to the
+spacious library, encountering no one. Entering it, she found Sally
+Gardner seated upon one of the chairs, convulsed with laughter, while
+directly before her stood Beatrice, her eyes flashing contemptuous
+anger, and scorn upon the fun-loving and now half-hysterical young
+matron, who seemed to be unduly amused. Neither of them was at the
+moment, conscious of Patricia's presence. She had approached so
+quietly and swiftly that her footsteps along the hallway had made no
+sound.
+
+"You helped Burke Radnor to escape from us, Sally!" Beatrice was
+exclaiming, angrily. "I haven't a doubt that you put him up to it. I
+believe you would be delighted to see that hateful story in the
+newspapers. It was a despicable thing for you to do."
+
+"Oh, Beatrice!" Sally exclaimed, when she could find breath to do so.
+"It is all so very funny--"
+
+She discovered Patricia's presence, and stopped abruptly; then, she
+started to her feet, and, passing around the table quickly, greeted
+Miss Langdon with effusion.
+
+"Why, Patricia!" she exclaimed. "I had no idea that you were here."
+
+Beatrice turned quickly at the mention of Patricia's name, and her
+anger at Sally Gardner was suddenly turned against Patricia Langdon,
+with tenfold force and vehemence. It is an axiom that blue-eyed women
+have more violent tempers than black-eyed ones, once they are
+thoroughly aroused. Your brunette will flash and sputter, and say
+hasty things impulsively, or emotionally, but her anger is likely to
+pass as quickly as it arises, and it is almost sure to leave no
+lasting sting, behind it. Your fair-haired, fair-skinned, man or
+woman, when thoroughly aroused, is inclined to be implacable,
+unrelenting, even cruel.
+
+Beatrice Brunswick's eyes were flashing with passionate fury, and,
+although she did not realize it, the greater part of her display of
+temper, was really directed against herself, because deep down in her
+sub-consciousness she knew that she alone was responsible for the
+present predicament. But anger is unreasoning, and, when one is angry
+at oneself, one is only too apt to seek for another person upon whom
+to visit the consequences. Patricia made her appearance just in time
+to offer herself as a target for Miss Brunswick's wrath; and Beatrice,
+totally unmindful of Sally's presence, loosed her tongue, and
+permitted words to flow, which, had she stopped to think, she never
+would have uttered.
+
+"It is you! you! Patricia Langdon, who are responsible for this
+dreadful state of affairs," she cried out, starting forward, and, with
+one hand resting upon the corner of the library table, bending a
+little toward the haughty, Junoesque young woman she was addressing.
+"It is you, who dare to play with a man's love as a child would play
+with a doll, and who think it can be made to conform to the spirit of
+your unholy pride as readily. It is your fault that I am placed in
+this dreadful position, so that now, with Sally's connivance, this
+dreadful tale is likely to appear in every one of the morning papers.
+You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Pat Langdon, for doing what you
+have done! You ought to get down on your knees to Roderick Duncan, and
+beg his eternal pardon for the agony you have caused him, since noon
+of yesterday. I know it all--I know the whole story, from beginning to
+end! I know what your unreasoning pride and your haughty willfulness,
+have accomplished: they have driven almost to desperation the man who
+loves you better than he loves anything else in the world! But you
+have no heart. The place inside you where it should exist is an empty
+void. If it were not, you would realize to what dreadful straits you
+have brought us all, and to what degree of desperation you have driven
+me, who sought to help you. I tell you, now, to your face, that
+Roderick Duncan is one man in ten thousand; and that he has loved you
+for years, as a woman is rarely loved. But you cast his love aside as
+if it were of no value--as if it were a little thing, to be picked up
+anywhere, and to be played with, as a child plays with a toy.
+Possibly it may please you now to hear one thing more; but, whether it
+does or not, you shall hear it. Roderick was in a desperate mood,
+to-night, because of your treatment of him, and he did ask me to marry
+him. So there! He did ask me! And I--I was a fool not to take him at
+his word. But he doesn't--he didn't--he--" She ceased as abruptly as
+she had begun the tirade.
+
+Patricia had started backward a little before Beatrice's vehemence,
+and her eyes had gradually widened and darkened, while she sought and
+obtained her accustomed control over her own emotions. Now, with a
+slight shrug of her shoulders and a smile that was maddening to the
+young woman who faced her, she interrupted:
+
+"You should have accepted Mr. Duncan's proposal," she said, icily,
+"for, if I read you correctly now, the fulfillment of it would have
+been most agreeable to you. One might quite readily assume from your
+conduct and the words you use that you love Roderick Duncan almost as
+madly as you say he loves me."
+
+"Well?" Beatrice raised her chin, and stood erect and defiant before
+her former friend. "Well?" she repeated. "And what if I do?"
+
+Patricia shrugged her shoulders again, and turned slowly away, but as
+she did so, said slowly and distinctly:
+
+"Possibly, I am mistaken, after all. I had forgotten the attractive
+qualities of Mr. Duncan's millions." Beatrice gasped; but Patricia
+added, without perceptible pause: "I should warn you, however, that
+Mr. Duncan is under a verbal agreement with me! We are to meet and
+sign a contract, Monday morning. It seems to be my duty to remind you
+of that much, Miss Brunswick."
+
+Patricia did not wait to see the effect of her words. Outwardly calm,
+she was a seething furnace of wrath within. She turned away abruptly,
+and passed through the open doorway into the hall. There, she stopped.
+She had nearly collided with Duncan and Jack Gardner, who were both
+standing where they must have heard all that had passed inside the
+library. Both were plainly confused, for neither had meant to hear,
+but there had been no way to escape. Patricia understood the situation
+perfectly, and she kept her self possession, if they did not. For just
+one instant, so short as to be almost imperceptible, she hesitated,
+then, addressing Gardner, she said in her most conventional tones:
+
+"Jack, will you take me to my car, please?"
+
+"It's gone, Patricia," he replied, relieved by the calmness of her
+manner. "Radnor took it, you know, when he made his escape. I suppose
+it is standing in front of some newspaper office, at the present
+moment, but God only knows which one it is. I'll tell you what I'll
+do, though: I'll order one of my own cars around. It won't take five
+minutes, even at this ungodly hour. I always keep one on tap, for
+emergencies."
+
+"I prefer not to wait," she replied. "It is only a short distance. I
+shall ask you to walk home with me, if you will."
+
+"Sure!" exclaimed Gardner, glad of any method by which the present
+predicament might be escaped; and he called aloud to one of the
+servants to bring him his hat and coat.
+
+Duncan had moved forward quickly, toward Patricia, to offer his
+services, but had paused with the words he would have said unuttered.
+He understood that the trying scene through which Patricia had just
+passed, had embittered her anew against him; and so he stood aside
+while she went with Gardner from the house to the street. His impulse
+was to follow, for he, also, wished to escape. Then, he was aware that
+he still wore his hat. During the excitement, he had not removed it,
+since entering the house. He started for the door, but was arrested
+before he had taken two steps, by Sally Gardner's voice calling to him
+frantically from the library.
+
+He turned and sprang into the room, to find that Beatrice was lying at
+full length on the floor, with Sally sobbing and stroking her hands,
+and calling upon her, in frightened tones, to speak. But Beatrice had
+only fainted, and, when Duncan knelt down beside her, she opened her
+blue eyes and looked up at him, trying to smile.
+
+In that instant of pity and remorse, he forgot all else save the
+stricken Beatrice, and what, in her anger, she had confessed to
+Patricia. The rapidly succeeding incidents of that day and night had
+unnerved him, also. He was suddenly convinced of the futility of
+winning the love and confidence of Patricia, and, with an impulse
+born, he could not have told when, or how, or why, he bent forward
+quickly and touched his lips to Beatrice's forehead.
+
+"Is it true, Beatrice? Is it true?" he asked her, in a low tone; and,
+totally misunderstanding his question, entirely misconstruing it's
+meaning, she replied:
+
+"God help me, yes. God help us all."
+
+Then, she lapsed again into unconsciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT
+
+
+Sally Gardner had found time during this short scene to recover from
+her moment of excitement. She had heard, and she thought she
+understood. Being a many-sided young matron, the best one of all came
+to the surface now--the one that even her best friends had never
+supposed her to possess. Underneath her fun-and-laughter-loving
+nature, Sally was gifted with more than her share of rugged
+common-sense, inherited, doubtless, from her Montana ancestors.
+
+Even as Duncan bent above Beatrice's unconscious form, and before he
+spoke to her, Sally had started to her feet and pressed the
+electric-button in the wall, with the consequence that, at the instant
+when Beatrice became unconscious the second time, two of the servants
+entered the room.
+
+"Miss Brunswick has only fainted," she told them, rapidly. "Lift her,
+and carry her to my room. Tell Pauline to care for her, and that I
+shall be there, immediately." She stood aside while they carried out
+her commands; then, she turned upon Duncan.
+
+"You are a great fool, Roderick!" she exclaimed, without stopping to
+weigh her words. "I thought you had some sense; but it seems that you
+have none at all. Leave the house at once; and don't you dare to seek
+Beatrice Brunswick, until you have settled, in one way or another,
+your affairs with Patricia Langdon. Now, go! Really, I thought I liked
+you, immensely, but, for the present moment, I am not sure whether I
+hate you, or despise you! Do go, there's a good fellow; and I'll send
+you word, in the morning, how Beatrice is."
+
+"Sally, what a little trump you are!" he exclaimed. "I know I'm a
+fool; I have certainly found it out during the last twelve or fourteen
+hours. You'll have to help me out of this muddle, somehow; you seem to
+be the only one in the lot of us who has any sense."
+
+"Then, help yourself out of the house, as quickly as you know how,"
+she retorted; and she ran past him up the stairs, toward the room
+where she had directed that Beatrice should be taken.
+
+Duncan sighed. He looked around him for his hat, to find that it was
+still crushed down on the back of his head, and, smiling grimly to
+himself, he passed out of the house upon the street.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Only one of the great dailies of New York City, published that Sunday
+morning, contained any reference whatever to the supposed incident of
+the wedding ceremony between Roderick Duncan and Miss Brunswick, at
+"The Little Church Around the Corner." The editors had been afraid to
+use Radnor's story, without verification. To them, it had seemed
+preposterous and unnatural, and especially were they reluctant to
+print anything concerning it when Radnor was forced to admit to them
+that Jack Gardner had ultimately denied the truth of the story he had
+first told.
+
+But there is one paper in the city that is always eager for
+sensations, and unfortunately it is not very particular concerning the
+use of them. This paper published a "story," as a newspaper would call
+it, which was told so ambiguously and with such skill as to preclude
+any possibility of a libelous action, while the suggestions it
+contained were so strongly made that the article was entertaining, at
+least, and it supplied, in many quarters, an opportunity for
+discussion and gossip. It hinted at scandal in association with
+Roderick Duncan and his millions. What more could be desired of it?
+
+The story was merely a relation of the events as we know them, at the
+outset. It told of the party in the box at the opera-house, of the
+departure therefrom of Duncan and Miss Brunswick and of their
+destination when they entered the taxicab; after that, everything
+contained in the article, was surmise, but it was couched in such
+terms that many who read it actually believed a marriage-ceremony had
+taken place. During Sunday, Duncan was sought by reporters of various
+newspapers. He readily admitted them to his presence, but would submit
+to no interview further than to state that the rumor was absolutely
+false, was utterly without foundation, and that he would prosecute any
+newspaper daring to uphold it. Miss Brunswick could not be found by
+these news-gatherers. Old Steve Langdon laughed when they sought him,
+and assured them that there was no truth whatever in the rumor.
+Patricia, naturally regarded as an interested party, declined to be
+seen.
+
+Radnor himself sought out Jack Gardner, but it is not necessary that
+we should relate the particulars of that interview. Suffice it to say
+that no further reference was made to the supposed incident by any
+newspaper, and that it was quickly forgotten, save by a very few
+individuals, who made it a point to remember.
+
+During the day, Duncan sought to communicate with Sally Gardner over
+the telephone, but succeeded only in obtaining a statement from one of
+the footmen, to the effect that Mrs. Gardner presented her compliments
+to Mr. Duncan, and wished it to be said that she would communicate
+with him by letter; and that, in the meantime, there existed no cause
+whatever, for anxiety on his part.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PATRICIA'S COWBOY LOVER
+
+
+On Sunday evening Patricia Langdon was alone in the library of her
+home, occupying her favorite corner beneath the drop-light. For an
+hour she had tried in vain to interest herself in the reading of the
+latest novel. Try as she might, she could not center her mind upon the
+printed words contained in the volume she held, for, inevitably, her
+thoughts drifted away to the occurrences of the preceding day and
+evening. No matter how assiduously she endeavored to put those
+thoughts aside, they insisted upon looming up before her, and at last,
+with a sigh, she closed her book and laid it aside. The hour was still
+early, it being barely eight o'clock, when James, the footman, entered
+the room and announced:
+
+"Miss Houston; Miss Frances Houston."
+
+Patricia had fully intended to instruct the servants that she was not
+to be at home to anyone, that evening, but, absorbed by other
+thoughts, she had forgotten to do so, and now it was too late; so she
+received the two young ladies who were presently shown into the
+library. She greeted them in her usual manner, which was neither
+cordial, nor repellant, but which was entirely characteristic of this
+rather strange young woman. She understood perfectly well why they had
+called upon her at this time. They had not missed seeing that article
+in the one morning paper where it appeared.
+
+"You see, Patricia," exclaimed Miss Houston, whose given name was
+Agnes, "Frances and I happened to read that remarkable tale that was
+printed in one of the papers this morning, about a marriage between
+Rod Duncan and Beatrice. We thought it so absurd: We couldn't resist
+the temptation to come over to see you, for a few minutes this very
+evening, and discuss it; could we, Frances?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied her sister.
+
+"I have not seen any such article," said Patricia; and, indeed, she
+had not. "But I don't know why either of you should wish to discuss it
+with me; so, if you don't mind, we'll change the subject before we
+begin it."
+
+"Why, you see," began Agnes Houston, with some evidence of excitement;
+but she was fortunately interrupted by the footman, who entered, and
+announced in his automatic voice:
+
+"Mr. Nesbit Farnham."
+
+The workings of the human mind will forever remain a mystery. Had
+Nesbit Farnham been announced before the arrival of the two young
+women, Patricia would undoubtedly have denied herself to him; but,
+with the announcement of his name, there came to her the sudden
+recollection of the ultimatum pronounced by Richard Morton the
+preceding afternoon, when he had brought her home from her father's
+office in his automobile, the tonneau of which had been occupied by
+the two young women who were now present with her in the room. Why the
+announcement of Farnham's name should remind her of Morton's promise
+to call, this Sunday evening, cannot be said; but it did so, and she
+nodded to James.
+
+"Hello, Patricia!" Farnham exclaimed, as he entered the room
+vigorously, for this young society beau and cotillion-leader had long
+been on terms of intimacy with the Langdon household, and was, in
+fact, a privileged character throughout his social set. "I am mighty
+glad that you received me. It's rather an off night, you know, and I
+wasn't sure, at all that you would do so. Good-evening, Agnes. How
+are you, Frances? Jolly glad to see you. I say, Patricia, what's all
+that nonsense I saw in the paper this morning, about Duncan and
+Beatrice getting married last night? Do you know anything about it?"
+
+"I know nothing whatever about it, Nesbit, save that it is untrue,"
+replied Patricia, calmly. "That much I do know; but I don't care to
+discuss it."
+
+Farnham flirted his handkerchief from his pocket, and patted it softly
+against his forehead, smiling gently as he did so. Then, he said:
+
+"To tell you the truth, Patricia, the news was rather a facer, don't
+you know; for my first impulse was to believe it. Oh, I won't discuss
+it; you needn't frown like that; but I just want to tell you that I've
+been looking all over town for Duncan, and I couldn't find him. Then,
+about an hour ago, I called upon Beatrice, only to be informed that
+she was not at home, and had not been, ever since yesterday evening.
+You see, I didn't get out of bed till two this afternoon, and it was
+four by the time I was dressed and on the street. I didn't take much
+stock, myself, in the report I read in the paper, until I was told
+that Beatrice had disappeared. But that got me guessing, and so I came
+to you, to find out the truth about it. Please tell me again that it
+isn't true, and I'll be satisfied."
+
+"It isn't true," replied Patricia, calmly.
+
+James, the footman, made another appearance on the scene at that
+moment, and proclaimed the arrival of Mr. Richard Morton, who stepped
+passed him into the library as soon as the announcement was made.
+
+He stopped just inside the threshold, and the chagrin pictured upon
+his face when he found that Patricia was not alone was so plainly
+evident, that even Patricia smiled, in recognition of it. Morton was
+known to Patricia's other callers, having met them frequently since
+his coming to New York, and, as soon as greetings had been exchanged,
+they all drifted into a general conversation, which had no point to it
+whatever, but was, for the most part, the small-talk of such impromptu
+social gatherings. The subject of the supposed clandestine
+marriage-ceremony between Duncan and Beatrice was not mentioned again,
+and fifteen minutes later Miss Houston and her sister arose to take
+their departure. Farnham, also, got upon his feet, and, stepping
+lightly and quickly across the room toward Patricia, said to her in a
+low tone:
+
+"Won't you tell me where I can find Beatrice? I think you can do so,
+if you will. Please, Patricia. You know why I ask."
+
+"If you should call upon Sally Gardner and ask her that question, I
+think it would be answered satisfactorily," replied Patricia, smiling
+at him. "Go and see her, Nesbit, by all means."
+
+A moment later, Miss Langdon found herself alone with Morton, who,
+true to his promise of the preceding evening, had come to her. She had
+forgotten him temporarily, but now she was not sorry that he had
+called. Nevertheless, as she turned toward him, after bidding her
+friends good-night, Patricia was conscious that the atmosphere had
+suddenly became surcharged with portentous possibilities. She had
+recognized in that expression of disappointment, so plainly depicted
+upon Morton's face when he entered the room, that he had come to her
+with a self-avowed determination to continue the conversation
+interrupted by the Houston girls when he was bringing her home, the
+preceding afternoon. On the instant, she was sorry that she had
+permitted the others to leave her alone with this man. For some
+inexplicable reason, she was suddenly afraid of him. She who had never
+acknowledged fear of any person, who had always met every circumstance
+calmly as it arose, found herself confronted now by a condition of
+affairs that rendered her less self-reliant. Her mind was in a turmoil
+of a hundred doubts and fears, and there was a vague sense of
+apprehension upon her, which she could not dismiss, and which she
+found it difficult to control.
+
+"I told you that I would come, Patricia, and I am here," said Morton,
+stepping forward quickly, and taking one of her hands, before she
+could resume her seat. She attempted to withdraw it, but he held it
+firmly in his own strong clasp; and that expression of unrelenting
+determination was again in his face and eyes.
+
+"No, Patricia," he said calmly, but in a tone of finality which there
+was no denying, "I will not release your hand, just yet." He was
+half-smiling, but wholly insistent and determined. "You see," he went
+on, "I am taking advantage of your known qualities of courage. I have
+come to you, determined to say something--something that is very close
+to me." Patricia's arm relaxed; she permitted her hand to lie limply
+inside his larger one. Then, she raised her eyes to his, and looked
+calmly up at him.
+
+As he gazed steadily and keenly into her dark eyes, Morton's face was
+pale, under the tan of his skin, and he had the look of one who
+ventures his all upon a single chance. In that moment, Patricia
+admired him more than she had ever before, and, as he continued to
+gaze upon her, she permitted her features slowly to relax, and,
+gradually, a winning smile, which to Richard Morton was overwhelming,
+was revealed upon her lips and in her eyes.
+
+"You have no right to speak to me like that, Mr. Morton," she said.
+"Still less have you the right to hold my hand, against my will. The
+men of my acquaintance, with whom I have associated all my life, would
+not do as you are doing now; but"--she shrugged her shoulders--"I
+suppose it is a matter of training."
+
+The words were like a blow, although she smiled while she uttered
+them. With a sharp exclamation that came very near to being an oath,
+he threw her hand from him with such force that she was half-turned
+around where she stood, and he started back two paces away from her,
+and folded his arms.
+
+"Thank you," said Patricia, still smiling; and she crossed to the
+chair she had previously occupied.
+
+Morton did not move from the position he had assumed. He stood with
+folded arms in the middle of the room, staring at her with set face
+and hard eyes, wondering for the moment why he had been fool enough to
+go there at all, and trying to read in her face, what was the charm
+of her that so fatally attracted him.
+
+"I do a great many things, Miss Langdon, that I have no right to do,"
+he said, after a pause. "That, also, is a matter of training, as you
+so fittingly adjudged my conduct, just now. But I was trained in the
+open country, where one can see the sky-line toward any point of the
+compass; I was trained in the West, where a man is a man, and a woman
+is a woman, and they are judged only by their conduct toward others,
+and toward themselves. It is true that I know very little about this
+Eastern training, to which you have just now called my attention, but
+from what little I have seen of it, I can't believe that it is
+wholesome, or good. I was trained to tell the truth, and to insist
+that the truth be told to me; I find here, in the East, that the truth
+is the very last thing to be uttered; that it is avoided as long as it
+possibly can be. In this way, Miss Langdon, our trainings differ.
+Naturally, then, I am not like the men of your knowledge."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Morton, I didn't mean to give offense by what
+I said." The girl was more amazed than she cared to show by his
+vehemence.
+
+"The fault is mine," he said to her. "I have no right to expect you to
+meet me on the plane of my own past life, and with the freedom and
+candor of the West, any more than you can demand from me, the usages
+and customs of your social world in New York."
+
+"Won't you sit down?" she asked him. She was beginning to be a bit
+uneasy, because of Morton's determined attitude, and because she
+realized that nothing she could say or do would turn him from his set
+purpose of saying what he had come there to tell her.
+
+"Not yet," he replied. "I can talk much better on my feet. I want you
+to tell me what you meant by two expressions you used in your speech
+with me yesterday, after you came from your father's office."
+
+"We will not return to that subject, if you please, Mr. Morton," she
+replied to him, coldly.
+
+"Pardon me, Patricia, we must return to it--at least, I must. You
+don't want me to kill anybody, do you?" He smiled grimly as he asked
+the question, hesitatingly; "you need have no fear on that point, for
+I probably won't have to."
+
+"Probably won't have to kill anyone?" She raised her eyes to his, but
+there was no fear in them; there was only amazement in their depths,
+astonishment that he should dare to say such a thing to her.
+
+"The qualification of my statement was made because I reserve the
+right to do what I please, toward anyone who dares to bring pain upon
+you, Patricia Langdon," he said, incisively; "but I tell you now that
+I wouldn't trust myself not to kill--again my Western training is
+uppermost, you see--if I were brought face to face with any man who
+had dared to bring any sort of an affront upon you. Do you love this
+man to whom you referred yesterday? Answer me!" The question came out
+sharply and bluntly. It was totally unexpected, and it affected her
+with a sort of shock she could not have described.
+
+"You are impertinent," she replied.
+
+"Impertinent, or not, I desire an answer. If you refuse an answer, I
+shall find other means of ascertaining. Great God, girl, do you
+suppose that, when my whole life is at stake, I am going to stand on
+ceremony and surrender to a few petty conventions, just to please an
+element of false pride that you have built around you, until there is
+only one way of getting past it? I'm not the sort of man who stands
+outside, and entreats. My training has taught me to get inside; and,
+if there isn't a gate, or an opening of any sort, why, then I tear
+down the barrier, just as I am doing now. Do you love that man?"
+
+"I will not answer the question."
+
+He laughed, shortly.
+
+"From any other woman than you, such an answer as that would be
+tantamount to an affirmative; but you are a puzzle, Patricia. You are
+not like anybody else. There is a depth to you that I cannot sound.
+There is a breadth to you that is like the open country of the
+Northwest, where one cannot see beyond the sky-line, ever, and where
+the sky-line remains, always, just so far away."
+
+"I think I'll ask you to excuse me, Mr. Morton," she said, making as
+if to rise. "This interview is not a pleasant one. You are not kind,
+or considerate."
+
+He did not move from his position, as he replied, as calmly as she had
+spoken:
+
+"I shall not go until I have finished. I came here to-night to tell
+you, again, that I love you. You need not resent the telling of it,
+for it can in no way offend you, or, at least, it should not. You told
+me, yesterday, that you had agreed to some sort of business
+transaction, as you called it, with some man whom you did not name,
+by which you are to become his wife. I told you then, and I repeat
+now, that, if you will but say you love this man, whoever he is, I'll
+hit the trail for Montana without a moment's delay, and you shall
+never be annoyed again by my Western training; so, answer me."
+
+"I will not answer you." She looked him steadily in the eyes, and, all
+unconsciously to herself, she could not avoid giving expression to
+some small part of the admiration she felt for this daring, intrepid
+ranchman, who defied her so openly, in the library of her own home.
+
+"Who is the man?" he demanded, sharply.
+
+"Again, I will not answer you."
+
+"I shall find it out, then, and, when I have discovered who he is, I
+shall go to him. Maybe, he will be able to answer the questions. If he
+refuses, by God, I'll make him answer!"
+
+She started from her chair, appalled by the implied threat. She did
+not doubt that he meant every word of it.
+
+"You would not dare do that!" she exclaimed. It was beyond her
+knowledge that any man should have the courage so far to transgress
+conventional usages. But he heard the word "dare," and applied to it
+the only meaning he had ever known it to possess. He laughed outright.
+
+"Not dare?" he exclaimed; and he laughed again. "I would dare
+anything, and all things, in the mood I am in, just now."
+
+Looking upon him, she believed what he said; and, strange to say, she
+was more pleased than outraged by his determined demeanor.
+Nevertheless, she realized that she was face to face with an emergency
+which must be met promptly and finally, and so she left her chair, and
+drew herself to her full height, directly in front of him.
+
+"Mr. Morton," she said, slowly, and coldly, "I have had occasion, once
+before, to refer to your training and to mine. We are as far apart as
+if we belonged to different races of mankind. If you have really loved
+me, which I doubt, I am sorry because of it, for I tell you, plainly
+and truly, that I do not, and cannot, respond to you. I have given my
+promise to another, and very shortly I shall be married. This sudden
+passion for me that has come upon you, is an affair of the moment,
+which you will soon forget when you become convinced that it is
+impossible of fruition. I am the promised wife of another man, and
+even your Western training, which you have chosen sarcastically to
+refer to since I made my unfortunate remark about it, will tell you
+that, no matter what rights you believe you possess, you certainly
+have none whatever to compel me to listen to your declaration of
+love." Her manner underwent a sudden and marked change, as she
+continued rapidly, with a suggestion of moisture in her eyes: "Believe
+me, I am intensely sorry for the necessity of this scene between us. I
+do not, and I cannot, return the affection you so generously offer me;
+and, whether I love another, or do not--whether I have ever loved
+another, or have not--it would be the same, so far as you are
+concerned. I am not for you, and I can never be for you, no matter
+what may happen." She took a step nearer to him, and reached out her
+hand, while she added, with her brightest smile: "But I like you, very
+much, indeed. I should like to have you for a true, good friend. It
+would be one of the proud moments of my life, if I could know that I
+might rely upon you as such, and that you would not again transgress
+in the way you have done to-night. Will you take my hand and be my
+friend. Will you try and seek farther for someone who can appreciate
+the love you have offered to me? I need a friend just now, Richard
+Morton. Will you be that friend?"
+
+For a time, he did not answer her. He stood quite still, staring into
+her eyes, and through them and seemingly beyond them, while his own
+face was hard, and set, and paler than she had ever seen it, before.
+Presently, his lips relaxed their tension; the expression of his eyes
+softened, and he drew his right hand across his brow.
+
+He took the hand that was extended toward him, and held it between
+both his own, and, for a full minute after that, he stood before her
+in silence, while he fought the hardest battle of his life. When he
+did speak, it was in an easy, careless drawl.
+
+"I reckon you roped and tied me that time, Patricia," he said,
+smilingly. "You've got your brand on me, all right, but maybe the iron
+hasn't burnt quite as deep as it does sometimes; and, as you say,
+possibly there will come a day when we can burn another brand on top
+of it, so that the first one will never be recognized. Will I be your
+friend? Indeed, I will, and I'll ask you, if you please, to forgive
+and forget all my bad manners, and the harsh things I've said."
+
+"It is not necessary to ask me that, Mr. Morton."
+
+"Patricia, if you'll just call me Dick, like all the boys do, out on
+the ranch, and if you'll grant me the permission which I have never
+asked before, of addressing you as I have just now, it will make the
+whole thing a heap-sight easier. Will you do it?
+
+"I'd much rather call you Dick than anything else," she told him,
+still permitting him to hold her hand clasped between his own.
+
+He bent forward, nearer to her; and, although she perfectly understood
+what he intended to do, she did not flinch, or falter.
+
+He touched his lips lightly to her forehead, and then, with a
+muttered, "God bless you, girl!" he turned quickly, and went out of
+the room, leaving Patricia Langdon once again alone with her
+thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MONDAY, THE THIRTEENTH
+
+
+The monotonous, but not unpleasing voice of Malcolm Melvin began the
+reading of the stipulations in the contract to the three persons who
+were seated before him around the table in the lawyer's private
+office. The time was Monday morning, shortly after ten o'clock.
+
+"This agreement, hereinafter made, between Roderick Duncan, of the
+City, County, and State of New York, party of the first part; Stephen
+Langdon, of the same place, party of the second part; and Patricia
+Langdon of the same place, party of the third part, as follows: First,
+the party of the first part--"
+
+"Just wait a moment, Mr. Melvin, if you please," Duncan interrupted
+him. "If it is all the same to you, and to the other parties concerned
+in this transaction, I don't care to hear all that dry rot, you have
+written. If you will be so kind as simply to state in plain English
+what the stipulations are, it will answer quite as well for the
+others, and it will suit me a whole lot better."
+
+"It is customary, Mr. Duncan, to listen carefully to a legal document
+one is about to sign with his name," said the lawyer, with a dry
+smile.
+
+"I don't care a rap about that, Melvin; and you know I don't. The
+others know it, too."
+
+"I think," said Patricia, quietly, "that the papers should be read,
+from beginning to end."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed her father; "and besides, Pat, I haven't time. I
+ought to be down-town, right now. Let Melvin get over with this
+foolish nonsense, as quickly as possible; and then, if you and
+Roderick will only kiss, and make up--"
+
+Patricia interrupted him:
+
+"Very well, Mr. Melvin," she said. "You may state the substance of the
+agreement."
+
+The lawyer turned toward Duncan. There was a twinkle of amusement in
+his eyes, although his face remained perfectly calm and
+expressionless.
+
+"According to these papers as I have drawn them, Mr. Duncan," he said,
+slowly, "you loan the sum of twenty million dollars to Stephen
+Langdon, accepting as security therefor, and in lieu of other
+collateral, the stated promise of Miss Langdon to become your wife.
+She reserves to herself, the right to name the wedding-day, provided
+it be within a reasonable time."
+
+"May I ask how Miss Langdon defines the words, a reasonable time?"
+asked Duncan, speaking as deliberately as the lawyer had done. "As for
+the loan to Mr. Langdon--he already has that. But, the reasonable
+time: just what does that expression mean?"
+
+"I suppose, during the season; say, within three, or six, months from
+date," replied the lawyer.
+
+"That will do very well, thank you. You may now go on." Duncan was
+determined, that morning, to meet Patricia on her own ground.
+
+"The loan you make to the party of the second part, to Mr. Langdon, is
+to be repaid to you at his convenience, and with the legal rate of
+interest, within one year from date. At the church where the wedding
+ceremony shall take place, and immediately before that event, you are
+to give to Miss Langdon, a cashier's check for ten-million dollars,
+which she will endorse and send to the bank, before the ceremony
+proceeds. It is Miss Langdon's wish to have her maiden name appear as
+the endorsement on that check. Later, she will have the account
+transferred from Patricia Langdon to Patricia Duncan. You are--"
+
+"Just one moment, again, Mr. Melvin." Duncan reached forward and
+pulled the papers toward him. "Will you please show me where I am to
+sign? What remains of the stipulations, I can hear at another time.
+Unfortunately, at the present moment, I am in haste, and I happen to
+know that Mr. Langdon is very anxious to get away."
+
+"Is it your habit to sign legal papers without reading them?" demanded
+Patricia, with just a little touch of resentment in her tone. She had
+rather prided herself upon the wording of this document, which she had
+so carefully dictated to Melvin, and it hurt her to think that her
+stipulations were passed over so easily.
+
+But the lawyer, who saw in the whole circumstance nothing but a huge
+joke, which would presently come to a pleasant end, had already
+pointed out to Duncan the places on the three papers where he was to
+put his signature, and the young man was signing them, rapidly. He did
+not reply until he had written his name the third time. Then, he left
+his chair, and with a low and somewhat derisive bow to his affianced
+wife, said:
+
+"No, Patricia, it is not; but these circumstances are different from
+those in which one is usually called upon to sign documents. I
+certainly should have no hesitation in accepting, without reserve,
+any conditions which you chose to insist upon, so long as those
+conditions, in the end, made you my wife. You may sign the papers at
+your leisure; but I shall ask you to excuse me, now." He bowed
+smilingly to her, shook hands with the lawyer, and called across the
+table to the banker:
+
+"So long, Uncle Steve; I'll see you later." A moment afterward the
+door closed behind him.
+
+"The whole thing looks to me like tomfoolery!" ejaculated the banker,
+as he drew the papers toward him, and signed them rapidly. "Patricia,
+you are the party of the third part, here, and you can sign them at
+your leisure. I've got to go, also. Melvin, you can send my copy of
+the contract direct to me, when it is ready."
+
+"It is your turn now, Miss Langdon," said the lawyer, in his most
+professional tone, as soon as her father had gone. But, instead of
+signing, Patricia, for the first time since the beginning of this
+confused condition of affairs, lost her pride and became the emotional
+young woman that she really was.
+
+Without a word of warning, she burst into a passion of tears. Throwing
+her arms upon the table, she buried her face in them, and sobbed on
+and on, convulsively, vehemently, inconsolably.
+
+The lawyer, stirred out of his professional calm by this human side of
+the cold and haughty young woman, placed one hand tenderly, if
+somewhat tentatively, upon her shoulder. For a time, he patted her
+gently, while he waited for her tempest to pass.
+
+"There, there, my dear. Don't let it affect you so," he said. "It is
+nothing but a storm-cloud, that will quickly pass away. It is just
+like a thunder-shower, very dark while it lasts, but making all the
+brighter the sunshine that follows it. I know how you have been tried,
+and how your pride has been hurt; but, child, there are two kinds of
+pride in everybody, and it is never quite easy to determine which is
+which. I strongly suspect, my dear, that you have been actuated by a
+feeling of false pride, in the position you have taken as to this
+matter. I won't attempt to advise you, now. Don't sob so, my dear. It
+will all come out right."
+
+She raised her head from the table, and looked at him, pathetically.
+
+"I am so sorry, Mr. Melvin," she said, slowly, with a catch in her
+breath as she spoke. "I seem to have done everything wrong, in this
+matter. I've made everybody unhappy." Again, she buried her face in
+her arms, and sobbed on, with even more abandon than before.
+
+"My child," said the lawyer, "I've lived long enough in the world to
+discover that it is never wise to permit ourselves to be actuated by
+false motives. You will discover the truth of that statement, later
+on; you are only just beginning to realize it, now."
+
+She made no reply to this, but a moment later she started to her feet,
+and again became the haughty, self-contained, relentless, Juno.
+
+"Give me the pen," she said. "I will sign."
+
+"If you will take my advice," replied the lawyer, without moving, "you
+will tear up those three documents, or direct me to do so, and leave
+things as they are."
+
+"No," she replied. "I will sign."
+
+"Very well, Patricia." He pushed the documents toward her, and watched
+her with a half-smile on his professional face, while she appended her
+signature to each of them. A moment later, he escorted her from the
+office, and assisted her into the waiting car. Then, he stood quite
+still and watched it as it carried her away from the business-section
+of the city. He shook his head and sighed, as he reëntered the
+building where his office was located.
+
+"Poor child," he was thinking to himself; "she didn't tee-off well, in
+the beginning of this game, and she encountered the worst hazard of
+her life when she came up against her own unyielding pride. Poor
+child! So beautiful, so good, so tender of heart, she hides every real
+emotion she possesses behind an impenetrable barrier, barring the
+expressions of her natural affections with an icy shield which she
+permits no one to penetrate. For just a moment, she let me see her as
+she is; I wonder if she has ever permitted others." He got out of the
+elevator, and walked slowly toward his office-door, pausing midway
+along the corridor, and still thinking on, in the same fashion. "I
+must find a way to help her, somehow. Old Malcolm Melvin, whose heart
+is supposed to be like the parchments he works upon, must make himself
+the champion of this misguided girl. Ah, well, we shall see what can
+be done. We shall see; we shall see." He passed inside his office
+then, and in a moment more had forgotten, in the multitudinous affairs
+of his professional life, that such a person as Patricia Langdon
+existed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That Monday, in the evening, at his rooms, Roderick Duncan received
+two letters. One was delivered by messenger; the other came by post.
+He recognized the handwriting on the envelope of each, and for a
+moment hesitated as to which of the two he should read first. One, he
+knew, was sent by Sally Gardner; the other was from Patricia.
+
+He laid them on the table in front of him, and stood beside it looking
+down upon the two envelopes with a half-smile upon his face, which was
+weary and troubled; then, with a broader smile, he took a coin from
+his pocket and flipped it in the air.
+
+A glance at the coin decided him, and he took up Sally's letter and
+broke the seal. He read:
+
+"My Dear Roderick:
+
+"I promised you, when you left me Saturday night, to communicate with
+you at once. Beatrice is quite ill, although you are not to infer from
+this statement that her indisposition it at all serious. I have merely
+insisted that she should remain in bed at my house yesterday and
+to-day.
+
+"On no account should you seek her at present nor should you attempt
+to communicate with her. I will keep you informed as to her condition
+because I realize that you will be anxious, inasmuch as you doubtless
+hold yourself responsible for the present state of affairs. Be
+satisfied with that, and believe me,"
+
+"Loyally your friend,
+
+                                        "SALLY GARDNER.
+
+"P. S. Doubtless you will see Jack at the club this evening. Let me
+advise you not to discuss with him anything that happened Saturday
+night after his departure with Patricia. I have thought it best to
+keep that little foolish affair a secret between ourselves.
+
+                                        S. G."
+
+Duncan stood for a considerable time with the letter held before his
+eyes, while he went over in his mind the chain of incidents that
+followed upon his meeting with Beatrice Brunswick in the box at the
+opera-house. Presently, he returned the letter to the envelope, and
+laid it aside, while he took up the other one, addressed in the
+handwriting of Patricia.
+
+He read it slowly, with widening eyes; and then he read it again, more
+slowly, as if he were not certain that he had read it aright before.
+Finally, with something very nearly approaching an oath, he crushed
+the short document in his hand, and strode to the window, where he
+stood for a long time, staring out into the darkness, without moving.
+His valet entered the room and made some remark about dressing him for
+the evening, but Duncan sharply ordered the man away, telling him to
+return in half an hour. Afterward he went back to the table where
+there was more light, and smoothed out the crumpled page of
+Patricia's letter, so that he could read it a third time.
+
+It was very short and very much to the point; and it had brought with
+it a greater shock than he could possibly have anticipated. The
+strange part of it was that he did not comprehend the precise
+character of that shock. He did not know whether he was pleased, or
+displeased; whether he was amused, or angry--or only startled.
+Certainly, he had never thought of expecting such a communication as
+this from Patricia Langdon. The letter was as follows:
+
+Four, P. M., Monday.
+
+"Dear Roderick:
+
+"According to the document signed jointly by you, my father and
+myself, and witnessed by Mr. Malcolm Melvin at his office at ten
+o'clock this morning, I was given the undisputed right to name the day
+for the ceremony, which is to complete the transaction as agreed upon
+among us three, but more particularly between you and me. I have
+thought the matter over calmly and dispassionately, since I parted
+with you at the lawyer's office, and have decided that, all things
+considered, it will be best not to defer too long the conditions of
+that transaction.
+
+"I have decided that the ceremony--a quiet one--shall be performed by
+the Rev. Dr. Moreley, at the Church of the Annunciation, at ten
+o'clock in the morning, one week from to-day, which will be Monday,
+the thirteenth.
+
+"If there should be any important reason why you prefer to change this
+date, you may communicate the same to me at once, and I shall consider
+it; but if not, I greatly prefer that matters should stand as I have
+arranged them.
+
+                                        "PATRICIA LANGDON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MORTON'S ULTIMATUM
+
+
+Oddly enough, Roderick Duncan and Richard Morton had never met.
+Although Morton, during the two weeks of his acquaintance with
+Patricia Langdon, had been as constantly in her company as it was
+possible for him to be, there had been no introduction between the two
+young men. They frequented the same clubs, and Morton had made the
+acquaintance of many of Duncan's friends; they knew each other by
+sight, and Duncan had heard, vaguely and without particular interest,
+that Morton had fallen under the spell of Patricia's stately
+loveliness. That was a circumstance which had suggested no misgivings
+whatever to him. He had long been accustomed to such conditions, for
+it was a rare thing that a man should be presented to Patricia without
+being at once attracted and charmed by her physical beauty, as well as
+by her brilliancy of wit.
+
+It was, therefore, with unmasked astonishment that, upon responding to
+a summons at his door, still holding Patricia's letter in his hand,
+he found himself face to face with the young Montana cattle-king.
+
+"Mr. Roderick Duncan, I believe?" said Morton, without advancing to
+cross the threshold when Duncan threw open the door.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "Won't you come inside, Mr. Morton? I know you very
+well, by sight and name, and, although it has not been my privilege to
+meet you socially, you are quite welcome. Come inside, won't you?"
+
+The handsome young ranchman bowed, and passed into the room. He strode
+across it until he was near one of the windows; then, he turned to
+face Duncan, who had re-closed the door, and had followed as far as
+the center-table where he now stood, gazing questioningly at his
+visitor.
+
+"Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?" Duncan asked.
+
+"Thank you, no. I intend to remain only a moment, and it is possible
+that the question I have come to ask you may not be agreeable for you
+to hear, or to answer. If you will repeat your request after I have
+asked the question, I shall be glad to comply with it."
+
+"I haven't the least idea what you are talking about, Mr. Morton,"
+said Duncan, smiling, "and I can't conceive how any question you care
+to put to me would be offensive. However, have it your own way. Will
+you tell me, now, what that remarkable question is?"
+
+Morton was standing with his feet wide-apart, and with his back to the
+window. His hands were thrust deep into his trousers-pockets. He
+looked the athlete in every line of his muscular limbs and body, and
+the frankness and openness of his expression at once interested
+Duncan.
+
+"Mr. Duncan," he said, "in the country I come from, we do things
+differently from the way you do them here. I was born on a ranch in
+Eastern Montana, and I have lived all my life in a wild country. I
+began my career as a cow-puncher, when I was sixteen, and not until
+the last two or three years of my life have I known anything at all of
+that phase of existence which is expressed by the word 'society.' I
+indulge in this preamble in order to apologize in advance, for any
+breaks I may make in that mystical line of talk which you call, 'good
+form.'"
+
+Duncan nodded his head smilingly, and Morton continued:
+
+"Several years ago, I made my 'pile,' as we express it out there, and
+since that time it has steadily increased in size, so that, lately, I
+have indulged myself in an attempt to 'butt in' upon the people in
+'polite society.' The question I have to ask you will amaze and
+astonish you, but I shall explain it, in detail, if you desire me to
+do so."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Morton, what is the question?"
+
+"Are you engaged to marry Miss Patricia Langdon?" demanded Morton,
+abruptly; and there was a tightening of his lips and a slight forward
+thrust of his aggressive chin.
+
+Duncan received the question calmly. He thought, afterward, that he
+had almost anticipated it, although he could not have told why he
+should do so. He permitted nothing of the effect the question had upon
+him to appear in the expression of his face, or eyes, and he continued
+to gaze smilingly into the face of the young ranchman, while he
+replied:
+
+"I see no objection to answering your question, Mr. Morton, although I
+do not in the least understand your reason for asking it. Miss Langdon
+and I are engaged to be married, and the wedding-day is already fixed.
+It is to be next Monday morning, at ten o'clock. I hope, sir, that you
+are quite satisfied with the reply?"
+
+Morton did not speak for a moment, but he reached out one hand and
+rested it on the back of a chair, near which he was standing. Duncan,
+perceiving the gesture, asked again:
+
+"Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?"
+
+"Thank you, yes."
+
+He dropped his huge body upon the leather-upholstered chair beside
+him, and crossed one leg over the other, while Duncan retained his
+attitude beside the table, still with that questioning expression in
+his eyes.
+
+"I suppose I ought to make some farther explanation," said Morton,
+presently. He spoke with careful deliberation, choosing his words as
+he did so and evidently striving hard to maintain complete composure
+of demeanor under circumstances that rendered the task somewhat
+difficult.
+
+"I think one is due to me," was the reply.
+
+"Mr. Duncan, when I hit the trail for this room, to have this talk
+with you, I sure thought that I had mapped out pretty clearly what I
+had to say to you. I find now that it's some difficult to express
+myself. If we were seated together in a bunk-house on a ranch in
+Montana, I could uncinch all that's on my mind, without any trouble. I
+hope you don't mind my native lingo."
+
+"Not in the least," replied Duncan, still smiling. "I find it very
+expressive, and quite to the point."
+
+"Well, it's this way: I arrived in the city about three weeks ago, and
+one of the first persons I met up with, who interested me was Miss
+Langdon. There isn't any reason that I know of why I shouldn't admit
+to you that she interested me more, in about three seconds of time,
+than anybody else has ever succeeded in doing, during the twenty-eight
+years I have lived. I was roped, tied, and branded, quicker than it
+takes me to tell you of it; and the odd part of the whole thing is
+that I enjoyed the experience, instead of resenting it. I think it was
+the second time I met up with her when I told her about it, and it is
+only fair to her, and to you, to admit that she said 'No,'
+Johnny-on-the-spot. But, somehow, it didn't strike me that it was a
+final 'no,' or that she had anybody's brand on her; and so I didn't
+lose the hope that some day I might induce her to accept mine. Last
+Saturday afternoon, I took her in my car, in company with two other
+ladies, to her father's office, down-town. She had an interview with
+her father and somebody else, I suspect, while she was in the office,
+and whatever that interview was, I am plumb certain that it didn't
+please her. She come out of the building with her eyes blazing like
+two live coals, and she was mad enough to shoot, if I am any judge."
+
+He paused, as if expecting some comment from Duncan, but the latter
+made no remark at all; nor did he change his attitude or the smiling
+expression of his face. Truth to tell, he was more amused than
+offended by the other's confidences. Morton continued:
+
+"I had half-promised Miss Langdon that I wouldn't speak to her again
+of love, but I sure couldn't hold in, that afternoon. I needn't tell
+you what I said; but the consequence of it was that she told me she
+had just concluded a business transaction--that was the expression she
+used--by which she had promised to marry a man whom she would not
+name. Since that time, I have studied the situation rather deeply,
+with the result that I came to the conclusion you were the man to whom
+she referred. That is why I have called upon you this evening, to ask
+you the question you have just answered."
+
+"Well?" said Duncan. His smile was more constrained, now.
+
+"I'm sure puzzled to know what Miss Langdon means by the 'business
+transaction' part of it, Mr. Duncan, and I have come up here, to your
+own room, to tell you that, if Patricia Langdon loves you--"
+
+"One moment, if you please, Mr. Morton. Don't you think you're going
+rather too far, now?"
+
+"No sir, I don't."
+
+"Very well, I'll listen to you, to the end."
+
+"If Patricia Langdon loves you, Duncan, I'll hit the trail for Montana
+and the sky-line this afternoon, and I'll ask you to pardon me for any
+break I have made here, this evening; but, if she doesn't love you,
+and if, as I suspect, you are coercing her in this matter--"
+
+Again, Duncan interrupted the ranchman. He did it this time by
+straightening his tall figure, and raising one hand for silence.
+
+"I think, Mr. Morton," he said, coldly, "that you are presuming rather
+too far. These are personal matters between Miss Langdon and myself,
+which I may not discuss with you."
+
+Morton sprang to his feet, and faced Duncan across the table.
+
+"By God! you've got to discuss this with me!" he said; and his jaws
+snapped together, while he bent forward, glaring into Duncan's eyes.
+"I've got to know one thing from you, Mr. Roderick Duncan; and I've
+got just one more thing to say to you!"
+
+"Well, what is it?"
+
+The question was cold and very calm. Duncan's temper was rising.
+
+"I'll say it mighty quick and sudden. It is this: If you are forcing
+Patricia Langdon into this marriage against her will, I'll kill you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE QUARREL
+
+
+Duncan's first impulse, begotten by the sudden anger that blazed
+within him, was to resent most bitterly the threat thus made against
+him. But, behind his anger, he was conscious of a certain feeling of
+respect and admiration for this frank-faced, keen-eyed young Montana
+ranchman. He saw plainly that Morton was in deadly earnest in what he
+had said; but he realized, also, that Morton's resentment, as well as
+the threat he had made, was due, not to any personal feeling harbored
+against the man he now faced, but was entirely the result of the sense
+of chivalry which the Western cowboy inevitably feels for every woman.
+Duncan understood, thoroughly, that Morton's sole desire was to
+announce himself as prepared to protect, to the last ditch, the young
+woman with whom he had fallen so desperately in love; and for this
+Duncan respected and esteemed the man.
+
+In this instance, Duncan was a good reader of character, and, before
+venturing to reply to the last remark of Morton's, he compelled
+himself to silence; he tried to put himself in this young man's place,
+wondering the while if under like circumstances he would have had the
+courage to do as Morton had done.
+
+"Sit down again, Mr. Morton," he said, presently, waving his hand
+toward the chair the ranchman had previously occupied.
+
+"No, sir; not until you have answered me."
+
+Duncan smiled, now. He had entirely regained his composure, and was
+thoroughly master of his own ugly temper, and of the situation, also,
+as he believed.
+
+"Mr. Morton," he said, "when you entered this room, I did you the
+honor to listen to your unprecedented statement, without interruption.
+I now ask you to treat me as fairly as I treated you. Be seated, Mr.
+Morton, and hear what I have to say."
+
+The ranchman flushed hotly, at once realizing that this young
+patrician of the East, had, for the moment got the better of him. He
+resumed his seat upon the chair, and absent-mindedly withdrew from one
+of his pockets a book of cigarette-papers and a tobacco-pouch.
+
+"Morton," said Duncan, "I am going to speak to you as man to man; just
+as I think you would like to have me do. I am going to meet you on
+your own ground, that of perfect frankness; for I do you the honor to
+believe that you are entirely sincere in your attitude, in your
+conduct, and in what you have said to me."
+
+"You're sure right about that, Mr. Duncan. Whatever may be said about
+Dick Morton, there is nobody--at least nobody that's now alive--who
+has ever cast any doubts upon my sincerity, or my willingness to back
+up whatever I may have to say."
+
+"You came here out of the West, Morton, and, as you express it, met up
+with Patricia Langdon. In your impulsive way, you fell deeply in love
+with her, almost at first sight."
+
+"That's no idle dream."
+
+"You conceived the idea that she wore nobody's brand, which is another
+expression of your own, which I take to mean that you thought her
+affections were disengaged."
+
+"That was the way I sized it up, Mr. Duncan."
+
+"Therefore, I will tell you that Patricia and I have been intimate
+companions, since our earliest childhood. I can't remember when I have
+not thought her superior to any other woman, and I have always
+believed, as I now believe, that deep down in her inmost heart she
+loves me quite as well as I love her. There was an unfortunate
+circumstance, connected with our present engagement, which,
+unfortunately, I cannot explain to you, since it is another's secret,
+and not mine. But I shall explain, so far as to say that the
+circumstance deeply offended her; that when she made the remark to
+you, in the automobile, which aroused your resentment, she did it in
+anger; that, far from coercing her in this matter, I have not done so,
+and have not thought of doing so; and, lastly, I shall tell you, quite
+frankly, that the engagement between Patricia and myself and the date
+of the wedding which is to follow are both matters which she has had
+full power to arrange to her own satisfaction."
+
+Duncan hesitated a moment, and then, as Morton made no response, he
+suddenly extended Patricia's letter, which he still held in his hand.
+
+"Read that," he said. "I don't know why I show it to you, save that I
+feel the impulse to do so. It is entirely a confidential
+communication, and I call upon you to treat it as such. But read the
+letter from Patricia Langdon, which I have just received, Mr. Morton;
+it will probably make you wiser on many points that now confound you."
+
+Morton accepted the letter, but the lines of his face were hard and
+unrelenting; his jaws and lips were shut tightly together; his
+aggressive chin was thrust forward just a little bit, and his hazel
+eyes were cold and uncompromising in their expression.
+
+He read the letter through to the end, without a change of expression;
+then, he read it a second time, and a third. At last, he slowly left
+his seat, and, stepping forward, placed the document, which he had
+refolded, upon the table. He reached for his hat, and smoothed it
+tentatively with the palm of one of his big hands. But all the while
+he kept his eyes fixed sternly upon the face of the young Croesus he
+had gone there to interview.
+
+"Mister Roderick Duncan," he drawled, in a low, even tone, "I don't
+savvy this business, a little bit. Just for the moment, I don't know
+what to make of you, or of Miss Langdon, but I am going to work it out
+to some sort of a conclusion; and, when I have found the answer to the
+questions that puzzle me now, I'll let you know."
+
+He moved quickly toward the door, but with the lightness of a panther
+Duncan sprang between it and him.
+
+"One moment, Morton," he said, coldly.
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"I have been very patient with you, and extremely considerate, I
+think, of your importunities and your insolence; but you try my
+patience almost too far. Take my advice, and don't meddle any farther
+in matters that do not, and cannot, concern you."
+
+For a moment, the two men faced each other in silence, and both were
+angry. Duncan was not less tall than Morton, but was slighter of
+build, and very different--with the difference that will never cease
+to exist between the well-groomed thoroughbred of many experiences
+and the blooded young colt. Morton's wrath flamed to the surface, and,
+forgetting for the moment that he was not upon his native heath, that
+he was not dressed and accoutred as was his habit when riding the
+range, he reached down for the place where his holster and
+cartridge-belt would have been located had he been dressed in the
+cowboy costume of his native Montana.
+
+It was a gesture as natural to the young ranchman as it was to
+breathe, and he was ashamed of it the instant it was made. He would
+have apologized had he been given time to do so. Indeed, he did flush
+hotly, in his confusion. But Duncan, quite naturally, misinterpreted
+the act. He thought, and with good reason, that Morton was reaching
+for his gun; the flush of shame on Morton's cheeks served only to
+strengthen the conviction. And so, with a cat-like swiftness, he took
+one step forward and seized the wrist of Morton's right arm, twisting
+it sharply and bending it backward with the same motion, whereby the
+ranchman was thrown away from him, and was brought up sharply against
+the table, in the middle of the room.
+
+Duncan was smiling again now; but it was the smile of intense anger,
+and not pleasant to see. Without waiting for Morton to recover
+himself, Duncan calmly turned his back upon the ranchman, and threw
+open the door; then, stepping away from it, he said, with quiet
+dignity:
+
+"This is your way out, sir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SALLY GARDNER'S PLAN
+
+
+What might have happened between those two fiery natures at that
+crisis will never be known, because at the moment when Duncan threw
+the door ajar, and uttered his dismissal, Jack Gardner appeared
+suddenly upon the scene, having just stepped from the elevator. If he
+heard that expression of dismissal, he showed no evidence of it, or he
+did not comprehend its significance; and, if he saw in the attitude of
+the two men anything out of the ordinary, he gave no sign that he did
+so. But Jack Gardner, too, was from Montana; and he had learned, long
+ago, how to conduct himself in emergencies. It was a fortunate
+interruption, all around. Duncan, although apparently calm, was in a
+white rage. He would not have hesitated to meet Morton more than
+half-way, in any manner by which the latter might choose to show his
+resentment for the twisted arm. As it was, Gardner was the savior of
+the situation.
+
+"Hello, Duncan! How are you?" he exclaimed, in his usual manner.
+"Why, Dick! I didn't expect to find you here; didn't know that you and
+Dun were acquainted." He shook hands with both the men, one after the
+other, in his accustomed hearty and irresistible manner, grinning at
+them and utterly refusing to see that there was restraint in the
+manner of either.
+
+"It is my first acquaintance with Mr. Morton," replied Duncan easily,
+and touched a lighted match to the cigar he had previously taken from
+his case. He was, outwardly, entirely at ease. "He did me the honor to
+call upon me, and we have been chatting together for more than half an
+hour. Will you sit down, Jack? Mr. Morton, be seated again, won't
+you?"
+
+The ranchman looked upon his late antagonist with utter amazement. It
+was an exhibition of a kind of self-control that was strange to him.
+It angered him, too, because of his own inability to assume it. He was
+suddenly ashamed. Patricia's reference to his "training," recurred to
+him. He understood, now, exactly what she had meant--it had not been
+plain to him before. Here before him was "the man of the East," at
+whom he had so often scoffed, for the word "Tenderfoot" had, until
+now, been synonymous with contempt. But Morton felt himself to be the
+tenderfoot, in the present case. He replied, stiffly, to the
+invitation to be seated.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "I find that I am neglecting an engagement." It
+was the only excuse he could think of.
+
+"Wait just a minute, Dick, and I'll go along with you," said Gardner.
+"I only stepped in a moment to give Duncan a message from my wife. She
+says, Roderick, that she would like to have you drop around at the
+house, for a moment, if you can make it. She is not going out. Now,
+Dick, if you are ready, I'm with you. So long, Duncan; I'll see you
+later, at the club."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just previous to Jack Gardner's interruption of the almost tragic
+scene at Duncan's rooms, he had been having what he called "a
+heart-to-heart" talk with his wife, and the message he now delivered
+to his friend from Sally was, in part, the outcome of that interview.
+
+Sally Gardner had been greatly troubled since the occurrences of
+Saturday night. Being herself intensely practical, she had sought
+deeply, through her reasoning powers, to find a means whereby she
+might be instrumental in helping out of their difficulties her
+several friends whom she so dearly loved. She believed that she had
+succeeded in hitting upon a scheme which would, at least, bring things
+to a focus. She was sure that, if she could bring all the parties
+together under one roof, matters would straighten themselves without
+much outside assistance. Jack and Sally owned a beautiful country
+place, within easy motoring distance of the city, and the young
+matron, having decided upon what course she would adopt, had lost no
+time in summoning her husband to her, taking him into her confidence,
+and convincing him of the wisdom of her project.
+
+"Jack," she told him, when he was seated opposite her, "I don't
+suppose you realize into what a terrible mess and muddle you got
+things last Saturday night, by reason of your fondness for a joke?"
+
+"Oh, confound it, Sally, drop it!" he exclaimed, smiling, but annoyed
+nevertheless.
+
+"No," she said, "we can't drop it, Jack. You're responsible for the
+whole affair. I have seen the necessity of finding a way out of it,
+for all of us--although my heart bleeds for poor Beatrice."
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders, and lighted a cigar. Then, he thrust his
+feet far out in front of him, and studied the toes of his tan shoes
+intently.
+
+"What's the matter with Beatrice?" he asked, presently.
+
+"She is in love with Roderick Duncan," replied his wife, with an
+emphatic nod of her blond head.
+
+"Eh? What's that? In love with Rod? Nonsense!"
+
+"She is, Jack; I know she is."
+
+"Gee, little girl, but it surely is a mix up! What are you going to do
+about it? Why in blazes didn't she marry him, then, when she had the
+chance?"
+
+"I've thought of a way Jack, if you will agree to it, and help me
+out--a way by which things can be smoothed over. Will you help me?"
+
+"Yes, I will. What is it?"
+
+"Could you tear yourself away from the city for two or three days,
+beginning to-morrow morning?" she asked him.
+
+"I guess so, Sally."
+
+"Are you willing to go out to Cedarcrest for a few days, and entertain
+a select party, there?"
+
+"Suit me to death, girl. Glad you thought of it. Whom will you ask?
+And what is the game?"
+
+"I have made out a list," replied Sally, meditatively. "I shall read
+it off to you, if you will listen."
+
+"Go ahead."
+
+"It includes Beatrice and Patricia, of course; Dick Morton and--"
+
+"Wait a moment, Sally. I've got a sort of a notion in my head that
+neither Beatrice nor Patricia, will care to go to Cedarcrest on such
+an expedition as that, under the present circumstances."
+
+"My dear John"--she sometimes called him John when she was
+particularly in earnest, and when she attempted to be especially
+dignified--"you may leave all the details of this arrangement to me. I
+merely wished your consent to the plan."
+
+"Oh, well, if you can manage it, Sally, you've got my consent, all
+right. What do you want me to do about it? You didn't have to consult
+me, you know."
+
+"I want you, first, to listen to the list I have made out, and, after
+that, to carry out my directions in regard to it."
+
+"Good girl; I can do that, too."
+
+"Patricia and Beatrice, Roderick Duncan and the Houston girls, Richard
+Morton, Nesbit Farnham; and, to supply the other two men who will be
+necessary to make up the party, you yourself may make the selection. I
+only wish them to be the right sort."
+
+"What's the scheme, Sally?"
+
+"I want to get these warring elements together, under one roof."
+
+"Whew! You've got more pluck than I thought you had, Sally."
+
+"Listen, Jack: When you go out this evening, find Roderick, and send
+him here, to me. I have written him not to come here, but that won't
+make any difference. He'll come if you give him my message. Afterward,
+you may look up Dick Morton, and the other two men you are to ask, and
+give them the invitation."
+
+"For when?"
+
+"For to-morrow. Tell them all to be at Cedarcrest before dark,
+to-morrow. That is all. As I said before, I'll attend to the details."
+
+Jack Gardner left his chair, and, having kissed his wife, was on the
+point of departure when he paused a moment on the threshold, and,
+looking back over his shoulder, said, laughingly:
+
+"Sally, I always gave you credit for having more sand than any three
+ordinary women I've ever known, but, I'll give you my word, I never
+supposed you had grit enough to undertake any such thing as this one.
+Talk about me getting things into a mess! Great Scott! if you don't
+get into one, out at Cedarcrest, with that sort of a mix-up to take
+care of, I'm a sheep-herder. Maybe you haven't got on to the fact, my
+girl, but, as sure as you're the best little woman in all New York,
+Dick Morton is so dead stuck on Patricia Langdon that he can't forget
+it for a minute. If you bring all that bunch together, you'll have Rod
+Duncan and Dick at each other's throat, before you get through with
+it. And besides--"
+
+Sally sprang to her feet, clapped her hands and laughed, to her
+husband's utter amazement.
+
+"Splendid!" she exclaimed. "No, I did not know that; but it simplifies
+matters, wonderfully, Jack."
+
+"Oh, does it?"
+
+"Assuredly."
+
+"Huh! I'm glad you think so. It looks to me as if it were just the
+other way around. Take my word for it, my girl, there'll be a 'will'
+in that drive of yours--maybe a tragedy, as well. Duncan is quite
+capable of committing one, in his present mood; and Dick
+Morton?--Well, you'll see."
+
+"I'm awfully glad you told me. It's perfectly splendid," said Sally,
+unmindful of, or indifferent to, the warning. "It's perfectly
+splendid!"
+
+"Oh, it is, eh? Well, I'm glad you think so. To me, it looks a good
+deal like a mix-up, Sally. Rod is in love with Patricia; Beatrice is
+in love with him; Nesbit Farnham is so dead stuck on Beatrice that he
+doesn't know where he's at, more than half the time; and Patricia--Oh,
+well, I give it up. I'll do what you told me to, and leave the rest to
+you;" and Gardner laughed his way through the hall and out upon the
+street; and he continued chuckling to himself, all the way to his
+club. But Sally ran after him before he got quite away from her, and
+called to him from the bottom of the steps.
+
+"One thing more, Jack," she said.
+
+"Well, my dear; what is it?"
+
+"We will take Beatrice with us, in our car, and you may include one of
+the gentlemen I have given you permission to ask. When you ask Dick
+Morton, tell him that he is to bring Patricia and the two Houston
+girls. That's all."
+
+"How about the others, how are they going to get there?"
+
+"The others may walk, for all I care," said Sally, and she returned to
+the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PATRICIA'S WILD RIDE
+
+
+It was a gay party that assembled around the dinner-table at
+Cedarcrest, shortly after eight o'clock on Tuesday evening, although,
+had one possessed the ability to analyze deeply, it would have been
+discovered that the gaiety was somewhat forced. Each person present at
+the gathering was burdened by the intuitive perception of something
+ominous in the atmosphere; there was a portentous quality about the
+environment that had more or less a depressing effect upon Sally
+Gardner's guests, and each one was conscious of a determined, but
+silent effort to overcome this feeling, in the belief that he or she
+was the only one who experienced it.
+
+Two of the expected guests had not arrived. They were Patricia and
+Richard Morton; but, because no message of any sort had been received
+from Morton, it was the generally accepted idea, that something had
+happened on the road to delay his car, and they were expected to
+arrive at any moment. The serving of the dinner was delayed as long
+as possible in expectation of their coming, but at last the other
+guests seated themselves around the table to enjoy the feast so
+carefully prepared by Jack Gardner's high-salaried chef. Agnes and
+Frances Houston, who were to have come out in Richard Morton's car
+with Patricia, arrived on time, accompanied by an uninvited guest,
+although he was one who was on such terms of intimacy with the
+Gardners that he had not hesitated to attend this country party, when
+the idea was suggested to him. It was the lawyer, Melvin; and the
+suggestion that he should be present, and that he should take out the
+Houston girls, had, strangely enough, been made by Morton. The young
+ranchman had gone to the lawyer's office early in the day of that
+Tuesday, and the conversation he held with Melvin will give a good
+idea of the drift of his intentions, and of his hitherto latent
+talents for planning and scheming. And the shrewd old lawyer quite
+readily fell in with the suggestions that were made to him.
+
+The invitation extended to Morton, the preceding evening, by Jack
+Gardner, and the directions given him at the time, as to whom he
+should take with him to the party, had suggested to him a novel plan,
+which he lost no time in taking measures to carry out. It is true, he
+was delighted on learning that he was expected to take Patricia to
+Cedarcrest, but he was just as greatly disappointed by the idea that
+Agnes and Frances Houston were to occupy the tonneau of his car, and
+therefore he planned to avoid the disturbing element. The presence of
+the lawyer at the club where Gardner and Morton held their
+conversation, suggested to the latter what he would do, for he knew of
+the intimate friendly relations existing between Melvin and the
+Gardners, and did not doubt that the great legal light would be an
+acceptable addition to the party which Sally had planned. Had he known
+all of Sally's reasons for the arrangements she had made, and had he
+realized exactly why the party had been got up, he might have
+hesitated to do what he did; possibly, he would have refused to attend
+at all--but developments will show how he took the information, when
+at last it was given to him. It must be remembered that Morton knew
+nothing at all of the real incidents of the preceding Saturday, and
+was aware only of the fact that something was wrong; that something
+had occurred to annoy and disturb Patricia Langdon out of her
+customary self-repose. Nevertheless, Morton was convinced,
+notwithstanding his interview with her and with Duncan, that she was
+somehow being forced into a position abhorrent to her. He had
+promised to be her friend, and Dick Morton knew of only one way to
+fulfill that promise. Whatever he undertook to do, he did thoroughly,
+and always his first impulse, whenever one of his friends needed aid
+of any sort, was to fight for that friend.
+
+His initial occupation that Tuesday morning was to visit the garage
+where his two automobiles were kept, and the instructions to his
+chauffeur were given rapidly and to the point. An hour later, when he
+called upon the lawyer, he said, after greetings had been exchanged:
+
+"Melvin, I don't know whether you are aware of it or not, but Jack
+Gardner and his wife are having a little impromptu house-party, at
+their place, Cedarcrest, beginning at dinner time, this evening. I
+believe it is to continue till the week-end, and of course I know it
+is impossible for you to leave your business for that length of time;
+but I--"
+
+"What are you talking about, Morton?" the lawyer interrupted him.
+"Neither Jack nor Sally have thought to invite me to their gathering."
+
+"Oh, well, that doesn't count, you know--not in this instance. I want
+you to do me a favor. That's the size of it. The point is this: I was
+told to take Miss Langdon and the Misses Houston, to Cedarcrest, in my
+White Steamer. I have just discovered that the car is temporarily out
+of commission, and so I am reduced to the necessity of using my
+roadster. I came down here to ask you to take the Houston girls to
+Cedarcrest, for me."
+
+The shrewd old lawyer threw back his head, and laughed, heartily.
+
+"You're not very deep, Morton," he said, presently. "I can see through
+you as plainly as if you were a plate-glass window. You have come here
+to induce me to relieve you of the necessity of taking Agnes and
+Frances Houston to Cedarcrest, in order that you may have Patricia
+Langdon alone with you in your roadster. And I'll wager that your
+chauffeur is out of commission, too."
+
+"There will be my machinist in the rumble-seat," replied Morton,
+blushing furiously. "You see, Melvin, I happen to know that you are
+always an acceptable addition to any party at that house, and--and
+so--"
+
+The lawyer laughed again, and raised his hand for silence.
+
+"Don't try to explain," he said, still chuckling. "'Least said,
+soonest mended,' you know. I'll help you out, for I don't think your
+suggestion is a bad one, at all. You may leave it all to me, without
+even going so far as to communicate with the two members of your
+party whom you wish to rid yourself of. I'll attend to that, by
+telephoning; and I'll take them to Cedarcrest for dinner, and remain
+for the night; but I shall have to return early to-morrow morning.
+When the hour comes for you to start, Morton, you have only to drive
+around after Miss Langdon." Thus, it happened that, when the party was
+seated in the splendidly decorated dining-room at Cedarcrest, there
+were two absentees; as there was, also, one guest who had not been
+expected, and who, for once in his life, was not entirely welcome at
+Sally Gardner's country home. For Sally had a wholesome respect for,
+as well as an intuitive perception of, the old lawyer's shrewdness.
+Quick to scent a plot of any sort, Mrs. Gardner saw in this
+incident--the arrival of Melvin with the Houston girls, and the
+absence of her star guest and escort--certain circumstances that
+smelled strongly of pre-arrangement. She remembered what her husband
+had said to her, the preceding day, when she suggested the party; she
+recalled Jack's statement to the effect that Morton was in love with
+Patricia, and, because her acquaintance with the young cattle-king had
+begun in their childhood in Montana, she realized just what he was
+capable of doing, if by any chance he had been made aware of the
+circumstances which were the occasion of the gathering at Cedarcrest.
+Melvin had explained, in as few words as possible, how it happened
+that he was there; but his explanation only added to the foreboding in
+Sally Gardner's mind, which grew and grew when daylight faded to
+twilight, and then to darkness, and still Morton's roadster had not
+arrived.
+
+Nesbit Farnham was in the seventh heaven of bliss because he was
+seated at the table beside Beatrice, who bore no outward evidence of
+having been ill, and who, for the moment at least, was the life of the
+party; for she compelled herself to a certain gaiety of manner which
+she did not feel. Duncan had been told, by his host, to bring out the
+two men who were to complete the party, and he had given little
+thought to the arrangement made for him until after his arrival at
+Cedarcrest, when he discovered that the young ranchman and Patricia
+were alone together, somewhere on the road between the city and their
+destination. He felt certain misgivings, then, although he could not
+have defined them; but he recalled the scene that had occurred between
+himself and Morton, the preceding evening, which had so nearly
+developed into an open quarrel, and he wondered what the strenuous
+young ranchman might not attempt to do, in making the most of the
+opportunity thus afforded him.
+
+Patricia Langdon had received her invitation to Sally's party, and had
+given her reluctant acceptance, over the telephone, at a late hour the
+preceding evening. Sally had also told Patricia of the arrangement
+made for taking her to Cedarcrest. The girl had demurred, at first,
+and expressed a desire to use her own car; but she had been argued
+into a final acceptance of Sally's arrangement. It was, therefore,
+with some amazement that she received Richard Morton, at four o'clock
+Tuesday afternoon, when he went after her with his roadster, and
+discovered that they were to ride alone together, to Cedarcrest; for
+Morton had decided to do without the services of his machinist this
+afternoon. He was determined to have no third person present, during
+the thirty miles drive from the city. The lawyer's shrewd guess about
+the chauffeur being put out of commission had certainly furnished a
+suggestion for Morton to follow. Patricia hesitated to accompany him,
+in that manner, but finally consented, though not without reluctance;
+and so, shortly before five o'clock, they started. They should easily
+have arrived at Cedarcrest between six and seven.
+
+We already know that they had not put in their appearance at half-past
+eight. The reason for this delay, was somewhat startling.
+
+When Patricia was well ensconced in the bucket-seat of the roadster
+beside Morton, he started the car forward at as rapid a pace as the
+city ordinance would permit. Both were silent for a considerable time,
+but, at last, Patricia asked him:
+
+"Will you be good enough to tell me why Mrs. Gardner's arrangement for
+this afternoon, was not carried out?"
+
+Morton turned his face away from her, in order to conceal the smile of
+amusement in which he indulged himself, and he replied, with apparent
+carelessness:
+
+"My big car was out of commission, temporarily. I happened to see
+Melvin, and he agreed to take Miss Houston and her sister to
+Cedarcrest, for me."
+
+"Oh, indeed! What has happened to your White Steamer? It was only the
+other day that you told me how proud you were of it because it never
+got out of order."
+
+He turned his face toward her and replied slowly and with
+distinctness:
+
+"I won't lie to you about it, Patricia; that wouldn't be fair. I put
+the car out of commission, myself; or, rather, it was done by my
+order, because I wanted to take this ride alone with you."
+
+"You should have told me that before we started," she said to him.
+
+"Why? Would it have made any difference in your going?"
+
+"Most certainly it would."
+
+"Do you mean that you would have declined to come with me?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Chiefly, because I do not approve of plots and schemes, in any form.
+Had you asked me, frankly and openly, to drive to Cedarcrest with you,
+I should have felt no hesitation in accepting; as it is, you have
+given offense, Mr. Morton."
+
+"So much so that you won't even call me Dick?" he said, with a light
+laugh that was more forced than real.
+
+"Yes. You have not proven yourself quite the friend I hoped you would
+be. Friends don't plot against each other."
+
+"Shall I turn the car about and take you home?" he asked shortly, with
+tightening lips, angered unreasonably by the attitude she had
+assumed.
+
+"No; you may take me to our destination, Cedarcrest."
+
+They drove on in silence for a considerable time after that, and, as
+soon as they were in the country, on less-frequented roads, Morton
+increased the speed of his roadster until they were flying along the
+highway in utter and absolute defiance of the statutes. When they
+presently arrived at a turn within a few miles of their destination, a
+turn that would have taken them directly to the house they sought,
+Morton did not move the steering-wheel of the car, but kept on,
+straight ahead, and with ever increasing speed.
+
+Patricia knew the road very well indeed; she had been over it many
+times, and now she called out to her companion:
+
+"You have taken the wrong road. You should have gone around that last
+turn."
+
+Morton did not reply, or attempt to do so. He seemed not to have heard
+her.
+
+"Won't you please slow down a little?" she asked, after another
+moment; and the question came somewhat tremulously, because, strange
+to say, Patricia was just a little frightened by the circumstance that
+now confronted her.
+
+Again, Morton made no reply, nor did he comply with her request, and
+the car flew on and on, while Patricia tried to collect her thoughts,
+and to determine what were best for her to do toward restraining this
+head-strong companion of hers, who now seemed like a runaway colt that
+has taken the bit in its teeth, and has found the strength to defy
+opposition.
+
+"Richard Morton!" she exclaimed sharply, touching his arm,
+tentatively. "Why don't you answer me? What are you trying to do?
+Where are you taking me?"
+
+For just an instant, he flashed his eyes into hers; then he replied,
+grimly:
+
+"I am taking you for a good ride. We'll steer around to Cedarcrest by
+another road, presently."
+
+"But I wish to go there at once."
+
+"You can't."
+
+"Do you mean that you refuse to do as I request?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, shortly; and shut his jaws together with a snap
+like a nut-cracker.
+
+"You dare?"
+
+"I dare anything, Patricia, when I am brought to it. I would like to
+keep this machine going, at this pace, for hours and days and weeks,
+with you seated there beside me, and never thinking of a stop until I
+had you out yonder, in the wild country, where I was born and raised."
+
+Again, she reached out and touched him on the arm, for she was more
+frightened than she would have confessed to herself; but, before she
+could speak, he called to her in a tone that was almost savage in its
+intensity:
+
+"Be careful, please. Don't interfere with my steering, or you will
+ditch us."
+
+"I demand that you bring this car to a stop," she said coldly,
+controlling herself with an effort. "I insist that you turn it about,
+and go back. I am amazed at your conduct, Mr. Morton--amazed and hurt.
+You are offending me more deeply than you realize."
+
+Again, he did not answer her, and Patricia, now thoroughly alarmed,
+sought vainly for a means of bringing this impetuous and dare-devil
+young ranchman to his senses. She thought once, as they ascended a
+short hill, of leaping from the car to the ground, but the speed was
+too great for her to take such a risk. It even occurred to her to
+seize the steering-wheel, and to give it a sharp turn, thus wrecking
+the machine; but she shuddered with terror when she thought of the
+possibilities of such an act.
+
+Half a mile farther on, Morton turned the car from the main highway
+they had been following, and drove it at full speed along a narrow
+road, where the going was somewhat rough, and where both had to give
+their entire attention to retaining their seats.
+
+"Are you mad?" she cried out to him, at last. She did not remember
+ever to have been so frightened before. Actual fear was a new
+sensation with Patricia Langdon.
+
+Still, he did not answer her, and Patricia started to her feet,
+determined to make the leap to the ground, risking broken limbs, or
+worse, to escape from this situation, which was becoming more awful
+with every moment that passed. A sudden terror lest the man beside her
+had gone mad, seized her. But Morton grasped her with his left hand,
+and pulled her back into the seat.
+
+"Don't do that!" he ordered her, crisply.
+
+"Then, stop the car," she replied. "Oh, please, do stop the car. You
+have no idea how you frighten me. It is very dark, here, and this is a
+terrible road. Please stop, Mr. Morton."
+
+"Call me Dick, and I'll stop."
+
+"Please stop the car--Dick!"
+
+He closed the throttle, and applied the brake. In another moment the
+speedy roadster slowed down gradually, and came to a stop, just at the
+edge of a wood, where there was no house, or evidence of one, visible
+in any direction; and, then, Richard Morton and Patricia Langdon
+stared into each other's eyes through the gathering darkness, the
+former with set jaws and a defiant smile, and the latter with plainly
+revealed terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALMOST A TRAGEDY
+
+
+Morton's passion for the beautiful girl beside him had overcome his
+discretion to such an extent that he was hardly responsible for what
+he did. The exhilaration of this swift ride through the gathering
+darkness, the sense of nearness to the woman he believed he loved with
+every force in him, the certainty that they were alone, and that, for
+the moment at least, she was his sole possession, stirred up within
+the young ranchman's mind those elements of barbaric wildness which
+had grown and thrived to riotousness and recklessness during the life
+he had lived on the cattle-ranges of Montana, but which had been more
+or less dormant during his Eastern experiences. He forgot, for the
+moment, the Sunday-night scene wherein he had promised to be
+Patricia's friend, and had ceased to be her lover; he remembered only
+that she was there beside him, with her terror-stricken eyes peering
+into his beseechingly, and that she looked more beautiful than ever
+she had before. But, more than all else, the influence she had had
+over him was absent, and this was so because her haughty defiance and
+the proud spirit she had hitherto manifested in her attitude were
+gone. He had never seen her like this before, with the courage taken
+out of her. It was a new and unknown quality, alluringly feminine,
+wholly dependent, that possessed her now. She was frightened. And so
+Morton forgot himself. He permitted the innate wildness of his own
+nature to rule. He followed an impulse, as wild as it was unkind. He
+seized her in his arms, and crushed her against him, raining kisses
+upon her cheeks and brow, and upon even her lips. Patrica strove
+bravely to fight him off; she struggled mightily to prevent this
+greatest of all indignities. She cried out to him, beseeching that he
+release her, but he seemed not to hear, or, if he heard, he paid no
+heed, and, after a moment more of vain effort, Patricia's figure
+suddenly relaxed. She realized the utter futility of her effort to
+hold the man at bay, and she was suddenly inspired to practise a
+subterfuge upon him. She permitted herself to sink down helplessly,
+into his confining grasp, and she became, apparently, unconscious.
+
+It was Richard Morton's turn to be frightened, then. On the instant,
+he realized what he had done. The enormity of the offense he had
+committed against her rushed upon him like a blow in the face, and he
+released her, so that she sank back into the confining seat beside
+him.
+
+"Patricia! Patricia!" he called to her. He seized her hands, and
+rubbed them; he turned them over and struck the palms of them sharply,
+for he had somewhere heard that such action would bring a person out
+of a swoon; but, although he struggled anxiously, doing whatsoever he
+could to arouse her, and beseeching her in impassioned tones to speak
+to him, she seemed to remain unconscious, with her head lying back
+against the seat, her eyes closed, and her face paler than he had ever
+seen it before.
+
+The car had stopped before the edge of a wood. Just beyond it, there
+was a bridge over which they must have passed, had they continued on
+their way. Morton raised his head and looked despairingly about him.
+He saw the bridge, and experience taught him that there must be a
+stream of water beneath it. With quick decision, he sprang from the
+car and ran forward, believing that, if he could return with his cap
+filled with water, he might restore his companion to consciousness.
+Then, strange to relate, no sooner had he left the car than Patricia
+opened her eyes, straightened her figure, and with a quick leap
+changed her seat to the one beneath the steering-wheel. She
+accomplished this while Morton was speeding away from her, toward the
+water.
+
+She saw him arrive at the bridge and disappear down the bank, beneath
+it; and forthwith, she reversed the gear of the steamer, and opened
+the throttle. The engine responded instantly, and at the imminent risk
+of wrecking the car, she backed it, and turned it, reversing and going
+forward several times, before she quite succeeded in bringing it
+around, within the narrow space. But, at last, she did succeed, and,
+just at the moment when the car was headed in the opposite direction,
+Richard Morton reappeared. He saw, at a glance, what had happened
+during his short absence. He understood that Patricia had outwitted
+him, and he ran forward, shouting aloud as he did so.
+
+Patricia caught one glimpse of him over her shoulder, and saw that he
+carried in his hands the cap he had filled with water to use in
+restoring her to consciousness--a consciousness she had not for a
+moment lost, which now was so alert and manifest in effecting her
+escape.
+
+She paid no heed to his shouts. She opened the throttle wider and
+wider, and the steam roadster darted away through the darkness, with
+Patricia Langdon under the wheel, leaving Richard Morton, cap in
+hand, standing in the middle of the highway, gazing after her,
+speechless with amazement and more than ever in love with the
+courageous young woman who could dare, and do, so much.
+
+Patricia Langdon was thoroughly capable of operating any automobile,
+as was demonstrated by this somewhat startling climax to the
+unpleasant scene through which she had just passed. Beneath her
+customary repose of manner, her outward self-restraint and her
+dignified if somewhat haughty manner, there was a spirit of wildness,
+which, for years, had found no expression, till now. But, the moment
+she turned the car about and succeeded in heading it in the opposite
+direction, the instant she realized that she was mistress of the
+situation, which, so short a time before, had been replete with
+unknown terrors, she experienced all that sense of exhilaration which
+the winner of any battle must feel, when it is brought to a successful
+issue. She heard herself laugh aloud, defiantly and with a touch of
+glee, although it did not seem to her as if it were Patricia Langdon
+who laughed; it was, perhaps, some hitherto undiscoverable spirit of
+recklessness within her, which called forth that expression of defiant
+joy, which Richard Morton could not fail to hear.
+
+The night was dark, by now, and there were only the stars to light the
+narrow way along which Patricia was compelled to guide the flying car;
+but she thought nothing of this, for she could dimly discern the
+outlines of the roadway before her, and she believed she could follow
+it to the main highway, without accident. Morton had not lighted his
+lamps. There had been no opportunity to do so. But the road was an
+unfrequented one; and Patricia, as she fled away from Morton, through
+the darkness, thought only of making her escape, not at all of the
+dangers she might encounter while doing so.
+
+Several times, she caught herself laughing softly at the recollection
+of how she had triumphed over the daring young ranchman, and at the
+predicament in which she had left him, standing there near the bridge,
+in a locality that was entirely unknown to him, from which he must
+have some difficulty in finding his way to a place where he could
+secure another conveyance. He might know what it meant to be left
+horseless on the ranges of the West, but this would be a new and a
+strange--perhaps a wholesome--experience for him.
+
+Presently, she came to the turn of the road that would bring her upon
+the main highway; and here she stopped the car, and got down from it,
+long enough to light the lamps. This done, she went on again, as
+swiftly as she dared, yet not too rapidly, because now she felt that
+she was as free as the air singing past her. The highway she traversed
+was almost as familiar to her as the streets of New York City.
+
+The exhilaration she had experienced when she triumphed over Richard
+Morton and escaped from him, increased rather than diminished as she
+sped onward, and when, almost an hour later, she guided the car
+between the huge gate-posts which admitted it to the grounds of
+Cedarcrest, and followed the winding driveway toward the entrance to
+the stone mansion, she was altogether a different Patricia Langdon
+from the one who had started out, in company with the young Westerner,
+shortly after five o'clock that afternoon.
+
+She brought the car to a stop under the _porte-cochère_, and announced
+her arrival by several loud blasts of the automobile-horn; a moment
+later, the doors were thrown open, and Sally Gardner rushed out to
+receive her.
+
+"I am afraid I am late, Sally," Patricia called out, in a voice that
+was wholly unlike her usual calm tones. "Will you call someone to care
+for the car?" Without waiting for a reply, she sprang from beneath
+the wheel, and with a light laugh returned the impetuous embrace with
+which the young matron greeted her.
+
+In some mysterious manner, word had already been passed to the guests
+that Patricia Langdon had arrived in Richard Morton's car, but alone;
+and so, by the time Patricia had released herself from Sally's
+clinging arms, Roderick Duncan, followed by the others of the party,
+appeared in the open doorway. Duncan came forward swiftly, but his
+host forestalled him in putting the question he would have asked.
+
+"I say, Patricia!" Jack Gardner called out. "What have you done with
+Morton? Where is Dick?"
+
+"Really, Jack, I don't know," replied Patricia, standing quite still,
+with her right arm around Sally's shoulders, and lifting her head like
+a thoroughbred filly. Mrs. Gardner's left arm still clung around her
+waist. "Mr. Morton is back there, somewhere, on the road. If he
+doesn't change his plans, he should arrive here, presently." She
+laughed, as she replied to the question, perceiving, at the moment,
+only the humorous side of it. She was still under the influence of
+that swift ride alone; still delighted by the thought of the
+predicament in which she had left her escort, because of his
+outrageous conduct toward her.
+
+"Did you meet with an accident? Has anything happened to Mr. Morton?"
+inquired Agnes Houston.
+
+Patricia shrugged her shoulders, and, again laughing softly, withdrew
+from Sally's embrace and began to ascend the steps. One of the
+Cedarcrest servants appeared at that moment, to take the car around to
+the garage; and for some reason each member of the party stepped
+aside, one way or another, so that Miss Langdon was the one who led
+the way into the house, the others falling in behind her, and
+following. The circumstance of her arrival in such a manner and the
+suggestion of mystery conveyed in Patricia's answer to Jack Gardner's
+question convinced all that something had happened which needed an
+explanation. Patricia's demeanor was so different from her usual
+half-haughty bearing, that it was, in a way, a revelation to them all.
+Each one there had his or her own conception of the occasion, and
+probably no two opinions were the same; but at least they were all
+agreed on one point: that there had been a scene somewhere, and that
+Richard Morton had got the worst of it.
+
+Patricia led the way to the dining-room. Her head was high, her eyes
+were sparkling. Duncan hastened to her side, but she took no notice of
+his nearness. As she entered the room, she called out:
+
+"Do order some dinner served to me, Sally. I am as hungry as the
+proverbial bear. You see, I had anticipated a hearty dinner with you,
+and the long ride I have had--particularly that part of it which I
+have taken alone--has whetted my appetite."
+
+Sally nodded toward the butler, and waved him away, knowing that he
+had overheard Patricia's words, and that she would speedily be served;
+the others of the party resumed their former seats around the table,
+and the practical Sally turned and faced Patricia, again, her eyes
+flashing some of the indignation she felt because of her guest's
+evident reluctance to explain the strange circumstance of her arrival
+at Cedarcrest alone.
+
+"Patricia Langdon," she said, "I think you might tell us what has
+happened. We are all on edge with expectancy. Where is Dick Morton?"
+
+"Oh, he is somewhere back there on the highway, walking toward
+Cedarcrest, I suppose," replied Patricia smilingly, dropping into a
+chair beside the table.
+
+"Did you start out from New York together?" persisted Sally.
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Won't you please tell us what has happened?"
+
+Patricia's lips parted, while she hesitated for a reply. She had no
+desire to tell these people of the incidents that had actually
+occurred. Many another, in her position, would have revealed at once
+the whole truth, and would have made these others acquainted with the
+conduct of Richard Morton, during that wild ride she had been forced
+to take with him through the gathering gloom. But Patricia was not
+that kind. She was quite conscious of the strangeness of her arrival
+at Cedarcrest alone, in Morton's car, and of the wrong constructions
+which might be given to the incident. She knew that every man who was
+present in the room, would bitterly resent the indignities Morton had
+put upon her, if she should relate the facts. But she believed that
+Morton had been sufficiently punished. She even doubted if he would
+appear there, at all, now; and so, instead of replying to Sally's
+repeated request, she shrugged her shoulders, and responded:
+
+"I think I'll leave the explanation to Mr. Morton, when he arrives."
+
+Food was placed before her at that moment and she transferred her
+attention to it; while her friends, perceiving that she was not
+inclined to take them into her confidence, started other subjects of
+conversation, although the mind of each one of them was still intent
+upon what might have happened during Patricia's journey from New York
+in the company of Richard Morton.
+
+Roderick Duncan had not resumed his seat at the table; he had remained
+in the background, and had maintained an utter silence. But his
+thoughts had been busy, indeed. He knew and understood Patricia,
+better than these others did--with the possible exception of Beatrice,
+who also was silent. But, now, he passed around the table until he
+stood behind Patricia's chair. Then, he dropped down upon a vacant one
+that was beside her, and, resting one elbow on the table, peered
+inquiringly into the girl's flushed face, more beautiful than ever in
+her excitement. That strange feeling of exhilaration was still upon
+her, and there was undoubted triumph and self-satisfaction depicted in
+her eyes and demeanor.
+
+"What happened, Patricia?" he asked her, in a low tone, which the
+others could not hear.
+
+"Nothing has happened that need concern you at all," she replied to
+him, coldly.
+
+"But something must have happened, or you--"
+
+"If something did happen," she interrupted him, "rest assured that I
+shall tell you nothing more about it, at the present time. If Mr.
+Morton chooses to explain, when he arrives, that is his affair, and
+not mine. I am here, and I am unharmed. Somewhere, back there on the
+road my escort is probably walking toward Cedarcrest; or, perhaps,
+away from it. You will have to be satisfied with that explanation,
+until he arrives--if he does arrive." She spoke with such finality
+that Duncan changed the character of his questioning.
+
+"I have not seen you, Patricia, since the receipt of your letter,
+fixing our wedding-day for next Monday," he persisted. "It now occurs
+to me that, in the light of the contents of your letter, I have a
+right to ask you for an explanation of the incidents of to-night."
+
+Patricia turned her eyes for an instant upon him, and then withdrew
+them, while she said, coldly:
+
+"If you have taken time to read carefully the stipulations in the
+contract you signed yesterday morning, at Mr. Melvin's office, you
+will understand why I deny your right to do so."
+
+"Has Morton affronted you in any way?"
+
+"Ask him. I have no doubt that he will answer you."
+
+"Patricia, are you going to persist in this attitude toward me, even
+after we are married?" Duncan inquired, anxiously. But, instead of
+replying, she raised her head in a listening attitude, and announced
+to all who were present:
+
+"I hear the horn of an approaching automobile. Perhaps, Mr. Morton has
+caught a ride."
+
+"Answer me, Patricia," Duncan insisted.
+
+"My conduct will be the answer to your question," she said, with her
+face averted.
+
+Jack Gardner hurriedly left the room, accompanied by Sally. A moment
+later, when the automobile horn sounded nearer, Duncan left his place
+beside Patricia, and followed. Melvin, the lawyer, also went out, and
+then one by one the others, until Patricia was the only guest who
+remained at the table. She continued to occupy herself with the food
+that had been placed before her, while the flush on her cheeks
+deepened, her eyes shone with added brightness, and she smiled as if
+she were rather pleased than otherwise by the predicament in which
+Morton would find himself, when he should be closely questioned by
+Jack and Sally Gardner and the guests as well, whose curiosity, she
+knew, would now far exceed their discretion.
+
+It never once occurred to her that Dick Morton, having had time to
+think over the occurrences of the afternoon and evening, and to
+realize the enormity of the offense he had committed, would tell the
+truth about it. Men within her knowledge, who belonged to the society
+with which she was familiar, would temporize, under such
+circumstances, would seek, by diplomatic speech to shield the woman in
+the case from the comment that must follow a revelation, would make
+use of well-chosen words to escape responsibility for what had
+occurred; would practise a studied reserve until certain knowledge
+could be obtained of what the woman might have said, upon her arrival.
+
+The doors had been left open, and Patricia was conscious of loud tones
+proceeding from the veranda at the front of the house; of masculine
+voices raised in anger; and then she heard the sound of a blow,
+followed instantly by a heavy fall. Almost at the same instant, the
+sharp crack of a pistol smote upon the air, for an instant stiffening
+her with horror. She started to her feet in terror, her face gone
+white, her eyes dilated with apprehension. Then, she somehow stumbled
+to her feet, and stood there, trembling in every nerve, until she
+could gather strength to run forward.
+
+A horrified and silent group of persons surrounded the principals in
+the scene that had just occurred, for there had not yet been time for
+any of them to recover from the paralyzing effect of what had
+happened.
+
+Richard Morton was on the floor of the veranda where he had raised
+himself upon one elbow, and he still held in his right hand the small
+revolver from which the shot that Patricia had overheard, had come.
+Roderick Duncan was standing a few feet away, and he was holding in
+his arms the limp form of Beatrice Brunswick, whose head had fallen
+backward, as if she were unconscious, or dead. Just at the instant
+when Patricia caught a view of this strange tableau, the other
+spectators threw off the momentary lethargy that had overpowered them,
+and rushed forward toward the principal actors in the scene that had
+passed, each shouting a different exclamation, but all alike in their
+expressions of horror and loathing for the man who was down--Richard
+Morton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE AUTOMOBILE WRECK
+
+
+Thirty minutes after the happening of the incidents just related, a
+remarkable scene took place in Jack Gardner's smoking-room. There were
+present only the men of Sally's impromptu week-end party.
+
+If the friends whom Jack Gardner had made since his sojourn in the
+East could have seen him at that moment, they would not have
+recognized in the coldly stern, keen-eyed copper magnate, the
+happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care Jack, of their acquaintance. The almost
+tragic occurrences of the evening had brought the real Jack Gardner to
+the surface, and he was for the moment again the dauntless young miner
+who had fought his way upward to the position he now held, by sheer
+force of character; for it requires a whole man to lift himself from
+the pick and shovel, and the drill and fuse, to the millionaire
+mine-owner and the person of prominence in the world such as he had
+become. He stood beside the small table at one end of the room;
+Morton occupied the center of it, facing him. Grouped around them, in
+various attitudes, were the others of that strange gathering. Duncan
+leaned idly against the mantel, and smoked his cigar with
+deliberation, although his gray eyes were coldly fierce in their
+expression, and his half-smile of utter contempt for the man who
+occupied the center of the scene rendered his face less handsome and
+attractive than usual. Malcolm Melvin was alert and attentive, from
+the end of the room opposite Gardner, and the other gentlemen of the
+party occupied chairs conveniently at hand.
+
+It would be hard to define Richard Morton's attitude from any outward
+expression he manifested concerning it. He stood with folded arms,
+tall and straight, facing unflinchingly the accusing eyes of his
+life-long friend, Jack Gardner. His lips were shut tightly together,
+and he seemed like one who awaits stoically a verdict that is
+inevitable.
+
+"Morton," said Gardner, speaking coldly and with studied deliberation,
+"you have been a life-long friend of mine, and, until to-night, I have
+looked upon you almost as a brother; but, to-night, by your own
+confession and by your acts which have followed upon that confession,
+you have destroyed every atom of the friendship I have felt for you.
+You have made me wish that I had never known you. You have outraged
+every sense of propriety, and every feeling of manhood that I thought
+you possessed. Fortunately for us all, no one is much the worse for
+your scoundrelism; I can call it by no other word. You have shown
+yourself to be, at heart, an unspeakable scoundrel, as undeserving of
+consideration as a coyote of the plains."
+
+Morton's face went white as death at these words, and his eyes blazed
+with the fury of a wild animal that is being whipped while it is
+chained down so that it cannot show resentment. He did not speak; he
+made no effort to interrupt. Gardner continued:
+
+"When Miss Langdon arrived here alone, in your roadster, she gave us
+no explanation whatever of what had happened, and, while we believed
+that some unpleasant incident must have occurred, we did not press her
+for the story of it. Then, you came, and without mincing your words
+you told the whole brutal truth; and you uttered it with a spirit of
+brutality and bravado that would be unbelievable under any other
+circumstances. And when, in your own self-abasement for what you had
+done, you confessed to the acts of which you were guilty toward Miss
+Langdon, you received, at Duncan's hands, the blow you so thoroughly
+merited; I am frank to say to you that, if he had held his hand one
+instant longer, it would have been my fist, instead of his, that
+floored you. But that is not all. You have been a gun-fighter for so
+many years, out there in your own wild country, that, before you were
+fairly down after you received the blow, you must needs pull your
+artillery, and use it. Do you realize, I wonder, how near to
+committing a murder you have been, to-night? If Miss Brunswick had not
+seen your act, if she had not started forward and thrown herself
+between your weapon and its intended victim, thus frightening you so
+that you sought at the last instant to withhold your fire, I tremble
+for what the consequences might have been. As it happened, no one has
+been harmed. You deflected your aim just in time to avoid a tragedy;
+but it is not your fault that somebody does not carry a serious wound
+as the consequence of your brutality. Were it not for Miss Brunswick's
+act, there would be a dead man at this feast, and you would be his
+murderer. But even that, horrible as it might have been, is less a
+crime than the other one you have confessed. You, reared in an
+atmosphere where all men infinitely respect woman-kind, deliberately
+outrage every finer feeling of the one woman you have professed to
+love. That, Richard Morton, is very nearly all that I have to say to
+you. I have asked these gentlemen to come into the room, and to be
+present during this scene, in order that we may all bind ourselves to
+secrecy concerning what has happened to-night. I can assure you that
+nothing of this affair will leak out to others. I have quite finished
+now. One of the servants will bring your roadster around to the door.
+Our acquaintance ends here."
+
+He turned and pressed a button in the wall behind him, and a moment
+later the door opened; but it was Beatrice Brunswick who stood upon
+the threshold, and not the servant who had been summoned.
+
+She hesitated an instant, then came forward swiftly, until she stood
+beside Morton, facing his accusers. With one swift glance, she took in
+the scene by which she was surrounded, and with a woman's intuition
+understood it. Turning partly around, she permitted one hand to rest
+lightly upon Morton's arm, and she said to him, ignoring the others:
+
+"It is really too bad, Mr. Morton. I know that you did not mean it;
+and I am unharmed. See: the bullet did not touch me at all. It only
+frightened me. I am sure that you were over-wrought by all that had
+happened, and I'll forgive you, even if the others do not. I am sure,
+too, that Patricia will forgive you, if you ask her. Come with me; I
+will take you to her."
+
+She tightened her grasp upon his arm and sought to draw him toward the
+door, but Jack Gardner interrupted, quickly and sharply.
+
+"Stop Beatrice!" he said. "Mr. Morton is about to take his departure.
+This is an occasion for men to deal with. Morton cannot see Miss
+Langdon again unless she seeks him, and that I don't think she will
+do."
+
+"I'll get her; I'll bring her here!" exclaimed Beatrice, starting
+toward the door alone; but this time it was Morton's voice that
+arrested her--the first time he had spoken since he entered the room.
+
+"Please, wait, Miss Brunswick," he said, and the quiet calmness of his
+tone was a surprise to everyone present. It belied the expression of
+his eyes and of his set jaws. "I thank you most heartily for what you
+have said, and for what you would do now. Miss Langdon won't forgive
+me, nor, indeed, do I think she ought to do so. I have not attempted
+to make any explanation of my conduct to these gentlemen, but to you I
+will say this: I realize the enormity of it, thoroughly, and, while I
+can find no excuse for what I have done, I can offer the one
+explanation, that I was, for the moment, gone mad--locoed, we call
+it, in the West. If Miss Langdon will receive any message from me at
+all, tell her that I am sorry."
+
+He bowed to her with a dignity that belied his training, and, stepping
+past her, opened the door, holding it so until she had passed from the
+room. Then, he turned toward the others.
+
+"I am quite ready to go now," he said. "Gardner, if you will have my
+car brought around, I shall not trouble you further."
+
+With another slight inclination of his head, he passed out of the room
+and along the hall to the front door, where he paused at the top of
+the steps, waiting till his car should be brought to him; and no one
+attempted to follow, or say another word to him.
+
+Standing alone at the top of the steps, while he waited for the car,
+Morton was presently conscious of a slight movement near him, and he
+turned quickly. Patricia Langdon slowly arose from one of the veranda
+chairs, and approached him. She came quite close to him, and stopped.
+For a moment, both were silent; he, with hard, unrelenting eyes, which
+nevertheless expressed the exquisite pain he felt; she, with
+tear-dimmed vision, in which pity, regret, sympathy and real liking
+strove for dominant expression.
+
+"I couldn't let you go, Mr. Morton, without a few more words with you,
+and I have purposely waited here, because I thought it likely you
+would come from the house alone."
+
+"Thank you," he replied, not knowing what else to say.
+
+"I am so sorry for it all, Mr. Morton; and I cannot help wondering if
+I am to blame, in any measure. I wanted you to know that I freely
+forgive you for whatever offense you have committed against me. I
+think that is all. Good-night."
+
+She was turning away, but he called to her, with infinite pain in his
+voice:
+
+"Wait; please, wait," he said. "Give me just another moment, I beseech
+you."
+
+She turned to face him again.
+
+"I have been a madman to-night, Miss Langdon, and I know it," he told
+her rapidly. "There is no excuse for the acts I have committed; there
+can be no palliation for them. I would not have dared to ask for your
+forgiveness; I can only say that I am sorry. It was not I, but a
+madman, who for a moment possessed me, who conducted himself so vilely
+toward you. I shall go back to my ranch again. My only prayer to you
+is, that you will forget me, utterly."
+
+Patricia came a step nearer to him, reaching out her hand,
+tentatively, and said, in her softest tone, while tears moistened her
+eyes:
+
+"Good-bye, and God bless you."
+
+But Morton, ignoring her extended hand, cleared the steps of the
+veranda at one leap, and disappeared in the darkness, toward the
+garage.
+
+Five minutes later, while Patricia yet remained at the top of the
+steps where Morton had left her, the steam-roadster that had been so
+closely related to her experiences of the night rushed past the house
+and disappeared along the winding roadway toward the Cedarcrest gate.
+And she remained there, in a listening attitude, as long as she could
+hear the droning murmur of its mechanism. When that died away in the
+distance, she sighed, and turned to reënter the house; but it was only
+to find that she was no longer alone. Roderick Duncan appeared in the
+doorway, and came through the entrance, to meet her.
+
+"Was it Morton's car that just went past the door?" he asked her.
+
+"Yes," she replied, shrinking away from him.
+
+"Did you see him, and talk with him, before he went away?" he asked,
+partly reaching out one hand, but instantly withdrawing it.
+
+"Yes," she answered again, retreating still farther from him.
+
+"That was like you, Patricia. I am rather sorry for the poor chap,
+despite what he did to you, to-night. You see, I know what it means,
+to be so madly in love with you that it is barely possible for one to
+stand or sit beside you, without crushing you in one's arms. Oh,
+Patricia, won't you be kind to me? Won't you forgive me, too, as I
+know, just now, you forgave that poor chap? Surely, my offense was not
+so great as his."
+
+"It has been infinitely greater," she told him, coldly; and, with head
+erect, but with averted face, she went past him, through the doorway.
+
+Down the highway, half-way between Cedarcrest and the city, was a
+place where building operations were in progress; where huge rocks had
+been blasted out to make room for intended improvements; where
+derricks and stone-crushers and other machinery were idly waiting the
+dawn of another day, when the workmen would arrive and resume their
+several occupations.
+
+Richard Morton, dashing along this highway with ever-increasing speed,
+utilizing the full power of his racing roadster, remembered that place
+along the highway. With cold, set face and protruding chin, he set
+his jaws sharply together, and wondered why his flying car would go no
+faster. He did not realize that he was covering more than a mile with
+every minute of time. The pace seemed slow to him, for he had suddenly
+determined what he would do. He had thought of a plan to expiate his
+follies of the night.
+
+At last, almost directly beneath an arc-light along the highway, he
+saw, dimly, the spot where the stone was being quarried, and, as he
+recognized it, he laughed aloud with a sort of desperate joy, because
+of the plunge he intended to take. He threw the throttle wide open,
+and after another moment he saw the derrick loom before him. With
+careful deliberation, he turned the steering-wheel.
+
+There was a loud crash in the darkness; the roadster leaped into the
+air like a live thing, and turned over, end for end, twice. Then, it
+seemed to shoot high into the air, and fell again, in a confused heap
+of wreckage, among the broken stones of the quarry. Morton was thrown
+from it, like the projectile from a catapult, and he came down in a
+crumpled heap, somewhere among that mass of rocks; and after that
+there was silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CROSS-PURPOSES AT CEDARCREST
+
+
+At Cedarcrest, the night was still young. Patricia, and then Morton,
+had arrived at the country home of the Gardners while the several
+guests were still at table, and the scenes which followed their coming
+had passed with such stunning rapidity that every one of the party was
+more or less affected by them, each one in his or her separate manner.
+The men of the party were silent and preoccupied. The scene enacted
+just before the departure of Morton weighed more or less heavily upon
+them, and while each one felt that the young ranchman had "got what
+was coming to him," there was not one among them who did not
+experience a thrill of sympathy for the young fellow, who had been so
+well liked by the new acquaintances he had made in the East.
+
+The two gentlemen strangers, who had brought Morton to the house in
+their car, were the first to take their departure, after Morton's
+dramatic exit, although they remained long enough to imbibe a
+whisky-and-soda, and to hear what Jack Gardner still had to say. That
+was not so very much, but, like all he had said that night, it was
+straight to the point.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said to them, standing with his glass in hand and
+addressing all, impersonally, "what I have to say now, is said to all,
+alike. Two of you are strangers to me; the others are more or less
+intimately my friends. It is my particular wish that we should all
+bind ourselves to secrecy, concerning what has happened at Cedarcrest,
+and in this vicinity, to-night. It happens that no real harm has been
+done; no one has been injured; amends have been made to Miss Langdon,
+so far as it has been possible to make them, and I am quite sure of
+her desire never to hear the subject mentioned again."
+
+There was a generally affirmative nodding of heads about him as he
+spoke, and after an instant, he continued:
+
+"In what has occurred in this room, I have had to assume a triple
+obligation: that of host, that of self-appointed champion of the young
+woman who received the affront from another of my guests, and that of
+a life-long acquaintance with the man whom I was compelled, by
+circumstances, to expel from my house. The last was the most
+difficult of all to fill. There is not one of you who could not
+readily have assumed two of the responsibilities; the last one I have
+named has been distinctly unpleasant. I have known and liked Dick
+Morton, since we were boys. We hail from the same state, and from a
+locality there where we were near neighbors, during our youth. He is
+somewhat younger than I--about two years, I think--and, until
+to-night, I have never known him to be otherwise than a brave and
+chivalrous fellow, ready to fight at the drop of the hat. We must
+agree that no matter what his conduct was, prior to the scene in this
+room, he conducted himself, while here, in a manner that was beyond
+reproach. He realized the enormity of the outrage he had committed,
+and he took his medicine, I think, as a fighter should. He is gone
+now, and I doubt if any of us see him again. That is all, I think,
+that need be said." It was then that Roderick Duncan silently put
+aside his glass, and went out of the room, unnoticed by the others. He
+knew that a general discussion of the incidents of the evening would
+follow, and he had no wish to take part in it. He anticipated that the
+two gentlemen who had brought Morton to the house, would be asked to
+remain, and that he would therefore see them again, later on, and so
+he took the opportunity that was afforded him to escape unseen and
+unnoticed.
+
+The whole affair weighed heavily upon him. He realized much better
+than Patricia did that she alone was to blame for it all; and the fear
+lest the responsibility of it should come home to her drove him to
+seek her at once, even before Morton had had time to get beyond the
+gates of Cedarcrest. Patricia was, of course, unaware of the scene
+that had taken place at Duncan's rooms just before the informal
+invitations to Cedarcrest were issued, but Duncan recalled that
+circumstance now, with a deeper understanding of all that had happened
+as a sequel to it; and he believed that the time was ripe for a better
+understanding between himself and Patricia. Therefore, he left the
+room to seek her.
+
+Outside the door, he came to a pause, in doubt which direction to
+take. From where he stood, he could see into a part of the
+dining-room, and instinct told him that it was deserted, save by the
+butler, who was yet at his post. He approached the music-room, and,
+screened by a Japanese curtain that hung across the entrance, peered
+inside. Beatrice and Sally were there, with the other ladies of the
+party, but Patricia was nowhere to be seen. It occurred to him that
+she might have sought solitude in some other part of the great house,
+and he had turned away, striving to think where he might find her,
+when the whirr of an automobile engine came to him through an open
+window from the rear of the building.
+
+He guessed, at once, that it would be Morton's roadster, ready to take
+him away, and, impelled by a sudden spasm of pity for the man who was
+now tabooed he hurried toward the front entrance--and fate willed it
+that he should arrive at the threshold just at the very instant when
+Patricia took that impulsive step nearer to Morton, reaching her arms
+out toward him, as she did so, and Duncan plainly heard the words she
+uttered, "Good bye, Dick; and God bless you." He had heard no word
+which preceded them; he had seen nothing till that instant; but he did
+see the tears in Patricia's eyes, and hear the pathos in her voice
+when she spoke those last words to the man who was supposed to have
+offended her past forgiveness: and he saw Morton leap into the roadway
+and start toward the garage to meet his machine.
+
+Duncan waited a moment before he advanced farther; watching Patricia
+from his sheltered place near the door. Then, he stepped forward to
+meet the young woman to whom he was betrothed--stepped forward to
+plead with her once more, and to be rebuffed in the manner we have
+seen.
+
+When she had left him, he dropped upon one of the veranda chairs, and
+with his head upon his hand gave himself up to bitter thought--bitter,
+because of his utter inadequacy to cope with the conditions by which
+he was surrounded.
+
+Duncan was aroused, presently, by the approach of Beatrice and Sally.
+They came through the door with their arms encircling each other's
+waist, and walked forward together until they stood at the edge of the
+top step, under the _porte cochère_.
+
+"It's a shame," Beatrice was saying, impulsively. "I feel that the
+whole thing is more or less my fault, Sally, and--" a warning cough
+from Duncan told them that they were not alone; and also, at that
+moment, the other guests trooped out upon the broad veranda; all save
+Patricia, who did not appear.
+
+The two gentlemen who had brought Morton to the house after he was
+deserted by Patricia on the road, declined to remain, pleading other
+engagements, and soon their car whirred itself away down the road, and
+was gone. Nesbit Farnham contrived to secure a _solitude-à-deux_ with
+Beatrice, who, however, turned an indifferent shoulder to his eager
+words; Agnes and Frances Houston strolled into obscurity with the two
+"extras" who had been asked there to fill out Sally's original plan;
+Sally disappeared into the house, evidently in search of Patricia;
+Jack Gardner and the lawyer lighted cigars and betook themselves to an
+"S" chair at a far corner of the veranda. Duncan remained where he
+was, alone, screened from view by overhanging vines, as desolate in
+spirit as any man can be, who is suddenly brought face to face with an
+unpleasant truth.
+
+Nothing had mattered much, in a comparative sense, until this last
+scene with Patricia. He had been convinced all along, until now, that
+Patricia loved him and that her strange conduct during the last
+upheaval in their relations had been the result of wounded pride,
+only; it had not even remotely occurred to him that she did not love
+him. They had been together all their lives; he had never known a time
+when he did not love her; he believed that there had never been a
+time, since their childhood, when she did not expect some day to
+become his wife.
+
+But that short scene he had witnessed on the veranda, when Patricia
+bade Morton good-bye, had changed all this. He doubted the correctness
+of his previous convictions. He saw another and an entirely different
+explanation for Patricia's conduct toward him, for her attitude in the
+matter of the engagement contract which Melvin had been compelled to
+draw, and which he, himself, had likewise been compelled to sign. He
+read in that last scene between the ranchman and Patricia a fondness
+on her part for the young cattle-king which had been forced into the
+"open" of her own convictions, by the principal episode of the
+evening. He saw the utter wreck of his own hopes, of his entire scheme
+of life.
+
+While he sat there in the shadow of the vine, unseen and unseeing, he
+made still another discovery, a grim one, which brought with it a
+better realization of Morton's incentives, than anything else could
+have done. He realized that he hated Morton; hated him wholly and
+absolutely--hated him suddenly and vehemently. He knew, then, why
+Morton had attempted to kill him, for, if Morton had made a
+reappearance at that moment, Roderick Duncan would have taken the
+initiative, and would have been the one to do the killing.
+
+Yet, he made no move. If you had been watching him from beyond the
+screen of vines, no indication of what was passing in his thoughts
+would have been noticeable. The fierce hatred he so suddenly
+experienced was not made manifest by any act or expression, although
+it was none the less pronounced, for all that. And, strangely enough,
+it did not lead him to any greater consideration of Morton, or of his
+acts; rather the contrary.
+
+Once, while he was preoccupied in this manner, he was again conscious
+of the distant whirr of an automobile engine, but he gave it no
+thought, till afterward. He did notice that Jack Gardner also heard
+it, and took his cigar from his mouth while he listened to it; but at
+once resumed his conversation with the lawyer. Soon afterward,
+Roderick left his chair under the vine, and passed inside the house.
+
+"Hello, Rod," Jack called after him. "I didn't know you were there.
+Won't you join Melvin and me, in our cozy corner?" to which Duncan
+called back some casual reply, and passed on.
+
+He had made up his mind that he would seek out Patricia, at once, and
+tell her of the discovery he had just made; that he had been a fool
+not to realize before, that Morton was the man of her choice, and that
+she could have the fellow if she wanted him; that he would not only
+release her from the tentative engagement, but that he would repudiate
+the contract entirely, and that, as soon as he could secure his own
+copy of it from the strong-box where he had put it, he would tear it
+into ten thousand pieces; that he would have no more of her, on any
+conditions, and that--oh, well, he thought of many bitter and biting
+things that he would say to her the moment he should find
+her--possibly in tears because of Morton's enforced departure from
+Cedarcrest, or in the act of weeping out the truth on Sally Gardner's
+shoulder. He thought he understood the situation now, as he had not
+seen it before.
+
+Duncan searched in the drawing-room, the music-room, the dining-room;
+he explored the snuggery, the library, and even Jack's own particular
+den; he sought the side piazzas; he went outside among the trees to
+certain hidden nooks he knew. But Patricia was nowhere to be
+discovered. Neither had he been able to see Sally anywhere about, and
+the conviction became stronger upon him that the two were somewhere
+together, and that Patricia, her pride forgotten, was keeping the
+young hostess with her while she told of the terrible predicament in
+which she now found herself to be enmeshed; for it would be a most
+stupendous predicament for Patricia to face--the realization that she
+was in love with Morton, in spite of the contract in writing she had
+forced Roderick Duncan to sign with her.
+
+Returning to the house, he found the butler, and was about to send him
+in search of his mistress, when he discovered Sally, descending the
+stairway.
+
+"Where is Patricia?" Each asked the question simultaneously, so that
+the words were pronounced exactly together; and yet neither one
+smiled. Each question was a reply to its mate.
+
+"I have been searching everywhere for her," said Duncan.
+
+"So have I," replied Sally. "Where can she be?"
+
+"I haven't an idea. Isn't she up-stairs?"
+
+"No. Couldn't you find her, outside?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I haven't seen her since--since that dreadful scene on the veranda,"
+said Sally. "Have you seen her, Roderick?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When? Where?"
+
+"I saw her taking leave of Morton, when he went away," he replied,
+with such bitterness that Sally stared at him; but, wisely, she made
+no comment; nor did she attempt to stay him when he turned abruptly
+away from her, and walked rapidly toward one of the side entrances.
+But he stopped and turned, before he left the room.
+
+"Sally," he said, "I am going to ask you to excuse me. I want to get
+away. I would rather not explain to the others--I would rather not
+attempt to explain to you. But I want to go. You will excuse me? and
+if those who remain should happen to miss me, will you make whatever
+excuse seems necessary?"
+
+"None will be necessary, Roderick. Oh, you men! You make me tired! You
+do, really! It is inconceivable why you should all fall hopelessly in
+love with one woman, and utterly ignore the others who are--" She
+stopped suddenly. She had been on the point of saying too much, and
+she did not wish to utter words she would be sorry for, afterward.
+Duncan did not attempt any reply, and was turning away a second time,
+when she called after him: "If you would only be really sensible,
+and--"
+
+"And what, Sally?" he asked her, when she again hesitated.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"But you were about to make a suggestion. What was it?"
+
+"If it was anything at all, it was that you chase yourself out there
+among the trees, find Beatrice and Nesbit Farnum, and take her away
+from him," exclaimed this impetuous young woman, who found delight in
+expressing herself in the slang of the day. Duncan shrugged his
+shoulders, and uttered the one word:
+
+"Why?"
+
+But Sally did not vouchsafe any reply at all, to the question. She
+tossed her head, and darted along the wide hall toward a rear door.
+
+Duncan gazed after her for a moment, and then, with another shrug of
+his shoulders, he passed on out of the house, and made his way swiftly
+toward the stables and the garage, for he was determined to get out
+his car and to return to the city, forthwith.
+
+His surprise was great, when, on arriving at the door of the garage,
+he found that Sally had preceded him, and, as he drew near, she turned
+a white, scared face toward him, exclaiming:
+
+"Oh, Roderick! What do you think? Patricia has gone."
+
+"Gone!" he echoed. "Gone where? Gone, when? What do you mean, Sally?"
+
+"She has gone. She has taken one of Jack's cars, and gone home."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No. She took Patrick with her, to drive the car. They left here half
+an hour ago, I am told. Why do you suppose she did such a thing,
+without consulting me, Roderick? Why? Why?"
+
+"Why?" he echoed her question a second time. Then, he laughed, and it
+was not a pleasant laugh to hear. All the bitterness of those moments
+under the vine on the veranda was voiced in that laugh. "It isn't a
+difficult question to answer, Sally. She has followed Morton--that is
+why;" and, while Mrs. Gardner stared at him, uncomprehendingly, he
+turned to one of the stablemen who was near, and who had been Sally's
+informant about the movements of Patricia, and called out:
+
+"Tell my man to fetch my car to me, here. I shall go, at once, Sally."
+His car was already moving toward him, and, as it stopped and he put
+one foot upon the step, Sally replied:
+
+"I'll say that you and Patricia went away together. It will sound
+better."
+
+"Pardon me, Sally, but you will say no such thing--with my permission.
+Go ahead, Thompson." He sprang into the car, and it sped away with
+him, leaving Sally staring after him, wide-eyed with the amazement she
+felt. Already, she realized that her house-party, from which she had
+expected such wholesome results, had proven disastrous all around. Her
+husband's prophecy concerning it had been correct. But she did not
+know, and could not know as yet, just how disastrous it had been, for
+there had been no prophet to foretell the catastrophe at the stone
+quarry, toward which Patricia Langdon had started, half an hour
+earlier, in one of Jack Gardner's cars, guided by one of Jack's most
+trusted servants; and, oddly enough, by one who had formerly been in
+the employ of Stephen Langdon, and who, as a servant, had fallen under
+the spell of the daughter of the house to such an extent that he had
+never ceased to quote her as the criterion of all things in the way of
+excellence to be attained by an employer. And toward this quarry
+Duncan was now hastening at the full speed of his big Packard-sixty,
+with the trusted Thompson at the wheel; and toward it, as the chief
+actor, Richard Morton had started away from Cedarcrest with a broken
+heart, and with a brain crazed by the calamities that had rushed so
+swiftly upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MYSTERIES BORN IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+When the car, driven by Thompson, drew near to the derrick which had
+been to Morton the suggestion of an unholy impulse, he slowed the big
+Packard and leaned ahead, far over the wheel, for his keen eyes had
+already discerned something beside the road which had not been there
+when he had passed earlier in the evening. He stopped the car, and
+that fact awoke Duncan to a recollection of his surroundings.
+
+"What is it, Thompson?" he asked. "Why have you stopped?"
+
+Thompson was peering anxiously toward the jumbled mass of broken stone
+ahead of him, and there was an instant of silence before he replied.
+Then--
+
+"There has been a wreck here, sir," he told his employer.
+
+Instantly, Duncan thought of Patricia. He forgot Morton. He was out of
+the car even before Thompson could slide from under the
+steering-wheel, and started ahead at a run, toward the remnants of
+the wreck which he could now see quite plainly.
+
+The roadster, in making its last leap, had literally climbed the rocky
+place, and then, turning end for end twice, had finally alighted upon
+a heap of stone, from which it could be seen from the roadway. It was
+now a mass of iron, a twisted chaos of castings and machinery,
+recognizable only as something that had once been an automobile; but
+the experienced eyes of Thompson, trained to the quick and perfect
+recognition of all cars that he had ever seen, identified the mass of
+wreckage as soon as he got near enough to see it clearly. One
+comprehensive glance sufficed for him. He straightened up after that
+quick search for identification marks, which was his first instinct,
+and said, quietly:
+
+"It is Mr. Morton's roadster, sir."
+
+"My God!" cried Duncan, with a catch in his breath. The truth of the
+matter seemed to rush upon him on the instant, although he afterward
+refused to recognize it as truth. But, as Thompson made the statement,
+Duncan saw again the despairing face of Richard Morton which had still
+had in it a hidden determination to do something that Duncan had not
+even tried to guess at the time. "Was this what he intended to do?"
+Duncan asked himself, silently.
+
+"Yes, sir; it is Mr. Morton's roadster," Thompson repeated, with
+entire conviction. "He must have been hitting up a great gait, when he
+struck, too. I never saw such a wreck; never, sir. He must be
+somewhere about, sir."
+
+"True. Look for him, Thompson; look everywhere."
+
+He started forward himself, leaping over the stones, and plunging into
+every place where the body of a man might have fallen, after being
+hurled from the wrecked car. They searched distances beyond where it
+was possible that the body of a man might have been thrown, but they
+did not find Morton.
+
+"It is possible that he escaped," said Duncan, at last, pausing and
+wiping perspiration from his brow. "He might have alighted on his feet,
+and--"
+
+"No, sir. Pardon me. It is not possible. No man could go through such
+a wreck as that one, and in such a place, and escape alive. Besides,
+sir--look here."
+
+The man struck a match, and held the blaze of it toward a pile of
+sharp stones. Duncan bent forward, peered at the spot indicated by
+Thompson, and drew back again with a sharp exclamation of horror.
+
+There was blood on the stones; quite a lot of it, partly dried. And
+near it, half-hidden among the jagged stones, were Morton's watch and
+fob. The fob was instantly recognizable for it was totally unlike any
+other that Duncan had ever seen, formed of nuggets in the rough,
+linked together with steel rings, instead of with gold, or silver. The
+watch was smashed almost as badly as the automobile. Duncan took it in
+his hand, held it so for a moment, and at last, with a shudder,
+dropped it into one of his pockets.
+
+"What does it mean, Thompson? Where is he?" he asked.
+
+"I think it is likely, sir, that someone passed the spot, either at
+the time of the accident or directly after it happened. Of course,
+sir, the body would not have been left here under any circumstances."
+
+"The body? You think he must be dead?"
+
+"There can be no doubt of it, sir," said Thompson, with conviction.
+"Shall we go on, sir? Nothing more can be done here."
+
+They returned to their own car, and the journey toward the city was
+resumed. Not another word was spoken until they were in the city
+streets, and then the only direction that Duncan gave his chauffeur
+was that he be taken directly to his rooms, where, as soon as he
+entered, he seized upon the telephone. One after another, he called up
+every hospital in the city, and it was not until he found his search
+to be entirely unavailing that it occurred to him Morton would have
+been taken to some place nearer the scene of the accident. Then, he
+bethought himself to communicate with police headquarters.
+
+"I will give," he said, "a thousand dollars for positive information
+about the fate of Richard Morton, provided the same is brought to me
+before daylight, and that my request be kept a secret. This is not a
+bribe, but a spur to great effort. You have facilities for making such
+inquiries. Find Morton for me, before morning, if you can, no matter
+where he is. Keep it from the newspapers, too. Then, come to me for
+the check." He explained fully the locality of the accident--and then
+he waited.
+
+He did not occupy his bed that night, and he could not have explained
+why he did not do so. He kept telling himself that Richard Morton was
+nothing whatever to him; that it did not matter what had happened to
+the fellow; that Morton deserved death for what he had done--and a lot
+of other things of the same character. But all the while he paced the
+floor, and waited for information; or, he seated himself in a corner
+of the room and smoked like a furnace chimney. Just as daylight was
+breaking, while gazing through his window toward the eastward, he
+started, and asked himself, guiltily:
+
+"Am I hoping all the time that he is dead? Have I offered that
+thousand dollars only for assurance of his death?"
+
+Fortunately, he was not compelled to reply to the self-accusing
+question, for there came a summons at his door, and an officer from
+headquarters entered to announce that, although diligent search and
+inquiry had been made in every conceivable quarter, not a word of
+information regarding Richard Morton could be obtained. Duncan
+listened in silence to the report, and, when it was finished, said:
+
+"Very well; continue the search. Find the man, or find out what became
+of him. I will defray all the expenses, and will pay the reward I
+offered, too. But I must have the information at once, and everything
+relative to this affair must be kept from the newspapers."
+
+The officer had just gone when a ring at Duncan's telephone took him
+quickly to it--and the voice of Jack Gardner at the other end of the
+wire alarmed him unduly, considering that there was no known reason to
+feel alarm. Gardner, upon being assured that he was talking directly
+with his friend, said:
+
+"You'll have to pardon me, old chap, for calling you out of bed at
+this ungodly hour, but I just had to do it."
+
+"You needn't worry, Jack. I haven't been in bed. What's up?" Duncan
+replied.
+
+"Why; you see there is a mystery developed, just now. If you haven't
+been in bed, I have. I was called out of it by this confounded
+telephone--twice. The first call was to tell me that some sort of an
+accident had happened to Dick Morton. I couldn't gather what it was,
+and didn't really take much stock in it, so far as that goes. Then,
+the second call came. I was mad by that time, and didn't have very
+much to say to the chap at the other end of the wire--till Sally put
+me up to calling you."
+
+"What was the second call about?" asked Duncan, gritting his teeth and
+almost fearing to hear what it might have been.
+
+"Why, my Thomas car--the one that took Patricia away, you know--has
+been found somewhere in the streets of New York, deserted, apparently.
+I can't understand it. They identified the car by the number, you
+know. When I told Sally what had been said to me, she immediately had
+a spasm of fear lest the accident reported to have happened to Morton
+might have been Patricia, instead. I thought I'd ask you about it;
+that's all."
+
+"Wait a minute, Jack. Just let me think, a minute; then I'll answer
+you."
+
+Duncan put the receiver down on the table, and crossed the room. He
+found it difficult to grasp the situation. Until that moment, it had
+not occurred to him that Patricia might have been the one to find
+Morton, or Morton's body, at the scene of the wreck. He had forgotten
+that she must have passed that way within half an hour from the time
+of the piling of the steamer upon the mass of sharp stones. Presently,
+he returned to the telephone, and told his friend all that he knew
+about the circumstances, and all that he had done since Thompson and
+he came away from the scene of the wreck.
+
+"But I don't see what your Thomas car has got to do with it," he
+concluded. "Your man Patrick was driving it, wasn't he? I know he was.
+He used to be with Langdon, you know. He isn't a chauffeur, but he's a
+lot more competent to be one than half the men who are. I say, Jack,
+have Sally call up Patricia, right away. You--"
+
+He heard a click over the wire which told him that connection was cut
+off; and after that he paced the floor again, wishing and hoping for
+the ringing of his telephone-bell.
+
+"We are coming to the city at once," Gardner told him, when at last it
+did ring, and Duncan had taken down the receiver. "What the devil is
+the matter with everything, anyhow? You had better hump yourself,
+Duncan, and get busy. I don't believe that Morton was hurt half so
+badly as you and Thompson seemed to think. Anyhow, the only way I can
+see through it all is that Patricia was the one who found him. But,
+even so--"
+
+"Hold on a minute, Jack. You are getting too swift for me. What did
+Sally find out when she telephoned to Patricia?"
+
+"Oh! Didn't I tell you that? Patricia hasn't been home, at all. They
+thought, at Langdon's, that she was here. She certainly hasn't shown
+up there. And you say that Dick has disappeared, after leaving his
+gore spread all over the place where his car was smashed. And, then,
+my car is found somewhere down there, abandoned. I can't make it out,
+at all. Sally is sure that something dreadful has happened. We're
+starting now. Sally won't wait another minute. I'll see you as soon as
+I get into town."
+
+He did not delay to say good-bye, but hung up the receiver at his end.
+
+Duncan did not await the arrival of Gardner. He summoned his valet,
+and gave him strict directions about the reception of any news
+concerning the mysteries of the night. Then, he hurried to Stephen
+Langdon's home where he was admitted at once to the old banker's
+sleeping apartment.
+
+"What in heaven's name is the matter now, Rod?" the financier
+demanded, testily. "It is bad enough to have you and Patricia at
+sword's points, but to rout out an old fellow like me from his bed at
+this hour, is rubbing it in."
+
+"I suppose you haven't heard that Patricia did not come home last
+night, have you?" Duncan said, by way of reply.
+
+"No, I haven't. I should have been surprised, if I had heard it. She
+wasn't expected to come home. She went to the Gardners."
+
+"Well, sir, there is a lot that you ought to know, before you step out
+of this room, to face all sorts of statements and inquiries. That is
+why I am here. I thought I was the best one to tell you."
+
+"To tell me what?"
+
+"It will be something of a shock, sir. Brace yourself for it. I don't
+think that a soul in the world except me, guesses at the truth."
+
+"Guesses at what truth? What the devil is the matter with you? What
+are you trying to tell me? Out with it, whatever it is!"
+
+"Patricia has run away with Richard Morton. He was hurt last night.
+She was in love with him, and--"
+
+"Stop! Stop where you are, Rod. You're crazy. You're stark, staring,
+raving crazy! Why in heaven's name should Patricia want to run away
+with Morton? It is true that I have always wanted her to marry you,
+but, if she wanted _him_, she knows mighty well she could have him. I
+wouldn't put out a finger to stop her from marrying anybody of her
+choice, so long as the man was morally and mentally fit. Sit down over
+there; take a drink. You look as if you needed one. Don't utter a word
+for five minutes, and then begin at the beginning and tell me all
+about it."
+
+But Duncan would listen to neither request. He began at once and told
+of the occurrences of the night, from the moment when Patricia had
+arrived at Cedarcrest alone, till the receipt of the telephonic
+messages from Gardner; and he concluded by saying:
+
+"There is no mystery in the affair, at all, as I regard it. Patricia
+left the house, at Cedarcrest, half an hour after Morton left it. She
+found the wrecked car, near the derrick, as Thompson and I found it,
+later on. But she found Morton, too. Patrick was with her, and Patrick
+is devoted to Patricia. He wouldn't consider the fact that he is, or
+was, in Jack's employ, if it came to a question of obedience to her
+wishes; he would serve her. You see, Patricia found out that she loved
+Morton, when he got his calling-down; only, I suppose, even then, she
+wasn't quite sure. But, when the time came for him to go away
+entirely, she had no more doubts about it! She didn't remain long at
+Cedarcrest, after that; she followed him. She knew that Patrick was
+there, and that he would go with her. Well, they found the wreck of
+Morton's car, along the road; then, they found Morton. Probably, he
+wasn't much hurt; chaps like him don't mind the loss of a little
+blood. Patricia and the man helped him into the car. It was just the
+proper scene, with all the best kind of setting for a mutual
+confession of their love, and--there you are."
+
+"Go on, Roderick. Finish all you have to say, before I begin. What
+next?"
+
+"Why--oh, what's the use? There isn't any more to say. Morton
+probably asked her to go away with him, and she went. That's all. I
+thought you ought to know it."
+
+"You don't know it yourself, do you?"
+
+"No--not positively, of course."
+
+"You have just guessed it."
+
+"I suppose that's true, too."
+
+"I wonder if your guessing has gone far enough to enlighten me on two
+important points."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I'd like to know why Morton would want her to run away with him at
+all, and why she should think of consenting to such a thing, if he
+did. Patricia isn't one of the run-away kind. I should think you would
+know that. And they didn't have to run."
+
+"Why, Morton had just been virtually kicked out of Jack Gardner's
+house. He was--"
+
+"Well? Well? Couldn't Stephen Langdon's daughter kick him into it
+again? Or into any other house on God's green earth, for that matter,
+if she tried to do so? Do you suppose he'd have to pay any attention
+to a little, petty ostracism, on the part of such puppets of society
+as gathered out there, if he became the husband of Patricia Langdon?
+Don't be an ass, Roderick! You are just plain jealous, and I don't
+know that I blame you--for that."
+
+"I'm not jealous."
+
+"Then, you're a fool, and that's a heap worse."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+RODERICK DUNCAN SEES LIGHT
+
+
+The police department of the city of New York did not earn the
+thousand dollars reward offered by Roderick Duncan. The mystery of the
+abandoned car, owned by Jack Gardner, was not explained. Patrick
+O'Toole did not return to his duties at Cedarcrest. The story of the
+wreck of the White Steamer on the rocks under the derrick remained
+untold. Patricia Langdon did not reappear among her friends and
+acquaintances in the city. The mysteries born of that party at
+Cedarcrest continued unsolved.
+
+Roderick Duncan, having arrived at a conclusion about all those
+matters which was quite satisfactory to himself, declined to concern
+himself farther about them; he believed that he perfectly understood
+the situation, and he let it go at that--although he engaged the
+services of every clipping-bureau in the city, in an effort to find
+announcement somewhere of the marriage of Patricia Langdon to Richard
+Morton. But no such record was discovered, nor was any evidence found
+that suggested such a possibility. He withdrew very much into himself,
+shunned his clubs, avoided his friends, and could not himself tell why
+he did not go away somewhere, to the other side of the world, seeking
+to forget what he had lost. He went so far in his studied aloofness as
+to keep entirely away from Stephen Langdon, and was perhaps all the
+more surprised when, as time elapsed, Patricia's father did not send
+for him. The utter silence of Stephen Langdon, and his entire
+inactivity concerning the absence of his daughter convinced Duncan, as
+it did also Patricia's, friends, generally, that he knew perfectly
+well where she was. It was a logical conclusion, too, for, if Stephen
+Langdon had not known, it is safe to say that he would have moved
+heaven and earth to find his daughter.
+
+Jack and Sally Gardner went to Europe and took Beatrice with them.
+Nesbit Farnham followed them, on the next steamer. The Misses Houston,
+also, disappeared. The newspapers had contained merely a mention of
+the wreck, nothing more of consequence. The destruction of the machine
+was told, and it was hinted that the chauffeur was slightly injured;
+nothing was said to suggest that Richard Morton had been hurt at all.
+The police, to whom Duncan had telephoned, made no bones of
+pooh-poohing the entire matter, and laughing in their sleeves about
+it. The police had their own ideas about the whole thing--and speedily
+forgot them all.
+
+Stephen Langdon was strangely grim and silent, those days; he was also
+unusually dangerous to his rivals in "the street." Every energy that
+he possessed seemed bent upon ruining somebody, anybody. It did not
+occur to Duncan that the old man avoided him, because he was guilty of
+the like avoidance himself; but, had he been less concerned with his
+own sorrows, and given some thought to Stephen Langdon's, he would
+have been quick enough to discover that the old financier dodged him,
+studiously.
+
+There was no gossip about the disappearance of Patricia, because
+nothing was known about it. She was out of town, as were most of her
+associates; traveling somewhere, doubtless, or was passing the time
+among her numerous friends.
+
+The first week after the beginning of the mystery was lived through in
+a state of unrest by Duncan, and the second and third weeks brought no
+change to him. With the beginning of the fourth week, he encountered
+Burke Radnor, and the mere sight of the newspaper man recalled to the
+young millionaire that bitterly unpleasant episode in which his name
+and that of Beatrice Brunswick were coupled. Radnor was seated in the
+lobby of the Hotel Astor, when Duncan entered the place. The man had
+been drinking just enough to render him a bit boisterous and a trifle
+loud in his talk and demeanor, when Duncan saw him. He was seated with
+several other men, and all of them were talking and laughing together
+at the moment when Duncan passed them on his way to the desk to
+inquire for a guest whom he desired to see. He took no notice whatever
+of Radnor, and was passing on, when a remark dropped noisily by the
+newspaper writer arrested him. It brought him to a halt so suddenly,
+that he sank at once upon a chair near at hand, and remained there
+without realizing that he did so, for the sole purpose of hearing what
+else Radnor might have to say upon this particular subject. He would
+have passed on, even then, had he not been convinced that Radnor had
+not seen him, and did not suspect his nearness. As he listened, he
+gathered that Radnor was boasting of a prospective news story which he
+had in prospect, and for the publication of which he needed only a few
+additional facts.
+
+"--elopement in high life, with an automobile wreck, a broken head--a
+broken heart also, only that was quickly mended--and a bunch of other
+little details thrown in, you know," was the remark that was overheard
+by Duncan, as he strolled past the group; was his reason for dropping
+down upon a convenient chair and remaining there, to listen. "The lady
+in the case is a swell who is away up in the top rank of the
+'two-hundred-and-fifty;' and the man--well, he is up in high C, too,
+for that matter. One of the newly-rich, you know, lately materialized
+out of the wild and woolly. Fine stunt, that story; only, I can't seem
+to nail the few additional facts I need," Radnor continued, while
+Duncan listened with all his ears. "There are certain elements
+connected with the story that make it especially attractive to me,
+for, in addition to getting a clear scoop in the biggest sensation of
+the year, I can clean up an old grudge of mine, bee-eautifully. And
+won't I clean it up, when I get my hooks fairly into it! Well! You can
+take it from me."
+
+"Oh, go on, Radnor, and tell us about it!" urged one of his
+companions--another newspaper writer, evidently. "How'd you get next
+to it in the first place?"
+
+"Oh, that was an accident--a series of accidents, it might be called.
+I don't mind telling you that part of it, without names. I mentioned
+a broken head, just now. Well, I had a line on a dandy story that was
+located out of town, and so I borrowed Tony Brokaw's automobile to go
+after it, because the story was located some distance off of the main
+line of travel. I was bowling along quite merrily, all alone in a car
+that is made to carry seven. It was just in the shank of the evening,
+and--"
+
+"All this happened out of town, didn't it, Radnor?"
+
+"Yes--a little way out. I came to a place where there had been a
+wreck, and--well--seated on the ground at the scene of the disaster,
+was the lady in the case, holding the head of the man in the case, in
+her lap, and moaning over it to beat the band. Standing beside them,
+like a big dog on guard, was a 'faithful servant.' It made a picture
+that couldn't be beaten, for suggestive points, provided the
+likenesses were made good enough. I took the whole thing in, at a
+glance, and sized the situation up rather correctly, too. The young
+woman was rattled clean out of her senses, and kept moaning something
+about it's being all her fault--I wasn't able to get just the gist of
+that part of it. She knew me by sight, and remembered my name. I
+offered my assistance, and then fell to examining the injured man. I
+discovered that he wasn't dead by a long shot, although he had been
+hurt quite badly, and he'd bled a lot. But I've been a war
+correspondent; I know all about first aid to the injured; I have seen
+wounds of all kinds, and it didn't take me long to estimate 'mister
+magusalem's' chances at about a thousand to one, for recovery. I made
+the chauffeur help me, and together we toted the wounded man to my
+car, and put him in the tonneau. The lady climbed in beside him--and
+ordered her chauffeur to follow her, and help her with the injured
+man. All the time, I was keeping up a devil of a thinking, wondering
+what it was all about. You see, I knew who the man and the woman were,
+but I couldn't fix the facts of the case sufficiently clear to satisfy
+me. I knew it would be a dandy sensation for the morning papers, but
+there was yet plenty of time to get it in, over a wire--besides, I
+wanted it to go in late, so that other papers than the one I gave it
+to, couldn't get a line on it. I got into my car--that is, the one I
+had borrowed, you understand--wondering where I would take the bunch,
+when another car stopped alongside of us, and a man, also alone, asked
+what was the matter. I found out that he was a doctor, and got him to
+take a look at the wounded man. To make a long story short, he
+dressed the wound then and there, said there wasn't any immediate
+danger--and a lot more--and went on his way. That decided me. I knew
+of a place about twenty miles away where I could take them, where the
+man would have the best of care, and--best of all--where I could fix
+things up to keep everything quiet till I found out all the facts. You
+see, I scented the greatest sensational story of my career--and I
+wasn't far out, either, if ever I get all of it."
+
+"But, great Scott, man, didn't you have it then?"
+
+"You'd have had it, Sommers; but not I. I knew there was more to it.
+When the doctor pulled his freight out of there, I didn't lose any
+time in getting a move on me, too. And the girl never asked a
+question; not one; I had told her that I would take them to a place
+where the man could get well, and she seemed satisfied. The chauffeur
+never peeped a word. I let the motor skim along at a good rate, and
+wasn't long in bringing the bunch to the place I had thought of, which
+happens to be a small, private sanatorium, which isn't known to be one
+at all, save by those who patronize it and who want to put their loved
+ones away for a time, secretly. But the doc who runs it, is a good
+fellow, a good friend of mine, and when I told him that we didn't
+want a word said about the affair--and particularly when he discovered
+who the parties were and that there was a heap of dough in it for
+him--he fell into my plans without a dissenting vote."
+
+"Say, Radnor, that's a long winded yarn, all right, but it's
+interesting. I wish, though, that you'd open up with the names."
+
+"Not I, Sommers. I haven't got to the real mystery of the
+affair--yet."
+
+"You don't say! What is it?"
+
+"Well, when I had fixed things to suit me, and had received the thanks
+of the lady, when I had also satisfied myself that she was just as
+anxious for secrecy about the thing as I was, although I couldn't tell
+exactly why she was so, I hiked it back for town. It was too late,
+then, to get the other story I had been after, and I had ceased to
+care much about it, anyhow; and then, when I was ready to leave, out
+came the chauffeur, and he said, if I didn't mind, he'd ride part of
+the way back with me. He and the woman had been whispering together,
+just before that, and I sized it up that she had given him certain
+instructions to carry out. Anyhow, when we arrived at the scene of the
+accident, the chauffeur got down, and I came on, to the city, alone.
+I'm not going to tell you why the chauffeur left me, at the scene of
+the accident, because that would give you a pointer which I don't wish
+you to have. He had a certain duty to perform which I did not guess
+at, just then, but which was all plain to me the next A. M., if
+anybody should ask you. It amazed me, and it added immensely to the
+mystery. And now, brace yourself, fellows, for the real mystery--the
+one I am chasing at the present time."
+
+"We're all ears, Radnor."
+
+"I telephoned to my friend the doc, the next morning. He reported that
+the man was doing well, and that the lady was hanging over him like a
+possum over a ripe persimmon. I telephoned again that afternoon, again
+the next morning, and every day after that, but the doc kept telling
+me that, although the man was doing well, and the lady was still there
+with him, I had better not butt in until he tipped me the wink--and
+I'll give you my word that he managed to keep me on the hooks for ten
+days before I tumbled."
+
+"Tumbled to what?"
+
+"You shall hear. I got leary about things on the tenth day, for this
+telephoning was getting monotonous, and borrowed Brokaw's car again,
+but when I got to the little hidden sanatorium, my birds had flown,
+and--"
+
+"Your birds had flown! What do you mean, Radnor?"
+
+"Just what I say. The man and the woman had gone, and the doc wouldn't
+tell me when they went away, or anything at all about them. He said he
+had been well paid for keeping quiet, and I couldn't get any more
+information out of him than you could dig out of a clam. What is more,
+that chauffeur hadn't been seen by anybody since I dropped him out of
+the machine, at the scene of the accident--and that is the story. I
+don't know whether the doc lied to me, or not. He wouldn't let me go
+through his place, and, for all I know, the man and the girl were both
+there when I went back. On the other hand, they might have been gone a
+week, already. I've been unearthing every clue I could think of, since
+then, to get trace of them, but you might as well look for saw dust in
+hades, as for clues about those two--or rather the three of them, for
+I am satisfied that the chauffeur returned to the sanatorium after he
+had performed the errand he was sent to do."
+
+"What gets me," said Sommers, "is how people as prominent as you say
+they were could fade out of sight like that, and leave no trace behind
+them. I should have thought there would be a hue and cry after them
+that would have stirred every newspaper in town."
+
+"Well--all that rather gets me, too. Of course, I could make a big
+story out of it, as it stands; but that isn't all of the story, and I
+want it all."
+
+"There is a scandal in the thing, too, Radnor."
+
+"Of course, man! The fellow wasn't so badly hurt but what he must have
+been around again, by the time I went back to the sanatorium. The girl
+was certainly in her right senses. She remained there with him,
+hanging over him and helping to take care of him--and there wasn't a
+thing said about any marriage-ceremony. Oh, it's a big story all
+right, no matter how it turns out. You see, there are some remarkable
+circumstances associated with the case. For instance, there are two
+men in town now, both of whom should be very greatly concerned over
+the mystery. I have had them both watched, and, while both seem
+anxious about something, neither one seems to give a hang about an
+affair which I know they would have broken their necks to have
+prevented. There's a nigger in the fence, somewhere; and those two men
+avoid each other as if one had the smallpox and the other was down
+with yellow fever. Whenever I have asked any of the intimate friends
+about the principals in the case, I have been told enough to inform
+me that the intimate friends know as little as I do, and don't guess
+anything about it, at all. Oh, it's a fine mix-up! But just where the
+trouble is located, I can't make out."
+
+"Put me wise, Radnor, and let me help you. Then, we'll do the story
+together," said the man called Sommers.
+
+"Not much. It's my story, and I'm going to hang to it. If you can make
+anything out of what I have told you, you're welcome. You can't! The
+young woman in the case has got more brains than half the business
+men, down-town. The man and the woman have both got millions to burn;
+and there you are. Come on; let's have something. I'm dry as a bone."
+
+The members of Radnor's party marched past Roderick Duncan without
+seeing him; and he, totally forgetful of the errand that had taken him
+to the hotel, passed swiftly out of it, hailed a taxi, and gave the
+address of Malcolm Melvin, the lawyer; and then he was whirled away as
+swiftly as the driver of the cab dared to take him through the streets
+of the teeming city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE LAST WOMAN
+
+
+Stephen Langdon was seated at one end of the table, Roderick Duncan
+was at the opposite one. Melvin, the lawyer, was behind it. Duncan had
+just related the story he had overheard told by Radnor, and he had
+brought his recital to a close by making a remarkable statement, which
+had brought at least one of his hearers to a mental stand-still.
+
+"I am a party to an agreement which was signed, sealed and delivered,
+in this office, Mr. Langdon," he said. "You are also a party to that
+document. Your daughter also signed it. By the terms of that document,
+Patricia Langdon became my promised wife. Under the terms recited in
+that document, she named a day when we were to be married. That day
+has come and gone, and I have received no word of any kind from her. I
+am convinced that you, her father, know where she is, where she can be
+found, and now I demand of you that information, in order that I may
+seek her. It is my wish to know from her own lips if she repudiates
+that contract, or if it is still her intention to live up to it. I
+have asked you, in Mr. Melvin's presence, twice, to give me the
+information I wish for. I have asked you once on the ground of our
+mutual friendship: you declined to answer. I have asked you, the
+second time, on the ground of love and affection, for you and for your
+daughter: you have refused. I ask you now on the ground of a
+commercial transaction, just as Miss Langdon insisted upon viewing it,
+and with all personal considerations put aside. If you again decline
+my request, I give you warning that I shall make a call upon you
+within an hour, for the loan I have advanced. I have that right, under
+the terms of the agreement, and I shall take advantage of it. That is
+all I have to say. It is my last word."
+
+Stephen Langdon left his chair. His face was cold, stern,
+expressionless. It wore the mask which long years in "the street," had
+given it. He did not look toward Duncan, but turned his face to the
+lawyer, and said, with cold preciseness:
+
+"Mr. Melvin, you may say for me, to all who may be concerned, that I
+shall be prepared within an hour to meet all demands that may be made
+upon me."
+
+With a slight inclination of his head, he left the office of the
+lawyer. He walked as erect as ever; he carried himself no less
+proudly, although he knew that he was going to his financial ruin
+unless the unexpected should happen. Twenty millions is a large sum to
+pay at an hour's notice. It was not a tithe of the fortune which
+Stephen Langdon was supposed to possess; yet his circumstances at the
+moment were such that terrible disaster would immediately follow upon
+the demand for its payment. He knew it; Melvin knew it; Roderick
+Duncan knew it. But the fighting blood of Roderick Duncan's father was
+surging in his son's soul, just then; and, in his day, "Old Man
+Duncan" had been a harder and a more relentless financier than ever
+his partner, Stephen Langdon, had become.
+
+"You will not insist, will you, Roderick?" the lawyer asked, as soon
+as they were alone.
+
+"I shall insist," replied Duncan, with decision.
+
+"Even in the event that I might give you the information you seek?
+Even in that case, will you insist upon forcing your father's life-long
+friend to the wall? For that is what it will amount to."
+
+"No. In that case I shall not insist upon calling in the loan. I seek
+only the information. It doesn't matter where I get it, so long as I
+do get it, and it proves to be correct. That is all I require."
+
+The lawyer drew a pad of paper toward him and hastily wrote a few
+lines upon it. Then, tearing off the sheet, he rang a bell and gave
+the written message into the hand of a clerk.
+
+"Mr. Langdon just left this office," he said. "Overtake him and give
+him this message. See to it that you do not fail to place it in his
+hands at once." He waited until the door had closed behind the
+retreating figure of the clerk; then he turned toward Duncan again.
+
+"Mr. Langdon is only a very little wiser than yourself about what has
+happened to his daughter, during the last few weeks," he said, with a
+touch of coldness in his tones. "I am somewhat better informed than
+either of you, and in order to save my old friend from utter ruin--in
+order to save his life, for ruin would spell death to him--I shall
+tell you what you wish to know, even though I have been implored not
+to do so. Frankly, I believe it better that you should know the truth,
+only"--he hesitated a moment--"I shall ask you to remember who you are
+and what you are, and to govern yourself as your father's son should."
+
+"Well, Mr. Melvin?"
+
+"Miss Langdon is at Three-Star ranch, in Montana. She has been
+there--"
+
+"One moment, Melvin!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You said, _Miss Langdon_. Do you wish to correct that statement by
+any change of name? Was it a slip of the tongue, caused by momentary
+forgetfulness?"
+
+"No."
+
+"'Three-Star' is the name of a brand owned by Richard Morton, is it
+not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Three-Star ranch is one of his many properties, I believe."
+
+"It is."
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"I repeat: Miss Langdon is at Three-Star ranch, in Montana. She has
+been there since a little more than a week after her disappearance. I
+was the first to be informed of the fact. The information came to me
+through a letter written by her to me. I have fulfilled the requests
+made to me in that letter--until now, when I am revealing truths which
+she wished untold. Through me, her father has settled one million
+dollars upon her. She now enjoys the income of that amount. That is
+all."
+
+"The letter! May I see it?"
+
+The lawyer methodically took a red-leather pocketbook from his coat,
+extracted an envelope therefrom, and passed it across the table to
+Duncan.
+
+"Dear Mr. Melvin," the young man read, half-aloud, although to
+himself, "I am at Three-Star ranch, one of the properties of Mr.
+Richard Morton, in Montana. The full address is inclosed, written upon
+an additional slip of paper which I trust you will destroy at once;
+also this letter. I am with Mr. Morton; I am caring for him. More than
+that, you need not know. I desire you to tell my father that it is my
+wish to forego any inheritance I might have received from him, but
+that if he is disposed to make any present settlement upon me, I shall
+cheerfully receive it. I shall not communicate with him; I do not wish
+him to communicate with me. I cannot command your silence, or his,
+concerning me; but I expect it. Unless he should demand of you
+knowledge of my place of abode, I prefer that you withhold it from
+him. Concerning others, I implore your entire silence and discretion.
+I shall communicate with you again only in the event that it should
+become necessary to do so.--Patricia Langdon."
+
+The letter fluttered from Duncan's hands to the floor. He bent forward
+and picked it up, his face white and drawn and set and suddenly
+haggard. He folded the letter carefully, returned it to the envelope,
+and then, with slow precision, tore it into bits, carried the mass of
+fragments to the hearth, piled them into a heap and touched a lighted
+match to it. The lawyer watched the proceeding without emotion,
+without a change of expression. But he gave a slight nod of
+satisfaction when it was done.
+
+Duncan did not return to his chair. He stood for a moment before the
+hearth, with his back turned toward the lawyer; then he wheeled about
+and came forward three steps, until he could reach his hat which was
+on the table.
+
+"Thank you, Melvin," he said. "I shall entirely respect your
+confidence. Good-day."
+
+"Where are you going, Duncan?"
+
+"I don't know. I haven't thought of that--yet."
+
+The lawyer rose from his chair, and rested the tips of his fingers on
+the table in front of him, bending slightly forward.
+
+"She was a good girl; and you loved her. Don't forget that," he said.
+
+"No; I won't forget it, Melvin."
+
+"And--there are others, just as good; don't forget that, either."
+
+"No. There are no others like her. She was the last woman--for me; the
+last woman; and she is dead."
+
+"The last woman? Nonsense!"
+
+"The last woman, Melvin. You don't understand me."
+
+"No, I do not understand you."
+
+"Good God! Don't you see how it all came about? Don't you know
+Patricia Langdon?"
+
+"I know that I won't hear a word against her, even now--even from you,
+Duncan," said the lawyer, with a touch of savagery.
+
+"Don't you understand that, having put her name to a written contract
+with me, she would not break that contract, or repudiate it? And don't
+you see that she has intended, all along, to force me into a position
+where I would be the one to repudiate its terms? You're a poor judge
+of character, Melvin, if you don't see that. You have never known
+Patricia Langdon, if you don't understand her, now. And"--he hesitated
+an instant--"your association with me has taught you mighty little
+about my character, if you haven't guessed what I will do--now!"
+
+"What will you do, Roderick? What do you mean?" asked the lawyer,
+alarmed by the deep intensity with which Duncan spoke those last
+words.
+
+"I shall go to Montana. I shall start to-night. I shall find Patricia
+Langdon. I shall live up to the terms of the contract I made with her,
+and I shall compel her to do the same. I shall make her my wife. I
+shall bring her back to New York, to her father, to her home, as Mrs.
+Roderick Duncan. That is what I shall do. That is what I mean."
+
+"God bless you, boy! But--it can't be done."
+
+"It shall be done."
+
+"But, she will never consent to such an arrangement. She is the last
+woman in the world to drag your name--"
+
+"The last woman; that is it. She is the last of the Langdon's; she
+shall be the last of the Duncan's, too. She will keep to the letter of
+her contract, if I force her to it. I know that. And I will force her
+to it."
+
+"But the man! What will you do with him?"
+
+Duncan stared a moment. Then, he smiled, as he replied:
+
+"After Patricia Langdon has become Patricia Duncan, I will kill him.
+Good-day, Melvin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE REASON WHY
+
+
+Roderick Duncan traveled westward in a special train made up of his
+own private car, a regular Pullman, and a diner. With his valet for
+company, Duncan constituted the personnel of the first of these; the
+second was occupied by the Reverend Doctor Moreley, his wife and two
+daughters. The reverend gentleman was aware of a part of the purpose
+of that trip; the members of his family were yet to be told of it. A
+lavish use of the magician, Money, had prepared everything in advance
+for Duncan, and he had now only to carry out the arrangements he had
+made. There was a slight delay in making the start, but after that all
+things moved as smoothly as possible. Ultimately, the special train
+was sidetracked at a point that was within a few miles of the house
+and outbuildings of Three-Star ranch.
+
+The state of Montana held no finer ranch and range, no better or more
+up-to-date buildings, no better outfit in all respects, than
+Three-Star. The house, set well up along the side of a hill, faced
+toward the south, and commanded a view which had been the pride of its
+former owners, before Richard Morton bought up all the rangeland in
+that locality and converted it into one huge estate of his own. A
+broad veranda extended from end to end, at the front, and from that
+vantage point miles upon miles of rich pasture could be seen, dotted
+with grazing thousands of cattle. Trees, set out with a view to the
+future, by the creators of the ranch, imparted an aspect of homely
+comfort, of seclusion, peace and contentment to it all.
+
+Just at sundown when Patricia Langdon came through the wide door and
+stepped out upon the veranda toward the broad flight of steps which
+led down to the flowered inclosure in front of the house, she stopped
+suddenly, her right hand flew toward her throat, and her face, flushed
+and angry until that instant, went as pale as death itself. She gasped
+and caught her breath, swayed a second where she stood, and then drew
+herself upright again; and she stood straight and tall and brave, face
+to face with Roderick Duncan who appeared at the top step at the
+instant when Patricia advanced toward it.
+
+For a space, neither one uttered a word, or made another gesture,
+save that, in the first instant, Roderick raised his hat in silent
+salutation, and now stood with it held in his hand.
+
+Patricia's first act was to cast a half-furtive and wholly
+apprehensive glance over her shoulder, toward the doorway through
+which she had just passed. Then, she sprang forward like a young fawn
+and darted down the steps toward the pathway.
+
+"Come with me," she threw back at him. "There must be an interview,
+but it cannot be held here. Follow me."
+
+Duncan obeyed her, but without haste; and she led him into a pathway
+among the trees, soon emerging upon an open space in the center of
+which a rustic pavilion had been erected. It was overgrown by a riot
+of climbing vines; an inclosure with windows at every side of it,
+occupied the center of the space beneath the roof, and inside the
+inclosure were all the evidences of feminine occupancy. Wicker chairs
+and chairs of willow, rugs, hassocks, cushions, pillows with
+embroidered covers, littered the place. One could discern at a glance
+that it was a place of retreat and rest for a woman of taste. In
+reality, it was Patricia Langdon's place of refuge--at least, she so
+regarded it.
+
+She did not speak again until she had mounted the steps which led up
+to it; nor did the man who followed her. But then, when they were
+beneath the roof of the pavilion, she turned about and faced him.
+
+"Now," she said, "why are you here? Why have you dared to come to this
+place, in search of me?" She spoke without emphasis, but the very
+absence of all emotion gave her words the more weight and power.
+
+Duncan stood tall and straight before her, calmly facing her. If her
+face showed no emotion, now that she had regained control over
+herself, neither did his. Before he replied to her question, he took a
+folded paper from the breast-pocket of his coat, and held it in his
+hand.
+
+"I have a document here, which bears your signature, and mine," he
+said, then. "It recites the terms of a certain contract which you have
+agreed to fulfill. I am here to insist that you carry out the terms of
+this agreement. It is time now, for action on your part."
+
+Patricia gasped. She took a single step backward, and rested one hand
+upon the top of a willow armchair. Her composure seemed about to
+forsake her utterly, but by a great effort she controlled herself,
+lifting her free hand to her throat as if something were choking her.
+
+"It--is--impossible--now," she muttered, at last; and she swayed where
+she stood, as if she might fall.
+
+"Be seated, Patricia," he said, using her name for the first time;
+and, when she had complied, he passed around the chair until he stood
+behind her. It was a delicate act on his part--a consideration for her
+feelings which might not have been expected, under all the
+circumstances. He thought he understood how terrible this interview
+must be to her, and he did not wish to compel her to face him, while
+it endured. Patricia shivered when he passed her; otherwise she gave
+no sign. "It is not impossible," he went on, without perceptible
+pause. "It has never been impossible; it can never be so. On the
+contrary, it is imperative; more than ever imperative, now."
+
+She shivered again, and did not reply when he paused. He continued:
+
+"Patricia Langdon, you are not one to refuse the terms of a written
+contract which you have signed and sealed with a full knowledge of its
+meaning, particularly when the other party to it insists upon its
+fulfillment. I am the other party to this contract, and I do insist
+upon its complete fulfillment. You are the last woman in the world
+to--"
+
+"I am the last woman in the world--the very last!" she interrupted
+him, vehemently, but she did not turn her head toward him. He
+continued as if he had not heard her:
+
+"--to repudiate the distinct terms of an agreement you have knowingly
+made."
+
+"I have already repudiated them."
+
+"No, you have not. And you shall not."
+
+"Shall not?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do--do you mean that you would force me to a compliance with the
+conditions of that agreement you hold in your hand?"
+
+"Yes--if such a course is necessary."
+
+"But you cannot! You cannot!"
+
+"Yes, I can; and I will, Patricia."
+
+"Don't speak my name!" she cried out, hotly. "Don't utter it again!
+Don't you dare to do so! Don't you dare!"
+
+"Very well."
+
+"How will you force me? You cannot do it."
+
+"There is a penalty attached to all legally drawn contracts," he lied,
+glibly enough; and, realizing that she was startled by what he had
+already said, he did not hesitate to add more to it. "I have come
+here prepared to insist that you fulfill your obligation. You know
+that I am not one to relent, once I have set my course. There are
+officers of the law in this county and state, as well as within the
+county and state where you made the contract." He stopped a moment
+when she shrank visibly in her chair, for he was about to say a really
+cruel thing. He would not have said it, had he not deemed it entirely
+necessary, in order to coerce her to his will; but he went on,
+relentlessly: "If you make it needful to do so, I shall not hesitate
+to send officers here, to take you before a court, there to relate why
+you will not carry out the conditions of your contract."
+
+Duncan expected that Patricia would fly into a rage, at this; he
+thought she would leap to her feet, confront him, and defy him. He
+looked for a tirade of rage, of abuse, or of despair; or, failing
+these, for an outburst of pleading on her part that he would relent.
+
+There was no evidence of any of these emotions. Indeed, for a moment
+it seemed as if she had not heard him, so still did she sit in her
+chair, so utterly unmoved did she appear to be by the statement he had
+made.
+
+If, at that moment he had stepped around in front of her and looked
+into her face, he would have been amazed by what he saw. He would have
+seen great tears welling in her eyes, held in check by her long
+lashes; he would have seen a near approach to a smile behind those
+tears, although she was unconscious of that, herself; he would have
+noticed that she caught her breath again, but not in the same manner,
+nor from the same cause that had led to the like effort, earlier in
+their interview. When, at last, she did reply to him, it was in a
+far-away, uncertain voice, so soft, and so like the Patricia of quiet
+and sympathetic moods, that Roderick was startled, and he found
+himself compelled to hold his own spirit in check, lest he should
+forget the studied deportment he had determined upon for the occasion.
+
+"Why do you insist upon it?" she asked him. He replied, without
+hesitation--and coldly:
+
+"Because I love you."
+
+"Because ... you ... love ... me," she said, slowly, and so softly
+that he barely heard the words. They did not form a question; they
+comprised a statement, like his own.
+
+"Yes," he said.
+
+"But"--she hesitated--"there is another reason."
+
+"Yes. We need not dwell upon that."
+
+"Nevertheless, I should like to hear it."
+
+"No."
+
+"You will not tell me what it is?"
+
+"It is not necessary. It is begging the question."
+
+"You wish to give me the protection of your name. I think I
+understand."
+
+"Have it so, if you wish."
+
+"You wish to make me your wife. I am beginning to comprehend you,
+Roderick." The name slipped out, unconsciously, on her part, although
+he was tragically aware of it. "Have you remembered--have you thought
+of--are you quite aware of what you are doing?"
+
+"Quite. I have remembered everything, thought of all things."
+
+"And your reason for all this is--what? Tell me again, please."
+
+"You make my task harder," he said, coldly. "My reason is that I love
+you."
+
+Again, Patricia was silent for a time. Then:
+
+"How do you propose to carry out this chivalrous conduct? Who will
+marry us, if I agree to your absurd proposal?"
+
+"It is not absurd. It is the only logical thing for you to do. Doctor
+Moreley will marry us. He came with me, in my special train." She
+caught at the arms of the chair, and clung to them. "Mrs. Moreley,
+with Evelyn and Kate, accompany him. It is a short ride to where the
+cars are sidetracked, waiting. You can ride there in the morning--or
+go there with me this evening, if you will."
+
+"Do ... they ... know--?"
+
+"They know nothing save the one fact that we are to be married, that
+Doctor Moreley is to perform the ceremony, and that the members of his
+family are to act as witnesses. Nobody knows anything at all, save
+that. Nobody ever shall know. Your absence from New York has
+occasioned no suspicion--save only in the mind of one man, Radnor. The
+fact of our marriage will be published and broadcast at once, and even
+his suspicions will be stilled."
+
+"And ... afterward ... after we are married--what?"
+
+"We will discuss that question after the ceremony."
+
+"No. We will discuss it now. Afterward--what?"
+
+"You will be my wife, then. It is right and proper that you should
+return to New York, that you should live in my house. I shall take you
+there, and install you, properly. I shall insist upon that much.
+There is no way for you to escape the fulfillment of your contract.
+When you are my wife, you will have entered upon another contract
+which you will also keep. The contract to honor and obey."
+
+"To love, honor, and obey," she corrected him.
+
+"I shall not insist upon the first of those terms. The second one I
+shall endeavor to merit. The third one, I shall insist upon. Now, when
+will you--"
+
+"Wait. You are sure that you do this because you love me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you are ready to sacrifice your name, your life, to a creature
+who, according to your view of conditions, should be the very last
+woman to bear your name--to become your wife? You do this because you
+love me? It must be a great love, indeed, Roderick, to compel you to
+such an act--oh it must have been a very great love, indeed."
+
+"It is a great love; and there will be no sacrifice: there will be
+satisfaction."
+
+She arose from the chair, but stood as she was, with her back toward
+him.
+
+"You have forgotten one thing," she said, gently.
+
+"I have forgotten nothing."
+
+She raised her right arm, and pointed toward the house, through the
+trees.
+
+"You have forgotten the man, in there," she said, no less gently. It
+was his turn to shudder, but he repeated with doggedness in his tone:
+
+"I have forgotten nothing."
+
+"You mean to deal with him--afterward?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How? If I consent to all that you have asked, will you deal with
+him--gently?"
+
+"Can you plead for him, even now, when--?"
+
+"Hush! Answer my question, if you please."
+
+"I will deal with him more gently than he deserves. I promise you
+that."
+
+"I shall be satisfied with that promise." She turned about and faced
+him, and there was a smile on her lips, now, although Roderick
+entirely misunderstood the cause of it. He drew backward, farther away
+from her. But she followed after him, holding out one hand for him to
+take, and persisting in the effort when he refused to see it. There
+were tears under her lashes again, but she was smiling through them;
+and then, while she followed him, and he still sought to avoid her,
+Patricia lost all control over herself. She half-collapsed, half-threw
+herself upon the chair again, and buried her face in her hands,
+sobbing.
+
+"Don't Patricia; please, don't," he said to her, brokenly. "You make
+it much harder for both of us. This has been a terrible scene for you
+to pass through, I know, but after a little you will realize its
+wisdom--and the full justice of the cause I plead."
+
+She controlled herself. She started to her feet.
+
+"Come with me," she cried out to him; and then, before he could stop
+her, she darted away out of his reach, flew down the steps, and along
+the pathway, toward the house. He followed. There was nothing else for
+him to do. She waited for him at the top of the steps where he had
+first seen her; and, when he would have detained her, she eluded him a
+second time, and fled through the doorway, into the wide hall of the
+house--of Richard Morton's dwelling place.
+
+"Come," she called after him again; and again he followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE MYSTERY
+
+
+The house was a large one. It covered a great deal of ground although
+it was only one story high. A wide hall ran through the center of the
+main building, and there were doors to the right and the left. Through
+the first doorway to the right, Patricia made her escape; and, through
+it, Roderick Duncan followed her. But he brought up suddenly, the
+instant he had crossed the threshold, and stood there, staring.
+Patricia had passed swiftly ahead of him, and Roderick saw her drop
+upon her knees beside a couch-bed, whereon a man was lying--and that
+man was Richard Morton.
+
+Duncan was too greatly amazed for connected thought, but he was
+conscious of the fact that Morton's eyes sought him over the shoulder
+of Patricia, who knelt beside the couch. He had never thought that
+Morton's eyes were quite so expressive. They seemed almost to speak to
+him, to wonder at his presence there; but, stranger than all else, to
+express unquestionable pleasure because of his presence. He thought
+it remarkable that Morton did not move; that the man made no effort to
+rise, or to speak; that there was neither smile nor frown upon his
+white, still face. Then, Patricia's voice broke the spell that was
+upon him. She turned, and beckoned to him.
+
+"Come here, Roderick," she said, softly. "Come and speak to Richard.
+Tell him that you have come all the way out here, by a special train,
+to marry me, and that you have brought a minister along with you to
+perform the ceremony. Come, Roderick, come. He will be made very happy
+by the news." She turned toward the stricken man, again, and added:
+"Won't you, Richard?"
+
+Slowly the lids dropped for an instant over those strangely brilliant
+eyes, and, when they were raised again, the eyes seemed to smile at
+Roderick; but there was no other emotion visible about the prostrate
+man.
+
+"I have not told you about him, Roderick," Patricia said, rising to
+her feet, "but I will do so now, in his presence. He wishes it so; do
+you not, Richard?"
+
+Again, those eyes closed for an instant, and Roderick understood that
+the gesture, if gesture it could be called, meant an affirmative.
+
+"Richard wishes you to know all the truth about him," she continued.
+"I have promised him, many times, that some day I would tell you. He
+meant to kill himself that night, when he drove his roadster away from
+Cedarcrest. He guided his car, purposely, into the mass of rocks at
+the roadside. I found him there. Patrick O'Toole, who is devoted to
+me, was with me, you know. We saw the wreck, and stopped. Then, we
+found Richard. Oh, it was awful. I thought he was dead, and I believed
+that I was his murderer. I still think that I was the unconscious
+cause of it all, although he will not have it so. I was moaning over
+him, when Mr. Radnor--you remember him?--found us. He took us to a
+sanatorium that he knew about, where he said there was a good doctor;
+and so it proved. I forgot all about Jack Gardner's car, but later I
+sent Patrick back after it."
+
+Morton's eyes began to wink rapidly, and Roderick called Patricia's
+attention to the fact.
+
+"Yes; I know that I am getting ahead of my story," she said, as if she
+perfectly understood what the winking meant. "Richard was like a dead
+man when we arrived at the sanatorium--all save his eyes, and the fact
+that he breathed. He was completely paralyzed; only his eyes, and the
+lids over them, retained the power of motion. He was terribly
+injured. The doctor said he would not die, but that he would never
+move a muscle of his body again, no matter how long he might live. The
+power of speech was gone, too. Only his eyes lived; the rest of
+him--all but his eyes and his great heart--was dead."
+
+Morton's eyes began to wink rapidly, again.
+
+"Yes, I shall tell it all; only, let me do it in my own way," Patricia
+said to him. "Mr. Radnor told me that he had given fictitious names
+for both of us to the doctor. At first, I was offended because of it,
+but later, I was glad. The doctor permitted me to assist in the
+nursing--I ... I told him that I was Richard's wife. Mr. Radnor had
+already given that impression. I did not deny it; I made it more
+emphatic, in order that I might take the direction of affairs. When
+Mr. Radnor went away, he said he would return the following day; but I
+did not want him to do that, and so, when the next day came, I
+persuaded the doctor to telephone to him that he must not come. Also,
+when Mr. Radnor took his departure, I sent Patrick with him, to care
+for Jack's car. I told him to deliver it at the garage, and then to
+return to me, at the sanatorium, for further orders. But, when he
+came back, he told me he had abandoned the car in the streets of New
+York, knowing that it would be found and claimed, and wishing to avoid
+the necessity of answering questions. Am I telling the story
+satisfactorily now, Richard?"
+
+Slowly, the speaking eyes drooped their assent, and she went on:
+
+"At the end of a few days, Richard was much better of his hurts. There
+was no change in the other condition--the one that still holds him so
+helpless. I seemed to have a positive genius for understanding him,
+and he made me know--you see, I kept asking questions till he made the
+positive or the negative sign. I hit upon that idea because once,
+Roderick, you made me read 'The Count of Monte Cristo,' and I
+remembered old Nortier--Well, Richard made me understand several
+things. One was that he wished to come here, as soon as possible;
+another was that, most emphatically, he did not wish to have any of
+the old friends and acquaintances in New York know what had happened
+to him. Fortunately, he had a large sum of money in his pockets--What
+are you insisting about now, Richard?" she concluded, with a smile,
+perceiving that the eyelids of the stricken man were working rapidly.
+He looked steadily at her, and she shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Very well," she said, "I understand you. Roderick, he wishes me to
+tell you that he had the money with him because he intended to run
+away with me, that evening, and that he came very near to doing so. He
+wants me to tell you that he was a brute, and everything bad and mean
+and low and--there! I hope you are satisfied, Richard."
+
+The eyes slowly closed and opened again.
+
+"Richard had a large sum with him. I, also, had a considerable amount
+with me. I had had some thought of running away from all of you, and
+had prepared myself for such an emergency. Well, when I knew what
+Richard wanted, I took command of things. I did not consult him at
+all, but went directly ahead, in my own way. I always did that, you
+know, Roderick. I engaged a private car and a special train to bring
+us here; engaged them in the name of--in the assumed name, you know.
+One week from the day we entered the sanatorium, we left it again,
+went aboard the special train, and came here. Patrick came with us. He
+refused to leave.
+
+"Oh, yes; I am forgetting something. You needn't wink so hard,
+Richard. I shall tell all of it. Richard protested with his eyes
+against my accompanying him. I do believe that he never once stopped
+blinking them, all the way out here. He would have said horrid things
+to me, if he could have spoken. I think that I was sometimes really
+glad he could not do so, fearing what he might have said. But nobody
+else could understand him; I could, and did. He was utterly helpless,
+and it was my fault that he was so. Yes, it was, and is, Richard, so
+stop protesting. I bribed the doctor at the sanatorium, to say nothing
+at all about us, and above all to keep every bit of information away
+from Mr. Radnor. Then, we came here.
+
+"At first, it did not occur to me that I should remain, but, when I
+understood how entirely dependent Richard was upon me, I had to stay.
+Think of what he had been, Roderick, and of the condition to which I
+had brought him! It seemed a very little thing for me to do, to stay
+here and be his wife--Yes, that is what I decided to do; only, he
+would not let me. Just think of it! I have begged and pleaded with him
+to marry me, and he has refused."
+
+Again, the eyes began a violent winking, and Patricia, smilingly,
+said:
+
+"Oh, yes. He wants me to tell you that he has begged and pleaded, just
+as hard, for me to return to New York, and leave him here, helpless
+and alone, and that I have been just as contrary about this, as he was
+about the other. There! Can you imagine our quarreling, Roderick?
+Well, just before you appeared here, this evening, we had been having
+a violent quarrel. I was really angry at Richard, when I went out upon
+the veranda--and met you. He had ordered me out of the house. He had
+said, as plainly as he could look it, that he didn't want me here;
+that I was only a trouble to him; that I made him unhappy by
+remaining; that he would be much better in every way if I were gone.
+He ... he made me understand that my ... my good name was in question;
+that I would be talked about. I confess that I had never thought of it
+in that light, before. I asked him again to marry me, and let me
+remain; but he refused. Then, I left him, in a huff, declaring that he
+couldn't drive me away. And then"--she turned directly toward Roderick
+this time, and held out both her hands--"I almost ran into your arms,
+Roderick."
+
+"Do it now, Patricia," he replied, taking her hands, and drawing her
+closer.
+
+"I can't. You are much too near to me. But--"
+
+She did not finish what she was about to say; and Roderick held her
+tightly in his embrace for just one glorious moment, while the eyes of
+the stricken man glowed upon them with unspeakable joy in their living
+depths.
+
+Patricia drew slowly and reluctantly away from Roderick's embrace, and
+once more got upon her knees beside the couch.
+
+"You were right, Richard, after all," she said. "I think it would have
+killed me if I had found Roderick again, after I was the wife of
+another. You were right, dear one. You have always been right. But
+everything is made clear, now. Roderick is here. He loves me. You are
+pleased that he is here, and that he does love me, and my cup of
+happiness is filled to the brim. Speak to him, Roderick."
+
+"Dick Morton, I think you are the bravest man I ever knew," said
+Roderick, stepping forward and permitting his hand to rest for a
+moment upon Morton's forehead. "I want you to be my friend, as long as
+you live, and I want Patricia to continue to care for you, just as
+long as you need her. We will go back East in a day or so, and you
+shall go with us."
+
+The eyes winked a vehement negative, but Roderick continued:
+
+"Oh, you'll think differently about it, after a bit of thought. In
+the meantime, how would it suit you to have a wedding, right here, in
+your room, before your eyes? Eh? He says 'Yes' to that, Patricia."
+
+It was twenty-four hours later. Patricia and Roderick Duncan had just
+been united in marriage by the Reverend Dr. Moreley, and had turned
+about on the platform which projected from the front of the veranda to
+receive the congratulations of their witnesses, who were made up of
+the entire outfit of Three-Star ranch. The couch of the invalid was
+beside them, a cheer was still ringing in the air, when two
+dust-covered horsemen rode upon the scene.
+
+They came to a sudden halt when it was discovered what they had
+intruded upon, but Burke Radnor, never at a loss for words, jumped
+from the saddle and came swiftly forward. The bride saw him,
+recognized him instantly, and smiled. Then, she beckoned to him.
+
+"Come up here, Mr. Radnor," she called. "You were very good to me when
+I needed a friend, and I want to thank you for your silence, since
+then." Radnor flushed. "Please shake hands with my husband, and
+remember that I want both of you to forget your old differences. There
+shall be nothing but happiness here, now. And this is our dear friend,
+Mr. Richard Morton. He cannot shake hands with you, but he can look
+his pleasure at greeting you."
+
+"How are you, Radnor?" said Roderick. "I think, we'd better follow
+Mrs. Duncan's advice, and be friends; eh? I think I know why you came,
+and now I'll see to it that you have a good story to wire to your
+paper, to-night. It will beat the one you hoped to get, all hollow.
+I'll get you to one side and alone, presently, and tell you all about
+it. Listen to those cowpunchers cheer, will you! But, I'll tell you
+what, it isn't a patch on the cheer that is in my heart."
+
+"You have won the first woman in the land, Duncan," said Radnor,
+shaking hands heartily.
+
+"The first woman? No, the last. It takes the last woman to do things,
+Radnor."
+
+"And the best; eh?"
+
+"Both, old chap."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+=BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS=
+
+=Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.=
+
+
+
+=THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal life. With illustrations by
+Charles Livingston Bull.=
+
+Appeals alike to the young and to the merely youthful-hearted. Close
+observation. Graphic description. We get a sense of the great wild and
+its denizens. Out of the common. Vigorous and full of character. The
+book is one to be enjoyed; all the more because it smacks of the
+forest instead of the museum. John Burroughs says: "The volume is in
+many ways the most brilliant collection of Animal Stories that has
+appeared. It reaches a high order of literary merit."
+
+
+
+=THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Illustrated.=
+
+This book strikes a new note in literature. It is a realistic romance
+of the folk of the forest--a romance of the alliance of peace between
+a pioneer's daughter in the depths of the ancient wood and the wild
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+with talking beasts; nor is it merely an exquisite idyl of the beasts
+themselves. It is an actual romance, in which the animal characters
+play their parts as naturally as do the human. The atmosphere of the
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+beasts who live closest to the heart of the wood.
+
+
+
+=THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A companion volume to the "Kindred of the
+Wild." With 48 full page plates and decorations from drawings by
+Charles Livingston Bull.=
+
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+their appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. "This
+is a book full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull's
+faithful and graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own
+tell the story of the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the
+pen pictures of the authors."--_Literary Digest._
+
+
+
+=RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak Wilds,
+and His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 illustrations,
+including frontispiece in color and cover design by Charles Livingston
+Bull.=
+
+A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome
+reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of
+the hunt from the point of view of the hunted. "True in substance but
+fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and
+free-footed, those who know animals and those who do not."--_Chicago
+Record-Herald._
+
+
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+
+
+
+=NEDRA, by George Barr McCutcheon, with color frontispiece, and other
+illustrations by Harrison Fisher.=
+
+The story of an elopement of a young couple from Chicago, who decide
+to go to London, travelling as brother and sister. Their difficulties
+commence in New York and become greatly exaggerated when they are
+shipwrecked in mid-ocean. The hero finds himself stranded on the
+island of Nedra with another girl, whom he has rescued by mistake. The
+story gives an account of their finding some of the other passengers,
+and the circumstances which resulted from the strange mix-up.
+
+
+
+=POWER LOT, by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Illustrated.=
+
+The story of the reformation of a man and his restoration to
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+independence, and the aid of clean, healthy, out-of-door life and
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+The dear old story has never been more lovingly and artistically told.
+
+
+
+=MY MAMIE ROSE. The History of My Regeneration, by Owen Kildare.
+Illustrated.=
+
+This _autobiography_ is a powerful book of love and sociology. Reads
+like the strangest fiction. Is the strongest truth and deals with the
+story of a man's redemption through a woman's love and devotion.
+
+
+
+=JOHN BURT, by Frederick Upham Adams, with illustrations.=
+
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+it in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and
+pitilessly crushes his enemies. The story of the Stock Exchange
+manipulations was never more vividly and engrossingly told. A love
+story runs through the book, and is handled with infinite skill.
+
+
+
+=THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations by
+Lester Ralph, and inlay cover in colors.=
+
+A great dramatic story of the city that was. A story of Bohemian life
+in San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like
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+
+=GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York=
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Minor inconsistencies in spellings have been corrected;
+   the original spelling has been retained.
+
+   page 303: In the sentence: "The fact of our marriage will
+   be published broadcast at once, and even his suspicions
+   will be stilled." The word "and" has been added after
+   "published."
+
+   The table of contents was created for this eBook and
+   does not appear in this form in the original text.
+
+
+
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Last Woman, by Ross Beeckman</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Last Woman, by Ross Beeckman, Illustrated
+by Howard Chandler Christy</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Last Woman</p>
+<p>Author: Ross Beeckman</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 24, 2008  [eBook #24910]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST WOMAN***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, H&eacute;l&egrave;ne de Mink,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE LAST WOMAN</h2>
+
+<h3>COVER</h3>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400"
+height="630" alt="COVER" title="" /></div>
+
+<h3>FRONTISPIECE</h3>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="400"
+height="604" alt="FRONTISPIECE" title="" /></div>
+
+<h1>THE LAST WOMAN</h1>
+<p class="p4 center"><strong>by</strong></p>
+<p class="p4 center font110"><strong>ROSS BEECKMAN</strong></p>
+<p class="p4 center">AUTHOR OF<br />
+<strong>"Princess Zara"</strong></p>
+<p class="p4 center small">FRONTISPIECE BY<br />
+<strong>HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY</strong></p>
+
+<p class="p4 center">NEW YORK<br />
+GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP<br />
+PUBLISHERS</p>
+
+<p class="p4 center small"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1909&mdash;by<br />
+W. J. WATT &amp; COMPANY<br />
+<i>Published August</i></p>
+
+<p class="p6 center"><i>THE THEME</i></p>
+<p class="p2 center"><i>If I could have my dearest wish fulfilled,</i><br />
+<i>And take my choice of all earth's treasures, too,</i><br />
+<i>And ask of Heaven whatsoe'er I willed&mdash;</i><br />
+<i>I'd ask for you.</i></p>
+<p class="p2 center"><i>There is more joy to my true, loving heart,</i><br />
+<i>In everything you think, or say, or do,</i><br />
+<i>Than all the joys of Heaven could e'er impart,</i><br />
+<i>Because&mdash;it's YOU.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a></h2>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">THE PRICE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">ONE WOMAN WHO DARED</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">A STRANGE BETROTHAL</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE BOX AT THE OPERA</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">BEATRICE BRUNSWICK'S PLOT</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">A REMARKABLE MEETING</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE BITTERNESS OF JEALOUSY</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">PATRICIA'S COWBOY LOVER</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">MONDAY, THE THIRTEENTH</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">MORTON'S ULTIMATUM</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE QUARREL</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">SALLY'S GARDNER'S PLAN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">PATRICIA'S WILD RIDE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">ALMOST A TRAGEDY</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE AUTOMOBILE WRECK</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CROSS PURPOSES AT CEDARCREST</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">MYSTERIES BORN IN THE NIGHT</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">RODERICK DUNCAN SEES LIGHT</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE LAST WOMAN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE REASON WHY</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE MYSTERY</a><br />
+<a href="#BOOKS1">BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS</a><br />
+<a href="#BOOKS2">FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS</a><br /></p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+<hr class="c3 p4"  />
+
+<h2>THE LAST WOMAN</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE PRICE</b></p>
+<p class="p2">The old man, grim of visage, hard of feature and keen of eye, was seated
+at one side of the table that occupied the middle of the floor in his
+private office. He held the tips of his fingers together, and leaned
+back in his chair, with an unlighted cigar gripped firmly in his jaws.
+He seemed perturbed and troubled, if one could get behind that stoical
+mask which a life in Wall street inevitably produces; but anyone who
+knew the man and was aware of the great wealth he possessed would never
+have supposed that any perturbation on the part of Stephen Langdon could
+arise from financial difficulties. And could his most severe critics
+have looked in upon the scene, and have seen it as it existed at that
+moment, they would unhesitatingly have said that the source of his
+discomfiture, if discomfiture there were, was the queenly young woman
+who stood at the opposite side of the table, facing him.</p>
+
+<p>She was Patricia Langdon, sometimes, though rarely, addressed as Pat by
+her father; but he alone dared make use of the cognomen, since she
+invariably frowned upon such familiarities, even from him.</p>
+
+<p>In private, among the women with whom she associated, she was frequently
+referred to as Juno; and when she was discussed by the gossips at the
+clubs, as she frequently was (for there are no greater nests of gossip
+in the world than the men's clubs of New York City), she was always
+Juno. There was a double and subtle purpose in both cases; one felt it
+rather a dangerous proceeding to speak criticizingly of Patricia
+Langdon, lest somehow what was said should get to her ears. She was one
+who knew how to retaliate, and to do so quickly. She was like a man in
+that she feared nothing, and hesitated at nothing, so long as she knew
+it to be right. A precedent had no force with her; if she desired to
+act, and there was no precedent for what she wished to do, she
+established one.</p>
+
+<p>All her life, Patricia had been her father's chum; ever since she could
+remember, they had talked together of stocks and bonds, and puts and
+calls, and opening and closing quotations, and she knew every slang
+word that is uttered in "the street," that is used on the floor of the
+stock-exchange, or that appears in the financial columns of the
+newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>And these two, father and daughter, were as much alike in outward
+bearing, in demeanor and in appearance, in gesture and in motion, as a
+man and a woman can be when the man is approaching seventy and the woman
+is only just past twenty.</p>
+
+<p>These two had been discussing an unprecedented circumstance. The
+daughter was plainly annoyed, as her glowing cheeks and flashing eyes
+evidenced. The man, if one could have read his innermost soul, was
+afraid; for he knew his daughter as no other person did, and he feared
+that he had gone, or was about to go, a step too far with her.</p>
+
+<p>The room was the typical private office of a present-day financial king,
+who is banker as well as broker, and who speaks of millions, by fifties
+and hundreds, as a farmer talks of potatoes by the bushel. It was a
+large, square room, solidly but not luxuriantly furnished. The oblong
+table at which Stephen Langdon was seated, and upon which his daughter
+lightly rested the tips of the fingers of one hand, was one around which
+directors of various great corporations gathered, almost daily, to be
+told by "old Steve" what to do. Over in a far corner was a roll-top desk
+with a swivel chair, at which Langdon usually seated himself when he was
+attending to his correspondence, or looking over private papers; beside
+it was a huge safe, and beyond that another, smaller one. Then, there
+were several easy chairs upholstered in leather, a couch and two other
+desks. There were three doors: one of these communicated with the main
+office of Stephen Langdon &amp; Company, Bankers and Brokers; another was a
+private entrance from the street that ran along the side of the
+building, which Langdon owned; the third communicated with a smaller
+room, really the <i>sanctum sanctorum</i> of Stephen Langdon, into which it
+was his habit to take any person with whom he wished to have an
+absolutely confidential chat.</p>
+
+<p>This room was supposed never to be entered save by himself and those
+whom he took with him&mdash;and by the cleaners who once a week attended to
+it. These three doors were now closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Steve" moved nervously in his chair, shifted his feet uneasily, and
+rolled the unlighted cigar from one corner of his mouth to the other,
+biting savagely upon it as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Pat," he said, with as much impatience as he ever showed, "have
+you nothing to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"There seems to be nothing for me to say, dad," replied his daughter,
+and the intonation of her voice was different from the one she was
+accustomed to use in addressing her father, whom she adored. He
+attributed it, doubtless, to his abbreviation of her name, for he smiled
+grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you heard what I said?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, you know the situation, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not quite sure as to that," she replied, meditatively. "You have
+been somewhat ambiguous, and certainly quite enigmatical in your
+statement. Am I to gather from what you have told me that you are really
+facing failure?"</p>
+
+<p>"God knows I have made it plain enough," was the quick response and
+Langdon pushed his chair away from the table, stretched his legs out
+straight in front of him, and thrust his hands deep into his
+trousers-pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"I had not supposed it possible for you to face failure," said Patricia,
+with her eyes fixed upon her father's mask-like face; "but if it is so,
+won't you tell me more about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It all came about through those infernal bonds that I have just
+described to you. The men who were to go into the deal with me withdrew
+at the last moment; I have already explained that fully to you, and
+now, this Saturday afternoon, I find myself in a position such as I have
+never faced before&mdash;where there are demands upon me which I cannot meet;
+and those demands, Patricia, must be met, somehow, at ten o'clock on
+Monday morning, or Stephen Langdon must go to the wall."</p>
+
+<p>"It amazes me," she said, speaking more to herself than to him; and she
+tapped lightly with her gloved fingers upon the table before her. "It
+amazes me more than I can say. I thought myself closely familiar with
+all the ins and outs of your business, dad, and I find now that I knew
+nothing about it at all."</p>
+
+<p>"You have never known very much about it," he replied, with a
+half-laugh, but with a kindly smile, which changed his iron face
+wondrously, and which was reflected by a softened expression in his
+daughter's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there no one to come to your aid?" she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Patricia, there is no one to whom I could apply without betraying
+my condition and situation, and that would be fatal. Such a course would
+be equivalent to going broke; for when once a man loses his credit, even
+for an instant, in Wall Street, it is lost forever, never to be
+regained. People will tell you that there are exceptions to this, but I
+have been fifty years among the bulls and bears, and wolves, too, and I
+know better. When a man who occupies the position that I have held, and
+hold now, goes to the wall, it is the end."</p>
+
+<p>During this statement, she had walked to one of the windows and stood
+silently looking out, for she wished to ask a question which her own
+intuition had already answered. She knew what the answer would be, but
+she did not quite know what form it would take. She felt that sort of
+misgiving which belongs only to women, and she feared that there was
+something beyond and behind, and perhaps beneath, all this present
+circumstance, which was being kept from her. For Patricia Langdon did
+know of one man who would go to her father's assistance, and she could
+not understand why he had not already applied to that person.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, she returned to the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia," said her father, with some impatience, "I wish to the Lord
+you'd sit down. You make me nervous keeping on your feet all the while,
+and with those big eyes of yours fixed on your old dad's face as if they
+had discovered something new and strange in the lines of it."</p>
+
+<p>She paid no heed to this remark&mdash;one would have supposed she did not
+hear it; but she asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me why you sent for me? and why you wished to consult
+with me?"</p>
+
+<p>Again, the cigar was whipped sharply to the opposite corner of the old
+banker's mouth; and he replied quickly, almost savagely:</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have thought of a way by which you can help me out."</p>
+
+<p>His daughter caught her breath; it was a little gasp, barely audible;
+but she uttered only one word in reply. It was:</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>For an instant, the banker hesitated at this abrupt question; then, with
+a suggestion of doggedness in his manner, he thrust forward his
+aggressive chin and shut his teeth so tightly together that the cigar,
+bitten squarely off, dropped unheeded upon the rug where he stood. By
+way of reply, he spoke a man's name.</p>
+
+<p>"Roderick Duncan," he said, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia did not seem to heed the strangeness of her father's reply, nor
+did she alter the expression of her eyes or features. She seemed to have
+anticipated what he would say. After a moment, she remarked quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I should think it very likely that Roderick would assist you in your
+extremity. I see no reason why he should not do so. His father was your
+partner in business. Indeed, I should regard it as his duty to come to
+your aid, in an extremity like this. But why, if I may venture to ask,
+was it necessary to consult me in regard to any application you might
+make to him?"</p>
+
+<p>The old man did not reply; he remained silent, and continued doggedly to
+stare at his daughter. Presently, she asked him: "Have you already made
+such a request of Mr. Duncan?"</p>
+
+<p>A smile took the place of the old man's frown; his face softened.</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is to say, not exactly so," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"You have, perhaps, suggested the idea to him?"</p>
+
+<p>Old Steve shrugged his shoulders, and dropped back into the chair,
+kicking away the half of the cigar in front of him as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I have suggested the idea to him, and he met the
+suggestion more than half way, too. The reply he made to me is what
+brings your name into the question. If it were not for the fact that I
+know you to be fond of him, and that you are already half-promised&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that why you have sent for me?" She interrupted him with quiet
+dignity, although the expression of her eyes was suddenly stormy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you please be more explicit? I am afraid that I do not clearly
+understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Pat, to put it in plain words, Roderick's answer implied that he
+would be only too delighted to advance the sum I require&mdash;twenty-million
+dollars&mdash;to his prospective father-in-law!"</p>
+
+<p>Patricia stiffened where she stood. Her eyes fairly blazed with the
+sparks of anger they emitted. The hand that rested upon the table was
+clenched tightly, until the glove upon it burst. Otherwise, she showed
+no emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"So, that is it," she said, presently. "Roderick Duncan has made a bid
+for me in the open market, has he? I am to be the collateral for a loan
+which you are to secure from him. Is that the idea? He has made use of
+your financial predicament to hasten matters with me. I
+understand&mdash;now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Roderick would be very much astonished if he heard your
+description of the situation. He thought, and I thought, also&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But that is what it amounts to, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no, child; no, that is not what it amounts to, at all. You ought
+to know that. Roderick has loved you ever since you were boy and girl
+together, and you were always fond of him. His father and I both
+believed that some day you would marry. I know that Duncan has asked you
+time and time again, and I know, too, that you have never refused him.
+You have just put him off, again and again, that is all. You have played
+fast and loose with him until he is&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, dad. There is one thing that you never knew; or, if you did know
+it once, you have forgotten what little you knew about it then. I refer
+to a woman's heart. You ignored that part of me when you made your
+bargain. You forgot my pride, too. It is quite true that I have been
+fond of Roderick Duncan, all my life. It is equally true that he has
+asked me to be his wife, and that I have seriously considered his
+proposals. It is even true that I have thought of myself as his wife,
+that I have tried to believe that I loved him. All that is true, quite
+true&mdash;too true, indeed. But now&mdash;How dared you two discuss <i>me</i>, in the
+manner you have?" She blazed forth at her father suddenly, forgetting
+her studied calm. "Oh, I read you correctly when I first entered this
+room. I could see, even then, that some plot was afoot. But I never
+guessed&mdash;good heaven! who could have guessed?&mdash;that it was anything
+like this. Do you realize what you have done? Your words, thus far, have
+only implied it, but I know! Shall I tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have found yourself in this financial muddle&mdash;if, indeed, it is
+true that you are in one&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite true."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the worse for making me the victim of it. You have applied to
+Roderick Duncan for some of his millions; and you two, together, have
+discovered in the incident a means of coercing me. Oh, it is plain
+enough. You are a poor dissembler in a matter of this kind, however
+excellent you may be in others. I see it all, now, as clearly as if you
+had expressed it in words. You have asked Roderick, by intimation, if
+not in actual words, to go to your assistance to the amount of so many
+millions; and he, the man who professes to love me, whom I have thought
+I loved&mdash;he has, as bluntly, replied&mdash;oh, it is too terrible to
+contemplate!&mdash;he has told you that if I will hasten my decision, if I
+will give my consent at once to the wedding he proposes, he will supply
+the cash you need. You offer your daughter, as security for the loan; he
+accepts the collateral! That is the exact situation, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is about that, although you put it rather brutally," he
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Brutally!" she laughed. "Why, dad, is not that the way to put it?
+Horses and cattle are bought and sold at auction, knocked down to the
+highest bidder, or purchased at a private sale. The stocks and bonds and
+securities in which you deal are handled in precisely the same way. And
+now, when you are in an extremity, when your back is to the wall, a man
+whom I had always supposed to be at least a gentleman calmly makes a bid
+for your daughter, and you, my father, are willing to sell! Is not
+brutality the fitting word for you both? It seems so to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Pat&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, father; let me finish."</p>
+
+<p>The old man shrugged his shoulders, and the daughter continued:</p>
+
+<p>"It is a habit with people to say, 'If I were in your place I should' do
+so-and-so. I tell you, had I been in your place when such a suggestion
+as that one was made I should have struck the man in the face; but you
+see in me a value which I did not know I possessed. My father, who has
+been my chum since I was a child, is willing to dispose of his daughter
+for dollars and cents. And a man whom I have infinitely respected,
+calmly offers to make the purchase." Patricia clenched her hands and
+glared stormily at her father. Then, when he made no reply, she turned
+and walked to the window, staring out of it for a moment, while the old
+man remained silently in his chair, knowing that it were better for him
+not to speak, until the first violence of the storm had passed. He knew
+this daughter of his, or thought he did; but he was presently to
+discover that he was less wise than he had supposed. After a little, she
+returned and stood beside him, leaning against the table with her hands
+behind her, clenching it; but her words came calmly enough, when she
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>The old man raised his eyes to hers, as she approached him, and his own
+widened with amazement when he studied his daughter's face with that
+quick and penetrating glance which could read so unerringly the
+operators of Wall street. He could not comprehend precisely what it was
+that he saw in Patricia's face at this moment&mdash;only, he realized it to
+be the expression of some kind of settled purpose. He had never seen her
+thus before. Her strangely beautiful eyes had never blazed into his in
+just this way. He had seen her tempers and had contended against them,
+more or less, since she was left to his sole care, at her birth; but
+this attitude assumed now was new to him. Stephen Langdon knew, by his
+knowledge of himself, that Patricia was like him; but here was something
+new, strange, almost unreal. He wondered at it, shrank from it, not
+knowing what it was. Settled purpose was all that he was enabled to
+recognize. But what sort of settled purpose? What was it that his
+daughter had decided upon?</p>
+
+<p>He was not long in doubt. Her words were sufficiently direct, if the
+hidden purpose behind their outward meaning was not.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," she said, with distinct calmness, "I will use a phrase that is
+familiar to you. It seems to fit the occasion. You may tell Roderick
+Duncan that you will deliver the goods! Tell him to have the twenty
+millions ready for you to deposit in your bank at ten o'clock Monday
+morning, and that you will be ready with the collateral he demands."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Patricia, my daughter, you take an unjust view of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, father! He must be told still more: he must be told that the
+collateral, having certain rights and values of its own, will insist
+upon a few stated conditions; and when the bargain is concluded, at ten
+o'clock Monday morning, Mr. Duncan must first have accepted those
+conditions."</p>
+
+<p>She walked around to the other side of the table again and faced her
+father across it; then she added, slowly and coolly:</p>
+
+<p>"There must be a legal form of document drawn, in this transaction, and
+it must be signed, sealed and delivered exactly as would be done if the
+collateral offered, and the thing ultimately to be sold in this
+instance, were the stocks and bonds in which you usually deal. He must
+agree, in this document, that on the wedding day the woman he buys must
+receive an additional sum in her own name, of ten million dollars. One
+as rich as he is known to be will not object to a pittance like that.
+You can make your own arrangements with him concerning the loan of the
+twenty millions to you, the interest it draws, and when the sum will be
+due; but the consideration paid for me, to me, must be absolute, and in
+cash, before the marriage-ceremony."</p>
+
+<p>She turned quickly and strode to the end of the room. There, she threw
+open that door which has been described as communicating with the inner
+sanctum of the banker, and standing at the threshold, she said, in the
+cold, even tone in which she had pronounced the ultimatum to her father:</p>
+
+<p>"I have surmised that you are in this room, Roderick Duncan. If I am
+correct, you may come out, now, and conclude the terms of your
+purchase. Do not speak to me here, and now. It would not be wise to do
+so. You have heard, doubtless, all that has been said in this room."</p>
+
+<p>She turned again, and before Stephen Langdon could intervene, had passed
+him, going into the main office of the suite, and thence to the street.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the Langdon building was a waiting automobile which had taken
+Patricia to the office of her father for that interview, the purport of
+which she had not then even vaguely guessed. Under the steering-wheel of
+the waiting car was seated a young man, smoothed-faced, keen of eye,
+strong-limbed, and muscular in every motion that he made. A pair of
+expressive hazel eyes that seemed to take in everything at a glance,
+looked out from his handsome, clean-cut face, the attractiveness of
+which was augmented rather than marred by the strong, almost square
+chin, and the firm but perfectly formed lips, just thin enough to show
+determination of character, yet sufficiently mobile to suggest that the
+man himself, though young in years, had met with wide experiences. His
+personality was that of a man prepared to face any emergency or danger
+that might arise, and to meet it with a smile of entire self-confidence
+in his ability to overcome it. The rear seats of the waiting car were
+occupied by two young ladies, friends of Patricia; and the three were
+laughing and talking together when Stephen Langdon's daughter approached
+them. She did not wait to be assisted, but sprang lightly into the seat
+beside the young man who has just been described; and she said rather
+shortly, for she was still angry:</p>
+
+<p>"Please, take me home, now, Mr. Morton."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to face her, meeting her stormy eyes laughingly; and
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! Miss Langdon, you sure do look as if you'd been having a run-in
+with the governor. I'd hate mightily to meet up with you, if I were
+alone and unprotected, and you were as plumb sore at me, as you are now
+at somebody you have just left inside that building. I sure would. Yes,
+indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled audibly as the car started forward toward Broadway. For a
+time, he gave his entire attention to the management of the car,
+purposely ignoring the young woman who was seated beside him, for
+notwithstanding the fact that he had chaffed her about the anger in her
+eyes, he was fully aware that she had met with an unpleasant experience
+of some sort, while he and the others were waiting outside the building.</p>
+
+<p>The hiatus offered sufficient time for Miss Langdon entirely to recover
+her equanimity, and when at last Richard Morton's glance again sought
+her, he met the same cold, calm, unflinching gaze from her beautiful
+eyes that he had discovered there less than two weeks before, and,
+since, had never been able to forget for a single moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Langdon," he said, with his characteristic smile, "if you had been
+raised out west, in the country where I come from, you sure would have
+been bad medicine for anybody who tried your temper a little bit too
+far."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that?" she asked him, quickly, but without offense.
+She was smiling now, and Morton's colloquialisms always interested her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I mean a lot&mdash;and then some. If you'd been raised with a gun on
+your hip, and had been born a man instead of a woman, I reckon you'd
+have been an unsafe proposition to r'il. You certainly did look mad when
+you came out of that office-building; and the only regret I feel about
+it, is that I didn't stand within comfortable easy reach of the gazabo
+that made you feel like that. One of us would&mdash;have gone out through the
+window."</p>
+
+<p>"It was my father," she said, simply, but smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! was it? Well, even so, I'm afraid I wouldn't be much of a
+respecter of persons, if you happened to be on the other side of the
+scales. I reckon your dad wouldn't look bigger than any other man. Have
+you forgotten what I said to you the second time I ever saw you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied, gently, "I haven't forgotten it, and I never will
+forget it; but I must remind you of your promise to me, at that same
+meeting."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you call it off for just five minutes, Miss Langdon?" he asked in
+a low tone which had begun to vibrate with emotion. "Just call it off
+for one minute, if you won't let it go for five. It sure is hard to sit
+here, alongside of you, and not only to keep my hands and eyes away from
+you, but to keep my tongue cinched with a diamond hitch. I suppose I am
+hasty, and a mighty sight too previous for your customs here in the
+East, but I can't see why you won't take up with a chap like me; and,
+besides&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Morton!" She turned to him unsmilingly, her eyes cold and serious,
+and she spoke in a tone so low that even the sound of it could not
+extend to the young ladies who occupied the rear seats in the tonneau.
+"It is my duty to tell you that I have just become a willing party&mdash;a
+willing party, please understand&mdash;to a business transaction, by the
+terms of which I am now the affianced wife of&mdash;" Patricia paused
+abruptly. Morton, still guiding the machine delicately in and out
+through the traffic of the street, turned a shade paler under his
+sun-burned skin, and Patricia could see that his hand gripped almost
+fiercely upon the steering-wheel. She realized that he had understood
+the important part of what she had said, and she did not complete the
+unfinished sentence. There was a considerable silence before either of
+them spoke again, and then Morton asked calmly, but in a voice that was
+so changed as to be scarcely recognizable:</p>
+
+<p>"Of whom, Patricia?" He made use of her given name unconsciously, and if
+she noticed the slip, she did not heed it.</p>
+
+<p>"I need not mention the gentleman's name," she told him. "It is
+unnecessary."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by referring to it as a business transaction?" he
+demanded, turning his face toward hers for an instant, and showing an
+angry glitter in his eyes. "If it is something that was forced upon
+you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I meant&mdash;it doesn't matter what I meant, Mr. Morton."</p>
+
+<p>For just one instant, he flashed his eyes upon her again, and she saw
+the lines of determination harden upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"It sounded mighty strange to me," he said, quietly, but with studied
+persistence. "I don't mind confessing that I can't quite savvy its
+meaning. I didn't know that 'business transaction,' was a stock
+expression here, in the East, in connection with an engagement party.
+But I suppose I'm plumb ignorant. I feel so, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"You have forgotten one thing, Mr. Morton; you have forgotten that I
+used the words, 'a willing party.'" She spoke calmly, half-smiling; but
+he was still insistent.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you mean by their use that I am to understand that the circumstance
+meets with your entire approval?" he asked, slowly and with
+distinctness. A heavy frown was gathering on his brows.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; quite so."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you love the man who is the other party to the&mdash;er&mdash;business
+transaction?" This time, he turned his head and looked squarely at her,
+gazed with his serious hazel eyes, deep into her darker ones&mdash;gazed
+searchingly and longingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right to ask me such a question as that," she told him.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss Langdon." He turned his eyes to the front
+again; "but I think I have a distinct right to do so, and I don't
+believe it is your privilege to deny it. I have loved you from the
+first moment I saw you. Please, don't interrupt me now, for I must say
+the few words I have in mind. I'll not look at you. The others won't
+hear me. By reason of my great love for you, even though there is no
+response in your heart for me, I certainly have the right to ask that
+question; and, also, I believe I have the right to demand an answer. If
+you love that other man, and if you will tell me that you do, I shall
+have nothing more to say; but if you do not love him, you shall not be
+his wife so long as I have my two hands and can remember how to hold a
+gun." It sounded theatrical, but he did not mean it so; and a "gun" and
+its use, was the strongest form of expression he could think of, at that
+moment. It had formed the court of last resort throughout his youth in
+the great West, and just now he felt that the expression fitted the
+present case admirably. What reply Patricia might have made to this
+characteristic statement by the young Montana ranchman will never be
+known, for at that instant they were interrupted by the other passengers
+of the car, who sought to draw Patricia into conversation with them.</p>
+
+<p>She accepted the interruption gratefully as well as gracefully; it
+offered an easy escape from a trying situation, and it was not until
+the car was drawn up in front of the door of her own home and she was
+about to leave it that she spoke again with Morton, save in a general
+way. Now, he leaned quickly nearer to her and said, in a tone so low
+that the others could not hear:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall call upon you to-morrow evening&mdash;Sunday&mdash;if I may." Then he
+laughed and, with narrowed eyelids, added: "I'll come to the house
+whether I may or not. But you will receive me, won't you? Say that you
+will!" And Patricia nodded brightly, in reply, as she crossed the
+pavement toward the front steps of her father's princely mansion. At the
+door, she paused and looked after the car as it rolled up the avenue;
+and, with a half-smile of troubled perplexity, she murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish, now, that I had not given my word to that 'business
+transaction.' Richard Morton might have offered a better solution of my
+problem. Only, it would have been unfair&mdash;and cruel; and I have never
+been either the one, or the other; never, yet!" Then, she passed into
+the house.</p>
+
+<hr class="c7"  />
+
+<p>Downtown in the private office of Stephen Langdon, Roderick Duncan
+stepped from the inner sanctum into the presence of the banker just as
+the latter started to his feet after the sudden and unexpected
+departure of his daughter. For an interval, the young man and the old
+faced each other in silence, the latter with a cynical and satirical
+smile on his strong face, the former with an unmistakable frown of
+anger.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a darned old fool, Langdon!" Duncan exclaimed hotly, after that
+pause; and he clenched his hands until his knuckles turned white under
+the strain, half-raising the right one, until it seemed as if he
+intended to strike a blow with it. But Patricia's father gave no heed to
+the gesture. Instead, he dropped back upon his chair, and laughed aloud,
+ere he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I suspect, my boy, that there is a pair of us."</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>ONE WOMAN WHO DARED</b></p>
+<p class="p2">These two men, the banker who had weathered so many financial storms of
+"the street" and had inevitably issued from the wreckage unscathed and
+buoyant, and the young multi-millionaire who faced him with uplifted
+hand even after the former returned to his chair, were exact opposites
+in everything save wealth alone. Roderick Duncan, son and heir of
+Stephen Langdon's former partner, was the possessor, by inheritance, of
+one of those colossal fortunes which are expressed in so many figures
+that the average man ceases to contemplate their meaning. Nevertheless,
+Duncan had kept himself clean and straight. In person, he was tall,
+handsome, distinguished in appearance, and genuinely a fine specimen of
+young American manhood. The older man regarded him with undoubted
+approval, and affection, too, while Duncan lowered the partly uplifted
+arm, and permitted the anger to die out of his face slowly. But there
+remained a decidedly troubled expression in his gray eyes, and there
+were two straight lines between his brows&mdash;lines of anxiety which would
+not disappear, wholly. He was plainly perplexed and, also, as plainly
+frightened by the almost tragic climax that had just occurred.</p>
+
+<p>The elder man, whose face was always a mask save when he was alone with
+his daughter, or with this young man who now stood before him, had been
+at first angered by the words and conduct of Patricia. But the
+exclamation uttered by the young Cr&oelig;sus impressed him ludicrously,
+notwithstanding the financial straits he was supposed to be in, and he
+grinned broadly into the anxious face that glowered upon him. Langdon's
+heart was not at stake; he had no woman's love to lose, or even to risk
+losing; and so far as the financial character of his troubles was
+concerned, he knew that Roderick Duncan would provide the millions he
+needed, in any case. That fact was not dependant upon any whim of
+Patricia's. Langdon could afford to laugh, believing that the rupture in
+the relations of these young people would be healed quickly. The old man
+did desire that the two should marry; he wished it more than anything
+else, save possibly the winning of his "street" contests.</p>
+
+<p>It was the younger man who broke the silence. He did it first by
+striking a match on the sole of his shoe and lighting a cigar; then by
+crossing to one of the chairs at the oblong table, into which he
+literally threw himself; and as he did this, he exclaimed, with an
+expression of petulance that might have belonged to a boy better than to
+a man:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've made a mess of it, haven't you? You have got us both into
+a very devil of a fix. I ought to have shot you, or myself, before I
+consented to such a fool plan as that one was. Oh, yes; we're in a fix
+all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" asked the old man, rising and selecting a chair at the
+opposite side of the table, and calmly lighting a fresh cigar, while he
+swung one leg across the corner of the solid piece of furniture.</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia won't stand for that little scheme of yours, not for a minute;
+and you know it, Uncle Steve." This was an affectionate term of
+familiarity which Duncan sometimes used in addressing Patricia's father.
+"I was afraid of it when you proposed it, but I allowed myself, like an
+idiot, to be influenced by you. I tell you, Langdon, she won't stand for
+it; not for a minute. I have made her angry, many times before now, but
+I have never known her to be quite so contemptuously angered."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Langdon, and he chuckled audibly. "I agree with you. I think
+my little girl is going to make it hot for you before we are through
+with this deal. In fact, I shouldn't wonder if she made it warm for both
+of us. She is like her old dad about one thing&mdash;she won't be driven."</p>
+
+<p>The younger man said something under his breath which, because it was
+not audible to his companion, need not be repeated here; but it was
+probably not an expression that he would have used in polite society. He
+drummed on the table with his fingertips, and smoked savagely.</p>
+
+<p>"You're mighty cheerful about it, aren't you?" he demanded, with
+sarcastic emphasis. "What I want to know is, how are we going to fix it
+up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fix what up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, this business about collateral, and all that rot, with Patricia.
+How are we going to square ourselves? That's what I'd like to know!
+Maybe you can see a way out of it, but I'm darned if I can."</p>
+
+<p>The banker took the cigar from his mouth, flicked the ashes into the
+cuspidor, removed his leg from the table, and replied calmly, with a
+half-smile:</p>
+
+<p>"It looks to me as if it were all fixed up, now. Patricia has agreed to
+marry you all right; she told me in plain English that I could deliver
+the goods. You heard her, didn't you? As far as I can see, she has only
+raised the ante just a little&mdash;a small matter of ten millions, which you
+won't mind at all. What's the matter with you, anyhow? You get what you
+wanted&mdash;Patricia's consent to an early marriage." The old man grinned
+maddeningly at his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound you!" shouted Duncan, starting to his feet, and he smashed one
+hand down upon the top of the table, in the intensity of the resentment
+he felt at this remark.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose&mdash;damn you!&mdash;that I want her like that? Can't you see how
+the whole thing outraged her? She hates me now, with every fibre of her
+being. She hates me, and you, too, for this day's work!"</p>
+
+<p>Langdon shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You want her, don't you?" he asked, placidly, as if he were inquiring
+about a quotation on 'change.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I want her. God only knows how greatly I want her."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you get her, don't you, by this transaction? She'll keep the
+terms of the agreement. She's enough like me for that. She said I could
+deliver the goods. She meant it, too. You get her, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but how?" was the sulky reply. "How do I get her? What will she
+do to me, after I do get her? Tell me that, confound you!"</p>
+
+<p>The old man chuckled again. "I am not a mind-reader," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What will she do to me, Uncle Steve? What did she threaten? What am I
+to expect from her, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know. I confess that I don't. Sometimes, Patricia is a
+little too much for the old man, Roderick," he added, wistfully. Then,
+with another change of manner, he exclaimed: "But you get her! And I get
+the twenty-millions credit. What more can either of us ask? Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"The twenty millions have nothing to do with it, and you know it. They
+never did have anything to do with it, and you know that, also. It was
+only your cursed suggestion, that we should make her promise to marry me
+the condition of keeping you from failure. You know as well as I do that
+there is nothing belonging to me which you cannot have at any time, for
+the asking; and that you do not stand, and have not stood, in any more
+danger of failure than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"I would have failed if I had not known where to get the credit for the
+twenty millions," the banker remarked, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but&mdash;confound it&mdash;you did know. You only had to ask me. But
+instead of doing it in a straight, business-like way, you set that
+horrible fly to buzzing in my ears, that we could make use of the
+circumstance to compel Patricia to an immediate consent. And I, like a
+fool, listened to you. Patricia never meant not to marry me; but now&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>He strode across the floor, then back again to his chair and flung
+himself into it. The old man watched him warily, keen-eyed, observant,
+and with a certain expression of fondness that no one but his daughter
+and this young man had ever compelled from him. But, presently, he
+emitted another chuckling laugh; and said:</p>
+
+<p>"That was a sharp stroke of hers to have the ten millions paid over to
+her. It was worthy of her old dad; eh? She is a bright one, all right.
+She's a chip off the old block, my boy. I couldn't have done it better,
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Damn you!" Duncan exclaimed, and he sprang to his feet, grasped his
+hat, and rushed from the office to the street with much more apparent
+excitement than Patricia herself had shown. He had the feeling that he
+had allowed himself to be tricked into the commission of an unmanly act,
+and he was thoroughly ashamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Langdon, left alone, chuckled again, although his face quickly
+fell into that reposeful, mask-like expression which was habitual to
+it&mdash;an expression not to be changed by the loss or gain of millions. He
+remained for a time quietly in the chair he had been occupying, but soon
+he rose and crossed to his desk, throwing back the top of it. He pulled
+a bundle of papers from one of the pigeonholes and calmly examined
+certain portions of them. He glanced over three letters left there by
+his stenographer for him to sign and post. These he signed, and after
+enclosing them in their respective envelopes, dropped them lightly into
+a side-pocket of his coat. Then, he pulled toward him the bracket that
+held the telephone, and placed the receiver against his ear. Having
+presently secured the desired number, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak with Mr. Melvin, personally."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Melvin is not in his office at the present moment," came the reply
+over the telephone. "Who is it, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is Stephen Langdon, and I wanted to speak&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was interrupted by the person at the other end of the wire, who
+uttered an exclamation of surprise, followed by these words:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mr. Langdon, Mr. Melvin has gone to your house to see you, as we
+supposed. A telephone call came from your residence, and he departed at
+once, saying that he would not return to the office to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil he did!" exclaimed the banker, as he hung up the receiver.
+Then, he leaned back in his chair and smoked hard for a moment, with the
+nearest approach to a frown that had appeared on his face during all
+that exciting afternoon; and he did another thing unusual with him: he
+spoke aloud his thoughts, with no one but himself for listener.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be blowed if I thought Patricia would go as far as that!" was what
+he said. "If she hasn't sent for Malcolm Melvin to draw those papers she
+hinted at, I'm a Dutchman! By Jove, I begin to think that Duncan was
+right after all, and that he is up against it in this little play we
+have had this afternoon. But I hadn't an idea that my girl would go
+quite so far. H'm! It looks as if it is up to me to spoil her interview
+with Melvin, if I can get there in time."</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later, he left the banking-house, paused at a letter-box
+long enough to drop in the correspondence he had signed, and then went
+swiftly onward to the subway, by which he was conveyed rapidly to the
+vicinity of his home. Somewhat later, when he entered the sumptuously
+appointed library, he discovered precisely what he had expected to find:
+his lawyer, Malcolm Melvin, and his daughter Patricia were facing each
+other across the table, the former having before him several sheets of
+paper, which were already covered with the penciled notes and memoranda
+he had evidently been engaged in making.</p>
+
+<p>Langdon stopped in the middle of the floor and looked at them. For the
+first time since the beginning of the interview with his daughter at the
+office, he realized that she had been in deadly earnest at its close. He
+understood, suddenly, how deeply her pride had been wounded, and he knew
+that she was enough like himself to resent it with all the power she
+could command.</p>
+
+<p>"Since when, Melvin, have you ceased to be my attorney!" he inquired
+sharply, determined to put an end to the scene, at once.</p>
+
+<p>The elderly lawyer and the young woman had raised their heads from
+earnest conversation when Stephen Langdon entered the room. The lawyer,
+with a startled, although amused, expression on his professional face;
+the daughter with a cold smile and an almost imperceptible nod of her
+shapely, Junoesque head. But her black eyes snapped with something very
+nearly approaching defiance, and she replied, before Melvin could do so:</p>
+
+<p>"Do not misunderstand the situation, please," she said, quickly. And her
+father noticed with deep misgiving that she omitted the customary term
+of endearment between them. "Mr. Melvin is here at my request, and
+because he is your attorney. I have been instructing him how to draw the
+papers that are to accompany the collateral offered for your loan, and
+the bonus that goes with it; and just how those papers are to be used,
+in accordance with the discussion between you and me, at the bank, this
+afternoon. I told you, then, to inform Mr. Duncan that you would meet
+his requirements. Later, when I realized that he had overheard us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with you, Pat?" demanded the father, interrupting her
+with a touch of anger. "Have you lost your head, entirely?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied, with utter calmness; "I have only lost my Dad. I went
+down to his office this afternoon to see him, and I left him there. Just
+now, I have been instructing Mr. Melvin concerning the particulars of
+the agreement I want drawn and signed in the transaction that is to
+take place between you and Roderick Duncan, in which I am, personally,
+so deeply concerned, in which I am to figure as the collateral
+security."</p>
+
+<p>The old man stared at his daughter, with an expression that had made
+many a Wall-street financier turn pale with apprehension. It was a grim
+visage that she saw then&mdash;hard and set, stern and unrelenting, and many
+a strong man had surrendered to Stephen Langdon, frightened by the
+aspect of it. Not so this daughter of his. She met his gaze
+unflinchingly and calmly, without a change in her outward demeanor.
+After a moment, Langdon turned with a shrug toward the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Melvin," he said, "how many years have you been my attorney?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fourteen, I think, Mr. Langdon," was the smiling reply. One would have
+thought that the man of law found something highly amusing in this
+incident.</p>
+
+<p>"About that&mdash;yes. Well, do you see that door?" He half-turned and
+indicated the entrance he had just used. "Melvin, I want you to pick up
+those papers and tell John, outside, to give you your hat; then I want
+you to get out of here as quick as God'll let you. If you don't, our
+relations are severed from this moment. And if you complete the draft
+of those papers, without my permission, or submit them to any person
+whatever, without my having seen them first, I will have another
+attorney to replace you, Monday morning. Go right along now. You needn't
+answer me. If you don't want my business, all you've got to do is to say
+so. If you do want it, you'll come mighty near doing what I have told
+you to do, just now."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer, quietly, but with dignity, rose from his chair, folded the
+papers, placed them in an inner pocket of his coat, bowed to Patricia
+and then to her father, and without a word passed from the room, closing
+the door quietly behind him; but before he quite accomplished this last
+act, the clear even tones of the girl called after him:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, Mr. Melvin, that we had quite concluded our conference. I
+will ask you please to draw those papers as I have directed. You may
+submit copies to Mr. Langdon at the time you bring the originals to me."</p>
+
+<p>He did not answer, for there was no occasion to do so, and a second
+later Stephen Langdon and his daughter were alone together for the
+second time that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Patricia," he said, turning toward her, with his feet wide apart
+and his hands thrust deep into his trousers-pockets, "what in blazes is
+this all about?"</p>
+
+<p>His daughter replied coldly and precisely:</p>
+
+<p>"I have merely been dictating to your lawyer the substance of the
+conditions I wish to have embodied in the papers that are to complete
+the transaction we have discussed at your office. I selected Mr. Melvin
+because I knew him to be in your confidence, and I surmised that you
+would prefer that the condition of affairs under which you are now
+struggling, which forces you to borrow twenty-million dollars, should
+not be made known to an outsider."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you that I won't hear of it! It's got to stop right
+now. I won't have those papers drawn at all. I won't have it. The whole
+thing is preposterous, and you seem to be determined to make a fool of
+yourself. I won't have it!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you must have it," she said, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Must have it? Patricia, there isn't a man in the city of New York who
+dares to say that to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly not, sir; but there is a woman in New York who dares to say it
+to you, and who does say it, here and now. That woman is, unfortunately,
+your daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia! Are you crazy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but I am more hurt and angry, more outraged and incensed, than I
+believed it possible ever to be. I shall insist upon the drawing of
+those papers, and the fulfillment of the stipulations I have directed.
+If you are determined that Mr. Melvin shall not finish what he has begun
+for me, I shall select another lawyer, and shall have the papers drawn
+just the same."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my child, it is all foolishness. The papers are not necessary.
+Roderick will supply what cash I need without anything of that sort, and
+you know it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to understand, sir, that you have lied to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Langdon dropped upon a chair, breathing an oath which his daughter did
+not hear, and she continued, without awaiting a reply from him:</p>
+
+<p>"You have taught me, since I was a child, that in a business transaction
+in the Street, where there is no time for the drawing of papers, a man
+must live up to his word, absolutely. I took you seriously in what
+occurred at your office this afternoon. I surmised, when we were near
+the end of our interview,&mdash;nay, I assumed it&mdash;that Roderick Duncan was
+inside the inner office. My surmise proved to be true, and now I have
+only this to say: We shall carry out the transaction precisely as it
+was stipulated between us, and according to the papers I have dictated
+to Mr. Melvin, or I shall go to another lawyer and have those same
+papers drawn and offered to you and to Mr. Duncan, for your signatures.
+He overheard our conversation, and thus became a party to it. I was
+forced into the situation without my consent, and I shall now insist
+upon a certain recognition of my rights in the matter. If you choose to
+deny me those rights, the fact will not deter me from proceeding in my
+own way&mdash;a way which Mr. Melvin, your attorney, thoroughly understands.
+I have explained it fully to him."</p>
+
+<p>The old man leaned back in his chair, glaring at his daughter, and yet
+in that burning gaze of his there was undoubted admiration. He liked her
+pluck, and deep down in his heart he gloried in her ability to maintain
+the position she had assumed, where she literally held him helpless. For
+it would never do that she should be permitted to go to another lawyer;
+such a proceeding would betray to other parties the financial
+embarrassment into which he had been drawn. The news would get out.
+There would be a whisper here, a murmur there, and before noon on
+Monday, all New York would know it. His daughter understood her
+momentary power over him, and she was determined to make the most of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia returned her father's gaze for a moment, then turned
+negligently away and moved toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," he called to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" She stopped, and half-turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know, girl, that the whole business was tomfoolery?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; and I would not believe you, or Mr. Duncan&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait just a minute longer, Patricia; let me explain this thing to you,
+fully. Let me make you understand just how it came about," her father
+exclaimed. "It was all a mistake, you know, and I must confess that the
+mistake was mostly mine. Of course, Roderick was ready to let me have
+the twenty millions, or fifty if I had asked for them. There was never
+any doubt about that, and could have been none. He has the money, and
+there never has been a time, since he inherited it, when I could not use
+it as if it were my own. You knew that. I have never hesitated to go to
+him, either. That is why I went to him to-day. Before I had an
+opportunity to explain the purpose of my call, he asked about you, and
+the question suggested to my mind the idea of utilizing the desperate
+situation I was in to hasten your marriage to him. You know how I have
+looked forward to that. I have known, or at least I have supposed I
+knew, for years, that you thought more of him than of anyone else. You
+are twenty years old now; it is high time that you were married, and it
+would break my old heart to see you take up with any of those
+society-beaux who hover around you at every function where you appear.
+On the other hand, I shall be very glad when you are Roderick Duncan's
+wife. He is the son of the best friend I ever had, the only man I ever
+trusted. And he is every bit as good a man as his father was. He is
+square and on the level. He has wealth, and he doesn't go bumming around
+town, giving champagne parties, and monkey dinners. He knows how to be a
+good fellow without making a fool of himself, and that is more than you
+can say of most young men who have money to burn. You have grown up
+together, and why in the world you have kept putting him off is more
+than I can guess. Besides all that, he is easily worth a hundred
+millions. But this has nothing to do with the present question. I want
+you to have him, and I want him to have you; and if he didn't have a
+dollar in the world, I should feel just the same about it. All that
+happened to-day was at my instigation; not at his. And now, daughter,
+you must find it in your heart to forgive him&mdash;and me."</p>
+
+<p>She listened to him to the end, quietly and outwardly unmoved. When he
+concluded, she replied in the same even tone she had used ever since her
+father entered the library:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, and I don't care to know, any of the particulars
+regarding how the arrangement came about between you and Mr. Duncan.
+What I do know is this: the arrangement was made between you, and was
+agreed upon between you. I was called in, to be consulted, at your
+private office, with the third interested party concealed like a spy in
+an inner room. I agreed to the transaction as I understood it. I will
+carry it out as I agreed to do, while at your office, and in no other
+way. If Roderick Duncan wishes to make me his wife, he must do it
+according to the stipulations I have dictated to Mr. Melvin, this
+afternoon, or he can never do it at all. That, sir, is all I have to
+say."</p>
+
+<p>She turned and went from the room, closing the door behind her as softly
+as the lawyer had done.</p>
+
+<p>The old man slipped down more deeply into his chair, covered his eyes
+with one hand, and murmured, audibly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have had to live almost seventy years to find out that, after all, I
+am nothing but an old fool."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>A STRANGE BETROTHAL</b></p>
+<p class="p2">When dinner was served at seven that Saturday evening, the banker and
+his daughter faced each other in silence across the table. There was no
+wife and mother in this money-king's family, for she had passed out of
+life when Patricia came into the world. This, perhaps, may account for
+the close intimacy that had always existed in the relations of father
+and daughter, between whom there had never been any break or shadow,
+until this particular Saturday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Steve," iron-faced, heavy jawed, and steady of eye, wore his
+Wall-street mask at this particular dinner; and he wore it as grimly as
+ever he did when encountering a financial storm or a threatened panic.
+He felt that he had more to conceal, just now, than any financial
+problem could ever compel him to face. He was no longer "dad." Patricia
+had practically omitted the use of even the less endearing term of
+father; but whether intentionally or not, even the shrewd old banker
+could not determine. For years, he had forgotten that he had a heart,
+save when he and his daughter were alone together. The money whirlpool
+of the financial section of the city had made him colder of aspect,
+harder in nature, and less considerate of the feelings of others. It had
+never even remotely occurred to him that there could be any rupture
+between himself and Patricia, or that a yawning gulf, like this one was,
+could separate them.</p>
+
+<p>But now there was one, and he recognized its breadth and its depth. He
+knew that he could not cross it to her, and that it would never be
+bridged, save by Patricia herself. He had offended her beyond
+forgiveness, almost. He had not entirely realized that Patricia's nature
+and characteristics were so like his own, save only where they were
+feminine instead of masculine, that she would now adopt the course he
+would have pursued under circumstances which might, by a stretch of the
+imagination, be called parallel.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia's face was almost as mask-like as her father's, save that her
+great, dark eyes were stormy in their depths, and would have suggested
+to one who had sailed the Southern seas the brooding and far away
+approach of a monsoon. Her olive-tinted skin had in it a suggestion of
+pallor; but only a suggestion. When she spoke at all it was to John,
+the butler who served them; and then it was always in her accustomed
+low, evenly modulated tone. Not perceptibly different to the butler were
+her tone and manner, and yet even the servant, wise in his generation,
+sensed the unsettled condition of things, and moved about like a
+phantom; perhaps also he was a trifle more assiduous than usual in his
+efforts at perfect service.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia ate sparingly, but bravely. There was nothing of the shrinking
+or pouting, or even of the petulant, in her character. Her father ate
+nothing at all. He dawdled with his soup, turned his fish over and sent
+it away, and sniffed contemptuously at everything else that was placed
+before him. He made his dinner of coffee and cognac, and seemed to be
+greatly interested while he burned the latter over three dominoes of
+sugar.</p>
+
+<p>When the moment came to leave the table, there had been no word
+exchanged between them; but then, with an effort, the banker assumed his
+brightest and most kindly tone; and he asked, cheerily:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what have you on for to-night, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," she replied, indifferently, as if the question held no
+interest for her&mdash;as, indeed, it did not, for the moment; but she
+followed him from the dining-room into the library, as was their usual
+custom whenever they had dined alone. Now, as they entered it, the
+banker, with an assumption of high spirits he did not feel, remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't object to a Saturday-night opera, Garden is singing
+'Salome' at the Manhattan to-night, and I should like to hear it. Will
+you go, with your old dad?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you," she replied, indifferently. "I shall remain at home."</p>
+
+<p>She was standing at the table, turning the leaves of a magazine, and her
+father glanced keenly at her across the intervening space, while he
+lighted a cigar. Then, with a shrug of his shoulders, and a sigh which
+could not have been seen or heard, and which only he himself knew to
+have existed, he crossed the floor. As he was passing from the room, he
+said, as indifferently as she had spoken:</p>
+
+<p>"Then, I suppose, I will have to take it in, alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You might ask Roderick to go with you," she threw at him, as he passed
+into the hallway; but Langdon pretended not to hear, for he called back
+at her:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get Beatrice, I think, and ask her to play daughter for me; eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Patricia made no comment upon this suggestion; but having awaited,
+where she was, the sound of the closing outer door, she slowly crossed
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>The drop-light at her favorite chair was adjusted, and she began the
+reading of a new book which someone had placed on the table beside it.
+She read on and on, apparently with interest, but really without knowing
+at all what she did read, until more than an hour had passed; and then a
+card was brought to her.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at it, although she believed she knew perfectly well what
+name it bore, before she did so. Her lips tightened for an instant, and
+she frowned ever so little. But she said to the footman:</p>
+
+<p>"You may bring Mr. Duncan here, James."</p>
+
+<p>Patricia did not rise from her chair when her caller entered the
+library. Duncan moved toward her eagerly, but meeting her eyes, which
+she raised quite calmly to his as he crossed the floor, he paused, and
+remained at about midway of the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Patricia," he said. "I'm awfully glad to have found you
+at home. I was afraid you might go out before I could get here."</p>
+
+<p>"I expected you," she told him, without returning his salute. "I have
+been expecting you for an hour. In fact, I have been waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very pleasant news, indeed, Patricia." Duncan was startled by
+it, however. He had not expected it, and he did not quite like the tone
+in which Patricia uttered it.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you take it so," she returned. "It was not pleasant for me to
+wait for you, and it is not distinctly agreeable to me to receive you.
+But I believed that you would think it necessary to call, in order to
+make some effort at explaining the occurrences of this afternoon. Let me
+tell you, before you begin, that there exists no necessity for any sort
+of explanation. My father has fulfilled that duty quite fully, and I
+listened to him, throughout. He has exonerated you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan took a hasty step toward her, but stopped again, even more
+abruptly than before, repelled by the cold barrier that the expression
+of her dark eyes built up between them. Whatever it was that he had in
+mind to say remained unspoken. He turned away and sought a chair
+opposite her, ten feet away, utterly repelled, for although these two
+had grown to manhood and womanhood together, she had always had the
+power to lift a sudden barrier between them. Though he believed he knew
+every mood and characteristic of this proud young woman, just now, for
+the first time within his recollection, there was a strangeness about
+her that he could not fathom. Long habit had made him almost as much at
+home in this house, as in his own. He had been, ever since he could
+remember, considered and treated like a member of the family. And so,
+now, before seating himself, he sought to put himself more at ease by
+indulging in a liberty which had always been accorded to him. He
+selected a cigar from Stephen Langdon's box, and lighted it. Then,
+remembering that conditions were changed, he threw it down with an angry
+gesture, upon a receptacle for ashes that was on the table. Patricia
+watched all these proceedings, unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>"Patsy!" he exclaimed, abruptly, making use of an expression of their
+childhood; and he would have continued with rapid speech, had she not
+made a quick gesture of aversion that interrupted him. Then, she said,
+quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I would prefer, if you don't mind, that you should henceforth use my
+full name in addressing me."</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia, you have just told me that your father has exonerated me; and
+if that is so, why do you receive me in just this manner? I need
+exoneration, all right; and I deserve it, too, for honestly, dear, I
+never thought of offending you. I thought, until the last moment, that
+you would take it all as a huge joke. It never occurred to me that you
+would be so deeply wounded. I should never have agreed to the crazy
+compact that your father and I made together, if I had realized the
+seriousness of it."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied, quietly. "You should not have agreed to it. It was
+the mistake of your life, and, perhaps, of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"You know how I love you, dear," he began, half-starting from his chair.
+But the expression of her eyes, without the slightest motion otherwise,
+made him pause again, without completing what he had started to say.</p>
+
+<p>"It is best that we should be quite frank with each other," she said,
+calmly. "That is why I waited so patiently for you, to-night. Please do
+not interrupt me; let me say what I have in mind to say to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I would like it much better if you would hit me over the head with one
+of those bronze ornaments, as you would have done ten or twelve years
+ago; or if you would fly into one of your tempers just as you used to
+do, Patricia. I would like anything better than this cold calmness. It
+makes me shudder; it freezes me; it fills me with apprehension. I love
+you so, dear! and I have loved you all my life. You know it; I don't
+need to tell you! And if I have made a mistake, surely you can find it
+in your heart to forgive, because of my great love? No, I will not
+stop," he ejaculated, when she made a gesture of impatience. "I will
+finish what I have to say, even braving your anger to do so. I would
+like to make you angry just now, Patricia. I would delight to see you in
+one of those tantrums of fury that you used to have when you and I were
+children together. Do you remember that I bear a scar now, inflicted by
+a tennis-racket in your hand, when you were ten years old? I think more
+of that scar than of any other possession I have, for even you cannot
+take it away from me. I love you with all the manhood there is in me,
+and I can't remember a time when I did not; and I have thought that I
+knew, all these years, that you loved me; I believe it now, even though
+the scorn in your eyes denies it. You may have convinced yourself that
+you do not, but you are working from a wrong hypothesis. I know why you
+have put me off, time and again, when I have besought you to name our
+wedding-day. It has been because you were not quite ready. Isn't that
+true, dear? You have not denied me because you did not love me; you have
+put me off only because you were not ready to become a wife. But you
+have loved me; I am sure of that. You have never said that you would
+not be my wife; and in fact you have often shown me that some day you
+would be; you have only declined to say when. I have come to you
+to-night, Patricia, to tell you that I will wait, on and on, counting
+only your own pleasure in the matter, until you are willing to appoint
+the time, if only you will say that you forgive me for the apparently
+despicable part I have played in the tragedy of this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very pretty speech you have just made. It sounds well, and is
+quite characteristic," she replied to him, calmly. "I shall be as frank
+with you in my reply."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" he said, and waited. Her tone and manner startled him. There was
+a suggestion of finality in her attitude that was alarming. She
+continued, speaking almost gently:</p>
+
+<p>"I have believed in your love for me, as sincerely as I have believed in
+my father's love for me; and I think now that you were more to me than I
+realized. But, Roderick, have you ever watched a woodman in the forest
+chopping down a tree? And have you ever seen that tree fall, when its
+natural prop was stolen away by the sharp edge of the axe? It may have
+taken that tree a hundred, or a thousand years to grow; but when it
+crashes down, it is gone forever. A little, puny man has gone into the
+forest with an axe upon his shoulder, and has ruthlessly attacked one of
+God's greatest creations, a gorgeously abundant tree. He had no thought
+of what he was doing, of what he was destroying. His only thought was of
+a purpose he had in view; and it was somehow necessary to destroy that
+tree in order to accomplish the purpose. The thing that nature created,
+which had required years to bring to perfection; the thing that God made
+beautiful was, in a few minutes, shorn of its splendor by this little,
+ruthless creature, who went into the forest with the axe on his
+shoulder. That is what you have done to whatever love I may have felt
+for you, Roderick Duncan. It lies prostrate now, and it has borne down
+with it, all the lesser verdure, all the little trees and bushes and
+vines that grew about it, and has left only a bare spot&mdash;and the wounded
+stump. You were the woodman with the axe."</p>
+
+<p>"My God, Patricia!" he cried out, appalled by the agony of his loss. He
+understood, suddenly, that this proud young woman would have forgiven
+downright disloyalty more readily than such hurt to her pride.</p>
+
+<p>She continued as if he had not spoken:</p>
+
+<p>"My father informed me, this afternoon, as you are aware, of certain
+financial straits in which he has suddenly become involved. I know
+enough about the methods and habits of 'the street,' to realize how
+impossible it was for him to betray his condition to certain forces and
+powers that are exerted there, lest, despite what he could do, he should
+lose the great influence he now has over all the immense wealth of this
+country. While he was telling me about his condition, I naturally
+thought of you; and I wondered why he had not gone to you instantly; or,
+if you knew of the circumstance, I wondered the more, why you had not as
+instantly gone to him, and offered the assistance he needed. Then,
+little by little by little, the plot which you two had concocted
+together, was unveiled to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Patricia, dear, won't you&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me finish, please. I have not quite done so, as yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have agreed to the terms that were adjusted between you and my
+father, respecting the loan of a certain sum of money by you to him. Of
+course, you may repudiate those terms if you please, and it is a matter
+of indifference to me whether you do so, or not. You may loan the money
+to my father without accepting me as the collateral for it; that also
+is a matter of indifference to me. But I wish to tell you, and I wish
+you thoroughly to understand, that, unless you carry out the terms of
+this compact precisely as it was agreed upon between you and my father,
+with the added stipulations which I have requested Mr. Melvin to draw
+for me, I will never under any circumstances be your wife, or receive
+you again. That, I think, concludes this interview. I shall be ready
+Monday morning, at ten o'clock, to fulfill my part of the agreement. You
+and Stephen Langdon may do as you please. And now, please, bid me
+good-night&mdash;I prefer to be alone."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan started from his chair and took two steps toward her, where he
+paused. His face was pale, but his finely chiseled features were set in
+firm lines; and his tall, athletic figure, was drawn to its full height,
+as he replied, with slow emphasis:</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, Patricia, we shall carry out the compact as agreed upon,
+and I shall conform to whatever stipulations you have made," he said.
+"Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>He turned and went swiftly from the room. He seized his coat and hat
+before James, the footman, could assist him, and he went out at the
+front door, with more bitterness and more anger in his soul than he
+remembered ever to have felt before against any man or woman. But just
+now the bitterness and the anger were directed chiefly against himself.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, he stood on the bottom step at the entrance to the
+mansion, undecided as to which way he should go or what he should do.
+Then, he turned about and again rang the bell at Stephen Langdon's door;
+and the instant it was opened, he brushed savagely past the astonished
+James, and made his way to the library, unannounced. He pushed the door
+ajar noiselessly, without intending to do so, and halted on the
+threshold, amazed by what he saw there. He had not meant to intrude in
+that silent fashion upon the privacy and grief of the woman he loved,
+and as soon as he could master his emotions, he stepped quickly backward
+into the hall, re-closing the door as softly as he had opened it.
+Patricia had given way at last. She had thrown herself upon the couch,
+and with her face buried among the pillows, she was sobbing as if her
+heart would break. His first impulse, when he discovered her so, was to
+rush to her side, to take her in his arms, and to tell her over and over
+again of his love. But he knew instinctively that Patricia would
+bitterly resent such an effort on his part, that he would again offend
+her sense of pride if she should know that he had found her in tears.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the door, when he had closed it, he hesitated for a time;
+finally he wrote rapidly on the back of one of his cards, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"There will be little time on Monday morning to inspect the papers you
+mentioned. I shall be glad if you will direct Mr. Melvin to submit them
+to me at my rooms, between five and six o'clock to-morrow afternoon.</p>
+<p class="left50">R. D."</p>
+
+<p>He gave this written message to James, instructing him not to deliver it
+until Miss Langdon summoned him to her, or she should leave the library.
+Then, he asked the footman:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you happen to know where Mr. Langdon has gone, to-night, James?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the opera, sir," replied the footman.</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so, sir, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan walked the distance, which was considerable, from the Langdon
+mansion to the Opera House, where he went directly to Stephen Langdon's
+box, believing that he would find the banker to be it's solitary
+occupant, and there were reasons why he greatly desired a private
+conference with Patricia's father. He entered the box without
+announcement and came to a sudden pause when he discovered that the
+banker was not alone. Beside him, with her white arm resting upon the
+rail at the front of the box, was seated a young woman whom Duncan knew
+well; and she happened to be the one person in New York who came nearest
+to being on terms of intimacy with Patricia. For Miss Langdon was one
+who had never permitted herself to be intimate with anybody. Others
+might be intimate with her, as Beatrice Brunswick had been, but that
+close and personal relation which so often exists between two young
+women, and which is so beautiful in its character, was something
+Patricia Langdon had never permitted herself to know. She was not even
+aware that this was so. The condition arose from no lack of sympathy for
+others, and from no want of affection for her friends; it was a
+characteristic reserve of manner and method, inherited from her father,
+which had been cultivated by and through her association with him, all
+her life long.</p>
+
+<p>While Roderick Duncan halted for an instant, to consider whether, or
+not, he should proceed with his original design, and while he still
+stood there, holding the curtains apart and appearing much as if he were
+a stealthy observer of the scene before him, the young woman turned her
+head and discovered him. She smiled brightly and uttered an exclamation
+of pleasure as she started to her feet and approached him with
+out-stretched hand. One could have seen that the pleasure she
+manifested, was very real. It was at once evident that she liked Duncan.</p>
+
+<p>"How good of you to come, and how fortunate!" she said, when he took her
+hand and raised it to his lips, just as the banker turned about in his
+chair, and with a grim smile also made Duncan welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello," he said. "Glad you came! I have been wondering all the evening
+where you were. Had an idea you would show up somewhere. Sit down and
+keep still until this act is finished, for I don't want to lose it.
+After that, we'll chat a little. There are things I wish to discuss with
+you, Roderick."</p>
+
+<p>Roderick Duncan was in a mood that was strange to him. It affected him
+to recklessness, though he could not have told why it was so, or in what
+form of recklessness he might indulge. The discovery he had made when he
+returned to the library and found Patricia in tears, was still having
+its effects upon him, for he did not understand the cause for those
+tears. He knew only that he had made her cry, that her abandonment of
+grief was due to his acts, and her father's. By a strange paradox, he
+pitied himself as deeply as he did the woman he loved. He felt that he
+had been forced into a second false position by so readily accepting the
+terms Patricia had insisted upon for their betrothal. She had told him
+plainly that if she ever became his wife at all, the fact could be
+accomplished only in the manner she dictated; that if he repudiated it,
+he would not even be received at her home. Impulsively, he had accepted
+her dictum, and now, at the end of his long and solitary walk to the
+opera-house, he realized that the change from frying-pan to fire was a
+simile true as to his present condition. Practically, the end so long
+sought had been attained. In effect, he and Patricia were betrothed&mdash;but
+such a betrothal! For the moment, he regretted his ready acquiescence to
+Patricia's terms. He believed that it would be better to lose her
+entirely than to take her under such conditions.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting with Beatrice Brunswick and her sincere welcome warmed him,
+and he found a ready sympathy in her eyes and manner for his condition
+of mind. He wanted company and he wanted sympathy; chiefly, he had
+wished to discuss the present situation of affairs with old Steve; but
+now, since his arrival at the box, he decided that it would be a
+splendid opportunity to talk the matter over with Beatrice Brunswick.
+She had always shown him great consideration. He had regarded her as
+Patricia's dearest friend, and had ultimately placed her in that
+relationship to himself, for she was one of those rare young women whom
+men class as "good fellows." And Beatrice was as good as she was
+beautiful. Her merry laugh and quick wit always acted upon Duncan like a
+tonic. Just now, he was especially glad to find her there, and he showed
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice Brunswick was unmistakably red-headed. Referring to her hair in
+cold-blooded terms, no other hue could have described it. It was like
+that old-fashioned kind of red copper, after it has been hammered into
+sheets, in the manner in which it was treated before less arduous
+methods were invented. It was remarkable hair, too&mdash;there was such a
+wealth of it! It had always impressed Duncan with the idea that each
+individual hair was in business for itself, refusing utterly to stay
+where it was put. A young woman's crowning glory, always, this happened
+to be particularly true in the case of Miss Brunswick, for, although her
+features and her figure and her graceful motions left nothing to be
+desired, it was her wonderful hair, emphasized by the saucy poise of her
+head, that became her crowning glory, indeed. Duncan took a seat near to
+her, so that she was between him and the banker; and presently Beatrice
+inclined her head toward him, and whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Roderick? You look like a banquet of the Skull and
+Bones, which my brother described to me once, when he was at Yale."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you about it later," was the response; and Duncan shut his
+jaws, and bent his attention grimly upon the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not now?" She asked.</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't time; and besides&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been quarreling with our Juno? Have you two been scrapping?"
+She whispered, smiling bewitchingly, and bending still nearer to him.
+Miss Brunswick was sometimes given to the milder uses of slang.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan nodded, without replying in words. He kept his eyes directly
+toward the stage. But Miss Brunswick was insistent.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Patricia on her high horse to-night?" she asked, with a light laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan replied to her with another nod, and a wry smile.</p>
+
+<p>"She wants to look out about that high horse of hers, Roderick, or
+sometime it will hit the top rail and give her a fall that she won't get
+over for a while. What our beautiful Juno needs most is what I used to
+get oftenest when I was about three years old. Perhaps you can guess
+what it was; if you can't, I won't tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you were a regular little devil then, weren't you?" he asked,
+endeavoring to assume a cheerfulness he was far from experiencing at
+that moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect I was; and the strange part of it is that there are lots and
+lots of people who insist that I have never got over it. But I can read
+you like a book. You and Mr. Langdon and Patricia have been having no
+end of a row. He might just as well have told me that much when he came
+after me and insisted that I should accompany him to the opera to-night.
+He said that Patricia wouldn't, and he wanted me to take her place. I
+wish you would tell me all about it." Then, with a slight toss of her
+head, Beatrice added: "I suppose Patricia has refused you again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. She has accepted me, this time," was the blunt reply.</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice stared straight in front of her for a moment, and there was a
+suggestion of gathering pallor in her face. Then, she drew backward,
+away from her companion, and her blue eyes widened. If there was a shock
+to her in the knowledge she had just received, she accepted it with a
+very clever little laugh which she always had ready at hand.</p>
+
+<p>"So," she said, "that is what makes you so glum, is it? Really, you are
+a most amazing person. I had supposed that when Patricia accepted you,
+finally, and set the day&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The day hasn't been set. It may be a week, a month, or a year hence,
+for all I know." This was said harshly, and while Duncan's eyes were
+fixed steadily upon Mary Garden, on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"How intensely interesting!" Beatrice exclaimed, under her breath. "I
+shall insist upon your taking us to supper after the opera, and telling
+me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>The loud bars of music which announce the finale of an act and the
+entrance of the chorus precluded the possibility of further conversation
+just then; and as soon as the curtain was down and the applause had
+ceased, Stephen Langdon left his chair and reached for his coat and hat.
+Then, he addressed the two young people who were his companions in the
+box.</p>
+
+<p>"If you two youngsters care to see this out, I'll leave you here,
+together," he said. "I have just remembered something I should have
+attended to, to-night. I must see Melvin, my lawyer. You won't mind,
+Beatrice, will you, if I leave you in Roderick's care? Possibly, I'll
+return before the show is out."</p>
+
+<p>Before either of them could answer, Langdon had passed out into the
+aisle, and hurried away, leaving Duncan and Miss Brunswick alone
+together in the box. If Roderick Duncan had really desired an
+opportunity to confide his troubles to Beatrice, it was afforded him
+then; but now that it was at hand, he felt suddenly uncertain about the
+wisdom of such a proceeding.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE BOX AT THE OPERA</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Duncan stared helplessly at the spot where the curtains had fallen
+together behind the departing figure of Stephen Langdon; then he turned
+his eyes toward Beatrice, to discover that she was convulsed with
+laughter. But whether her demeanor and her quick surrender to
+expressions of levity had been excited by the departure of the banker,
+or by Duncan's attitude of dismay, the young man could not have told. He
+laughed with her, for there was a distinctly ludicrous side to the
+situation, following, as it did, so closely upon the announcement of his
+engagement to Patricia.</p>
+
+<p>By mutual consent, they withdrew to the rear of the box, and then
+Beatrice, with a touch of teasing witchery in her voice and with
+laughter still in her eyes, asked him:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think that this is rather a compromising situation,
+particularly in view of the fact that you have only just become engaged
+to Patricia? Really, you know, it is dreadful; isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't thought of that," he replied, quite truthfully. "I was
+thinking of what Langdon said, when he left us. It recalled something&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"About leaving us two 'youngsters' alone together?" she asked him, with
+a pretense of frightened expression in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No, that wasn't the last thing he said."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it? I didn't hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"He said he was going to see Melvin. I suppose you know who Melvin is,
+don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, indeed. Mr. Melvin and I are great friends. I think he is
+about the nicest old gentleman of my acquaintance; don't you? He is what
+I should call the <i>arbiter elegantiarum</i> of the Langdon court, if one
+could imagine Old Steve as a C&aelig;sar, and Patricia as&mdash;" Beatrice paused,
+and flushed hotly. She had not considered to what length her words were
+reaching. She had almost cast a reflection upon her friend, which would
+have been as unkind as it was unmerited. She added, quickly: "But why,
+if I may ask, did the mention of Mr. Melvin's name interest you?"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan gazed at his companion rather stupidly, for a moment, for his
+mind had suddenly become intent upon the complications of the day, and
+he had forgotten for the time being, where he was, and with whom he was
+talking. But Beatrice's smile and the mockery in her eyes brought him
+back to the present.</p>
+
+<p>"I remembered that I should have gone, myself, to see Melvin, to-night,"
+he told her, quietly. "It really was quite important. I should have
+sought him, instead of coming here."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" Beatrice laughed, brightly. "Mr. Melvin seems to be in great
+demand. Are you and Patricia to follow the French fashion of drawing the
+marriage-contract? and is Mr. Melvin to act the part of a French
+notary?" There was a touch of irony in her question, a little shaft of
+sarcasm that brought a quick flush to Duncan's face. He was reminded
+instantly of the tentative betrothal with Patricia, and his misgivings
+concerning it. Beside him was seated the one person who might aid them
+both; and with sudden resolution, acted upon as quickly as it was
+formed, he reached out and took one of Miss Brunswick's hands, holding
+it between both his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Beatrice," he said, with quiet emphasis, "you have always been a good
+fellow, if ever there was a girl born in the world who was one. I wonder
+if you could be persuaded to give me the benefit of your advice, and,
+possibly, your active assistance?"</p>
+
+<p>She flushed a little under the praise and the intimately personal
+request that came with it, but he did not notice this as he went on:
+"I've somehow got things into the biggest kind of a muddle to-day, and I
+have a notion to tell you all about it; I have the impulse to take you
+into my confidence and to ask you to help me out. I know you can do it.
+By Jove, Beatrice, I think you are the only person in the world who can
+do it! Will you?"</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders ever so little, and the flush left her
+cheeks, rendering them paler than was their wont. It suddenly came home
+to her that he was asking a favor that might prove extremely difficult
+to grant.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say as to that until I hear what you wish me to do," she
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to help me square myself," he said, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"To square yourself?" She raised her brows in assumed surprise. "With
+whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, with Patricia, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Help you to square yourself with Patricia?" She laughed outright, but
+without mirth. "I am afraid I don't at all understand you, Roderick. I
+supposed you had already accomplished that much, for you told me&mdash;did
+you not?&mdash;that Patricia has just accepted you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and that's the devil of it!" was the unexpected astounding reply.
+Beatrice moved farther away from him, and took her hand from his grasp,
+in well-simulated horror of what he had said.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us, at least, confine ourselves to the usages and language of
+polite society;" she said, with mock severity. "We will leave the devil
+out of it, if you please. Besides, you amaze me! Patricia has just
+accepted you, and that is 'the devil of it.' Really, I can't guess what
+you mean by such a paradoxical statement as that."</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me. I am so wrought up that I scarcely know what I am talking
+about, or what I am doing. As I said before, I have managed to get
+things into a terrible mess, and I believe that you, Beatrice, are the
+only person alive who can unravel the tangle for me. Will you help me
+out? Will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must tell me what it is, before I commit myself. You are so very
+aggravating, in words and manner, that I cannot even attempt to
+understand you."</p>
+
+<p>For just a few moments, he hesitated. There was within him the feeling
+that he would outrage Patricia's ideas of the fitness of things, if he
+should take Beatrice Brunswick into his confidence and relate to her all
+that had occurred this afternoon and evening. But, on the other hand, he
+saw in this beautiful girl a personification of the straw at which a
+drowning man grasps. He knew that she was, personally, closer to
+Patricia than any other friend had been, and that she understood
+Patricia better than did anyone else, save Stephen Langdon, perhaps. He
+knew, also, that he could trust her, and that he could rely, implicitly,
+upon her loyalty. He knew that she would never betray the secrets he
+would be obliged to tell concerning Stephen Langdon's affairs. He had
+tried her often, and he had never found her wanting. Therefore, he felt
+that the greatest secret of all, concerning the financial extremity in
+which Stephen Langdon had become involved, would be safe with Beatrice
+Brunswick. Manlike, he began very stupidly and very strangely.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Beatrice!" he exclaimed. "I wish I might have fallen in love
+with you, instead of with Patricia! You would never have seen things in
+the light she does!"</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice's eyes widened and deepened; then, they narrowed so that she
+almost frowned. She bit her lips with vexation, and for an instant was
+angry. At last, she laughed. She did not wish him to know how deeply he
+had wounded her by that careless statement, so she uttered a care-free
+ripple of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite know whether I should take that as a compliment or not,"
+she replied. "It is more than likely that I would have conducted myself
+very much worse than Patricia has done in this affair which you have not
+as yet explained to me. Perhaps, it is a fortunate thing for both of us
+that you did not fall in love with me, instead of her. I'm sure I don't
+know what I should have done with you, in such a case. But I will help
+you if I can; only, understand in the beginning that if you tell me the
+story at all, you must tell me all of it. I don't want any
+half-confidences, Roderick."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan did tell her all of it then, leaving nothing to be added, when he
+had finished; and she listened to the end of his tale in utter silence,
+with her head half-turned away and her chin supported by the palm of one
+of her jeweled hands. They did not move to the front of the box again,
+nor give any heed to the rise of the curtain or to what was taking place
+on the stage, during the ensuing act. Duncan talked straight on, through
+it all; and Beatrice listened with close attention. One might have
+supposed that the music and the singing did not reach the ears of either
+of them, and one would not have been very wrong in that surmise. The
+tragic fate of John, the Baptist; the unholy, unnatural passion of a
+depraved soul for the dead lips of a man who had spurned her while he
+lived; the exquisite music of Strauss; the superb scenery and
+stage-setting; the rich and gorgeous costumes&mdash;all remained unseen and
+unheard by these two, one intent upon re&euml;stablishing himself in the
+esteem of Patricia Langdon, the other disturbed by emotions she could
+not have named, which she would have declined to recognize, even had
+they presented themselves frankly to her. She had known, of course, of
+Duncan's love for her friend, but until this hour there had always
+existed an unformed, unrecognized doubt in the mind of Beatrice that it
+would ever be requited.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, she was still silent, and for so long a time that
+at last, with some impatience, he bent nearer to her, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Beatrice? What do you think of it all?"</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered a little. There was still another interval before she
+spoke, and then, with calm directness, she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are both exceedingly brave to be willing to face the
+situation that exists."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?" he asked her, not comprehending.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if you carry out this compact that you have made, if Patricia
+Langdon becomes your wife according to the terms she has dictated to
+Melvin&mdash;for I can guess, now, what they are&mdash;you will both be casting
+yourselves straight down into hell. I speak metaphorically, of course,"
+she added, with a whimsical smile. "I have been told that there isn't
+any hell, really. But I mean it, Roderick. If there isn't a hell, you
+two seem to be bent upon the arrangement of a correct imitation of one."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that?" he demanded, frowning. "I don't know what you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Our friend has not been named 'Juno' for nothing. She is a strange
+girl; but I love her, almost as much as you do," Beatrice continued, as
+if she had not heard his question. "She possesses characteristics, the
+depth of which I have never been able to sound, and I am her best and
+closest friend. If you two live up to this agreement, in the spirit in
+which it was made, and conclude it in the spirit in which she has
+dictated her conditions to Melvin, I tremble for the consequences that
+will ensue, for I can almost foresee them. Patricia is not one who
+forgives easily, and she will resent a hurt to her pride with all the
+force there is in her."</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice rose to her feet, standing before him, and he, also, stood up,
+facing her. She reached out both her hands toward him, and he took them;
+and there were tears in her big blue eyes, when she added, with a depth
+of feeling that he did not understand:</p>
+
+<p>"Roderick Duncan, it would be better for you, and for Patricia as well,
+if you never saw each other again. You might far better, and with much
+greater hope of happiness, cast your future lot with some other woman
+whom you have never thought of as a wife, than marry Patricia Langdon
+upon such terms as you have outlined. Have you known her so intimately
+all your life without understanding her at all? She might have forgiven
+disloyalty, or unfaithfulness, or at least have condoned such&mdash;but an
+offense against her pride? Never! You would be undergoing much less risk
+if you should select an utterly unknown woman from one of these boxes,
+and should take her out of this theatre now, and marry her instead!"</p>
+
+<p>Having delivered this remarkable statement, Beatrice burst into
+laughter. Duncan, suddenly alive to her beauty and her nearness, deeply
+impressed by what she had said, and fully alive to the truth of her
+utterances, retained the grasp he had upon her hands, and drew her
+toward him, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" he demanded, hotly. "I'll do it if you say the word! But not
+a strange woman. You, Beatrice&mdash;you!! I'll dare you!!! We'll go to the
+'Little Church Around the Corner.' I dare you! I dare you, Beatrice!
+They always have a wedding ceremony on tap, there; if you've got the
+sand, come on. It offers a solution of everything. Come on, Bee&mdash;marry
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes to his, and he understood, instantly, how he had
+wounded her; he saw that her laughter had not been real, and that she
+was very near to tears. But the fact that she shrank away from his
+impetuous words and manner, only spurred him on anew. He caught her
+hands again.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's do it, Beatrice," he said rapidly, bending forward with sudden
+eagerness. "I hate all this mess and muddle of affairs. I hate it! Say
+yes, Bee."</p>
+
+<p>He stood with his back toward the curtains at the rear of the box; she
+was facing them. He saw her eyes dilate suddenly, and he had the
+sensation that she had discovered another person near them, or in the
+act of entering the box; and then, with more astonishment than he would
+have believed himself capable of feeling, he realized that Beatrice
+Brunswick had thrown herself forward and that her white arms were wound
+clingingly about his neck; at the same time, with evident design, she
+turned him still more, so that he could not see the curtains which
+screened the entrance to the box.</p>
+
+<p>The last and final shock of that eventful day, came to him then, for he
+did turn, in spite of Beatrice's restraining arms&mdash;he turned to find
+that the curtains were drawn apart, and in the opening thus created
+stood Patricia Langdon. Duncan knew that she had both seen and heard.</p>
+
+<p>He could not have moved, had he attempted to do so, although somewhere
+deep down inside of him he felt that it was his duty to untwine those
+clinging arms and somehow to account for the appalling situation. Beyond
+where Patricia stood, he saw and recognized two other figures that were
+moving steadily forward toward them, but he had the subconscious
+assurance in his soul that neither Stephen Langdon nor his lawyer,
+Melvin, had noticed the scene which Patricia had discovered. He could
+not guess that it had been the consequence of sudden inspiration on the
+part of Beatrice, who had thrown her arms around his neck at the very
+instant when she had intended to administer a rebuff.</p>
+
+<p>He did not imagine that she had discovered the approach of Patricia
+before she made this outward demonstration in acceptance of his mad
+proposal. Duncan felt very guilty indeed, in that trying moment;
+nevertheless, he was not one to attempt an ignominious escape from a
+predicament in which he believed himself to be wholly at fault. But
+Beatrice was not yet through with acting a part. She drew away from
+Duncan quickly, with an exclamation of mingled disappointment, pleasure
+and alarm. She cried out the single ejaculation, "Oh!" and dropped
+backward upon the chair she had recently occupied. But there was a gleam
+of mischief in her eyes, which belied the confusion otherwise expressed
+upon her face.</p>
+
+<p>"So sorry to have interrupted you at such a critical moment," said
+Patricia coolly, at once master of herself and of the situation.
+"Good-evening, Beatrice. I hope you have enjoyed the opera. I decided to
+come at the last moment, and met my father at the door of the theatre,
+as I was entering. He insisted on seeing Mr. Melvin to-night, so we
+drove to his house together and brought him here. I thought I would
+enjoy the last act."</p>
+
+<p>One might have thought that Roderick Duncan did not exist. Patricia did
+not so much as glance in his direction, but she moved forward to the
+front of the box and took her accustomed seat, just as Stephen Langdon
+and the lawyer, Melvin, entered it.</p>
+
+<p>All this had passed so quickly that the interval it occupied could be
+reckoned only by seconds. Beatrice Brunswick's face was flushed, and her
+eyes were alight with mischief, or with something deeper, as she greeted
+the two gentlemen. Duncan's countenance was like marble; he realized
+that the mess was bigger now, by far, than it had been before.</p>
+
+<p>Langdon and his lawyer perceived nothing unusual in the attitude of any
+person in the box; both were preoccupied with the discussion upon which
+they had just been engaged. Patricia's eyes were already fixed on the
+stage, and evidently her entire attention was devoted to it. She
+appeared to have forgotten the propinquity of other persons.</p>
+
+<p>There was a vacant chair beside her which Duncan should have taken, and,
+doubtless, he would have done so, had not the lawyer stupidly pre&euml;mpted
+it for his own use. The banker occupied the middle chair, and the
+consequence was that Duncan was given no choice, but was literally
+forced into the one next to Beatrice. Not that he would have preferred
+it otherwise, at the moment. Not he. He was angered by Patricia's
+conduct toward him; he resented the whole circumstance&mdash;and possibly,
+too, he still felt something of the thrill induced by the clinging arms
+of Beatrice Brunswick. He stared silently toward the stage, seeing
+nothing upon it. He was endeavoring to arrange, in some comprehensive
+form, the combination of circumstances and scenes which it had been his
+misfortune to encounter, and in part enact, since noon that day. But the
+more he tried, the more difficult became the task. The whole thing was
+as exasperating as an attempt to put together, within an alloted time, a
+puzzle-picture which has been cut into all sorts of sizes and shapes. It
+was not a panorama of events, as he recounted them in his own mind; it
+was a kaleidoscope, a jumble of colors and figures, of angles and
+spaces&mdash;or to put it in his own words, it was literally a mess.</p>
+
+<p>He turned toward Beatrice, whose right hand was negligently waving a
+fan. He reached out and claimed it, and she did not resent the act. He
+drew it toward him, and she looked up and smiled into his eyes with an
+expression he did not understand. She made no effort to withdraw her
+hand, nor any attempt to resist his advances. He bent nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do it?" he asked her, whispering. "Will you do it, Beatrice?"</p>
+
+<p>She made no reply, and he bent still nearer, seizing her hand in both
+his own, now.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do it, dear?" he repeated, a third time. "I'm game, if you
+are. It is a solution of the whole beastly muddle. Come on. I'll stump
+you! That is what we used to say, when we were kids. By Jove, girl,
+you're in as deep as I am, now; and, besides, you gave me your word that
+you'd help me, didn't you? Turn your eyes toward me. Tell me you'll do
+it. Say yes. Come on, Bee. I'll dare you. We can slip away from here
+while their backs are turned. What do you say? Will you marry me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied, without moving or withdrawing her gaze from the
+stage, and she repeated: "yes, if you wish it." He could not see her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do it now?" Duncan demanded, half-startled by her ready
+acquiescence.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! I knew you were game!"</p>
+
+<p>He left his chair quickly and secured her wraps and his own coat and
+hat. Then, he stepped to the opening between the curtains and turned
+expectantly toward her.</p>
+
+<p>She had not moved; but now, as if she had seen his every act without
+looking toward him, she turned her head slowly, observing him coolly,
+and she gave a little nod of comprehension and assent. He returned the
+nod, touched his fingers to his lips to enjoin silence, and passed
+outside. In another moment, she had glided softly but swiftly from her
+seat, and, unnoticed by the other occupants of the box, followed him,
+dropping the curtains silently after her.</p>
+
+<p>He put her opera-cloak about her shoulders, and swiftly donned his own
+coat and hat, and so without as much as "by your leave," they left the
+theatre together and waited in the foyer while the special officer in
+gray called a taxicab for their use.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan led her across the pavement to the cab, and assisted her inside.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where the Church of the Transfiguration is located?" he
+asked the chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p>"I do, sir," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Drive us there, and be quick about it," said Duncan, and he sprang
+inside and banged the door shut after him.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>BEATRICE BRUNSWICK'S PLOT</b></p>
+<p class="p2">The chauffeur to whom the order was given that the taxicab be driven to
+the Church of the Transfiguration, proved to be an adept and skillful
+driver; one of those who can exceed the speed limit and then slow down
+his machine so quickly and quietly at the sight of a bluecoat that he
+inevitably escapes arrest for his transgression. As a consequence, there
+was very little time for conversation between these two apparently mad
+young persons during the journey between the opera-house and the church.</p>
+
+<p>Little as there was, the greater part of it was passed in silence. But
+when they were quite near to their destination, Beatrice spoke up
+quickly and rather sharply to her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Roderick, have you for a moment supposed that I have taken you
+seriously in this mad proposition you have made to me, to-night?" she
+demanded. "Surely, you don't think that, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan stared at her, speechless. Then, with a vehemence that can
+better be imagined than described he exclaimed, half-angrily,
+half-resentfully:</p>
+
+<p>"Then, in God's name, Beatrice, why are we here? and why should we go to
+the church at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Were you serious about it?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly was&mdash;and am, now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish boy!" she exclaimed, laughing with nervous apprehension. What
+more she might have said on this point was interrupted by the skidding
+of the taxicab as they were whirled around the corner of Twenty-ninth
+street.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, in heaven's name, are we here, then?" he demanded, just as they
+were drawn swiftly to the curb, and the cab came to a stop in front of
+the church.</p>
+
+<p>"You requested my help, did you not?" she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly did."</p>
+
+<p>The chauffeur, in the meantime, had leaped to the pavement and thrown
+open the door of the cab.</p>
+
+<p>"You may close the door again, chauffeur, and wait where you are for
+further orders," Beatrice told him, calmly. And when that was done, she
+again addressed her companion. "You have called me a 'good fellow'
+to-night," she said slowly, with quiet distinctness, "and I mean to be
+one. I have always meant to be one, and to a great extent I think I have
+succeeded. But I would have to be a much better fellow than I am to go
+to the extent of marrying a man who does not love me, and who does love
+another, simply to help him out of a mess in which his own stupidity has
+involved him. Wouldn't I? Ask yourself the question!"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan shrugged his shoulders and parted his lips to reply, but she went
+on rapidly:</p>
+
+<p>"That is asking me to go rather farther than I would care to venture, my
+friend; or you, either, if you should stop to think about it. Your
+proposition is utterly a selfish one. You must know that. You have
+thought only of yourself and the mess you are in. You do not consider me
+at all. You would cheerfully use me as a means of venting your spite&mdash;or
+shall I call it, temper?&mdash;against Patricia. For the moment, you are
+intensely angry at her. Not only that, you feel that you have been
+out-done, at every point. That she has acted unreasonably, I will not
+deny. But what a silly thing it would be for you and me to stand
+together at the altar, and pledge ourselves to each other for life, or
+until such time as the divorce-courts might intervene, just because of
+the events of to-day!" She was smiling upon him now, as if he were,
+indeed, a foolish boy who needed chiding.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan pulled himself together. For the first time since their exit from
+the opera-house, and for perhaps the first time since the moment when
+Patricia discovered him in the private office of her father, he was
+capable of acting and thinking quite naturally.</p>
+
+<p>"Beatrice," he said, "if the sentiments you have just expressed are the
+same as those you felt before you left the box at the opera-house, would
+you mind telling me why in the world you have acted as you have done?
+Why, in the name of all that's phenomenal and strange, are we here?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head away from him, and peered through the glass door at
+the chauffeur, who was striding slowly up and down the pavement outside,
+and who had taken the opportunity to indulge himself in a smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I did it," she said, "because I thought I saw a way to help you and
+Patricia out of your difficulties. I saw that we could leave the box
+without her knowledge, and believed that neither she nor her companions
+would discover our departure for some time afterward. I remembered just
+then that Patricia had witnessed the tender and somewhat touching scene
+in the box between you and me. My goodness, Roderick! I hope you didn't
+think that I meant <i>that</i>! It was all done for Patricia's benefit, you
+goose! Didn't you know that? Did you suppose that I had suddenly fallen
+head over heels in love with you? You're not very complimentary, are
+you? Or is it that you were throwing bouquets at yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me why you did it?" he asked, flushing hotly under the
+jibe.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I wished Patricia to see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it might bring her to her senses."</p>
+
+<p>"How, Beatrice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jealousy, you dunce!"</p>
+
+<p>"But why the rest of your superb play-acting?"</p>
+
+<p>"It all works out toward the same end. Don't you suppose that Patricia
+is in hot water, by this time? When she realized that we had sneaked
+away, to put it plainly, don't you think she would put two and two
+together, and make four out of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It strikes me," he interrupted her, with a light laugh, "that this is a
+case where two are supposed to make one."</p>
+
+<p>"We won't joke about it, if you please. Still, that isn't a bad idea.
+But, at all events, I wish Patricia to believe that we left the
+opera-house because, for the moment at least, you preferred my society
+to hers. If we can convince her that we ran away to be married, so much
+the better!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are deeper than I am, Bee. I confess that you've got me up a tree.
+I haven't the least idea what you are driving at, but I am quite willing
+to be taught. What is to be the next play in this little game of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be nasty about it, when I'm trying to help you," she
+retorted.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the next move, Bee? I couldn't induce you to give me another
+hug, could I? There, now&mdash;don't get angry. I liked it, whether you did,
+or not. You put a lot of ginger into it, too. Oh, yes, I liked it!"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, it seemed as if she would resent his bantering tone; then
+she shrugged her shoulders, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I did it to help you&mdash;to make Patricia jealous." She laughed lightly,
+still keeping her face turned away from him. "I saw the curtains part,
+and recognized Patricia. With the recognition, there came also a
+revelation as to how I could best help you both. If I had dreamed that
+you would suppose for a moment I was in earnest, do you think I would
+have done it? And when I told you that I would come here, to this
+church, and would marry you like this&mdash;good heavens!&mdash;did you flatter
+yourself I meant <i>that</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in earnest, Roderick Duncan? If I thought your selfishness,
+your egotism, was as great as that, I&mdash;I don't know what I'd do! Have
+you so little regard for me that you think I would become your wife, in
+this manner, knowing as I do that you love another&mdash;and when that other
+is my best friend&mdash;when I know that Patricia Langdon loves you? For I do
+know it. Do you&mdash;did you think that of me&mdash;did you think that of me?"
+She was a-tremble with indignation, now.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Bee, I acted like a brute, didn't I? I didn't consider you; I
+was selfish enough to think of no one but myself. But, all the same, my
+girl, I was in dead earnest. If you've got the pluck and the spirit to
+go through with it, now, we'll see the thing out, side by side, just as
+we started, and I will make you, perhaps, a better husband than if the
+circumstances were different. You say that Patricia loves me: I doubt
+it. I thought so once, but I don't now. It doesn't matter, anyhow. I
+shall ask you again calmly, with all humility and respect; with all
+seriousness, too: will you be my wife, and will you marry me, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will reply with equal seriousness, Roderick," she retorted,
+mockingly. "No."</p>
+
+<p>He uttered a sigh, and there was so much satisfied relief in it that she
+laughed aloud, but without bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, what shall we do? Sit here in this cab, in front of the Church of
+the Transfiguration, for the balance of the night? Or shall we go around
+to Delmonico's and have some supper?" he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that last suggestion of yours is a very excellent one," she
+replied, na&iuml;vely. "But we will wait yet a few moments before we start.
+We haven't been at the Church of the Transfiguration quite long enough
+to have been married, and to have come out of it again."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan stared at her. Then, slowly, a smile lighted up his eyes and
+relaxed the lines of his face, so that after a moment he chuckled.
+Presently, he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Bee, you're a corker!" he said. "You can give me cards and
+spades, and beat me hands down, when it comes to a matter of finesse. Is
+it your idea to play out the other part of the game? What will it avail,
+if we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that," she replied. "In order to carry out the scheme, and
+to make it work itself out, as it should, one thing more is necessary.
+It will be great fun, too&mdash;if we don't carry it too far."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" he asked her. "What more is necessary?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to tell the chauffeur to stop for a moment at the
+side-entrance to the Hotel Breslin; there I wish you to leave me alone
+in the cab, while you go inside, and telephone to the opera-house, to
+have Jack Gardner and his wife meet us as soon as they can, at
+Delmonico's for supper. You may not have noticed, but they occupied
+their box, which is directly opposite the Langdon's. One of the ushers
+will carry the message to him, and Jack will come, if he has no previous
+engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"But what in the name of&mdash;what in the world do you want of Jack Gardner
+and his wife? what have they to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want them to take supper with us, that is all; and then I want a few
+moments' conversation with Jack, while you talk with Sally."</p>
+
+<p>They were driven to the Breslin, and the telephone-message was sent.
+Duncan waited for a reply, and received one, to the effect that Mr. and
+Mrs. Gardner would come at once. And so, not long afterward, the four
+occupied a conspicuous table of Beatrice's selection, at the famous
+restaurant.</p>
+
+<p>Recalling the injunction put upon him to occupy himself with Sally
+Gardner, Duncan began to get a glimmer of understanding regarding the
+plot that Beatrice had concocted. He, therefore, gave all of his
+attention to the spirited and charming wife of the young copper-king.
+Jack Gardner was everybody's friend. He loved a joke better than anyone
+else in the world, and a practical joke better than any other kind. He
+was especially fond of Roderick Duncan, and both he and his wife were
+intimate friends of Beatrice. Duncan noticed, while talking with Sally,
+that Jack and Beatrice had drawn their chairs more closely together,
+toward a corner of the table, and were now whispering together with
+low-toned eagerness. He could hear no word of what Beatrice said, but an
+occasional exclamation of Gardner's came to him. He saw that Beatrice
+was talking rapidly, with intense earnestness, and that Gardner seemed
+to be highly amused, even elated, by what she was saying. Such
+expressions as, "By Jove, that's the best, ever!" "Sure, I can do it!"
+and, "You just leave it to me!" came to his ears, from Gardner; and
+presently the latter excused himself and left the table.</p>
+
+<p>If they had followed him, they would have seen that he went to the
+telephone, where he called up several numbers before he obtained the
+person he sought; but he presently returned, apparently in the best of
+spirits, and with intense satisfaction written upon every line of his
+smiling features.</p>
+
+<p>As he seated himself at the table, other guests were just assuming
+places at another one, quite near to them, and he bent forward toward
+Beatrice, saying in a tone which their companion could not hear:</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Beatrice, it's all working out to the queen's taste! When you
+get a chance, look over your left shoulder. Gee! but this is funny! All
+the same, though, I expect I'll get myself into a very devil of a stew.
+When that reporter discovers that I've given him an out-and-out fake,
+he'll go gunning for me as sure as you are alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he coming here to see you?" she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. He will be here in about twenty minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, tell me who it is at the table behind me. I don't care to look
+around, to discover for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Old Steve and his Juno; and they've got Malcolm Melvin with them."
+He leaned back in his chair, and laughed; then, he emptied the
+champagne-glass he had been playing with. Presently, he chuckled again.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you what, Beatrice," he said, in an undertone, "I almost wish that
+you had taken Duncan at his word, and married him. You should have
+called that bluff. Sure thing! Think of the millions he's got, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right. All the same&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, I tell you! Don't you see that Sally is trying to talk to you?"</p>
+
+<p>After that, the conversation became general among the four. During it,
+Jack Gardner sought and found an opportunity to wave a greeting to the
+late arrivals, whose names he had just mentioned to Beatrice. Duncan,
+observing him, glanced also in that direction, and, meeting Patricia's
+eyes fixed directly upon him, flushed hotly as he, also, bowed to her.
+Then, Sally and Beatrice turned their heads and nodded, as another
+course of the service was placed upon the table before them.</p>
+
+<p>It was not yet finished when the head-waiter brought a card to Jack
+Gardner, who instantly left his seat for the second time that evening,
+and, with a curt, "I'll be back in a moment," departed, without further
+excuse. The person whose card he had received, was awaiting him in one
+of the reception-rooms; and the two shook hands cordially, for they were
+old acquaintances and on excellent terms with each other. It was not the
+first time they had got their heads together concerning matters for
+publication, although, in this instance, the newspaper man was to be
+made a wholly innocent party in the affair.</p>
+
+<p>Burke Radnor was a newspaper man of prominence in New York. He was one
+of the few men of his profession who have succeeded in attaining
+sufficient distinction to establish themselves independently, and his
+"stories" were eagerly sought by all of the great dailies.</p>
+
+<p>The two seated themselves in a corner of the room, and talked together
+earnestly, although in whispers, for a considerable time. It was Gardner
+who did most of the talking; Radnor only occasionally interjected a
+questioning remark. When they parted, it was with a hearty hand-clasp,
+and this remark from Radnor:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fix it up all right, old man; don't you worry. Nobody shall know
+that I got the story from you. But it is a jim dandy, and no mistake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Which of the papers will you use it in, do you think?" asked Gardner.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure as to that. To the one that will pay the best price for a
+first-class 'beat,' for that's what it is. Anyhow, that part of it is
+none of your business. Now that I've got the story, I shall handle it as
+I think best, and you can bet your sweet life it will be used for all
+it's worth!"</p>
+
+<p>Gardner returned to the dining-room, with vague misgivings concerning
+what he had done; his smile was a bit less self-satisfied. Radnor,
+apparently, left the building. But the shrewd news-gatherer went no
+farther than the entrance, where he wheeled about and returned; and this
+time he sent his card to Roderick Duncan. Having "nailed the story," the
+proper thing now was to obtain an interview with one of the principals
+concerned in it; with both, if possible.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan received the card, wonderingly. He knew Radnor, and liked him;
+but he could not imagine what the newspaper man could want with him at
+that particular time. The truth about it, did not even vaguely occur to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Excusing himself, he left the table and presently found Radnor in the
+same room where the recent interview with Jack Gardner had taken place.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Radnor," said Duncan, cordially, extending his hand. "There must
+be something doing when you call me away from a supper table, at Del's.
+Make it as brief as possible&mdash;won't you?&mdash;because I am dining, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I won't keep you but a moment, Mr. Duncan," was the quick reply. "I
+just want to ask you a question or two about the interesting ceremony
+that took place this evening&mdash;that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What's that? Ceremony? What the devil are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Mr. Duncan, you know perfectly well that I am your friend,
+and that I'll use you as handsomely as possible in the columns of any
+paper that gets this story. But I've got the straight tip, and I know
+what I am talking about. I thought, possibly, you might wish to say a
+few words in explanation&mdash;just to tone the thing down, to give it the
+mark of authenticity, you know. I thought you'd like to be quoted, and
+to know, from me, that the story'll be all right. On the level, now,
+isn't that better?"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan laughed. He did not in the least understand. He had the idea that
+Radnor had been drinking.</p>
+
+<p>"Burke," he said; "upon my life, this is the first time I ever saw you
+when you had taken too much to drink."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the way you are going to reply to me?" asked Radnor, with all
+the insistence of a thoroughly trained newspaper man. "You'd best use me
+right, you know. It's a great 'beat,' and I want all of it. I'd like to
+talk with the bride, too, if you can fix&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know what the blazes you are talking about, man."</p>
+
+<p>"I am talking about the little ceremony that took place this evening at
+the Little Church Around the Corner, and was indulged in between you and
+the former Miss Brunswick; as a sort of <i>entr'acte</i> to the opera of
+Salome," said Radnor, with slow distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan stiffened where he stood. The smile left his face, and his eyes
+narrowed, while his clean-cut features seemed to harden in every line of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor," he said with a slow drawl, which to those who knew him best
+betrayed intense anger, "you will be good enough to explain to me, here
+and now, in plain English and in as few words as possible, exactly what
+you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," was the ready retort, "that you and Miss Beatrice Brunswick
+were married to-night at the Little Church Around the Corner, between
+two of the acts of Salome. I mean that I've got the straight tip, and I
+know it to be true. I wish to quote you, if possible, in what I shall
+write about it for the morning papers. I'd like to get a statement from
+the bride, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you crazy, Radnor?" asked Duncan, bending forward, his face white
+and set, and his eyes hard and cold; for Roderick Duncan, with all his
+apparent quietude, was a man whom it was not safe to try too far.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not crazy. I'm just telling you what's what. I'll get the whole
+story, and what's more, I'll print it in the morning papers! If you wish
+to say anything in explanation of the incident, I shall be glad to quote
+you; but, otherwise, I shall take the liberty of drawing my own
+inferences, and assuming my own conclusions, from the story I have
+heard. I tell you, Mr. Duncan, I've got it straight, and I know it to be
+true."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not true," said Duncan, quietly. "The person who told you such a
+story as that lied."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor shrugged his shoulders, and laughed, ironically.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I blame you for denying it," he said, "but I happen
+to know differently. If you choose to deny it, I'll send my card inside
+to Mrs. Duncan, and we'll see, then, what we shall see. You can't bluff
+me, Mr. Duncan. I'm not that sort. If you won't talk, perhaps the former
+Miss Brunswick, will, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor got no further than that. Duncan's rage, the moment he understood
+the situation and fully realized the possible consequences of it in the
+hands of this ubiquitous newspaper man, overcame him, utterly. His right
+arm shot out with terrific force, his clenched fist caught Radnor
+squarely on the point of the chin, and the latter was knocked
+half-senseless to the floor. Waiters, and attendants about the place
+rushed toward them; but Duncan slowly drew a handkerchief from one of
+his pockets, and, calmly wiping his hands upon it, said to the manager:</p>
+
+<p>"Kick the dog into the street; that is what he deserves. He probably
+followed me when I came away from the opera-house, and now he is trying
+to make capital out of a meaningless incident. Put him out, and don't
+permit him to pass the door again to-night; otherwise, he will seek to
+annoy a lady who is here."</p>
+
+<p>Then, he turned calmly about, and, although his features were still
+pale, re&euml;ntered the dining-room as if nothing had happened. Duncan
+confidently believed that he had correctly estimated the cause of
+Radnor's quest for news. It never occurred to him that Beatrice
+Brunswick was herself, through the agency of Jack Gardner, the cause of
+it.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>A REMARKABLE MEETING</b></p>
+<p class="p2">When Jack Gardner returned to the dining-room after his interview with
+Radnor, he was vaguely troubled, notwithstanding the fact that he was
+also highly amused. There were elements associated with the thing he had
+just done that might stir up unpleasant consequences. His inordinate
+love for a practical joke had led him into it willingly, and he had
+thought he saw in this affair the best and greatest joke he had ever
+attempted to perpetrate. But he began to understand that there was a
+tragic element to it which he could not deny to himself; and, when he
+was in the act of resuming his chair beside Beatrice, he was more than
+half-inclined, even then, to rush from the building in the pursuit of
+Burke Radnor, and to withdraw the whole story that he had given to the
+newspaper man.</p>
+
+<p>When, a few moments later, Radnor's card was brought to Duncan, the
+sense of impending disaster was stronger than ever upon Gardner, and he
+watched the departure of the young millionaire with many misgivings, not
+one of which he could have defined in words. But he watched the doorway
+through which Duncan passed, and, during the interval that ensued, he
+was very palpably disturbed and uneasy. He had recognized the card,
+although he had been unable to see the name that was engraved upon it.
+He had not supposed that Radnor would so quickly pursue his
+investigation of the story, and it had not even remotely occurred to the
+young copper-king, that the newspaper man would dare to go so far as to
+seek an immediate interview with Duncan. Even had the man selected
+Beatrice, it would not have been quite so bad.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody knew Duncan better than did Jack Gardner, and he realized what a
+strong and stirring effect this fake-story, as made up between himself
+and Beatrice, might have upon one who was such a stickler for certain
+forms as he knew Duncan to be. His impulse was to follow his friend from
+the room, but he resisted it, although he did keep his gaze
+spasmodically fixed upon the door by which Roderick must re&euml;nter the
+dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Gardner was the first of the party to discover him, when he did return,
+and was quick to see that something unusual had happened during the
+interval outside, which had been all too short to have been fruitful of
+any other result than violence of some sort. He saw, by the set
+expression of his friend's face and by the pallor upon it, that
+something had gone wrong, and he started to his feet and moved rapidly
+forward, so that he met Duncan half-way between the entrance and the
+table where Beatrice and Sally Gardner were now left alone together. He
+grasped his friend by the arm, and drew him aside, saying rapidly, as he
+did so:</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, Dun, what has happened? Tell me quickly."</p>
+
+<p>Roderick Duncan looked down calmly, and without change of expression
+upon Gardner, for he was considerably taller than his friend; and he
+said, slowly, in reply:</p>
+
+<p>"Without answering your question, Jack, I wish to ask you one. Was it
+Burke Radnor whom you were called out to meet, a little while ago, in
+the reception-room?"</p>
+
+<p>Not thinking of the possible consequences of his response, Gardner
+admitted, hastily, that it had been Radnor, and Duncan asked another
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Radnor question you about a marriage-ceremony that is supposed to
+have taken place between Beatrice Brunswick and myself, to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Answer me yes, or no, Jack, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, he did."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea, Jack, where he obtained the nucleus for such a
+story?"</p>
+
+<p>Gardner hesitated, and Duncan from his greater height, bent forward
+quickly, and with a strong grip, seized the young copper-king by the
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Gardner," he demanded, "did you, at the instigation of Beatrice,
+concoct that story? Have I you to thank for it? You need not answer,
+Jack. I can read the reply in the expression of your face." He withdrew
+his hand from its detaining grasp upon his friend, and took a half-step
+backward; then, he added: "Jack, if we were anywhere else than in a
+public dining-room, I should resent what you have done bitterly&mdash;and by
+actions, not words. As it is, I demand that you instantly seek, and
+find, Burke Radnor, and retract whatever you have said, or inferred,
+during your conversation with him. I warn you, Gardner, that if one
+single line appears in any of the papers to-morrow morning on this
+subject I'll find a way to resent it, which will make you regret, all
+your life, your nameless conduct of to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Gardner turned decidedly pale, not because of any physical fear he felt
+of Duncan, but in dread of the possible consequences of what he had
+permitted himself to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Radnor, now?" he exclaimed, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I left him half-conscious, on the floor of the reception-room," replied
+Duncan, calmly. "I knocked him down."</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" exclaimed Gardner; and he turned and rushed away with
+precipitate haste.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan went on toward the table at which Beatrice and Sally were seated,
+but as he approached it, a desire to hear the sound of Patricia's voice
+possessed him, and he turned abruptly toward that other table, occupied
+by Stephen Langdon, with his daughter and the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>Devoting a careless nod to the two men, Duncan addressed his fianc&eacute;e,
+speaking loudly enough so that her companions might hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia," he said, "will you do me a very great favor? It is of vital
+importance, otherwise I would not ask it."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" she replied, raising her big, dark eyes to his. "Your question
+and your manner as well imply something that is almost tragic, Roderick.
+What is it that you wish me to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"A very little thing, Patricia. Will you, for a moment, accompany me to
+the table where Beatrice and Sally Gardner are dining?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, most certainly," she replied. "You give a very big reason for a
+very small thing, don't you? Of course, I will go to them." She left her
+seat instantly, and crossed to the other table; Duncan followed,
+closely. Patricia accepted the chair that Jack Gardner had occupied,
+which Duncan drew out for her. Then, he resumed his own. As soon as they
+were seated, the young millionaire, drawing his chair a bit closer,
+said, addressing them, generally:</p>
+
+<p>"I have something to say which I wish each of you to hear. To-night, a
+rumor has been started, somehow, that Miss Brunswick and I were married
+an hour or so ago, at the Church of the Transfiguration." Patricia gave
+a slight start, but he continued, unheedingly: "A certain newspaper man,
+Radnor by name, has already sought to interview me, and he went so far
+as to insist that he was positive in his assertions as to such a
+ceremony having taken place. Of course, Beatrice and I both know it to
+be untrue, and I now make this statement in order to warn you all of
+what may possibly appear in the morning papers; that is all I have to
+say on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice had flushed hotly at the beginning of his statement, and,
+while he continued, she turned deadly pale. Sally, who it will be
+remembered had not been taken into the confidence of the intriguers,
+laughed. Patricia was the only one who appeared to be unmoved by the
+announcement, but she kept her eyes fixed upon the face of her friend,
+and she correctly interpreted the changing colors and expressions of
+Beatrice Brunswick's face.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever might have been the consequences of Duncan's announcement and
+Miss Brunswick's emotions, her conscious blushes and subsequent pallor,
+it was interrupted by the sudden and swift return of Gardner, who
+exclaimed, excitedly:</p>
+
+<p>"Sally, I want you right away; and you, too, Beatrice. It's almost a
+matter of life and death. Never mind the supper&mdash;we can have one some
+other time. Duncan, you won't mind, will you, if I take them away?" He
+leaned forward and added, in a whisper: "I am carrying out what you
+asked me to do, and I need their help." Then, straightening himself, he
+addressed Patricia: "You will excuse us all, won't you? Come, Sally; for
+heaven's sake, make haste! There isn't a moment of time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>Sally Gardner had never seen her husband in quite such a state of
+excitement, but as she was one of the kind that is always ready for
+anything in the shape of adventure, and scented one here, she lost no
+time in complying with his request. Beatrice's expression was first of
+amusement; then, of comprehension. Almost before any of the party fully
+realized what had happened, Jack Gardner and his companions were gone.
+Patricia and Roderick Duncan were alone at the table.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her expressive eyes toward him and regarded him closely, but
+in silence, for a moment. Then, in a low tone, she inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask if you understand this amazing succession of incidents? To
+me, it is entirely incomprehensible. If you can explain it, I wish you
+would do so."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, Patricia, that it cannot be explained&mdash;that is, any
+farther than I've already done so," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is responsible for this remarkable story you say the newspaper man
+asked you about?"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan hesitated. Then, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"When Beatrice and I left the opera-house to-night, we entered a
+taxicab, and we did drive as far as the iron gateway that admits one to
+the Church of the Transfiguration. We did not enter; in fact, we did not
+leave the cab at all. It is possible, though hardly probable, that we
+were followed by some reporter."</p>
+
+<p>"But why did you drive to the Church of the Transfiguration, at all?"
+she asked him, with a smile upon her face that had something of derision
+in it, for she plainly saw that Duncan was floundering badly in his
+effort to explain. When he hesitated for a suitable reply, she
+continued: "Why, may I ask, did you leave the box at the opera-house, in
+such a surreptitious manner? It seems to me that the Church of the
+Transfiguration was an odd destination for you to have selected, when
+you did leave it, with Beatrice for a companion. Or was there a
+pre-arrangement between you. Was it her suggestion, or was it yours,
+Roderick?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was mine," he replied; and he could not help smiling at the
+recollection of it, even though the present moment was filled with
+tragic possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to amuse you," she told him.</p>
+
+<p>"It does&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you, for the moment, forgotten that you were under contract with
+me, for Monday morning?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of replying at once, he leaned forward half-across the table
+toward her, and, fixing his gaze steadily upon her, said, with low
+earnestness:</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia, for God's sake, let us cease all this fencing; let us put an
+end to this succession of misunderstandings. You know how I love you!
+You know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that this is a very badly chosen time and place for you to make
+such declarations, or for me to listen to them. Will you come back with
+me now to the other table, and join Mr. Melvin and my father? People
+have begun to observe us. If these rumors bear any fruits, such a course
+seems to me to be the best one to adopt, under the circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>She arose without awaiting his reply, and he followed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Melvin," he said to the lawyer, as soon as he was seated at the other
+table, "Miss Langdon will agree with me, I think, that it is quite
+necessary I should accompany you to your home when we leave this place,
+in order to examine with you certain papers which you have drawn, or are
+to draw, at her request. Have I your permission, Patricia?" he added.</p>
+
+<p>"I see no objection, if that is what you mean," Patricia replied;
+"although I think it would be better that we should all drive together
+to Mr. Melvin's house for the papers&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have them here, in my pocket," the lawyer interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better, then," Patricia continued, rapidly. "I think the
+best arrangement, all circumstances considered, would be to go together
+to my father's house, so that all the interested parties may be present
+at the interview."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, this was agreed upon, and in
+due time the four were grouped in the library of the Langdon home, where
+Malcolm Melvin, with the notes he had made that afternoon before him,
+began in a monotonous voice to read the stipulations of the document
+upon which Patricia Langdon had decided that she could rely, to supply a
+soothing balm for her wounded pride. It was a strange gathering to
+assemble at two o'clock in the morning, but none of them, save possibly
+the lawyer, seemed cognizant of the curious aspect of the meeting.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE BITTERNESS OF JEALOUSY</b></p>
+<p class="p2">James, the footman, entered the library before Malcolm Melvin had
+completed the first sentence of the reading of Patricia's stipulations,
+and deferentially addressed himself to Roderick Duncan:</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, sir," he said, "but there is an urgent demand for you at the
+telephone&mdash;so urgent that I thought it necessary to interrupt you."</p>
+
+<p>"For me? Are you sure?" asked Duncan, in surprise. For, at the moment,
+he could not imagine who sought him at such an hour, or how his presence
+at Langdon's house, was known.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. Mr. Gardner is on the wire."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan started to his feet, and hurried from the room, while Patricia,
+after a moment's hesitation, arose and followed him, glancing toward the
+big clock in one corner of the library as she passed it, and observing
+that it was already Sunday morning.</p>
+
+<p>She waited in the hallway, outside the library door, until Duncan
+reappeared, after his talk with Jack Gardner over the telephone, and
+she stopped him, by a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Roderick?" she asked. "I think I know what it must be. If
+it is anything that concerns me, I should like to know about it at once.
+It is something about the&mdash;the rumor of your marriage to Beatrice?"</p>
+
+<p>"It concerns you only indirectly, Patricia," he replied. "I am afraid
+that I must defer the reading of those stipulations until another time.
+Gardner is very anxious for me to go to him at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" It was a simple, but a very direct question, which there was no
+possibility of avoiding.</p>
+
+<p>"Gardner has kidnapped Radnor, and has him now at his own house. Radnor
+is the newspaper man whom I&mdash;who sought to interview me. Beatrice is
+there, with Sally. You know, they left Delmonico's together. My presence
+is insisted upon in order properly to clear up this unfortunate
+business. I really must go, you see. It is necessary for all concerned
+that this matter go no farther."</p>
+
+<p>He would have said more, but she turned calmly away from him, and spoke
+to the footman.</p>
+
+<p>"James," she said, "have Philip at the front door with the Packard, as
+quickly as possible." Then, to Duncan, she added: "I'll go with you; I
+shall be ready in a moment. You must wait for me, Roderick."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Patricia," exclaimed Duncan, startled and greatly dismayed by her
+decision, reached so suddenly, "have you thought what time it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she responded, moving toward the stairway. "I have just looked at
+the clock. It is two o'clock, Sunday morning. I understand, also, that
+the conventions would be shocked, if the conventions understood the
+situation; but, fortunately, the conventions do not. You and I will
+drive to Sally Gardner's home together. I shall bring Beatrice back with
+me when we return. Please, make our apologies to my father and Mr.
+Melvin. I shall rejoin you in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>There was no help for it, and Duncan waited, for he knew that, even if
+he should hasten on alone, Patricia would follow in the automobile, as
+soon as Philip brought it to the door. He sent James into the library
+with the announcement, and a moment later assisted Patricia into the
+hastily summoned car. The drive to the home of Jack Gardner was a short
+one, and was made in utter silence between the two young persons so
+deeply interested in each other, yet so widely separated by the
+occurrences of that fateful Saturday afternoon. Duncan knew that it was
+useless to expostulate with Patricia; and she, following her adopted
+course of outward indifference to everything save her personal
+interests, preferred to say nothing at all.</p>
+
+<p>When the automobile came to a stop before Gardner's door, Jack himself
+rushed down the steps; but he paused midway between the bottom one and
+the curb, when he discovered that Duncan was not alone in the car, and
+he uttered a low whistle of consternation. He said something under his
+breath, too, but neither of the occupants of the automobile could hear
+it; and then, as he stepped forward to assist Patricia to alight, she
+said to him, in her usual quiet manner:</p>
+
+<p>"Inasmuch as I am an interested party in this affair, Jack, I thought it
+important that I should accompany Mr. Duncan. I hope you do not regret
+that I have done so."</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;er&mdash;certainly not; not at all, Patricia. I don't know but that it
+is better&mdash;your having done so. You see&mdash;er&mdash;things have somehow got
+into a most damna&mdash;terrific tangle, you know, and I suppose I am partly
+responsible for it; if not wholly so. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not explain; believe me, Jack," she interrupted him, and
+passed on toward the steps, ascending them alone in advance of the two
+men who had paused for a moment beside the automobile, facing each
+other. Then, things happened, and they followed one another so swiftly
+that it is almost impossible to give a comprehensive description of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Philip, the chauffeur, sprang out from under the steering-wheel and for
+some reason unknown to anyone but himself, passed around to the rear of
+the car. He had permitted the engine to run on, merely throwing out the
+clutch when he came to a stop. The noise of the machinery interfered
+with the low-toned conversation that Duncan wished to have with Jack
+Gardner, and so the two stepped aside, moving a few paces away from the
+car, and also beyond the steps leading to the entrance of Gardner's
+home. Patricia passed through the open door, unannounced, for the owner
+of the house had left it ajar when he ran down the steps to greet
+Duncan. Miss Langdon had barely disappeared inside the doorway, when the
+hatless figure of a man sprang through it. He ran down the steps, and
+jumped into the driver's seat of the Packard car before either Duncan,
+or Gardner, whose backs were half-turned in that direction, realized
+what was taking place.</p>
+
+<p>The man was Radnor, of course. He had found an opportunity to escape
+from his difficulties, and had taken advantage of it, without a
+moment's hesitation. He had argued that there would still be time,
+before the last edition of the newspapers should go to press, if he
+could only get to a telephone and succeed in convincing the night editor
+of the wisdom of holding the forms for this great story. Any newspaper
+would answer his purpose, for he believed that he could hold back any
+one of them a few moments, if only he could get to a telephone.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor had not reckoned on the automobile, but he knew how to operate a
+Packard car as well as did the chauffeur himself, and he had barely
+reached the seat under the wheel when the big machine shot forward with
+rapidly increasing speed. He left the chauffeur, and the two young
+millionaires gaping after it with unmitigated astonishment and chagrin.
+Duncan and Gardner, both, realized that the newspaper man had escaped
+them, and each of them understood only too well that at least one of the
+city newspapers was now likely to print the hateful story of the
+supposed marriage, beneath glaring and astonishing headlines, the
+following morning.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan swore, softly and rapidly, but with emphasis; Jack Gardner, broke
+into uproarous laughter, which he could not possibly repress or
+control; the chauffeur started up the avenue on a run, in a fruitless
+chase after the on-rushing car, which even at that moment whirled around
+the corner toward Madison avenue, and disappeared. Gardner continued to
+laugh on, until Duncan seized him by the shoulder, and shook him with
+some violence.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up your infernal clatter, Jack!" he exclaimed, momentarily
+forgetful of his anger at his friend. "Help me to think what can be done
+to head off that crazy fool, will you? It isn't half-past two o'clock,
+yet, and he will succeed in catching at least one of the newspapers,
+before it goes to press; God only knows how many others he will connect
+with, by telephone. What shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can get out one of my own cars in ten minutes," began Gardner. But
+his friend interrupted him:</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me," Duncan exclaimed; and, being almost as familiar with the
+interior of the house as its owner was, he dashed up the steps through
+the still open doorway, and ran onward up the stairs toward the
+smoking-room on the second floor, closely followed by Gardner. There he
+seized upon the telephone, and asked for the <i>New York Herald</i>,
+fortunately knowing the number. While he awaited a response to his call
+he put one hand over the transmitter, and said, rapidly, to his
+companion:</p>
+
+<p>"Jack, I have just called up the night city editor of the <i>Herald</i>.
+While I am talking with him, I wish you would make use of the
+telephone-directory, and write down the numbers of the calls for the
+other leading newspapers in town. This is the only way possible by which
+we may succeed in getting ahead of Radnor."</p>
+
+<p>Any person who has ever had to do with newspaper life will understand
+how futile such an attempt as this one would be to interfere with
+interesting news, during the last moments before going to press. City
+editors, and especially night city editors, have no time to devote to
+complaints, unless those complaints possess news-value. Nothing short of
+dynamite, can "kill" a "good story," once it has gone to the
+composing-room. Whatever it was that Duncan said to the gentleman in
+charge of the desk at the <i>Herald</i> office, and to the gentlemen in
+charge of other desks, at other newspaper offices, need not be recorded
+here. Each of the persons, so addressed, probably listened, with
+apparent interest, to a small part of his statement, and as inevitably
+interrupted him by inquiring if it were Mr. Duncan in person who was
+talking; and, when an affirmative answer was given to this inquiry,
+Roderick was not long in discovering that he had succeeded only in
+supplying an additional value to the story, and in giving a personal
+interview over a telephone-wire. He realized, too late, that instead of
+interfering with whatever intention Burke Radnor might have had in
+making the escape, he had materially aided this ubiquitous person in his
+plans. The mere mention by him to each of the city editors that Radnor
+was the man of whom he was complaining, gave assurance to those
+gentlemen that some sort of important news was on the way to them, and
+therefore Duncan succeeded only in accomplishing what Radnor most
+desired&mdash;that is, in holding back the closing of the forms, as long as
+possible, for Radnor's story, whatever it might prove to be.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, directly beneath the room where Duncan was so frantically
+telephoning, a scene of quite a different character was taking place.</p>
+
+<p>When Patricia entered the house, she passed rapidly forward to the
+spacious library, encountering no one. Entering it, she found Sally
+Gardner seated upon one of the chairs, convulsed with laughter, while
+directly before her stood Beatrice, her eyes flashing contemptuous
+anger, and scorn upon the fun-loving and now half-hysterical young
+matron, who seemed to be unduly amused. Neither of them was at the
+moment, conscious of Patricia's presence. She had approached so quietly
+and swiftly that her footsteps along the hallway had made no sound.</p>
+
+<p>"You helped Burke Radnor to escape from us, Sally!" Beatrice was
+exclaiming, angrily. "I haven't a doubt that you put him up to it. I
+believe you would be delighted to see that hateful story in the
+newspapers. It was a despicable thing for you to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Beatrice!" Sally exclaimed, when she could find breath to do so.
+"It is all so very funny&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She discovered Patricia's presence, and stopped abruptly; then, she
+started to her feet, and, passing around the table quickly, greeted Miss
+Langdon with effusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Patricia!" she exclaimed. "I had no idea that you were here."</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice turned quickly at the mention of Patricia's name, and her anger
+at Sally Gardner was suddenly turned against Patricia Langdon, with
+tenfold force and vehemence. It is an axiom that blue-eyed women have
+more violent tempers than black-eyed ones, once they are thoroughly
+aroused. Your brunette will flash and sputter, and say hasty things
+impulsively, or emotionally, but her anger is likely to pass as quickly
+as it arises, and it is almost sure to leave no lasting sting, behind
+it. Your fair-haired, fair-skinned, man or woman, when thoroughly
+aroused, is inclined to be implacable, unrelenting, even cruel.</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice Brunswick's eyes were flashing with passionate fury, and,
+although she did not realize it, the greater part of her display of
+temper, was really directed against herself, because deep down in her
+sub-consciousness she knew that she alone was responsible for the
+present predicament. But anger is unreasoning, and, when one is angry at
+oneself, one is only too apt to seek for another person upon whom to
+visit the consequences. Patricia made her appearance just in time to
+offer herself as a target for Miss Brunswick's wrath; and Beatrice,
+totally unmindful of Sally's presence, loosed her tongue, and permitted
+words to flow, which, had she stopped to think, she never would have
+uttered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is you! you! Patricia Langdon, who are responsible for this dreadful
+state of affairs," she cried out, starting forward, and, with one hand
+resting upon the corner of the library table, bending a little toward
+the haughty, Junoesque young woman she was addressing. "It is you, who
+dare to play with a man's love as a child would play with a doll, and
+who think it can be made to conform to the spirit of your unholy pride
+as readily. It is your fault that I am placed in this dreadful position,
+so that now, with Sally's connivance, this dreadful tale is likely to
+appear in every one of the morning papers. You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself, Pat Langdon, for doing what you have done! You ought to get
+down on your knees to Roderick Duncan, and beg his eternal pardon for
+the agony you have caused him, since noon of yesterday. I know it all&mdash;I
+know the whole story, from beginning to end! I know what your
+unreasoning pride and your haughty willfulness, have accomplished: they
+have driven almost to desperation the man who loves you better than he
+loves anything else in the world! But you have no heart. The place
+inside you where it should exist is an empty void. If it were not, you
+would realize to what dreadful straits you have brought us all, and to
+what degree of desperation you have driven me, who sought to help you. I
+tell you, now, to your face, that Roderick Duncan is one man in ten
+thousand; and that he has loved you for years, as a woman is rarely
+loved. But you cast his love aside as if it were of no value&mdash;as if it
+were a little thing, to be picked up anywhere, and to be played with,
+as a child plays with a toy. Possibly it may please you now to hear one
+thing more; but, whether it does or not, you shall hear it. Roderick was
+in a desperate mood, to-night, because of your treatment of him, and he
+did ask me to marry him. So there! He did ask me! And I&mdash;I was a fool
+not to take him at his word. But he doesn't&mdash;he didn't&mdash;he&mdash;" She ceased
+as abruptly as she had begun the tirade.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia had started backward a little before Beatrice's vehemence, and
+her eyes had gradually widened and darkened, while she sought and
+obtained her accustomed control over her own emotions. Now, with a
+slight shrug of her shoulders and a smile that was maddening to the
+young woman who faced her, she interrupted:</p>
+
+<p>"You should have accepted Mr. Duncan's proposal," she said, icily, "for,
+if I read you correctly now, the fulfillment of it would have been most
+agreeable to you. One might quite readily assume from your conduct and
+the words you use that you love Roderick Duncan almost as madly as you
+say he loves me."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" Beatrice raised her chin, and stood erect and defiant before her
+former friend. "Well?" she repeated. "And what if I do?"</p>
+
+<p>Patricia shrugged her shoulders again, and turned slowly away, but as
+she did so, said slowly and distinctly:</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly, I am mistaken, after all. I had forgotten the attractive
+qualities of Mr. Duncan's millions." Beatrice gasped; but Patricia
+added, without perceptible pause: "I should warn you, however, that Mr.
+Duncan is under a verbal agreement with me! We are to meet and sign a
+contract, Monday morning. It seems to be my duty to remind you of that
+much, Miss Brunswick."</p>
+
+<p>Patricia did not wait to see the effect of her words. Outwardly calm,
+she was a seething furnace of wrath within. She turned away abruptly,
+and passed through the open doorway into the hall. There, she stopped.
+She had nearly collided with Duncan and Jack Gardner, who were both
+standing where they must have heard all that had passed inside the
+library. Both were plainly confused, for neither had meant to hear, but
+there had been no way to escape. Patricia understood the situation
+perfectly, and she kept her self possession, if they did not. For just
+one instant, so short as to be almost imperceptible, she hesitated,
+then, addressing Gardner, she said in her most conventional tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Jack, will you take me to my car, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's gone, Patricia," he replied, relieved by the calmness of her
+manner. "Radnor took it, you know, when he made his escape. I suppose it
+is standing in front of some newspaper office, at the present moment,
+but God only knows which one it is. I'll tell you what I'll do, though:
+I'll order one of my own cars around. It won't take five minutes, even
+at this ungodly hour. I always keep one on tap, for emergencies."</p>
+
+<p>"I prefer not to wait," she replied. "It is only a short distance. I
+shall ask you to walk home with me, if you will."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" exclaimed Gardner, glad of any method by which the present
+predicament might be escaped; and he called aloud to one of the servants
+to bring him his hat and coat.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan had moved forward quickly, toward Patricia, to offer his
+services, but had paused with the words he would have said unuttered. He
+understood that the trying scene through which Patricia had just passed,
+had embittered her anew against him; and so he stood aside while she
+went with Gardner from the house to the street. His impulse was to
+follow, for he, also, wished to escape. Then, he was aware that he still
+wore his hat. During the excitement, he had not removed it, since
+entering the house. He started for the door, but was arrested before he
+had taken two steps, by Sally Gardner's voice calling to him frantically
+from the library.</p>
+
+<p>He turned and sprang into the room, to find that Beatrice was lying at
+full length on the floor, with Sally sobbing and stroking her hands, and
+calling upon her, in frightened tones, to speak. But Beatrice had only
+fainted, and, when Duncan knelt down beside her, she opened her blue
+eyes and looked up at him, trying to smile.</p>
+
+<p>In that instant of pity and remorse, he forgot all else save the
+stricken Beatrice, and what, in her anger, she had confessed to
+Patricia. The rapidly succeeding incidents of that day and night had
+unnerved him, also. He was suddenly convinced of the futility of winning
+the love and confidence of Patricia, and, with an impulse born, he could
+not have told when, or how, or why, he bent forward quickly and touched
+his lips to Beatrice's forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true, Beatrice? Is it true?" he asked her, in a low tone; and,
+totally misunderstanding his question, entirely misconstruing it's
+meaning, she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"God help me, yes. God help us all."</p>
+
+<p>Then, she lapsed again into unconsciousness.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Sally Gardner had found time during this short scene to recover from her
+moment of excitement. She had heard, and she thought she understood.
+Being a many-sided young matron, the best one of all came to the surface
+now&mdash;the one that even her best friends had never supposed her to
+possess. Underneath her fun-and-laughter-loving nature, Sally was gifted
+with more than her share of rugged common-sense, inherited, doubtless,
+from her Montana ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Even as Duncan bent above Beatrice's unconscious form, and before he
+spoke to her, Sally had started to her feet and pressed the
+electric-button in the wall, with the consequence that, at the instant
+when Beatrice became unconscious the second time, two of the servants
+entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brunswick has only fainted," she told them, rapidly. "Lift her,
+and carry her to my room. Tell Pauline to care for her, and that I
+shall be there, immediately." She stood aside while they carried out
+her commands; then, she turned upon Duncan.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a great fool, Roderick!" she exclaimed, without stopping to
+weigh her words. "I thought you had some sense; but it seems that you
+have none at all. Leave the house at once; and don't you dare to seek
+Beatrice Brunswick, until you have settled, in one way or another, your
+affairs with Patricia Langdon. Now, go! Really, I thought I liked you,
+immensely, but, for the present moment, I am not sure whether I hate
+you, or despise you! Do go, there's a good fellow; and I'll send you
+word, in the morning, how Beatrice is."</p>
+
+<p>"Sally, what a little trump you are!" he exclaimed. "I know I'm a fool;
+I have certainly found it out during the last twelve or fourteen hours.
+You'll have to help me out of this muddle, somehow; you seem to be the
+only one in the lot of us who has any sense."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, help yourself out of the house, as quickly as you know how," she
+retorted; and she ran past him up the stairs, toward the room where she
+had directed that Beatrice should be taken.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan sighed. He looked around him for his hat, to find that it was
+still crushed down on the back of his head, and, smiling grimly to
+himself, he passed out of the house upon the street.</p>
+
+<hr class="c7"  />
+
+<p>Only one of the great dailies of New York City, published that Sunday
+morning, contained any reference whatever to the supposed incident of
+the wedding ceremony between Roderick Duncan and Miss Brunswick, at "The
+Little Church Around the Corner." The editors had been afraid to use
+Radnor's story, without verification. To them, it had seemed
+preposterous and unnatural, and especially were they reluctant to print
+anything concerning it when Radnor was forced to admit to them that Jack
+Gardner had ultimately denied the truth of the story he had first told.</p>
+
+<p>But there is one paper in the city that is always eager for sensations,
+and unfortunately it is not very particular concerning the use of them.
+This paper published a "story," as a newspaper would call it, which was
+told so ambiguously and with such skill as to preclude any possibility
+of a libelous action, while the suggestions it contained were so
+strongly made that the article was entertaining, at least, and it
+supplied, in many quarters, an opportunity for discussion and gossip. It
+hinted at scandal in association with Roderick Duncan and his millions.
+What more could be desired of it?</p>
+
+<p>The story was merely a relation of the events as we know them, at the
+outset. It told of the party in the box at the opera-house, of the
+departure therefrom of Duncan and Miss Brunswick and of their
+destination when they entered the taxicab; after that, everything
+contained in the article, was surmise, but it was couched in such terms
+that many who read it actually believed a marriage-ceremony had taken
+place. During Sunday, Duncan was sought by reporters of various
+newspapers. He readily admitted them to his presence, but would submit
+to no interview further than to state that the rumor was absolutely
+false, was utterly without foundation, and that he would prosecute any
+newspaper daring to uphold it. Miss Brunswick could not be found by
+these news-gatherers. Old Steve Langdon laughed when they sought him,
+and assured them that there was no truth whatever in the rumor.
+Patricia, naturally regarded as an interested party, declined to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor himself sought out Jack Gardner, but it is not necessary that we
+should relate the particulars of that interview. Suffice it to say that
+no further reference was made to the supposed incident by any newspaper,
+and that it was quickly forgotten, save by a very few individuals, who
+made it a point to remember.</p>
+
+<p>During the day, Duncan sought to communicate with Sally Gardner over the
+telephone, but succeeded only in obtaining a statement from one of the
+footmen, to the effect that Mrs. Gardner presented her compliments to
+Mr. Duncan, and wished it to be said that she would communicate with him
+by letter; and that, in the meantime, there existed no cause whatever,
+for anxiety on his part.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>PATRICIA'S COWBOY LOVER</b></p>
+<p class="p2">On Sunday evening Patricia Langdon was alone in the library of her home,
+occupying her favorite corner beneath the drop-light. For an hour she
+had tried in vain to interest herself in the reading of the latest
+novel. Try as she might, she could not center her mind upon the printed
+words contained in the volume she held, for, inevitably, her thoughts
+drifted away to the occurrences of the preceding day and evening. No
+matter how assiduously she endeavored to put those thoughts aside, they
+insisted upon looming up before her, and at last, with a sigh, she
+closed her book and laid it aside. The hour was still early, it being
+barely eight o'clock, when James, the footman, entered the room and
+announced:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Houston; Miss Frances Houston."</p>
+
+<p>Patricia had fully intended to instruct the servants that she was not to
+be at home to anyone, that evening, but, absorbed by other thoughts, she
+had forgotten to do so, and now it was too late; so she received the
+two young ladies who were presently shown into the library. She greeted
+them in her usual manner, which was neither cordial, nor repellant, but
+which was entirely characteristic of this rather strange young woman.
+She understood perfectly well why they had called upon her at this time.
+They had not missed seeing that article in the one morning paper where
+it appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Patricia," exclaimed Miss Houston, whose given name was Agnes,
+"Frances and I happened to read that remarkable tale that was printed in
+one of the papers this morning, about a marriage between Rod Duncan and
+Beatrice. We thought it so absurd: We couldn't resist the temptation to
+come over to see you, for a few minutes this very evening, and discuss
+it; could we, Frances?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed," replied her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen any such article," said Patricia; and, indeed, she had
+not. "But I don't know why either of you should wish to discuss it with
+me; so, if you don't mind, we'll change the subject before we begin it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you see," began Agnes Houston, with some evidence of excitement;
+but she was fortunately interrupted by the footman, who entered, and
+announced in his automatic voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Nesbit Farnham."</p>
+
+<p>The workings of the human mind will forever remain a mystery. Had Nesbit
+Farnham been announced before the arrival of the two young women,
+Patricia would undoubtedly have denied herself to him; but, with the
+announcement of his name, there came to her the sudden recollection of
+the ultimatum pronounced by Richard Morton the preceding afternoon, when
+he had brought her home from her father's office in his automobile, the
+tonneau of which had been occupied by the two young women who were now
+present with her in the room. Why the announcement of Farnham's name
+should remind her of Morton's promise to call, this Sunday evening,
+cannot be said; but it did so, and she nodded to James.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Patricia!" Farnham exclaimed, as he entered the room vigorously,
+for this young society beau and cotillion-leader had long been on terms
+of intimacy with the Langdon household, and was, in fact, a privileged
+character throughout his social set. "I am mighty glad that you received
+me. It's rather an off night, you know, and I wasn't sure, at all that
+you would do so. Good-evening, Agnes. How are you, Frances? Jolly glad
+to see you. I say, Patricia, what's all that nonsense I saw in the paper
+this morning, about Duncan and Beatrice getting married last night? Do
+you know anything about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing whatever about it, Nesbit, save that it is untrue,"
+replied Patricia, calmly. "That much I do know; but I don't care to
+discuss it."</p>
+
+<p>Farnham flirted his handkerchief from his pocket, and patted it softly
+against his forehead, smiling gently as he did so. Then, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you the truth, Patricia, the news was rather a facer, don't you
+know; for my first impulse was to believe it. Oh, I won't discuss it;
+you needn't frown like that; but I just want to tell you that I've been
+looking all over town for Duncan, and I couldn't find him. Then, about
+an hour ago, I called upon Beatrice, only to be informed that she was
+not at home, and had not been, ever since yesterday evening. You see, I
+didn't get out of bed till two this afternoon, and it was four by the
+time I was dressed and on the street. I didn't take much stock, myself,
+in the report I read in the paper, until I was told that Beatrice had
+disappeared. But that got me guessing, and so I came to you, to find
+out the truth about it. Please tell me again that it isn't true, and
+I'll be satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't true," replied Patricia, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>James, the footman, made another appearance on the scene at that moment,
+and proclaimed the arrival of Mr. Richard Morton, who stepped passed him
+into the library as soon as the announcement was made.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped just inside the threshold, and the chagrin pictured upon his
+face when he found that Patricia was not alone was so plainly evident,
+that even Patricia smiled, in recognition of it. Morton was known to
+Patricia's other callers, having met them frequently since his coming to
+New York, and, as soon as greetings had been exchanged, they all drifted
+into a general conversation, which had no point to it whatever, but was,
+for the most part, the small-talk of such impromptu social gatherings.
+The subject of the supposed clandestine marriage-ceremony between Duncan
+and Beatrice was not mentioned again, and fifteen minutes later Miss
+Houston and her sister arose to take their departure. Farnham, also, got
+upon his feet, and, stepping lightly and quickly across the room toward
+Patricia, said to her in a low tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you tell me where I can find Beatrice? I think you can do so, if
+you will. Please, Patricia. You know why I ask."</p>
+
+<p>"If you should call upon Sally Gardner and ask her that question, I
+think it would be answered satisfactorily," replied Patricia, smiling at
+him. "Go and see her, Nesbit, by all means."</p>
+
+<p>A moment later, Miss Langdon found herself alone with Morton, who, true
+to his promise of the preceding evening, had come to her. She had
+forgotten him temporarily, but now she was not sorry that he had called.
+Nevertheless, as she turned toward him, after bidding her friends
+good-night, Patricia was conscious that the atmosphere had suddenly
+became surcharged with portentous possibilities. She had recognized in
+that expression of disappointment, so plainly depicted upon Morton's
+face when he entered the room, that he had come to her with a
+self-avowed determination to continue the conversation interrupted by
+the Houston girls when he was bringing her home, the preceding
+afternoon. On the instant, she was sorry that she had permitted the
+others to leave her alone with this man. For some inexplicable reason,
+she was suddenly afraid of him. She who had never acknowledged fear of
+any person, who had always met every circumstance calmly as it arose,
+found herself confronted now by a condition of affairs that rendered
+her less self-reliant. Her mind was in a turmoil of a hundred doubts and
+fears, and there was a vague sense of apprehension upon her, which she
+could not dismiss, and which she found it difficult to control.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you that I would come, Patricia, and I am here," said Morton,
+stepping forward quickly, and taking one of her hands, before she could
+resume her seat. She attempted to withdraw it, but he held it firmly in
+his own strong clasp; and that expression of unrelenting determination
+was again in his face and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Patricia," he said calmly, but in a tone of finality which there
+was no denying, "I will not release your hand, just yet." He was
+half-smiling, but wholly insistent and determined. "You see," he went
+on, "I am taking advantage of your known qualities of courage. I have
+come to you, determined to say something&mdash;something that is very close
+to me." Patricia's arm relaxed; she permitted her hand to lie limply
+inside his larger one. Then, she raised her eyes to his, and looked
+calmly up at him.</p>
+
+<p>As he gazed steadily and keenly into her dark eyes, Morton's face was
+pale, under the tan of his skin, and he had the look of one who ventures
+his all upon a single chance. In that moment, Patricia admired him more
+than she had ever before, and, as he continued to gaze upon her, she
+permitted her features slowly to relax, and, gradually, a winning smile,
+which to Richard Morton was overwhelming, was revealed upon her lips and
+in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right to speak to me like that, Mr. Morton," she said.
+"Still less have you the right to hold my hand, against my will. The men
+of my acquaintance, with whom I have associated all my life, would not
+do as you are doing now; but"&mdash;she shrugged her shoulders&mdash;"I suppose it
+is a matter of training."</p>
+
+<p>The words were like a blow, although she smiled while she uttered them.
+With a sharp exclamation that came very near to being an oath, he threw
+her hand from him with such force that she was half-turned around where
+she stood, and he started back two paces away from her, and folded his
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Patricia, still smiling; and she crossed to the chair
+she had previously occupied.</p>
+
+<p>Morton did not move from the position he had assumed. He stood with
+folded arms in the middle of the room, staring at her with set face and
+hard eyes, wondering for the moment why he had been fool enough to go
+there at all, and trying to read in her face, what was the charm of her
+that so fatally attracted him.</p>
+
+<p>"I do a great many things, Miss Langdon, that I have no right to do," he
+said, after a pause. "That, also, is a matter of training, as you so
+fittingly adjudged my conduct, just now. But I was trained in the open
+country, where one can see the sky-line toward any point of the compass;
+I was trained in the West, where a man is a man, and a woman is a woman,
+and they are judged only by their conduct toward others, and toward
+themselves. It is true that I know very little about this Eastern
+training, to which you have just now called my attention, but from what
+little I have seen of it, I can't believe that it is wholesome, or good.
+I was trained to tell the truth, and to insist that the truth be told to
+me; I find here, in the East, that the truth is the very last thing to
+be uttered; that it is avoided as long as it possibly can be. In this
+way, Miss Langdon, our trainings differ. Naturally, then, I am not like
+the men of your knowledge."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Morton, I didn't mean to give offense by what I
+said." The girl was more amazed than she cared to show by his
+vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>"The fault is mine," he said to her. "I have no right to expect you to
+meet me on the plane of my own past life, and with the freedom and
+candor of the West, any more than you can demand from me, the usages and
+customs of your social world in New York."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you sit down?" she asked him. She was beginning to be a bit
+uneasy, because of Morton's determined attitude, and because she
+realized that nothing she could say or do would turn him from his set
+purpose of saying what he had come there to tell her.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," he replied. "I can talk much better on my feet. I want you to
+tell me what you meant by two expressions you used in your speech with
+me yesterday, after you came from your father's office."</p>
+
+<p>"We will not return to that subject, if you please, Mr. Morton," she
+replied to him, coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, Patricia, we must return to it&mdash;at least, I must. You don't
+want me to kill anybody, do you?" He smiled grimly as he asked the
+question, hesitatingly; "you need have no fear on that point, for I
+probably won't have to."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably won't have to kill anyone?" She raised her eyes to his, but
+there was no fear in them; there was only amazement in their depths,
+astonishment that he should dare to say such a thing to her.</p>
+
+<p>"The qualification of my statement was made because I reserve the right
+to do what I please, toward anyone who dares to bring pain upon you,
+Patricia Langdon," he said, incisively; "but I tell you now that I
+wouldn't trust myself not to kill&mdash;again my Western training is
+uppermost, you see&mdash;if I were brought face to face with any man who had
+dared to bring any sort of an affront upon you. Do you love this man to
+whom you referred yesterday? Answer me!" The question came out sharply
+and bluntly. It was totally unexpected, and it affected her with a sort
+of shock she could not have described.</p>
+
+<p>"You are impertinent," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Impertinent, or not, I desire an answer. If you refuse an answer, I
+shall find other means of ascertaining. Great God, girl, do you suppose
+that, when my whole life is at stake, I am going to stand on ceremony
+and surrender to a few petty conventions, just to please an element of
+false pride that you have built around you, until there is only one way
+of getting past it? I'm not the sort of man who stands outside, and
+entreats. My training has taught me to get inside; and, if there isn't a
+gate, or an opening of any sort, why, then I tear down the barrier,
+just as I am doing now. Do you love that man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not answer the question."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"From any other woman than you, such an answer as that would be
+tantamount to an affirmative; but you are a puzzle, Patricia. You are
+not like anybody else. There is a depth to you that I cannot sound.
+There is a breadth to you that is like the open country of the
+Northwest, where one cannot see beyond the sky-line, ever, and where the
+sky-line remains, always, just so far away."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll ask you to excuse me, Mr. Morton," she said, making as if
+to rise. "This interview is not a pleasant one. You are not kind, or
+considerate."</p>
+
+<p>He did not move from his position, as he replied, as calmly as she had
+spoken:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not go until I have finished. I came here to-night to tell you,
+again, that I love you. You need not resent the telling of it, for it
+can in no way offend you, or, at least, it should not. You told me,
+yesterday, that you had agreed to some sort of business transaction, as
+you called it, with some man whom you did not name, by which you are to
+become his wife. I told you then, and I repeat now, that, if you will
+but say you love this man, whoever he is, I'll hit the trail for Montana
+without a moment's delay, and you shall never be annoyed again by my
+Western training; so, answer me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not answer you." She looked him steadily in the eyes, and, all
+unconsciously to herself, she could not avoid giving expression to some
+small part of the admiration she felt for this daring, intrepid
+ranchman, who defied her so openly, in the library of her own home.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the man?" he demanded, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Again, I will not answer you."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall find it out, then, and, when I have discovered who he is, I
+shall go to him. Maybe, he will be able to answer the questions. If he
+refuses, by God, I'll make him answer!"</p>
+
+<p>She started from her chair, appalled by the implied threat. She did not
+doubt that he meant every word of it.</p>
+
+<p>"You would not dare do that!" she exclaimed. It was beyond her knowledge
+that any man should have the courage so far to transgress conventional
+usages. But he heard the word "dare," and applied to it the only meaning
+he had ever known it to possess. He laughed outright.</p>
+
+<p>"Not dare?" he exclaimed; and he laughed again. "I would dare anything,
+and all things, in the mood I am in, just now."</p>
+
+<p>Looking upon him, she believed what he said; and, strange to say, she
+was more pleased than outraged by his determined demeanor. Nevertheless,
+she realized that she was face to face with an emergency which must be
+met promptly and finally, and so she left her chair, and drew herself to
+her full height, directly in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Morton," she said, slowly, and coldly, "I have had occasion, once
+before, to refer to your training and to mine. We are as far apart as if
+we belonged to different races of mankind. If you have really loved me,
+which I doubt, I am sorry because of it, for I tell you, plainly and
+truly, that I do not, and cannot, respond to you. I have given my
+promise to another, and very shortly I shall be married. This sudden
+passion for me that has come upon you, is an affair of the moment, which
+you will soon forget when you become convinced that it is impossible of
+fruition. I am the promised wife of another man, and even your Western
+training, which you have chosen sarcastically to refer to since I made
+my unfortunate remark about it, will tell you that, no matter what
+rights you believe you possess, you certainly have none whatever to
+compel me to listen to your declaration of love." Her manner underwent a
+sudden and marked change, as she continued rapidly, with a suggestion of
+moisture in her eyes: "Believe me, I am intensely sorry for the
+necessity of this scene between us. I do not, and I cannot, return the
+affection you so generously offer me; and, whether I love another, or do
+not&mdash;whether I have ever loved another, or have not&mdash;it would be the
+same, so far as you are concerned. I am not for you, and I can never be
+for you, no matter what may happen." She took a step nearer to him, and
+reached out her hand, while she added, with her brightest smile: "But I
+like you, very much, indeed. I should like to have you for a true, good
+friend. It would be one of the proud moments of my life, if I could know
+that I might rely upon you as such, and that you would not again
+transgress in the way you have done to-night. Will you take my hand and
+be my friend. Will you try and seek farther for someone who can
+appreciate the love you have offered to me? I need a friend just now,
+Richard Morton. Will you be that friend?"</p>
+
+<p>For a time, he did not answer her. He stood quite still, staring into
+her eyes, and through them and seemingly beyond them, while his own face
+was hard, and set, and paler than she had ever seen it, before.
+Presently, his lips relaxed their tension; the expression of his eyes
+softened, and he drew his right hand across his brow.</p>
+
+<p>He took the hand that was extended toward him, and held it between both
+his own, and, for a full minute after that, he stood before her in
+silence, while he fought the hardest battle of his life. When he did
+speak, it was in an easy, careless drawl.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you roped and tied me that time, Patricia," he said,
+smilingly. "You've got your brand on me, all right, but maybe the iron
+hasn't burnt quite as deep as it does sometimes; and, as you say,
+possibly there will come a day when we can burn another brand on top of
+it, so that the first one will never be recognized. Will I be your
+friend? Indeed, I will, and I'll ask you, if you please, to forgive and
+forget all my bad manners, and the harsh things I've said."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary to ask me that, Mr. Morton."</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia, if you'll just call me Dick, like all the boys do, out on
+the ranch, and if you'll grant me the permission which I have never
+asked before, of addressing you as I have just now, it will make the
+whole thing a heap-sight easier. Will you do it?</p>
+
+<p>"I'd much rather call you Dick than anything else," she told him, still
+permitting him to hold her hand clasped between his own.</p>
+
+<p>He bent forward, nearer to her; and, although she perfectly understood
+what he intended to do, she did not flinch, or falter.</p>
+
+<p>He touched his lips lightly to her forehead, and then, with a muttered,
+"God bless you, girl!" he turned quickly, and went out of the room,
+leaving Patricia Langdon once again alone with her thoughts.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>MONDAY, THE THIRTEENTH</b></p>
+<p class="p2">The monotonous, but not unpleasing voice of Malcolm Melvin began the
+reading of the stipulations in the contract to the three persons who
+were seated before him around the table in the lawyer's private office.
+The time was Monday morning, shortly after ten o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>"This agreement, hereinafter made, between Roderick Duncan, of the City,
+County, and State of New York, party of the first part; Stephen Langdon,
+of the same place, party of the second part; and Patricia Langdon of the
+same place, party of the third part, as follows: First, the party of the
+first part&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just wait a moment, Mr. Melvin, if you please," Duncan interrupted him.
+"If it is all the same to you, and to the other parties concerned in
+this transaction, I don't care to hear all that dry rot, you have
+written. If you will be so kind as simply to state in plain English what
+the stipulations are, it will answer quite as well for the others, and
+it will suit me a whole lot better."</p>
+
+<p>"It is customary, Mr. Duncan, to listen carefully to a legal document
+one is about to sign with his name," said the lawyer, with a dry smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care a rap about that, Melvin; and you know I don't. The others
+know it, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Patricia, quietly, "that the papers should be read, from
+beginning to end."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" exclaimed her father; "and besides, Pat, I haven't time. I
+ought to be down-town, right now. Let Melvin get over with this foolish
+nonsense, as quickly as possible; and then, if you and Roderick will
+only kiss, and make up&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Patricia interrupted him:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Mr. Melvin," she said. "You may state the substance of the
+agreement."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer turned toward Duncan. There was a twinkle of amusement in his
+eyes, although his face remained perfectly calm and expressionless.</p>
+
+<p>"According to these papers as I have drawn them, Mr. Duncan," he said,
+slowly, "you loan the sum of twenty million dollars to Stephen Langdon,
+accepting as security therefor, and in lieu of other collateral, the
+stated promise of Miss Langdon to become your wife. She reserves to
+herself, the right to name the wedding-day, provided it be within a
+reasonable time."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask how Miss Langdon defines the words, a reasonable time?" asked
+Duncan, speaking as deliberately as the lawyer had done. "As for the
+loan to Mr. Langdon&mdash;he already has that. But, the reasonable time: just
+what does that expression mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose, during the season; say, within three, or six, months from
+date," replied the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"That will do very well, thank you. You may now go on." Duncan was
+determined, that morning, to meet Patricia on her own ground.</p>
+
+<p>"The loan you make to the party of the second part, to Mr. Langdon, is
+to be repaid to you at his convenience, and with the legal rate of
+interest, within one year from date. At the church where the wedding
+ceremony shall take place, and immediately before that event, you are to
+give to Miss Langdon, a cashier's check for ten-million dollars, which
+she will endorse and send to the bank, before the ceremony proceeds. It
+is Miss Langdon's wish to have her maiden name appear as the endorsement
+on that check. Later, she will have the account transferred from
+Patricia Langdon to Patricia Duncan. You are&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just one moment, again, Mr. Melvin." Duncan reached forward and pulled
+the papers toward him. "Will you please show me where I am to sign? What
+remains of the stipulations, I can hear at another time. Unfortunately,
+at the present moment, I am in haste, and I happen to know that Mr.
+Langdon is very anxious to get away."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it your habit to sign legal papers without reading them?" demanded
+Patricia, with just a little touch of resentment in her tone. She had
+rather prided herself upon the wording of this document, which she had
+so carefully dictated to Melvin, and it hurt her to think that her
+stipulations were passed over so easily.</p>
+
+<p>But the lawyer, who saw in the whole circumstance nothing but a huge
+joke, which would presently come to a pleasant end, had already pointed
+out to Duncan the places on the three papers where he was to put his
+signature, and the young man was signing them, rapidly. He did not reply
+until he had written his name the third time. Then, he left his chair,
+and with a low and somewhat derisive bow to his affianced wife, said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Patricia, it is not; but these circumstances are different from
+those in which one is usually called upon to sign documents. I certainly
+should have no hesitation in accepting, without reserve, any conditions
+which you chose to insist upon, so long as those conditions, in the end,
+made you my wife. You may sign the papers at your leisure; but I shall
+ask you to excuse me, now." He bowed smilingly to her, shook hands with
+the lawyer, and called across the table to the banker:</p>
+
+<p>"So long, Uncle Steve; I'll see you later." A moment afterward the door
+closed behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole thing looks to me like tomfoolery!" ejaculated the banker, as
+he drew the papers toward him, and signed them rapidly. "Patricia, you
+are the party of the third part, here, and you can sign them at your
+leisure. I've got to go, also. Melvin, you can send my copy of the
+contract direct to me, when it is ready."</p>
+
+<p>"It is your turn now, Miss Langdon," said the lawyer, in his most
+professional tone, as soon as her father had gone. But, instead of
+signing, Patricia, for the first time since the beginning of this
+confused condition of affairs, lost her pride and became the emotional
+young woman that she really was.</p>
+
+<p>Without a word of warning, she burst into a passion of tears. Throwing
+her arms upon the table, she buried her face in them, and sobbed on and
+on, convulsively, vehemently, inconsolably.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer, stirred out of his professional calm by this human side of
+the cold and haughty young woman, placed one hand tenderly, if somewhat
+tentatively, upon her shoulder. For a time, he patted her gently, while
+he waited for her tempest to pass.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, my dear. Don't let it affect you so," he said. "It is
+nothing but a storm-cloud, that will quickly pass away. It is just like
+a thunder-shower, very dark while it lasts, but making all the brighter
+the sunshine that follows it. I know how you have been tried, and how
+your pride has been hurt; but, child, there are two kinds of pride in
+everybody, and it is never quite easy to determine which is which. I
+strongly suspect, my dear, that you have been actuated by a feeling of
+false pride, in the position you have taken as to this matter. I won't
+attempt to advise you, now. Don't sob so, my dear. It will all come out
+right."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her head from the table, and looked at him, pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry, Mr. Melvin," she said, slowly, with a catch in her
+breath as she spoke. "I seem to have done everything wrong, in this
+matter. I've made everybody unhappy." Again, she buried her face in her
+arms, and sobbed on, with even more abandon than before.</p>
+
+<p>"My child," said the lawyer, "I've lived long enough in the world to
+discover that it is never wise to permit ourselves to be actuated by
+false motives. You will discover the truth of that statement, later on;
+you are only just beginning to realize it, now."</p>
+
+<p>She made no reply to this, but a moment later she started to her feet,
+and again became the haughty, self-contained, relentless, Juno.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the pen," she said. "I will sign."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will take my advice," replied the lawyer, without moving, "you
+will tear up those three documents, or direct me to do so, and leave
+things as they are."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied. "I will sign."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Patricia." He pushed the documents toward her, and watched
+her with a half-smile on his professional face, while she appended her
+signature to each of them. A moment later, he escorted her from the
+office, and assisted her into the waiting car. Then, he stood quite
+still and watched it as it carried her away from the business-section of
+the city. He shook his head and sighed, as he re&euml;ntered the building
+where his office was located.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor child," he was thinking to himself; "she didn't tee-off well, in
+the beginning of this game, and she encountered the worst hazard of her
+life when she came up against her own unyielding pride. Poor child! So
+beautiful, so good, so tender of heart, she hides every real emotion she
+possesses behind an impenetrable barrier, barring the expressions of her
+natural affections with an icy shield which she permits no one to
+penetrate. For just a moment, she let me see her as she is; I wonder if
+she has ever permitted others." He got out of the elevator, and walked
+slowly toward his office-door, pausing midway along the corridor, and
+still thinking on, in the same fashion. "I must find a way to help her,
+somehow. Old Malcolm Melvin, whose heart is supposed to be like the
+parchments he works upon, must make himself the champion of this
+misguided girl. Ah, well, we shall see what can be done. We shall see;
+we shall see." He passed inside his office then, and in a moment more
+had forgotten, in the multitudinous affairs of his professional life,
+that such a person as Patricia Langdon existed.</p>
+
+<hr class="c7"  />
+
+<p>That Monday, in the evening, at his rooms, Roderick Duncan received two
+letters. One was delivered by messenger; the other came by post. He
+recognized the handwriting on the envelope of each, and for a moment
+hesitated as to which of the two he should read first. One, he knew,
+was sent by Sally Gardner; the other was from Patricia.</p>
+
+<p>He laid them on the table in front of him, and stood beside it looking
+down upon the two envelopes with a half-smile upon his face, which was
+weary and troubled; then, with a broader smile, he took a coin from his
+pocket and flipped it in the air.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at the coin decided him, and he took up Sally's letter and
+broke the seal. He read:</p>
+
+<p>"My Dear Roderick:</p>
+
+<p>"I promised you, when you left me Saturday night, to communicate with
+you at once. Beatrice is quite ill, although you are not to infer from
+this statement that her indisposition it at all serious. I have merely
+insisted that she should remain in bed at my house yesterday and to-day.</p>
+
+<p>"On no account should you seek her at present nor should you attempt to
+communicate with her. I will keep you informed as to her condition
+because I realize that you will be anxious, inasmuch as you doubtless
+hold yourself responsible for the present state of affairs. Be satisfied
+with that, and believe me,"</p>
+
+<p>
+"Loyally your friend,<br />
+"<span class="smcap left50">Sally Gardner.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>"P. S. Doubtless you will see Jack at the club this evening. Let me
+advise you not to discuss with him anything that happened Saturday night
+after his departure with Patricia. I have thought it best to keep that
+little foolish affair a secret between ourselves.</p>
+<p class="left50">S. G."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan stood for a considerable time with the letter held before his
+eyes, while he went over in his mind the chain of incidents that
+followed upon his meeting with Beatrice Brunswick in the box at the
+opera-house. Presently, he returned the letter to the envelope, and laid
+it aside, while he took up the other one, addressed in the handwriting
+of Patricia.</p>
+
+<p>He read it slowly, with widening eyes; and then he read it again, more
+slowly, as if he were not certain that he had read it aright before.
+Finally, with something very nearly approaching an oath, he crushed the
+short document in his hand, and strode to the window, where he stood for
+a long time, staring out into the darkness, without moving. His valet
+entered the room and made some remark about dressing him for the
+evening, but Duncan sharply ordered the man away, telling him to return
+in half an hour. Afterward he went back to the table where there was
+more light, and smoothed out the crumpled page of Patricia's letter, so
+that he could read it a third time.</p>
+
+<p>It was very short and very much to the point; and it had brought with it
+a greater shock than he could possibly have anticipated. The strange
+part of it was that he did not comprehend the precise character of that
+shock. He did not know whether he was pleased, or displeased; whether he
+was amused, or angry&mdash;or only startled. Certainly, he had never thought
+of expecting such a communication as this from Patricia Langdon. The
+letter was as follows:</p>
+
+<p>
+Four, P. M., Monday.<br />
+"Dear Roderick:
+</p>
+
+<p>"According to the document signed jointly by you, my father and myself,
+and witnessed by Mr. Malcolm Melvin at his office at ten o'clock this
+morning, I was given the undisputed right to name the day for the
+ceremony, which is to complete the transaction as agreed upon among us
+three, but more particularly between you and me. I have thought the
+matter over calmly and dispassionately, since I parted with you at the
+lawyer's office, and have decided that, all things considered, it will
+be best not to defer too long the conditions of that transaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I have decided that the ceremony&mdash;a quiet one&mdash;shall be performed by
+the Rev. Dr. Moreley, at the Church of the Annunciation, at ten o'clock
+in the morning, one week from to-day, which will be Monday, the
+thirteenth.</p>
+
+<p>"If there should be any important reason why you prefer to change this
+date, you may communicate the same to me at once, and I shall consider
+it; but if not, I greatly prefer that matters should stand as I have
+arranged them.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">"<span class="smcap">Patricia Langdon.</span>"</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>MORTON'S ULTIMATUM</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Oddly enough, Roderick Duncan and Richard Morton had never met. Although
+Morton, during the two weeks of his acquaintance with Patricia Langdon,
+had been as constantly in her company as it was possible for him to be,
+there had been no introduction between the two young men. They
+frequented the same clubs, and Morton had made the acquaintance of many
+of Duncan's friends; they knew each other by sight, and Duncan had
+heard, vaguely and without particular interest, that Morton had fallen
+under the spell of Patricia's stately loveliness. That was a
+circumstance which had suggested no misgivings whatever to him. He had
+long been accustomed to such conditions, for it was a rare thing that a
+man should be presented to Patricia without being at once attracted and
+charmed by her physical beauty, as well as by her brilliancy of wit.</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, with unmasked astonishment that, upon responding to a
+summons at his door, still holding Patricia's letter in his hand, he
+found himself face to face with the young Montana cattle-king.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Roderick Duncan, I believe?" said Morton, without advancing to
+cross the threshold when Duncan threw open the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied. "Won't you come inside, Mr. Morton? I know you very
+well, by sight and name, and, although it has not been my privilege to
+meet you socially, you are quite welcome. Come inside, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>The handsome young ranchman bowed, and passed into the room. He strode
+across it until he was near one of the windows; then, he turned to face
+Duncan, who had re-closed the door, and had followed as far as the
+center-table where he now stood, gazing questioningly at his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?" Duncan asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, no. I intend to remain only a moment, and it is possible
+that the question I have come to ask you may not be agreeable for you to
+hear, or to answer. If you will repeat your request after I have asked
+the question, I shall be glad to comply with it."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't the least idea what you are talking about, Mr. Morton," said
+Duncan, smiling, "and I can't conceive how any question you care to put
+to me would be offensive. However, have it your own way. Will you tell
+me, now, what that remarkable question is?"</p>
+
+<p>Morton was standing with his feet wide-apart, and with his back to the
+window. His hands were thrust deep into his trousers-pockets. He looked
+the athlete in every line of his muscular limbs and body, and the
+frankness and openness of his expression at once interested Duncan.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Duncan," he said, "in the country I come from, we do things
+differently from the way you do them here. I was born on a ranch in
+Eastern Montana, and I have lived all my life in a wild country. I began
+my career as a cow-puncher, when I was sixteen, and not until the last
+two or three years of my life have I known anything at all of that phase
+of existence which is expressed by the word 'society.' I indulge in this
+preamble in order to apologize in advance, for any breaks I may make in
+that mystical line of talk which you call, 'good form.'"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan nodded his head smilingly, and Morton continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Several years ago, I made my 'pile,' as we express it out there, and
+since that time it has steadily increased in size, so that, lately, I
+have indulged myself in an attempt to 'butt in' upon the people in
+'polite society.' The question I have to ask you will amaze and astonish
+you, but I shall explain it, in detail, if you desire me to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Mr. Morton, what is the question?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you engaged to marry Miss Patricia Langdon?" demanded Morton,
+abruptly; and there was a tightening of his lips and a slight forward
+thrust of his aggressive chin.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan received the question calmly. He thought, afterward, that he had
+almost anticipated it, although he could not have told why he should do
+so. He permitted nothing of the effect the question had upon him to
+appear in the expression of his face, or eyes, and he continued to gaze
+smilingly into the face of the young ranchman, while he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I see no objection to answering your question, Mr. Morton, although I
+do not in the least understand your reason for asking it. Miss Langdon
+and I are engaged to be married, and the wedding-day is already fixed.
+It is to be next Monday morning, at ten o'clock. I hope, sir, that you
+are quite satisfied with the reply?"</p>
+
+<p>Morton did not speak for a moment, but he reached out one hand and
+rested it on the back of a chair, near which he was standing. Duncan,
+perceiving the gesture, asked again:</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, yes."</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his huge body upon the leather-upholstered chair beside him,
+and crossed one leg over the other, while Duncan retained his attitude
+beside the table, still with that questioning expression in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I ought to make some farther explanation," said Morton,
+presently. He spoke with careful deliberation, choosing his words as he
+did so and evidently striving hard to maintain complete composure of
+demeanor under circumstances that rendered the task somewhat difficult.</p>
+
+<p>"I think one is due to me," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Duncan, when I hit the trail for this room, to have this talk with
+you, I sure thought that I had mapped out pretty clearly what I had to
+say to you. I find now that it's some difficult to express myself. If we
+were seated together in a bunk-house on a ranch in Montana, I could
+uncinch all that's on my mind, without any trouble. I hope you don't
+mind my native lingo."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," replied Duncan, still smiling. "I find it very
+expressive, and quite to the point."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's this way: I arrived in the city about three weeks ago, and
+one of the first persons I met up with, who interested me was Miss
+Langdon. There isn't any reason that I know of why I shouldn't admit to
+you that she interested me more, in about three seconds of time, than
+anybody else has ever succeeded in doing, during the twenty-eight years
+I have lived. I was roped, tied, and branded, quicker than it takes me
+to tell you of it; and the odd part of the whole thing is that I enjoyed
+the experience, instead of resenting it. I think it was the second time
+I met up with her when I told her about it, and it is only fair to her,
+and to you, to admit that she said 'No,' Johnny-on-the-spot. But,
+somehow, it didn't strike me that it was a final 'no,' or that she had
+anybody's brand on her; and so I didn't lose the hope that some day I
+might induce her to accept mine. Last Saturday afternoon, I took her in
+my car, in company with two other ladies, to her father's office,
+down-town. She had an interview with her father and somebody else, I
+suspect, while she was in the office, and whatever that interview was, I
+am plumb certain that it didn't please her. She come out of the
+building with her eyes blazing like two live coals, and she was mad
+enough to shoot, if I am any judge."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, as if expecting some comment from Duncan, but the latter made
+no remark at all; nor did he change his attitude or the smiling
+expression of his face. Truth to tell, he was more amused than offended
+by the other's confidences. Morton continued:</p>
+
+<p>"I had half-promised Miss Langdon that I wouldn't speak to her again of
+love, but I sure couldn't hold in, that afternoon. I needn't tell you
+what I said; but the consequence of it was that she told me she had just
+concluded a business transaction&mdash;that was the expression she used&mdash;by
+which she had promised to marry a man whom she would not name. Since
+that time, I have studied the situation rather deeply, with the result
+that I came to the conclusion you were the man to whom she referred.
+That is why I have called upon you this evening, to ask you the question
+you have just answered."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Duncan. His smile was more constrained, now.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure puzzled to know what Miss Langdon means by the 'business
+transaction' part of it, Mr. Duncan, and I have come up here, to your
+own room, to tell you that, if Patricia Langdon loves you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, if you please, Mr. Morton. Don't you think you're going
+rather too far, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir, I don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I'll listen to you, to the end."</p>
+
+<p>"If Patricia Langdon loves you, Duncan, I'll hit the trail for Montana
+and the sky-line this afternoon, and I'll ask you to pardon me for any
+break I have made here, this evening; but, if she doesn't love you, and
+if, as I suspect, you are coercing her in this matter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Again, Duncan interrupted the ranchman. He did it this time by
+straightening his tall figure, and raising one hand for silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Mr. Morton," he said, coldly, "that you are presuming rather
+too far. These are personal matters between Miss Langdon and myself,
+which I may not discuss with you."</p>
+
+<p>Morton sprang to his feet, and faced Duncan across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"By God! you've got to discuss this with me!" he said; and his jaws
+snapped together, while he bent forward, glaring into Duncan's eyes.
+"I've got to know one thing from you, Mr. Roderick Duncan; and I've got
+just one more thing to say to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>The question was cold and very calm. Duncan's temper was rising.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say it mighty quick and sudden. It is this: If you are forcing
+Patricia Langdon into this marriage against her will, I'll kill you."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE QUARREL</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Duncan's first impulse, begotten by the sudden anger that blazed within
+him, was to resent most bitterly the threat thus made against him. But,
+behind his anger, he was conscious of a certain feeling of respect and
+admiration for this frank-faced, keen-eyed young Montana ranchman. He
+saw plainly that Morton was in deadly earnest in what he had said; but
+he realized, also, that Morton's resentment, as well as the threat he
+had made, was due, not to any personal feeling harbored against the man
+he now faced, but was entirely the result of the sense of chivalry which
+the Western cowboy inevitably feels for every woman. Duncan understood,
+thoroughly, that Morton's sole desire was to announce himself as
+prepared to protect, to the last ditch, the young woman with whom he had
+fallen so desperately in love; and for this Duncan respected and
+esteemed the man.</p>
+
+<p>In this instance, Duncan was a good reader of character, and, before
+venturing to reply to the last remark of Morton's, he compelled himself
+to silence; he tried to put himself in this young man's place, wondering
+the while if under like circumstances he would have had the courage to
+do as Morton had done.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down again, Mr. Morton," he said, presently, waving his hand toward
+the chair the ranchman had previously occupied.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; not until you have answered me."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan smiled, now. He had entirely regained his composure, and was
+thoroughly master of his own ugly temper, and of the situation, also, as
+he believed.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Morton," he said, "when you entered this room, I did you the honor
+to listen to your unprecedented statement, without interruption. I now
+ask you to treat me as fairly as I treated you. Be seated, Mr. Morton,
+and hear what I have to say."</p>
+
+<p>The ranchman flushed hotly, at once realizing that this young patrician
+of the East, had, for the moment got the better of him. He resumed his
+seat upon the chair, and absent-mindedly withdrew from one of his
+pockets a book of cigarette-papers and a tobacco-pouch.</p>
+
+<p>"Morton," said Duncan, "I am going to speak to you as man to man; just
+as I think you would like to have me do. I am going to meet you on your
+own ground, that of perfect frankness; for I do you the honor to believe
+that you are entirely sincere in your attitude, in your conduct, and in
+what you have said to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You're sure right about that, Mr. Duncan. Whatever may be said about
+Dick Morton, there is nobody&mdash;at least nobody that's now alive&mdash;who has
+ever cast any doubts upon my sincerity, or my willingness to back up
+whatever I may have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"You came here out of the West, Morton, and, as you express it, met up
+with Patricia Langdon. In your impulsive way, you fell deeply in love
+with her, almost at first sight."</p>
+
+<p>"That's no idle dream."</p>
+
+<p>"You conceived the idea that she wore nobody's brand, which is another
+expression of your own, which I take to mean that you thought her
+affections were disengaged."</p>
+
+<p>"That was the way I sized it up, Mr. Duncan."</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore, I will tell you that Patricia and I have been intimate
+companions, since our earliest childhood. I can't remember when I have
+not thought her superior to any other woman, and I have always believed,
+as I now believe, that deep down in her inmost heart she loves me quite
+as well as I love her. There was an unfortunate circumstance, connected
+with our present engagement, which, unfortunately, I cannot explain to
+you, since it is another's secret, and not mine. But I shall explain, so
+far as to say that the circumstance deeply offended her; that when she
+made the remark to you, in the automobile, which aroused your
+resentment, she did it in anger; that, far from coercing her in this
+matter, I have not done so, and have not thought of doing so; and,
+lastly, I shall tell you, quite frankly, that the engagement between
+Patricia and myself and the date of the wedding which is to follow are
+both matters which she has had full power to arrange to her own
+satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan hesitated a moment, and then, as Morton made no response, he
+suddenly extended Patricia's letter, which he still held in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Read that," he said. "I don't know why I show it to you, save that I
+feel the impulse to do so. It is entirely a confidential communication,
+and I call upon you to treat it as such. But read the letter from
+Patricia Langdon, which I have just received, Mr. Morton; it will
+probably make you wiser on many points that now confound you."</p>
+
+<p>Morton accepted the letter, but the lines of his face were hard and
+unrelenting; his jaws and lips were shut tightly together; his
+aggressive chin was thrust forward just a little bit, and his hazel
+eyes were cold and uncompromising in their expression.</p>
+
+<p>He read the letter through to the end, without a change of expression;
+then, he read it a second time, and a third. At last, he slowly left his
+seat, and, stepping forward, placed the document, which he had refolded,
+upon the table. He reached for his hat, and smoothed it tentatively with
+the palm of one of his big hands. But all the while he kept his eyes
+fixed sternly upon the face of the young Cr&oelig;sus he had gone there to
+interview.</p>
+
+<p>"Mister Roderick Duncan," he drawled, in a low, even tone, "I don't
+savvy this business, a little bit. Just for the moment, I don't know
+what to make of you, or of Miss Langdon, but I am going to work it out
+to some sort of a conclusion; and, when I have found the answer to the
+questions that puzzle me now, I'll let you know."</p>
+
+<p>He moved quickly toward the door, but with the lightness of a panther
+Duncan sprang between it and him.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Morton," he said, coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been very patient with you, and extremely considerate, I think,
+of your importunities and your insolence; but you try my patience almost
+too far. Take my advice, and don't meddle any farther in matters that
+do not, and cannot, concern you."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, the two men faced each other in silence, and both were
+angry. Duncan was not less tall than Morton, but was slighter of build,
+and very different&mdash;with the difference that will never cease to exist
+between the well-groomed thoroughbred of many experiences and the
+blooded young colt. Morton's wrath flamed to the surface, and,
+forgetting for the moment that he was not upon his native heath, that he
+was not dressed and accoutred as was his habit when riding the range, he
+reached down for the place where his holster and cartridge-belt would
+have been located had he been dressed in the cowboy costume of his
+native Montana.</p>
+
+<p>It was a gesture as natural to the young ranchman as it was to breathe,
+and he was ashamed of it the instant it was made. He would have
+apologized had he been given time to do so. Indeed, he did flush hotly,
+in his confusion. But Duncan, quite naturally, misinterpreted the act.
+He thought, and with good reason, that Morton was reaching for his gun;
+the flush of shame on Morton's cheeks served only to strengthen the
+conviction. And so, with a cat-like swiftness, he took one step forward
+and seized the wrist of Morton's right arm, twisting it sharply and
+bending it backward with the same motion, whereby the ranchman was
+thrown away from him, and was brought up sharply against the table, in
+the middle of the room.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan was smiling again now; but it was the smile of intense anger, and
+not pleasant to see. Without waiting for Morton to recover himself,
+Duncan calmly turned his back upon the ranchman, and threw open the
+door; then, stepping away from it, he said, with quiet dignity:</p>
+
+<p>"This is your way out, sir."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>SALLY GARNER'S PLAN</b></p>
+<p class="p2">What might have happened between those two fiery natures at that crisis
+will never be known, because at the moment when Duncan threw the door
+ajar, and uttered his dismissal, Jack Gardner appeared suddenly upon the
+scene, having just stepped from the elevator. If he heard that
+expression of dismissal, he showed no evidence of it, or he did not
+comprehend its significance; and, if he saw in the attitude of the two
+men anything out of the ordinary, he gave no sign that he did so. But
+Jack Gardner, too, was from Montana; and he had learned, long ago, how
+to conduct himself in emergencies. It was a fortunate interruption, all
+around. Duncan, although apparently calm, was in a white rage. He would
+not have hesitated to meet Morton more than half-way, in any manner by
+which the latter might choose to show his resentment for the twisted
+arm. As it was, Gardner was the savior of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Duncan! How are you?" he exclaimed, in his usual manner. "Why,
+Dick! I didn't expect to find you here; didn't know that you and Dun
+were acquainted." He shook hands with both the men, one after the other,
+in his accustomed hearty and irresistible manner, grinning at them and
+utterly refusing to see that there was restraint in the manner of
+either.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my first acquaintance with Mr. Morton," replied Duncan easily,
+and touched a lighted match to the cigar he had previously taken from
+his case. He was, outwardly, entirely at ease. "He did me the honor to
+call upon me, and we have been chatting together for more than half an
+hour. Will you sit down, Jack? Mr. Morton, be seated again, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>The ranchman looked upon his late antagonist with utter amazement. It
+was an exhibition of a kind of self-control that was strange to him. It
+angered him, too, because of his own inability to assume it. He was
+suddenly ashamed. Patricia's reference to his "training," recurred to
+him. He understood, now, exactly what she had meant&mdash;it had not been
+plain to him before. Here before him was "the man of the East," at whom
+he had so often scoffed, for the word "Tenderfoot" had, until now, been
+synonymous with contempt. But Morton felt himself to be the tenderfoot,
+in the present case. He replied, stiffly, to the invitation to be
+seated.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," he said. "I find that I am neglecting an engagement." It
+was the only excuse he could think of.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait just a minute, Dick, and I'll go along with you," said Gardner. "I
+only stepped in a moment to give Duncan a message from my wife. She
+says, Roderick, that she would like to have you drop around at the
+house, for a moment, if you can make it. She is not going out. Now,
+Dick, if you are ready, I'm with you. So long, Duncan; I'll see you
+later, at the club."</p>
+
+<hr class="c7"  />
+
+<p>Just previous to Jack Gardner's interruption of the almost tragic scene
+at Duncan's rooms, he had been having what he called "a heart-to-heart"
+talk with his wife, and the message he now delivered to his friend from
+Sally was, in part, the outcome of that interview.</p>
+
+<p>Sally Gardner had been greatly troubled since the occurrences of
+Saturday night. Being herself intensely practical, she had sought
+deeply, through her reasoning powers, to find a means whereby she might
+be instrumental in helping out of their difficulties her several
+friends whom she so dearly loved. She believed that she had succeeded in
+hitting upon a scheme which would, at least, bring things to a focus.
+She was sure that, if she could bring all the parties together under one
+roof, matters would straighten themselves without much outside
+assistance. Jack and Sally owned a beautiful country place, within easy
+motoring distance of the city, and the young matron, having decided upon
+what course she would adopt, had lost no time in summoning her husband
+to her, taking him into her confidence, and convincing him of the wisdom
+of her project.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," she told him, when he was seated opposite her, "I don't suppose
+you realize into what a terrible mess and muddle you got things last
+Saturday night, by reason of your fondness for a joke?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, confound it, Sally, drop it!" he exclaimed, smiling, but annoyed
+nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, "we can't drop it, Jack. You're responsible for the
+whole affair. I have seen the necessity of finding a way out of it, for
+all of us&mdash;although my heart bleeds for poor Beatrice."</p>
+
+<p>Jack shrugged his shoulders, and lighted a cigar. Then, he thrust his
+feet far out in front of him, and studied the toes of his tan shoes
+intently.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with Beatrice?" he asked, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"She is in love with Roderick Duncan," replied his wife, with an
+emphatic nod of her blond head.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What's that? In love with Rod? Nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"She is, Jack; I know she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Gee, little girl, but it surely is a mix up! What are you going to do
+about it? Why in blazes didn't she marry him, then, when she had the
+chance?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've thought of a way Jack, if you will agree to it, and help me out&mdash;a
+way by which things can be smoothed over. Will you help me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could you tear yourself away from the city for two or three days,
+beginning to-morrow morning?" she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess so, Sally."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you willing to go out to Cedarcrest for a few days, and entertain a
+select party, there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suit me to death, girl. Glad you thought of it. Whom will you ask? And
+what is the game?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have made out a list," replied Sally, meditatively. "I shall read it
+off to you, if you will listen."</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"It includes Beatrice and Patricia, of course; Dick Morton and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Sally. I've got a sort of a notion in my head that
+neither Beatrice nor Patricia, will care to go to Cedarcrest on such an
+expedition as that, under the present circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear John"&mdash;she sometimes called him John when she was particularly
+in earnest, and when she attempted to be especially dignified&mdash;"you may
+leave all the details of this arrangement to me. I merely wished your
+consent to the plan."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, if you can manage it, Sally, you've got my consent, all
+right. What do you want me to do about it? You didn't have to consult
+me, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I want you, first, to listen to the list I have made out, and, after
+that, to carry out my directions in regard to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Good girl; I can do that, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia and Beatrice, Roderick Duncan and the Houston girls, Richard
+Morton, Nesbit Farnham; and, to supply the other two men who will be
+necessary to make up the party, you yourself may make the selection. I
+only wish them to be the right sort."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the scheme, Sally?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to get these warring elements together, under one roof."</p>
+
+<p>"Whew! You've got more pluck than I thought you had, Sally."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Jack: When you go out this evening, find Roderick, and send him
+here, to me. I have written him not to come here, but that won't make
+any difference. He'll come if you give him my message. Afterward, you
+may look up Dick Morton, and the other two men you are to ask, and give
+them the invitation."</p>
+
+<p>"For when?"</p>
+
+<p>"For to-morrow. Tell them all to be at Cedarcrest before dark,
+to-morrow. That is all. As I said before, I'll attend to the details."</p>
+
+<p>Jack Gardner left his chair, and, having kissed his wife, was on the
+point of departure when he paused a moment on the threshold, and,
+looking back over his shoulder, said, laughingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Sally, I always gave you credit for having more sand than any three
+ordinary women I've ever known, but, I'll give you my word, I never
+supposed you had grit enough to undertake any such thing as this one.
+Talk about me getting things into a mess! Great Scott! if you don't get
+into one, out at Cedarcrest, with that sort of a mix-up to take care of,
+I'm a sheep-herder. Maybe you haven't got on to the fact, my girl, but,
+as sure as you're the best little woman in all New York, Dick Morton is
+so dead stuck on Patricia Langdon that he can't forget it for a minute.
+If you bring all that bunch together, you'll have Rod Duncan and Dick at
+each other's throat, before you get through with it. And besides&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sally sprang to her feet, clapped her hands and laughed, to her
+husband's utter amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Splendid!" she exclaimed. "No, I did not know that; but it simplifies
+matters, wonderfully, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, does it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! I'm glad you think so. It looks to me as if it were just the other
+way around. Take my word for it, my girl, there'll be a 'will' in that
+drive of yours&mdash;maybe a tragedy, as well. Duncan is quite capable of
+committing one, in his present mood; and Dick Morton?&mdash;Well, you'll
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm awfully glad you told me. It's perfectly splendid," said Sally,
+unmindful of, or indifferent to, the warning. "It's perfectly splendid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is, eh? Well, I'm glad you think so. To me, it looks a good deal
+like a mix-up, Sally. Rod is in love with Patricia; Beatrice is in love
+with him; Nesbit Farnham is so dead stuck on Beatrice that he doesn't
+know where he's at, more than half the time; and Patricia&mdash;Oh, well, I
+give it up. I'll do what you told me to, and leave the rest to you;" and
+Gardner laughed his way through the hall and out upon the street; and he
+continued chuckling to himself, all the way to his club. But Sally ran
+after him before he got quite away from her, and called to him from the
+bottom of the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"One thing more, Jack," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear; what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will take Beatrice with us, in our car, and you may include one of
+the gentlemen I have given you permission to ask. When you ask Dick
+Morton, tell him that he is to bring Patricia and the two Houston girls.
+That's all."</p>
+
+<p>"How about the others, how are they going to get there?"</p>
+
+<p>"The others may walk, for all I care," said Sally, and she returned to
+the library.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>PATRICIA'S WILD RIDE</b></p>
+<p class="p2">It was a gay party that assembled around the dinner-table at Cedarcrest,
+shortly after eight o'clock on Tuesday evening, although, had one
+possessed the ability to analyze deeply, it would have been discovered
+that the gaiety was somewhat forced. Each person present at the
+gathering was burdened by the intuitive perception of something ominous
+in the atmosphere; there was a portentous quality about the environment
+that had more or less a depressing effect upon Sally Gardner's guests,
+and each one was conscious of a determined, but silent effort to
+overcome this feeling, in the belief that he or she was the only one who
+experienced it.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the expected guests had not arrived. They were Patricia and
+Richard Morton; but, because no message of any sort had been received
+from Morton, it was the generally accepted idea, that something had
+happened on the road to delay his car, and they were expected to arrive
+at any moment. The serving of the dinner was delayed as long as
+possible in expectation of their coming, but at last the other guests
+seated themselves around the table to enjoy the feast so carefully
+prepared by Jack Gardner's high-salaried chef. Agnes and Frances
+Houston, who were to have come out in Richard Morton's car with
+Patricia, arrived on time, accompanied by an uninvited guest, although
+he was one who was on such terms of intimacy with the Gardners that he
+had not hesitated to attend this country party, when the idea was
+suggested to him. It was the lawyer, Melvin; and the suggestion that he
+should be present, and that he should take out the Houston girls, had,
+strangely enough, been made by Morton. The young ranchman had gone to
+the lawyer's office early in the day of that Tuesday, and the
+conversation he held with Melvin will give a good idea of the drift of
+his intentions, and of his hitherto latent talents for planning and
+scheming. And the shrewd old lawyer quite readily fell in with the
+suggestions that were made to him.</p>
+
+<p>The invitation extended to Morton, the preceding evening, by Jack
+Gardner, and the directions given him at the time, as to whom he should
+take with him to the party, had suggested to him a novel plan, which he
+lost no time in taking measures to carry out. It is true, he was
+delighted on learning that he was expected to take Patricia to
+Cedarcrest, but he was just as greatly disappointed by the idea that
+Agnes and Frances Houston were to occupy the tonneau of his car, and
+therefore he planned to avoid the disturbing element. The presence of
+the lawyer at the club where Gardner and Morton held their conversation,
+suggested to the latter what he would do, for he knew of the intimate
+friendly relations existing between Melvin and the Gardners, and did not
+doubt that the great legal light would be an acceptable addition to the
+party which Sally had planned. Had he known all of Sally's reasons for
+the arrangements she had made, and had he realized exactly why the party
+had been got up, he might have hesitated to do what he did; possibly, he
+would have refused to attend at all&mdash;but developments will show how he
+took the information, when at last it was given to him. It must be
+remembered that Morton knew nothing at all of the real incidents of the
+preceding Saturday, and was aware only of the fact that something was
+wrong; that something had occurred to annoy and disturb Patricia Langdon
+out of her customary self-repose. Nevertheless, Morton was convinced,
+notwithstanding his interview with her and with Duncan, that she was
+somehow being forced into a position abhorrent to her. He had promised
+to be her friend, and Dick Morton knew of only one way to fulfill that
+promise. Whatever he undertook to do, he did thoroughly, and always his
+first impulse, whenever one of his friends needed aid of any sort, was
+to fight for that friend.</p>
+
+<p>His initial occupation that Tuesday morning was to visit the garage
+where his two automobiles were kept, and the instructions to his
+chauffeur were given rapidly and to the point. An hour later, when he
+called upon the lawyer, he said, after greetings had been exchanged:</p>
+
+<p>"Melvin, I don't know whether you are aware of it or not, but Jack
+Gardner and his wife are having a little impromptu house-party, at their
+place, Cedarcrest, beginning at dinner time, this evening. I believe it
+is to continue till the week-end, and of course I know it is impossible
+for you to leave your business for that length of time; but I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about, Morton?" the lawyer interrupted him.
+"Neither Jack nor Sally have thought to invite me to their gathering."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, that doesn't count, you know&mdash;not in this instance. I want
+you to do me a favor. That's the size of it. The point is this: I was
+told to take Miss Langdon and the Misses Houston, to Cedarcrest, in my
+White Steamer. I have just discovered that the car is temporarily out
+of commission, and so I am reduced to the necessity of using my
+roadster. I came down here to ask you to take the Houston girls to
+Cedarcrest, for me."</p>
+
+<p>The shrewd old lawyer threw back his head, and laughed, heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not very deep, Morton," he said, presently. "I can see through
+you as plainly as if you were a plate-glass window. You have come here
+to induce me to relieve you of the necessity of taking Agnes and Frances
+Houston to Cedarcrest, in order that you may have Patricia Langdon alone
+with you in your roadster. And I'll wager that your chauffeur is out of
+commission, too."</p>
+
+<p>"There will be my machinist in the rumble-seat," replied Morton,
+blushing furiously. "You see, Melvin, I happen to know that you are
+always an acceptable addition to any party at that house, and&mdash;and so&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer laughed again, and raised his hand for silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try to explain," he said, still chuckling. "'Least said, soonest
+mended,' you know. I'll help you out, for I don't think your suggestion
+is a bad one, at all. You may leave it all to me, without even going so
+far as to communicate with the two members of your party whom you wish
+to rid yourself of. I'll attend to that, by telephoning; and I'll take
+them to Cedarcrest for dinner, and remain for the night; but I shall
+have to return early to-morrow morning. When the hour comes for you to
+start, Morton, you have only to drive around after Miss Langdon." Thus,
+it happened that, when the party was seated in the splendidly decorated
+dining-room at Cedarcrest, there were two absentees; as there was, also,
+one guest who had not been expected, and who, for once in his life, was
+not entirely welcome at Sally Gardner's country home. For Sally had a
+wholesome respect for, as well as an intuitive perception of, the old
+lawyer's shrewdness. Quick to scent a plot of any sort, Mrs. Gardner saw
+in this incident&mdash;the arrival of Melvin with the Houston girls, and the
+absence of her star guest and escort&mdash;certain circumstances that smelled
+strongly of pre-arrangement. She remembered what her husband had said to
+her, the preceding day, when she suggested the party; she recalled
+Jack's statement to the effect that Morton was in love with Patricia,
+and, because her acquaintance with the young cattle-king had begun in
+their childhood in Montana, she realized just what he was capable of
+doing, if by any chance he had been made aware of the circumstances
+which were the occasion of the gathering at Cedarcrest. Melvin had
+explained, in as few words as possible, how it happened that he was
+there; but his explanation only added to the foreboding in Sally
+Gardner's mind, which grew and grew when daylight faded to twilight, and
+then to darkness, and still Morton's roadster had not arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Nesbit Farnham was in the seventh heaven of bliss because he was seated
+at the table beside Beatrice, who bore no outward evidence of having
+been ill, and who, for the moment at least, was the life of the party;
+for she compelled herself to a certain gaiety of manner which she did
+not feel. Duncan had been told, by his host, to bring out the two men
+who were to complete the party, and he had given little thought to the
+arrangement made for him until after his arrival at Cedarcrest, when he
+discovered that the young ranchman and Patricia were alone together,
+somewhere on the road between the city and their destination. He felt
+certain misgivings, then, although he could not have defined them; but
+he recalled the scene that had occurred between himself and Morton, the
+preceding evening, which had so nearly developed into an open quarrel,
+and he wondered what the strenuous young ranchman might not attempt to
+do, in making the most of the opportunity thus afforded him.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia Langdon had received her invitation to Sally's party, and had
+given her reluctant acceptance, over the telephone, at a late hour the
+preceding evening. Sally had also told Patricia of the arrangement made
+for taking her to Cedarcrest. The girl had demurred, at first, and
+expressed a desire to use her own car; but she had been argued into a
+final acceptance of Sally's arrangement. It was, therefore, with some
+amazement that she received Richard Morton, at four o'clock Tuesday
+afternoon, when he went after her with his roadster, and discovered that
+they were to ride alone together, to Cedarcrest; for Morton had decided
+to do without the services of his machinist this afternoon. He was
+determined to have no third person present, during the thirty miles
+drive from the city. The lawyer's shrewd guess about the chauffeur being
+put out of commission had certainly furnished a suggestion for Morton to
+follow. Patricia hesitated to accompany him, in that manner, but finally
+consented, though not without reluctance; and so, shortly before five
+o'clock, they started. They should easily have arrived at Cedarcrest
+between six and seven.</p>
+
+<p>We already know that they had not put in their appearance at half-past
+eight. The reason for this delay, was somewhat startling.</p>
+
+<p>When Patricia was well ensconced in the bucket-seat of the roadster
+beside Morton, he started the car forward at as rapid a pace as the city
+ordinance would permit. Both were silent for a considerable time, but,
+at last, Patricia asked him:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be good enough to tell me why Mrs. Gardner's arrangement for
+this afternoon, was not carried out?"</p>
+
+<p>Morton turned his face away from her, in order to conceal the smile of
+amusement in which he indulged himself, and he replied, with apparent
+carelessness:</p>
+
+<p>"My big car was out of commission, temporarily. I happened to see
+Melvin, and he agreed to take Miss Houston and her sister to Cedarcrest,
+for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed! What has happened to your White Steamer? It was only the
+other day that you told me how proud you were of it because it never got
+out of order."</p>
+
+<p>He turned his face toward her and replied slowly and with distinctness:</p>
+
+<p>"I won't lie to you about it, Patricia; that wouldn't be fair. I put the
+car out of commission, myself; or, rather, it was done by my order,
+because I wanted to take this ride alone with you."</p>
+
+<p>"You should have told me that before we started," she said to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Would it have made any difference in your going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly it would."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that you would have declined to come with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chiefly, because I do not approve of plots and schemes, in any form.
+Had you asked me, frankly and openly, to drive to Cedarcrest with you, I
+should have felt no hesitation in accepting; as it is, you have given
+offense, Mr. Morton."</p>
+
+<p>"So much so that you won't even call me Dick?" he said, with a light
+laugh that was more forced than real.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You have not proven yourself quite the friend I hoped you would
+be. Friends don't plot against each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I turn the car about and take you home?" he asked shortly, with
+tightening lips, angered unreasonably by the attitude she had assumed.</p>
+
+<p>"No; you may take me to our destination, Cedarcrest."</p>
+
+<p>They drove on in silence for a considerable time after that, and, as
+soon as they were in the country, on less-frequented roads, Morton
+increased the speed of his roadster until they were flying along the
+highway in utter and absolute defiance of the statutes. When they
+presently arrived at a turn within a few miles of their destination, a
+turn that would have taken them directly to the house they sought,
+Morton did not move the steering-wheel of the car, but kept on, straight
+ahead, and with ever increasing speed.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia knew the road very well indeed; she had been over it many
+times, and now she called out to her companion:</p>
+
+<p>"You have taken the wrong road. You should have gone around that last
+turn."</p>
+
+<p>Morton did not reply, or attempt to do so. He seemed not to have heard
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you please slow down a little?" she asked, after another moment;
+and the question came somewhat tremulously, because, strange to say,
+Patricia was just a little frightened by the circumstance that now
+confronted her.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Morton made no reply, nor did he comply with her request, and
+the car flew on and on, while Patricia tried to collect her thoughts,
+and to determine what were best for her to do toward restraining this
+head-strong companion of hers, who now seemed like a runaway colt that
+has taken the bit in its teeth, and has found the strength to defy
+opposition.</p>
+
+<p>"Richard Morton!" she exclaimed sharply, touching his arm, tentatively.
+"Why don't you answer me? What are you trying to do? Where are you
+taking me?"</p>
+
+<p>For just an instant, he flashed his eyes into hers; then he replied,
+grimly:</p>
+
+<p>"I am taking you for a good ride. We'll steer around to Cedarcrest by
+another road, presently."</p>
+
+<p>"But I wish to go there at once."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that you refuse to do as I request?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied, shortly; and shut his jaws together with a snap like
+a nut-cracker.</p>
+
+<p>"You dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare anything, Patricia, when I am brought to it. I would like to
+keep this machine going, at this pace, for hours and days and weeks,
+with you seated there beside me, and never thinking of a stop until I
+had you out yonder, in the wild country, where I was born and raised."</p>
+
+<p>Again, she reached out and touched him on the arm, for she was more
+frightened than she would have confessed to herself; but, before she
+could speak, he called to her in a tone that was almost savage in its
+intensity:</p>
+
+<p>"Be careful, please. Don't interfere with my steering, or you will ditch
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"I demand that you bring this car to a stop," she said coldly,
+controlling herself with an effort. "I insist that you turn it about,
+and go back. I am amazed at your conduct, Mr. Morton&mdash;amazed and hurt.
+You are offending me more deeply than you realize."</p>
+
+<p>Again, he did not answer her, and Patricia, now thoroughly alarmed,
+sought vainly for a means of bringing this impetuous and dare-devil
+young ranchman to his senses. She thought once, as they ascended a short
+hill, of leaping from the car to the ground, but the speed was too great
+for her to take such a risk. It even occurred to her to seize the
+steering-wheel, and to give it a sharp turn, thus wrecking the machine;
+but she shuddered with terror when she thought of the possibilities of
+such an act.</p>
+
+<p>Half a mile farther on, Morton turned the car from the main highway
+they had been following, and drove it at full speed along a narrow road,
+where the going was somewhat rough, and where both had to give their
+entire attention to retaining their seats.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you mad?" she cried out to him, at last. She did not remember ever
+to have been so frightened before. Actual fear was a new sensation with
+Patricia Langdon.</p>
+
+<p>Still, he did not answer her, and Patricia started to her feet,
+determined to make the leap to the ground, risking broken limbs, or
+worse, to escape from this situation, which was becoming more awful with
+every moment that passed. A sudden terror lest the man beside her had
+gone mad, seized her. But Morton grasped her with his left hand, and
+pulled her back into the seat.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do that!" he ordered her, crisply.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, stop the car," she replied. "Oh, please, do stop the car. You
+have no idea how you frighten me. It is very dark, here, and this is a
+terrible road. Please stop, Mr. Morton."</p>
+
+<p>"Call me Dick, and I'll stop."</p>
+
+<p>"Please stop the car&mdash;Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>He closed the throttle, and applied the brake. In another moment the
+speedy roadster slowed down gradually, and came to a stop, just at the
+edge of a wood, where there was no house, or evidence of one, visible
+in any direction; and, then, Richard Morton and Patricia Langdon stared
+into each other's eyes through the gathering darkness, the former with
+set jaws and a defiant smile, and the latter with plainly revealed
+terror.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>ALMOST A TRAGEDY</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Morton's passion for the beautiful girl beside him had overcome his
+discretion to such an extent that he was hardly responsible for what he
+did. The exhilaration of this swift ride through the gathering darkness,
+the sense of nearness to the woman he believed he loved with every force
+in him, the certainty that they were alone, and that, for the moment at
+least, she was his sole possession, stirred up within the young
+ranchman's mind those elements of barbaric wildness which had grown and
+thrived to riotousness and recklessness during the life he had lived on
+the cattle-ranges of Montana, but which had been more or less dormant
+during his Eastern experiences. He forgot, for the moment, the
+Sunday-night scene wherein he had promised to be Patricia's friend, and
+had ceased to be her lover; he remembered only that she was there beside
+him, with her terror-stricken eyes peering into his beseechingly, and
+that she looked more beautiful than ever she had before. But, more than
+all else, the influence she had had over him was absent, and this was
+so because her haughty defiance and the proud spirit she had hitherto
+manifested in her attitude were gone. He had never seen her like this
+before, with the courage taken out of her. It was a new and unknown
+quality, alluringly feminine, wholly dependent, that possessed her now.
+She was frightened. And so Morton forgot himself. He permitted the
+innate wildness of his own nature to rule. He followed an impulse, as
+wild as it was unkind. He seized her in his arms, and crushed her
+against him, raining kisses upon her cheeks and brow, and upon even her
+lips. Patrica strove bravely to fight him off; she struggled mightily to
+prevent this greatest of all indignities. She cried out to him,
+beseeching that he release her, but he seemed not to hear, or, if he
+heard, he paid no heed, and, after a moment more of vain effort,
+Patricia's figure suddenly relaxed. She realized the utter futility of
+her effort to hold the man at bay, and she was suddenly inspired to
+practise a subterfuge upon him. She permitted herself to sink down
+helplessly, into his confining grasp, and she became, apparently,
+unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>It was Richard Morton's turn to be frightened, then. On the instant, he
+realized what he had done. The enormity of the offense he had committed
+against her rushed upon him like a blow in the face, and he released
+her, so that she sank back into the confining seat beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia! Patricia!" he called to her. He seized her hands, and rubbed
+them; he turned them over and struck the palms of them sharply, for he
+had somewhere heard that such action would bring a person out of a
+swoon; but, although he struggled anxiously, doing whatsoever he could
+to arouse her, and beseeching her in impassioned tones to speak to him,
+she seemed to remain unconscious, with her head lying back against the
+seat, her eyes closed, and her face paler than he had ever seen it
+before.</p>
+
+<p>The car had stopped before the edge of a wood. Just beyond it, there was
+a bridge over which they must have passed, had they continued on their
+way. Morton raised his head and looked despairingly about him. He saw
+the bridge, and experience taught him that there must be a stream of
+water beneath it. With quick decision, he sprang from the car and ran
+forward, believing that, if he could return with his cap filled with
+water, he might restore his companion to consciousness. Then, strange to
+relate, no sooner had he left the car than Patricia opened her eyes,
+straightened her figure, and with a quick leap changed her seat to the
+one beneath the steering-wheel. She accomplished this while Morton was
+speeding away from her, toward the water.</p>
+
+<p>She saw him arrive at the bridge and disappear down the bank, beneath
+it; and forthwith, she reversed the gear of the steamer, and opened the
+throttle. The engine responded instantly, and at the imminent risk of
+wrecking the car, she backed it, and turned it, reversing and going
+forward several times, before she quite succeeded in bringing it around,
+within the narrow space. But, at last, she did succeed, and, just at the
+moment when the car was headed in the opposite direction, Richard Morton
+reappeared. He saw, at a glance, what had happened during his short
+absence. He understood that Patricia had outwitted him, and he ran
+forward, shouting aloud as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia caught one glimpse of him over her shoulder, and saw that he
+carried in his hands the cap he had filled with water to use in
+restoring her to consciousness&mdash;a consciousness she had not for a moment
+lost, which now was so alert and manifest in effecting her escape.</p>
+
+<p>She paid no heed to his shouts. She opened the throttle wider and wider,
+and the steam roadster darted away through the darkness, with Patricia
+Langdon under the wheel, leaving Richard Morton, cap in hand, standing
+in the middle of the highway, gazing after her, speechless with
+amazement and more than ever in love with the courageous young woman who
+could dare, and do, so much.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia Langdon was thoroughly capable of operating any automobile, as
+was demonstrated by this somewhat startling climax to the unpleasant
+scene through which she had just passed. Beneath her customary repose of
+manner, her outward self-restraint and her dignified if somewhat haughty
+manner, there was a spirit of wildness, which, for years, had found no
+expression, till now. But, the moment she turned the car about and
+succeeded in heading it in the opposite direction, the instant she
+realized that she was mistress of the situation, which, so short a time
+before, had been replete with unknown terrors, she experienced all that
+sense of exhilaration which the winner of any battle must feel, when it
+is brought to a successful issue. She heard herself laugh aloud,
+defiantly and with a touch of glee, although it did not seem to her as
+if it were Patricia Langdon who laughed; it was, perhaps, some hitherto
+undiscoverable spirit of recklessness within her, which called forth
+that expression of defiant joy, which Richard Morton could not fail to
+hear.</p>
+
+<p>The night was dark, by now, and there were only the stars to light the
+narrow way along which Patricia was compelled to guide the flying car;
+but she thought nothing of this, for she could dimly discern the
+outlines of the roadway before her, and she believed she could follow it
+to the main highway, without accident. Morton had not lighted his lamps.
+There had been no opportunity to do so. But the road was an unfrequented
+one; and Patricia, as she fled away from Morton, through the darkness,
+thought only of making her escape, not at all of the dangers she might
+encounter while doing so.</p>
+
+<p>Several times, she caught herself laughing softly at the recollection of
+how she had triumphed over the daring young ranchman, and at the
+predicament in which she had left him, standing there near the bridge,
+in a locality that was entirely unknown to him, from which he must have
+some difficulty in finding his way to a place where he could secure
+another conveyance. He might know what it meant to be left horseless on
+the ranges of the West, but this would be a new and a strange&mdash;perhaps a
+wholesome&mdash;experience for him.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, she came to the turn of the road that would bring her upon
+the main highway; and here she stopped the car, and got down from it,
+long enough to light the lamps. This done, she went on again, as
+swiftly as she dared, yet not too rapidly, because now she felt that she
+was as free as the air singing past her. The highway she traversed was
+almost as familiar to her as the streets of New York City.</p>
+
+<p>The exhilaration she had experienced when she triumphed over Richard
+Morton and escaped from him, increased rather than diminished as she
+sped onward, and when, almost an hour later, she guided the car between
+the huge gate-posts which admitted it to the grounds of Cedarcrest, and
+followed the winding driveway toward the entrance to the stone mansion,
+she was altogether a different Patricia Langdon from the one who had
+started out, in company with the young Westerner, shortly after five
+o'clock that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>She brought the car to a stop under the <i>porte-coch&egrave;re</i>, and announced
+her arrival by several loud blasts of the automobile-horn; a moment
+later, the doors were thrown open, and Sally Gardner rushed out to
+receive her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I am late, Sally," Patricia called out, in a voice that was
+wholly unlike her usual calm tones. "Will you call someone to care for
+the car?" Without waiting for a reply, she sprang from beneath the
+wheel, and with a light laugh returned the impetuous embrace with which
+the young matron greeted her.</p>
+
+<p>In some mysterious manner, word had already been passed to the guests
+that Patricia Langdon had arrived in Richard Morton's car, but alone;
+and so, by the time Patricia had released herself from Sally's clinging
+arms, Roderick Duncan, followed by the others of the party, appeared in
+the open doorway. Duncan came forward swiftly, but his host forestalled
+him in putting the question he would have asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Patricia!" Jack Gardner called out. "What have you done with
+Morton? Where is Dick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Jack, I don't know," replied Patricia, standing quite still,
+with her right arm around Sally's shoulders, and lifting her head like a
+thoroughbred filly. Mrs. Gardner's left arm still clung around her
+waist. "Mr. Morton is back there, somewhere, on the road. If he doesn't
+change his plans, he should arrive here, presently." She laughed, as she
+replied to the question, perceiving, at the moment, only the humorous
+side of it. She was still under the influence of that swift ride alone;
+still delighted by the thought of the predicament in which she had left
+her escort, because of his outrageous conduct toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you meet with an accident? Has anything happened to Mr. Morton?"
+inquired Agnes Houston.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia shrugged her shoulders, and, again laughing softly, withdrew
+from Sally's embrace and began to ascend the steps. One of the
+Cedarcrest servants appeared at that moment, to take the car around to
+the garage; and for some reason each member of the party stepped aside,
+one way or another, so that Miss Langdon was the one who led the way
+into the house, the others falling in behind her, and following. The
+circumstance of her arrival in such a manner and the suggestion of
+mystery conveyed in Patricia's answer to Jack Gardner's question
+convinced all that something had happened which needed an explanation.
+Patricia's demeanor was so different from her usual half-haughty
+bearing, that it was, in a way, a revelation to them all. Each one there
+had his or her own conception of the occasion, and probably no two
+opinions were the same; but at least they were all agreed on one point:
+that there had been a scene somewhere, and that Richard Morton had got
+the worst of it.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia led the way to the dining-room. Her head was high, her eyes
+were sparkling. Duncan hastened to her side, but she took no notice of
+his nearness. As she entered the room, she called out:</p>
+
+<p>"Do order some dinner served to me, Sally. I am as hungry as the
+proverbial bear. You see, I had anticipated a hearty dinner with you,
+and the long ride I have had&mdash;particularly that part of it which I have
+taken alone&mdash;has whetted my appetite."</p>
+
+<p>Sally nodded toward the butler, and waved him away, knowing that he had
+overheard Patricia's words, and that she would speedily be served; the
+others of the party resumed their former seats around the table, and the
+practical Sally turned and faced Patricia, again, her eyes flashing some
+of the indignation she felt because of her guest's evident reluctance to
+explain the strange circumstance of her arrival at Cedarcrest alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia Langdon," she said, "I think you might tell us what has
+happened. We are all on edge with expectancy. Where is Dick Morton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is somewhere back there on the highway, walking toward
+Cedarcrest, I suppose," replied Patricia smilingly, dropping into a
+chair beside the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you start out from New York together?" persisted Sally.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you please tell us what has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>Patricia's lips parted, while she hesitated for a reply. She had no
+desire to tell these people of the incidents that had actually occurred.
+Many another, in her position, would have revealed at once the whole
+truth, and would have made these others acquainted with the conduct of
+Richard Morton, during that wild ride she had been forced to take with
+him through the gathering gloom. But Patricia was not that kind. She was
+quite conscious of the strangeness of her arrival at Cedarcrest alone,
+in Morton's car, and of the wrong constructions which might be given to
+the incident. She knew that every man who was present in the room, would
+bitterly resent the indignities Morton had put upon her, if she should
+relate the facts. But she believed that Morton had been sufficiently
+punished. She even doubted if he would appear there, at all, now; and
+so, instead of replying to Sally's repeated request, she shrugged her
+shoulders, and responded:</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll leave the explanation to Mr. Morton, when he arrives."</p>
+
+<p>Food was placed before her at that moment and she transferred her
+attention to it; while her friends, perceiving that she was not inclined
+to take them into her confidence, started other subjects of
+conversation, although the mind of each one of them was still intent
+upon what might have happened during Patricia's journey from New York in
+the company of Richard Morton.</p>
+
+<p>Roderick Duncan had not resumed his seat at the table; he had remained
+in the background, and had maintained an utter silence. But his thoughts
+had been busy, indeed. He knew and understood Patricia, better than
+these others did&mdash;with the possible exception of Beatrice, who also was
+silent. But, now, he passed around the table until he stood behind
+Patricia's chair. Then, he dropped down upon a vacant one that was
+beside her, and, resting one elbow on the table, peered inquiringly into
+the girl's flushed face, more beautiful than ever in her excitement.
+That strange feeling of exhilaration was still upon her, and there was
+undoubted triumph and self-satisfaction depicted in her eyes and
+demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened, Patricia?" he asked her, in a low tone, which the others
+could not hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing has happened that need concern you at all," she replied to him,
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"But something must have happened, or you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If something did happen," she interrupted him, "rest assured that I
+shall tell you nothing more about it, at the present time. If Mr. Morton
+chooses to explain, when he arrives, that is his affair, and not mine. I
+am here, and I am unharmed. Somewhere, back there on the road my escort
+is probably walking toward Cedarcrest; or, perhaps, away from it. You
+will have to be satisfied with that explanation, until he arrives&mdash;if he
+does arrive." She spoke with such finality that Duncan changed the
+character of his questioning.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen you, Patricia, since the receipt of your letter, fixing
+our wedding-day for next Monday," he persisted. "It now occurs to me
+that, in the light of the contents of your letter, I have a right to ask
+you for an explanation of the incidents of to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Patricia turned her eyes for an instant upon him, and then withdrew
+them, while she said, coldly:</p>
+
+<p>"If you have taken time to read carefully the stipulations in the
+contract you signed yesterday morning, at Mr. Melvin's office, you will
+understand why I deny your right to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Has Morton affronted you in any way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him. I have no doubt that he will answer you."</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia, are you going to persist in this attitude toward me, even
+after we are married?" Duncan inquired, anxiously. But, instead of
+replying, she raised her head in a listening attitude, and announced to
+all who were present:</p>
+
+<p>"I hear the horn of an approaching automobile. Perhaps, Mr. Morton has
+caught a ride."</p>
+
+<p>"Answer me, Patricia," Duncan insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"My conduct will be the answer to your question," she said, with her
+face averted.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Gardner hurriedly left the room, accompanied by Sally. A moment
+later, when the automobile horn sounded nearer, Duncan left his place
+beside Patricia, and followed. Melvin, the lawyer, also went out, and
+then one by one the others, until Patricia was the only guest who
+remained at the table. She continued to occupy herself with the food
+that had been placed before her, while the flush on her cheeks deepened,
+her eyes shone with added brightness, and she smiled as if she were
+rather pleased than otherwise by the predicament in which Morton would
+find himself, when he should be closely questioned by Jack and Sally
+Gardner and the guests as well, whose curiosity, she knew, would now far
+exceed their discretion.</p>
+
+<p>It never once occurred to her that Dick Morton, having had time to
+think over the occurrences of the afternoon and evening, and to realize
+the enormity of the offense he had committed, would tell the truth about
+it. Men within her knowledge, who belonged to the society with which she
+was familiar, would temporize, under such circumstances, would seek, by
+diplomatic speech to shield the woman in the case from the comment that
+must follow a revelation, would make use of well-chosen words to escape
+responsibility for what had occurred; would practise a studied reserve
+until certain knowledge could be obtained of what the woman might have
+said, upon her arrival.</p>
+
+<p>The doors had been left open, and Patricia was conscious of loud tones
+proceeding from the veranda at the front of the house; of masculine
+voices raised in anger; and then she heard the sound of a blow, followed
+instantly by a heavy fall. Almost at the same instant, the sharp crack
+of a pistol smote upon the air, for an instant stiffening her with
+horror. She started to her feet in terror, her face gone white, her eyes
+dilated with apprehension. Then, she somehow stumbled to her feet, and
+stood there, trembling in every nerve, until she could gather strength
+to run forward.</p>
+
+<p>A horrified and silent group of persons surrounded the principals in
+the scene that had just occurred, for there had not yet been time for
+any of them to recover from the paralyzing effect of what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>Richard Morton was on the floor of the veranda where he had raised
+himself upon one elbow, and he still held in his right hand the small
+revolver from which the shot that Patricia had overheard, had come.
+Roderick Duncan was standing a few feet away, and he was holding in his
+arms the limp form of Beatrice Brunswick, whose head had fallen
+backward, as if she were unconscious, or dead. Just at the instant when
+Patricia caught a view of this strange tableau, the other spectators
+threw off the momentary lethargy that had overpowered them, and rushed
+forward toward the principal actors in the scene that had passed, each
+shouting a different exclamation, but all alike in their expressions of
+horror and loathing for the man who was down&mdash;Richard Morton.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE AUTOMOBILE WRECK</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Thirty minutes after the happening of the incidents just related, a
+remarkable scene took place in Jack Gardner's smoking-room. There were
+present only the men of Sally's impromptu week-end party.</p>
+
+<p>If the friends whom Jack Gardner had made since his sojourn in the East
+could have seen him at that moment, they would not have recognized in
+the coldly stern, keen-eyed copper magnate, the happy-go-lucky,
+devil-may-care Jack, of their acquaintance. The almost tragic
+occurrences of the evening had brought the real Jack Gardner to the
+surface, and he was for the moment again the dauntless young miner who
+had fought his way upward to the position he now held, by sheer force of
+character; for it requires a whole man to lift himself from the pick and
+shovel, and the drill and fuse, to the millionaire mine-owner and the
+person of prominence in the world such as he had become. He stood beside
+the small table at one end of the room; Morton occupied the center of
+it, facing him. Grouped around them, in various attitudes, were the
+others of that strange gathering. Duncan leaned idly against the mantel,
+and smoked his cigar with deliberation, although his gray eyes were
+coldly fierce in their expression, and his half-smile of utter contempt
+for the man who occupied the center of the scene rendered his face less
+handsome and attractive than usual. Malcolm Melvin was alert and
+attentive, from the end of the room opposite Gardner, and the other
+gentlemen of the party occupied chairs conveniently at hand.</p>
+
+<p>It would be hard to define Richard Morton's attitude from any outward
+expression he manifested concerning it. He stood with folded arms, tall
+and straight, facing unflinchingly the accusing eyes of his life-long
+friend, Jack Gardner. His lips were shut tightly together, and he seemed
+like one who awaits stoically a verdict that is inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>"Morton," said Gardner, speaking coldly and with studied deliberation,
+"you have been a life-long friend of mine, and, until to-night, I have
+looked upon you almost as a brother; but, to-night, by your own
+confession and by your acts which have followed upon that confession,
+you have destroyed every atom of the friendship I have felt for you.
+You have made me wish that I had never known you. You have outraged
+every sense of propriety, and every feeling of manhood that I thought
+you possessed. Fortunately for us all, no one is much the worse for your
+scoundrelism; I can call it by no other word. You have shown yourself to
+be, at heart, an unspeakable scoundrel, as undeserving of consideration
+as a coyote of the plains."</p>
+
+<p>Morton's face went white as death at these words, and his eyes blazed
+with the fury of a wild animal that is being whipped while it is chained
+down so that it cannot show resentment. He did not speak; he made no
+effort to interrupt. Gardner continued:</p>
+
+<p>"When Miss Langdon arrived here alone, in your roadster, she gave us no
+explanation whatever of what had happened, and, while we believed that
+some unpleasant incident must have occurred, we did not press her for
+the story of it. Then, you came, and without mincing your words you told
+the whole brutal truth; and you uttered it with a spirit of brutality
+and bravado that would be unbelievable under any other circumstances.
+And when, in your own self-abasement for what you had done, you
+confessed to the acts of which you were guilty toward Miss Langdon, you
+received, at Duncan's hands, the blow you so thoroughly merited; I am
+frank to say to you that, if he had held his hand one instant longer,
+it would have been my fist, instead of his, that floored you. But that
+is not all. You have been a gun-fighter for so many years, out there in
+your own wild country, that, before you were fairly down after you
+received the blow, you must needs pull your artillery, and use it. Do
+you realize, I wonder, how near to committing a murder you have been,
+to-night? If Miss Brunswick had not seen your act, if she had not
+started forward and thrown herself between your weapon and its intended
+victim, thus frightening you so that you sought at the last instant to
+withhold your fire, I tremble for what the consequences might have been.
+As it happened, no one has been harmed. You deflected your aim just in
+time to avoid a tragedy; but it is not your fault that somebody does not
+carry a serious wound as the consequence of your brutality. Were it not
+for Miss Brunswick's act, there would be a dead man at this feast, and
+you would be his murderer. But even that, horrible as it might have
+been, is less a crime than the other one you have confessed. You, reared
+in an atmosphere where all men infinitely respect woman-kind,
+deliberately outrage every finer feeling of the one woman you have
+professed to love. That, Richard Morton, is very nearly all that I have
+to say to you. I have asked these gentlemen to come into the room, and
+to be present during this scene, in order that we may all bind ourselves
+to secrecy concerning what has happened to-night. I can assure you that
+nothing of this affair will leak out to others. I have quite finished
+now. One of the servants will bring your roadster around to the door.
+Our acquaintance ends here."</p>
+
+<p>He turned and pressed a button in the wall behind him, and a moment
+later the door opened; but it was Beatrice Brunswick who stood upon the
+threshold, and not the servant who had been summoned.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated an instant, then came forward swiftly, until she stood
+beside Morton, facing his accusers. With one swift glance, she took in
+the scene by which she was surrounded, and with a woman's intuition
+understood it. Turning partly around, she permitted one hand to rest
+lightly upon Morton's arm, and she said to him, ignoring the others:</p>
+
+<p>"It is really too bad, Mr. Morton. I know that you did not mean it; and
+I am unharmed. See: the bullet did not touch me at all. It only
+frightened me. I am sure that you were over-wrought by all that had
+happened, and I'll forgive you, even if the others do not. I am sure,
+too, that Patricia will forgive you, if you ask her. Come with me; I
+will take you to her."</p>
+
+<p>She tightened her grasp upon his arm and sought to draw him toward the
+door, but Jack Gardner interrupted, quickly and sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop Beatrice!" he said. "Mr. Morton is about to take his departure.
+This is an occasion for men to deal with. Morton cannot see Miss Langdon
+again unless she seeks him, and that I don't think she will do."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get her; I'll bring her here!" exclaimed Beatrice, starting toward
+the door alone; but this time it was Morton's voice that arrested
+her&mdash;the first time he had spoken since he entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, wait, Miss Brunswick," he said, and the quiet calmness of his
+tone was a surprise to everyone present. It belied the expression of his
+eyes and of his set jaws. "I thank you most heartily for what you have
+said, and for what you would do now. Miss Langdon won't forgive me, nor,
+indeed, do I think she ought to do so. I have not attempted to make any
+explanation of my conduct to these gentlemen, but to you I will say
+this: I realize the enormity of it, thoroughly, and, while I can find no
+excuse for what I have done, I can offer the one explanation, that I
+was, for the moment, gone mad&mdash;locoed, we call it, in the West. If Miss
+Langdon will receive any message from me at all, tell her that I am
+sorry."</p>
+
+<p>He bowed to her with a dignity that belied his training, and, stepping
+past her, opened the door, holding it so until she had passed from the
+room. Then, he turned toward the others.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite ready to go now," he said. "Gardner, if you will have my car
+brought around, I shall not trouble you further."</p>
+
+<p>With another slight inclination of his head, he passed out of the room
+and along the hall to the front door, where he paused at the top of the
+steps, waiting till his car should be brought to him; and no one
+attempted to follow, or say another word to him.</p>
+
+<p>Standing alone at the top of the steps, while he waited for the car,
+Morton was presently conscious of a slight movement near him, and he
+turned quickly. Patricia Langdon slowly arose from one of the veranda
+chairs, and approached him. She came quite close to him, and stopped.
+For a moment, both were silent; he, with hard, unrelenting eyes, which
+nevertheless expressed the exquisite pain he felt; she, with tear-dimmed
+vision, in which pity, regret, sympathy and real liking strove for
+dominant expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't let you go, Mr. Morton, without a few more words with you,
+and I have purposely waited here, because I thought it likely you would
+come from the house alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," he replied, not knowing what else to say.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry for it all, Mr. Morton; and I cannot help wondering if I
+am to blame, in any measure. I wanted you to know that I freely forgive
+you for whatever offense you have committed against me. I think that is
+all. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>She was turning away, but he called to her, with infinite pain in his
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Wait; please, wait," he said. "Give me just another moment, I beseech
+you."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to face him again.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been a madman to-night, Miss Langdon, and I know it," he told
+her rapidly. "There is no excuse for the acts I have committed; there
+can be no palliation for them. I would not have dared to ask for your
+forgiveness; I can only say that I am sorry. It was not I, but a madman,
+who for a moment possessed me, who conducted himself so vilely toward
+you. I shall go back to my ranch again. My only prayer to you is, that
+you will forget me, utterly."</p>
+
+<p>Patricia came a step nearer to him, reaching out her hand, tentatively,
+and said, in her softest tone, while tears moistened her eyes:</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, and God bless you."</p>
+
+<p>But Morton, ignoring her extended hand, cleared the steps of the veranda
+at one leap, and disappeared in the darkness, toward the garage.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later, while Patricia yet remained at the top of the steps
+where Morton had left her, the steam-roadster that had been so closely
+related to her experiences of the night rushed past the house and
+disappeared along the winding roadway toward the Cedarcrest gate. And
+she remained there, in a listening attitude, as long as she could hear
+the droning murmur of its mechanism. When that died away in the
+distance, she sighed, and turned to re&euml;nter the house; but it was only
+to find that she was no longer alone. Roderick Duncan appeared in the
+doorway, and came through the entrance, to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it Morton's car that just went past the door?" he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied, shrinking away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see him, and talk with him, before he went away?" he asked,
+partly reaching out one hand, but instantly withdrawing it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she answered again, retreating still farther from him.</p>
+
+<p>"That was like you, Patricia. I am rather sorry for the poor chap,
+despite what he did to you, to-night. You see, I know what it means, to
+be so madly in love with you that it is barely possible for one to stand
+or sit beside you, without crushing you in one's arms. Oh, Patricia,
+won't you be kind to me? Won't you forgive me, too, as I know, just now,
+you forgave that poor chap? Surely, my offense was not so great as his."</p>
+
+<p>"It has been infinitely greater," she told him, coldly; and, with head
+erect, but with averted face, she went past him, through the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>Down the highway, half-way between Cedarcrest and the city, was a place
+where building operations were in progress; where huge rocks had been
+blasted out to make room for intended improvements; where derricks and
+stone-crushers and other machinery were idly waiting the dawn of another
+day, when the workmen would arrive and resume their several occupations.</p>
+
+<p>Richard Morton, dashing along this highway with ever-increasing speed,
+utilizing the full power of his racing roadster, remembered that place
+along the highway. With cold, set face and protruding chin, he set his
+jaws sharply together, and wondered why his flying car would go no
+faster. He did not realize that he was covering more than a mile with
+every minute of time. The pace seemed slow to him, for he had suddenly
+determined what he would do. He had thought of a plan to expiate his
+follies of the night.</p>
+
+<p>At last, almost directly beneath an arc-light along the highway, he saw,
+dimly, the spot where the stone was being quarried, and, as he
+recognized it, he laughed aloud with a sort of desperate joy, because of
+the plunge he intended to take. He threw the throttle wide open, and
+after another moment he saw the derrick loom before him. With careful
+deliberation, he turned the steering-wheel.</p>
+
+<p>There was a loud crash in the darkness; the roadster leaped into the air
+like a live thing, and turned over, end for end, twice. Then, it seemed
+to shoot high into the air, and fell again, in a confused heap of
+wreckage, among the broken stones of the quarry. Morton was thrown from
+it, like the projectile from a catapult, and he came down in a crumpled
+heap, somewhere among that mass of rocks; and after that there was
+silence.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>CROSS-PURPOSES AT CEDARCREST</b></p>
+<p class="p2">At Cedarcrest, the night was still young. Patricia, and then Morton, had
+arrived at the country home of the Gardners while the several guests
+were still at table, and the scenes which followed their coming had
+passed with such stunning rapidity that every one of the party was more
+or less affected by them, each one in his or her separate manner. The
+men of the party were silent and preoccupied. The scene enacted just
+before the departure of Morton weighed more or less heavily upon them,
+and while each one felt that the young ranchman had "got what was coming
+to him," there was not one among them who did not experience a thrill of
+sympathy for the young fellow, who had been so well liked by the new
+acquaintances he had made in the East.</p>
+
+<p>The two gentlemen strangers, who had brought Morton to the house in
+their car, were the first to take their departure, after Morton's
+dramatic exit, although they remained long enough to imbibe a
+whisky-and-soda, and to hear what Jack Gardner still had to say. That
+was not so very much, but, like all he had said that night, it was
+straight to the point.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said to them, standing with his glass in hand and
+addressing all, impersonally, "what I have to say now, is said to all,
+alike. Two of you are strangers to me; the others are more or less
+intimately my friends. It is my particular wish that we should all bind
+ourselves to secrecy, concerning what has happened at Cedarcrest, and in
+this vicinity, to-night. It happens that no real harm has been done; no
+one has been injured; amends have been made to Miss Langdon, so far as
+it has been possible to make them, and I am quite sure of her desire
+never to hear the subject mentioned again."</p>
+
+<p>There was a generally affirmative nodding of heads about him as he
+spoke, and after an instant, he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"In what has occurred in this room, I have had to assume a triple
+obligation: that of host, that of self-appointed champion of the young
+woman who received the affront from another of my guests, and that of a
+life-long acquaintance with the man whom I was compelled, by
+circumstances, to expel from my house. The last was the most difficult
+of all to fill. There is not one of you who could not readily have
+assumed two of the responsibilities; the last one I have named has been
+distinctly unpleasant. I have known and liked Dick Morton, since we were
+boys. We hail from the same state, and from a locality there where we
+were near neighbors, during our youth. He is somewhat younger than
+I&mdash;about two years, I think&mdash;and, until to-night, I have never known him
+to be otherwise than a brave and chivalrous fellow, ready to fight at
+the drop of the hat. We must agree that no matter what his conduct was,
+prior to the scene in this room, he conducted himself, while here, in a
+manner that was beyond reproach. He realized the enormity of the outrage
+he had committed, and he took his medicine, I think, as a fighter
+should. He is gone now, and I doubt if any of us see him again. That is
+all, I think, that need be said." It was then that Roderick Duncan
+silently put aside his glass, and went out of the room, unnoticed by the
+others. He knew that a general discussion of the incidents of the
+evening would follow, and he had no wish to take part in it. He
+anticipated that the two gentlemen who had brought Morton to the house,
+would be asked to remain, and that he would therefore see them again,
+later on, and so he took the opportunity that was afforded him to escape
+unseen and unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>The whole affair weighed heavily upon him. He realized much better than
+Patricia did that she alone was to blame for it all; and the fear lest
+the responsibility of it should come home to her drove him to seek her
+at once, even before Morton had had time to get beyond the gates of
+Cedarcrest. Patricia was, of course, unaware of the scene that had taken
+place at Duncan's rooms just before the informal invitations to
+Cedarcrest were issued, but Duncan recalled that circumstance now, with
+a deeper understanding of all that had happened as a sequel to it; and
+he believed that the time was ripe for a better understanding between
+himself and Patricia. Therefore, he left the room to seek her.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the door, he came to a pause, in doubt which direction to take.
+From where he stood, he could see into a part of the dining-room, and
+instinct told him that it was deserted, save by the butler, who was yet
+at his post. He approached the music-room, and, screened by a Japanese
+curtain that hung across the entrance, peered inside. Beatrice and Sally
+were there, with the other ladies of the party, but Patricia was nowhere
+to be seen. It occurred to him that she might have sought solitude in
+some other part of the great house, and he had turned away, striving to
+think where he might find her, when the whirr of an automobile engine
+came to him through an open window from the rear of the building.</p>
+
+<p>He guessed, at once, that it would be Morton's roadster, ready to take
+him away, and, impelled by a sudden spasm of pity for the man who was
+now tabooed he hurried toward the front entrance&mdash;and fate willed it
+that he should arrive at the threshold just at the very instant when
+Patricia took that impulsive step nearer to Morton, reaching her arms
+out toward him, as she did so, and Duncan plainly heard the words she
+uttered, "Good bye, Dick; and God bless you." He had heard no word which
+preceded them; he had seen nothing till that instant; but he did see the
+tears in Patricia's eyes, and hear the pathos in her voice when she
+spoke those last words to the man who was supposed to have offended her
+past forgiveness: and he saw Morton leap into the roadway and start
+toward the garage to meet his machine.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan waited a moment before he advanced farther; watching Patricia
+from his sheltered place near the door. Then, he stepped forward to meet
+the young woman to whom he was betrothed&mdash;stepped forward to plead with
+her once more, and to be rebuffed in the manner we have seen.</p>
+
+<p>When she had left him, he dropped upon one of the veranda chairs, and
+with his head upon his hand gave himself up to bitter thought&mdash;bitter,
+because of his utter inadequacy to cope with the conditions by which he
+was surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan was aroused, presently, by the approach of Beatrice and Sally.
+They came through the door with their arms encircling each other's
+waist, and walked forward together until they stood at the edge of the
+top step, under the <i>porte coch&egrave;re</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a shame," Beatrice was saying, impulsively. "I feel that the whole
+thing is more or less my fault, Sally, and&mdash;" a warning cough from
+Duncan told them that they were not alone; and also, at that moment, the
+other guests trooped out upon the broad veranda; all save Patricia, who
+did not appear.</p>
+
+<p>The two gentlemen who had brought Morton to the house after he was
+deserted by Patricia on the road, declined to remain, pleading other
+engagements, and soon their car whirred itself away down the road, and
+was gone. Nesbit Farnham contrived to secure a <i>solitude-&agrave;-deux</i> with
+Beatrice, who, however, turned an indifferent shoulder to his eager
+words; Agnes and Frances Houston strolled into obscurity with the two
+"extras" who had been asked there to fill out Sally's original plan;
+Sally disappeared into the house, evidently in search of Patricia; Jack
+Gardner and the lawyer lighted cigars and betook themselves to an "S"
+chair at a far corner of the veranda. Duncan remained where he was,
+alone, screened from view by overhanging vines, as desolate in spirit as
+any man can be, who is suddenly brought face to face with an unpleasant
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing had mattered much, in a comparative sense, until this last scene
+with Patricia. He had been convinced all along, until now, that Patricia
+loved him and that her strange conduct during the last upheaval in their
+relations had been the result of wounded pride, only; it had not even
+remotely occurred to him that she did not love him. They had been
+together all their lives; he had never known a time when he did not love
+her; he believed that there had never been a time, since their
+childhood, when she did not expect some day to become his wife.</p>
+
+<p>But that short scene he had witnessed on the veranda, when Patricia bade
+Morton good-bye, had changed all this. He doubted the correctness of his
+previous convictions. He saw another and an entirely different
+explanation for Patricia's conduct toward him, for her attitude in the
+matter of the engagement contract which Melvin had been compelled to
+draw, and which he, himself, had likewise been compelled to sign. He
+read in that last scene between the ranchman and Patricia a fondness on
+her part for the young cattle-king which had been forced into the "open"
+of her own convictions, by the principal episode of the evening. He saw
+the utter wreck of his own hopes, of his entire scheme of life.</p>
+
+<p>While he sat there in the shadow of the vine, unseen and unseeing, he
+made still another discovery, a grim one, which brought with it a better
+realization of Morton's incentives, than anything else could have done.
+He realized that he hated Morton; hated him wholly and absolutely&mdash;hated
+him suddenly and vehemently. He knew, then, why Morton had attempted to
+kill him, for, if Morton had made a reappearance at that moment,
+Roderick Duncan would have taken the initiative, and would have been the
+one to do the killing.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, he made no move. If you had been watching him from beyond the
+screen of vines, no indication of what was passing in his thoughts would
+have been noticeable. The fierce hatred he so suddenly experienced was
+not made manifest by any act or expression, although it was none the
+less pronounced, for all that. And, strangely enough, it did not lead
+him to any greater consideration of Morton, or of his acts; rather the
+contrary.</p>
+
+<p>Once, while he was preoccupied in this manner, he was again conscious of
+the distant whirr of an automobile engine, but he gave it no thought,
+till afterward. He did notice that Jack Gardner also heard it, and took
+his cigar from his mouth while he listened to it; but at once resumed
+his conversation with the lawyer. Soon afterward, Roderick left his
+chair under the vine, and passed inside the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Rod," Jack called after him. "I didn't know you were there.
+Won't you join Melvin and me, in our cozy corner?" to which Duncan
+called back some casual reply, and passed on.</p>
+
+<p>He had made up his mind that he would seek out Patricia, at once, and
+tell her of the discovery he had just made; that he had been a fool not
+to realize before, that Morton was the man of her choice, and that she
+could have the fellow if she wanted him; that he would not only release
+her from the tentative engagement, but that he would repudiate the
+contract entirely, and that, as soon as he could secure his own copy of
+it from the strong-box where he had put it, he would tear it into ten
+thousand pieces; that he would have no more of her, on any conditions,
+and that&mdash;oh, well, he thought of many bitter and biting things that he
+would say to her the moment he should find her&mdash;possibly in tears
+because of Morton's enforced departure from Cedarcrest, or in the act of
+weeping out the truth on Sally Gardner's shoulder. He thought he
+understood the situation now, as he had not seen it before.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan searched in the drawing-room, the music-room, the dining-room; he
+explored the snuggery, the library, and even Jack's own particular den;
+he sought the side piazzas; he went outside among the trees to certain
+hidden nooks he knew. But Patricia was nowhere to be discovered. Neither
+had he been able to see Sally anywhere about, and the conviction became
+stronger upon him that the two were somewhere together, and that
+Patricia, her pride forgotten, was keeping the young hostess with her
+while she told of the terrible predicament in which she now found
+herself to be enmeshed; for it would be a most stupendous predicament
+for Patricia to face&mdash;the realization that she was in love with Morton,
+in spite of the contract in writing she had forced Roderick Duncan to
+sign with her.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the house, he found the butler, and was about to send him
+in search of his mistress, when he discovered Sally, descending the
+stairway.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Patricia?" Each asked the question simultaneously, so that
+the words were pronounced exactly together; and yet neither one smiled.
+Each question was a reply to its mate.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been searching everywhere for her," said Duncan.</p>
+
+<p>"So have I," replied Sally. "Where can she be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't an idea. Isn't she up-stairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Couldn't you find her, outside?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't seen her since&mdash;since that dreadful scene on the veranda,"
+said Sally. "Have you seen her, Roderick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"When? Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her taking leave of Morton, when he went away," he replied, with
+such bitterness that Sally stared at him; but, wisely, she made no
+comment; nor did she attempt to stay him when he turned abruptly away
+from her, and walked rapidly toward one of the side entrances. But he
+stopped and turned, before he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Sally," he said, "I am going to ask you to excuse me. I want to get
+away. I would rather not explain to the others&mdash;I would rather not
+attempt to explain to you. But I want to go. You will excuse me? and if
+those who remain should happen to miss me, will you make whatever excuse
+seems necessary?"</p>
+
+<p>"None will be necessary, Roderick. Oh, you men! You make me tired! You
+do, really! It is inconceivable why you should all fall hopelessly in
+love with one woman, and utterly ignore the others who are&mdash;" She
+stopped suddenly. She had been on the point of saying too much, and she
+did not wish to utter words she would be sorry for, afterward. Duncan
+did not attempt any reply, and was turning away a second time, when she
+called after him: "If you would only be really sensible, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And what, Sally?" he asked her, when she again hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were about to make a suggestion. What was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it was anything at all, it was that you chase yourself out there
+among the trees, find Beatrice and Nesbit Farnum, and take her away from
+him," exclaimed this impetuous young woman, who found delight in
+expressing herself in the slang of the day. Duncan shrugged his
+shoulders, and uttered the one word:</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>But Sally did not vouchsafe any reply at all, to the question. She
+tossed her head, and darted along the wide hall toward a rear door.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan gazed after her for a moment, and then, with another shrug of his
+shoulders, he passed on out of the house, and made his way swiftly
+toward the stables and the garage, for he was determined to get out his
+car and to return to the city, forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>His surprise was great, when, on arriving at the door of the garage, he
+found that Sally had preceded him, and, as he drew near, she turned a
+white, scared face toward him, exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Roderick! What do you think? Patricia has gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone!" he echoed. "Gone where? Gone, when? What do you mean, Sally?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone. She has taken one of Jack's cars, and gone home."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. She took Patrick with her, to drive the car. They left here half an
+hour ago, I am told. Why do you suppose she did such a thing, without
+consulting me, Roderick? Why? Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" he echoed her question a second time. Then, he laughed, and it
+was not a pleasant laugh to hear. All the bitterness of those moments
+under the vine on the veranda was voiced in that laugh. "It isn't a
+difficult question to answer, Sally. She has followed Morton&mdash;that is
+why;" and, while Mrs. Gardner stared at him, uncomprehendingly, he
+turned to one of the stablemen who was near, and who had been Sally's
+informant about the movements of Patricia, and called out:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell my man to fetch my car to me, here. I shall go, at once, Sally."
+His car was already moving toward him, and, as it stopped and he put one
+foot upon the step, Sally replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say that you and Patricia went away together. It will sound
+better."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, Sally, but you will say no such thing&mdash;with my permission.
+Go ahead, Thompson." He sprang into the car, and it sped away with him,
+leaving Sally staring after him, wide-eyed with the amazement she felt.
+Already, she realized that her house-party, from which she had expected
+such wholesome results, had proven disastrous all around. Her husband's
+prophecy concerning it had been correct. But she did not know, and could
+not know as yet, just how disastrous it had been, for there had been no
+prophet to foretell the catastrophe at the stone quarry, toward which
+Patricia Langdon had started, half an hour earlier, in one of Jack
+Gardner's cars, guided by one of Jack's most trusted servants; and,
+oddly enough, by one who had formerly been in the employ of Stephen
+Langdon, and who, as a servant, had fallen under the spell of the
+daughter of the house to such an extent that he had never ceased to
+quote her as the criterion of all things in the way of excellence to be
+attained by an employer. And toward this quarry Duncan was now hastening
+at the full speed of his big Packard-sixty, with the trusted Thompson at
+the wheel; and toward it, as the chief actor, Richard Morton had started
+away from Cedarcrest with a broken heart, and with a brain crazed by the
+calamities that had rushed so swiftly upon him.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>MYSTERIES BORN IN THE NIGHT</b></p>
+<p class="p2">When the car, driven by Thompson, drew near to the derrick which had
+been to Morton the suggestion of an unholy impulse, he slowed the big
+Packard and leaned ahead, far over the wheel, for his keen eyes had
+already discerned something beside the road which had not been there
+when he had passed earlier in the evening. He stopped the car, and that
+fact awoke Duncan to a recollection of his surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Thompson?" he asked. "Why have you stopped?"</p>
+
+<p>Thompson was peering anxiously toward the jumbled mass of broken stone
+ahead of him, and there was an instant of silence before he replied.
+Then&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There has been a wreck here, sir," he told his employer.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly, Duncan thought of Patricia. He forgot Morton. He was out of
+the car even before Thompson could slide from under the steering-wheel,
+and started ahead at a run, toward the remnants of the wreck which he
+could now see quite plainly.</p>
+
+<p>The roadster, in making its last leap, had literally climbed the rocky
+place, and then, turning end for end twice, had finally alighted upon a
+heap of stone, from which it could be seen from the roadway. It was now
+a mass of iron, a twisted chaos of castings and machinery, recognizable
+only as something that had once been an automobile; but the experienced
+eyes of Thompson, trained to the quick and perfect recognition of all
+cars that he had ever seen, identified the mass of wreckage as soon as
+he got near enough to see it clearly. One comprehensive glance sufficed
+for him. He straightened up after that quick search for identification
+marks, which was his first instinct, and said, quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"It is Mr. Morton's roadster, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" cried Duncan, with a catch in his breath. The truth of the
+matter seemed to rush upon him on the instant, although he afterward
+refused to recognize it as truth. But, as Thompson made the statement,
+Duncan saw again the despairing face of Richard Morton which had still
+had in it a hidden determination to do something that Duncan had not
+even tried to guess at the time. "Was this what he intended to do?"
+Duncan asked himself, silently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; it is Mr. Morton's roadster," Thompson repeated, with entire
+conviction. "He must have been hitting up a great gait, when he struck,
+too. I never saw such a wreck; never, sir. He must be somewhere about,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>"True. Look for him, Thompson; look everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>He started forward himself, leaping over the stones, and plunging into
+every place where the body of a man might have fallen, after being
+hurled from the wrecked car. They searched distances beyond where it was
+possible that the body of a man might have been thrown, but they did not
+find Morton.</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible that he escaped," said Duncan, at last, pausing and
+wiping perspiration from his brow. "He might have alighted on his feet,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Pardon me. It is not possible. No man could go through such a
+wreck as that one, and in such a place, and escape alive. Besides,
+sir&mdash;look here."</p>
+
+<p>The man struck a match, and held the blaze of it toward a pile of sharp
+stones. Duncan bent forward, peered at the spot indicated by Thompson,
+and drew back again with a sharp exclamation of horror.</p>
+
+<p>There was blood on the stones; quite a lot of it, partly dried. And near
+it, half-hidden among the jagged stones, were Morton's watch and fob.
+The fob was instantly recognizable for it was totally unlike any other
+that Duncan had ever seen, formed of nuggets in the rough, linked
+together with steel rings, instead of with gold, or silver. The watch
+was smashed almost as badly as the automobile. Duncan took it in his
+hand, held it so for a moment, and at last, with a shudder, dropped it
+into one of his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it mean, Thompson? Where is he?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is likely, sir, that someone passed the spot, either at the
+time of the accident or directly after it happened. Of course, sir, the
+body would not have been left here under any circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"The body? You think he must be dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no doubt of it, sir," said Thompson, with conviction.
+"Shall we go on, sir? Nothing more can be done here."</p>
+
+<p>They returned to their own car, and the journey toward the city was
+resumed. Not another word was spoken until they were in the city
+streets, and then the only direction that Duncan gave his chauffeur was
+that he be taken directly to his rooms, where, as soon as he entered,
+he seized upon the telephone. One after another, he called up every
+hospital in the city, and it was not until he found his search to be
+entirely unavailing that it occurred to him Morton would have been taken
+to some place nearer the scene of the accident. Then, he bethought
+himself to communicate with police headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>"I will give," he said, "a thousand dollars for positive information
+about the fate of Richard Morton, provided the same is brought to me
+before daylight, and that my request be kept a secret. This is not a
+bribe, but a spur to great effort. You have facilities for making such
+inquiries. Find Morton for me, before morning, if you can, no matter
+where he is. Keep it from the newspapers, too. Then, come to me for the
+check." He explained fully the locality of the accident&mdash;and then he
+waited.</p>
+
+<p>He did not occupy his bed that night, and he could not have explained
+why he did not do so. He kept telling himself that Richard Morton was
+nothing whatever to him; that it did not matter what had happened to the
+fellow; that Morton deserved death for what he had done&mdash;and a lot of
+other things of the same character. But all the while he paced the
+floor, and waited for information; or, he seated himself in a corner of
+the room and smoked like a furnace chimney. Just as daylight was
+breaking, while gazing through his window toward the eastward, he
+started, and asked himself, guiltily:</p>
+
+<p>"Am I hoping all the time that he is dead? Have I offered that thousand
+dollars only for assurance of his death?"</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, he was not compelled to reply to the self-accusing
+question, for there came a summons at his door, and an officer from
+headquarters entered to announce that, although diligent search and
+inquiry had been made in every conceivable quarter, not a word of
+information regarding Richard Morton could be obtained. Duncan listened
+in silence to the report, and, when it was finished, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; continue the search. Find the man, or find out what became
+of him. I will defray all the expenses, and will pay the reward I
+offered, too. But I must have the information at once, and everything
+relative to this affair must be kept from the newspapers."</p>
+
+<p>The officer had just gone when a ring at Duncan's telephone took him
+quickly to it&mdash;and the voice of Jack Gardner at the other end of the
+wire alarmed him unduly, considering that there was no known reason to
+feel alarm. Gardner, upon being assured that he was talking directly
+with his friend, said:</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to pardon me, old chap, for calling you out of bed at this
+ungodly hour, but I just had to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't worry, Jack. I haven't been in bed. What's up?" Duncan
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Why; you see there is a mystery developed, just now. If you haven't
+been in bed, I have. I was called out of it by this confounded
+telephone&mdash;twice. The first call was to tell me that some sort of an
+accident had happened to Dick Morton. I couldn't gather what it was, and
+didn't really take much stock in it, so far as that goes. Then, the
+second call came. I was mad by that time, and didn't have very much to
+say to the chap at the other end of the wire&mdash;till Sally put me up to
+calling you."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the second call about?" asked Duncan, gritting his teeth and
+almost fearing to hear what it might have been.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my Thomas car&mdash;the one that took Patricia away, you know&mdash;has been
+found somewhere in the streets of New York, deserted, apparently. I
+can't understand it. They identified the car by the number, you know.
+When I told Sally what had been said to me, she immediately had a spasm
+of fear lest the accident reported to have happened to Morton might
+have been Patricia, instead. I thought I'd ask you about it; that's
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a minute, Jack. Just let me think, a minute; then I'll answer
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan put the receiver down on the table, and crossed the room. He
+found it difficult to grasp the situation. Until that moment, it had not
+occurred to him that Patricia might have been the one to find Morton, or
+Morton's body, at the scene of the wreck. He had forgotten that she must
+have passed that way within half an hour from the time of the piling of
+the steamer upon the mass of sharp stones. Presently, he returned to the
+telephone, and told his friend all that he knew about the circumstances,
+and all that he had done since Thompson and he came away from the scene
+of the wreck.</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't see what your Thomas car has got to do with it," he
+concluded. "Your man Patrick was driving it, wasn't he? I know he was.
+He used to be with Langdon, you know. He isn't a chauffeur, but he's a
+lot more competent to be one than half the men who are. I say, Jack,
+have Sally call up Patricia, right away. You&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He heard a click over the wire which told him that connection was cut
+off; and after that he paced the floor again, wishing and hoping for the
+ringing of his telephone-bell.</p>
+
+<p>"We are coming to the city at once," Gardner told him, when at last it
+did ring, and Duncan had taken down the receiver. "What the devil is the
+matter with everything, anyhow? You had better hump yourself, Duncan,
+and get busy. I don't believe that Morton was hurt half so badly as you
+and Thompson seemed to think. Anyhow, the only way I can see through it
+all is that Patricia was the one who found him. But, even so&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on a minute, Jack. You are getting too swift for me. What did
+Sally find out when she telephoned to Patricia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Didn't I tell you that? Patricia hasn't been home, at all. They
+thought, at Langdon's, that she was here. She certainly hasn't shown up
+there. And you say that Dick has disappeared, after leaving his gore
+spread all over the place where his car was smashed. And, then, my car
+is found somewhere down there, abandoned. I can't make it out, at all.
+Sally is sure that something dreadful has happened. We're starting now.
+Sally won't wait another minute. I'll see you as soon as I get into
+town."</p>
+
+<p>He did not delay to say good-bye, but hung up the receiver at his end.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan did not await the arrival of Gardner. He summoned his valet, and
+gave him strict directions about the reception of any news concerning
+the mysteries of the night. Then, he hurried to Stephen Langdon's home
+where he was admitted at once to the old banker's sleeping apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"What in heaven's name is the matter now, Rod?" the financier demanded,
+testily. "It is bad enough to have you and Patricia at sword's points,
+but to rout out an old fellow like me from his bed at this hour, is
+rubbing it in."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you haven't heard that Patricia did not come home last night,
+have you?" Duncan said, by way of reply.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I haven't. I should have been surprised, if I had heard it. She
+wasn't expected to come home. She went to the Gardners."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, there is a lot that you ought to know, before you step out
+of this room, to face all sorts of statements and inquiries. That is why
+I am here. I thought I was the best one to tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"To tell me what?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be something of a shock, sir. Brace yourself for it. I don't
+think that a soul in the world except me, guesses at the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Guesses at what truth? What the devil is the matter with you? What are
+you trying to tell me? Out with it, whatever it is!"</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia has run away with Richard Morton. He was hurt last night. She
+was in love with him, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! Stop where you are, Rod. You're crazy. You're stark, staring,
+raving crazy! Why in heaven's name should Patricia want to run away with
+Morton? It is true that I have always wanted her to marry you, but, if
+she wanted <i>him</i>, she knows mighty well she could have him. I wouldn't
+put out a finger to stop her from marrying anybody of her choice, so
+long as the man was morally and mentally fit. Sit down over there; take
+a drink. You look as if you needed one. Don't utter a word for five
+minutes, and then begin at the beginning and tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>But Duncan would listen to neither request. He began at once and told of
+the occurrences of the night, from the moment when Patricia had arrived
+at Cedarcrest alone, till the receipt of the telephonic messages from
+Gardner; and he concluded by saying:</p>
+
+<p>"There is no mystery in the affair, at all, as I regard it. Patricia
+left the house, at Cedarcrest, half an hour after Morton left it. She
+found the wrecked car, near the derrick, as Thompson and I found it,
+later on. But she found Morton, too. Patrick was with her, and Patrick
+is devoted to Patricia. He wouldn't consider the fact that he is, or
+was, in Jack's employ, if it came to a question of obedience to her
+wishes; he would serve her. You see, Patricia found out that she loved
+Morton, when he got his calling-down; only, I suppose, even then, she
+wasn't quite sure. But, when the time came for him to go away entirely,
+she had no more doubts about it! She didn't remain long at Cedarcrest,
+after that; she followed him. She knew that Patrick was there, and that
+he would go with her. Well, they found the wreck of Morton's car, along
+the road; then, they found Morton. Probably, he wasn't much hurt; chaps
+like him don't mind the loss of a little blood. Patricia and the man
+helped him into the car. It was just the proper scene, with all the best
+kind of setting for a mutual confession of their love, and&mdash;there you
+are."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Roderick. Finish all you have to say, before I begin. What
+next?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;oh, what's the use? There isn't any more to say. Morton probably
+asked her to go away with him, and she went. That's all. I thought you
+ought to know it."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know it yourself, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;not positively, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"You have just guessed it."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that's true, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if your guessing has gone far enough to enlighten me on two
+important points."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know why Morton would want her to run away with him at all,
+and why she should think of consenting to such a thing, if he did.
+Patricia isn't one of the run-away kind. I should think you would know
+that. And they didn't have to run."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Morton had just been virtually kicked out of Jack Gardner's house.
+He was&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Well? Couldn't Stephen Langdon's daughter kick him into it again?
+Or into any other house on God's green earth, for that matter, if she
+tried to do so? Do you suppose he'd have to pay any attention to a
+little, petty ostracism, on the part of such puppets of society as
+gathered out there, if he became the husband of Patricia Langdon? Don't
+be an ass, Roderick! You are just plain jealous, and I don't know that
+I blame you&mdash;for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not jealous."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, you're a fool, and that's a heap worse."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>RODERICK DUNCAR SEES LIGHT</b></p>
+<p class="p2">The police department of the city of New York did not earn the thousand
+dollars reward offered by Roderick Duncan. The mystery of the abandoned
+car, owned by Jack Gardner, was not explained. Patrick O'Toole did not
+return to his duties at Cedarcrest. The story of the wreck of the White
+Steamer on the rocks under the derrick remained untold. Patricia Langdon
+did not reappear among her friends and acquaintances in the city. The
+mysteries born of that party at Cedarcrest continued unsolved.</p>
+
+<p>Roderick Duncan, having arrived at a conclusion about all those matters
+which was quite satisfactory to himself, declined to concern himself
+farther about them; he believed that he perfectly understood the
+situation, and he let it go at that&mdash;although he engaged the services of
+every clipping-bureau in the city, in an effort to find announcement
+somewhere of the marriage of Patricia Langdon to Richard Morton. But no
+such record was discovered, nor was any evidence found that suggested
+such a possibility. He withdrew very much into himself, shunned his
+clubs, avoided his friends, and could not himself tell why he did not go
+away somewhere, to the other side of the world, seeking to forget what
+he had lost. He went so far in his studied aloofness as to keep entirely
+away from Stephen Langdon, and was perhaps all the more surprised when,
+as time elapsed, Patricia's father did not send for him. The utter
+silence of Stephen Langdon, and his entire inactivity concerning the
+absence of his daughter convinced Duncan, as it did also Patricia's,
+friends, generally, that he knew perfectly well where she was. It was a
+logical conclusion, too, for, if Stephen Langdon had not known, it is
+safe to say that he would have moved heaven and earth to find his
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Jack and Sally Gardner went to Europe and took Beatrice with them.
+Nesbit Farnham followed them, on the next steamer. The Misses Houston,
+also, disappeared. The newspapers had contained merely a mention of the
+wreck, nothing more of consequence. The destruction of the machine was
+told, and it was hinted that the chauffeur was slightly injured; nothing
+was said to suggest that Richard Morton had been hurt at all. The
+police, to whom Duncan had telephoned, made no bones of pooh-poohing
+the entire matter, and laughing in their sleeves about it. The police
+had their own ideas about the whole thing&mdash;and speedily forgot them all.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Langdon was strangely grim and silent, those days; he was also
+unusually dangerous to his rivals in "the street." Every energy that he
+possessed seemed bent upon ruining somebody, anybody. It did not occur
+to Duncan that the old man avoided him, because he was guilty of the
+like avoidance himself; but, had he been less concerned with his own
+sorrows, and given some thought to Stephen Langdon's, he would have been
+quick enough to discover that the old financier dodged him, studiously.</p>
+
+<p>There was no gossip about the disappearance of Patricia, because nothing
+was known about it. She was out of town, as were most of her associates;
+traveling somewhere, doubtless, or was passing the time among her
+numerous friends.</p>
+
+<p>The first week after the beginning of the mystery was lived through in a
+state of unrest by Duncan, and the second and third weeks brought no
+change to him. With the beginning of the fourth week, he encountered
+Burke Radnor, and the mere sight of the newspaper man recalled to the
+young millionaire that bitterly unpleasant episode in which his name
+and that of Beatrice Brunswick were coupled. Radnor was seated in the
+lobby of the Hotel Astor, when Duncan entered the place. The man had
+been drinking just enough to render him a bit boisterous and a trifle
+loud in his talk and demeanor, when Duncan saw him. He was seated with
+several other men, and all of them were talking and laughing together at
+the moment when Duncan passed them on his way to the desk to inquire for
+a guest whom he desired to see. He took no notice whatever of Radnor,
+and was passing on, when a remark dropped noisily by the newspaper
+writer arrested him. It brought him to a halt so suddenly, that he sank
+at once upon a chair near at hand, and remained there without realizing
+that he did so, for the sole purpose of hearing what else Radnor might
+have to say upon this particular subject. He would have passed on, even
+then, had he not been convinced that Radnor had not seen him, and did
+not suspect his nearness. As he listened, he gathered that Radnor was
+boasting of a prospective news story which he had in prospect, and for
+the publication of which he needed only a few additional facts.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;elopement in high life, with an automobile wreck, a broken head&mdash;a
+broken heart also, only that was quickly mended&mdash;and a bunch of other
+little details thrown in, you know," was the remark that was overheard
+by Duncan, as he strolled past the group; was his reason for dropping
+down upon a convenient chair and remaining there, to listen. "The lady
+in the case is a swell who is away up in the top rank of the
+'two-hundred-and-fifty;' and the man&mdash;well, he is up in high C, too, for
+that matter. One of the newly-rich, you know, lately materialized out of
+the wild and woolly. Fine stunt, that story; only, I can't seem to nail
+the few additional facts I need," Radnor continued, while Duncan
+listened with all his ears. "There are certain elements connected with
+the story that make it especially attractive to me, for, in addition to
+getting a clear scoop in the biggest sensation of the year, I can clean
+up an old grudge of mine, bee-eautifully. And won't I clean it up, when
+I get my hooks fairly into it! Well! You can take it from me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go on, Radnor, and tell us about it!" urged one of his
+companions&mdash;another newspaper writer, evidently. "How'd you get next to
+it in the first place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that was an accident&mdash;a series of accidents, it might be called. I
+don't mind telling you that part of it, without names. I mentioned a
+broken head, just now. Well, I had a line on a dandy story that was
+located out of town, and so I borrowed Tony Brokaw's automobile to go
+after it, because the story was located some distance off of the main
+line of travel. I was bowling along quite merrily, all alone in a car
+that is made to carry seven. It was just in the shank of the evening,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"All this happened out of town, didn't it, Radnor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;a little way out. I came to a place where there had been a wreck,
+and&mdash;well&mdash;seated on the ground at the scene of the disaster, was the
+lady in the case, holding the head of the man in the case, in her lap,
+and moaning over it to beat the band. Standing beside them, like a big
+dog on guard, was a 'faithful servant.' It made a picture that couldn't
+be beaten, for suggestive points, provided the likenesses were made good
+enough. I took the whole thing in, at a glance, and sized the situation
+up rather correctly, too. The young woman was rattled clean out of her
+senses, and kept moaning something about it's being all her fault&mdash;I
+wasn't able to get just the gist of that part of it. She knew me by
+sight, and remembered my name. I offered my assistance, and then fell to
+examining the injured man. I discovered that he wasn't dead by a long
+shot, although he had been hurt quite badly, and he'd bled a lot. But
+I've been a war correspondent; I know all about first aid to the
+injured; I have seen wounds of all kinds, and it didn't take me long to
+estimate 'mister magusalem's' chances at about a thousand to one, for
+recovery. I made the chauffeur help me, and together we toted the
+wounded man to my car, and put him in the tonneau. The lady climbed in
+beside him&mdash;and ordered her chauffeur to follow her, and help her with
+the injured man. All the time, I was keeping up a devil of a thinking,
+wondering what it was all about. You see, I knew who the man and the
+woman were, but I couldn't fix the facts of the case sufficiently clear
+to satisfy me. I knew it would be a dandy sensation for the morning
+papers, but there was yet plenty of time to get it in, over a
+wire&mdash;besides, I wanted it to go in late, so that other papers than the
+one I gave it to, couldn't get a line on it. I got into my car&mdash;that is,
+the one I had borrowed, you understand&mdash;wondering where I would take the
+bunch, when another car stopped alongside of us, and a man, also alone,
+asked what was the matter. I found out that he was a doctor, and got him
+to take a look at the wounded man. To make a long story short, he
+dressed the wound then and there, said there wasn't any immediate
+danger&mdash;and a lot more&mdash;and went on his way. That decided me. I knew of
+a place about twenty miles away where I could take them, where the man
+would have the best of care, and&mdash;best of all&mdash;where I could fix things
+up to keep everything quiet till I found out all the facts. You see, I
+scented the greatest sensational story of my career&mdash;and I wasn't far
+out, either, if ever I get all of it."</p>
+
+<p>"But, great Scott, man, didn't you have it then?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'd have had it, Sommers; but not I. I knew there was more to it.
+When the doctor pulled his freight out of there, I didn't lose any time
+in getting a move on me, too. And the girl never asked a question; not
+one; I had told her that I would take them to a place where the man
+could get well, and she seemed satisfied. The chauffeur never peeped a
+word. I let the motor skim along at a good rate, and wasn't long in
+bringing the bunch to the place I had thought of, which happens to be a
+small, private sanatorium, which isn't known to be one at all, save by
+those who patronize it and who want to put their loved ones away for a
+time, secretly. But the doc who runs it, is a good fellow, a good friend
+of mine, and when I told him that we didn't want a word said about the
+affair&mdash;and particularly when he discovered who the parties were and
+that there was a heap of dough in it for him&mdash;he fell into my plans
+without a dissenting vote."</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Radnor, that's a long winded yarn, all right, but it's
+interesting. I wish, though, that you'd open up with the names."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, Sommers. I haven't got to the real mystery of the affair&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say! What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when I had fixed things to suit me, and had received the thanks
+of the lady, when I had also satisfied myself that she was just as
+anxious for secrecy about the thing as I was, although I couldn't tell
+exactly why she was so, I hiked it back for town. It was too late, then,
+to get the other story I had been after, and I had ceased to care much
+about it, anyhow; and then, when I was ready to leave, out came the
+chauffeur, and he said, if I didn't mind, he'd ride part of the way back
+with me. He and the woman had been whispering together, just before
+that, and I sized it up that she had given him certain instructions to
+carry out. Anyhow, when we arrived at the scene of the accident, the
+chauffeur got down, and I came on, to the city, alone. I'm not going to
+tell you why the chauffeur left me, at the scene of the accident,
+because that would give you a pointer which I don't wish you to have. He
+had a certain duty to perform which I did not guess at, just then, but
+which was all plain to me the next A. M., if anybody should ask you. It
+amazed me, and it added immensely to the mystery. And now, brace
+yourself, fellows, for the real mystery&mdash;the one I am chasing at the
+present time."</p>
+
+<p>"We're all ears, Radnor."</p>
+
+<p>"I telephoned to my friend the doc, the next morning. He reported that
+the man was doing well, and that the lady was hanging over him like a
+possum over a ripe persimmon. I telephoned again that afternoon, again
+the next morning, and every day after that, but the doc kept telling me
+that, although the man was doing well, and the lady was still there with
+him, I had better not butt in until he tipped me the wink&mdash;and I'll give
+you my word that he managed to keep me on the hooks for ten days before
+I tumbled."</p>
+
+<p>"Tumbled to what?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall hear. I got leary about things on the tenth day, for this
+telephoning was getting monotonous, and borrowed Brokaw's car again, but
+when I got to the little hidden sanatorium, my birds had flown, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your birds had flown! What do you mean, Radnor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just what I say. The man and the woman had gone, and the doc wouldn't
+tell me when they went away, or anything at all about them. He said he
+had been well paid for keeping quiet, and I couldn't get any more
+information out of him than you could dig out of a clam. What is more,
+that chauffeur hadn't been seen by anybody since I dropped him out of
+the machine, at the scene of the accident&mdash;and that is the story. I
+don't know whether the doc lied to me, or not. He wouldn't let me go
+through his place, and, for all I know, the man and the girl were both
+there when I went back. On the other hand, they might have been gone a
+week, already. I've been unearthing every clue I could think of, since
+then, to get trace of them, but you might as well look for saw dust in
+hades, as for clues about those two&mdash;or rather the three of them, for I
+am satisfied that the chauffeur returned to the sanatorium after he had
+performed the errand he was sent to do."</p>
+
+<p>"What gets me," said Sommers, "is how people as prominent as you say
+they were could fade out of sight like that, and leave no trace behind
+them. I should have thought there would be a hue and cry after them
+that would have stirred every newspaper in town."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;all that rather gets me, too. Of course, I could make a big story
+out of it, as it stands; but that isn't all of the story, and I want it
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a scandal in the thing, too, Radnor."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, man! The fellow wasn't so badly hurt but what he must have
+been around again, by the time I went back to the sanatorium. The girl
+was certainly in her right senses. She remained there with him, hanging
+over him and helping to take care of him&mdash;and there wasn't a thing said
+about any marriage-ceremony. Oh, it's a big story all right, no matter
+how it turns out. You see, there are some remarkable circumstances
+associated with the case. For instance, there are two men in town now,
+both of whom should be very greatly concerned over the mystery. I have
+had them both watched, and, while both seem anxious about something,
+neither one seems to give a hang about an affair which I know they would
+have broken their necks to have prevented. There's a nigger in the
+fence, somewhere; and those two men avoid each other as if one had the
+smallpox and the other was down with yellow fever. Whenever I have asked
+any of the intimate friends about the principals in the case, I have
+been told enough to inform me that the intimate friends know as little
+as I do, and don't guess anything about it, at all. Oh, it's a fine
+mix-up! But just where the trouble is located, I can't make out."</p>
+
+<p>"Put me wise, Radnor, and let me help you. Then, we'll do the story
+together," said the man called Sommers.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much. It's my story, and I'm going to hang to it. If you can make
+anything out of what I have told you, you're welcome. You can't! The
+young woman in the case has got more brains than half the business men,
+down-town. The man and the woman have both got millions to burn; and
+there you are. Come on; let's have something. I'm dry as a bone."</p>
+
+<p>The members of Radnor's party marched past Roderick Duncan without
+seeing him; and he, totally forgetful of the errand that had taken him
+to the hotel, passed swiftly out of it, hailed a taxi, and gave the
+address of Malcolm Melvin, the lawyer; and then he was whirled away as
+swiftly as the driver of the cab dared to take him through the streets
+of the teeming city.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE LAST WOMAN</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Stephen Langdon was seated at one end of the table, Roderick Duncan was
+at the opposite one. Melvin, the lawyer, was behind it. Duncan had just
+related the story he had overheard told by Radnor, and he had brought
+his recital to a close by making a remarkable statement, which had
+brought at least one of his hearers to a mental stand-still.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a party to an agreement which was signed, sealed and delivered, in
+this office, Mr. Langdon," he said. "You are also a party to that
+document. Your daughter also signed it. By the terms of that document,
+Patricia Langdon became my promised wife. Under the terms recited in
+that document, she named a day when we were to be married. That day has
+come and gone, and I have received no word of any kind from her. I am
+convinced that you, her father, know where she is, where she can be
+found, and now I demand of you that information, in order that I may
+seek her. It is my wish to know from her own lips if she repudiates
+that contract, or if it is still her intention to live up to it. I have
+asked you, in Mr. Melvin's presence, twice, to give me the information I
+wish for. I have asked you once on the ground of our mutual friendship:
+you declined to answer. I have asked you, the second time, on the ground
+of love and affection, for you and for your daughter: you have refused.
+I ask you now on the ground of a commercial transaction, just as Miss
+Langdon insisted upon viewing it, and with all personal considerations
+put aside. If you again decline my request, I give you warning that I
+shall make a call upon you within an hour, for the loan I have advanced.
+I have that right, under the terms of the agreement, and I shall take
+advantage of it. That is all I have to say. It is my last word."</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Langdon left his chair. His face was cold, stern,
+expressionless. It wore the mask which long years in "the street," had
+given it. He did not look toward Duncan, but turned his face to the
+lawyer, and said, with cold preciseness:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Melvin, you may say for me, to all who may be concerned, that I
+shall be prepared within an hour to meet all demands that may be made
+upon me."</p>
+
+<p>With a slight inclination of his head, he left the office of the lawyer.
+He walked as erect as ever; he carried himself no less proudly, although
+he knew that he was going to his financial ruin unless the unexpected
+should happen. Twenty millions is a large sum to pay at an hour's
+notice. It was not a tithe of the fortune which Stephen Langdon was
+supposed to possess; yet his circumstances at the moment were such that
+terrible disaster would immediately follow upon the demand for its
+payment. He knew it; Melvin knew it; Roderick Duncan knew it. But the
+fighting blood of Roderick Duncan's father was surging in his son's
+soul, just then; and, in his day, "Old Man Duncan" had been a harder and
+a more relentless financier than ever his partner, Stephen Langdon, had
+become.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not insist, will you, Roderick?" the lawyer asked, as soon as
+they were alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall insist," replied Duncan, with decision.</p>
+
+<p>"Even in the event that I might give you the information you seek? Even
+in that case, will you insist upon forcing your father's life-long friend
+to the wall? For that is what it will amount to."</p>
+
+<p>"No. In that case I shall not insist upon calling in the loan. I seek
+only the information. It doesn't matter where I get it, so long as I do
+get it, and it proves to be correct. That is all I require."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer drew a pad of paper toward him and hastily wrote a few lines
+upon it. Then, tearing off the sheet, he rang a bell and gave the
+written message into the hand of a clerk.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Langdon just left this office," he said. "Overtake him and give him
+this message. See to it that you do not fail to place it in his hands at
+once." He waited until the door had closed behind the retreating figure
+of the clerk; then he turned toward Duncan again.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Langdon is only a very little wiser than yourself about what has
+happened to his daughter, during the last few weeks," he said, with a
+touch of coldness in his tones. "I am somewhat better informed than
+either of you, and in order to save my old friend from utter ruin&mdash;in
+order to save his life, for ruin would spell death to him&mdash;I shall tell
+you what you wish to know, even though I have been implored not to do
+so. Frankly, I believe it better that you should know the truth,
+only"&mdash;he hesitated a moment&mdash;"I shall ask you to remember who you are
+and what you are, and to govern yourself as your father's son should."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Melvin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Langdon is at Three-Star ranch, in Montana. She has been there&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Melvin!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said, <i>Miss Langdon</i>. Do you wish to correct that statement by any
+change of name? Was it a slip of the tongue, caused by momentary
+forgetfulness?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"'Three-Star' is the name of a brand owned by Richard Morton, is it
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Three-Star ranch is one of his many properties, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"It is."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, please."</p>
+
+<p>"I repeat: Miss Langdon is at Three-Star ranch, in Montana. She has been
+there since a little more than a week after her disappearance. I was the
+first to be informed of the fact. The information came to me through a
+letter written by her to me. I have fulfilled the requests made to me in
+that letter&mdash;until now, when I am revealing truths which she wished
+untold. Through me, her father has settled one million dollars upon her.
+She now enjoys the income of that amount. That is all."</p>
+
+<p>"The letter! May I see it?"</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer methodically took a red-leather pocketbook from his coat,
+extracted an envelope therefrom, and passed it across the table to
+Duncan.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mr. Melvin," the young man read, half-aloud, although to himself,
+"I am at Three-Star ranch, one of the properties of Mr. Richard Morton,
+in Montana. The full address is inclosed, written upon an additional
+slip of paper which I trust you will destroy at once; also this letter.
+I am with Mr. Morton; I am caring for him. More than that, you need not
+know. I desire you to tell my father that it is my wish to forego any
+inheritance I might have received from him, but that if he is disposed
+to make any present settlement upon me, I shall cheerfully receive it. I
+shall not communicate with him; I do not wish him to communicate with
+me. I cannot command your silence, or his, concerning me; but I expect
+it. Unless he should demand of you knowledge of my place of abode, I
+prefer that you withhold it from him. Concerning others, I implore your
+entire silence and discretion. I shall communicate with you again only
+in the event that it should become necessary to do so.&mdash;Patricia
+Langdon."</p>
+
+<p>The letter fluttered from Duncan's hands to the floor. He bent forward
+and picked it up, his face white and drawn and set and suddenly haggard.
+He folded the letter carefully, returned it to the envelope, and then,
+with slow precision, tore it into bits, carried the mass of fragments to
+the hearth, piled them into a heap and touched a lighted match to it.
+The lawyer watched the proceeding without emotion, without a change of
+expression. But he gave a slight nod of satisfaction when it was done.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan did not return to his chair. He stood for a moment before the
+hearth, with his back turned toward the lawyer; then he wheeled about
+and came forward three steps, until he could reach his hat which was on
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Melvin," he said. "I shall entirely respect your confidence.
+Good-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, Duncan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I haven't thought of that&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer rose from his chair, and rested the tips of his fingers on
+the table in front of him, bending slightly forward.</p>
+
+<p>"She was a good girl; and you loved her. Don't forget that," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I won't forget it, Melvin."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;there are others, just as good; don't forget that, either."</p>
+
+<p>"No. There are no others like her. She was the last woman&mdash;for me; the
+last woman; and she is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"The last woman? Nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"The last woman, Melvin. You don't understand me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not understand you."</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! Don't you see how it all came about? Don't you know Patricia
+Langdon?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that I won't hear a word against her, even now&mdash;even from you,
+Duncan," said the lawyer, with a touch of savagery.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you understand that, having put her name to a written contract
+with me, she would not break that contract, or repudiate it? And don't
+you see that she has intended, all along, to force me into a position
+where I would be the one to repudiate its terms? You're a poor judge of
+character, Melvin, if you don't see that. You have never known Patricia
+Langdon, if you don't understand her, now. And"&mdash;he hesitated an
+instant&mdash;"your association with me has taught you mighty little about my
+character, if you haven't guessed what I will do&mdash;now!"</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do, Roderick? What do you mean?" asked the lawyer,
+alarmed by the deep intensity with which Duncan spoke those last words.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go to Montana. I shall start to-night. I shall find Patricia
+Langdon. I shall live up to the terms of the contract I made with her,
+and I shall compel her to do the same. I shall make her my wife. I shall
+bring her back to New York, to her father, to her home, as Mrs. Roderick
+Duncan. That is what I shall do. That is what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, boy! But&mdash;it can't be done."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be done."</p>
+
+<p>"But, she will never consent to such an arrangement. She is the last
+woman in the world to drag your name&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The last woman; that is it. She is the last of the Langdon's; she shall
+be the last of the Duncan's, too. She will keep to the letter of her
+contract, if I force her to it. I know that. And I will force her to
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"But the man! What will you do with him?"</p>
+
+<p>Duncan stared a moment. Then, he smiled, as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"After Patricia Langdon has become Patricia Duncan, I will kill him.
+Good-day, Melvin."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE REASON WHY</b></p>
+<p class="p2">Roderick Duncan traveled westward in a special train made up of his own
+private car, a regular Pullman, and a diner. With his valet for company,
+Duncan constituted the personnel of the first of these; the second was
+occupied by the Reverend Doctor Moreley, his wife and two daughters. The
+reverend gentleman was aware of a part of the purpose of that trip; the
+members of his family were yet to be told of it. A lavish use of the
+magician, Money, had prepared everything in advance for Duncan, and he
+had now only to carry out the arrangements he had made. There was a
+slight delay in making the start, but after that all things moved as
+smoothly as possible. Ultimately, the special train was sidetracked at
+a point that was within a few miles of the house and outbuildings of
+Three-Star ranch.</p>
+
+<p>The state of Montana held no finer ranch and range, no better or more
+up-to-date buildings, no better outfit in all respects, than Three-Star.
+The house, set well up along the side of a hill, faced toward the
+south, and commanded a view which had been the pride of its former
+owners, before Richard Morton bought up all the rangeland in that
+locality and converted it into one huge estate of his own. A broad
+veranda extended from end to end, at the front, and from that vantage
+point miles upon miles of rich pasture could be seen, dotted with
+grazing thousands of cattle. Trees, set out with a view to the future,
+by the creators of the ranch, imparted an aspect of homely comfort, of
+seclusion, peace and contentment to it all.</p>
+
+<p>Just at sundown when Patricia Langdon came through the wide door and
+stepped out upon the veranda toward the broad flight of steps which led
+down to the flowered inclosure in front of the house, she stopped
+suddenly, her right hand flew toward her throat, and her face, flushed
+and angry until that instant, went as pale as death itself. She gasped
+and caught her breath, swayed a second where she stood, and then drew
+herself upright again; and she stood straight and tall and brave, face
+to face with Roderick Duncan who appeared at the top step at the instant
+when Patricia advanced toward it.</p>
+
+<p>For a space, neither one uttered a word, or made another gesture, save
+that, in the first instant, Roderick raised his hat in silent
+salutation, and now stood with it held in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia's first act was to cast a half-furtive and wholly apprehensive
+glance over her shoulder, toward the doorway through which she had just
+passed. Then, she sprang forward like a young fawn and darted down the
+steps toward the pathway.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me," she threw back at him. "There must be an interview, but
+it cannot be held here. Follow me."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan obeyed her, but without haste; and she led him into a pathway
+among the trees, soon emerging upon an open space in the center of which
+a rustic pavilion had been erected. It was overgrown by a riot of
+climbing vines; an inclosure with windows at every side of it, occupied
+the center of the space beneath the roof, and inside the inclosure were
+all the evidences of feminine occupancy. Wicker chairs and chairs of
+willow, rugs, hassocks, cushions, pillows with embroidered covers,
+littered the place. One could discern at a glance that it was a place of
+retreat and rest for a woman of taste. In reality, it was Patricia
+Langdon's place of refuge&mdash;at least, she so regarded it.</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak again until she had mounted the steps which led up to
+it; nor did the man who followed her. But then, when they were beneath
+the roof of the pavilion, she turned about and faced him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said, "why are you here? Why have you dared to come to this
+place, in search of me?" She spoke without emphasis, but the very
+absence of all emotion gave her words the more weight and power.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan stood tall and straight before her, calmly facing her. If her
+face showed no emotion, now that she had regained control over herself,
+neither did his. Before he replied to her question, he took a folded
+paper from the breast-pocket of his coat, and held it in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a document here, which bears your signature, and mine," he said,
+then. "It recites the terms of a certain contract which you have agreed
+to fulfill. I am here to insist that you carry out the terms of this
+agreement. It is time now, for action on your part."</p>
+
+<p>Patricia gasped. She took a single step backward, and rested one hand
+upon the top of a willow armchair. Her composure seemed about to forsake
+her utterly, but by a great effort she controlled herself, lifting her
+free hand to her throat as if something were choking her.</p>
+
+<p>"It&mdash;is&mdash;impossible&mdash;now," she muttered, at last; and she swayed where
+she stood, as if she might fall.</p>
+
+<p>"Be seated, Patricia," he said, using her name for the first time; and,
+when she had complied, he passed around the chair until he stood behind
+her. It was a delicate act on his part&mdash;a consideration for her feelings
+which might not have been expected, under all the circumstances. He
+thought he understood how terrible this interview must be to her, and he
+did not wish to compel her to face him, while it endured. Patricia
+shivered when he passed her; otherwise she gave no sign. "It is not
+impossible," he went on, without perceptible pause. "It has never been
+impossible; it can never be so. On the contrary, it is imperative; more
+than ever imperative, now."</p>
+
+<p>She shivered again, and did not reply when he paused. He continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Patricia Langdon, you are not one to refuse the terms of a written
+contract which you have signed and sealed with a full knowledge of its
+meaning, particularly when the other party to it insists upon its
+fulfillment. I am the other party to this contract, and I do insist
+upon its complete fulfillment. You are the last woman in the world to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the last woman in the world&mdash;the very last!" she interrupted him,
+vehemently, but she did not turn her head toward him. He continued as if
+he had not heard her:</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;to repudiate the distinct terms of an agreement you have knowingly
+made."</p>
+
+<p>"I have already repudiated them."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you have not. And you shall not."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall not?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Do&mdash;do you mean that you would force me to a compliance with the
+conditions of that agreement you hold in your hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;if such a course is necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"But you cannot! You cannot!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can; and I will, Patricia."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak my name!" she cried out, hotly. "Don't utter it again!
+Don't you dare to do so! Don't you dare!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>"How will you force me? You cannot do it."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a penalty attached to all legally drawn contracts," he lied,
+glibly enough; and, realizing that she was startled by what he had
+already said, he did not hesitate to add more to it. "I have come here
+prepared to insist that you fulfill your obligation. You know that I am
+not one to relent, once I have set my course. There are officers of the
+law in this county and state, as well as within the county and state
+where you made the contract." He stopped a moment when she shrank
+visibly in her chair, for he was about to say a really cruel thing. He
+would not have said it, had he not deemed it entirely necessary, in
+order to coerce her to his will; but he went on, relentlessly: "If you
+make it needful to do so, I shall not hesitate to send officers here, to
+take you before a court, there to relate why you will not carry out the
+conditions of your contract."</p>
+
+<p>Duncan expected that Patricia would fly into a rage, at this; he thought
+she would leap to her feet, confront him, and defy him. He looked for a
+tirade of rage, of abuse, or of despair; or, failing these, for an
+outburst of pleading on her part that he would relent.</p>
+
+<p>There was no evidence of any of these emotions. Indeed, for a moment it
+seemed as if she had not heard him, so still did she sit in her chair,
+so utterly unmoved did she appear to be by the statement he had made.</p>
+
+<p>If, at that moment he had stepped around in front of her and looked
+into her face, he would have been amazed by what he saw. He would have
+seen great tears welling in her eyes, held in check by her long lashes;
+he would have seen a near approach to a smile behind those tears,
+although she was unconscious of that, herself; he would have noticed
+that she caught her breath again, but not in the same manner, nor from
+the same cause that had led to the like effort, earlier in their
+interview. When, at last, she did reply to him, it was in a far-away,
+uncertain voice, so soft, and so like the Patricia of quiet and
+sympathetic moods, that Roderick was startled, and he found himself
+compelled to hold his own spirit in check, lest he should forget the
+studied deportment he had determined upon for the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you insist upon it?" she asked him. He replied, without
+hesitation&mdash;and coldly:</p>
+
+<p>"Because I love you."</p>
+
+<p>"Because ... you ... love ... me," she said, slowly, and so softly that
+he barely heard the words. They did not form a question; they comprised
+a statement, like his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"But"&mdash;she hesitated&mdash;"there is another reason."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We need not dwell upon that."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, I should like to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not tell me what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary. It is begging the question."</p>
+
+<p>"You wish to give me the protection of your name. I think I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Have it so, if you wish."</p>
+
+<p>"You wish to make me your wife. I am beginning to comprehend you,
+Roderick." The name slipped out, unconsciously, on her part, although he
+was tragically aware of it. "Have you remembered&mdash;have you thought
+of&mdash;are you quite aware of what you are doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite. I have remembered everything, thought of all things."</p>
+
+<p>"And your reason for all this is&mdash;what? Tell me again, please."</p>
+
+<p>"You make my task harder," he said, coldly. "My reason is that I love
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Again, Patricia was silent for a time. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"How do you propose to carry out this chivalrous conduct? Who will marry
+us, if I agree to your absurd proposal?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not absurd. It is the only logical thing for you to do. Doctor
+Moreley will marry us. He came with me, in my special train." She caught
+at the arms of the chair, and clung to them. "Mrs. Moreley, with Evelyn
+and Kate, accompany him. It is a short ride to where the cars are
+sidetracked, waiting. You can ride there in the morning&mdash;or go there
+with me this evening, if you will."</p>
+
+<p>"Do ... they ... know&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"They know nothing save the one fact that we are to be married, that
+Doctor Moreley is to perform the ceremony, and that the members of his
+family are to act as witnesses. Nobody knows anything at all, save that.
+Nobody ever shall know. Your absence from New York has occasioned no
+suspicion&mdash;save only in the mind of one man, Radnor. The fact of our
+marriage will be published and broadcast at once, and even his suspicions
+will be stilled."</p>
+
+<p>"And ... afterward ... after we are married&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will discuss that question after the ceremony."</p>
+
+<p>"No. We will discuss it now. Afterward&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will be my wife, then. It is right and proper that you should
+return to New York, that you should live in my house. I shall take you
+there, and install you, properly. I shall insist upon that much. There
+is no way for you to escape the fulfillment of your contract. When you
+are my wife, you will have entered upon another contract which you will
+also keep. The contract to honor and obey."</p>
+
+<p>"To love, honor, and obey," she corrected him.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not insist upon the first of those terms. The second one I
+shall endeavor to merit. The third one, I shall insist upon. Now, when
+will you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait. You are sure that you do this because you love me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are ready to sacrifice your name, your life, to a creature who,
+according to your view of conditions, should be the very last woman to
+bear your name&mdash;to become your wife? You do this because you love me? It
+must be a great love, indeed, Roderick, to compel you to such an act&mdash;oh
+it must have been a very great love, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great love; and there will be no sacrifice: there will be
+satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>She arose from the chair, but stood as she was, with her back toward
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"You have forgotten one thing," she said, gently.</p>
+
+<p>"I have forgotten nothing."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her right arm, and pointed toward the house, through the
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>"You have forgotten the man, in there," she said, no less gently. It was
+his turn to shudder, but he repeated with doggedness in his tone:</p>
+
+<p>"I have forgotten nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to deal with him&mdash;afterward?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"How? If I consent to all that you have asked, will you deal with
+him&mdash;gently?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you plead for him, even now, when&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! Answer my question, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>"I will deal with him more gently than he deserves. I promise you that."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be satisfied with that promise." She turned about and faced
+him, and there was a smile on her lips, now, although Roderick entirely
+misunderstood the cause of it. He drew backward, farther away from her.
+But she followed after him, holding out one hand for him to take, and
+persisting in the effort when he refused to see it. There were tears
+under her lashes again, but she was smiling through them; and then,
+while she followed him, and he still sought to avoid her, Patricia lost
+all control over herself. She half-collapsed, half-threw herself upon
+the chair again, and buried her face in her hands, sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't Patricia; please, don't," he said to her, brokenly. "You make it
+much harder for both of us. This has been a terrible scene for you to
+pass through, I know, but after a little you will realize its
+wisdom&mdash;and the full justice of the cause I plead."</p>
+
+<p>She controlled herself. She started to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me," she cried out to him; and then, before he could stop
+her, she darted away out of his reach, flew down the steps, and along
+the pathway, toward the house. He followed. There was nothing else for
+him to do. She waited for him at the top of the steps where he had first
+seen her; and, when he would have detained her, she eluded him a second
+time, and fled through the doorway, into the wide hall of the house&mdash;of
+Richard Morton's dwelling place.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she called after him again; and again he followed.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h3>
+<p class="chapsec"><b>THE MYSTERY</b></p>
+<p class="p2">The house was a large one. It covered a great deal of ground although it
+was only one story high. A wide hall ran through the center of the main
+building, and there were doors to the right and the left. Through the
+first doorway to the right, Patricia made her escape; and, through it,
+Roderick Duncan followed her. But he brought up suddenly, the instant he
+had crossed the threshold, and stood there, staring. Patricia had passed
+swiftly ahead of him, and Roderick saw her drop upon her knees beside a
+couch-bed, whereon a man was lying&mdash;and that man was Richard Morton.</p>
+
+<p>Duncan was too greatly amazed for connected thought, but he was
+conscious of the fact that Morton's eyes sought him over the shoulder of
+Patricia, who knelt beside the couch. He had never thought that Morton's
+eyes were quite so expressive. They seemed almost to speak to him, to
+wonder at his presence there; but, stranger than all else, to express
+unquestionable pleasure because of his presence. He thought it
+remarkable that Morton did not move; that the man made no effort to
+rise, or to speak; that there was neither smile nor frown upon his
+white, still face. Then, Patricia's voice broke the spell that was upon
+him. She turned, and beckoned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, Roderick," she said, softly. "Come and speak to Richard.
+Tell him that you have come all the way out here, by a special train, to
+marry me, and that you have brought a minister along with you to perform
+the ceremony. Come, Roderick, come. He will be made very happy by the
+news." She turned toward the stricken man, again, and added: "Won't you,
+Richard?"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the lids dropped for an instant over those strangely brilliant
+eyes, and, when they were raised again, the eyes seemed to smile at
+Roderick; but there was no other emotion visible about the prostrate
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not told you about him, Roderick," Patricia said, rising to her
+feet, "but I will do so now, in his presence. He wishes it so; do you
+not, Richard?"</p>
+
+<p>Again, those eyes closed for an instant, and Roderick understood that
+the gesture, if gesture it could be called, meant an affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"Richard wishes you to know all the truth about him," she continued. "I
+have promised him, many times, that some day I would tell you. He meant
+to kill himself that night, when he drove his roadster away from
+Cedarcrest. He guided his car, purposely, into the mass of rocks at the
+roadside. I found him there. Patrick O'Toole, who is devoted to me, was
+with me, you know. We saw the wreck, and stopped. Then, we found
+Richard. Oh, it was awful. I thought he was dead, and I believed that I
+was his murderer. I still think that I was the unconscious cause of it
+all, although he will not have it so. I was moaning over him, when Mr.
+Radnor&mdash;you remember him?&mdash;found us. He took us to a sanatorium that he
+knew about, where he said there was a good doctor; and so it proved. I
+forgot all about Jack Gardner's car, but later I sent Patrick back after
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Morton's eyes began to wink rapidly, and Roderick called Patricia's
+attention to the fact.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I know that I am getting ahead of my story," she said, as if she
+perfectly understood what the winking meant. "Richard was like a dead
+man when we arrived at the sanatorium&mdash;all save his eyes, and the fact
+that he breathed. He was completely paralyzed; only his eyes, and the
+lids over them, retained the power of motion. He was terribly injured.
+The doctor said he would not die, but that he would never move a muscle
+of his body again, no matter how long he might live. The power of speech
+was gone, too. Only his eyes lived; the rest of him&mdash;all but his eyes
+and his great heart&mdash;was dead."</p>
+
+<p>Morton's eyes began to wink rapidly, again.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I shall tell it all; only, let me do it in my own way," Patricia
+said to him. "Mr. Radnor told me that he had given fictitious names for
+both of us to the doctor. At first, I was offended because of it, but
+later, I was glad. The doctor permitted me to assist in the nursing&mdash;I
+... I told him that I was Richard's wife. Mr. Radnor had already given
+that impression. I did not deny it; I made it more emphatic, in order
+that I might take the direction of affairs. When Mr. Radnor went away,
+he said he would return the following day; but I did not want him to do
+that, and so, when the next day came, I persuaded the doctor to
+telephone to him that he must not come. Also, when Mr. Radnor took his
+departure, I sent Patrick with him, to care for Jack's car. I told him
+to deliver it at the garage, and then to return to me, at the
+sanatorium, for further orders. But, when he came back, he told me he
+had abandoned the car in the streets of New York, knowing that it would
+be found and claimed, and wishing to avoid the necessity of answering
+questions. Am I telling the story satisfactorily now, Richard?"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, the speaking eyes drooped their assent, and she went on:</p>
+
+<p>"At the end of a few days, Richard was much better of his hurts. There
+was no change in the other condition&mdash;the one that still holds him so
+helpless. I seemed to have a positive genius for understanding him, and
+he made me know&mdash;you see, I kept asking questions till he made the
+positive or the negative sign. I hit upon that idea because once,
+Roderick, you made me read 'The Count of Monte Cristo,' and I remembered
+old Nortier&mdash;Well, Richard made me understand several things. One was
+that he wished to come here, as soon as possible; another was that, most
+emphatically, he did not wish to have any of the old friends and
+acquaintances in New York know what had happened to him. Fortunately, he
+had a large sum of money in his pockets&mdash;What are you insisting about
+now, Richard?" she concluded, with a smile, perceiving that the eyelids
+of the stricken man were working rapidly. He looked steadily at her, and
+she shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," she said, "I understand you. Roderick, he wishes me to tell
+you that he had the money with him because he intended to run away with
+me, that evening, and that he came very near to doing so. He wants me to
+tell you that he was a brute, and everything bad and mean and low
+and&mdash;there! I hope you are satisfied, Richard."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes slowly closed and opened again.</p>
+
+<p>"Richard had a large sum with him. I, also, had a considerable amount
+with me. I had had some thought of running away from all of you, and had
+prepared myself for such an emergency. Well, when I knew what Richard
+wanted, I took command of things. I did not consult him at all, but went
+directly ahead, in my own way. I always did that, you know, Roderick. I
+engaged a private car and a special train to bring us here; engaged them
+in the name of&mdash;in the assumed name, you know. One week from the day we
+entered the sanatorium, we left it again, went aboard the special train,
+and came here. Patrick came with us. He refused to leave.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I am forgetting something. You needn't wink so hard, Richard.
+I shall tell all of it. Richard protested with his eyes against my
+accompanying him. I do believe that he never once stopped blinking them,
+all the way out here. He would have said horrid things to me, if he
+could have spoken. I think that I was sometimes really glad he could not
+do so, fearing what he might have said. But nobody else could understand
+him; I could, and did. He was utterly helpless, and it was my fault that
+he was so. Yes, it was, and is, Richard, so stop protesting. I bribed
+the doctor at the sanatorium, to say nothing at all about us, and above
+all to keep every bit of information away from Mr. Radnor. Then, we came
+here.</p>
+
+<p>"At first, it did not occur to me that I should remain, but, when I
+understood how entirely dependent Richard was upon me, I had to stay.
+Think of what he had been, Roderick, and of the condition to which I had
+brought him! It seemed a very little thing for me to do, to stay here
+and be his wife&mdash;Yes, that is what I decided to do; only, he would not
+let me. Just think of it! I have begged and pleaded with him to marry
+me, and he has refused."</p>
+
+<p>Again, the eyes began a violent winking, and Patricia, smilingly, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. He wants me to tell you that he has begged and pleaded, just
+as hard, for me to return to New York, and leave him here, helpless and
+alone, and that I have been just as contrary about this, as he was about
+the other. There! Can you imagine our quarreling, Roderick? Well, just
+before you appeared here, this evening, we had been having a violent
+quarrel. I was really angry at Richard, when I went out upon the
+veranda&mdash;and met you. He had ordered me out of the house. He had said,
+as plainly as he could look it, that he didn't want me here; that I was
+only a trouble to him; that I made him unhappy by remaining; that he
+would be much better in every way if I were gone. He ... he made me
+understand that my ... my good name was in question; that I would be
+talked about. I confess that I had never thought of it in that light,
+before. I asked him again to marry me, and let me remain; but he
+refused. Then, I left him, in a huff, declaring that he couldn't drive
+me away. And then"&mdash;she turned directly toward Roderick this time, and
+held out both her hands&mdash;"I almost ran into your arms, Roderick."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it now, Patricia," he replied, taking her hands, and drawing her
+closer.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't. You are much too near to me. But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She did not finish what she was about to say; and Roderick held her
+tightly in his embrace for just one glorious moment, while the eyes of
+the stricken man glowed upon them with unspeakable joy in their living
+depths.</p>
+
+<p>Patricia drew slowly and reluctantly away from Roderick's embrace, and
+once more got upon her knees beside the couch.</p>
+
+<p>"You were right, Richard, after all," she said. "I think it would have
+killed me if I had found Roderick again, after I was the wife of
+another. You were right, dear one. You have always been right. But
+everything is made clear, now. Roderick is here. He loves me. You are
+pleased that he is here, and that he does love me, and my cup of
+happiness is filled to the brim. Speak to him, Roderick."</p>
+
+<p>"Dick Morton, I think you are the bravest man I ever knew," said
+Roderick, stepping forward and permitting his hand to rest for a moment
+upon Morton's forehead. "I want you to be my friend, as long as you
+live, and I want Patricia to continue to care for you, just as long as
+you need her. We will go back East in a day or so, and you shall go with
+us."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes winked a vehement negative, but Roderick continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you'll think differently about it, after a bit of thought. In the
+meantime, how would it suit you to have a wedding, right here, in your
+room, before your eyes? Eh? He says 'Yes' to that, Patricia."</p>
+
+<p>It was twenty-four hours later. Patricia and Roderick Duncan had just
+been united in marriage by the Reverend Dr. Moreley, and had turned
+about on the platform which projected from the front of the veranda to
+receive the congratulations of their witnesses, who were made up of the
+entire outfit of Three-Star ranch. The couch of the invalid was beside
+them, a cheer was still ringing in the air, when two dust-covered
+horsemen rode upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p>They came to a sudden halt when it was discovered what they had intruded
+upon, but Burke Radnor, never at a loss for words, jumped from the
+saddle and came swiftly forward. The bride saw him, recognized him
+instantly, and smiled. Then, she beckoned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Come up here, Mr. Radnor," she called. "You were very good to me when I
+needed a friend, and I want to thank you for your silence, since then."
+Radnor flushed. "Please shake hands with my husband, and remember that I
+want both of you to forget your old differences. There shall be nothing
+but happiness here, now. And this is our dear friend, Mr. Richard
+Morton. He cannot shake hands with you, but he can look his pleasure at
+greeting you."</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Radnor?" said Roderick. "I think, we'd better follow Mrs.
+Duncan's advice, and be friends; eh? I think I know why you came, and
+now I'll see to it that you have a good story to wire to your paper,
+to-night. It will beat the one you hoped to get, all hollow. I'll get
+you to one side and alone, presently, and tell you all about it. Listen
+to those cowpunchers cheer, will you! But, I'll tell you what, it isn't
+a patch on the cheer that is in my heart."</p>
+
+<p>"You have won the first woman in the land, Duncan," said Radnor, shaking
+hands heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"The first woman? No, the last. It takes the last woman to do things,
+Radnor."</p>
+
+<p>"And the best; eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both, old chap."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+<hr class="c3" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="BOOKS1"
+id="BOOKS1">
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+instead of the museum. John Burroughs says: "The volume is in many ways
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+<p>&nbsp;</p>
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+
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+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><b>RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak Wilds, and
+His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 illustrations,
+including frontispiece in color and cover design by Charles Livingston
+Bull.</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome
+reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of the
+hunt from the point of view of the hunted. "True in substance but
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+Record-Herald.</i></p>
+<p><b>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, Publishers, New York</b></p>
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+<p>&nbsp;</p>
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+
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+in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and pitilessly
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+book, and is handled with infinite skill.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><b>THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations by Lester
+Ralph, and inlay cover in colors.</b></p>
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+San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like accuracy.
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+
+<p><b>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, Publishers, New York</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="c3"  />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+
+<p>Minor inconsistencies in spellings have been
+corrected; the original spelling has been
+retained.</p>
+<p>page 303: In the sentence: "The fact of our marriage will be published
+broadcast at once, and even his suspicions will be stilled." The word
+"and" has been added after "published."</p>
+<p>The table of contents was created for this eBook and does not appear in
+this form in the original text.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Last Woman, by Ross Beeckman, Illustrated
+by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Last Woman
+
+
+Author: Ross Beeckman
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2008  [eBook #24910]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST WOMAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Hélène de Mink, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 24910-h.htm or 24910-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/9/1/24910/24910-h/24910-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/9/1/24910/24910-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by equal signs was in bold face in the original
+      (example: =bold=).
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+THE LAST WOMAN
+
+by
+
+ROSS BEECKMAN
+
+Author of "Princess Zara"
+
+Frontispiece by Howard Chandler Christy
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece]
+
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1909--by
+W. J. Watt & Company
+
+Published August
+
+
+
+
+                    _THE THEME_
+
+     _If I could have my dearest wish fulfilled,
+           And take my choice of all earth's treasures, too,
+     And ask of Heaven whatsoe'er I willed--
+               I'd ask for you._
+
+     _There is more joy to my true, loving heart,
+           In everything you think, or say, or do,
+     Than all the joys of Heaven could e'er impart,
+               Because--it's YOU._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+         CHAPTER                                   PAGE
+
+         I.  THE PRICE                              11
+
+        II.  ONE WOMAN WHO DARED                    36
+
+       III.  A STRANGE BETROTHAL                    56
+
+        IV.  THE BOX AT THE OPERA                   79
+
+         V.  BEATRICE BRUNSWICK'S PLOT              96
+
+        VI.  A REMARKABLE MEETING                  115
+
+       VII.  THE BITTERNESS OF JEALOUSY            126
+
+      VIII.  BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT         142
+
+        IX.  PATRICIA'S COWBOY LOVER               147
+
+         X.  MONDAY, THE 13TH                      164
+
+        XI.  MORTON'S ULTIMATUM                    176
+
+       XII.  THE QUARREL                           185
+
+      XIII.  SALLY GARDNER'S PLAN                  192
+
+       XIV.  PATRICIA'S WILD RIDE                  201
+
+        XV.  ALMOST A TRAGEDY                      216
+
+       XVI.  THE AUTOMOBILE WRECK                  232
+
+      XVII.  CROSS PURPOSES AT CEDARCREST          243
+
+     XVIII.  MYSTERIES BORN IN THE NIGHT           258
+
+       XIX.  RODERICK DUNCAN SEES LIGHT            272
+
+        XX.  THE LAST WOMAN                        285
+
+       XXI.  THE REASON WHY                        294
+
+      XXII.  THE MYSTERY                           307
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PRICE
+
+
+The old man, grim of visage, hard of feature and keen of eye, was
+seated at one side of the table that occupied the middle of the floor
+in his private office. He held the tips of his fingers together, and
+leaned back in his chair, with an unlighted cigar gripped firmly in
+his jaws. He seemed perturbed and troubled, if one could get behind
+that stoical mask which a life in Wall street inevitably produces; but
+anyone who knew the man and was aware of the great wealth he possessed
+would never have supposed that any perturbation on the part of Stephen
+Langdon could arise from financial difficulties. And could his most
+severe critics have looked in upon the scene, and have seen it as it
+existed at that moment, they would unhesitatingly have said that the
+source of his discomfiture, if discomfiture there were, was the
+queenly young woman who stood at the opposite side of the table,
+facing him.
+
+She was Patricia Langdon, sometimes, though rarely, addressed as Pat
+by her father; but he alone dared make use of the cognomen, since she
+invariably frowned upon such familiarities, even from him.
+
+In private, among the women with whom she associated, she was
+frequently referred to as Juno; and when she was discussed by the
+gossips at the clubs, as she frequently was (for there are no greater
+nests of gossip in the world than the men's clubs of New York City),
+she was always Juno. There was a double and subtle purpose in both
+cases; one felt it rather a dangerous proceeding to speak
+criticizingly of Patricia Langdon, lest somehow what was said should
+get to her ears. She was one who knew how to retaliate, and to do so
+quickly. She was like a man in that she feared nothing, and hesitated
+at nothing, so long as she knew it to be right. A precedent had no
+force with her; if she desired to act, and there was no precedent for
+what she wished to do, she established one.
+
+All her life, Patricia had been her father's chum; ever since she
+could remember, they had talked together of stocks and bonds, and puts
+and calls, and opening and closing quotations, and she knew every
+slang word that is uttered in "the street," that is used on the floor
+of the stock-exchange, or that appears in the financial columns of the
+newspapers.
+
+And these two, father and daughter, were as much alike in outward
+bearing, in demeanor and in appearance, in gesture and in motion, as a
+man and a woman can be when the man is approaching seventy and the
+woman is only just past twenty.
+
+These two had been discussing an unprecedented circumstance. The
+daughter was plainly annoyed, as her glowing cheeks and flashing eyes
+evidenced. The man, if one could have read his innermost soul, was
+afraid; for he knew his daughter as no other person did, and he feared
+that he had gone, or was about to go, a step too far with her.
+
+The room was the typical private office of a present-day financial
+king, who is banker as well as broker, and who speaks of millions, by
+fifties and hundreds, as a farmer talks of potatoes by the bushel. It
+was a large, square room, solidly but not luxuriantly furnished. The
+oblong table at which Stephen Langdon was seated, and upon which his
+daughter lightly rested the tips of the fingers of one hand, was one
+around which directors of various great corporations gathered, almost
+daily, to be told by "old Steve" what to do. Over in a far corner was
+a roll-top desk with a swivel chair, at which Langdon usually seated
+himself when he was attending to his correspondence, or looking over
+private papers; beside it was a huge safe, and beyond that another,
+smaller one. Then, there were several easy chairs upholstered in
+leather, a couch and two other desks. There were three doors: one of
+these communicated with the main office of Stephen Langdon & Company,
+Bankers and Brokers; another was a private entrance from the street
+that ran along the side of the building, which Langdon owned; the
+third communicated with a smaller room, really the _sanctum sanctorum_
+of Stephen Langdon, into which it was his habit to take any person
+with whom he wished to have an absolutely confidential chat.
+
+This room was supposed never to be entered save by himself and those
+whom he took with him--and by the cleaners who once a week attended to
+it. These three doors were now closed.
+
+"Old Steve" moved nervously in his chair, shifted his feet uneasily,
+and rolled the unlighted cigar from one corner of his mouth to the
+other, biting savagely upon it as he did so.
+
+"Well, Pat," he said, with as much impatience as he ever showed, "have
+you nothing to say?"
+
+"There seems to be nothing for me to say, dad," replied his daughter,
+and the intonation of her voice was different from the one she was
+accustomed to use in addressing her father, whom she adored. He
+attributed it, doubtless, to his abbreviation of her name, for he
+smiled grimly.
+
+"Haven't you heard what I said?" he demanded.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, then, you know the situation, don't you?"
+
+"I am not quite sure as to that," she replied, meditatively. "You have
+been somewhat ambiguous, and certainly quite enigmatical in your
+statement. Am I to gather from what you have told me that you are
+really facing failure?"
+
+"God knows I have made it plain enough," was the quick response and
+Langdon pushed his chair away from the table, stretched his legs out
+straight in front of him, and thrust his hands deep into his
+trousers-pockets.
+
+"I had not supposed it possible for you to face failure," said
+Patricia, with her eyes fixed upon her father's mask-like face; "but
+if it is so, won't you tell me more about it?"
+
+"It all came about through those infernal bonds that I have just
+described to you. The men who were to go into the deal with me
+withdrew at the last moment; I have already explained that fully to
+you, and now, this Saturday afternoon, I find myself in a position
+such as I have never faced before--where there are demands upon me
+which I cannot meet; and those demands, Patricia, must be met,
+somehow, at ten o'clock on Monday morning, or Stephen Langdon must go
+to the wall."
+
+"It amazes me," she said, speaking more to herself than to him; and
+she tapped lightly with her gloved fingers upon the table before her.
+"It amazes me more than I can say. I thought myself closely familiar
+with all the ins and outs of your business, dad, and I find now that I
+knew nothing about it at all."
+
+"You have never known very much about it," he replied, with a
+half-laugh, but with a kindly smile, which changed his iron face
+wondrously, and which was reflected by a softened expression in his
+daughter's eyes.
+
+"Is there no one to come to your aid?" she asked him.
+
+"No, Patricia, there is no one to whom I could apply without betraying
+my condition and situation, and that would be fatal. Such a course
+would be equivalent to going broke; for when once a man loses his
+credit, even for an instant, in Wall Street, it is lost forever,
+never to be regained. People will tell you that there are exceptions
+to this, but I have been fifty years among the bulls and bears, and
+wolves, too, and I know better. When a man who occupies the position
+that I have held, and hold now, goes to the wall, it is the end."
+
+During this statement, she had walked to one of the windows and stood
+silently looking out, for she wished to ask a question which her own
+intuition had already answered. She knew what the answer would be, but
+she did not quite know what form it would take. She felt that sort of
+misgiving which belongs only to women, and she feared that there was
+something beyond and behind, and perhaps beneath, all this present
+circumstance, which was being kept from her. For Patricia Langdon did
+know of one man who would go to her father's assistance, and she could
+not understand why he had not already applied to that person.
+
+Presently, she returned to the table.
+
+"Patricia," said her father, with some impatience, "I wish to the Lord
+you'd sit down. You make me nervous keeping on your feet all the
+while, and with those big eyes of yours fixed on your old dad's face
+as if they had discovered something new and strange in the lines of
+it."
+
+She paid no heed to this remark--one would have supposed she did not
+hear it; but she asked:
+
+"Will you tell me why you sent for me? and why you wished to consult
+with me?"
+
+Again, the cigar was whipped sharply to the opposite corner of the old
+banker's mouth; and he replied quickly, almost savagely:
+
+"Because I have thought of a way by which you can help me out."
+
+His daughter caught her breath; it was a little gasp, barely audible;
+but she uttered only one word in reply. It was:
+
+"How?"
+
+For an instant, the banker hesitated at this abrupt question; then,
+with a suggestion of doggedness in his manner, he thrust forward his
+aggressive chin and shut his teeth so tightly together that the cigar,
+bitten squarely off, dropped unheeded upon the rug where he stood. By
+way of reply, he spoke a man's name.
+
+"Roderick Duncan," he said, sharply.
+
+Patricia did not seem to heed the strangeness of her father's reply,
+nor did she alter the expression of her eyes or features. She seemed
+to have anticipated what he would say. After a moment, she remarked
+quietly:
+
+"I should think it very likely that Roderick would assist you in your
+extremity. I see no reason why he should not do so. His father was
+your partner in business. Indeed, I should regard it as his duty to
+come to your aid, in an extremity like this. But why, if I may venture
+to ask, was it necessary to consult me in regard to any application
+you might make to him?"
+
+The old man did not reply; he remained silent, and continued doggedly
+to stare at his daughter. Presently, she asked him: "Have you already
+made such a request of Mr. Duncan?"
+
+A smile took the place of the old man's frown; his face softened.
+
+"No; that is to say, not exactly so," he replied.
+
+"You have, perhaps, suggested the idea to him?"
+
+Old Steve shrugged his shoulders, and dropped back into the chair,
+kicking away the half of the cigar in front of him as he did so.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have suggested the idea to him, and he met the
+suggestion more than half way, too. The reply he made to me is what
+brings your name into the question. If it were not for the fact that I
+know you to be fond of him, and that you are already half-promised--"
+
+"Is that why you have sent for me?" She interrupted him with quiet
+dignity, although the expression of her eyes was suddenly stormy.
+
+"Yes; it is."
+
+"Would you please be more explicit? I am afraid that I do not clearly
+understand."
+
+"Well, Pat, to put it in plain words, Roderick's answer implied that he
+would be only too delighted to advance the sum I require--twenty-million
+dollars--to his prospective father-in-law!"
+
+Patricia stiffened where she stood. Her eyes fairly blazed with the
+sparks of anger they emitted. The hand that rested upon the table was
+clenched tightly, until the glove upon it burst. Otherwise, she showed
+no emotion.
+
+"So, that is it," she said, presently. "Roderick Duncan has made a bid
+for me in the open market, has he? I am to be the collateral for a
+loan which you are to secure from him. Is that the idea? He has made
+use of your financial predicament to hasten matters with me. I
+understand--now!"
+
+"Humph! Roderick would be very much astonished if he heard your
+description of the situation. He thought, and I thought, also--"
+
+"But that is what it amounts to, isn't it?"
+
+"Why, no, child; no, that is not what it amounts to, at all. You ought
+to know that. Roderick has loved you ever since you were boy and girl
+together, and you were always fond of him. His father and I both
+believed that some day you would marry. I know that Duncan has asked
+you time and time again, and I know, too, that you have never refused
+him. You have just put him off, again and again, that is all. You have
+played fast and loose with him until he is--"
+
+"Wait, dad. There is one thing that you never knew; or, if you did
+know it once, you have forgotten what little you knew about it then. I
+refer to a woman's heart. You ignored that part of me when you made
+your bargain. You forgot my pride, too. It is quite true that I have
+been fond of Roderick Duncan, all my life. It is equally true that he
+has asked me to be his wife, and that I have seriously considered his
+proposals. It is even true that I have thought of myself as his wife,
+that I have tried to believe that I loved him. All that is true, quite
+true--too true, indeed. But now--How dared you two discuss _me_, in
+the manner you have?" She blazed forth at her father suddenly,
+forgetting her studied calm. "Oh, I read you correctly when I first
+entered this room. I could see, even then, that some plot was afoot.
+But I never guessed--good heaven! who could have guessed?--that it
+was anything like this. Do you realize what you have done? Your words,
+thus far, have only implied it, but I know! Shall I tell you?"
+
+"My dear--!"
+
+"You have found yourself in this financial muddle--if, indeed, it is
+true that you are in one--and--"
+
+"It is quite true."
+
+"So much the worse for making me the victim of it. You have applied to
+Roderick Duncan for some of his millions; and you two, together, have
+discovered in the incident a means of coercing me. Oh, it is plain
+enough. You are a poor dissembler in a matter of this kind, however
+excellent you may be in others. I see it all, now, as clearly as if
+you had expressed it in words. You have asked Roderick, by intimation,
+if not in actual words, to go to your assistance to the amount of so
+many millions; and he, the man who professes to love me, whom I have
+thought I loved--he has, as bluntly, replied--oh, it is too terrible
+to contemplate!--he has told you that if I will hasten my decision, if
+I will give my consent at once to the wedding he proposes, he will
+supply the cash you need. You offer your daughter, as security for the
+loan; he accepts the collateral! That is the exact situation, isn't
+it?"
+
+"I suppose it is about that, although you put it rather brutally," he
+replied.
+
+"Brutally!" she laughed. "Why, dad, is not that the way to put it?
+Horses and cattle are bought and sold at auction, knocked down to the
+highest bidder, or purchased at a private sale. The stocks and bonds
+and securities in which you deal are handled in precisely the same
+way. And now, when you are in an extremity, when your back is to the
+wall, a man whom I had always supposed to be at least a gentleman
+calmly makes a bid for your daughter, and you, my father, are willing
+to sell! Is not brutality the fitting word for you both? It seems so
+to me."
+
+"Look here, Pat--"
+
+"Stop, father; let me finish."
+
+The old man shrugged his shoulders, and the daughter continued:
+
+"It is a habit with people to say, 'If I were in your place I should'
+do so-and-so. I tell you, had I been in your place when such a
+suggestion as that one was made I should have struck the man in the
+face; but you see in me a value which I did not know I possessed. My
+father, who has been my chum since I was a child, is willing to
+dispose of his daughter for dollars and cents. And a man whom I have
+infinitely respected, calmly offers to make the purchase." Patricia
+clenched her hands and glared stormily at her father. Then, when he
+made no reply, she turned and walked to the window, staring out of it
+for a moment, while the old man remained silently in his chair,
+knowing that it were better for him not to speak, until the first
+violence of the storm had passed. He knew this daughter of his, or
+thought he did; but he was presently to discover that he was less wise
+than he had supposed. After a little, she returned and stood beside
+him, leaning against the table with her hands behind her, clenching
+it; but her words came calmly enough, when she spoke.
+
+The old man raised his eyes to hers, as she approached him, and his
+own widened with amazement when he studied his daughter's face with
+that quick and penetrating glance which could read so unerringly the
+operators of Wall street. He could not comprehend precisely what it
+was that he saw in Patricia's face at this moment--only, he realized
+it to be the expression of some kind of settled purpose. He had never
+seen her thus before. Her strangely beautiful eyes had never blazed
+into his in just this way. He had seen her tempers and had contended
+against them, more or less, since she was left to his sole care, at
+her birth; but this attitude assumed now was new to him. Stephen
+Langdon knew, by his knowledge of himself, that Patricia was like him;
+but here was something new, strange, almost unreal. He wondered at it,
+shrank from it, not knowing what it was. Settled purpose was all that
+he was enabled to recognize. But what sort of settled purpose? What
+was it that his daughter had decided upon?
+
+He was not long in doubt. Her words were sufficiently direct, if the
+hidden purpose behind their outward meaning was not.
+
+"Father," she said, with distinct calmness, "I will use a phrase that
+is familiar to you. It seems to fit the occasion. You may tell
+Roderick Duncan that you will deliver the goods! Tell him to have the
+twenty millions ready for you to deposit in your bank at ten o'clock
+Monday morning, and that you will be ready with the collateral he
+demands."
+
+"But, Patricia, my daughter, you take an unjust view of--"
+
+"Stop, father! He must be told still more: he must be told that the
+collateral, having certain rights and values of its own, will insist
+upon a few stated conditions; and when the bargain is concluded, at
+ten o'clock Monday morning, Mr. Duncan must first have accepted those
+conditions."
+
+She walked around to the other side of the table again and faced her
+father across it; then she added, slowly and coolly:
+
+"There must be a legal form of document drawn, in this transaction,
+and it must be signed, sealed and delivered exactly as would be done
+if the collateral offered, and the thing ultimately to be sold in this
+instance, were the stocks and bonds in which you usually deal. He must
+agree, in this document, that on the wedding day the woman he buys
+must receive an additional sum in her own name, of ten million
+dollars. One as rich as he is known to be will not object to a
+pittance like that. You can make your own arrangements with him
+concerning the loan of the twenty millions to you, the interest it
+draws, and when the sum will be due; but the consideration paid for
+me, to me, must be absolute, and in cash, before the marriage-ceremony."
+
+She turned quickly and strode to the end of the room. There, she threw
+open that door which has been described as communicating with the
+inner sanctum of the banker, and standing at the threshold, she said,
+in the cold, even tone in which she had pronounced the ultimatum to
+her father:
+
+"I have surmised that you are in this room, Roderick Duncan. If I am
+correct, you may come out, now, and conclude the terms of your
+purchase. Do not speak to me here, and now. It would not be wise to do
+so. You have heard, doubtless, all that has been said in this room."
+
+She turned again, and before Stephen Langdon could intervene, had
+passed him, going into the main office of the suite, and thence to the
+street.
+
+Outside the Langdon building was a waiting automobile which had taken
+Patricia to the office of her father for that interview, the purport
+of which she had not then even vaguely guessed. Under the
+steering-wheel of the waiting car was seated a young man,
+smoothed-faced, keen of eye, strong-limbed, and muscular in every
+motion that he made. A pair of expressive hazel eyes that seemed to
+take in everything at a glance, looked out from his handsome,
+clean-cut face, the attractiveness of which was augmented rather than
+marred by the strong, almost square chin, and the firm but perfectly
+formed lips, just thin enough to show determination of character, yet
+sufficiently mobile to suggest that the man himself, though young in
+years, had met with wide experiences. His personality was that of a
+man prepared to face any emergency or danger that might arise, and to
+meet it with a smile of entire self-confidence in his ability to
+overcome it. The rear seats of the waiting car were occupied by two
+young ladies, friends of Patricia; and the three were laughing and
+talking together when Stephen Langdon's daughter approached them. She
+did not wait to be assisted, but sprang lightly into the seat beside
+the young man who has just been described; and she said rather
+shortly, for she was still angry:
+
+"Please, take me home, now, Mr. Morton."
+
+He turned to face her, meeting her stormy eyes laughingly; and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Gee! Miss Langdon, you sure do look as if you'd been having a run-in
+with the governor. I'd hate mightily to meet up with you, if I were
+alone and unprotected, and you were as plumb sore at me, as you are
+now at somebody you have just left inside that building. I sure would.
+Yes, indeed!"
+
+He chuckled audibly as the car started forward toward Broadway. For a
+time, he gave his entire attention to the management of the car,
+purposely ignoring the young woman who was seated beside him, for
+notwithstanding the fact that he had chaffed her about the anger in
+her eyes, he was fully aware that she had met with an unpleasant
+experience of some sort, while he and the others were waiting outside
+the building.
+
+The hiatus offered sufficient time for Miss Langdon entirely to
+recover her equanimity, and when at last Richard Morton's glance again
+sought her, he met the same cold, calm, unflinching gaze from her
+beautiful eyes that he had discovered there less than two weeks
+before, and, since, had never been able to forget for a single moment.
+
+"Miss Langdon," he said, with his characteristic smile, "if you had
+been raised out west, in the country where I come from, you sure would
+have been bad medicine for anybody who tried your temper a little bit
+too far."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" she asked him, quickly, but without
+offense. She was smiling now, and Morton's colloquialisms always
+interested her.
+
+"Well, I mean a lot--and then some. If you'd been raised with a gun on
+your hip, and had been born a man instead of a woman, I reckon you'd
+have been an unsafe proposition to r'il. You certainly did look mad
+when you came out of that office-building; and the only regret I feel
+about it, is that I didn't stand within comfortable easy reach of the
+gazabo that made you feel like that. One of us would--have gone out
+through the window."
+
+"It was my father," she said, simply, but smilingly.
+
+"Oh! was it? Well, even so, I'm afraid I wouldn't be much of a
+respecter of persons, if you happened to be on the other side of the
+scales. I reckon your dad wouldn't look bigger than any other man.
+Have you forgotten what I said to you the second time I ever saw you?"
+
+"No," she replied, gently, "I haven't forgotten it, and I never will
+forget it; but I must remind you of your promise to me, at that same
+meeting."
+
+"Won't you call it off for just five minutes, Miss Langdon?" he asked
+in a low tone which had begun to vibrate with emotion. "Just call it
+off for one minute, if you won't let it go for five. It sure is hard
+to sit here, alongside of you, and not only to keep my hands and eyes
+away from you, but to keep my tongue cinched with a diamond hitch. I
+suppose I am hasty, and a mighty sight too previous for your customs
+here in the East, but I can't see why you won't take up with a chap
+like me; and, besides--"
+
+"Mr. Morton!" She turned to him unsmilingly, her eyes cold and
+serious, and she spoke in a tone so low that even the sound of it
+could not extend to the young ladies who occupied the rear seats in
+the tonneau. "It is my duty to tell you that I have just become a
+willing party--a willing party, please understand--to a business
+transaction, by the terms of which I am now the affianced wife of--"
+Patricia paused abruptly. Morton, still guiding the machine delicately
+in and out through the traffic of the street, turned a shade paler
+under his sun-burned skin, and Patricia could see that his hand
+gripped almost fiercely upon the steering-wheel. She realized that he
+had understood the important part of what she had said, and she did
+not complete the unfinished sentence. There was a considerable silence
+before either of them spoke again, and then Morton asked calmly, but
+in a voice that was so changed as to be scarcely recognizable:
+
+"Of whom, Patricia?" He made use of her given name unconsciously, and
+if she noticed the slip, she did not heed it.
+
+"I need not mention the gentleman's name," she told him. "It is
+unnecessary."
+
+"What do you mean by referring to it as a business transaction?" he
+demanded, turning his face toward hers for an instant, and showing an
+angry glitter in his eyes. "If it is something that was forced upon
+you--"
+
+"I meant--it doesn't matter what I meant, Mr. Morton."
+
+For just one instant, he flashed his eyes upon her again, and she saw
+the lines of determination harden upon his face.
+
+"It sounded mighty strange to me," he said, quietly, but with studied
+persistence. "I don't mind confessing that I can't quite savvy its
+meaning. I didn't know that 'business transaction,' was a stock
+expression here, in the East, in connection with an engagement party.
+But I suppose I'm plumb ignorant. I feel so, anyhow."
+
+"You have forgotten one thing, Mr. Morton; you have forgotten that I
+used the words, 'a willing party.'" She spoke calmly, half-smiling;
+but he was still insistent.
+
+"Did you mean by their use that I am to understand that the
+circumstance meets with your entire approval?" he asked, slowly and
+with distinctness. A heavy frown was gathering on his brows.
+
+"Yes; quite so."
+
+"Do you love the man who is the other party to the--er--business
+transaction?" This time, he turned his head and looked squarely at
+her, gazed with his serious hazel eyes, deep into her darker
+ones--gazed searchingly and longingly.
+
+"You have no right to ask me such a question as that," she told him.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Langdon." He turned his eyes to the front
+again; "but I think I have a distinct right to do so, and I don't
+believe it is your privilege to deny it. I have loved you from the
+first moment I saw you. Please, don't interrupt me now, for I must say
+the few words I have in mind. I'll not look at you. The others won't
+hear me. By reason of my great love for you, even though there is no
+response in your heart for me, I certainly have the right to ask that
+question; and, also, I believe I have the right to demand an answer.
+If you love that other man, and if you will tell me that you do, I
+shall have nothing more to say; but if you do not love him, you shall
+not be his wife so long as I have my two hands and can remember how to
+hold a gun." It sounded theatrical, but he did not mean it so; and a
+"gun" and its use, was the strongest form of expression he could think
+of, at that moment. It had formed the court of last resort throughout
+his youth in the great West, and just now he felt that the expression
+fitted the present case admirably. What reply Patricia might have made
+to this characteristic statement by the young Montana ranchman will
+never be known, for at that instant they were interrupted by the other
+passengers of the car, who sought to draw Patricia into conversation
+with them.
+
+She accepted the interruption gratefully as well as gracefully; it
+offered an easy escape from a trying situation, and it was not until
+the car was drawn up in front of the door of her own home and she was
+about to leave it that she spoke again with Morton, save in a general
+way. Now, he leaned quickly nearer to her and said, in a tone so low
+that the others could not hear:
+
+"I shall call upon you to-morrow evening--Sunday--if I may." Then he
+laughed and, with narrowed eyelids, added: "I'll come to the house
+whether I may or not. But you will receive me, won't you? Say that you
+will!" And Patricia nodded brightly, in reply, as she crossed the
+pavement toward the front steps of her father's princely mansion. At
+the door, she paused and looked after the car as it rolled up the
+avenue; and, with a half-smile of troubled perplexity, she murmured:
+
+"I wish, now, that I had not given my word to that 'business
+transaction.' Richard Morton might have offered a better solution of
+my problem. Only, it would have been unfair--and cruel; and I have
+never been either the one, or the other; never, yet!" Then, she passed
+into the house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Downtown in the private office of Stephen Langdon, Roderick Duncan
+stepped from the inner sanctum into the presence of the banker just as
+the latter started to his feet after the sudden and unexpected
+departure of his daughter. For an interval, the young man and the old
+faced each other in silence, the latter with a cynical and satirical
+smile on his strong face, the former with an unmistakable frown of
+anger.
+
+"You're a darned old fool, Langdon!" Duncan exclaimed hotly, after
+that pause; and he clenched his hands until his knuckles turned white
+under the strain, half-raising the right one, until it seemed as if he
+intended to strike a blow with it. But Patricia's father gave no heed
+to the gesture. Instead, he dropped back upon his chair, and laughed
+aloud, ere he replied:
+
+"I suspect, my boy, that there is a pair of us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ONE WOMAN WHO DARED
+
+
+These two men, the banker who had weathered so many financial storms
+of "the street" and had inevitably issued from the wreckage unscathed
+and buoyant, and the young multi-millionaire who faced him with
+uplifted hand even after the former returned to his chair, were exact
+opposites in everything save wealth alone. Roderick Duncan, son and
+heir of Stephen Langdon's former partner, was the possessor, by
+inheritance, of one of those colossal fortunes which are expressed in
+so many figures that the average man ceases to contemplate their
+meaning. Nevertheless, Duncan had kept himself clean and straight. In
+person, he was tall, handsome, distinguished in appearance, and
+genuinely a fine specimen of young American manhood. The older man
+regarded him with undoubted approval, and affection, too, while Duncan
+lowered the partly uplifted arm, and permitted the anger to die out of
+his face slowly. But there remained a decidedly troubled expression in
+his gray eyes, and there were two straight lines between his
+brows--lines of anxiety which would not disappear, wholly. He was
+plainly perplexed and, also, as plainly frightened by the almost
+tragic climax that had just occurred.
+
+The elder man, whose face was always a mask save when he was alone
+with his daughter, or with this young man who now stood before him,
+had been at first angered by the words and conduct of Patricia. But
+the exclamation uttered by the young Croesus impressed him
+ludicrously, notwithstanding the financial straits he was supposed to
+be in, and he grinned broadly into the anxious face that glowered upon
+him. Langdon's heart was not at stake; he had no woman's love to lose,
+or even to risk losing; and so far as the financial character of his
+troubles was concerned, he knew that Roderick Duncan would provide the
+millions he needed, in any case. That fact was not dependant upon any
+whim of Patricia's. Langdon could afford to laugh, believing that the
+rupture in the relations of these young people would be healed
+quickly. The old man did desire that the two should marry; he wished
+it more than anything else, save possibly the winning of his "street"
+contests.
+
+It was the younger man who broke the silence. He did it first by
+striking a match on the sole of his shoe and lighting a cigar; then by
+crossing to one of the chairs at the oblong table, into which he
+literally threw himself; and as he did this, he exclaimed, with an
+expression of petulance that might have belonged to a boy better than
+to a man:
+
+"Well, you've made a mess of it, haven't you? You have got us both
+into a very devil of a fix. I ought to have shot you, or myself,
+before I consented to such a fool plan as that one was. Oh, yes; we're
+in a fix all right!"
+
+"How so?" asked the old man, rising and selecting a chair at the
+opposite side of the table, and calmly lighting a fresh cigar, while
+he swung one leg across the corner of the solid piece of furniture.
+
+"Patricia won't stand for that little scheme of yours, not for a
+minute; and you know it, Uncle Steve." This was an affectionate term
+of familiarity which Duncan sometimes used in addressing Patricia's
+father. "I was afraid of it when you proposed it, but I allowed
+myself, like an idiot, to be influenced by you. I tell you, Langdon,
+she won't stand for it; not for a minute. I have made her angry, many
+times before now, but I have never known her to be quite so
+contemptuously angered."
+
+"No," said Langdon, and he chuckled audibly. "I agree with you. I
+think my little girl is going to make it hot for you before we are
+through with this deal. In fact, I shouldn't wonder if she made it
+warm for both of us. She is like her old dad about one thing--she
+won't be driven."
+
+The younger man said something under his breath which, because it was
+not audible to his companion, need not be repeated here; but it was
+probably not an expression that he would have used in polite society.
+He drummed on the table with his fingertips, and smoked savagely.
+
+"You're mighty cheerful about it, aren't you?" he demanded, with
+sarcastic emphasis. "What I want to know is, how are we going to fix
+it up?"
+
+"Fix what up?"
+
+"Why, this business about collateral, and all that rot, with Patricia.
+How are we going to square ourselves? That's what I'd like to know!
+Maybe you can see a way out of it, but I'm darned if I can."
+
+The banker took the cigar from his mouth, flicked the ashes into the
+cuspidor, removed his leg from the table, and replied calmly, with a
+half-smile:
+
+"It looks to me as if it were all fixed up, now. Patricia has agreed
+to marry you all right; she told me in plain English that I could
+deliver the goods. You heard her, didn't you? As far as I can see,
+she has only raised the ante just a little--a small matter of ten
+millions, which you won't mind at all. What's the matter with you,
+anyhow? You get what you wanted--Patricia's consent to an early
+marriage." The old man grinned maddeningly at his companion.
+
+"Confound you!" shouted Duncan, starting to his feet, and he smashed
+one hand down upon the top of the table, in the intensity of the
+resentment he felt at this remark.
+
+"Do you suppose--damn you!--that I want her like that? Can't you see
+how the whole thing outraged her? She hates me now, with every fibre
+of her being. She hates me, and you, too, for this day's work!"
+
+Langdon shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You want her, don't you?" he asked, placidly, as if he were inquiring
+about a quotation on 'change.
+
+"Of course, I want her. God only knows how greatly I want her."
+
+"Well, you get her, don't you, by this transaction? She'll keep the
+terms of the agreement. She's enough like me for that. She said I
+could deliver the goods. She meant it, too. You get her, don't you?"
+
+"Yes--but how?" was the sulky reply. "How do I get her? What will she
+do to me, after I do get her? Tell me that, confound you!"
+
+The old man chuckled again. "I am not a mind-reader," he said.
+
+"What will she do to me, Uncle Steve? What did she threaten? What am I
+to expect from her, now?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I confess that I don't. Sometimes, Patricia is a
+little too much for the old man, Roderick," he added, wistfully. Then,
+with another change of manner, he exclaimed: "But you get her! And I
+get the twenty-millions credit. What more can either of us ask? Eh?"
+
+"The twenty millions have nothing to do with it, and you know it. They
+never did have anything to do with it, and you know that, also. It was
+only your cursed suggestion, that we should make her promise to marry
+me the condition of keeping you from failure. You know as well as I do
+that there is nothing belonging to me which you cannot have at any
+time, for the asking; and that you do not stand, and have not stood,
+in any more danger of failure than I do."
+
+"I would have failed if I had not known where to get the credit for
+the twenty millions," the banker remarked, quietly.
+
+"Yes; but--confound it--you did know. You only had to ask me. But
+instead of doing it in a straight, business-like way, you set that
+horrible fly to buzzing in my ears, that we could make use of the
+circumstance to compel Patricia to an immediate consent. And I, like a
+fool, listened to you. Patricia never meant not to marry me; but
+now--!"
+
+He strode across the floor, then back again to his chair and flung
+himself into it. The old man watched him warily, keen-eyed, observant,
+and with a certain expression of fondness that no one but his daughter
+and this young man had ever compelled from him. But, presently, he
+emitted another chuckling laugh; and said:
+
+"That was a sharp stroke of hers to have the ten millions paid over to
+her. It was worthy of her old dad; eh? She is a bright one, all right.
+She's a chip off the old block, my boy. I couldn't have done it
+better, myself."
+
+"Damn you!" Duncan exclaimed, and he sprang to his feet, grasped his
+hat, and rushed from the office to the street with much more apparent
+excitement than Patricia herself had shown. He had the feeling that he
+had allowed himself to be tricked into the commission of an unmanly
+act, and he was thoroughly ashamed of it.
+
+Stephen Langdon, left alone, chuckled again, although his face quickly
+fell into that reposeful, mask-like expression which was habitual to
+it--an expression not to be changed by the loss or gain of millions.
+He remained for a time quietly in the chair he had been occupying, but
+soon he rose and crossed to his desk, throwing back the top of it. He
+pulled a bundle of papers from one of the pigeonholes and calmly
+examined certain portions of them. He glanced over three letters left
+there by his stenographer for him to sign and post. These he signed,
+and after enclosing them in their respective envelopes, dropped them
+lightly into a side-pocket of his coat. Then, he pulled toward him the
+bracket that held the telephone, and placed the receiver against his
+ear. Having presently secured the desired number, he said:
+
+"I wish to speak with Mr. Melvin, personally."
+
+"Mr. Melvin is not in his office at the present moment," came the
+reply over the telephone. "Who is it, please?"
+
+"This is Stephen Langdon, and I wanted to speak--"
+
+He was interrupted by the person at the other end of the wire, who
+uttered an exclamation of surprise, followed by these words:
+
+"Why, Mr. Langdon, Mr. Melvin has gone to your house to see you, as we
+supposed. A telephone call came from your residence, and he departed
+at once, saying that he would not return to the office to-day."
+
+"The devil he did!" exclaimed the banker, as he hung up the receiver.
+Then, he leaned back in his chair and smoked hard for a moment, with
+the nearest approach to a frown that had appeared on his face during
+all that exciting afternoon; and he did another thing unusual with
+him: he spoke aloud his thoughts, with no one but himself for
+listener.
+
+"I'll be blowed if I thought Patricia would go as far as that!" was
+what he said. "If she hasn't sent for Malcolm Melvin to draw those
+papers she hinted at, I'm a Dutchman! By Jove, I begin to think that
+Duncan was right after all, and that he is up against it in this
+little play we have had this afternoon. But I hadn't an idea that my
+girl would go quite so far. H'm! It looks as if it is up to me to
+spoil her interview with Melvin, if I can get there in time."
+
+Five minutes later, he left the banking-house, paused at a letter-box
+long enough to drop in the correspondence he had signed, and then went
+swiftly onward to the subway, by which he was conveyed rapidly to the
+vicinity of his home. Somewhat later, when he entered the sumptuously
+appointed library, he discovered precisely what he had expected to
+find: his lawyer, Malcolm Melvin, and his daughter Patricia were
+facing each other across the table, the former having before him
+several sheets of paper, which were already covered with the penciled
+notes and memoranda he had evidently been engaged in making.
+
+Langdon stopped in the middle of the floor and looked at them. For the
+first time since the beginning of the interview with his daughter at
+the office, he realized that she had been in deadly earnest at its
+close. He understood, suddenly, how deeply her pride had been wounded,
+and he knew that she was enough like himself to resent it with all the
+power she could command.
+
+"Since when, Melvin, have you ceased to be my attorney!" he inquired
+sharply, determined to put an end to the scene, at once.
+
+The elderly lawyer and the young woman had raised their heads from
+earnest conversation when Stephen Langdon entered the room. The
+lawyer, with a startled, although amused, expression on his
+professional face; the daughter with a cold smile and an almost
+imperceptible nod of her shapely, Junoesque head. But her black eyes
+snapped with something very nearly approaching defiance, and she
+replied, before Melvin could do so:
+
+"Do not misunderstand the situation, please," she said, quickly. And
+her father noticed with deep misgiving that she omitted the customary
+term of endearment between them. "Mr. Melvin is here at my request,
+and because he is your attorney. I have been instructing him how to
+draw the papers that are to accompany the collateral offered for your
+loan, and the bonus that goes with it; and just how those papers are
+to be used, in accordance with the discussion between you and me, at
+the bank, this afternoon. I told you, then, to inform Mr. Duncan that
+you would meet his requirements. Later, when I realized that he had
+overheard us--"
+
+"What's the matter with you, Pat?" demanded the father, interrupting
+her with a touch of anger. "Have you lost your head, entirely?"
+
+"No," she replied, with utter calmness; "I have only lost my Dad. I
+went down to his office this afternoon to see him, and I left him
+there. Just now, I have been instructing Mr. Melvin concerning the
+particulars of the agreement I want drawn and signed in the
+transaction that is to take place between you and Roderick Duncan, in
+which I am, personally, so deeply concerned, in which I am to figure
+as the collateral security."
+
+The old man stared at his daughter, with an expression that had made
+many a Wall-street financier turn pale with apprehension. It was a
+grim visage that she saw then--hard and set, stern and unrelenting,
+and many a strong man had surrendered to Stephen Langdon, frightened
+by the aspect of it. Not so this daughter of his. She met his gaze
+unflinchingly and calmly, without a change in her outward demeanor.
+After a moment, Langdon turned with a shrug toward the lawyer.
+
+"Melvin," he said, "how many years have you been my attorney?"
+
+"Fourteen, I think, Mr. Langdon," was the smiling reply. One would
+have thought that the man of law found something highly amusing in
+this incident.
+
+"About that--yes. Well, do you see that door?" He half-turned and
+indicated the entrance he had just used. "Melvin, I want you to pick
+up those papers and tell John, outside, to give you your hat; then I
+want you to get out of here as quick as God'll let you. If you don't,
+our relations are severed from this moment. And if you complete the
+draft of those papers, without my permission, or submit them to any
+person whatever, without my having seen them first, I will have
+another attorney to replace you, Monday morning. Go right along now.
+You needn't answer me. If you don't want my business, all you've got
+to do is to say so. If you do want it, you'll come mighty near doing
+what I have told you to do, just now."
+
+The lawyer, quietly, but with dignity, rose from his chair, folded the
+papers, placed them in an inner pocket of his coat, bowed to Patricia
+and then to her father, and without a word passed from the room,
+closing the door quietly behind him; but before he quite accomplished
+this last act, the clear even tones of the girl called after him:
+
+"I am sure, Mr. Melvin, that we had quite concluded our conference. I
+will ask you please to draw those papers as I have directed. You may
+submit copies to Mr. Langdon at the time you bring the originals to
+me."
+
+He did not answer, for there was no occasion to do so, and a second
+later Stephen Langdon and his daughter were alone together for the
+second time that afternoon.
+
+"Now, Patricia," he said, turning toward her, with his feet wide
+apart and his hands thrust deep into his trousers-pockets, "what in
+blazes is this all about?"
+
+His daughter replied coldly and precisely:
+
+"I have merely been dictating to your lawyer the substance of the
+conditions I wish to have embodied in the papers that are to complete
+the transaction we have discussed at your office. I selected Mr.
+Melvin because I knew him to be in your confidence, and I surmised
+that you would prefer that the condition of affairs under which you
+are now struggling, which forces you to borrow twenty-million dollars,
+should not be made known to an outsider."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you that I won't hear of it! It's got to stop right
+now. I won't have those papers drawn at all. I won't have it. The
+whole thing is preposterous, and you seem to be determined to make a
+fool of yourself. I won't have it!"
+
+"But you must have it," she said, quietly.
+
+"Must have it? Patricia, there isn't a man in the city of New York who
+dares to say that to me."
+
+"Possibly not, sir; but there is a woman in New York who dares to say
+it to you, and who does say it, here and now. That woman is,
+unfortunately, your daughter."
+
+"Patricia! Are you crazy?"
+
+"No; but I am more hurt and angry, more outraged and incensed, than I
+believed it possible ever to be. I shall insist upon the drawing of
+those papers, and the fulfillment of the stipulations I have directed.
+If you are determined that Mr. Melvin shall not finish what he has
+begun for me, I shall select another lawyer, and shall have the papers
+drawn just the same."
+
+"But, my child, it is all foolishness. The papers are not necessary.
+Roderick will supply what cash I need without anything of that sort,
+and you know it!"
+
+"Am I to understand, sir, that you have lied to me?"
+
+Langdon dropped upon a chair, breathing an oath which his daughter did
+not hear, and she continued, without awaiting a reply from him:
+
+"You have taught me, since I was a child, that in a business
+transaction in the Street, where there is no time for the drawing of
+papers, a man must live up to his word, absolutely. I took you
+seriously in what occurred at your office this afternoon. I surmised,
+when we were near the end of our interview,--nay, I assumed it--that
+Roderick Duncan was inside the inner office. My surmise proved to be
+true, and now I have only this to say: We shall carry out the
+transaction precisely as it was stipulated between us, and according
+to the papers I have dictated to Mr. Melvin, or I shall go to another
+lawyer and have those same papers drawn and offered to you and to Mr.
+Duncan, for your signatures. He overheard our conversation, and thus
+became a party to it. I was forced into the situation without my
+consent, and I shall now insist upon a certain recognition of my
+rights in the matter. If you choose to deny me those rights, the fact
+will not deter me from proceeding in my own way--a way which Mr.
+Melvin, your attorney, thoroughly understands. I have explained it
+fully to him."
+
+The old man leaned back in his chair, glaring at his daughter, and yet
+in that burning gaze of his there was undoubted admiration. He liked
+her pluck, and deep down in his heart he gloried in her ability to
+maintain the position she had assumed, where she literally held him
+helpless. For it would never do that she should be permitted to go to
+another lawyer; such a proceeding would betray to other parties the
+financial embarrassment into which he had been drawn. The news would
+get out. There would be a whisper here, a murmur there, and before
+noon on Monday, all New York would know it. His daughter understood
+her momentary power over him, and she was determined to make the most
+of it.
+
+Patricia returned her father's gaze for a moment, then turned
+negligently away and moved toward the door.
+
+"Wait," he called to her.
+
+"Well?" She stopped, and half-turned.
+
+"Don't you know, girl, that the whole business was tomfoolery?"
+
+"No; and I would not believe you, or Mr. Duncan--now."
+
+"Wait just a minute longer, Patricia; let me explain this thing to
+you, fully. Let me make you understand just how it came about," her
+father exclaimed. "It was all a mistake, you know, and I must confess
+that the mistake was mostly mine. Of course, Roderick was ready to let
+me have the twenty millions, or fifty if I had asked for them. There
+was never any doubt about that, and could have been none. He has the
+money, and there never has been a time, since he inherited it, when I
+could not use it as if it were my own. You knew that. I have never
+hesitated to go to him, either. That is why I went to him to-day.
+Before I had an opportunity to explain the purpose of my call, he
+asked about you, and the question suggested to my mind the idea of
+utilizing the desperate situation I was in to hasten your marriage to
+him. You know how I have looked forward to that. I have known, or at
+least I have supposed I knew, for years, that you thought more of him
+than of anyone else. You are twenty years old now; it is high time
+that you were married, and it would break my old heart to see you take
+up with any of those society-beaux who hover around you at every
+function where you appear. On the other hand, I shall be very glad
+when you are Roderick Duncan's wife. He is the son of the best friend
+I ever had, the only man I ever trusted. And he is every bit as good a
+man as his father was. He is square and on the level. He has wealth,
+and he doesn't go bumming around town, giving champagne parties, and
+monkey dinners. He knows how to be a good fellow without making a fool
+of himself, and that is more than you can say of most young men who
+have money to burn. You have grown up together, and why in the world
+you have kept putting him off is more than I can guess. Besides all
+that, he is easily worth a hundred millions. But this has nothing to
+do with the present question. I want you to have him, and I want him
+to have you; and if he didn't have a dollar in the world, I should
+feel just the same about it. All that happened to-day was at my
+instigation; not at his. And now, daughter, you must find it in your
+heart to forgive him--and me."
+
+She listened to him to the end, quietly and outwardly unmoved. When he
+concluded, she replied in the same even tone she had used ever since
+her father entered the library:
+
+"I don't know, and I don't care to know, any of the particulars
+regarding how the arrangement came about between you and Mr. Duncan.
+What I do know is this: the arrangement was made between you, and was
+agreed upon between you. I was called in, to be consulted, at your
+private office, with the third interested party concealed like a spy
+in an inner room. I agreed to the transaction as I understood it. I
+will carry it out as I agreed to do, while at your office, and in no
+other way. If Roderick Duncan wishes to make me his wife, he must do
+it according to the stipulations I have dictated to Mr. Melvin, this
+afternoon, or he can never do it at all. That, sir, is all I have to
+say."
+
+She turned and went from the room, closing the door behind her as
+softly as the lawyer had done.
+
+The old man slipped down more deeply into his chair, covered his eyes
+with one hand, and murmured, audibly:
+
+"I have had to live almost seventy years to find out that, after all,
+I am nothing but an old fool."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A STRANGE BETROTHAL
+
+
+When dinner was served at seven that Saturday evening, the banker and
+his daughter faced each other in silence across the table. There was
+no wife and mother in this money-king's family, for she had passed out
+of life when Patricia came into the world. This, perhaps, may account
+for the close intimacy that had always existed in the relations of
+father and daughter, between whom there had never been any break or
+shadow, until this particular Saturday afternoon.
+
+"Old Steve," iron-faced, heavy jawed, and steady of eye, wore his
+Wall-street mask at this particular dinner; and he wore it as grimly
+as ever he did when encountering a financial storm or a threatened
+panic. He felt that he had more to conceal, just now, than any
+financial problem could ever compel him to face. He was no longer
+"dad." Patricia had practically omitted the use of even the less
+endearing term of father; but whether intentionally or not, even the
+shrewd old banker could not determine. For years, he had forgotten
+that he had a heart, save when he and his daughter were alone
+together. The money whirlpool of the financial section of the city had
+made him colder of aspect, harder in nature, and less considerate of
+the feelings of others. It had never even remotely occurred to him
+that there could be any rupture between himself and Patricia, or that
+a yawning gulf, like this one was, could separate them.
+
+But now there was one, and he recognized its breadth and its depth. He
+knew that he could not cross it to her, and that it would never be
+bridged, save by Patricia herself. He had offended her beyond
+forgiveness, almost. He had not entirely realized that Patricia's
+nature and characteristics were so like his own, save only where they
+were feminine instead of masculine, that she would now adopt the
+course he would have pursued under circumstances which might, by a
+stretch of the imagination, be called parallel.
+
+Patricia's face was almost as mask-like as her father's, save that her
+great, dark eyes were stormy in their depths, and would have suggested
+to one who had sailed the Southern seas the brooding and far away
+approach of a monsoon. Her olive-tinted skin had in it a suggestion of
+pallor; but only a suggestion. When she spoke at all it was to John,
+the butler who served them; and then it was always in her accustomed
+low, evenly modulated tone. Not perceptibly different to the butler
+were her tone and manner, and yet even the servant, wise in his
+generation, sensed the unsettled condition of things, and moved about
+like a phantom; perhaps also he was a trifle more assiduous than usual
+in his efforts at perfect service.
+
+Patricia ate sparingly, but bravely. There was nothing of the
+shrinking or pouting, or even of the petulant, in her character. Her
+father ate nothing at all. He dawdled with his soup, turned his fish
+over and sent it away, and sniffed contemptuously at everything else
+that was placed before him. He made his dinner of coffee and cognac,
+and seemed to be greatly interested while he burned the latter over
+three dominoes of sugar.
+
+When the moment came to leave the table, there had been no word
+exchanged between them; but then, with an effort, the banker assumed
+his brightest and most kindly tone; and he asked, cheerily:
+
+"Well, what have you on for to-night, my dear?"
+
+"Nothing at all," she replied, indifferently, as if the question held
+no interest for her--as, indeed, it did not, for the moment; but she
+followed him from the dining-room into the library, as was their
+usual custom whenever they had dined alone. Now, as they entered it,
+the banker, with an assumption of high spirits he did not feel,
+remarked:
+
+"If you don't object to a Saturday-night opera, Garden is singing
+'Salome' at the Manhattan to-night, and I should like to hear it. Will
+you go, with your old dad?"
+
+"No, thank you," she replied, indifferently. "I shall remain at home."
+
+She was standing at the table, turning the leaves of a magazine, and
+her father glanced keenly at her across the intervening space, while
+he lighted a cigar. Then, with a shrug of his shoulders, and a sigh
+which could not have been seen or heard, and which only he himself
+knew to have existed, he crossed the floor. As he was passing from the
+room, he said, as indifferently as she had spoken:
+
+"Then, I suppose, I will have to take it in, alone."
+
+"You might ask Roderick to go with you," she threw at him, as he
+passed into the hallway; but Langdon pretended not to hear, for he
+called back at her:
+
+"I'll get Beatrice, I think, and ask her to play daughter for me; eh?"
+
+Patricia made no comment upon this suggestion; but having awaited,
+where she was, the sound of the closing outer door, she slowly crossed
+the room.
+
+The drop-light at her favorite chair was adjusted, and she began the
+reading of a new book which someone had placed on the table beside it.
+She read on and on, apparently with interest, but really without
+knowing at all what she did read, until more than an hour had passed;
+and then a card was brought to her.
+
+She glanced at it, although she believed she knew perfectly well what
+name it bore, before she did so. Her lips tightened for an instant,
+and she frowned ever so little. But she said to the footman:
+
+"You may bring Mr. Duncan here, James."
+
+Patricia did not rise from her chair when her caller entered the
+library. Duncan moved toward her eagerly, but meeting her eyes, which
+she raised quite calmly to his as he crossed the floor, he paused, and
+remained at about midway of the distance.
+
+"Good evening, Patricia," he said. "I'm awfully glad to have found you
+at home. I was afraid you might go out before I could get here."
+
+"I expected you," she told him, without returning his salute. "I have
+been expecting you for an hour. In fact, I have been waiting for you."
+
+"That is very pleasant news, indeed, Patricia." Duncan was startled
+by it, however. He had not expected it, and he did not quite like the
+tone in which Patricia uttered it.
+
+"I am glad you take it so," she returned. "It was not pleasant for me
+to wait for you, and it is not distinctly agreeable to me to receive
+you. But I believed that you would think it necessary to call, in
+order to make some effort at explaining the occurrences of this
+afternoon. Let me tell you, before you begin, that there exists no
+necessity for any sort of explanation. My father has fulfilled that
+duty quite fully, and I listened to him, throughout. He has exonerated
+you--"
+
+Duncan took a hasty step toward her, but stopped again, even more
+abruptly than before, repelled by the cold barrier that the expression
+of her dark eyes built up between them. Whatever it was that he had in
+mind to say remained unspoken. He turned away and sought a chair
+opposite her, ten feet away, utterly repelled, for although these two
+had grown to manhood and womanhood together, she had always had the
+power to lift a sudden barrier between them. Though he believed he
+knew every mood and characteristic of this proud young woman, just
+now, for the first time within his recollection, there was a
+strangeness about her that he could not fathom. Long habit had made
+him almost as much at home in this house, as in his own. He had been,
+ever since he could remember, considered and treated like a member of
+the family. And so, now, before seating himself, he sought to put
+himself more at ease by indulging in a liberty which had always been
+accorded to him. He selected a cigar from Stephen Langdon's box, and
+lighted it. Then, remembering that conditions were changed, he threw
+it down with an angry gesture, upon a receptacle for ashes that was on
+the table. Patricia watched all these proceedings, unmoved.
+
+"Patsy!" he exclaimed, abruptly, making use of an expression of their
+childhood; and he would have continued with rapid speech, had she not
+made a quick gesture of aversion that interrupted him. Then, she said,
+quietly:
+
+"I would prefer, if you don't mind, that you should henceforth use my
+full name in addressing me."
+
+"Patricia, you have just told me that your father has exonerated me;
+and if that is so, why do you receive me in just this manner? I need
+exoneration, all right; and I deserve it, too, for honestly, dear, I
+never thought of offending you. I thought, until the last moment, that
+you would take it all as a huge joke. It never occurred to me that
+you would be so deeply wounded. I should never have agreed to the
+crazy compact that your father and I made together, if I had realized
+the seriousness of it."
+
+"No," she replied, quietly. "You should not have agreed to it. It was
+the mistake of your life, and, perhaps, of mine."
+
+"You know how I love you, dear," he began, half-starting from his
+chair. But the expression of her eyes, without the slightest motion
+otherwise, made him pause again, without completing what he had
+started to say.
+
+"It is best that we should be quite frank with each other," she said,
+calmly. "That is why I waited so patiently for you, to-night. Please
+do not interrupt me; let me say what I have in mind to say to you."
+
+"I would like it much better if you would hit me over the head with
+one of those bronze ornaments, as you would have done ten or twelve
+years ago; or if you would fly into one of your tempers just as you
+used to do, Patricia. I would like anything better than this cold
+calmness. It makes me shudder; it freezes me; it fills me with
+apprehension. I love you so, dear! and I have loved you all my life.
+You know it; I don't need to tell you! And if I have made a mistake,
+surely you can find it in your heart to forgive, because of my great
+love? No, I will not stop," he ejaculated, when she made a gesture of
+impatience. "I will finish what I have to say, even braving your anger
+to do so. I would like to make you angry just now, Patricia. I would
+delight to see you in one of those tantrums of fury that you used to
+have when you and I were children together. Do you remember that I
+bear a scar now, inflicted by a tennis-racket in your hand, when you
+were ten years old? I think more of that scar than of any other
+possession I have, for even you cannot take it away from me. I love
+you with all the manhood there is in me, and I can't remember a time
+when I did not; and I have thought that I knew, all these years, that
+you loved me; I believe it now, even though the scorn in your eyes
+denies it. You may have convinced yourself that you do not, but you
+are working from a wrong hypothesis. I know why you have put me off,
+time and again, when I have besought you to name our wedding-day. It
+has been because you were not quite ready. Isn't that true, dear? You
+have not denied me because you did not love me; you have put me off
+only because you were not ready to become a wife. But you have loved
+me; I am sure of that. You have never said that you would not be my
+wife; and in fact you have often shown me that some day you would be;
+you have only declined to say when. I have come to you to-night,
+Patricia, to tell you that I will wait, on and on, counting only your
+own pleasure in the matter, until you are willing to appoint the time,
+if only you will say that you forgive me for the apparently despicable
+part I have played in the tragedy of this afternoon."
+
+"That is a very pretty speech you have just made. It sounds well, and
+is quite characteristic," she replied to him, calmly. "I shall be as
+frank with you in my reply."
+
+"Well?" he said, and waited. Her tone and manner startled him. There
+was a suggestion of finality in her attitude that was alarming. She
+continued, speaking almost gently:
+
+"I have believed in your love for me, as sincerely as I have believed
+in my father's love for me; and I think now that you were more to me
+than I realized. But, Roderick, have you ever watched a woodman in the
+forest chopping down a tree? And have you ever seen that tree fall,
+when its natural prop was stolen away by the sharp edge of the axe? It
+may have taken that tree a hundred, or a thousand years to grow; but
+when it crashes down, it is gone forever. A little, puny man has gone
+into the forest with an axe upon his shoulder, and has ruthlessly
+attacked one of God's greatest creations, a gorgeously abundant tree.
+He had no thought of what he was doing, of what he was destroying. His
+only thought was of a purpose he had in view; and it was somehow
+necessary to destroy that tree in order to accomplish the purpose. The
+thing that nature created, which had required years to bring to
+perfection; the thing that God made beautiful was, in a few minutes,
+shorn of its splendor by this little, ruthless creature, who went into
+the forest with the axe on his shoulder. That is what you have done to
+whatever love I may have felt for you, Roderick Duncan. It lies
+prostrate now, and it has borne down with it, all the lesser verdure,
+all the little trees and bushes and vines that grew about it, and has
+left only a bare spot--and the wounded stump. You were the woodman
+with the axe."
+
+"My God, Patricia!" he cried out, appalled by the agony of his loss.
+He understood, suddenly, that this proud young woman would have
+forgiven downright disloyalty more readily than such hurt to her
+pride.
+
+She continued as if he had not spoken:
+
+"My father informed me, this afternoon, as you are aware, of certain
+financial straits in which he has suddenly become involved. I know
+enough about the methods and habits of 'the street,' to realize how
+impossible it was for him to betray his condition to certain forces
+and powers that are exerted there, lest, despite what he could do, he
+should lose the great influence he now has over all the immense wealth
+of this country. While he was telling me about his condition, I
+naturally thought of you; and I wondered why he had not gone to you
+instantly; or, if you knew of the circumstance, I wondered the more,
+why you had not as instantly gone to him, and offered the assistance
+he needed. Then, little by little by little, the plot which you two
+had concocted together, was unveiled to me."
+
+"But, Patricia, dear, won't you--?"
+
+"Let me finish, please. I have not quite done so, as yet."
+
+"Well, dear?"
+
+"I have agreed to the terms that were adjusted between you and my
+father, respecting the loan of a certain sum of money by you to him.
+Of course, you may repudiate those terms if you please, and it is a
+matter of indifference to me whether you do so, or not. You may loan
+the money to my father without accepting me as the collateral for it;
+that also is a matter of indifference to me. But I wish to tell you,
+and I wish you thoroughly to understand, that, unless you carry out
+the terms of this compact precisely as it was agreed upon between you
+and my father, with the added stipulations which I have requested Mr.
+Melvin to draw for me, I will never under any circumstances be your
+wife, or receive you again. That, I think, concludes this interview. I
+shall be ready Monday morning, at ten o'clock, to fulfill my part of
+the agreement. You and Stephen Langdon may do as you please. And now,
+please, bid me good-night--I prefer to be alone."
+
+Duncan started from his chair and took two steps toward her, where he
+paused. His face was pale, but his finely chiseled features were set
+in firm lines; and his tall, athletic figure, was drawn to its full
+height, as he replied, with slow emphasis:
+
+"In that case, Patricia, we shall carry out the compact as agreed
+upon, and I shall conform to whatever stipulations you have made," he
+said. "Good-night."
+
+He turned and went swiftly from the room. He seized his coat and hat
+before James, the footman, could assist him, and he went out at the
+front door, with more bitterness and more anger in his soul than he
+remembered ever to have felt before against any man or woman. But
+just now the bitterness and the anger were directed chiefly against
+himself.
+
+For a moment, he stood on the bottom step at the entrance to the
+mansion, undecided as to which way he should go or what he should do.
+Then, he turned about and again rang the bell at Stephen Langdon's
+door; and the instant it was opened, he brushed savagely past the
+astonished James, and made his way to the library, unannounced. He
+pushed the door ajar noiselessly, without intending to do so, and
+halted on the threshold, amazed by what he saw there. He had not meant
+to intrude in that silent fashion upon the privacy and grief of the
+woman he loved, and as soon as he could master his emotions, he
+stepped quickly backward into the hall, re-closing the door as softly
+as he had opened it. Patricia had given way at last. She had thrown
+herself upon the couch, and with her face buried among the pillows,
+she was sobbing as if her heart would break. His first impulse, when
+he discovered her so, was to rush to her side, to take her in his
+arms, and to tell her over and over again of his love. But he knew
+instinctively that Patricia would bitterly resent such an effort on
+his part, that he would again offend her sense of pride if she should
+know that he had found her in tears.
+
+Outside the door, when he had closed it, he hesitated for a time;
+finally he wrote rapidly on the back of one of his cards, as follows:
+
+"There will be little time on Monday morning to inspect the papers you
+mentioned. I shall be glad if you will direct Mr. Melvin to submit them
+to me at my rooms, between five and six o'clock to-morrow afternoon.
+
+                                        R. D."
+
+He gave this written message to James, instructing him not to
+deliver it until Miss Langdon summoned him to her, or she should
+leave the library. Then, he asked the footman:
+
+"Do you happen to know where Mr. Langdon has gone, to-night, James?"
+
+"To the opera, sir," replied the footman.
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Quite so, sir, I believe."
+
+Duncan walked the distance, which was considerable, from the Langdon
+mansion to the Opera House, where he went directly to Stephen
+Langdon's box, believing that he would find the banker to be it's
+solitary occupant, and there were reasons why he greatly desired a
+private conference with Patricia's father. He entered the box without
+announcement and came to a sudden pause when he discovered that the
+banker was not alone. Beside him, with her white arm resting upon the
+rail at the front of the box, was seated a young woman whom Duncan
+knew well; and she happened to be the one person in New York who came
+nearest to being on terms of intimacy with Patricia. For Miss Langdon
+was one who had never permitted herself to be intimate with anybody.
+Others might be intimate with her, as Beatrice Brunswick had been, but
+that close and personal relation which so often exists between two
+young women, and which is so beautiful in its character, was something
+Patricia Langdon had never permitted herself to know. She was not even
+aware that this was so. The condition arose from no lack of sympathy
+for others, and from no want of affection for her friends; it was a
+characteristic reserve of manner and method, inherited from her
+father, which had been cultivated by and through her association with
+him, all her life long.
+
+While Roderick Duncan halted for an instant, to consider whether, or
+not, he should proceed with his original design, and while he still
+stood there, holding the curtains apart and appearing much as if he
+were a stealthy observer of the scene before him, the young woman
+turned her head and discovered him. She smiled brightly and uttered an
+exclamation of pleasure as she started to her feet and approached him
+with out-stretched hand. One could have seen that the pleasure she
+manifested, was very real. It was at once evident that she liked
+Duncan.
+
+"How good of you to come, and how fortunate!" she said, when he took
+her hand and raised it to his lips, just as the banker turned about in
+his chair, and with a grim smile also made Duncan welcome.
+
+"Hello," he said. "Glad you came! I have been wondering all the
+evening where you were. Had an idea you would show up somewhere. Sit
+down and keep still until this act is finished, for I don't want to
+lose it. After that, we'll chat a little. There are things I wish to
+discuss with you, Roderick."
+
+Roderick Duncan was in a mood that was strange to him. It affected him
+to recklessness, though he could not have told why it was so, or in
+what form of recklessness he might indulge. The discovery he had made
+when he returned to the library and found Patricia in tears, was still
+having its effects upon him, for he did not understand the cause for
+those tears. He knew only that he had made her cry, that her
+abandonment of grief was due to his acts, and her father's. By a
+strange paradox, he pitied himself as deeply as he did the woman he
+loved. He felt that he had been forced into a second false position
+by so readily accepting the terms Patricia had insisted upon for their
+betrothal. She had told him plainly that if she ever became his wife
+at all, the fact could be accomplished only in the manner she
+dictated; that if he repudiated it, he would not even be received at
+her home. Impulsively, he had accepted her dictum, and now, at the end
+of his long and solitary walk to the opera-house, he realized that the
+change from frying-pan to fire was a simile true as to his present
+condition. Practically, the end so long sought had been attained. In
+effect, he and Patricia were betrothed--but such a betrothal! For the
+moment, he regretted his ready acquiescence to Patricia's terms. He
+believed that it would be better to lose her entirely than to take her
+under such conditions.
+
+The meeting with Beatrice Brunswick and her sincere welcome warmed
+him, and he found a ready sympathy in her eyes and manner for his
+condition of mind. He wanted company and he wanted sympathy; chiefly,
+he had wished to discuss the present situation of affairs with old
+Steve; but now, since his arrival at the box, he decided that it would
+be a splendid opportunity to talk the matter over with Beatrice
+Brunswick. She had always shown him great consideration. He had
+regarded her as Patricia's dearest friend, and had ultimately placed
+her in that relationship to himself, for she was one of those rare
+young women whom men class as "good fellows." And Beatrice was as good
+as she was beautiful. Her merry laugh and quick wit always acted upon
+Duncan like a tonic. Just now, he was especially glad to find her
+there, and he showed it.
+
+Beatrice Brunswick was unmistakably red-headed. Referring to her hair
+in cold-blooded terms, no other hue could have described it. It was
+like that old-fashioned kind of red copper, after it has been hammered
+into sheets, in the manner in which it was treated before less arduous
+methods were invented. It was remarkable hair, too--there was such a
+wealth of it! It had always impressed Duncan with the idea that each
+individual hair was in business for itself, refusing utterly to stay
+where it was put. A young woman's crowning glory, always, this
+happened to be particularly true in the case of Miss Brunswick, for,
+although her features and her figure and her graceful motions left
+nothing to be desired, it was her wonderful hair, emphasized by the
+saucy poise of her head, that became her crowning glory, indeed.
+Duncan took a seat near to her, so that she was between him and the
+banker; and presently Beatrice inclined her head toward him, and
+whispered:
+
+"What's the matter, Roderick? You look like a banquet of the Skull and
+Bones, which my brother described to me once, when he was at Yale."
+
+"I'll tell you about it later," was the response; and Duncan shut his
+jaws, and bent his attention grimly upon the stage.
+
+"Why not now?" She asked.
+
+"There isn't time; and besides--"
+
+"Have you been quarreling with our Juno? Have you two been scrapping?"
+She whispered, smiling bewitchingly, and bending still nearer to him.
+Miss Brunswick was sometimes given to the milder uses of slang.
+
+Duncan nodded, without replying in words. He kept his eyes directly
+toward the stage. But Miss Brunswick was insistent.
+
+"Is Patricia on her high horse to-night?" she asked, with a light
+laugh.
+
+Duncan replied to her with another nod, and a wry smile.
+
+"She wants to look out about that high horse of hers, Roderick, or
+sometime it will hit the top rail and give her a fall that she won't
+get over for a while. What our beautiful Juno needs most is what I
+used to get oftenest when I was about three years old. Perhaps you can
+guess what it was; if you can't, I won't tell you."
+
+"I expect you were a regular little devil then, weren't you?" he
+asked, endeavoring to assume a cheerfulness he was far from
+experiencing at that moment.
+
+"I expect I was; and the strange part of it is that there are lots and
+lots of people who insist that I have never got over it. But I can
+read you like a book. You and Mr. Langdon and Patricia have been
+having no end of a row. He might just as well have told me that much
+when he came after me and insisted that I should accompany him to the
+opera to-night. He said that Patricia wouldn't, and he wanted me to
+take her place. I wish you would tell me all about it." Then, with a
+slight toss of her head, Beatrice added: "I suppose Patricia has
+refused you again?"
+
+"No. She has accepted me, this time," was the blunt reply.
+
+Beatrice stared straight in front of her for a moment, and there was a
+suggestion of gathering pallor in her face. Then, she drew backward,
+away from her companion, and her blue eyes widened. If there was a
+shock to her in the knowledge she had just received, she accepted it
+with a very clever little laugh which she always had ready at hand.
+
+"So," she said, "that is what makes you so glum, is it? Really, you
+are a most amazing person. I had supposed that when Patricia accepted
+you, finally, and set the day--"
+
+"The day hasn't been set. It may be a week, a month, or a year hence,
+for all I know." This was said harshly, and while Duncan's eyes were
+fixed steadily upon Mary Garden, on the stage.
+
+"How intensely interesting!" Beatrice exclaimed, under her breath. "I
+shall insist upon your taking us to supper after the opera, and
+telling me all about it."
+
+The loud bars of music which announce the finale of an act and the
+entrance of the chorus precluded the possibility of further
+conversation just then; and as soon as the curtain was down and the
+applause had ceased, Stephen Langdon left his chair and reached for
+his coat and hat. Then, he addressed the two young people who were his
+companions in the box.
+
+"If you two youngsters care to see this out, I'll leave you here,
+together," he said. "I have just remembered something I should have
+attended to, to-night. I must see Melvin, my lawyer. You won't mind,
+Beatrice, will you, if I leave you in Roderick's care? Possibly, I'll
+return before the show is out."
+
+Before either of them could answer, Langdon had passed out into the
+aisle, and hurried away, leaving Duncan and Miss Brunswick alone
+together in the box. If Roderick Duncan had really desired an
+opportunity to confide his troubles to Beatrice, it was afforded him
+then; but now that it was at hand, he felt suddenly uncertain about
+the wisdom of such a proceeding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BOX AT THE OPERA
+
+
+Duncan stared helplessly at the spot where the curtains had fallen
+together behind the departing figure of Stephen Langdon; then he
+turned his eyes toward Beatrice, to discover that she was convulsed
+with laughter. But whether her demeanor and her quick surrender to
+expressions of levity had been excited by the departure of the banker,
+or by Duncan's attitude of dismay, the young man could not have told.
+He laughed with her, for there was a distinctly ludicrous side to the
+situation, following, as it did, so closely upon the announcement of
+his engagement to Patricia.
+
+By mutual consent, they withdrew to the rear of the box, and then
+Beatrice, with a touch of teasing witchery in her voice and with
+laughter still in her eyes, asked him:
+
+"Don't you think that this is rather a compromising situation,
+particularly in view of the fact that you have only just become
+engaged to Patricia? Really, you know, it is dreadful; isn't it?"
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," he replied, quite truthfully. "I was
+thinking of what Langdon said, when he left us. It recalled
+something--"
+
+"About leaving us two 'youngsters' alone together?" she asked him,
+with a pretense of frightened expression in her eyes.
+
+"No, that wasn't the last thing he said."
+
+"What was it? I didn't hear it."
+
+"He said he was going to see Melvin. I suppose you know who Melvin is,
+don't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Mr. Melvin and I are great friends. I think he is
+about the nicest old gentleman of my acquaintance; don't you? He is
+what I should call the _arbiter elegantiarum_ of the Langdon court, if
+one could imagine Old Steve as a Caesar, and Patricia as--" Beatrice
+paused, and flushed hotly. She had not considered to what length her
+words were reaching. She had almost cast a reflection upon her friend,
+which would have been as unkind as it was unmerited. She added,
+quickly: "But why, if I may ask, did the mention of Mr. Melvin's name
+interest you?"
+
+Duncan gazed at his companion rather stupidly, for a moment, for his
+mind had suddenly become intent upon the complications of the day, and
+he had forgotten for the time being, where he was, and with whom he
+was talking. But Beatrice's smile and the mockery in her eyes brought
+him back to the present.
+
+"I remembered that I should have gone, myself, to see Melvin,
+to-night," he told her, quietly. "It really was quite important. I
+should have sought him, instead of coming here."
+
+"Indeed?" Beatrice laughed, brightly. "Mr. Melvin seems to be in great
+demand. Are you and Patricia to follow the French fashion of drawing
+the marriage-contract? and is Mr. Melvin to act the part of a French
+notary?" There was a touch of irony in her question, a little shaft of
+sarcasm that brought a quick flush to Duncan's face. He was reminded
+instantly of the tentative betrothal with Patricia, and his misgivings
+concerning it. Beside him was seated the one person who might aid them
+both; and with sudden resolution, acted upon as quickly as it was
+formed, he reached out and took one of Miss Brunswick's hands, holding
+it between both his own.
+
+"Beatrice," he said, with quiet emphasis, "you have always been a good
+fellow, if ever there was a girl born in the world who was one. I
+wonder if you could be persuaded to give me the benefit of your
+advice, and, possibly, your active assistance?"
+
+She flushed a little under the praise and the intimately personal
+request that came with it, but he did not notice this as he went on:
+"I've somehow got things into the biggest kind of a muddle to-day, and
+I have a notion to tell you all about it; I have the impulse to take
+you into my confidence and to ask you to help me out. I know you can
+do it. By Jove, Beatrice, I think you are the only person in the world
+who can do it! Will you?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders ever so little, and the flush left her
+cheeks, rendering them paler than was their wont. It suddenly came
+home to her that he was asking a favor that might prove extremely
+difficult to grant.
+
+"I cannot say as to that until I hear what you wish me to do," she
+replied.
+
+"I want you to help me square myself," he said, quickly.
+
+"To square yourself?" She raised her brows in assumed surprise. "With
+whom?"
+
+"Why, with Patricia, of course."
+
+"Help you to square yourself with Patricia?" She laughed outright, but
+without mirth. "I am afraid I don't at all understand you, Roderick. I
+supposed you had already accomplished that much, for you told me--did
+you not?--that Patricia has just accepted you?"
+
+"Yes, and that's the devil of it!" was the unexpected astounding
+reply. Beatrice moved farther away from him, and took her hand from
+his grasp, in well-simulated horror of what he had said.
+
+"Let us, at least, confine ourselves to the usages and language of
+polite society;" she said, with mock severity. "We will leave the
+devil out of it, if you please. Besides, you amaze me! Patricia has
+just accepted you, and that is 'the devil of it.' Really, I can't
+guess what you mean by such a paradoxical statement as that."
+
+"Forgive me. I am so wrought up that I scarcely know what I am talking
+about, or what I am doing. As I said before, I have managed to get
+things into a terrible mess, and I believe that you, Beatrice, are the
+only person alive who can unravel the tangle for me. Will you help me
+out? Will you?"
+
+"You must tell me what it is, before I commit myself. You are so very
+aggravating, in words and manner, that I cannot even attempt to
+understand you."
+
+For just a few moments, he hesitated. There was within him the
+feeling that he would outrage Patricia's ideas of the fitness of
+things, if he should take Beatrice Brunswick into his confidence and
+relate to her all that had occurred this afternoon and evening. But,
+on the other hand, he saw in this beautiful girl a personification of
+the straw at which a drowning man grasps. He knew that she was,
+personally, closer to Patricia than any other friend had been, and
+that she understood Patricia better than did anyone else, save Stephen
+Langdon, perhaps. He knew, also, that he could trust her, and that he
+could rely, implicitly, upon her loyalty. He knew that she would never
+betray the secrets he would be obliged to tell concerning Stephen
+Langdon's affairs. He had tried her often, and he had never found her
+wanting. Therefore, he felt that the greatest secret of all,
+concerning the financial extremity in which Stephen Langdon had become
+involved, would be safe with Beatrice Brunswick. Manlike, he began
+very stupidly and very strangely.
+
+"By Jove, Beatrice!" he exclaimed. "I wish I might have fallen in love
+with you, instead of with Patricia! You would never have seen things
+in the light she does!"
+
+Beatrice's eyes widened and deepened; then, they narrowed so that she
+almost frowned. She bit her lips with vexation, and for an instant
+was angry. At last, she laughed. She did not wish him to know how
+deeply he had wounded her by that careless statement, so she uttered a
+care-free ripple of laughter.
+
+"I don't quite know whether I should take that as a compliment or
+not," she replied. "It is more than likely that I would have conducted
+myself very much worse than Patricia has done in this affair which you
+have not as yet explained to me. Perhaps, it is a fortunate thing for
+both of us that you did not fall in love with me, instead of her. I'm
+sure I don't know what I should have done with you, in such a case.
+But I will help you if I can; only, understand in the beginning that
+if you tell me the story at all, you must tell me all of it. I don't
+want any half-confidences, Roderick."
+
+Duncan did tell her all of it then, leaving nothing to be added, when
+he had finished; and she listened to the end of his tale in utter
+silence, with her head half-turned away and her chin supported by the
+palm of one of her jeweled hands. They did not move to the front of
+the box again, nor give any heed to the rise of the curtain or to what
+was taking place on the stage, during the ensuing act. Duncan talked
+straight on, through it all; and Beatrice listened with close
+attention. One might have supposed that the music and the singing did
+not reach the ears of either of them, and one would not have been very
+wrong in that surmise. The tragic fate of John, the Baptist; the
+unholy, unnatural passion of a depraved soul for the dead lips of a
+man who had spurned her while he lived; the exquisite music of
+Strauss; the superb scenery and stage-setting; the rich and gorgeous
+costumes--all remained unseen and unheard by these two, one intent
+upon reestablishing himself in the esteem of Patricia Langdon, the
+other disturbed by emotions she could not have named, which she would
+have declined to recognize, even had they presented themselves frankly
+to her. She had known, of course, of Duncan's love for her friend, but
+until this hour there had always existed an unformed, unrecognized
+doubt in the mind of Beatrice that it would ever be requited.
+
+When he had finished, she was still silent, and for so long a time
+that at last, with some impatience, he bent nearer to her, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Well, Beatrice? What do you think of it all?"
+
+She shuddered a little. There was still another interval before she
+spoke, and then, with calm directness, she replied:
+
+"I think you are both exceedingly brave to be willing to face the
+situation that exists."
+
+"Eh?" he asked her, not comprehending.
+
+"Why, if you carry out this compact that you have made, if Patricia
+Langdon becomes your wife according to the terms she has dictated to
+Melvin--for I can guess, now, what they are--you will both be casting
+yourselves straight down into hell. I speak metaphorically, of
+course," she added, with a whimsical smile. "I have been told that
+there isn't any hell, really. But I mean it, Roderick. If there isn't
+a hell, you two seem to be bent upon the arrangement of a correct
+imitation of one."
+
+"How is that?" he demanded, frowning. "I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Our friend has not been named 'Juno' for nothing. She is a strange
+girl; but I love her, almost as much as you do," Beatrice continued,
+as if she had not heard his question. "She possesses characteristics,
+the depth of which I have never been able to sound, and I am her best
+and closest friend. If you two live up to this agreement, in the
+spirit in which it was made, and conclude it in the spirit in which
+she has dictated her conditions to Melvin, I tremble for the
+consequences that will ensue, for I can almost foresee them. Patricia
+is not one who forgives easily, and she will resent a hurt to her
+pride with all the force there is in her."
+
+Beatrice rose to her feet, standing before him, and he, also, stood
+up, facing her. She reached out both her hands toward him, and he took
+them; and there were tears in her big blue eyes, when she added, with
+a depth of feeling that he did not understand:
+
+"Roderick Duncan, it would be better for you, and for Patricia as
+well, if you never saw each other again. You might far better, and
+with much greater hope of happiness, cast your future lot with some
+other woman whom you have never thought of as a wife, than marry
+Patricia Langdon upon such terms as you have outlined. Have you known
+her so intimately all your life without understanding her at all? She
+might have forgiven disloyalty, or unfaithfulness, or at least have
+condoned such--but an offense against her pride? Never! You would be
+undergoing much less risk if you should select an utterly unknown
+woman from one of these boxes, and should take her out of this theatre
+now, and marry her instead!"
+
+Having delivered this remarkable statement, Beatrice burst into
+laughter. Duncan, suddenly alive to her beauty and her nearness,
+deeply impressed by what she had said, and fully alive to the truth of
+her utterances, retained the grasp he had upon her hands, and drew her
+toward him, quickly.
+
+"Why not?" he demanded, hotly. "I'll do it if you say the word! But
+not a strange woman. You, Beatrice--you!! I'll dare you!!! We'll go to
+the 'Little Church Around the Corner.' I dare you! I dare you,
+Beatrice! They always have a wedding ceremony on tap, there; if you've
+got the sand, come on. It offers a solution of everything. Come on,
+Bee--marry me!"
+
+She raised her eyes to his, and he understood, instantly, how he had
+wounded her; he saw that her laughter had not been real, and that she
+was very near to tears. But the fact that she shrank away from his
+impetuous words and manner, only spurred him on anew. He caught her
+hands again.
+
+"Let's do it, Beatrice," he said rapidly, bending forward with sudden
+eagerness. "I hate all this mess and muddle of affairs. I hate it! Say
+yes, Bee."
+
+He stood with his back toward the curtains at the rear of the box; she
+was facing them. He saw her eyes dilate suddenly, and he had the
+sensation that she had discovered another person near them, or in the
+act of entering the box; and then, with more astonishment than he
+would have believed himself capable of feeling, he realized that
+Beatrice Brunswick had thrown herself forward and that her white arms
+were wound clingingly about his neck; at the same time, with evident
+design, she turned him still more, so that he could not see the
+curtains which screened the entrance to the box.
+
+The last and final shock of that eventful day, came to him then, for
+he did turn, in spite of Beatrice's restraining arms--he turned to
+find that the curtains were drawn apart, and in the opening thus
+created stood Patricia Langdon. Duncan knew that she had both seen and
+heard.
+
+He could not have moved, had he attempted to do so, although somewhere
+deep down inside of him he felt that it was his duty to untwine those
+clinging arms and somehow to account for the appalling situation.
+Beyond where Patricia stood, he saw and recognized two other figures
+that were moving steadily forward toward them, but he had the
+subconscious assurance in his soul that neither Stephen Langdon nor
+his lawyer, Melvin, had noticed the scene which Patricia had
+discovered. He could not guess that it had been the consequence of
+sudden inspiration on the part of Beatrice, who had thrown her arms
+around his neck at the very instant when she had intended to
+administer a rebuff.
+
+He did not imagine that she had discovered the approach of Patricia
+before she made this outward demonstration in acceptance of his mad
+proposal. Duncan felt very guilty indeed, in that trying moment;
+nevertheless, he was not one to attempt an ignominious escape from a
+predicament in which he believed himself to be wholly at fault. But
+Beatrice was not yet through with acting a part. She drew away from
+Duncan quickly, with an exclamation of mingled disappointment,
+pleasure and alarm. She cried out the single ejaculation, "Oh!" and
+dropped backward upon the chair she had recently occupied. But there
+was a gleam of mischief in her eyes, which belied the confusion
+otherwise expressed upon her face.
+
+"So sorry to have interrupted you at such a critical moment," said
+Patricia coolly, at once master of herself and of the situation.
+"Good-evening, Beatrice. I hope you have enjoyed the opera. I decided
+to come at the last moment, and met my father at the door of the
+theatre, as I was entering. He insisted on seeing Mr. Melvin to-night,
+so we drove to his house together and brought him here. I thought I
+would enjoy the last act."
+
+One might have thought that Roderick Duncan did not exist. Patricia
+did not so much as glance in his direction, but she moved forward to
+the front of the box and took her accustomed seat, just as Stephen
+Langdon and the lawyer, Melvin, entered it.
+
+All this had passed so quickly that the interval it occupied could be
+reckoned only by seconds. Beatrice Brunswick's face was flushed, and
+her eyes were alight with mischief, or with something deeper, as she
+greeted the two gentlemen. Duncan's countenance was like marble; he
+realized that the mess was bigger now, by far, than it had been
+before.
+
+Langdon and his lawyer perceived nothing unusual in the attitude of
+any person in the box; both were preoccupied with the discussion upon
+which they had just been engaged. Patricia's eyes were already fixed
+on the stage, and evidently her entire attention was devoted to it.
+She appeared to have forgotten the propinquity of other persons.
+
+There was a vacant chair beside her which Duncan should have taken,
+and, doubtless, he would have done so, had not the lawyer stupidly
+preempted it for his own use. The banker occupied the middle chair,
+and the consequence was that Duncan was given no choice, but was
+literally forced into the one next to Beatrice. Not that he would
+have preferred it otherwise, at the moment. Not he. He was angered by
+Patricia's conduct toward him; he resented the whole circumstance--and
+possibly, too, he still felt something of the thrill induced by the
+clinging arms of Beatrice Brunswick. He stared silently toward the
+stage, seeing nothing upon it. He was endeavoring to arrange, in some
+comprehensive form, the combination of circumstances and scenes which
+it had been his misfortune to encounter, and in part enact, since noon
+that day. But the more he tried, the more difficult became the task.
+The whole thing was as exasperating as an attempt to put together,
+within an alloted time, a puzzle-picture which has been cut into all
+sorts of sizes and shapes. It was not a panorama of events, as he
+recounted them in his own mind; it was a kaleidoscope, a jumble of
+colors and figures, of angles and spaces--or to put it in his own
+words, it was literally a mess.
+
+He turned toward Beatrice, whose right hand was negligently waving a
+fan. He reached out and claimed it, and she did not resent the act. He
+drew it toward him, and she looked up and smiled into his eyes with an
+expression he did not understand. She made no effort to withdraw her
+hand, nor any attempt to resist his advances. He bent nearer.
+
+"Will you do it?" he asked her, whispering. "Will you do it,
+Beatrice?"
+
+She made no reply, and he bent still nearer, seizing her hand in both
+his own, now.
+
+"Will you do it, dear?" he repeated, a third time. "I'm game, if you
+are. It is a solution of the whole beastly muddle. Come on. I'll stump
+you! That is what we used to say, when we were kids. By Jove, girl,
+you're in as deep as I am, now; and, besides, you gave me your word
+that you'd help me, didn't you? Turn your eyes toward me. Tell me
+you'll do it. Say yes. Come on, Bee. I'll dare you. We can slip away
+from here while their backs are turned. What do you say? Will you
+marry me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, without moving or withdrawing her gaze from the
+stage, and she repeated: "yes, if you wish it." He could not see her
+face.
+
+"Will you do it now?" Duncan demanded, half-startled by her ready
+acquiescence.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good! I knew you were game!"
+
+He left his chair quickly and secured her wraps and his own coat and
+hat. Then, he stepped to the opening between the curtains and turned
+expectantly toward her.
+
+She had not moved; but now, as if she had seen his every act without
+looking toward him, she turned her head slowly, observing him coolly,
+and she gave a little nod of comprehension and assent. He returned the
+nod, touched his fingers to his lips to enjoin silence, and passed
+outside. In another moment, she had glided softly but swiftly from her
+seat, and, unnoticed by the other occupants of the box, followed him,
+dropping the curtains silently after her.
+
+He put her opera-cloak about her shoulders, and swiftly donned his own
+coat and hat, and so without as much as "by your leave," they left the
+theatre together and waited in the foyer while the special officer in
+gray called a taxicab for their use.
+
+Duncan led her across the pavement to the cab, and assisted her
+inside.
+
+"Do you know where the Church of the Transfiguration is located?" he
+asked the chauffeur.
+
+"I do, sir," was the reply.
+
+"Drive us there, and be quick about it," said Duncan, and he sprang
+inside and banged the door shut after him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BEATRICE BRUNSWICK'S PLOT
+
+
+The chauffeur to whom the order was given that the taxicab be driven
+to the Church of the Transfiguration, proved to be an adept and
+skillful driver; one of those who can exceed the speed limit and then
+slow down his machine so quickly and quietly at the sight of a
+bluecoat that he inevitably escapes arrest for his transgression. As
+a consequence, there was very little time for conversation between
+these two apparently mad young persons during the journey between the
+opera-house and the church.
+
+Little as there was, the greater part of it was passed in silence. But
+when they were quite near to their destination, Beatrice spoke up
+quickly and rather sharply to her companion.
+
+"Roderick, have you for a moment supposed that I have taken you
+seriously in this mad proposition you have made to me, to-night?" she
+demanded. "Surely, you don't think that, do you?"
+
+Duncan stared at her, speechless. Then, with a vehemence that can
+better be imagined than described he exclaimed, half-angrily,
+half-resentfully:
+
+"Then, in God's name, Beatrice, why are we here? and why should we go
+to the church at all?"
+
+"Were you serious about it?" she asked.
+
+"I certainly was--and am, now!"
+
+"Foolish boy!" she exclaimed, laughing with nervous apprehension. What
+more she might have said on this point was interrupted by the skidding
+of the taxicab as they were whirled around the corner of Twenty-ninth
+street.
+
+"Why, in heaven's name, are we here, then?" he demanded, just as they
+were drawn swiftly to the curb, and the cab came to a stop in front of
+the church.
+
+"You requested my help, did you not?" she replied.
+
+"I certainly did."
+
+The chauffeur, in the meantime, had leaped to the pavement and thrown
+open the door of the cab.
+
+"You may close the door again, chauffeur, and wait where you are for
+further orders," Beatrice told him, calmly. And when that was done,
+she again addressed her companion. "You have called me a 'good fellow'
+to-night," she said slowly, with quiet distinctness, "and I mean to
+be one. I have always meant to be one, and to a great extent I think I
+have succeeded. But I would have to be a much better fellow than I am
+to go to the extent of marrying a man who does not love me, and who
+does love another, simply to help him out of a mess in which his own
+stupidity has involved him. Wouldn't I? Ask yourself the question!"
+
+Duncan shrugged his shoulders and parted his lips to reply, but she
+went on rapidly:
+
+"That is asking me to go rather farther than I would care to venture,
+my friend; or you, either, if you should stop to think about it. Your
+proposition is utterly a selfish one. You must know that. You have
+thought only of yourself and the mess you are in. You do not consider
+me at all. You would cheerfully use me as a means of venting your
+spite--or shall I call it, temper?--against Patricia. For the moment,
+you are intensely angry at her. Not only that, you feel that you have
+been out-done, at every point. That she has acted unreasonably, I will
+not deny. But what a silly thing it would be for you and me to stand
+together at the altar, and pledge ourselves to each other for life, or
+until such time as the divorce-courts might intervene, just because of
+the events of to-day!" She was smiling upon him now, as if he were,
+indeed, a foolish boy who needed chiding.
+
+Duncan pulled himself together. For the first time since their exit
+from the opera-house, and for perhaps the first time since the moment
+when Patricia discovered him in the private office of her father, he
+was capable of acting and thinking quite naturally.
+
+"Beatrice," he said, "if the sentiments you have just expressed are
+the same as those you felt before you left the box at the opera-house,
+would you mind telling me why in the world you have acted as you have
+done? Why, in the name of all that's phenomenal and strange, are we
+here?"
+
+She turned her head away from him, and peered through the glass door
+at the chauffeur, who was striding slowly up and down the pavement
+outside, and who had taken the opportunity to indulge himself in a
+smoke.
+
+"I did it," she said, "because I thought I saw a way to help you and
+Patricia out of your difficulties. I saw that we could leave the box
+without her knowledge, and believed that neither she nor her
+companions would discover our departure for some time afterward. I
+remembered just then that Patricia had witnessed the tender and
+somewhat touching scene in the box between you and me. My goodness,
+Roderick! I hope you didn't think that I meant _that_! It was all done
+for Patricia's benefit, you goose! Didn't you know that? Did you
+suppose that I had suddenly fallen head over heels in love with you?
+You're not very complimentary, are you? Or is it that you were
+throwing bouquets at yourself?"
+
+"Will you tell me why you did it?" he asked, flushing hotly under the
+jibe.
+
+"Because I wished Patricia to see it."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I thought it might bring her to her senses."
+
+"How, Beatrice?"
+
+"Jealousy, you dunce!"
+
+"But why the rest of your superb play-acting?"
+
+"It all works out toward the same end. Don't you suppose that Patricia
+is in hot water, by this time? When she realized that we had sneaked
+away, to put it plainly, don't you think she would put two and two
+together, and make four out of it?"
+
+"It strikes me," he interrupted her, with a light laugh, "that this is
+a case where two are supposed to make one."
+
+"We won't joke about it, if you please. Still, that isn't a bad idea.
+But, at all events, I wish Patricia to believe that we left the
+opera-house because, for the moment at least, you preferred my society
+to hers. If we can convince her that we ran away to be married, so
+much the better!"
+
+"You are deeper than I am, Bee. I confess that you've got me up a
+tree. I haven't the least idea what you are driving at, but I am quite
+willing to be taught. What is to be the next play in this little game
+of yours?"
+
+"You need not be nasty about it, when I'm trying to help you," she
+retorted.
+
+"What's the next move, Bee? I couldn't induce you to give me another
+hug, could I? There, now--don't get angry. I liked it, whether you
+did, or not. You put a lot of ginger into it, too. Oh, yes, I liked
+it!"
+
+For a moment, it seemed as if she would resent his bantering tone;
+then she shrugged her shoulders, and smiled.
+
+"I did it to help you--to make Patricia jealous." She laughed lightly,
+still keeping her face turned away from him. "I saw the curtains part,
+and recognized Patricia. With the recognition, there came also a
+revelation as to how I could best help you both. If I had dreamed that
+you would suppose for a moment I was in earnest, do you think I would
+have done it? And when I told you that I would come here, to this
+church, and would marry you like this--good heavens!--did you flatter
+yourself I meant _that_?"
+
+"Of course, I did."
+
+"Are you in earnest, Roderick Duncan? If I thought your selfishness,
+your egotism, was as great as that, I--I don't know what I'd do! Have
+you so little regard for me that you think I would become your wife,
+in this manner, knowing as I do that you love another--and when that
+other is my best friend--when I know that Patricia Langdon loves you?
+For I do know it. Do you--did you think that of me--did you think that
+of me?" She was a-tremble with indignation, now.
+
+"By Jove, Bee, I acted like a brute, didn't I? I didn't consider you;
+I was selfish enough to think of no one but myself. But, all the same,
+my girl, I was in dead earnest. If you've got the pluck and the spirit
+to go through with it, now, we'll see the thing out, side by side,
+just as we started, and I will make you, perhaps, a better husband
+than if the circumstances were different. You say that Patricia loves
+me: I doubt it. I thought so once, but I don't now. It doesn't matter,
+anyhow. I shall ask you again calmly, with all humility and respect;
+with all seriousness, too: will you be my wife, and will you marry me,
+now?"
+
+"I will reply with equal seriousness, Roderick," she retorted,
+mockingly. "No."
+
+He uttered a sigh, and there was so much satisfied relief in it that
+she laughed aloud, but without bitterness.
+
+"Then, what shall we do? Sit here in this cab, in front of the Church
+of the Transfiguration, for the balance of the night? Or shall we go
+around to Delmonico's and have some supper?" he asked her.
+
+"I think that last suggestion of yours is a very excellent one," she
+replied, naively. "But we will wait yet a few moments before we start.
+We haven't been at the Church of the Transfiguration quite long enough
+to have been married, and to have come out of it again."
+
+Duncan stared at her. Then, slowly, a smile lighted up his eyes and
+relaxed the lines of his face, so that after a moment he chuckled.
+Presently, he laughed.
+
+"By Jove, Bee, you're a corker!" he said. "You can give me cards and
+spades, and beat me hands down, when it comes to a matter of finesse.
+Is it your idea to play out the other part of the game? What will it
+avail, if we do?"
+
+"Never mind that," she replied. "In order to carry out the scheme, and
+to make it work itself out, as it should, one thing more is necessary.
+It will be great fun, too--if we don't carry it too far."
+
+"What is that?" he asked her. "What more is necessary?"
+
+"I want you to tell the chauffeur to stop for a moment at the
+side-entrance to the Hotel Breslin; there I wish you to leave me alone
+in the cab, while you go inside, and telephone to the opera-house, to
+have Jack Gardner and his wife meet us as soon as they can, at
+Delmonico's for supper. You may not have noticed, but they occupied
+their box, which is directly opposite the Langdon's. One of the ushers
+will carry the message to him, and Jack will come, if he has no
+previous engagement."
+
+"But what in the name of--what in the world do you want of Jack
+Gardner and his wife? what have they to do with it?"
+
+"I want them to take supper with us, that is all; and then I want a
+few moments' conversation with Jack, while you talk with Sally."
+
+They were driven to the Breslin, and the telephone-message was sent.
+Duncan waited for a reply, and received one, to the effect that Mr.
+and Mrs. Gardner would come at once. And so, not long afterward, the
+four occupied a conspicuous table of Beatrice's selection, at the
+famous restaurant.
+
+Recalling the injunction put upon him to occupy himself with Sally
+Gardner, Duncan began to get a glimmer of understanding regarding the
+plot that Beatrice had concocted. He, therefore, gave all of his
+attention to the spirited and charming wife of the young copper-king.
+Jack Gardner was everybody's friend. He loved a joke better than
+anyone else in the world, and a practical joke better than any other
+kind. He was especially fond of Roderick Duncan, and both he and his
+wife were intimate friends of Beatrice. Duncan noticed, while talking
+with Sally, that Jack and Beatrice had drawn their chairs more closely
+together, toward a corner of the table, and were now whispering
+together with low-toned eagerness. He could hear no word of what
+Beatrice said, but an occasional exclamation of Gardner's came to him.
+He saw that Beatrice was talking rapidly, with intense earnestness,
+and that Gardner seemed to be highly amused, even elated, by what she
+was saying. Such expressions as, "By Jove, that's the best, ever!"
+"Sure, I can do it!" and, "You just leave it to me!" came to his
+ears, from Gardner; and presently the latter excused himself and left
+the table.
+
+If they had followed him, they would have seen that he went to the
+telephone, where he called up several numbers before he obtained the
+person he sought; but he presently returned, apparently in the best of
+spirits, and with intense satisfaction written upon every line of his
+smiling features.
+
+As he seated himself at the table, other guests were just assuming
+places at another one, quite near to them, and he bent forward toward
+Beatrice, saying in a tone which their companion could not hear:
+
+"I say, Beatrice, it's all working out to the queen's taste! When you
+get a chance, look over your left shoulder. Gee! but this is funny!
+All the same, though, I expect I'll get myself into a very devil of a
+stew. When that reporter discovers that I've given him an out-and-out
+fake, he'll go gunning for me as sure as you are alive."
+
+"Is he coming here to see you?" she asked him.
+
+"Sure. He will be here in about twenty minutes."
+
+"Now, tell me who it is at the table behind me. I don't care to look
+around, to discover for myself."
+
+"Why, Old Steve and his Juno; and they've got Malcolm Melvin with
+them." He leaned back in his chair, and laughed; then, he emptied the
+champagne-glass he had been playing with. Presently, he chuckled
+again.
+
+"Tell you what, Beatrice," he said, in an undertone, "I almost wish
+that you had taken Duncan at his word, and married him. You should
+have called that bluff. Sure thing! Think of the millions he's got,
+and--"
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"Oh, all right. All the same--"
+
+"Hush, I tell you! Don't you see that Sally is trying to talk to you?"
+
+After that, the conversation became general among the four. During it,
+Jack Gardner sought and found an opportunity to wave a greeting to the
+late arrivals, whose names he had just mentioned to Beatrice. Duncan,
+observing him, glanced also in that direction, and, meeting Patricia's
+eyes fixed directly upon him, flushed hotly as he, also, bowed to her.
+Then, Sally and Beatrice turned their heads and nodded, as another
+course of the service was placed upon the table before them.
+
+It was not yet finished when the head-waiter brought a card to Jack
+Gardner, who instantly left his seat for the second time that evening,
+and, with a curt, "I'll be back in a moment," departed, without
+further excuse. The person whose card he had received, was awaiting
+him in one of the reception-rooms; and the two shook hands cordially,
+for they were old acquaintances and on excellent terms with each
+other. It was not the first time they had got their heads together
+concerning matters for publication, although, in this instance, the
+newspaper man was to be made a wholly innocent party in the affair.
+
+Burke Radnor was a newspaper man of prominence in New York. He was one
+of the few men of his profession who have succeeded in attaining
+sufficient distinction to establish themselves independently, and his
+"stories" were eagerly sought by all of the great dailies.
+
+The two seated themselves in a corner of the room, and talked together
+earnestly, although in whispers, for a considerable time. It was
+Gardner who did most of the talking; Radnor only occasionally
+interjected a questioning remark. When they parted, it was with a
+hearty hand-clasp, and this remark from Radnor:
+
+"I'll fix it up all right, old man; don't you worry. Nobody shall know
+that I got the story from you. But it is a jim dandy, and no mistake!"
+
+"Which of the papers will you use it in, do you think?" asked
+Gardner.
+
+"I am not sure as to that. To the one that will pay the best price for
+a first-class 'beat,' for that's what it is. Anyhow, that part of it
+is none of your business. Now that I've got the story, I shall handle
+it as I think best, and you can bet your sweet life it will be used
+for all it's worth!"
+
+Gardner returned to the dining-room, with vague misgivings concerning
+what he had done; his smile was a bit less self-satisfied. Radnor,
+apparently, left the building. But the shrewd news-gatherer went no
+farther than the entrance, where he wheeled about and returned; and
+this time he sent his card to Roderick Duncan. Having "nailed the
+story," the proper thing now was to obtain an interview with one of
+the principals concerned in it; with both, if possible.
+
+Duncan received the card, wonderingly. He knew Radnor, and liked him;
+but he could not imagine what the newspaper man could want with him at
+that particular time. The truth about it, did not even vaguely occur
+to him.
+
+Excusing himself, he left the table and presently found Radnor in the
+same room where the recent interview with Jack Gardner had taken
+place.
+
+"Hello, Radnor," said Duncan, cordially, extending his hand. "There
+must be something doing when you call me away from a supper table, at
+Del's. Make it as brief as possible--won't you?--because I am dining,
+and--"
+
+"Oh, I won't keep you but a moment, Mr. Duncan," was the quick reply.
+"I just want to ask you a question or two about the interesting
+ceremony that took place this evening--that is all."
+
+"Eh? What's that? Ceremony? What the devil are you talking about?"
+
+"Look here, Mr. Duncan, you know perfectly well that I am your friend,
+and that I'll use you as handsomely as possible in the columns of any
+paper that gets this story. But I've got the straight tip, and I know
+what I am talking about. I thought, possibly, you might wish to say a
+few words in explanation--just to tone the thing down, to give it the
+mark of authenticity, you know. I thought you'd like to be quoted, and
+to know, from me, that the story'll be all right. On the level, now,
+isn't that better?"
+
+Duncan laughed. He did not in the least understand. He had the idea
+that Radnor had been drinking.
+
+"Burke," he said; "upon my life, this is the first time I ever saw you
+when you had taken too much to drink."
+
+"Is that the way you are going to reply to me?" asked Radnor, with all
+the insistence of a thoroughly trained newspaper man. "You'd best use
+me right, you know. It's a great 'beat,' and I want all of it. I'd
+like to talk with the bride, too, if you can fix--"
+
+"But I don't know what the blazes you are talking about, man."
+
+"I am talking about the little ceremony that took place this evening
+at the Little Church Around the Corner, and was indulged in between
+you and the former Miss Brunswick; as a sort of _entr'acte_ to the
+opera of Salome," said Radnor, with slow distinctness.
+
+Duncan stiffened where he stood. The smile left his face, and his eyes
+narrowed, while his clean-cut features seemed to harden in every line
+of them.
+
+"Radnor," he said with a slow drawl, which to those who knew him best
+betrayed intense anger, "you will be good enough to explain to me,
+here and now, in plain English and in as few words as possible,
+exactly what you mean."
+
+"I mean," was the ready retort, "that you and Miss Beatrice Brunswick
+were married to-night at the Little Church Around the Corner, between
+two of the acts of Salome. I mean that I've got the straight tip, and
+I know it to be true. I wish to quote you, if possible, in what I
+shall write about it for the morning papers. I'd like to get a
+statement from the bride, too."
+
+"Are you crazy, Radnor?" asked Duncan, bending forward, his face white
+and set, and his eyes hard and cold; for Roderick Duncan, with all his
+apparent quietude, was a man whom it was not safe to try too far.
+
+"No, I'm not crazy. I'm just telling you what's what. I'll get the
+whole story, and what's more, I'll print it in the morning papers! If
+you wish to say anything in explanation of the incident, I shall be
+glad to quote you; but, otherwise, I shall take the liberty of drawing
+my own inferences, and assuming my own conclusions, from the story I
+have heard. I tell you, Mr. Duncan, I've got it straight, and I know
+it to be true."
+
+"It is not true," said Duncan, quietly. "The person who told you such
+a story as that lied."
+
+Radnor shrugged his shoulders, and laughed, ironically.
+
+"I don't know that I blame you for denying it," he said, "but I happen
+to know differently. If you choose to deny it, I'll send my card
+inside to Mrs. Duncan, and we'll see, then, what we shall see. You
+can't bluff me, Mr. Duncan. I'm not that sort. If you won't talk,
+perhaps the former Miss Brunswick, will, and--"
+
+Radnor got no further than that. Duncan's rage, the moment he
+understood the situation and fully realized the possible consequences
+of it in the hands of this ubiquitous newspaper man, overcame him,
+utterly. His right arm shot out with terrific force, his clenched fist
+caught Radnor squarely on the point of the chin, and the latter was
+knocked half-senseless to the floor. Waiters, and attendants about the
+place rushed toward them; but Duncan slowly drew a handkerchief from
+one of his pockets, and, calmly wiping his hands upon it, said to the
+manager:
+
+"Kick the dog into the street; that is what he deserves. He probably
+followed me when I came away from the opera-house, and now he is
+trying to make capital out of a meaningless incident. Put him out, and
+don't permit him to pass the door again to-night; otherwise, he will
+seek to annoy a lady who is here."
+
+Then, he turned calmly about, and, although his features were still
+pale, reentered the dining-room as if nothing had happened. Duncan
+confidently believed that he had correctly estimated the cause of
+Radnor's quest for news. It never occurred to him that Beatrice
+Brunswick was herself, through the agency of Jack Gardner, the cause
+of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A REMARKABLE MEETING
+
+
+When Jack Gardner returned to the dining-room after his interview with
+Radnor, he was vaguely troubled, notwithstanding the fact that he was
+also highly amused. There were elements associated with the thing he
+had just done that might stir up unpleasant consequences. His
+inordinate love for a practical joke had led him into it willingly,
+and he had thought he saw in this affair the best and greatest joke he
+had ever attempted to perpetrate. But he began to understand that
+there was a tragic element to it which he could not deny to himself;
+and, when he was in the act of resuming his chair beside Beatrice, he
+was more than half-inclined, even then, to rush from the building in
+the pursuit of Burke Radnor, and to withdraw the whole story that he
+had given to the newspaper man.
+
+When, a few moments later, Radnor's card was brought to Duncan, the
+sense of impending disaster was stronger than ever upon Gardner, and
+he watched the departure of the young millionaire with many
+misgivings, not one of which he could have defined in words. But he
+watched the doorway through which Duncan passed, and, during the
+interval that ensued, he was very palpably disturbed and uneasy. He
+had recognized the card, although he had been unable to see the name
+that was engraved upon it. He had not supposed that Radnor would so
+quickly pursue his investigation of the story, and it had not even
+remotely occurred to the young copper-king, that the newspaper man
+would dare to go so far as to seek an immediate interview with Duncan.
+Even had the man selected Beatrice, it would not have been quite so
+bad.
+
+Nobody knew Duncan better than did Jack Gardner, and he realized what
+a strong and stirring effect this fake-story, as made up between
+himself and Beatrice, might have upon one who was such a stickler for
+certain forms as he knew Duncan to be. His impulse was to follow his
+friend from the room, but he resisted it, although he did keep his
+gaze spasmodically fixed upon the door by which Roderick must reenter
+the dining-room.
+
+Gardner was the first of the party to discover him, when he did
+return, and was quick to see that something unusual had happened
+during the interval outside, which had been all too short to have
+been fruitful of any other result than violence of some sort. He saw,
+by the set expression of his friend's face and by the pallor upon it,
+that something had gone wrong, and he started to his feet and moved
+rapidly forward, so that he met Duncan half-way between the entrance
+and the table where Beatrice and Sally Gardner were now left alone
+together. He grasped his friend by the arm, and drew him aside, saying
+rapidly, as he did so:
+
+"For God's sake, Dun, what has happened? Tell me quickly."
+
+Roderick Duncan looked down calmly, and without change of expression
+upon Gardner, for he was considerably taller than his friend; and he
+said, slowly, in reply:
+
+"Without answering your question, Jack, I wish to ask you one. Was it
+Burke Radnor whom you were called out to meet, a little while ago, in
+the reception-room?"
+
+Not thinking of the possible consequences of his response, Gardner
+admitted, hastily, that it had been Radnor, and Duncan asked another
+question.
+
+"Did Radnor question you about a marriage-ceremony that is supposed to
+have taken place between Beatrice Brunswick and myself, to-night?"
+
+"Well, you see--"
+
+"Answer me yes, or no, Jack, if you please."
+
+"Well, then, he did."
+
+"Have you any idea, Jack, where he obtained the nucleus for such a
+story?"
+
+Gardner hesitated, and Duncan from his greater height, bent forward
+quickly, and with a strong grip, seized the young copper-king by the
+shoulder.
+
+"Jack Gardner," he demanded, "did you, at the instigation of Beatrice,
+concoct that story? Have I you to thank for it? You need not answer,
+Jack. I can read the reply in the expression of your face." He
+withdrew his hand from its detaining grasp upon his friend, and took a
+half-step backward; then, he added: "Jack, if we were anywhere else
+than in a public dining-room, I should resent what you have done
+bitterly--and by actions, not words. As it is, I demand that you
+instantly seek, and find, Burke Radnor, and retract whatever you have
+said, or inferred, during your conversation with him. I warn you,
+Gardner, that if one single line appears in any of the papers
+to-morrow morning on this subject I'll find a way to resent it, which
+will make you regret, all your life, your nameless conduct of
+to-night."
+
+Gardner turned decidedly pale, not because of any physical fear he
+felt of Duncan, but in dread of the possible consequences of what he
+had permitted himself to do.
+
+"Where is Radnor, now?" he exclaimed, quickly.
+
+"I left him half-conscious, on the floor of the reception-room,"
+replied Duncan, calmly. "I knocked him down."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Gardner; and he turned and rushed away with
+precipitate haste.
+
+Duncan went on toward the table at which Beatrice and Sally were
+seated, but as he approached it, a desire to hear the sound of
+Patricia's voice possessed him, and he turned abruptly toward that
+other table, occupied by Stephen Langdon, with his daughter and the
+lawyer.
+
+Devoting a careless nod to the two men, Duncan addressed his fiancee,
+speaking loudly enough so that her companions might hear.
+
+"Patricia," he said, "will you do me a very great favor? It is of
+vital importance, otherwise I would not ask it."
+
+"Indeed?" she replied, raising her big, dark eyes to his. "Your
+question and your manner as well imply something that is almost
+tragic, Roderick. What is it that you wish me to do?"
+
+"A very little thing, Patricia. Will you, for a moment, accompany me
+to the table where Beatrice and Sally Gardner are dining?"
+
+"Why, most certainly," she replied. "You give a very big reason for a
+very small thing, don't you? Of course, I will go to them." She left
+her seat instantly, and crossed to the other table; Duncan followed,
+closely. Patricia accepted the chair that Jack Gardner had occupied,
+which Duncan drew out for her. Then, he resumed his own. As soon as
+they were seated, the young millionaire, drawing his chair a bit
+closer, said, addressing them, generally:
+
+"I have something to say which I wish each of you to hear. To-night, a
+rumor has been started, somehow, that Miss Brunswick and I were
+married an hour or so ago, at the Church of the Transfiguration."
+Patricia gave a slight start, but he continued, unheedingly: "A
+certain newspaper man, Radnor by name, has already sought to interview
+me, and he went so far as to insist that he was positive in his
+assertions as to such a ceremony having taken place. Of course,
+Beatrice and I both know it to be untrue, and I now make this
+statement in order to warn you all of what may possibly appear in the
+morning papers; that is all I have to say on the subject."
+
+Beatrice had flushed hotly at the beginning of his statement, and,
+while he continued, she turned deadly pale. Sally, who it will be
+remembered had not been taken into the confidence of the intriguers,
+laughed. Patricia was the only one who appeared to be unmoved by the
+announcement, but she kept her eyes fixed upon the face of her friend,
+and she correctly interpreted the changing colors and expressions of
+Beatrice Brunswick's face.
+
+Whatever might have been the consequences of Duncan's announcement and
+Miss Brunswick's emotions, her conscious blushes and subsequent
+pallor, it was interrupted by the sudden and swift return of Gardner,
+who exclaimed, excitedly:
+
+"Sally, I want you right away; and you, too, Beatrice. It's almost a
+matter of life and death. Never mind the supper--we can have one some
+other time. Duncan, you won't mind, will you, if I take them away?" He
+leaned forward and added, in a whisper: "I am carrying out what you
+asked me to do, and I need their help." Then, straightening himself,
+he addressed Patricia: "You will excuse us all, won't you? Come,
+Sally; for heaven's sake, make haste! There isn't a moment of time to
+lose."
+
+Sally Gardner had never seen her husband in quite such a state of
+excitement, but as she was one of the kind that is always ready for
+anything in the shape of adventure, and scented one here, she lost no
+time in complying with his request. Beatrice's expression was first of
+amusement; then, of comprehension. Almost before any of the party
+fully realized what had happened, Jack Gardner and his companions were
+gone. Patricia and Roderick Duncan were alone at the table.
+
+She turned her expressive eyes toward him and regarded him closely,
+but in silence, for a moment. Then, in a low tone, she inquired:
+
+"May I ask if you understand this amazing succession of incidents? To
+me, it is entirely incomprehensible. If you can explain it, I wish you
+would do so."
+
+"I am afraid, Patricia, that it cannot be explained--that is, any
+farther than I've already done so," he replied.
+
+"Who is responsible for this remarkable story you say the newspaper
+man asked you about?"
+
+Duncan hesitated. Then, he replied:
+
+"When Beatrice and I left the opera-house to-night, we entered a
+taxicab, and we did drive as far as the iron gateway that admits one
+to the Church of the Transfiguration. We did not enter; in fact, we
+did not leave the cab at all. It is possible, though hardly probable,
+that we were followed by some reporter."
+
+"But why did you drive to the Church of the Transfiguration, at all?"
+she asked him, with a smile upon her face that had something of
+derision in it, for she plainly saw that Duncan was floundering badly
+in his effort to explain. When he hesitated for a suitable reply, she
+continued: "Why, may I ask, did you leave the box at the opera-house,
+in such a surreptitious manner? It seems to me that the Church of the
+Transfiguration was an odd destination for you to have selected, when
+you did leave it, with Beatrice for a companion. Or was there a
+pre-arrangement between you. Was it her suggestion, or was it yours,
+Roderick?"
+
+"It was mine," he replied; and he could not help smiling at the
+recollection of it, even though the present moment was filled with
+tragic possibilities.
+
+"It seems to amuse you," she told him.
+
+"It does--now."
+
+"Had you, for the moment, forgotten that you were under contract with
+me, for Monday morning?"
+
+Instead of replying at once, he leaned forward half-across the table
+toward her, and, fixing his gaze steadily upon her, said, with low
+earnestness:
+
+"Patricia, for God's sake, let us cease all this fencing; let us put
+an end to this succession of misunderstandings. You know how I love
+you! You know--"
+
+"I know that this is a very badly chosen time and place for you to
+make such declarations, or for me to listen to them. Will you come
+back with me now to the other table, and join Mr. Melvin and my
+father? People have begun to observe us. If these rumors bear any
+fruits, such a course seems to me to be the best one to adopt, under
+the circumstances."
+
+She arose without awaiting his reply, and he followed her.
+
+"Melvin," he said to the lawyer, as soon as he was seated at the other
+table, "Miss Langdon will agree with me, I think, that it is quite
+necessary I should accompany you to your home when we leave this
+place, in order to examine with you certain papers which you have
+drawn, or are to draw, at her request. Have I your permission,
+Patricia?" he added.
+
+"I see no objection, if that is what you mean," Patricia replied;
+"although I think it would be better that we should all drive together
+to Mr. Melvin's house for the papers--"
+
+"I have them here, in my pocket," the lawyer interrupted her.
+
+"So much the better, then," Patricia continued, rapidly. "I think the
+best arrangement, all circumstances considered, would be to go
+together to my father's house, so that all the interested parties may
+be present at the interview."
+
+Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, this was agreed upon, and in
+due time the four were grouped in the library of the Langdon home,
+where Malcolm Melvin, with the notes he had made that afternoon before
+him, began in a monotonous voice to read the stipulations of the
+document upon which Patricia Langdon had decided that she could rely,
+to supply a soothing balm for her wounded pride. It was a strange
+gathering to assemble at two o'clock in the morning, but none of them,
+save possibly the lawyer, seemed cognizant of the curious aspect of
+the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE BITTERNESS OF JEALOUSY
+
+
+James, the footman, entered the library before Malcolm Melvin had
+completed the first sentence of the reading of Patricia's
+stipulations, and deferentially addressed himself to Roderick Duncan:
+
+"Pardon me, sir," he said, "but there is an urgent demand for you at
+the telephone--so urgent that I thought it necessary to interrupt
+you."
+
+"For me? Are you sure?" asked Duncan, in surprise. For, at the moment,
+he could not imagine who sought him at such an hour, or how his
+presence at Langdon's house, was known.
+
+"Yes, sir. Mr. Gardner is on the wire."
+
+Duncan started to his feet, and hurried from the room, while Patricia,
+after a moment's hesitation, arose and followed him, glancing toward
+the big clock in one corner of the library as she passed it, and
+observing that it was already Sunday morning.
+
+She waited in the hallway, outside the library door, until Duncan
+reappeared, after his talk with Jack Gardner over the telephone, and
+she stopped him, by a gesture.
+
+"What is it, Roderick?" she asked. "I think I know what it must be. If
+it is anything that concerns me, I should like to know about it at
+once. It is something about the--the rumor of your marriage to
+Beatrice?"
+
+"It concerns you only indirectly, Patricia," he replied. "I am afraid
+that I must defer the reading of those stipulations until another
+time. Gardner is very anxious for me to go to him at once."
+
+"Why?" It was a simple, but a very direct question, which there was no
+possibility of avoiding.
+
+"Gardner has kidnapped Radnor, and has him now at his own house.
+Radnor is the newspaper man whom I--who sought to interview me.
+Beatrice is there, with Sally. You know, they left Delmonico's
+together. My presence is insisted upon in order properly to clear up
+this unfortunate business. I really must go, you see. It is necessary
+for all concerned that this matter go no farther."
+
+He would have said more, but she turned calmly away from him, and
+spoke to the footman.
+
+"James," she said, "have Philip at the front door with the Packard, as
+quickly as possible." Then, to Duncan, she added: "I'll go with you;
+I shall be ready in a moment. You must wait for me, Roderick."
+
+"But, Patricia," exclaimed Duncan, startled and greatly dismayed by
+her decision, reached so suddenly, "have you thought what time it is?"
+
+"Yes," she responded, moving toward the stairway. "I have just looked
+at the clock. It is two o'clock, Sunday morning. I understand, also,
+that the conventions would be shocked, if the conventions understood
+the situation; but, fortunately, the conventions do not. You and I
+will drive to Sally Gardner's home together. I shall bring Beatrice
+back with me when we return. Please, make our apologies to my father
+and Mr. Melvin. I shall rejoin you in a moment."
+
+There was no help for it, and Duncan waited, for he knew that, even if
+he should hasten on alone, Patricia would follow in the automobile, as
+soon as Philip brought it to the door. He sent James into the library
+with the announcement, and a moment later assisted Patricia into the
+hastily summoned car. The drive to the home of Jack Gardner was a
+short one, and was made in utter silence between the two young persons
+so deeply interested in each other, yet so widely separated by the
+occurrences of that fateful Saturday afternoon. Duncan knew that it
+was useless to expostulate with Patricia; and she, following her
+adopted course of outward indifference to everything save her personal
+interests, preferred to say nothing at all.
+
+When the automobile came to a stop before Gardner's door, Jack himself
+rushed down the steps; but he paused midway between the bottom one and
+the curb, when he discovered that Duncan was not alone in the car, and
+he uttered a low whistle of consternation. He said something under his
+breath, too, but neither of the occupants of the automobile could hear
+it; and then, as he stepped forward to assist Patricia to alight, she
+said to him, in her usual quiet manner:
+
+"Inasmuch as I am an interested party in this affair, Jack, I thought
+it important that I should accompany Mr. Duncan. I hope you do not
+regret that I have done so."
+
+"Why--er--certainly not; not at all, Patricia. I don't know but that
+it is better--your having done so. You see--er--things have somehow
+got into a most damna--terrific tangle, you know, and I suppose I am
+partly responsible for it; if not wholly so. I--"
+
+"You need not explain; believe me, Jack," she interrupted him, and
+passed on toward the steps, ascending them alone in advance of the
+two men who had paused for a moment beside the automobile, facing each
+other. Then, things happened, and they followed one another so swiftly
+that it is almost impossible to give a comprehensive description of
+them.
+
+Philip, the chauffeur, sprang out from under the steering-wheel and
+for some reason unknown to anyone but himself, passed around to the
+rear of the car. He had permitted the engine to run on, merely
+throwing out the clutch when he came to a stop. The noise of the
+machinery interfered with the low-toned conversation that Duncan
+wished to have with Jack Gardner, and so the two stepped aside, moving
+a few paces away from the car, and also beyond the steps leading to
+the entrance of Gardner's home. Patricia passed through the open door,
+unannounced, for the owner of the house had left it ajar when he ran
+down the steps to greet Duncan. Miss Langdon had barely disappeared
+inside the doorway, when the hatless figure of a man sprang through
+it. He ran down the steps, and jumped into the driver's seat of the
+Packard car before either Duncan, or Gardner, whose backs were
+half-turned in that direction, realized what was taking place.
+
+The man was Radnor, of course. He had found an opportunity to escape
+from his difficulties, and had taken advantage of it, without a
+moment's hesitation. He had argued that there would still be time,
+before the last edition of the newspapers should go to press, if he
+could only get to a telephone and succeed in convincing the night
+editor of the wisdom of holding the forms for this great story. Any
+newspaper would answer his purpose, for he believed that he could hold
+back any one of them a few moments, if only he could get to a
+telephone.
+
+Radnor had not reckoned on the automobile, but he knew how to operate
+a Packard car as well as did the chauffeur himself, and he had barely
+reached the seat under the wheel when the big machine shot forward
+with rapidly increasing speed. He left the chauffeur, and the two
+young millionaires gaping after it with unmitigated astonishment and
+chagrin. Duncan and Gardner, both, realized that the newspaper man had
+escaped them, and each of them understood only too well that at least
+one of the city newspapers was now likely to print the hateful story
+of the supposed marriage, beneath glaring and astonishing headlines,
+the following morning.
+
+Duncan swore, softly and rapidly, but with emphasis; Jack Gardner,
+broke into uproarous laughter, which he could not possibly repress or
+control; the chauffeur started up the avenue on a run, in a fruitless
+chase after the on-rushing car, which even at that moment whirled
+around the corner toward Madison avenue, and disappeared. Gardner
+continued to laugh on, until Duncan seized him by the shoulder, and
+shook him with some violence.
+
+"Shut up your infernal clatter, Jack!" he exclaimed, momentarily
+forgetful of his anger at his friend. "Help me to think what can be
+done to head off that crazy fool, will you? It isn't half-past two
+o'clock, yet, and he will succeed in catching at least one of the
+newspapers, before it goes to press; God only knows how many others he
+will connect with, by telephone. What shall we do?"
+
+"I can get out one of my own cars in ten minutes," began Gardner. But
+his friend interrupted him:
+
+"Come with me," Duncan exclaimed; and, being almost as familiar with
+the interior of the house as its owner was, he dashed up the steps
+through the still open doorway, and ran onward up the stairs toward
+the smoking-room on the second floor, closely followed by Gardner.
+There he seized upon the telephone, and asked for the _New York
+Herald_, fortunately knowing the number. While he awaited a response
+to his call he put one hand over the transmitter, and said, rapidly,
+to his companion:
+
+"Jack, I have just called up the night city editor of the _Herald_.
+While I am talking with him, I wish you would make use of the
+telephone-directory, and write down the numbers of the calls for the
+other leading newspapers in town. This is the only way possible by
+which we may succeed in getting ahead of Radnor."
+
+Any person who has ever had to do with newspaper life will understand
+how futile such an attempt as this one would be to interfere with
+interesting news, during the last moments before going to press. City
+editors, and especially night city editors, have no time to devote to
+complaints, unless those complaints possess news-value. Nothing short
+of dynamite, can "kill" a "good story," once it has gone to the
+composing-room. Whatever it was that Duncan said to the gentleman in
+charge of the desk at the _Herald_ office, and to the gentlemen in
+charge of other desks, at other newspaper offices, need not be
+recorded here. Each of the persons, so addressed, probably listened,
+with apparent interest, to a small part of his statement, and as
+inevitably interrupted him by inquiring if it were Mr. Duncan in
+person who was talking; and, when an affirmative answer was given to
+this inquiry, Roderick was not long in discovering that he had
+succeeded only in supplying an additional value to the story, and in
+giving a personal interview over a telephone-wire. He realized, too
+late, that instead of interfering with whatever intention Burke Radnor
+might have had in making the escape, he had materially aided this
+ubiquitous person in his plans. The mere mention by him to each of the
+city editors that Radnor was the man of whom he was complaining, gave
+assurance to those gentlemen that some sort of important news was on
+the way to them, and therefore Duncan succeeded only in accomplishing
+what Radnor most desired--that is, in holding back the closing of the
+forms, as long as possible, for Radnor's story, whatever it might
+prove to be.
+
+Meanwhile, directly beneath the room where Duncan was so frantically
+telephoning, a scene of quite a different character was taking place.
+
+When Patricia entered the house, she passed rapidly forward to the
+spacious library, encountering no one. Entering it, she found Sally
+Gardner seated upon one of the chairs, convulsed with laughter, while
+directly before her stood Beatrice, her eyes flashing contemptuous
+anger, and scorn upon the fun-loving and now half-hysterical young
+matron, who seemed to be unduly amused. Neither of them was at the
+moment, conscious of Patricia's presence. She had approached so
+quietly and swiftly that her footsteps along the hallway had made no
+sound.
+
+"You helped Burke Radnor to escape from us, Sally!" Beatrice was
+exclaiming, angrily. "I haven't a doubt that you put him up to it. I
+believe you would be delighted to see that hateful story in the
+newspapers. It was a despicable thing for you to do."
+
+"Oh, Beatrice!" Sally exclaimed, when she could find breath to do so.
+"It is all so very funny--"
+
+She discovered Patricia's presence, and stopped abruptly; then, she
+started to her feet, and, passing around the table quickly, greeted
+Miss Langdon with effusion.
+
+"Why, Patricia!" she exclaimed. "I had no idea that you were here."
+
+Beatrice turned quickly at the mention of Patricia's name, and her
+anger at Sally Gardner was suddenly turned against Patricia Langdon,
+with tenfold force and vehemence. It is an axiom that blue-eyed women
+have more violent tempers than black-eyed ones, once they are
+thoroughly aroused. Your brunette will flash and sputter, and say
+hasty things impulsively, or emotionally, but her anger is likely to
+pass as quickly as it arises, and it is almost sure to leave no
+lasting sting, behind it. Your fair-haired, fair-skinned, man or
+woman, when thoroughly aroused, is inclined to be implacable,
+unrelenting, even cruel.
+
+Beatrice Brunswick's eyes were flashing with passionate fury, and,
+although she did not realize it, the greater part of her display of
+temper, was really directed against herself, because deep down in her
+sub-consciousness she knew that she alone was responsible for the
+present predicament. But anger is unreasoning, and, when one is angry
+at oneself, one is only too apt to seek for another person upon whom
+to visit the consequences. Patricia made her appearance just in time
+to offer herself as a target for Miss Brunswick's wrath; and Beatrice,
+totally unmindful of Sally's presence, loosed her tongue, and
+permitted words to flow, which, had she stopped to think, she never
+would have uttered.
+
+"It is you! you! Patricia Langdon, who are responsible for this
+dreadful state of affairs," she cried out, starting forward, and, with
+one hand resting upon the corner of the library table, bending a
+little toward the haughty, Junoesque young woman she was addressing.
+"It is you, who dare to play with a man's love as a child would play
+with a doll, and who think it can be made to conform to the spirit of
+your unholy pride as readily. It is your fault that I am placed in
+this dreadful position, so that now, with Sally's connivance, this
+dreadful tale is likely to appear in every one of the morning papers.
+You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Pat Langdon, for doing what you
+have done! You ought to get down on your knees to Roderick Duncan, and
+beg his eternal pardon for the agony you have caused him, since noon
+of yesterday. I know it all--I know the whole story, from beginning to
+end! I know what your unreasoning pride and your haughty willfulness,
+have accomplished: they have driven almost to desperation the man who
+loves you better than he loves anything else in the world! But you
+have no heart. The place inside you where it should exist is an empty
+void. If it were not, you would realize to what dreadful straits you
+have brought us all, and to what degree of desperation you have driven
+me, who sought to help you. I tell you, now, to your face, that
+Roderick Duncan is one man in ten thousand; and that he has loved you
+for years, as a woman is rarely loved. But you cast his love aside as
+if it were of no value--as if it were a little thing, to be picked up
+anywhere, and to be played with, as a child plays with a toy.
+Possibly it may please you now to hear one thing more; but, whether it
+does or not, you shall hear it. Roderick was in a desperate mood,
+to-night, because of your treatment of him, and he did ask me to marry
+him. So there! He did ask me! And I--I was a fool not to take him at
+his word. But he doesn't--he didn't--he--" She ceased as abruptly as
+she had begun the tirade.
+
+Patricia had started backward a little before Beatrice's vehemence,
+and her eyes had gradually widened and darkened, while she sought and
+obtained her accustomed control over her own emotions. Now, with a
+slight shrug of her shoulders and a smile that was maddening to the
+young woman who faced her, she interrupted:
+
+"You should have accepted Mr. Duncan's proposal," she said, icily,
+"for, if I read you correctly now, the fulfillment of it would have
+been most agreeable to you. One might quite readily assume from your
+conduct and the words you use that you love Roderick Duncan almost as
+madly as you say he loves me."
+
+"Well?" Beatrice raised her chin, and stood erect and defiant before
+her former friend. "Well?" she repeated. "And what if I do?"
+
+Patricia shrugged her shoulders again, and turned slowly away, but as
+she did so, said slowly and distinctly:
+
+"Possibly, I am mistaken, after all. I had forgotten the attractive
+qualities of Mr. Duncan's millions." Beatrice gasped; but Patricia
+added, without perceptible pause: "I should warn you, however, that
+Mr. Duncan is under a verbal agreement with me! We are to meet and
+sign a contract, Monday morning. It seems to be my duty to remind you
+of that much, Miss Brunswick."
+
+Patricia did not wait to see the effect of her words. Outwardly calm,
+she was a seething furnace of wrath within. She turned away abruptly,
+and passed through the open doorway into the hall. There, she stopped.
+She had nearly collided with Duncan and Jack Gardner, who were both
+standing where they must have heard all that had passed inside the
+library. Both were plainly confused, for neither had meant to hear,
+but there had been no way to escape. Patricia understood the situation
+perfectly, and she kept her self possession, if they did not. For just
+one instant, so short as to be almost imperceptible, she hesitated,
+then, addressing Gardner, she said in her most conventional tones:
+
+"Jack, will you take me to my car, please?"
+
+"It's gone, Patricia," he replied, relieved by the calmness of her
+manner. "Radnor took it, you know, when he made his escape. I suppose
+it is standing in front of some newspaper office, at the present
+moment, but God only knows which one it is. I'll tell you what I'll
+do, though: I'll order one of my own cars around. It won't take five
+minutes, even at this ungodly hour. I always keep one on tap, for
+emergencies."
+
+"I prefer not to wait," she replied. "It is only a short distance. I
+shall ask you to walk home with me, if you will."
+
+"Sure!" exclaimed Gardner, glad of any method by which the present
+predicament might be escaped; and he called aloud to one of the
+servants to bring him his hat and coat.
+
+Duncan had moved forward quickly, toward Patricia, to offer his
+services, but had paused with the words he would have said unuttered.
+He understood that the trying scene through which Patricia had just
+passed, had embittered her anew against him; and so he stood aside
+while she went with Gardner from the house to the street. His impulse
+was to follow, for he, also, wished to escape. Then, he was aware that
+he still wore his hat. During the excitement, he had not removed it,
+since entering the house. He started for the door, but was arrested
+before he had taken two steps, by Sally Gardner's voice calling to him
+frantically from the library.
+
+He turned and sprang into the room, to find that Beatrice was lying at
+full length on the floor, with Sally sobbing and stroking her hands,
+and calling upon her, in frightened tones, to speak. But Beatrice had
+only fainted, and, when Duncan knelt down beside her, she opened her
+blue eyes and looked up at him, trying to smile.
+
+In that instant of pity and remorse, he forgot all else save the
+stricken Beatrice, and what, in her anger, she had confessed to
+Patricia. The rapidly succeeding incidents of that day and night had
+unnerved him, also. He was suddenly convinced of the futility of
+winning the love and confidence of Patricia, and, with an impulse
+born, he could not have told when, or how, or why, he bent forward
+quickly and touched his lips to Beatrice's forehead.
+
+"Is it true, Beatrice? Is it true?" he asked her, in a low tone; and,
+totally misunderstanding his question, entirely misconstruing it's
+meaning, she replied:
+
+"God help me, yes. God help us all."
+
+Then, she lapsed again into unconsciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT
+
+
+Sally Gardner had found time during this short scene to recover from
+her moment of excitement. She had heard, and she thought she
+understood. Being a many-sided young matron, the best one of all came
+to the surface now--the one that even her best friends had never
+supposed her to possess. Underneath her fun-and-laughter-loving
+nature, Sally was gifted with more than her share of rugged
+common-sense, inherited, doubtless, from her Montana ancestors.
+
+Even as Duncan bent above Beatrice's unconscious form, and before he
+spoke to her, Sally had started to her feet and pressed the
+electric-button in the wall, with the consequence that, at the instant
+when Beatrice became unconscious the second time, two of the servants
+entered the room.
+
+"Miss Brunswick has only fainted," she told them, rapidly. "Lift her,
+and carry her to my room. Tell Pauline to care for her, and that I
+shall be there, immediately." She stood aside while they carried out
+her commands; then, she turned upon Duncan.
+
+"You are a great fool, Roderick!" she exclaimed, without stopping to
+weigh her words. "I thought you had some sense; but it seems that you
+have none at all. Leave the house at once; and don't you dare to seek
+Beatrice Brunswick, until you have settled, in one way or another,
+your affairs with Patricia Langdon. Now, go! Really, I thought I liked
+you, immensely, but, for the present moment, I am not sure whether I
+hate you, or despise you! Do go, there's a good fellow; and I'll send
+you word, in the morning, how Beatrice is."
+
+"Sally, what a little trump you are!" he exclaimed. "I know I'm a
+fool; I have certainly found it out during the last twelve or fourteen
+hours. You'll have to help me out of this muddle, somehow; you seem to
+be the only one in the lot of us who has any sense."
+
+"Then, help yourself out of the house, as quickly as you know how,"
+she retorted; and she ran past him up the stairs, toward the room
+where she had directed that Beatrice should be taken.
+
+Duncan sighed. He looked around him for his hat, to find that it was
+still crushed down on the back of his head, and, smiling grimly to
+himself, he passed out of the house upon the street.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Only one of the great dailies of New York City, published that Sunday
+morning, contained any reference whatever to the supposed incident of
+the wedding ceremony between Roderick Duncan and Miss Brunswick, at
+"The Little Church Around the Corner." The editors had been afraid to
+use Radnor's story, without verification. To them, it had seemed
+preposterous and unnatural, and especially were they reluctant to
+print anything concerning it when Radnor was forced to admit to them
+that Jack Gardner had ultimately denied the truth of the story he had
+first told.
+
+But there is one paper in the city that is always eager for
+sensations, and unfortunately it is not very particular concerning the
+use of them. This paper published a "story," as a newspaper would call
+it, which was told so ambiguously and with such skill as to preclude
+any possibility of a libelous action, while the suggestions it
+contained were so strongly made that the article was entertaining, at
+least, and it supplied, in many quarters, an opportunity for
+discussion and gossip. It hinted at scandal in association with
+Roderick Duncan and his millions. What more could be desired of it?
+
+The story was merely a relation of the events as we know them, at the
+outset. It told of the party in the box at the opera-house, of the
+departure therefrom of Duncan and Miss Brunswick and of their
+destination when they entered the taxicab; after that, everything
+contained in the article, was surmise, but it was couched in such
+terms that many who read it actually believed a marriage-ceremony had
+taken place. During Sunday, Duncan was sought by reporters of various
+newspapers. He readily admitted them to his presence, but would submit
+to no interview further than to state that the rumor was absolutely
+false, was utterly without foundation, and that he would prosecute any
+newspaper daring to uphold it. Miss Brunswick could not be found by
+these news-gatherers. Old Steve Langdon laughed when they sought him,
+and assured them that there was no truth whatever in the rumor.
+Patricia, naturally regarded as an interested party, declined to be
+seen.
+
+Radnor himself sought out Jack Gardner, but it is not necessary that
+we should relate the particulars of that interview. Suffice it to say
+that no further reference was made to the supposed incident by any
+newspaper, and that it was quickly forgotten, save by a very few
+individuals, who made it a point to remember.
+
+During the day, Duncan sought to communicate with Sally Gardner over
+the telephone, but succeeded only in obtaining a statement from one of
+the footmen, to the effect that Mrs. Gardner presented her compliments
+to Mr. Duncan, and wished it to be said that she would communicate
+with him by letter; and that, in the meantime, there existed no cause
+whatever, for anxiety on his part.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PATRICIA'S COWBOY LOVER
+
+
+On Sunday evening Patricia Langdon was alone in the library of her
+home, occupying her favorite corner beneath the drop-light. For an
+hour she had tried in vain to interest herself in the reading of the
+latest novel. Try as she might, she could not center her mind upon the
+printed words contained in the volume she held, for, inevitably, her
+thoughts drifted away to the occurrences of the preceding day and
+evening. No matter how assiduously she endeavored to put those
+thoughts aside, they insisted upon looming up before her, and at last,
+with a sigh, she closed her book and laid it aside. The hour was still
+early, it being barely eight o'clock, when James, the footman, entered
+the room and announced:
+
+"Miss Houston; Miss Frances Houston."
+
+Patricia had fully intended to instruct the servants that she was not
+to be at home to anyone, that evening, but, absorbed by other
+thoughts, she had forgotten to do so, and now it was too late; so she
+received the two young ladies who were presently shown into the
+library. She greeted them in her usual manner, which was neither
+cordial, nor repellant, but which was entirely characteristic of this
+rather strange young woman. She understood perfectly well why they had
+called upon her at this time. They had not missed seeing that article
+in the one morning paper where it appeared.
+
+"You see, Patricia," exclaimed Miss Houston, whose given name was
+Agnes, "Frances and I happened to read that remarkable tale that was
+printed in one of the papers this morning, about a marriage between
+Rod Duncan and Beatrice. We thought it so absurd: We couldn't resist
+the temptation to come over to see you, for a few minutes this very
+evening, and discuss it; could we, Frances?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied her sister.
+
+"I have not seen any such article," said Patricia; and, indeed, she
+had not. "But I don't know why either of you should wish to discuss it
+with me; so, if you don't mind, we'll change the subject before we
+begin it."
+
+"Why, you see," began Agnes Houston, with some evidence of excitement;
+but she was fortunately interrupted by the footman, who entered, and
+announced in his automatic voice:
+
+"Mr. Nesbit Farnham."
+
+The workings of the human mind will forever remain a mystery. Had
+Nesbit Farnham been announced before the arrival of the two young
+women, Patricia would undoubtedly have denied herself to him; but,
+with the announcement of his name, there came to her the sudden
+recollection of the ultimatum pronounced by Richard Morton the
+preceding afternoon, when he had brought her home from her father's
+office in his automobile, the tonneau of which had been occupied by
+the two young women who were now present with her in the room. Why the
+announcement of Farnham's name should remind her of Morton's promise
+to call, this Sunday evening, cannot be said; but it did so, and she
+nodded to James.
+
+"Hello, Patricia!" Farnham exclaimed, as he entered the room
+vigorously, for this young society beau and cotillion-leader had long
+been on terms of intimacy with the Langdon household, and was, in
+fact, a privileged character throughout his social set. "I am mighty
+glad that you received me. It's rather an off night, you know, and I
+wasn't sure, at all that you would do so. Good-evening, Agnes. How
+are you, Frances? Jolly glad to see you. I say, Patricia, what's all
+that nonsense I saw in the paper this morning, about Duncan and
+Beatrice getting married last night? Do you know anything about it?"
+
+"I know nothing whatever about it, Nesbit, save that it is untrue,"
+replied Patricia, calmly. "That much I do know; but I don't care to
+discuss it."
+
+Farnham flirted his handkerchief from his pocket, and patted it softly
+against his forehead, smiling gently as he did so. Then, he said:
+
+"To tell you the truth, Patricia, the news was rather a facer, don't
+you know; for my first impulse was to believe it. Oh, I won't discuss
+it; you needn't frown like that; but I just want to tell you that I've
+been looking all over town for Duncan, and I couldn't find him. Then,
+about an hour ago, I called upon Beatrice, only to be informed that
+she was not at home, and had not been, ever since yesterday evening.
+You see, I didn't get out of bed till two this afternoon, and it was
+four by the time I was dressed and on the street. I didn't take much
+stock, myself, in the report I read in the paper, until I was told
+that Beatrice had disappeared. But that got me guessing, and so I came
+to you, to find out the truth about it. Please tell me again that it
+isn't true, and I'll be satisfied."
+
+"It isn't true," replied Patricia, calmly.
+
+James, the footman, made another appearance on the scene at that
+moment, and proclaimed the arrival of Mr. Richard Morton, who stepped
+passed him into the library as soon as the announcement was made.
+
+He stopped just inside the threshold, and the chagrin pictured upon
+his face when he found that Patricia was not alone was so plainly
+evident, that even Patricia smiled, in recognition of it. Morton was
+known to Patricia's other callers, having met them frequently since
+his coming to New York, and, as soon as greetings had been exchanged,
+they all drifted into a general conversation, which had no point to it
+whatever, but was, for the most part, the small-talk of such impromptu
+social gatherings. The subject of the supposed clandestine
+marriage-ceremony between Duncan and Beatrice was not mentioned again,
+and fifteen minutes later Miss Houston and her sister arose to take
+their departure. Farnham, also, got upon his feet, and, stepping
+lightly and quickly across the room toward Patricia, said to her in a
+low tone:
+
+"Won't you tell me where I can find Beatrice? I think you can do so,
+if you will. Please, Patricia. You know why I ask."
+
+"If you should call upon Sally Gardner and ask her that question, I
+think it would be answered satisfactorily," replied Patricia, smiling
+at him. "Go and see her, Nesbit, by all means."
+
+A moment later, Miss Langdon found herself alone with Morton, who,
+true to his promise of the preceding evening, had come to her. She had
+forgotten him temporarily, but now she was not sorry that he had
+called. Nevertheless, as she turned toward him, after bidding her
+friends good-night, Patricia was conscious that the atmosphere had
+suddenly became surcharged with portentous possibilities. She had
+recognized in that expression of disappointment, so plainly depicted
+upon Morton's face when he entered the room, that he had come to her
+with a self-avowed determination to continue the conversation
+interrupted by the Houston girls when he was bringing her home, the
+preceding afternoon. On the instant, she was sorry that she had
+permitted the others to leave her alone with this man. For some
+inexplicable reason, she was suddenly afraid of him. She who had never
+acknowledged fear of any person, who had always met every circumstance
+calmly as it arose, found herself confronted now by a condition of
+affairs that rendered her less self-reliant. Her mind was in a turmoil
+of a hundred doubts and fears, and there was a vague sense of
+apprehension upon her, which she could not dismiss, and which she
+found it difficult to control.
+
+"I told you that I would come, Patricia, and I am here," said Morton,
+stepping forward quickly, and taking one of her hands, before she
+could resume her seat. She attempted to withdraw it, but he held it
+firmly in his own strong clasp; and that expression of unrelenting
+determination was again in his face and eyes.
+
+"No, Patricia," he said calmly, but in a tone of finality which there
+was no denying, "I will not release your hand, just yet." He was
+half-smiling, but wholly insistent and determined. "You see," he went
+on, "I am taking advantage of your known qualities of courage. I have
+come to you, determined to say something--something that is very close
+to me." Patricia's arm relaxed; she permitted her hand to lie limply
+inside his larger one. Then, she raised her eyes to his, and looked
+calmly up at him.
+
+As he gazed steadily and keenly into her dark eyes, Morton's face was
+pale, under the tan of his skin, and he had the look of one who
+ventures his all upon a single chance. In that moment, Patricia
+admired him more than she had ever before, and, as he continued to
+gaze upon her, she permitted her features slowly to relax, and,
+gradually, a winning smile, which to Richard Morton was overwhelming,
+was revealed upon her lips and in her eyes.
+
+"You have no right to speak to me like that, Mr. Morton," she said.
+"Still less have you the right to hold my hand, against my will. The
+men of my acquaintance, with whom I have associated all my life, would
+not do as you are doing now; but"--she shrugged her shoulders--"I
+suppose it is a matter of training."
+
+The words were like a blow, although she smiled while she uttered
+them. With a sharp exclamation that came very near to being an oath,
+he threw her hand from him with such force that she was half-turned
+around where she stood, and he started back two paces away from her,
+and folded his arms.
+
+"Thank you," said Patricia, still smiling; and she crossed to the
+chair she had previously occupied.
+
+Morton did not move from the position he had assumed. He stood with
+folded arms in the middle of the room, staring at her with set face
+and hard eyes, wondering for the moment why he had been fool enough to
+go there at all, and trying to read in her face, what was the charm
+of her that so fatally attracted him.
+
+"I do a great many things, Miss Langdon, that I have no right to do,"
+he said, after a pause. "That, also, is a matter of training, as you
+so fittingly adjudged my conduct, just now. But I was trained in the
+open country, where one can see the sky-line toward any point of the
+compass; I was trained in the West, where a man is a man, and a woman
+is a woman, and they are judged only by their conduct toward others,
+and toward themselves. It is true that I know very little about this
+Eastern training, to which you have just now called my attention, but
+from what little I have seen of it, I can't believe that it is
+wholesome, or good. I was trained to tell the truth, and to insist
+that the truth be told to me; I find here, in the East, that the truth
+is the very last thing to be uttered; that it is avoided as long as it
+possibly can be. In this way, Miss Langdon, our trainings differ.
+Naturally, then, I am not like the men of your knowledge."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Morton, I didn't mean to give offense by what
+I said." The girl was more amazed than she cared to show by his
+vehemence.
+
+"The fault is mine," he said to her. "I have no right to expect you to
+meet me on the plane of my own past life, and with the freedom and
+candor of the West, any more than you can demand from me, the usages
+and customs of your social world in New York."
+
+"Won't you sit down?" she asked him. She was beginning to be a bit
+uneasy, because of Morton's determined attitude, and because she
+realized that nothing she could say or do would turn him from his set
+purpose of saying what he had come there to tell her.
+
+"Not yet," he replied. "I can talk much better on my feet. I want you
+to tell me what you meant by two expressions you used in your speech
+with me yesterday, after you came from your father's office."
+
+"We will not return to that subject, if you please, Mr. Morton," she
+replied to him, coldly.
+
+"Pardon me, Patricia, we must return to it--at least, I must. You
+don't want me to kill anybody, do you?" He smiled grimly as he asked
+the question, hesitatingly; "you need have no fear on that point, for
+I probably won't have to."
+
+"Probably won't have to kill anyone?" She raised her eyes to his, but
+there was no fear in them; there was only amazement in their depths,
+astonishment that he should dare to say such a thing to her.
+
+"The qualification of my statement was made because I reserve the
+right to do what I please, toward anyone who dares to bring pain upon
+you, Patricia Langdon," he said, incisively; "but I tell you now that
+I wouldn't trust myself not to kill--again my Western training is
+uppermost, you see--if I were brought face to face with any man who
+had dared to bring any sort of an affront upon you. Do you love this
+man to whom you referred yesterday? Answer me!" The question came out
+sharply and bluntly. It was totally unexpected, and it affected her
+with a sort of shock she could not have described.
+
+"You are impertinent," she replied.
+
+"Impertinent, or not, I desire an answer. If you refuse an answer, I
+shall find other means of ascertaining. Great God, girl, do you
+suppose that, when my whole life is at stake, I am going to stand on
+ceremony and surrender to a few petty conventions, just to please an
+element of false pride that you have built around you, until there is
+only one way of getting past it? I'm not the sort of man who stands
+outside, and entreats. My training has taught me to get inside; and,
+if there isn't a gate, or an opening of any sort, why, then I tear
+down the barrier, just as I am doing now. Do you love that man?"
+
+"I will not answer the question."
+
+He laughed, shortly.
+
+"From any other woman than you, such an answer as that would be
+tantamount to an affirmative; but you are a puzzle, Patricia. You are
+not like anybody else. There is a depth to you that I cannot sound.
+There is a breadth to you that is like the open country of the
+Northwest, where one cannot see beyond the sky-line, ever, and where
+the sky-line remains, always, just so far away."
+
+"I think I'll ask you to excuse me, Mr. Morton," she said, making as
+if to rise. "This interview is not a pleasant one. You are not kind,
+or considerate."
+
+He did not move from his position, as he replied, as calmly as she had
+spoken:
+
+"I shall not go until I have finished. I came here to-night to tell
+you, again, that I love you. You need not resent the telling of it,
+for it can in no way offend you, or, at least, it should not. You told
+me, yesterday, that you had agreed to some sort of business
+transaction, as you called it, with some man whom you did not name,
+by which you are to become his wife. I told you then, and I repeat
+now, that, if you will but say you love this man, whoever he is, I'll
+hit the trail for Montana without a moment's delay, and you shall
+never be annoyed again by my Western training; so, answer me."
+
+"I will not answer you." She looked him steadily in the eyes, and, all
+unconsciously to herself, she could not avoid giving expression to
+some small part of the admiration she felt for this daring, intrepid
+ranchman, who defied her so openly, in the library of her own home.
+
+"Who is the man?" he demanded, sharply.
+
+"Again, I will not answer you."
+
+"I shall find it out, then, and, when I have discovered who he is, I
+shall go to him. Maybe, he will be able to answer the questions. If he
+refuses, by God, I'll make him answer!"
+
+She started from her chair, appalled by the implied threat. She did
+not doubt that he meant every word of it.
+
+"You would not dare do that!" she exclaimed. It was beyond her
+knowledge that any man should have the courage so far to transgress
+conventional usages. But he heard the word "dare," and applied to it
+the only meaning he had ever known it to possess. He laughed outright.
+
+"Not dare?" he exclaimed; and he laughed again. "I would dare
+anything, and all things, in the mood I am in, just now."
+
+Looking upon him, she believed what he said; and, strange to say, she
+was more pleased than outraged by his determined demeanor.
+Nevertheless, she realized that she was face to face with an emergency
+which must be met promptly and finally, and so she left her chair, and
+drew herself to her full height, directly in front of him.
+
+"Mr. Morton," she said, slowly, and coldly, "I have had occasion, once
+before, to refer to your training and to mine. We are as far apart as
+if we belonged to different races of mankind. If you have really loved
+me, which I doubt, I am sorry because of it, for I tell you, plainly
+and truly, that I do not, and cannot, respond to you. I have given my
+promise to another, and very shortly I shall be married. This sudden
+passion for me that has come upon you, is an affair of the moment,
+which you will soon forget when you become convinced that it is
+impossible of fruition. I am the promised wife of another man, and
+even your Western training, which you have chosen sarcastically to
+refer to since I made my unfortunate remark about it, will tell you
+that, no matter what rights you believe you possess, you certainly
+have none whatever to compel me to listen to your declaration of
+love." Her manner underwent a sudden and marked change, as she
+continued rapidly, with a suggestion of moisture in her eyes: "Believe
+me, I am intensely sorry for the necessity of this scene between us. I
+do not, and I cannot, return the affection you so generously offer me;
+and, whether I love another, or do not--whether I have ever loved
+another, or have not--it would be the same, so far as you are
+concerned. I am not for you, and I can never be for you, no matter
+what may happen." She took a step nearer to him, and reached out her
+hand, while she added, with her brightest smile: "But I like you, very
+much, indeed. I should like to have you for a true, good friend. It
+would be one of the proud moments of my life, if I could know that I
+might rely upon you as such, and that you would not again transgress
+in the way you have done to-night. Will you take my hand and be my
+friend. Will you try and seek farther for someone who can appreciate
+the love you have offered to me? I need a friend just now, Richard
+Morton. Will you be that friend?"
+
+For a time, he did not answer her. He stood quite still, staring into
+her eyes, and through them and seemingly beyond them, while his own
+face was hard, and set, and paler than she had ever seen it, before.
+Presently, his lips relaxed their tension; the expression of his eyes
+softened, and he drew his right hand across his brow.
+
+He took the hand that was extended toward him, and held it between
+both his own, and, for a full minute after that, he stood before her
+in silence, while he fought the hardest battle of his life. When he
+did speak, it was in an easy, careless drawl.
+
+"I reckon you roped and tied me that time, Patricia," he said,
+smilingly. "You've got your brand on me, all right, but maybe the iron
+hasn't burnt quite as deep as it does sometimes; and, as you say,
+possibly there will come a day when we can burn another brand on top
+of it, so that the first one will never be recognized. Will I be your
+friend? Indeed, I will, and I'll ask you, if you please, to forgive
+and forget all my bad manners, and the harsh things I've said."
+
+"It is not necessary to ask me that, Mr. Morton."
+
+"Patricia, if you'll just call me Dick, like all the boys do, out on
+the ranch, and if you'll grant me the permission which I have never
+asked before, of addressing you as I have just now, it will make the
+whole thing a heap-sight easier. Will you do it?
+
+"I'd much rather call you Dick than anything else," she told him,
+still permitting him to hold her hand clasped between his own.
+
+He bent forward, nearer to her; and, although she perfectly understood
+what he intended to do, she did not flinch, or falter.
+
+He touched his lips lightly to her forehead, and then, with a
+muttered, "God bless you, girl!" he turned quickly, and went out of
+the room, leaving Patricia Langdon once again alone with her
+thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MONDAY, THE THIRTEENTH
+
+
+The monotonous, but not unpleasing voice of Malcolm Melvin began the
+reading of the stipulations in the contract to the three persons who
+were seated before him around the table in the lawyer's private
+office. The time was Monday morning, shortly after ten o'clock.
+
+"This agreement, hereinafter made, between Roderick Duncan, of the
+City, County, and State of New York, party of the first part; Stephen
+Langdon, of the same place, party of the second part; and Patricia
+Langdon of the same place, party of the third part, as follows: First,
+the party of the first part--"
+
+"Just wait a moment, Mr. Melvin, if you please," Duncan interrupted
+him. "If it is all the same to you, and to the other parties concerned
+in this transaction, I don't care to hear all that dry rot, you have
+written. If you will be so kind as simply to state in plain English
+what the stipulations are, it will answer quite as well for the
+others, and it will suit me a whole lot better."
+
+"It is customary, Mr. Duncan, to listen carefully to a legal document
+one is about to sign with his name," said the lawyer, with a dry
+smile.
+
+"I don't care a rap about that, Melvin; and you know I don't. The
+others know it, too."
+
+"I think," said Patricia, quietly, "that the papers should be read,
+from beginning to end."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed her father; "and besides, Pat, I haven't time. I
+ought to be down-town, right now. Let Melvin get over with this
+foolish nonsense, as quickly as possible; and then, if you and
+Roderick will only kiss, and make up--"
+
+Patricia interrupted him:
+
+"Very well, Mr. Melvin," she said. "You may state the substance of the
+agreement."
+
+The lawyer turned toward Duncan. There was a twinkle of amusement in
+his eyes, although his face remained perfectly calm and
+expressionless.
+
+"According to these papers as I have drawn them, Mr. Duncan," he said,
+slowly, "you loan the sum of twenty million dollars to Stephen
+Langdon, accepting as security therefor, and in lieu of other
+collateral, the stated promise of Miss Langdon to become your wife.
+She reserves to herself, the right to name the wedding-day, provided
+it be within a reasonable time."
+
+"May I ask how Miss Langdon defines the words, a reasonable time?"
+asked Duncan, speaking as deliberately as the lawyer had done. "As for
+the loan to Mr. Langdon--he already has that. But, the reasonable
+time: just what does that expression mean?"
+
+"I suppose, during the season; say, within three, or six, months from
+date," replied the lawyer.
+
+"That will do very well, thank you. You may now go on." Duncan was
+determined, that morning, to meet Patricia on her own ground.
+
+"The loan you make to the party of the second part, to Mr. Langdon, is
+to be repaid to you at his convenience, and with the legal rate of
+interest, within one year from date. At the church where the wedding
+ceremony shall take place, and immediately before that event, you are
+to give to Miss Langdon, a cashier's check for ten-million dollars,
+which she will endorse and send to the bank, before the ceremony
+proceeds. It is Miss Langdon's wish to have her maiden name appear as
+the endorsement on that check. Later, she will have the account
+transferred from Patricia Langdon to Patricia Duncan. You are--"
+
+"Just one moment, again, Mr. Melvin." Duncan reached forward and
+pulled the papers toward him. "Will you please show me where I am to
+sign? What remains of the stipulations, I can hear at another time.
+Unfortunately, at the present moment, I am in haste, and I happen to
+know that Mr. Langdon is very anxious to get away."
+
+"Is it your habit to sign legal papers without reading them?" demanded
+Patricia, with just a little touch of resentment in her tone. She had
+rather prided herself upon the wording of this document, which she had
+so carefully dictated to Melvin, and it hurt her to think that her
+stipulations were passed over so easily.
+
+But the lawyer, who saw in the whole circumstance nothing but a huge
+joke, which would presently come to a pleasant end, had already
+pointed out to Duncan the places on the three papers where he was to
+put his signature, and the young man was signing them, rapidly. He did
+not reply until he had written his name the third time. Then, he left
+his chair, and with a low and somewhat derisive bow to his affianced
+wife, said:
+
+"No, Patricia, it is not; but these circumstances are different from
+those in which one is usually called upon to sign documents. I
+certainly should have no hesitation in accepting, without reserve,
+any conditions which you chose to insist upon, so long as those
+conditions, in the end, made you my wife. You may sign the papers at
+your leisure; but I shall ask you to excuse me, now." He bowed
+smilingly to her, shook hands with the lawyer, and called across the
+table to the banker:
+
+"So long, Uncle Steve; I'll see you later." A moment afterward the
+door closed behind him.
+
+"The whole thing looks to me like tomfoolery!" ejaculated the banker,
+as he drew the papers toward him, and signed them rapidly. "Patricia,
+you are the party of the third part, here, and you can sign them at
+your leisure. I've got to go, also. Melvin, you can send my copy of
+the contract direct to me, when it is ready."
+
+"It is your turn now, Miss Langdon," said the lawyer, in his most
+professional tone, as soon as her father had gone. But, instead of
+signing, Patricia, for the first time since the beginning of this
+confused condition of affairs, lost her pride and became the emotional
+young woman that she really was.
+
+Without a word of warning, she burst into a passion of tears. Throwing
+her arms upon the table, she buried her face in them, and sobbed on
+and on, convulsively, vehemently, inconsolably.
+
+The lawyer, stirred out of his professional calm by this human side of
+the cold and haughty young woman, placed one hand tenderly, if
+somewhat tentatively, upon her shoulder. For a time, he patted her
+gently, while he waited for her tempest to pass.
+
+"There, there, my dear. Don't let it affect you so," he said. "It is
+nothing but a storm-cloud, that will quickly pass away. It is just
+like a thunder-shower, very dark while it lasts, but making all the
+brighter the sunshine that follows it. I know how you have been tried,
+and how your pride has been hurt; but, child, there are two kinds of
+pride in everybody, and it is never quite easy to determine which is
+which. I strongly suspect, my dear, that you have been actuated by a
+feeling of false pride, in the position you have taken as to this
+matter. I won't attempt to advise you, now. Don't sob so, my dear. It
+will all come out right."
+
+She raised her head from the table, and looked at him, pathetically.
+
+"I am so sorry, Mr. Melvin," she said, slowly, with a catch in her
+breath as she spoke. "I seem to have done everything wrong, in this
+matter. I've made everybody unhappy." Again, she buried her face in
+her arms, and sobbed on, with even more abandon than before.
+
+"My child," said the lawyer, "I've lived long enough in the world to
+discover that it is never wise to permit ourselves to be actuated by
+false motives. You will discover the truth of that statement, later
+on; you are only just beginning to realize it, now."
+
+She made no reply to this, but a moment later she started to her feet,
+and again became the haughty, self-contained, relentless, Juno.
+
+"Give me the pen," she said. "I will sign."
+
+"If you will take my advice," replied the lawyer, without moving, "you
+will tear up those three documents, or direct me to do so, and leave
+things as they are."
+
+"No," she replied. "I will sign."
+
+"Very well, Patricia." He pushed the documents toward her, and watched
+her with a half-smile on his professional face, while she appended her
+signature to each of them. A moment later, he escorted her from the
+office, and assisted her into the waiting car. Then, he stood quite
+still and watched it as it carried her away from the business-section
+of the city. He shook his head and sighed, as he reentered the
+building where his office was located.
+
+"Poor child," he was thinking to himself; "she didn't tee-off well, in
+the beginning of this game, and she encountered the worst hazard of
+her life when she came up against her own unyielding pride. Poor
+child! So beautiful, so good, so tender of heart, she hides every real
+emotion she possesses behind an impenetrable barrier, barring the
+expressions of her natural affections with an icy shield which she
+permits no one to penetrate. For just a moment, she let me see her as
+she is; I wonder if she has ever permitted others." He got out of the
+elevator, and walked slowly toward his office-door, pausing midway
+along the corridor, and still thinking on, in the same fashion. "I
+must find a way to help her, somehow. Old Malcolm Melvin, whose heart
+is supposed to be like the parchments he works upon, must make himself
+the champion of this misguided girl. Ah, well, we shall see what can
+be done. We shall see; we shall see." He passed inside his office
+then, and in a moment more had forgotten, in the multitudinous affairs
+of his professional life, that such a person as Patricia Langdon
+existed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That Monday, in the evening, at his rooms, Roderick Duncan received
+two letters. One was delivered by messenger; the other came by post.
+He recognized the handwriting on the envelope of each, and for a
+moment hesitated as to which of the two he should read first. One, he
+knew, was sent by Sally Gardner; the other was from Patricia.
+
+He laid them on the table in front of him, and stood beside it looking
+down upon the two envelopes with a half-smile upon his face, which was
+weary and troubled; then, with a broader smile, he took a coin from
+his pocket and flipped it in the air.
+
+A glance at the coin decided him, and he took up Sally's letter and
+broke the seal. He read:
+
+"My Dear Roderick:
+
+"I promised you, when you left me Saturday night, to communicate with
+you at once. Beatrice is quite ill, although you are not to infer from
+this statement that her indisposition it at all serious. I have merely
+insisted that she should remain in bed at my house yesterday and
+to-day.
+
+"On no account should you seek her at present nor should you attempt
+to communicate with her. I will keep you informed as to her condition
+because I realize that you will be anxious, inasmuch as you doubtless
+hold yourself responsible for the present state of affairs. Be
+satisfied with that, and believe me,"
+
+"Loyally your friend,
+
+                                        "SALLY GARDNER.
+
+"P. S. Doubtless you will see Jack at the club this evening. Let me
+advise you not to discuss with him anything that happened Saturday
+night after his departure with Patricia. I have thought it best to
+keep that little foolish affair a secret between ourselves.
+
+                                        S. G."
+
+Duncan stood for a considerable time with the letter held before his
+eyes, while he went over in his mind the chain of incidents that
+followed upon his meeting with Beatrice Brunswick in the box at the
+opera-house. Presently, he returned the letter to the envelope, and
+laid it aside, while he took up the other one, addressed in the
+handwriting of Patricia.
+
+He read it slowly, with widening eyes; and then he read it again, more
+slowly, as if he were not certain that he had read it aright before.
+Finally, with something very nearly approaching an oath, he crushed
+the short document in his hand, and strode to the window, where he
+stood for a long time, staring out into the darkness, without moving.
+His valet entered the room and made some remark about dressing him for
+the evening, but Duncan sharply ordered the man away, telling him to
+return in half an hour. Afterward he went back to the table where
+there was more light, and smoothed out the crumpled page of
+Patricia's letter, so that he could read it a third time.
+
+It was very short and very much to the point; and it had brought with
+it a greater shock than he could possibly have anticipated. The
+strange part of it was that he did not comprehend the precise
+character of that shock. He did not know whether he was pleased, or
+displeased; whether he was amused, or angry--or only startled.
+Certainly, he had never thought of expecting such a communication as
+this from Patricia Langdon. The letter was as follows:
+
+Four, P. M., Monday.
+
+"Dear Roderick:
+
+"According to the document signed jointly by you, my father and
+myself, and witnessed by Mr. Malcolm Melvin at his office at ten
+o'clock this morning, I was given the undisputed right to name the day
+for the ceremony, which is to complete the transaction as agreed upon
+among us three, but more particularly between you and me. I have
+thought the matter over calmly and dispassionately, since I parted
+with you at the lawyer's office, and have decided that, all things
+considered, it will be best not to defer too long the conditions of
+that transaction.
+
+"I have decided that the ceremony--a quiet one--shall be performed by
+the Rev. Dr. Moreley, at the Church of the Annunciation, at ten
+o'clock in the morning, one week from to-day, which will be Monday,
+the thirteenth.
+
+"If there should be any important reason why you prefer to change this
+date, you may communicate the same to me at once, and I shall consider
+it; but if not, I greatly prefer that matters should stand as I have
+arranged them.
+
+                                        "PATRICIA LANGDON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MORTON'S ULTIMATUM
+
+
+Oddly enough, Roderick Duncan and Richard Morton had never met.
+Although Morton, during the two weeks of his acquaintance with
+Patricia Langdon, had been as constantly in her company as it was
+possible for him to be, there had been no introduction between the two
+young men. They frequented the same clubs, and Morton had made the
+acquaintance of many of Duncan's friends; they knew each other by
+sight, and Duncan had heard, vaguely and without particular interest,
+that Morton had fallen under the spell of Patricia's stately
+loveliness. That was a circumstance which had suggested no misgivings
+whatever to him. He had long been accustomed to such conditions, for
+it was a rare thing that a man should be presented to Patricia without
+being at once attracted and charmed by her physical beauty, as well as
+by her brilliancy of wit.
+
+It was, therefore, with unmasked astonishment that, upon responding to
+a summons at his door, still holding Patricia's letter in his hand,
+he found himself face to face with the young Montana cattle-king.
+
+"Mr. Roderick Duncan, I believe?" said Morton, without advancing to
+cross the threshold when Duncan threw open the door.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "Won't you come inside, Mr. Morton? I know you very
+well, by sight and name, and, although it has not been my privilege to
+meet you socially, you are quite welcome. Come inside, won't you?"
+
+The handsome young ranchman bowed, and passed into the room. He strode
+across it until he was near one of the windows; then, he turned to
+face Duncan, who had re-closed the door, and had followed as far as
+the center-table where he now stood, gazing questioningly at his
+visitor.
+
+"Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?" Duncan asked.
+
+"Thank you, no. I intend to remain only a moment, and it is possible
+that the question I have come to ask you may not be agreeable for you
+to hear, or to answer. If you will repeat your request after I have
+asked the question, I shall be glad to comply with it."
+
+"I haven't the least idea what you are talking about, Mr. Morton,"
+said Duncan, smiling, "and I can't conceive how any question you care
+to put to me would be offensive. However, have it your own way. Will
+you tell me, now, what that remarkable question is?"
+
+Morton was standing with his feet wide-apart, and with his back to the
+window. His hands were thrust deep into his trousers-pockets. He
+looked the athlete in every line of his muscular limbs and body, and
+the frankness and openness of his expression at once interested
+Duncan.
+
+"Mr. Duncan," he said, "in the country I come from, we do things
+differently from the way you do them here. I was born on a ranch in
+Eastern Montana, and I have lived all my life in a wild country. I
+began my career as a cow-puncher, when I was sixteen, and not until
+the last two or three years of my life have I known anything at all of
+that phase of existence which is expressed by the word 'society.' I
+indulge in this preamble in order to apologize in advance, for any
+breaks I may make in that mystical line of talk which you call, 'good
+form.'"
+
+Duncan nodded his head smilingly, and Morton continued:
+
+"Several years ago, I made my 'pile,' as we express it out there, and
+since that time it has steadily increased in size, so that, lately, I
+have indulged myself in an attempt to 'butt in' upon the people in
+'polite society.' The question I have to ask you will amaze and
+astonish you, but I shall explain it, in detail, if you desire me to
+do so."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Morton, what is the question?"
+
+"Are you engaged to marry Miss Patricia Langdon?" demanded Morton,
+abruptly; and there was a tightening of his lips and a slight forward
+thrust of his aggressive chin.
+
+Duncan received the question calmly. He thought, afterward, that he
+had almost anticipated it, although he could not have told why he
+should do so. He permitted nothing of the effect the question had upon
+him to appear in the expression of his face, or eyes, and he continued
+to gaze smilingly into the face of the young ranchman, while he
+replied:
+
+"I see no objection to answering your question, Mr. Morton, although I
+do not in the least understand your reason for asking it. Miss Langdon
+and I are engaged to be married, and the wedding-day is already fixed.
+It is to be next Monday morning, at ten o'clock. I hope, sir, that you
+are quite satisfied with the reply?"
+
+Morton did not speak for a moment, but he reached out one hand and
+rested it on the back of a chair, near which he was standing. Duncan,
+perceiving the gesture, asked again:
+
+"Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?"
+
+"Thank you, yes."
+
+He dropped his huge body upon the leather-upholstered chair beside
+him, and crossed one leg over the other, while Duncan retained his
+attitude beside the table, still with that questioning expression in
+his eyes.
+
+"I suppose I ought to make some farther explanation," said Morton,
+presently. He spoke with careful deliberation, choosing his words as
+he did so and evidently striving hard to maintain complete composure
+of demeanor under circumstances that rendered the task somewhat
+difficult.
+
+"I think one is due to me," was the reply.
+
+"Mr. Duncan, when I hit the trail for this room, to have this talk
+with you, I sure thought that I had mapped out pretty clearly what I
+had to say to you. I find now that it's some difficult to express
+myself. If we were seated together in a bunk-house on a ranch in
+Montana, I could uncinch all that's on my mind, without any trouble. I
+hope you don't mind my native lingo."
+
+"Not in the least," replied Duncan, still smiling. "I find it very
+expressive, and quite to the point."
+
+"Well, it's this way: I arrived in the city about three weeks ago, and
+one of the first persons I met up with, who interested me was Miss
+Langdon. There isn't any reason that I know of why I shouldn't admit
+to you that she interested me more, in about three seconds of time,
+than anybody else has ever succeeded in doing, during the twenty-eight
+years I have lived. I was roped, tied, and branded, quicker than it
+takes me to tell you of it; and the odd part of the whole thing is
+that I enjoyed the experience, instead of resenting it. I think it was
+the second time I met up with her when I told her about it, and it is
+only fair to her, and to you, to admit that she said 'No,'
+Johnny-on-the-spot. But, somehow, it didn't strike me that it was a
+final 'no,' or that she had anybody's brand on her; and so I didn't
+lose the hope that some day I might induce her to accept mine. Last
+Saturday afternoon, I took her in my car, in company with two other
+ladies, to her father's office, down-town. She had an interview with
+her father and somebody else, I suspect, while she was in the office,
+and whatever that interview was, I am plumb certain that it didn't
+please her. She come out of the building with her eyes blazing like
+two live coals, and she was mad enough to shoot, if I am any judge."
+
+He paused, as if expecting some comment from Duncan, but the latter
+made no remark at all; nor did he change his attitude or the smiling
+expression of his face. Truth to tell, he was more amused than
+offended by the other's confidences. Morton continued:
+
+"I had half-promised Miss Langdon that I wouldn't speak to her again
+of love, but I sure couldn't hold in, that afternoon. I needn't tell
+you what I said; but the consequence of it was that she told me she
+had just concluded a business transaction--that was the expression she
+used--by which she had promised to marry a man whom she would not
+name. Since that time, I have studied the situation rather deeply,
+with the result that I came to the conclusion you were the man to whom
+she referred. That is why I have called upon you this evening, to ask
+you the question you have just answered."
+
+"Well?" said Duncan. His smile was more constrained, now.
+
+"I'm sure puzzled to know what Miss Langdon means by the 'business
+transaction' part of it, Mr. Duncan, and I have come up here, to your
+own room, to tell you that, if Patricia Langdon loves you--"
+
+"One moment, if you please, Mr. Morton. Don't you think you're going
+rather too far, now?"
+
+"No sir, I don't."
+
+"Very well, I'll listen to you, to the end."
+
+"If Patricia Langdon loves you, Duncan, I'll hit the trail for Montana
+and the sky-line this afternoon, and I'll ask you to pardon me for any
+break I have made here, this evening; but, if she doesn't love you,
+and if, as I suspect, you are coercing her in this matter--"
+
+Again, Duncan interrupted the ranchman. He did it this time by
+straightening his tall figure, and raising one hand for silence.
+
+"I think, Mr. Morton," he said, coldly, "that you are presuming rather
+too far. These are personal matters between Miss Langdon and myself,
+which I may not discuss with you."
+
+Morton sprang to his feet, and faced Duncan across the table.
+
+"By God! you've got to discuss this with me!" he said; and his jaws
+snapped together, while he bent forward, glaring into Duncan's eyes.
+"I've got to know one thing from you, Mr. Roderick Duncan; and I've
+got just one more thing to say to you!"
+
+"Well, what is it?"
+
+The question was cold and very calm. Duncan's temper was rising.
+
+"I'll say it mighty quick and sudden. It is this: If you are forcing
+Patricia Langdon into this marriage against her will, I'll kill you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE QUARREL
+
+
+Duncan's first impulse, begotten by the sudden anger that blazed
+within him, was to resent most bitterly the threat thus made against
+him. But, behind his anger, he was conscious of a certain feeling of
+respect and admiration for this frank-faced, keen-eyed young Montana
+ranchman. He saw plainly that Morton was in deadly earnest in what he
+had said; but he realized, also, that Morton's resentment, as well as
+the threat he had made, was due, not to any personal feeling harbored
+against the man he now faced, but was entirely the result of the sense
+of chivalry which the Western cowboy inevitably feels for every woman.
+Duncan understood, thoroughly, that Morton's sole desire was to
+announce himself as prepared to protect, to the last ditch, the young
+woman with whom he had fallen so desperately in love; and for this
+Duncan respected and esteemed the man.
+
+In this instance, Duncan was a good reader of character, and, before
+venturing to reply to the last remark of Morton's, he compelled
+himself to silence; he tried to put himself in this young man's place,
+wondering the while if under like circumstances he would have had the
+courage to do as Morton had done.
+
+"Sit down again, Mr. Morton," he said, presently, waving his hand
+toward the chair the ranchman had previously occupied.
+
+"No, sir; not until you have answered me."
+
+Duncan smiled, now. He had entirely regained his composure, and was
+thoroughly master of his own ugly temper, and of the situation, also,
+as he believed.
+
+"Mr. Morton," he said, "when you entered this room, I did you the
+honor to listen to your unprecedented statement, without interruption.
+I now ask you to treat me as fairly as I treated you. Be seated, Mr.
+Morton, and hear what I have to say."
+
+The ranchman flushed hotly, at once realizing that this young
+patrician of the East, had, for the moment got the better of him. He
+resumed his seat upon the chair, and absent-mindedly withdrew from one
+of his pockets a book of cigarette-papers and a tobacco-pouch.
+
+"Morton," said Duncan, "I am going to speak to you as man to man; just
+as I think you would like to have me do. I am going to meet you on
+your own ground, that of perfect frankness; for I do you the honor to
+believe that you are entirely sincere in your attitude, in your
+conduct, and in what you have said to me."
+
+"You're sure right about that, Mr. Duncan. Whatever may be said about
+Dick Morton, there is nobody--at least nobody that's now alive--who
+has ever cast any doubts upon my sincerity, or my willingness to back
+up whatever I may have to say."
+
+"You came here out of the West, Morton, and, as you express it, met up
+with Patricia Langdon. In your impulsive way, you fell deeply in love
+with her, almost at first sight."
+
+"That's no idle dream."
+
+"You conceived the idea that she wore nobody's brand, which is another
+expression of your own, which I take to mean that you thought her
+affections were disengaged."
+
+"That was the way I sized it up, Mr. Duncan."
+
+"Therefore, I will tell you that Patricia and I have been intimate
+companions, since our earliest childhood. I can't remember when I have
+not thought her superior to any other woman, and I have always
+believed, as I now believe, that deep down in her inmost heart she
+loves me quite as well as I love her. There was an unfortunate
+circumstance, connected with our present engagement, which,
+unfortunately, I cannot explain to you, since it is another's secret,
+and not mine. But I shall explain, so far as to say that the
+circumstance deeply offended her; that when she made the remark to
+you, in the automobile, which aroused your resentment, she did it in
+anger; that, far from coercing her in this matter, I have not done so,
+and have not thought of doing so; and, lastly, I shall tell you, quite
+frankly, that the engagement between Patricia and myself and the date
+of the wedding which is to follow are both matters which she has had
+full power to arrange to her own satisfaction."
+
+Duncan hesitated a moment, and then, as Morton made no response, he
+suddenly extended Patricia's letter, which he still held in his hand.
+
+"Read that," he said. "I don't know why I show it to you, save that I
+feel the impulse to do so. It is entirely a confidential
+communication, and I call upon you to treat it as such. But read the
+letter from Patricia Langdon, which I have just received, Mr. Morton;
+it will probably make you wiser on many points that now confound you."
+
+Morton accepted the letter, but the lines of his face were hard and
+unrelenting; his jaws and lips were shut tightly together; his
+aggressive chin was thrust forward just a little bit, and his hazel
+eyes were cold and uncompromising in their expression.
+
+He read the letter through to the end, without a change of expression;
+then, he read it a second time, and a third. At last, he slowly left
+his seat, and, stepping forward, placed the document, which he had
+refolded, upon the table. He reached for his hat, and smoothed it
+tentatively with the palm of one of his big hands. But all the while
+he kept his eyes fixed sternly upon the face of the young Croesus he
+had gone there to interview.
+
+"Mister Roderick Duncan," he drawled, in a low, even tone, "I don't
+savvy this business, a little bit. Just for the moment, I don't know
+what to make of you, or of Miss Langdon, but I am going to work it out
+to some sort of a conclusion; and, when I have found the answer to the
+questions that puzzle me now, I'll let you know."
+
+He moved quickly toward the door, but with the lightness of a panther
+Duncan sprang between it and him.
+
+"One moment, Morton," he said, coldly.
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"I have been very patient with you, and extremely considerate, I
+think, of your importunities and your insolence; but you try my
+patience almost too far. Take my advice, and don't meddle any farther
+in matters that do not, and cannot, concern you."
+
+For a moment, the two men faced each other in silence, and both were
+angry. Duncan was not less tall than Morton, but was slighter of
+build, and very different--with the difference that will never cease
+to exist between the well-groomed thoroughbred of many experiences
+and the blooded young colt. Morton's wrath flamed to the surface, and,
+forgetting for the moment that he was not upon his native heath, that
+he was not dressed and accoutred as was his habit when riding the
+range, he reached down for the place where his holster and
+cartridge-belt would have been located had he been dressed in the
+cowboy costume of his native Montana.
+
+It was a gesture as natural to the young ranchman as it was to
+breathe, and he was ashamed of it the instant it was made. He would
+have apologized had he been given time to do so. Indeed, he did flush
+hotly, in his confusion. But Duncan, quite naturally, misinterpreted
+the act. He thought, and with good reason, that Morton was reaching
+for his gun; the flush of shame on Morton's cheeks served only to
+strengthen the conviction. And so, with a cat-like swiftness, he took
+one step forward and seized the wrist of Morton's right arm, twisting
+it sharply and bending it backward with the same motion, whereby the
+ranchman was thrown away from him, and was brought up sharply against
+the table, in the middle of the room.
+
+Duncan was smiling again now; but it was the smile of intense anger,
+and not pleasant to see. Without waiting for Morton to recover
+himself, Duncan calmly turned his back upon the ranchman, and threw
+open the door; then, stepping away from it, he said, with quiet
+dignity:
+
+"This is your way out, sir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SALLY GARDNER'S PLAN
+
+
+What might have happened between those two fiery natures at that
+crisis will never be known, because at the moment when Duncan threw
+the door ajar, and uttered his dismissal, Jack Gardner appeared
+suddenly upon the scene, having just stepped from the elevator. If he
+heard that expression of dismissal, he showed no evidence of it, or he
+did not comprehend its significance; and, if he saw in the attitude of
+the two men anything out of the ordinary, he gave no sign that he did
+so. But Jack Gardner, too, was from Montana; and he had learned, long
+ago, how to conduct himself in emergencies. It was a fortunate
+interruption, all around. Duncan, although apparently calm, was in a
+white rage. He would not have hesitated to meet Morton more than
+half-way, in any manner by which the latter might choose to show his
+resentment for the twisted arm. As it was, Gardner was the savior of
+the situation.
+
+"Hello, Duncan! How are you?" he exclaimed, in his usual manner.
+"Why, Dick! I didn't expect to find you here; didn't know that you and
+Dun were acquainted." He shook hands with both the men, one after the
+other, in his accustomed hearty and irresistible manner, grinning at
+them and utterly refusing to see that there was restraint in the
+manner of either.
+
+"It is my first acquaintance with Mr. Morton," replied Duncan easily,
+and touched a lighted match to the cigar he had previously taken from
+his case. He was, outwardly, entirely at ease. "He did me the honor to
+call upon me, and we have been chatting together for more than half an
+hour. Will you sit down, Jack? Mr. Morton, be seated again, won't
+you?"
+
+The ranchman looked upon his late antagonist with utter amazement. It
+was an exhibition of a kind of self-control that was strange to him.
+It angered him, too, because of his own inability to assume it. He was
+suddenly ashamed. Patricia's reference to his "training," recurred to
+him. He understood, now, exactly what she had meant--it had not been
+plain to him before. Here before him was "the man of the East," at
+whom he had so often scoffed, for the word "Tenderfoot" had, until
+now, been synonymous with contempt. But Morton felt himself to be the
+tenderfoot, in the present case. He replied, stiffly, to the
+invitation to be seated.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "I find that I am neglecting an engagement." It
+was the only excuse he could think of.
+
+"Wait just a minute, Dick, and I'll go along with you," said Gardner.
+"I only stepped in a moment to give Duncan a message from my wife. She
+says, Roderick, that she would like to have you drop around at the
+house, for a moment, if you can make it. She is not going out. Now,
+Dick, if you are ready, I'm with you. So long, Duncan; I'll see you
+later, at the club."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just previous to Jack Gardner's interruption of the almost tragic
+scene at Duncan's rooms, he had been having what he called "a
+heart-to-heart" talk with his wife, and the message he now delivered
+to his friend from Sally was, in part, the outcome of that interview.
+
+Sally Gardner had been greatly troubled since the occurrences of
+Saturday night. Being herself intensely practical, she had sought
+deeply, through her reasoning powers, to find a means whereby she
+might be instrumental in helping out of their difficulties her
+several friends whom she so dearly loved. She believed that she had
+succeeded in hitting upon a scheme which would, at least, bring things
+to a focus. She was sure that, if she could bring all the parties
+together under one roof, matters would straighten themselves without
+much outside assistance. Jack and Sally owned a beautiful country
+place, within easy motoring distance of the city, and the young
+matron, having decided upon what course she would adopt, had lost no
+time in summoning her husband to her, taking him into her confidence,
+and convincing him of the wisdom of her project.
+
+"Jack," she told him, when he was seated opposite her, "I don't
+suppose you realize into what a terrible mess and muddle you got
+things last Saturday night, by reason of your fondness for a joke?"
+
+"Oh, confound it, Sally, drop it!" he exclaimed, smiling, but annoyed
+nevertheless.
+
+"No," she said, "we can't drop it, Jack. You're responsible for the
+whole affair. I have seen the necessity of finding a way out of it,
+for all of us--although my heart bleeds for poor Beatrice."
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders, and lighted a cigar. Then, he thrust his
+feet far out in front of him, and studied the toes of his tan shoes
+intently.
+
+"What's the matter with Beatrice?" he asked, presently.
+
+"She is in love with Roderick Duncan," replied his wife, with an
+emphatic nod of her blond head.
+
+"Eh? What's that? In love with Rod? Nonsense!"
+
+"She is, Jack; I know she is."
+
+"Gee, little girl, but it surely is a mix up! What are you going to do
+about it? Why in blazes didn't she marry him, then, when she had the
+chance?"
+
+"I've thought of a way Jack, if you will agree to it, and help me
+out--a way by which things can be smoothed over. Will you help me?"
+
+"Yes, I will. What is it?"
+
+"Could you tear yourself away from the city for two or three days,
+beginning to-morrow morning?" she asked him.
+
+"I guess so, Sally."
+
+"Are you willing to go out to Cedarcrest for a few days, and entertain
+a select party, there?"
+
+"Suit me to death, girl. Glad you thought of it. Whom will you ask?
+And what is the game?"
+
+"I have made out a list," replied Sally, meditatively. "I shall read
+it off to you, if you will listen."
+
+"Go ahead."
+
+"It includes Beatrice and Patricia, of course; Dick Morton and--"
+
+"Wait a moment, Sally. I've got a sort of a notion in my head that
+neither Beatrice nor Patricia, will care to go to Cedarcrest on such
+an expedition as that, under the present circumstances."
+
+"My dear John"--she sometimes called him John when she was
+particularly in earnest, and when she attempted to be especially
+dignified--"you may leave all the details of this arrangement to me. I
+merely wished your consent to the plan."
+
+"Oh, well, if you can manage it, Sally, you've got my consent, all
+right. What do you want me to do about it? You didn't have to consult
+me, you know."
+
+"I want you, first, to listen to the list I have made out, and, after
+that, to carry out my directions in regard to it."
+
+"Good girl; I can do that, too."
+
+"Patricia and Beatrice, Roderick Duncan and the Houston girls, Richard
+Morton, Nesbit Farnham; and, to supply the other two men who will be
+necessary to make up the party, you yourself may make the selection. I
+only wish them to be the right sort."
+
+"What's the scheme, Sally?"
+
+"I want to get these warring elements together, under one roof."
+
+"Whew! You've got more pluck than I thought you had, Sally."
+
+"Listen, Jack: When you go out this evening, find Roderick, and send
+him here, to me. I have written him not to come here, but that won't
+make any difference. He'll come if you give him my message. Afterward,
+you may look up Dick Morton, and the other two men you are to ask, and
+give them the invitation."
+
+"For when?"
+
+"For to-morrow. Tell them all to be at Cedarcrest before dark,
+to-morrow. That is all. As I said before, I'll attend to the details."
+
+Jack Gardner left his chair, and, having kissed his wife, was on the
+point of departure when he paused a moment on the threshold, and,
+looking back over his shoulder, said, laughingly:
+
+"Sally, I always gave you credit for having more sand than any three
+ordinary women I've ever known, but, I'll give you my word, I never
+supposed you had grit enough to undertake any such thing as this one.
+Talk about me getting things into a mess! Great Scott! if you don't
+get into one, out at Cedarcrest, with that sort of a mix-up to take
+care of, I'm a sheep-herder. Maybe you haven't got on to the fact, my
+girl, but, as sure as you're the best little woman in all New York,
+Dick Morton is so dead stuck on Patricia Langdon that he can't forget
+it for a minute. If you bring all that bunch together, you'll have Rod
+Duncan and Dick at each other's throat, before you get through with
+it. And besides--"
+
+Sally sprang to her feet, clapped her hands and laughed, to her
+husband's utter amazement.
+
+"Splendid!" she exclaimed. "No, I did not know that; but it simplifies
+matters, wonderfully, Jack."
+
+"Oh, does it?"
+
+"Assuredly."
+
+"Huh! I'm glad you think so. It looks to me as if it were just the
+other way around. Take my word for it, my girl, there'll be a 'will'
+in that drive of yours--maybe a tragedy, as well. Duncan is quite
+capable of committing one, in his present mood; and Dick
+Morton?--Well, you'll see."
+
+"I'm awfully glad you told me. It's perfectly splendid," said Sally,
+unmindful of, or indifferent to, the warning. "It's perfectly
+splendid!"
+
+"Oh, it is, eh? Well, I'm glad you think so. To me, it looks a good
+deal like a mix-up, Sally. Rod is in love with Patricia; Beatrice is
+in love with him; Nesbit Farnham is so dead stuck on Beatrice that he
+doesn't know where he's at, more than half the time; and Patricia--Oh,
+well, I give it up. I'll do what you told me to, and leave the rest to
+you;" and Gardner laughed his way through the hall and out upon the
+street; and he continued chuckling to himself, all the way to his
+club. But Sally ran after him before he got quite away from her, and
+called to him from the bottom of the steps.
+
+"One thing more, Jack," she said.
+
+"Well, my dear; what is it?"
+
+"We will take Beatrice with us, in our car, and you may include one of
+the gentlemen I have given you permission to ask. When you ask Dick
+Morton, tell him that he is to bring Patricia and the two Houston
+girls. That's all."
+
+"How about the others, how are they going to get there?"
+
+"The others may walk, for all I care," said Sally, and she returned to
+the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PATRICIA'S WILD RIDE
+
+
+It was a gay party that assembled around the dinner-table at
+Cedarcrest, shortly after eight o'clock on Tuesday evening, although,
+had one possessed the ability to analyze deeply, it would have been
+discovered that the gaiety was somewhat forced. Each person present at
+the gathering was burdened by the intuitive perception of something
+ominous in the atmosphere; there was a portentous quality about the
+environment that had more or less a depressing effect upon Sally
+Gardner's guests, and each one was conscious of a determined, but
+silent effort to overcome this feeling, in the belief that he or she
+was the only one who experienced it.
+
+Two of the expected guests had not arrived. They were Patricia and
+Richard Morton; but, because no message of any sort had been received
+from Morton, it was the generally accepted idea, that something had
+happened on the road to delay his car, and they were expected to
+arrive at any moment. The serving of the dinner was delayed as long
+as possible in expectation of their coming, but at last the other
+guests seated themselves around the table to enjoy the feast so
+carefully prepared by Jack Gardner's high-salaried chef. Agnes and
+Frances Houston, who were to have come out in Richard Morton's car
+with Patricia, arrived on time, accompanied by an uninvited guest,
+although he was one who was on such terms of intimacy with the
+Gardners that he had not hesitated to attend this country party, when
+the idea was suggested to him. It was the lawyer, Melvin; and the
+suggestion that he should be present, and that he should take out the
+Houston girls, had, strangely enough, been made by Morton. The young
+ranchman had gone to the lawyer's office early in the day of that
+Tuesday, and the conversation he held with Melvin will give a good
+idea of the drift of his intentions, and of his hitherto latent
+talents for planning and scheming. And the shrewd old lawyer quite
+readily fell in with the suggestions that were made to him.
+
+The invitation extended to Morton, the preceding evening, by Jack
+Gardner, and the directions given him at the time, as to whom he
+should take with him to the party, had suggested to him a novel plan,
+which he lost no time in taking measures to carry out. It is true, he
+was delighted on learning that he was expected to take Patricia to
+Cedarcrest, but he was just as greatly disappointed by the idea that
+Agnes and Frances Houston were to occupy the tonneau of his car, and
+therefore he planned to avoid the disturbing element. The presence of
+the lawyer at the club where Gardner and Morton held their
+conversation, suggested to the latter what he would do, for he knew of
+the intimate friendly relations existing between Melvin and the
+Gardners, and did not doubt that the great legal light would be an
+acceptable addition to the party which Sally had planned. Had he known
+all of Sally's reasons for the arrangements she had made, and had he
+realized exactly why the party had been got up, he might have
+hesitated to do what he did; possibly, he would have refused to attend
+at all--but developments will show how he took the information, when
+at last it was given to him. It must be remembered that Morton knew
+nothing at all of the real incidents of the preceding Saturday, and
+was aware only of the fact that something was wrong; that something
+had occurred to annoy and disturb Patricia Langdon out of her
+customary self-repose. Nevertheless, Morton was convinced,
+notwithstanding his interview with her and with Duncan, that she was
+somehow being forced into a position abhorrent to her. He had
+promised to be her friend, and Dick Morton knew of only one way to
+fulfill that promise. Whatever he undertook to do, he did thoroughly,
+and always his first impulse, whenever one of his friends needed aid
+of any sort, was to fight for that friend.
+
+His initial occupation that Tuesday morning was to visit the garage
+where his two automobiles were kept, and the instructions to his
+chauffeur were given rapidly and to the point. An hour later, when he
+called upon the lawyer, he said, after greetings had been exchanged:
+
+"Melvin, I don't know whether you are aware of it or not, but Jack
+Gardner and his wife are having a little impromptu house-party, at
+their place, Cedarcrest, beginning at dinner time, this evening. I
+believe it is to continue till the week-end, and of course I know it
+is impossible for you to leave your business for that length of time;
+but I--"
+
+"What are you talking about, Morton?" the lawyer interrupted him.
+"Neither Jack nor Sally have thought to invite me to their gathering."
+
+"Oh, well, that doesn't count, you know--not in this instance. I want
+you to do me a favor. That's the size of it. The point is this: I was
+told to take Miss Langdon and the Misses Houston, to Cedarcrest, in my
+White Steamer. I have just discovered that the car is temporarily out
+of commission, and so I am reduced to the necessity of using my
+roadster. I came down here to ask you to take the Houston girls to
+Cedarcrest, for me."
+
+The shrewd old lawyer threw back his head, and laughed, heartily.
+
+"You're not very deep, Morton," he said, presently. "I can see through
+you as plainly as if you were a plate-glass window. You have come here
+to induce me to relieve you of the necessity of taking Agnes and
+Frances Houston to Cedarcrest, in order that you may have Patricia
+Langdon alone with you in your roadster. And I'll wager that your
+chauffeur is out of commission, too."
+
+"There will be my machinist in the rumble-seat," replied Morton,
+blushing furiously. "You see, Melvin, I happen to know that you are
+always an acceptable addition to any party at that house, and--and
+so--"
+
+The lawyer laughed again, and raised his hand for silence.
+
+"Don't try to explain," he said, still chuckling. "'Least said,
+soonest mended,' you know. I'll help you out, for I don't think your
+suggestion is a bad one, at all. You may leave it all to me, without
+even going so far as to communicate with the two members of your
+party whom you wish to rid yourself of. I'll attend to that, by
+telephoning; and I'll take them to Cedarcrest for dinner, and remain
+for the night; but I shall have to return early to-morrow morning.
+When the hour comes for you to start, Morton, you have only to drive
+around after Miss Langdon." Thus, it happened that, when the party was
+seated in the splendidly decorated dining-room at Cedarcrest, there
+were two absentees; as there was, also, one guest who had not been
+expected, and who, for once in his life, was not entirely welcome at
+Sally Gardner's country home. For Sally had a wholesome respect for,
+as well as an intuitive perception of, the old lawyer's shrewdness.
+Quick to scent a plot of any sort, Mrs. Gardner saw in this
+incident--the arrival of Melvin with the Houston girls, and the
+absence of her star guest and escort--certain circumstances that
+smelled strongly of pre-arrangement. She remembered what her husband
+had said to her, the preceding day, when she suggested the party; she
+recalled Jack's statement to the effect that Morton was in love with
+Patricia, and, because her acquaintance with the young cattle-king had
+begun in their childhood in Montana, she realized just what he was
+capable of doing, if by any chance he had been made aware of the
+circumstances which were the occasion of the gathering at Cedarcrest.
+Melvin had explained, in as few words as possible, how it happened
+that he was there; but his explanation only added to the foreboding in
+Sally Gardner's mind, which grew and grew when daylight faded to
+twilight, and then to darkness, and still Morton's roadster had not
+arrived.
+
+Nesbit Farnham was in the seventh heaven of bliss because he was
+seated at the table beside Beatrice, who bore no outward evidence of
+having been ill, and who, for the moment at least, was the life of the
+party; for she compelled herself to a certain gaiety of manner which
+she did not feel. Duncan had been told, by his host, to bring out the
+two men who were to complete the party, and he had given little
+thought to the arrangement made for him until after his arrival at
+Cedarcrest, when he discovered that the young ranchman and Patricia
+were alone together, somewhere on the road between the city and their
+destination. He felt certain misgivings, then, although he could not
+have defined them; but he recalled the scene that had occurred between
+himself and Morton, the preceding evening, which had so nearly
+developed into an open quarrel, and he wondered what the strenuous
+young ranchman might not attempt to do, in making the most of the
+opportunity thus afforded him.
+
+Patricia Langdon had received her invitation to Sally's party, and had
+given her reluctant acceptance, over the telephone, at a late hour the
+preceding evening. Sally had also told Patricia of the arrangement
+made for taking her to Cedarcrest. The girl had demurred, at first,
+and expressed a desire to use her own car; but she had been argued
+into a final acceptance of Sally's arrangement. It was, therefore,
+with some amazement that she received Richard Morton, at four o'clock
+Tuesday afternoon, when he went after her with his roadster, and
+discovered that they were to ride alone together, to Cedarcrest; for
+Morton had decided to do without the services of his machinist this
+afternoon. He was determined to have no third person present, during
+the thirty miles drive from the city. The lawyer's shrewd guess about
+the chauffeur being put out of commission had certainly furnished a
+suggestion for Morton to follow. Patricia hesitated to accompany him,
+in that manner, but finally consented, though not without reluctance;
+and so, shortly before five o'clock, they started. They should easily
+have arrived at Cedarcrest between six and seven.
+
+We already know that they had not put in their appearance at half-past
+eight. The reason for this delay, was somewhat startling.
+
+When Patricia was well ensconced in the bucket-seat of the roadster
+beside Morton, he started the car forward at as rapid a pace as the
+city ordinance would permit. Both were silent for a considerable time,
+but, at last, Patricia asked him:
+
+"Will you be good enough to tell me why Mrs. Gardner's arrangement for
+this afternoon, was not carried out?"
+
+Morton turned his face away from her, in order to conceal the smile of
+amusement in which he indulged himself, and he replied, with apparent
+carelessness:
+
+"My big car was out of commission, temporarily. I happened to see
+Melvin, and he agreed to take Miss Houston and her sister to
+Cedarcrest, for me."
+
+"Oh, indeed! What has happened to your White Steamer? It was only the
+other day that you told me how proud you were of it because it never
+got out of order."
+
+He turned his face toward her and replied slowly and with
+distinctness:
+
+"I won't lie to you about it, Patricia; that wouldn't be fair. I put
+the car out of commission, myself; or, rather, it was done by my
+order, because I wanted to take this ride alone with you."
+
+"You should have told me that before we started," she said to him.
+
+"Why? Would it have made any difference in your going?"
+
+"Most certainly it would."
+
+"Do you mean that you would have declined to come with me?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Chiefly, because I do not approve of plots and schemes, in any form.
+Had you asked me, frankly and openly, to drive to Cedarcrest with you,
+I should have felt no hesitation in accepting; as it is, you have
+given offense, Mr. Morton."
+
+"So much so that you won't even call me Dick?" he said, with a light
+laugh that was more forced than real.
+
+"Yes. You have not proven yourself quite the friend I hoped you would
+be. Friends don't plot against each other."
+
+"Shall I turn the car about and take you home?" he asked shortly, with
+tightening lips, angered unreasonably by the attitude she had
+assumed.
+
+"No; you may take me to our destination, Cedarcrest."
+
+They drove on in silence for a considerable time after that, and, as
+soon as they were in the country, on less-frequented roads, Morton
+increased the speed of his roadster until they were flying along the
+highway in utter and absolute defiance of the statutes. When they
+presently arrived at a turn within a few miles of their destination, a
+turn that would have taken them directly to the house they sought,
+Morton did not move the steering-wheel of the car, but kept on,
+straight ahead, and with ever increasing speed.
+
+Patricia knew the road very well indeed; she had been over it many
+times, and now she called out to her companion:
+
+"You have taken the wrong road. You should have gone around that last
+turn."
+
+Morton did not reply, or attempt to do so. He seemed not to have heard
+her.
+
+"Won't you please slow down a little?" she asked, after another
+moment; and the question came somewhat tremulously, because, strange
+to say, Patricia was just a little frightened by the circumstance that
+now confronted her.
+
+Again, Morton made no reply, nor did he comply with her request, and
+the car flew on and on, while Patricia tried to collect her thoughts,
+and to determine what were best for her to do toward restraining this
+head-strong companion of hers, who now seemed like a runaway colt that
+has taken the bit in its teeth, and has found the strength to defy
+opposition.
+
+"Richard Morton!" she exclaimed sharply, touching his arm,
+tentatively. "Why don't you answer me? What are you trying to do?
+Where are you taking me?"
+
+For just an instant, he flashed his eyes into hers; then he replied,
+grimly:
+
+"I am taking you for a good ride. We'll steer around to Cedarcrest by
+another road, presently."
+
+"But I wish to go there at once."
+
+"You can't."
+
+"Do you mean that you refuse to do as I request?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, shortly; and shut his jaws together with a snap
+like a nut-cracker.
+
+"You dare?"
+
+"I dare anything, Patricia, when I am brought to it. I would like to
+keep this machine going, at this pace, for hours and days and weeks,
+with you seated there beside me, and never thinking of a stop until I
+had you out yonder, in the wild country, where I was born and raised."
+
+Again, she reached out and touched him on the arm, for she was more
+frightened than she would have confessed to herself; but, before she
+could speak, he called to her in a tone that was almost savage in its
+intensity:
+
+"Be careful, please. Don't interfere with my steering, or you will
+ditch us."
+
+"I demand that you bring this car to a stop," she said coldly,
+controlling herself with an effort. "I insist that you turn it about,
+and go back. I am amazed at your conduct, Mr. Morton--amazed and hurt.
+You are offending me more deeply than you realize."
+
+Again, he did not answer her, and Patricia, now thoroughly alarmed,
+sought vainly for a means of bringing this impetuous and dare-devil
+young ranchman to his senses. She thought once, as they ascended a
+short hill, of leaping from the car to the ground, but the speed was
+too great for her to take such a risk. It even occurred to her to
+seize the steering-wheel, and to give it a sharp turn, thus wrecking
+the machine; but she shuddered with terror when she thought of the
+possibilities of such an act.
+
+Half a mile farther on, Morton turned the car from the main highway
+they had been following, and drove it at full speed along a narrow
+road, where the going was somewhat rough, and where both had to give
+their entire attention to retaining their seats.
+
+"Are you mad?" she cried out to him, at last. She did not remember
+ever to have been so frightened before. Actual fear was a new
+sensation with Patricia Langdon.
+
+Still, he did not answer her, and Patricia started to her feet,
+determined to make the leap to the ground, risking broken limbs, or
+worse, to escape from this situation, which was becoming more awful
+with every moment that passed. A sudden terror lest the man beside her
+had gone mad, seized her. But Morton grasped her with his left hand,
+and pulled her back into the seat.
+
+"Don't do that!" he ordered her, crisply.
+
+"Then, stop the car," she replied. "Oh, please, do stop the car. You
+have no idea how you frighten me. It is very dark, here, and this is a
+terrible road. Please stop, Mr. Morton."
+
+"Call me Dick, and I'll stop."
+
+"Please stop the car--Dick!"
+
+He closed the throttle, and applied the brake. In another moment the
+speedy roadster slowed down gradually, and came to a stop, just at the
+edge of a wood, where there was no house, or evidence of one, visible
+in any direction; and, then, Richard Morton and Patricia Langdon
+stared into each other's eyes through the gathering darkness, the
+former with set jaws and a defiant smile, and the latter with plainly
+revealed terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALMOST A TRAGEDY
+
+
+Morton's passion for the beautiful girl beside him had overcome his
+discretion to such an extent that he was hardly responsible for what
+he did. The exhilaration of this swift ride through the gathering
+darkness, the sense of nearness to the woman he believed he loved with
+every force in him, the certainty that they were alone, and that, for
+the moment at least, she was his sole possession, stirred up within
+the young ranchman's mind those elements of barbaric wildness which
+had grown and thrived to riotousness and recklessness during the life
+he had lived on the cattle-ranges of Montana, but which had been more
+or less dormant during his Eastern experiences. He forgot, for the
+moment, the Sunday-night scene wherein he had promised to be
+Patricia's friend, and had ceased to be her lover; he remembered only
+that she was there beside him, with her terror-stricken eyes peering
+into his beseechingly, and that she looked more beautiful than ever
+she had before. But, more than all else, the influence she had had
+over him was absent, and this was so because her haughty defiance and
+the proud spirit she had hitherto manifested in her attitude were
+gone. He had never seen her like this before, with the courage taken
+out of her. It was a new and unknown quality, alluringly feminine,
+wholly dependent, that possessed her now. She was frightened. And so
+Morton forgot himself. He permitted the innate wildness of his own
+nature to rule. He followed an impulse, as wild as it was unkind. He
+seized her in his arms, and crushed her against him, raining kisses
+upon her cheeks and brow, and upon even her lips. Patrica strove
+bravely to fight him off; she struggled mightily to prevent this
+greatest of all indignities. She cried out to him, beseeching that he
+release her, but he seemed not to hear, or, if he heard, he paid no
+heed, and, after a moment more of vain effort, Patricia's figure
+suddenly relaxed. She realized the utter futility of her effort to
+hold the man at bay, and she was suddenly inspired to practise a
+subterfuge upon him. She permitted herself to sink down helplessly,
+into his confining grasp, and she became, apparently, unconscious.
+
+It was Richard Morton's turn to be frightened, then. On the instant,
+he realized what he had done. The enormity of the offense he had
+committed against her rushed upon him like a blow in the face, and he
+released her, so that she sank back into the confining seat beside
+him.
+
+"Patricia! Patricia!" he called to her. He seized her hands, and
+rubbed them; he turned them over and struck the palms of them sharply,
+for he had somewhere heard that such action would bring a person out
+of a swoon; but, although he struggled anxiously, doing whatsoever he
+could to arouse her, and beseeching her in impassioned tones to speak
+to him, she seemed to remain unconscious, with her head lying back
+against the seat, her eyes closed, and her face paler than he had ever
+seen it before.
+
+The car had stopped before the edge of a wood. Just beyond it, there
+was a bridge over which they must have passed, had they continued on
+their way. Morton raised his head and looked despairingly about him.
+He saw the bridge, and experience taught him that there must be a
+stream of water beneath it. With quick decision, he sprang from the
+car and ran forward, believing that, if he could return with his cap
+filled with water, he might restore his companion to consciousness.
+Then, strange to relate, no sooner had he left the car than Patricia
+opened her eyes, straightened her figure, and with a quick leap
+changed her seat to the one beneath the steering-wheel. She
+accomplished this while Morton was speeding away from her, toward the
+water.
+
+She saw him arrive at the bridge and disappear down the bank, beneath
+it; and forthwith, she reversed the gear of the steamer, and opened
+the throttle. The engine responded instantly, and at the imminent risk
+of wrecking the car, she backed it, and turned it, reversing and going
+forward several times, before she quite succeeded in bringing it
+around, within the narrow space. But, at last, she did succeed, and,
+just at the moment when the car was headed in the opposite direction,
+Richard Morton reappeared. He saw, at a glance, what had happened
+during his short absence. He understood that Patricia had outwitted
+him, and he ran forward, shouting aloud as he did so.
+
+Patricia caught one glimpse of him over her shoulder, and saw that he
+carried in his hands the cap he had filled with water to use in
+restoring her to consciousness--a consciousness she had not for a
+moment lost, which now was so alert and manifest in effecting her
+escape.
+
+She paid no heed to his shouts. She opened the throttle wider and
+wider, and the steam roadster darted away through the darkness, with
+Patricia Langdon under the wheel, leaving Richard Morton, cap in
+hand, standing in the middle of the highway, gazing after her,
+speechless with amazement and more than ever in love with the
+courageous young woman who could dare, and do, so much.
+
+Patricia Langdon was thoroughly capable of operating any automobile,
+as was demonstrated by this somewhat startling climax to the
+unpleasant scene through which she had just passed. Beneath her
+customary repose of manner, her outward self-restraint and her
+dignified if somewhat haughty manner, there was a spirit of wildness,
+which, for years, had found no expression, till now. But, the moment
+she turned the car about and succeeded in heading it in the opposite
+direction, the instant she realized that she was mistress of the
+situation, which, so short a time before, had been replete with
+unknown terrors, she experienced all that sense of exhilaration which
+the winner of any battle must feel, when it is brought to a successful
+issue. She heard herself laugh aloud, defiantly and with a touch of
+glee, although it did not seem to her as if it were Patricia Langdon
+who laughed; it was, perhaps, some hitherto undiscoverable spirit of
+recklessness within her, which called forth that expression of defiant
+joy, which Richard Morton could not fail to hear.
+
+The night was dark, by now, and there were only the stars to light the
+narrow way along which Patricia was compelled to guide the flying car;
+but she thought nothing of this, for she could dimly discern the
+outlines of the roadway before her, and she believed she could follow
+it to the main highway, without accident. Morton had not lighted his
+lamps. There had been no opportunity to do so. But the road was an
+unfrequented one; and Patricia, as she fled away from Morton, through
+the darkness, thought only of making her escape, not at all of the
+dangers she might encounter while doing so.
+
+Several times, she caught herself laughing softly at the recollection
+of how she had triumphed over the daring young ranchman, and at the
+predicament in which she had left him, standing there near the bridge,
+in a locality that was entirely unknown to him, from which he must
+have some difficulty in finding his way to a place where he could
+secure another conveyance. He might know what it meant to be left
+horseless on the ranges of the West, but this would be a new and a
+strange--perhaps a wholesome--experience for him.
+
+Presently, she came to the turn of the road that would bring her upon
+the main highway; and here she stopped the car, and got down from it,
+long enough to light the lamps. This done, she went on again, as
+swiftly as she dared, yet not too rapidly, because now she felt that
+she was as free as the air singing past her. The highway she traversed
+was almost as familiar to her as the streets of New York City.
+
+The exhilaration she had experienced when she triumphed over Richard
+Morton and escaped from him, increased rather than diminished as she
+sped onward, and when, almost an hour later, she guided the car
+between the huge gate-posts which admitted it to the grounds of
+Cedarcrest, and followed the winding driveway toward the entrance to
+the stone mansion, she was altogether a different Patricia Langdon
+from the one who had started out, in company with the young Westerner,
+shortly after five o'clock that afternoon.
+
+She brought the car to a stop under the _porte-cochere_, and announced
+her arrival by several loud blasts of the automobile-horn; a moment
+later, the doors were thrown open, and Sally Gardner rushed out to
+receive her.
+
+"I am afraid I am late, Sally," Patricia called out, in a voice that
+was wholly unlike her usual calm tones. "Will you call someone to care
+for the car?" Without waiting for a reply, she sprang from beneath
+the wheel, and with a light laugh returned the impetuous embrace with
+which the young matron greeted her.
+
+In some mysterious manner, word had already been passed to the guests
+that Patricia Langdon had arrived in Richard Morton's car, but alone;
+and so, by the time Patricia had released herself from Sally's
+clinging arms, Roderick Duncan, followed by the others of the party,
+appeared in the open doorway. Duncan came forward swiftly, but his
+host forestalled him in putting the question he would have asked.
+
+"I say, Patricia!" Jack Gardner called out. "What have you done with
+Morton? Where is Dick?"
+
+"Really, Jack, I don't know," replied Patricia, standing quite still,
+with her right arm around Sally's shoulders, and lifting her head like
+a thoroughbred filly. Mrs. Gardner's left arm still clung around her
+waist. "Mr. Morton is back there, somewhere, on the road. If he
+doesn't change his plans, he should arrive here, presently." She
+laughed, as she replied to the question, perceiving, at the moment,
+only the humorous side of it. She was still under the influence of
+that swift ride alone; still delighted by the thought of the
+predicament in which she had left her escort, because of his
+outrageous conduct toward her.
+
+"Did you meet with an accident? Has anything happened to Mr. Morton?"
+inquired Agnes Houston.
+
+Patricia shrugged her shoulders, and, again laughing softly, withdrew
+from Sally's embrace and began to ascend the steps. One of the
+Cedarcrest servants appeared at that moment, to take the car around to
+the garage; and for some reason each member of the party stepped
+aside, one way or another, so that Miss Langdon was the one who led
+the way into the house, the others falling in behind her, and
+following. The circumstance of her arrival in such a manner and the
+suggestion of mystery conveyed in Patricia's answer to Jack Gardner's
+question convinced all that something had happened which needed an
+explanation. Patricia's demeanor was so different from her usual
+half-haughty bearing, that it was, in a way, a revelation to them all.
+Each one there had his or her own conception of the occasion, and
+probably no two opinions were the same; but at least they were all
+agreed on one point: that there had been a scene somewhere, and that
+Richard Morton had got the worst of it.
+
+Patricia led the way to the dining-room. Her head was high, her eyes
+were sparkling. Duncan hastened to her side, but she took no notice of
+his nearness. As she entered the room, she called out:
+
+"Do order some dinner served to me, Sally. I am as hungry as the
+proverbial bear. You see, I had anticipated a hearty dinner with you,
+and the long ride I have had--particularly that part of it which I
+have taken alone--has whetted my appetite."
+
+Sally nodded toward the butler, and waved him away, knowing that he
+had overheard Patricia's words, and that she would speedily be served;
+the others of the party resumed their former seats around the table,
+and the practical Sally turned and faced Patricia, again, her eyes
+flashing some of the indignation she felt because of her guest's
+evident reluctance to explain the strange circumstance of her arrival
+at Cedarcrest alone.
+
+"Patricia Langdon," she said, "I think you might tell us what has
+happened. We are all on edge with expectancy. Where is Dick Morton?"
+
+"Oh, he is somewhere back there on the highway, walking toward
+Cedarcrest, I suppose," replied Patricia smilingly, dropping into a
+chair beside the table.
+
+"Did you start out from New York together?" persisted Sally.
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Won't you please tell us what has happened?"
+
+Patricia's lips parted, while she hesitated for a reply. She had no
+desire to tell these people of the incidents that had actually
+occurred. Many another, in her position, would have revealed at once
+the whole truth, and would have made these others acquainted with the
+conduct of Richard Morton, during that wild ride she had been forced
+to take with him through the gathering gloom. But Patricia was not
+that kind. She was quite conscious of the strangeness of her arrival
+at Cedarcrest alone, in Morton's car, and of the wrong constructions
+which might be given to the incident. She knew that every man who was
+present in the room, would bitterly resent the indignities Morton had
+put upon her, if she should relate the facts. But she believed that
+Morton had been sufficiently punished. She even doubted if he would
+appear there, at all, now; and so, instead of replying to Sally's
+repeated request, she shrugged her shoulders, and responded:
+
+"I think I'll leave the explanation to Mr. Morton, when he arrives."
+
+Food was placed before her at that moment and she transferred her
+attention to it; while her friends, perceiving that she was not
+inclined to take them into her confidence, started other subjects of
+conversation, although the mind of each one of them was still intent
+upon what might have happened during Patricia's journey from New York
+in the company of Richard Morton.
+
+Roderick Duncan had not resumed his seat at the table; he had remained
+in the background, and had maintained an utter silence. But his
+thoughts had been busy, indeed. He knew and understood Patricia,
+better than these others did--with the possible exception of Beatrice,
+who also was silent. But, now, he passed around the table until he
+stood behind Patricia's chair. Then, he dropped down upon a vacant one
+that was beside her, and, resting one elbow on the table, peered
+inquiringly into the girl's flushed face, more beautiful than ever in
+her excitement. That strange feeling of exhilaration was still upon
+her, and there was undoubted triumph and self-satisfaction depicted in
+her eyes and demeanor.
+
+"What happened, Patricia?" he asked her, in a low tone, which the
+others could not hear.
+
+"Nothing has happened that need concern you at all," she replied to
+him, coldly.
+
+"But something must have happened, or you--"
+
+"If something did happen," she interrupted him, "rest assured that I
+shall tell you nothing more about it, at the present time. If Mr.
+Morton chooses to explain, when he arrives, that is his affair, and
+not mine. I am here, and I am unharmed. Somewhere, back there on the
+road my escort is probably walking toward Cedarcrest; or, perhaps,
+away from it. You will have to be satisfied with that explanation,
+until he arrives--if he does arrive." She spoke with such finality
+that Duncan changed the character of his questioning.
+
+"I have not seen you, Patricia, since the receipt of your letter,
+fixing our wedding-day for next Monday," he persisted. "It now occurs
+to me that, in the light of the contents of your letter, I have a
+right to ask you for an explanation of the incidents of to-night."
+
+Patricia turned her eyes for an instant upon him, and then withdrew
+them, while she said, coldly:
+
+"If you have taken time to read carefully the stipulations in the
+contract you signed yesterday morning, at Mr. Melvin's office, you
+will understand why I deny your right to do so."
+
+"Has Morton affronted you in any way?"
+
+"Ask him. I have no doubt that he will answer you."
+
+"Patricia, are you going to persist in this attitude toward me, even
+after we are married?" Duncan inquired, anxiously. But, instead of
+replying, she raised her head in a listening attitude, and announced
+to all who were present:
+
+"I hear the horn of an approaching automobile. Perhaps, Mr. Morton has
+caught a ride."
+
+"Answer me, Patricia," Duncan insisted.
+
+"My conduct will be the answer to your question," she said, with her
+face averted.
+
+Jack Gardner hurriedly left the room, accompanied by Sally. A moment
+later, when the automobile horn sounded nearer, Duncan left his place
+beside Patricia, and followed. Melvin, the lawyer, also went out, and
+then one by one the others, until Patricia was the only guest who
+remained at the table. She continued to occupy herself with the food
+that had been placed before her, while the flush on her cheeks
+deepened, her eyes shone with added brightness, and she smiled as if
+she were rather pleased than otherwise by the predicament in which
+Morton would find himself, when he should be closely questioned by
+Jack and Sally Gardner and the guests as well, whose curiosity, she
+knew, would now far exceed their discretion.
+
+It never once occurred to her that Dick Morton, having had time to
+think over the occurrences of the afternoon and evening, and to
+realize the enormity of the offense he had committed, would tell the
+truth about it. Men within her knowledge, who belonged to the society
+with which she was familiar, would temporize, under such
+circumstances, would seek, by diplomatic speech to shield the woman in
+the case from the comment that must follow a revelation, would make
+use of well-chosen words to escape responsibility for what had
+occurred; would practise a studied reserve until certain knowledge
+could be obtained of what the woman might have said, upon her arrival.
+
+The doors had been left open, and Patricia was conscious of loud tones
+proceeding from the veranda at the front of the house; of masculine
+voices raised in anger; and then she heard the sound of a blow,
+followed instantly by a heavy fall. Almost at the same instant, the
+sharp crack of a pistol smote upon the air, for an instant stiffening
+her with horror. She started to her feet in terror, her face gone
+white, her eyes dilated with apprehension. Then, she somehow stumbled
+to her feet, and stood there, trembling in every nerve, until she
+could gather strength to run forward.
+
+A horrified and silent group of persons surrounded the principals in
+the scene that had just occurred, for there had not yet been time for
+any of them to recover from the paralyzing effect of what had
+happened.
+
+Richard Morton was on the floor of the veranda where he had raised
+himself upon one elbow, and he still held in his right hand the small
+revolver from which the shot that Patricia had overheard, had come.
+Roderick Duncan was standing a few feet away, and he was holding in
+his arms the limp form of Beatrice Brunswick, whose head had fallen
+backward, as if she were unconscious, or dead. Just at the instant
+when Patricia caught a view of this strange tableau, the other
+spectators threw off the momentary lethargy that had overpowered them,
+and rushed forward toward the principal actors in the scene that had
+passed, each shouting a different exclamation, but all alike in their
+expressions of horror and loathing for the man who was down--Richard
+Morton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE AUTOMOBILE WRECK
+
+
+Thirty minutes after the happening of the incidents just related, a
+remarkable scene took place in Jack Gardner's smoking-room. There were
+present only the men of Sally's impromptu week-end party.
+
+If the friends whom Jack Gardner had made since his sojourn in the
+East could have seen him at that moment, they would not have
+recognized in the coldly stern, keen-eyed copper magnate, the
+happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care Jack, of their acquaintance. The almost
+tragic occurrences of the evening had brought the real Jack Gardner to
+the surface, and he was for the moment again the dauntless young miner
+who had fought his way upward to the position he now held, by sheer
+force of character; for it requires a whole man to lift himself from
+the pick and shovel, and the drill and fuse, to the millionaire
+mine-owner and the person of prominence in the world such as he had
+become. He stood beside the small table at one end of the room;
+Morton occupied the center of it, facing him. Grouped around them, in
+various attitudes, were the others of that strange gathering. Duncan
+leaned idly against the mantel, and smoked his cigar with
+deliberation, although his gray eyes were coldly fierce in their
+expression, and his half-smile of utter contempt for the man who
+occupied the center of the scene rendered his face less handsome and
+attractive than usual. Malcolm Melvin was alert and attentive, from
+the end of the room opposite Gardner, and the other gentlemen of the
+party occupied chairs conveniently at hand.
+
+It would be hard to define Richard Morton's attitude from any outward
+expression he manifested concerning it. He stood with folded arms,
+tall and straight, facing unflinchingly the accusing eyes of his
+life-long friend, Jack Gardner. His lips were shut tightly together,
+and he seemed like one who awaits stoically a verdict that is
+inevitable.
+
+"Morton," said Gardner, speaking coldly and with studied deliberation,
+"you have been a life-long friend of mine, and, until to-night, I have
+looked upon you almost as a brother; but, to-night, by your own
+confession and by your acts which have followed upon that confession,
+you have destroyed every atom of the friendship I have felt for you.
+You have made me wish that I had never known you. You have outraged
+every sense of propriety, and every feeling of manhood that I thought
+you possessed. Fortunately for us all, no one is much the worse for
+your scoundrelism; I can call it by no other word. You have shown
+yourself to be, at heart, an unspeakable scoundrel, as undeserving of
+consideration as a coyote of the plains."
+
+Morton's face went white as death at these words, and his eyes blazed
+with the fury of a wild animal that is being whipped while it is
+chained down so that it cannot show resentment. He did not speak; he
+made no effort to interrupt. Gardner continued:
+
+"When Miss Langdon arrived here alone, in your roadster, she gave us
+no explanation whatever of what had happened, and, while we believed
+that some unpleasant incident must have occurred, we did not press her
+for the story of it. Then, you came, and without mincing your words
+you told the whole brutal truth; and you uttered it with a spirit of
+brutality and bravado that would be unbelievable under any other
+circumstances. And when, in your own self-abasement for what you had
+done, you confessed to the acts of which you were guilty toward Miss
+Langdon, you received, at Duncan's hands, the blow you so thoroughly
+merited; I am frank to say to you that, if he had held his hand one
+instant longer, it would have been my fist, instead of his, that
+floored you. But that is not all. You have been a gun-fighter for so
+many years, out there in your own wild country, that, before you were
+fairly down after you received the blow, you must needs pull your
+artillery, and use it. Do you realize, I wonder, how near to
+committing a murder you have been, to-night? If Miss Brunswick had not
+seen your act, if she had not started forward and thrown herself
+between your weapon and its intended victim, thus frightening you so
+that you sought at the last instant to withhold your fire, I tremble
+for what the consequences might have been. As it happened, no one has
+been harmed. You deflected your aim just in time to avoid a tragedy;
+but it is not your fault that somebody does not carry a serious wound
+as the consequence of your brutality. Were it not for Miss Brunswick's
+act, there would be a dead man at this feast, and you would be his
+murderer. But even that, horrible as it might have been, is less a
+crime than the other one you have confessed. You, reared in an
+atmosphere where all men infinitely respect woman-kind, deliberately
+outrage every finer feeling of the one woman you have professed to
+love. That, Richard Morton, is very nearly all that I have to say to
+you. I have asked these gentlemen to come into the room, and to be
+present during this scene, in order that we may all bind ourselves to
+secrecy concerning what has happened to-night. I can assure you that
+nothing of this affair will leak out to others. I have quite finished
+now. One of the servants will bring your roadster around to the door.
+Our acquaintance ends here."
+
+He turned and pressed a button in the wall behind him, and a moment
+later the door opened; but it was Beatrice Brunswick who stood upon
+the threshold, and not the servant who had been summoned.
+
+She hesitated an instant, then came forward swiftly, until she stood
+beside Morton, facing his accusers. With one swift glance, she took in
+the scene by which she was surrounded, and with a woman's intuition
+understood it. Turning partly around, she permitted one hand to rest
+lightly upon Morton's arm, and she said to him, ignoring the others:
+
+"It is really too bad, Mr. Morton. I know that you did not mean it;
+and I am unharmed. See: the bullet did not touch me at all. It only
+frightened me. I am sure that you were over-wrought by all that had
+happened, and I'll forgive you, even if the others do not. I am sure,
+too, that Patricia will forgive you, if you ask her. Come with me; I
+will take you to her."
+
+She tightened her grasp upon his arm and sought to draw him toward the
+door, but Jack Gardner interrupted, quickly and sharply.
+
+"Stop Beatrice!" he said. "Mr. Morton is about to take his departure.
+This is an occasion for men to deal with. Morton cannot see Miss
+Langdon again unless she seeks him, and that I don't think she will
+do."
+
+"I'll get her; I'll bring her here!" exclaimed Beatrice, starting
+toward the door alone; but this time it was Morton's voice that
+arrested her--the first time he had spoken since he entered the room.
+
+"Please, wait, Miss Brunswick," he said, and the quiet calmness of his
+tone was a surprise to everyone present. It belied the expression of
+his eyes and of his set jaws. "I thank you most heartily for what you
+have said, and for what you would do now. Miss Langdon won't forgive
+me, nor, indeed, do I think she ought to do so. I have not attempted
+to make any explanation of my conduct to these gentlemen, but to you I
+will say this: I realize the enormity of it, thoroughly, and, while I
+can find no excuse for what I have done, I can offer the one
+explanation, that I was, for the moment, gone mad--locoed, we call
+it, in the West. If Miss Langdon will receive any message from me at
+all, tell her that I am sorry."
+
+He bowed to her with a dignity that belied his training, and, stepping
+past her, opened the door, holding it so until she had passed from the
+room. Then, he turned toward the others.
+
+"I am quite ready to go now," he said. "Gardner, if you will have my
+car brought around, I shall not trouble you further."
+
+With another slight inclination of his head, he passed out of the room
+and along the hall to the front door, where he paused at the top of
+the steps, waiting till his car should be brought to him; and no one
+attempted to follow, or say another word to him.
+
+Standing alone at the top of the steps, while he waited for the car,
+Morton was presently conscious of a slight movement near him, and he
+turned quickly. Patricia Langdon slowly arose from one of the veranda
+chairs, and approached him. She came quite close to him, and stopped.
+For a moment, both were silent; he, with hard, unrelenting eyes, which
+nevertheless expressed the exquisite pain he felt; she, with
+tear-dimmed vision, in which pity, regret, sympathy and real liking
+strove for dominant expression.
+
+"I couldn't let you go, Mr. Morton, without a few more words with you,
+and I have purposely waited here, because I thought it likely you
+would come from the house alone."
+
+"Thank you," he replied, not knowing what else to say.
+
+"I am so sorry for it all, Mr. Morton; and I cannot help wondering if
+I am to blame, in any measure. I wanted you to know that I freely
+forgive you for whatever offense you have committed against me. I
+think that is all. Good-night."
+
+She was turning away, but he called to her, with infinite pain in his
+voice:
+
+"Wait; please, wait," he said. "Give me just another moment, I beseech
+you."
+
+She turned to face him again.
+
+"I have been a madman to-night, Miss Langdon, and I know it," he told
+her rapidly. "There is no excuse for the acts I have committed; there
+can be no palliation for them. I would not have dared to ask for your
+forgiveness; I can only say that I am sorry. It was not I, but a
+madman, who for a moment possessed me, who conducted himself so vilely
+toward you. I shall go back to my ranch again. My only prayer to you
+is, that you will forget me, utterly."
+
+Patricia came a step nearer to him, reaching out her hand,
+tentatively, and said, in her softest tone, while tears moistened her
+eyes:
+
+"Good-bye, and God bless you."
+
+But Morton, ignoring her extended hand, cleared the steps of the
+veranda at one leap, and disappeared in the darkness, toward the
+garage.
+
+Five minutes later, while Patricia yet remained at the top of the
+steps where Morton had left her, the steam-roadster that had been so
+closely related to her experiences of the night rushed past the house
+and disappeared along the winding roadway toward the Cedarcrest gate.
+And she remained there, in a listening attitude, as long as she could
+hear the droning murmur of its mechanism. When that died away in the
+distance, she sighed, and turned to reenter the house; but it was only
+to find that she was no longer alone. Roderick Duncan appeared in the
+doorway, and came through the entrance, to meet her.
+
+"Was it Morton's car that just went past the door?" he asked her.
+
+"Yes," she replied, shrinking away from him.
+
+"Did you see him, and talk with him, before he went away?" he asked,
+partly reaching out one hand, but instantly withdrawing it.
+
+"Yes," she answered again, retreating still farther from him.
+
+"That was like you, Patricia. I am rather sorry for the poor chap,
+despite what he did to you, to-night. You see, I know what it means,
+to be so madly in love with you that it is barely possible for one to
+stand or sit beside you, without crushing you in one's arms. Oh,
+Patricia, won't you be kind to me? Won't you forgive me, too, as I
+know, just now, you forgave that poor chap? Surely, my offense was not
+so great as his."
+
+"It has been infinitely greater," she told him, coldly; and, with head
+erect, but with averted face, she went past him, through the doorway.
+
+Down the highway, half-way between Cedarcrest and the city, was a
+place where building operations were in progress; where huge rocks had
+been blasted out to make room for intended improvements; where
+derricks and stone-crushers and other machinery were idly waiting the
+dawn of another day, when the workmen would arrive and resume their
+several occupations.
+
+Richard Morton, dashing along this highway with ever-increasing speed,
+utilizing the full power of his racing roadster, remembered that place
+along the highway. With cold, set face and protruding chin, he set
+his jaws sharply together, and wondered why his flying car would go no
+faster. He did not realize that he was covering more than a mile with
+every minute of time. The pace seemed slow to him, for he had suddenly
+determined what he would do. He had thought of a plan to expiate his
+follies of the night.
+
+At last, almost directly beneath an arc-light along the highway, he
+saw, dimly, the spot where the stone was being quarried, and, as he
+recognized it, he laughed aloud with a sort of desperate joy, because
+of the plunge he intended to take. He threw the throttle wide open,
+and after another moment he saw the derrick loom before him. With
+careful deliberation, he turned the steering-wheel.
+
+There was a loud crash in the darkness; the roadster leaped into the
+air like a live thing, and turned over, end for end, twice. Then, it
+seemed to shoot high into the air, and fell again, in a confused heap
+of wreckage, among the broken stones of the quarry. Morton was thrown
+from it, like the projectile from a catapult, and he came down in a
+crumpled heap, somewhere among that mass of rocks; and after that
+there was silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CROSS-PURPOSES AT CEDARCREST
+
+
+At Cedarcrest, the night was still young. Patricia, and then Morton,
+had arrived at the country home of the Gardners while the several
+guests were still at table, and the scenes which followed their coming
+had passed with such stunning rapidity that every one of the party was
+more or less affected by them, each one in his or her separate manner.
+The men of the party were silent and preoccupied. The scene enacted
+just before the departure of Morton weighed more or less heavily upon
+them, and while each one felt that the young ranchman had "got what
+was coming to him," there was not one among them who did not
+experience a thrill of sympathy for the young fellow, who had been so
+well liked by the new acquaintances he had made in the East.
+
+The two gentlemen strangers, who had brought Morton to the house in
+their car, were the first to take their departure, after Morton's
+dramatic exit, although they remained long enough to imbibe a
+whisky-and-soda, and to hear what Jack Gardner still had to say. That
+was not so very much, but, like all he had said that night, it was
+straight to the point.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said to them, standing with his glass in hand and
+addressing all, impersonally, "what I have to say now, is said to all,
+alike. Two of you are strangers to me; the others are more or less
+intimately my friends. It is my particular wish that we should all
+bind ourselves to secrecy, concerning what has happened at Cedarcrest,
+and in this vicinity, to-night. It happens that no real harm has been
+done; no one has been injured; amends have been made to Miss Langdon,
+so far as it has been possible to make them, and I am quite sure of
+her desire never to hear the subject mentioned again."
+
+There was a generally affirmative nodding of heads about him as he
+spoke, and after an instant, he continued:
+
+"In what has occurred in this room, I have had to assume a triple
+obligation: that of host, that of self-appointed champion of the young
+woman who received the affront from another of my guests, and that of
+a life-long acquaintance with the man whom I was compelled, by
+circumstances, to expel from my house. The last was the most
+difficult of all to fill. There is not one of you who could not
+readily have assumed two of the responsibilities; the last one I have
+named has been distinctly unpleasant. I have known and liked Dick
+Morton, since we were boys. We hail from the same state, and from a
+locality there where we were near neighbors, during our youth. He is
+somewhat younger than I--about two years, I think--and, until
+to-night, I have never known him to be otherwise than a brave and
+chivalrous fellow, ready to fight at the drop of the hat. We must
+agree that no matter what his conduct was, prior to the scene in this
+room, he conducted himself, while here, in a manner that was beyond
+reproach. He realized the enormity of the outrage he had committed,
+and he took his medicine, I think, as a fighter should. He is gone
+now, and I doubt if any of us see him again. That is all, I think,
+that need be said." It was then that Roderick Duncan silently put
+aside his glass, and went out of the room, unnoticed by the others. He
+knew that a general discussion of the incidents of the evening would
+follow, and he had no wish to take part in it. He anticipated that the
+two gentlemen who had brought Morton to the house, would be asked to
+remain, and that he would therefore see them again, later on, and so
+he took the opportunity that was afforded him to escape unseen and
+unnoticed.
+
+The whole affair weighed heavily upon him. He realized much better
+than Patricia did that she alone was to blame for it all; and the fear
+lest the responsibility of it should come home to her drove him to
+seek her at once, even before Morton had had time to get beyond the
+gates of Cedarcrest. Patricia was, of course, unaware of the scene
+that had taken place at Duncan's rooms just before the informal
+invitations to Cedarcrest were issued, but Duncan recalled that
+circumstance now, with a deeper understanding of all that had happened
+as a sequel to it; and he believed that the time was ripe for a better
+understanding between himself and Patricia. Therefore, he left the
+room to seek her.
+
+Outside the door, he came to a pause, in doubt which direction to
+take. From where he stood, he could see into a part of the
+dining-room, and instinct told him that it was deserted, save by the
+butler, who was yet at his post. He approached the music-room, and,
+screened by a Japanese curtain that hung across the entrance, peered
+inside. Beatrice and Sally were there, with the other ladies of the
+party, but Patricia was nowhere to be seen. It occurred to him that
+she might have sought solitude in some other part of the great house,
+and he had turned away, striving to think where he might find her,
+when the whirr of an automobile engine came to him through an open
+window from the rear of the building.
+
+He guessed, at once, that it would be Morton's roadster, ready to take
+him away, and, impelled by a sudden spasm of pity for the man who was
+now tabooed he hurried toward the front entrance--and fate willed it
+that he should arrive at the threshold just at the very instant when
+Patricia took that impulsive step nearer to Morton, reaching her arms
+out toward him, as she did so, and Duncan plainly heard the words she
+uttered, "Good bye, Dick; and God bless you." He had heard no word
+which preceded them; he had seen nothing till that instant; but he did
+see the tears in Patricia's eyes, and hear the pathos in her voice
+when she spoke those last words to the man who was supposed to have
+offended her past forgiveness: and he saw Morton leap into the roadway
+and start toward the garage to meet his machine.
+
+Duncan waited a moment before he advanced farther; watching Patricia
+from his sheltered place near the door. Then, he stepped forward to
+meet the young woman to whom he was betrothed--stepped forward to
+plead with her once more, and to be rebuffed in the manner we have
+seen.
+
+When she had left him, he dropped upon one of the veranda chairs, and
+with his head upon his hand gave himself up to bitter thought--bitter,
+because of his utter inadequacy to cope with the conditions by which
+he was surrounded.
+
+Duncan was aroused, presently, by the approach of Beatrice and Sally.
+They came through the door with their arms encircling each other's
+waist, and walked forward together until they stood at the edge of the
+top step, under the _porte cochere_.
+
+"It's a shame," Beatrice was saying, impulsively. "I feel that the
+whole thing is more or less my fault, Sally, and--" a warning cough
+from Duncan told them that they were not alone; and also, at that
+moment, the other guests trooped out upon the broad veranda; all save
+Patricia, who did not appear.
+
+The two gentlemen who had brought Morton to the house after he was
+deserted by Patricia on the road, declined to remain, pleading other
+engagements, and soon their car whirred itself away down the road, and
+was gone. Nesbit Farnham contrived to secure a _solitude-a-deux_ with
+Beatrice, who, however, turned an indifferent shoulder to his eager
+words; Agnes and Frances Houston strolled into obscurity with the two
+"extras" who had been asked there to fill out Sally's original plan;
+Sally disappeared into the house, evidently in search of Patricia;
+Jack Gardner and the lawyer lighted cigars and betook themselves to an
+"S" chair at a far corner of the veranda. Duncan remained where he
+was, alone, screened from view by overhanging vines, as desolate in
+spirit as any man can be, who is suddenly brought face to face with an
+unpleasant truth.
+
+Nothing had mattered much, in a comparative sense, until this last
+scene with Patricia. He had been convinced all along, until now, that
+Patricia loved him and that her strange conduct during the last
+upheaval in their relations had been the result of wounded pride,
+only; it had not even remotely occurred to him that she did not love
+him. They had been together all their lives; he had never known a time
+when he did not love her; he believed that there had never been a
+time, since their childhood, when she did not expect some day to
+become his wife.
+
+But that short scene he had witnessed on the veranda, when Patricia
+bade Morton good-bye, had changed all this. He doubted the correctness
+of his previous convictions. He saw another and an entirely different
+explanation for Patricia's conduct toward him, for her attitude in the
+matter of the engagement contract which Melvin had been compelled to
+draw, and which he, himself, had likewise been compelled to sign. He
+read in that last scene between the ranchman and Patricia a fondness
+on her part for the young cattle-king which had been forced into the
+"open" of her own convictions, by the principal episode of the
+evening. He saw the utter wreck of his own hopes, of his entire scheme
+of life.
+
+While he sat there in the shadow of the vine, unseen and unseeing, he
+made still another discovery, a grim one, which brought with it a
+better realization of Morton's incentives, than anything else could
+have done. He realized that he hated Morton; hated him wholly and
+absolutely--hated him suddenly and vehemently. He knew, then, why
+Morton had attempted to kill him, for, if Morton had made a
+reappearance at that moment, Roderick Duncan would have taken the
+initiative, and would have been the one to do the killing.
+
+Yet, he made no move. If you had been watching him from beyond the
+screen of vines, no indication of what was passing in his thoughts
+would have been noticeable. The fierce hatred he so suddenly
+experienced was not made manifest by any act or expression, although
+it was none the less pronounced, for all that. And, strangely enough,
+it did not lead him to any greater consideration of Morton, or of his
+acts; rather the contrary.
+
+Once, while he was preoccupied in this manner, he was again conscious
+of the distant whirr of an automobile engine, but he gave it no
+thought, till afterward. He did notice that Jack Gardner also heard
+it, and took his cigar from his mouth while he listened to it; but at
+once resumed his conversation with the lawyer. Soon afterward,
+Roderick left his chair under the vine, and passed inside the house.
+
+"Hello, Rod," Jack called after him. "I didn't know you were there.
+Won't you join Melvin and me, in our cozy corner?" to which Duncan
+called back some casual reply, and passed on.
+
+He had made up his mind that he would seek out Patricia, at once, and
+tell her of the discovery he had just made; that he had been a fool
+not to realize before, that Morton was the man of her choice, and that
+she could have the fellow if she wanted him; that he would not only
+release her from the tentative engagement, but that he would repudiate
+the contract entirely, and that, as soon as he could secure his own
+copy of it from the strong-box where he had put it, he would tear it
+into ten thousand pieces; that he would have no more of her, on any
+conditions, and that--oh, well, he thought of many bitter and biting
+things that he would say to her the moment he should find
+her--possibly in tears because of Morton's enforced departure from
+Cedarcrest, or in the act of weeping out the truth on Sally Gardner's
+shoulder. He thought he understood the situation now, as he had not
+seen it before.
+
+Duncan searched in the drawing-room, the music-room, the dining-room;
+he explored the snuggery, the library, and even Jack's own particular
+den; he sought the side piazzas; he went outside among the trees to
+certain hidden nooks he knew. But Patricia was nowhere to be
+discovered. Neither had he been able to see Sally anywhere about, and
+the conviction became stronger upon him that the two were somewhere
+together, and that Patricia, her pride forgotten, was keeping the
+young hostess with her while she told of the terrible predicament in
+which she now found herself to be enmeshed; for it would be a most
+stupendous predicament for Patricia to face--the realization that she
+was in love with Morton, in spite of the contract in writing she had
+forced Roderick Duncan to sign with her.
+
+Returning to the house, he found the butler, and was about to send him
+in search of his mistress, when he discovered Sally, descending the
+stairway.
+
+"Where is Patricia?" Each asked the question simultaneously, so that
+the words were pronounced exactly together; and yet neither one
+smiled. Each question was a reply to its mate.
+
+"I have been searching everywhere for her," said Duncan.
+
+"So have I," replied Sally. "Where can she be?"
+
+"I haven't an idea. Isn't she up-stairs?"
+
+"No. Couldn't you find her, outside?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I haven't seen her since--since that dreadful scene on the veranda,"
+said Sally. "Have you seen her, Roderick?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When? Where?"
+
+"I saw her taking leave of Morton, when he went away," he replied,
+with such bitterness that Sally stared at him; but, wisely, she made
+no comment; nor did she attempt to stay him when he turned abruptly
+away from her, and walked rapidly toward one of the side entrances.
+But he stopped and turned, before he left the room.
+
+"Sally," he said, "I am going to ask you to excuse me. I want to get
+away. I would rather not explain to the others--I would rather not
+attempt to explain to you. But I want to go. You will excuse me? and
+if those who remain should happen to miss me, will you make whatever
+excuse seems necessary?"
+
+"None will be necessary, Roderick. Oh, you men! You make me tired! You
+do, really! It is inconceivable why you should all fall hopelessly in
+love with one woman, and utterly ignore the others who are--" She
+stopped suddenly. She had been on the point of saying too much, and
+she did not wish to utter words she would be sorry for, afterward.
+Duncan did not attempt any reply, and was turning away a second time,
+when she called after him: "If you would only be really sensible,
+and--"
+
+"And what, Sally?" he asked her, when she again hesitated.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"But you were about to make a suggestion. What was it?"
+
+"If it was anything at all, it was that you chase yourself out there
+among the trees, find Beatrice and Nesbit Farnum, and take her away
+from him," exclaimed this impetuous young woman, who found delight in
+expressing herself in the slang of the day. Duncan shrugged his
+shoulders, and uttered the one word:
+
+"Why?"
+
+But Sally did not vouchsafe any reply at all, to the question. She
+tossed her head, and darted along the wide hall toward a rear door.
+
+Duncan gazed after her for a moment, and then, with another shrug of
+his shoulders, he passed on out of the house, and made his way swiftly
+toward the stables and the garage, for he was determined to get out
+his car and to return to the city, forthwith.
+
+His surprise was great, when, on arriving at the door of the garage,
+he found that Sally had preceded him, and, as he drew near, she turned
+a white, scared face toward him, exclaiming:
+
+"Oh, Roderick! What do you think? Patricia has gone."
+
+"Gone!" he echoed. "Gone where? Gone, when? What do you mean, Sally?"
+
+"She has gone. She has taken one of Jack's cars, and gone home."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No. She took Patrick with her, to drive the car. They left here half
+an hour ago, I am told. Why do you suppose she did such a thing,
+without consulting me, Roderick? Why? Why?"
+
+"Why?" he echoed her question a second time. Then, he laughed, and it
+was not a pleasant laugh to hear. All the bitterness of those moments
+under the vine on the veranda was voiced in that laugh. "It isn't a
+difficult question to answer, Sally. She has followed Morton--that is
+why;" and, while Mrs. Gardner stared at him, uncomprehendingly, he
+turned to one of the stablemen who was near, and who had been Sally's
+informant about the movements of Patricia, and called out:
+
+"Tell my man to fetch my car to me, here. I shall go, at once, Sally."
+His car was already moving toward him, and, as it stopped and he put
+one foot upon the step, Sally replied:
+
+"I'll say that you and Patricia went away together. It will sound
+better."
+
+"Pardon me, Sally, but you will say no such thing--with my permission.
+Go ahead, Thompson." He sprang into the car, and it sped away with
+him, leaving Sally staring after him, wide-eyed with the amazement she
+felt. Already, she realized that her house-party, from which she had
+expected such wholesome results, had proven disastrous all around. Her
+husband's prophecy concerning it had been correct. But she did not
+know, and could not know as yet, just how disastrous it had been, for
+there had been no prophet to foretell the catastrophe at the stone
+quarry, toward which Patricia Langdon had started, half an hour
+earlier, in one of Jack Gardner's cars, guided by one of Jack's most
+trusted servants; and, oddly enough, by one who had formerly been in
+the employ of Stephen Langdon, and who, as a servant, had fallen under
+the spell of the daughter of the house to such an extent that he had
+never ceased to quote her as the criterion of all things in the way of
+excellence to be attained by an employer. And toward this quarry
+Duncan was now hastening at the full speed of his big Packard-sixty,
+with the trusted Thompson at the wheel; and toward it, as the chief
+actor, Richard Morton had started away from Cedarcrest with a broken
+heart, and with a brain crazed by the calamities that had rushed so
+swiftly upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MYSTERIES BORN IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+When the car, driven by Thompson, drew near to the derrick which had
+been to Morton the suggestion of an unholy impulse, he slowed the big
+Packard and leaned ahead, far over the wheel, for his keen eyes had
+already discerned something beside the road which had not been there
+when he had passed earlier in the evening. He stopped the car, and
+that fact awoke Duncan to a recollection of his surroundings.
+
+"What is it, Thompson?" he asked. "Why have you stopped?"
+
+Thompson was peering anxiously toward the jumbled mass of broken stone
+ahead of him, and there was an instant of silence before he replied.
+Then--
+
+"There has been a wreck here, sir," he told his employer.
+
+Instantly, Duncan thought of Patricia. He forgot Morton. He was out of
+the car even before Thompson could slide from under the
+steering-wheel, and started ahead at a run, toward the remnants of
+the wreck which he could now see quite plainly.
+
+The roadster, in making its last leap, had literally climbed the rocky
+place, and then, turning end for end twice, had finally alighted upon
+a heap of stone, from which it could be seen from the roadway. It was
+now a mass of iron, a twisted chaos of castings and machinery,
+recognizable only as something that had once been an automobile; but
+the experienced eyes of Thompson, trained to the quick and perfect
+recognition of all cars that he had ever seen, identified the mass of
+wreckage as soon as he got near enough to see it clearly. One
+comprehensive glance sufficed for him. He straightened up after that
+quick search for identification marks, which was his first instinct,
+and said, quietly:
+
+"It is Mr. Morton's roadster, sir."
+
+"My God!" cried Duncan, with a catch in his breath. The truth of the
+matter seemed to rush upon him on the instant, although he afterward
+refused to recognize it as truth. But, as Thompson made the statement,
+Duncan saw again the despairing face of Richard Morton which had still
+had in it a hidden determination to do something that Duncan had not
+even tried to guess at the time. "Was this what he intended to do?"
+Duncan asked himself, silently.
+
+"Yes, sir; it is Mr. Morton's roadster," Thompson repeated, with
+entire conviction. "He must have been hitting up a great gait, when he
+struck, too. I never saw such a wreck; never, sir. He must be
+somewhere about, sir."
+
+"True. Look for him, Thompson; look everywhere."
+
+He started forward himself, leaping over the stones, and plunging into
+every place where the body of a man might have fallen, after being
+hurled from the wrecked car. They searched distances beyond where it
+was possible that the body of a man might have been thrown, but they
+did not find Morton.
+
+"It is possible that he escaped," said Duncan, at last, pausing and
+wiping perspiration from his brow. "He might have alighted on his feet,
+and--"
+
+"No, sir. Pardon me. It is not possible. No man could go through such
+a wreck as that one, and in such a place, and escape alive. Besides,
+sir--look here."
+
+The man struck a match, and held the blaze of it toward a pile of
+sharp stones. Duncan bent forward, peered at the spot indicated by
+Thompson, and drew back again with a sharp exclamation of horror.
+
+There was blood on the stones; quite a lot of it, partly dried. And
+near it, half-hidden among the jagged stones, were Morton's watch and
+fob. The fob was instantly recognizable for it was totally unlike any
+other that Duncan had ever seen, formed of nuggets in the rough,
+linked together with steel rings, instead of with gold, or silver. The
+watch was smashed almost as badly as the automobile. Duncan took it in
+his hand, held it so for a moment, and at last, with a shudder,
+dropped it into one of his pockets.
+
+"What does it mean, Thompson? Where is he?" he asked.
+
+"I think it is likely, sir, that someone passed the spot, either at
+the time of the accident or directly after it happened. Of course,
+sir, the body would not have been left here under any circumstances."
+
+"The body? You think he must be dead?"
+
+"There can be no doubt of it, sir," said Thompson, with conviction.
+"Shall we go on, sir? Nothing more can be done here."
+
+They returned to their own car, and the journey toward the city was
+resumed. Not another word was spoken until they were in the city
+streets, and then the only direction that Duncan gave his chauffeur
+was that he be taken directly to his rooms, where, as soon as he
+entered, he seized upon the telephone. One after another, he called up
+every hospital in the city, and it was not until he found his search
+to be entirely unavailing that it occurred to him Morton would have
+been taken to some place nearer the scene of the accident. Then, he
+bethought himself to communicate with police headquarters.
+
+"I will give," he said, "a thousand dollars for positive information
+about the fate of Richard Morton, provided the same is brought to me
+before daylight, and that my request be kept a secret. This is not a
+bribe, but a spur to great effort. You have facilities for making such
+inquiries. Find Morton for me, before morning, if you can, no matter
+where he is. Keep it from the newspapers, too. Then, come to me for
+the check." He explained fully the locality of the accident--and then
+he waited.
+
+He did not occupy his bed that night, and he could not have explained
+why he did not do so. He kept telling himself that Richard Morton was
+nothing whatever to him; that it did not matter what had happened to
+the fellow; that Morton deserved death for what he had done--and a lot
+of other things of the same character. But all the while he paced the
+floor, and waited for information; or, he seated himself in a corner
+of the room and smoked like a furnace chimney. Just as daylight was
+breaking, while gazing through his window toward the eastward, he
+started, and asked himself, guiltily:
+
+"Am I hoping all the time that he is dead? Have I offered that
+thousand dollars only for assurance of his death?"
+
+Fortunately, he was not compelled to reply to the self-accusing
+question, for there came a summons at his door, and an officer from
+headquarters entered to announce that, although diligent search and
+inquiry had been made in every conceivable quarter, not a word of
+information regarding Richard Morton could be obtained. Duncan
+listened in silence to the report, and, when it was finished, said:
+
+"Very well; continue the search. Find the man, or find out what became
+of him. I will defray all the expenses, and will pay the reward I
+offered, too. But I must have the information at once, and everything
+relative to this affair must be kept from the newspapers."
+
+The officer had just gone when a ring at Duncan's telephone took him
+quickly to it--and the voice of Jack Gardner at the other end of the
+wire alarmed him unduly, considering that there was no known reason to
+feel alarm. Gardner, upon being assured that he was talking directly
+with his friend, said:
+
+"You'll have to pardon me, old chap, for calling you out of bed at
+this ungodly hour, but I just had to do it."
+
+"You needn't worry, Jack. I haven't been in bed. What's up?" Duncan
+replied.
+
+"Why; you see there is a mystery developed, just now. If you haven't
+been in bed, I have. I was called out of it by this confounded
+telephone--twice. The first call was to tell me that some sort of an
+accident had happened to Dick Morton. I couldn't gather what it was,
+and didn't really take much stock in it, so far as that goes. Then,
+the second call came. I was mad by that time, and didn't have very
+much to say to the chap at the other end of the wire--till Sally put
+me up to calling you."
+
+"What was the second call about?" asked Duncan, gritting his teeth and
+almost fearing to hear what it might have been.
+
+"Why, my Thomas car--the one that took Patricia away, you know--has
+been found somewhere in the streets of New York, deserted, apparently.
+I can't understand it. They identified the car by the number, you
+know. When I told Sally what had been said to me, she immediately had
+a spasm of fear lest the accident reported to have happened to Morton
+might have been Patricia, instead. I thought I'd ask you about it;
+that's all."
+
+"Wait a minute, Jack. Just let me think, a minute; then I'll answer
+you."
+
+Duncan put the receiver down on the table, and crossed the room. He
+found it difficult to grasp the situation. Until that moment, it had
+not occurred to him that Patricia might have been the one to find
+Morton, or Morton's body, at the scene of the wreck. He had forgotten
+that she must have passed that way within half an hour from the time
+of the piling of the steamer upon the mass of sharp stones. Presently,
+he returned to the telephone, and told his friend all that he knew
+about the circumstances, and all that he had done since Thompson and
+he came away from the scene of the wreck.
+
+"But I don't see what your Thomas car has got to do with it," he
+concluded. "Your man Patrick was driving it, wasn't he? I know he was.
+He used to be with Langdon, you know. He isn't a chauffeur, but he's a
+lot more competent to be one than half the men who are. I say, Jack,
+have Sally call up Patricia, right away. You--"
+
+He heard a click over the wire which told him that connection was cut
+off; and after that he paced the floor again, wishing and hoping for
+the ringing of his telephone-bell.
+
+"We are coming to the city at once," Gardner told him, when at last it
+did ring, and Duncan had taken down the receiver. "What the devil is
+the matter with everything, anyhow? You had better hump yourself,
+Duncan, and get busy. I don't believe that Morton was hurt half so
+badly as you and Thompson seemed to think. Anyhow, the only way I can
+see through it all is that Patricia was the one who found him. But,
+even so--"
+
+"Hold on a minute, Jack. You are getting too swift for me. What did
+Sally find out when she telephoned to Patricia?"
+
+"Oh! Didn't I tell you that? Patricia hasn't been home, at all. They
+thought, at Langdon's, that she was here. She certainly hasn't shown
+up there. And you say that Dick has disappeared, after leaving his
+gore spread all over the place where his car was smashed. And, then,
+my car is found somewhere down there, abandoned. I can't make it out,
+at all. Sally is sure that something dreadful has happened. We're
+starting now. Sally won't wait another minute. I'll see you as soon as
+I get into town."
+
+He did not delay to say good-bye, but hung up the receiver at his end.
+
+Duncan did not await the arrival of Gardner. He summoned his valet,
+and gave him strict directions about the reception of any news
+concerning the mysteries of the night. Then, he hurried to Stephen
+Langdon's home where he was admitted at once to the old banker's
+sleeping apartment.
+
+"What in heaven's name is the matter now, Rod?" the financier
+demanded, testily. "It is bad enough to have you and Patricia at
+sword's points, but to rout out an old fellow like me from his bed at
+this hour, is rubbing it in."
+
+"I suppose you haven't heard that Patricia did not come home last
+night, have you?" Duncan said, by way of reply.
+
+"No, I haven't. I should have been surprised, if I had heard it. She
+wasn't expected to come home. She went to the Gardners."
+
+"Well, sir, there is a lot that you ought to know, before you step out
+of this room, to face all sorts of statements and inquiries. That is
+why I am here. I thought I was the best one to tell you."
+
+"To tell me what?"
+
+"It will be something of a shock, sir. Brace yourself for it. I don't
+think that a soul in the world except me, guesses at the truth."
+
+"Guesses at what truth? What the devil is the matter with you? What
+are you trying to tell me? Out with it, whatever it is!"
+
+"Patricia has run away with Richard Morton. He was hurt last night.
+She was in love with him, and--"
+
+"Stop! Stop where you are, Rod. You're crazy. You're stark, staring,
+raving crazy! Why in heaven's name should Patricia want to run away
+with Morton? It is true that I have always wanted her to marry you,
+but, if she wanted _him_, she knows mighty well she could have him. I
+wouldn't put out a finger to stop her from marrying anybody of her
+choice, so long as the man was morally and mentally fit. Sit down over
+there; take a drink. You look as if you needed one. Don't utter a word
+for five minutes, and then begin at the beginning and tell me all
+about it."
+
+But Duncan would listen to neither request. He began at once and told
+of the occurrences of the night, from the moment when Patricia had
+arrived at Cedarcrest alone, till the receipt of the telephonic
+messages from Gardner; and he concluded by saying:
+
+"There is no mystery in the affair, at all, as I regard it. Patricia
+left the house, at Cedarcrest, half an hour after Morton left it. She
+found the wrecked car, near the derrick, as Thompson and I found it,
+later on. But she found Morton, too. Patrick was with her, and Patrick
+is devoted to Patricia. He wouldn't consider the fact that he is, or
+was, in Jack's employ, if it came to a question of obedience to her
+wishes; he would serve her. You see, Patricia found out that she loved
+Morton, when he got his calling-down; only, I suppose, even then, she
+wasn't quite sure. But, when the time came for him to go away
+entirely, she had no more doubts about it! She didn't remain long at
+Cedarcrest, after that; she followed him. She knew that Patrick was
+there, and that he would go with her. Well, they found the wreck of
+Morton's car, along the road; then, they found Morton. Probably, he
+wasn't much hurt; chaps like him don't mind the loss of a little
+blood. Patricia and the man helped him into the car. It was just the
+proper scene, with all the best kind of setting for a mutual
+confession of their love, and--there you are."
+
+"Go on, Roderick. Finish all you have to say, before I begin. What
+next?"
+
+"Why--oh, what's the use? There isn't any more to say. Morton
+probably asked her to go away with him, and she went. That's all. I
+thought you ought to know it."
+
+"You don't know it yourself, do you?"
+
+"No--not positively, of course."
+
+"You have just guessed it."
+
+"I suppose that's true, too."
+
+"I wonder if your guessing has gone far enough to enlighten me on two
+important points."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I'd like to know why Morton would want her to run away with him at
+all, and why she should think of consenting to such a thing, if he
+did. Patricia isn't one of the run-away kind. I should think you would
+know that. And they didn't have to run."
+
+"Why, Morton had just been virtually kicked out of Jack Gardner's
+house. He was--"
+
+"Well? Well? Couldn't Stephen Langdon's daughter kick him into it
+again? Or into any other house on God's green earth, for that matter,
+if she tried to do so? Do you suppose he'd have to pay any attention
+to a little, petty ostracism, on the part of such puppets of society
+as gathered out there, if he became the husband of Patricia Langdon?
+Don't be an ass, Roderick! You are just plain jealous, and I don't
+know that I blame you--for that."
+
+"I'm not jealous."
+
+"Then, you're a fool, and that's a heap worse."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+RODERICK DUNCAN SEES LIGHT
+
+
+The police department of the city of New York did not earn the
+thousand dollars reward offered by Roderick Duncan. The mystery of the
+abandoned car, owned by Jack Gardner, was not explained. Patrick
+O'Toole did not return to his duties at Cedarcrest. The story of the
+wreck of the White Steamer on the rocks under the derrick remained
+untold. Patricia Langdon did not reappear among her friends and
+acquaintances in the city. The mysteries born of that party at
+Cedarcrest continued unsolved.
+
+Roderick Duncan, having arrived at a conclusion about all those
+matters which was quite satisfactory to himself, declined to concern
+himself farther about them; he believed that he perfectly understood
+the situation, and he let it go at that--although he engaged the
+services of every clipping-bureau in the city, in an effort to find
+announcement somewhere of the marriage of Patricia Langdon to Richard
+Morton. But no such record was discovered, nor was any evidence found
+that suggested such a possibility. He withdrew very much into himself,
+shunned his clubs, avoided his friends, and could not himself tell why
+he did not go away somewhere, to the other side of the world, seeking
+to forget what he had lost. He went so far in his studied aloofness as
+to keep entirely away from Stephen Langdon, and was perhaps all the
+more surprised when, as time elapsed, Patricia's father did not send
+for him. The utter silence of Stephen Langdon, and his entire
+inactivity concerning the absence of his daughter convinced Duncan, as
+it did also Patricia's, friends, generally, that he knew perfectly
+well where she was. It was a logical conclusion, too, for, if Stephen
+Langdon had not known, it is safe to say that he would have moved
+heaven and earth to find his daughter.
+
+Jack and Sally Gardner went to Europe and took Beatrice with them.
+Nesbit Farnham followed them, on the next steamer. The Misses Houston,
+also, disappeared. The newspapers had contained merely a mention of
+the wreck, nothing more of consequence. The destruction of the machine
+was told, and it was hinted that the chauffeur was slightly injured;
+nothing was said to suggest that Richard Morton had been hurt at all.
+The police, to whom Duncan had telephoned, made no bones of
+pooh-poohing the entire matter, and laughing in their sleeves about
+it. The police had their own ideas about the whole thing--and speedily
+forgot them all.
+
+Stephen Langdon was strangely grim and silent, those days; he was also
+unusually dangerous to his rivals in "the street." Every energy that
+he possessed seemed bent upon ruining somebody, anybody. It did not
+occur to Duncan that the old man avoided him, because he was guilty of
+the like avoidance himself; but, had he been less concerned with his
+own sorrows, and given some thought to Stephen Langdon's, he would
+have been quick enough to discover that the old financier dodged him,
+studiously.
+
+There was no gossip about the disappearance of Patricia, because
+nothing was known about it. She was out of town, as were most of her
+associates; traveling somewhere, doubtless, or was passing the time
+among her numerous friends.
+
+The first week after the beginning of the mystery was lived through in
+a state of unrest by Duncan, and the second and third weeks brought no
+change to him. With the beginning of the fourth week, he encountered
+Burke Radnor, and the mere sight of the newspaper man recalled to the
+young millionaire that bitterly unpleasant episode in which his name
+and that of Beatrice Brunswick were coupled. Radnor was seated in the
+lobby of the Hotel Astor, when Duncan entered the place. The man had
+been drinking just enough to render him a bit boisterous and a trifle
+loud in his talk and demeanor, when Duncan saw him. He was seated with
+several other men, and all of them were talking and laughing together
+at the moment when Duncan passed them on his way to the desk to
+inquire for a guest whom he desired to see. He took no notice whatever
+of Radnor, and was passing on, when a remark dropped noisily by the
+newspaper writer arrested him. It brought him to a halt so suddenly,
+that he sank at once upon a chair near at hand, and remained there
+without realizing that he did so, for the sole purpose of hearing what
+else Radnor might have to say upon this particular subject. He would
+have passed on, even then, had he not been convinced that Radnor had
+not seen him, and did not suspect his nearness. As he listened, he
+gathered that Radnor was boasting of a prospective news story which he
+had in prospect, and for the publication of which he needed only a few
+additional facts.
+
+"--elopement in high life, with an automobile wreck, a broken head--a
+broken heart also, only that was quickly mended--and a bunch of other
+little details thrown in, you know," was the remark that was overheard
+by Duncan, as he strolled past the group; was his reason for dropping
+down upon a convenient chair and remaining there, to listen. "The lady
+in the case is a swell who is away up in the top rank of the
+'two-hundred-and-fifty;' and the man--well, he is up in high C, too,
+for that matter. One of the newly-rich, you know, lately materialized
+out of the wild and woolly. Fine stunt, that story; only, I can't seem
+to nail the few additional facts I need," Radnor continued, while
+Duncan listened with all his ears. "There are certain elements
+connected with the story that make it especially attractive to me,
+for, in addition to getting a clear scoop in the biggest sensation of
+the year, I can clean up an old grudge of mine, bee-eautifully. And
+won't I clean it up, when I get my hooks fairly into it! Well! You can
+take it from me."
+
+"Oh, go on, Radnor, and tell us about it!" urged one of his
+companions--another newspaper writer, evidently. "How'd you get next
+to it in the first place?"
+
+"Oh, that was an accident--a series of accidents, it might be called.
+I don't mind telling you that part of it, without names. I mentioned
+a broken head, just now. Well, I had a line on a dandy story that was
+located out of town, and so I borrowed Tony Brokaw's automobile to go
+after it, because the story was located some distance off of the main
+line of travel. I was bowling along quite merrily, all alone in a car
+that is made to carry seven. It was just in the shank of the evening,
+and--"
+
+"All this happened out of town, didn't it, Radnor?"
+
+"Yes--a little way out. I came to a place where there had been a
+wreck, and--well--seated on the ground at the scene of the disaster,
+was the lady in the case, holding the head of the man in the case, in
+her lap, and moaning over it to beat the band. Standing beside them,
+like a big dog on guard, was a 'faithful servant.' It made a picture
+that couldn't be beaten, for suggestive points, provided the
+likenesses were made good enough. I took the whole thing in, at a
+glance, and sized the situation up rather correctly, too. The young
+woman was rattled clean out of her senses, and kept moaning something
+about it's being all her fault--I wasn't able to get just the gist of
+that part of it. She knew me by sight, and remembered my name. I
+offered my assistance, and then fell to examining the injured man. I
+discovered that he wasn't dead by a long shot, although he had been
+hurt quite badly, and he'd bled a lot. But I've been a war
+correspondent; I know all about first aid to the injured; I have seen
+wounds of all kinds, and it didn't take me long to estimate 'mister
+magusalem's' chances at about a thousand to one, for recovery. I made
+the chauffeur help me, and together we toted the wounded man to my
+car, and put him in the tonneau. The lady climbed in beside him--and
+ordered her chauffeur to follow her, and help her with the injured
+man. All the time, I was keeping up a devil of a thinking, wondering
+what it was all about. You see, I knew who the man and the woman were,
+but I couldn't fix the facts of the case sufficiently clear to satisfy
+me. I knew it would be a dandy sensation for the morning papers, but
+there was yet plenty of time to get it in, over a wire--besides, I
+wanted it to go in late, so that other papers than the one I gave it
+to, couldn't get a line on it. I got into my car--that is, the one I
+had borrowed, you understand--wondering where I would take the bunch,
+when another car stopped alongside of us, and a man, also alone, asked
+what was the matter. I found out that he was a doctor, and got him to
+take a look at the wounded man. To make a long story short, he
+dressed the wound then and there, said there wasn't any immediate
+danger--and a lot more--and went on his way. That decided me. I knew
+of a place about twenty miles away where I could take them, where the
+man would have the best of care, and--best of all--where I could fix
+things up to keep everything quiet till I found out all the facts. You
+see, I scented the greatest sensational story of my career--and I
+wasn't far out, either, if ever I get all of it."
+
+"But, great Scott, man, didn't you have it then?"
+
+"You'd have had it, Sommers; but not I. I knew there was more to it.
+When the doctor pulled his freight out of there, I didn't lose any
+time in getting a move on me, too. And the girl never asked a
+question; not one; I had told her that I would take them to a place
+where the man could get well, and she seemed satisfied. The chauffeur
+never peeped a word. I let the motor skim along at a good rate, and
+wasn't long in bringing the bunch to the place I had thought of, which
+happens to be a small, private sanatorium, which isn't known to be one
+at all, save by those who patronize it and who want to put their loved
+ones away for a time, secretly. But the doc who runs it, is a good
+fellow, a good friend of mine, and when I told him that we didn't
+want a word said about the affair--and particularly when he discovered
+who the parties were and that there was a heap of dough in it for
+him--he fell into my plans without a dissenting vote."
+
+"Say, Radnor, that's a long winded yarn, all right, but it's
+interesting. I wish, though, that you'd open up with the names."
+
+"Not I, Sommers. I haven't got to the real mystery of the
+affair--yet."
+
+"You don't say! What is it?"
+
+"Well, when I had fixed things to suit me, and had received the thanks
+of the lady, when I had also satisfied myself that she was just as
+anxious for secrecy about the thing as I was, although I couldn't tell
+exactly why she was so, I hiked it back for town. It was too late,
+then, to get the other story I had been after, and I had ceased to
+care much about it, anyhow; and then, when I was ready to leave, out
+came the chauffeur, and he said, if I didn't mind, he'd ride part of
+the way back with me. He and the woman had been whispering together,
+just before that, and I sized it up that she had given him certain
+instructions to carry out. Anyhow, when we arrived at the scene of the
+accident, the chauffeur got down, and I came on, to the city, alone.
+I'm not going to tell you why the chauffeur left me, at the scene of
+the accident, because that would give you a pointer which I don't wish
+you to have. He had a certain duty to perform which I did not guess
+at, just then, but which was all plain to me the next A. M., if
+anybody should ask you. It amazed me, and it added immensely to the
+mystery. And now, brace yourself, fellows, for the real mystery--the
+one I am chasing at the present time."
+
+"We're all ears, Radnor."
+
+"I telephoned to my friend the doc, the next morning. He reported that
+the man was doing well, and that the lady was hanging over him like a
+possum over a ripe persimmon. I telephoned again that afternoon, again
+the next morning, and every day after that, but the doc kept telling
+me that, although the man was doing well, and the lady was still there
+with him, I had better not butt in until he tipped me the wink--and
+I'll give you my word that he managed to keep me on the hooks for ten
+days before I tumbled."
+
+"Tumbled to what?"
+
+"You shall hear. I got leary about things on the tenth day, for this
+telephoning was getting monotonous, and borrowed Brokaw's car again,
+but when I got to the little hidden sanatorium, my birds had flown,
+and--"
+
+"Your birds had flown! What do you mean, Radnor?"
+
+"Just what I say. The man and the woman had gone, and the doc wouldn't
+tell me when they went away, or anything at all about them. He said he
+had been well paid for keeping quiet, and I couldn't get any more
+information out of him than you could dig out of a clam. What is more,
+that chauffeur hadn't been seen by anybody since I dropped him out of
+the machine, at the scene of the accident--and that is the story. I
+don't know whether the doc lied to me, or not. He wouldn't let me go
+through his place, and, for all I know, the man and the girl were both
+there when I went back. On the other hand, they might have been gone a
+week, already. I've been unearthing every clue I could think of, since
+then, to get trace of them, but you might as well look for saw dust in
+hades, as for clues about those two--or rather the three of them, for
+I am satisfied that the chauffeur returned to the sanatorium after he
+had performed the errand he was sent to do."
+
+"What gets me," said Sommers, "is how people as prominent as you say
+they were could fade out of sight like that, and leave no trace behind
+them. I should have thought there would be a hue and cry after them
+that would have stirred every newspaper in town."
+
+"Well--all that rather gets me, too. Of course, I could make a big
+story out of it, as it stands; but that isn't all of the story, and I
+want it all."
+
+"There is a scandal in the thing, too, Radnor."
+
+"Of course, man! The fellow wasn't so badly hurt but what he must have
+been around again, by the time I went back to the sanatorium. The girl
+was certainly in her right senses. She remained there with him,
+hanging over him and helping to take care of him--and there wasn't a
+thing said about any marriage-ceremony. Oh, it's a big story all
+right, no matter how it turns out. You see, there are some remarkable
+circumstances associated with the case. For instance, there are two
+men in town now, both of whom should be very greatly concerned over
+the mystery. I have had them both watched, and, while both seem
+anxious about something, neither one seems to give a hang about an
+affair which I know they would have broken their necks to have
+prevented. There's a nigger in the fence, somewhere; and those two men
+avoid each other as if one had the smallpox and the other was down
+with yellow fever. Whenever I have asked any of the intimate friends
+about the principals in the case, I have been told enough to inform
+me that the intimate friends know as little as I do, and don't guess
+anything about it, at all. Oh, it's a fine mix-up! But just where the
+trouble is located, I can't make out."
+
+"Put me wise, Radnor, and let me help you. Then, we'll do the story
+together," said the man called Sommers.
+
+"Not much. It's my story, and I'm going to hang to it. If you can make
+anything out of what I have told you, you're welcome. You can't! The
+young woman in the case has got more brains than half the business
+men, down-town. The man and the woman have both got millions to burn;
+and there you are. Come on; let's have something. I'm dry as a bone."
+
+The members of Radnor's party marched past Roderick Duncan without
+seeing him; and he, totally forgetful of the errand that had taken him
+to the hotel, passed swiftly out of it, hailed a taxi, and gave the
+address of Malcolm Melvin, the lawyer; and then he was whirled away as
+swiftly as the driver of the cab dared to take him through the streets
+of the teeming city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE LAST WOMAN
+
+
+Stephen Langdon was seated at one end of the table, Roderick Duncan
+was at the opposite one. Melvin, the lawyer, was behind it. Duncan had
+just related the story he had overheard told by Radnor, and he had
+brought his recital to a close by making a remarkable statement, which
+had brought at least one of his hearers to a mental stand-still.
+
+"I am a party to an agreement which was signed, sealed and delivered,
+in this office, Mr. Langdon," he said. "You are also a party to that
+document. Your daughter also signed it. By the terms of that document,
+Patricia Langdon became my promised wife. Under the terms recited in
+that document, she named a day when we were to be married. That day
+has come and gone, and I have received no word of any kind from her. I
+am convinced that you, her father, know where she is, where she can be
+found, and now I demand of you that information, in order that I may
+seek her. It is my wish to know from her own lips if she repudiates
+that contract, or if it is still her intention to live up to it. I
+have asked you, in Mr. Melvin's presence, twice, to give me the
+information I wish for. I have asked you once on the ground of our
+mutual friendship: you declined to answer. I have asked you, the
+second time, on the ground of love and affection, for you and for your
+daughter: you have refused. I ask you now on the ground of a
+commercial transaction, just as Miss Langdon insisted upon viewing it,
+and with all personal considerations put aside. If you again decline
+my request, I give you warning that I shall make a call upon you
+within an hour, for the loan I have advanced. I have that right, under
+the terms of the agreement, and I shall take advantage of it. That is
+all I have to say. It is my last word."
+
+Stephen Langdon left his chair. His face was cold, stern,
+expressionless. It wore the mask which long years in "the street," had
+given it. He did not look toward Duncan, but turned his face to the
+lawyer, and said, with cold preciseness:
+
+"Mr. Melvin, you may say for me, to all who may be concerned, that I
+shall be prepared within an hour to meet all demands that may be made
+upon me."
+
+With a slight inclination of his head, he left the office of the
+lawyer. He walked as erect as ever; he carried himself no less
+proudly, although he knew that he was going to his financial ruin
+unless the unexpected should happen. Twenty millions is a large sum to
+pay at an hour's notice. It was not a tithe of the fortune which
+Stephen Langdon was supposed to possess; yet his circumstances at the
+moment were such that terrible disaster would immediately follow upon
+the demand for its payment. He knew it; Melvin knew it; Roderick
+Duncan knew it. But the fighting blood of Roderick Duncan's father was
+surging in his son's soul, just then; and, in his day, "Old Man
+Duncan" had been a harder and a more relentless financier than ever
+his partner, Stephen Langdon, had become.
+
+"You will not insist, will you, Roderick?" the lawyer asked, as soon
+as they were alone.
+
+"I shall insist," replied Duncan, with decision.
+
+"Even in the event that I might give you the information you seek?
+Even in that case, will you insist upon forcing your father's life-long
+friend to the wall? For that is what it will amount to."
+
+"No. In that case I shall not insist upon calling in the loan. I seek
+only the information. It doesn't matter where I get it, so long as I
+do get it, and it proves to be correct. That is all I require."
+
+The lawyer drew a pad of paper toward him and hastily wrote a few
+lines upon it. Then, tearing off the sheet, he rang a bell and gave
+the written message into the hand of a clerk.
+
+"Mr. Langdon just left this office," he said. "Overtake him and give
+him this message. See to it that you do not fail to place it in his
+hands at once." He waited until the door had closed behind the
+retreating figure of the clerk; then he turned toward Duncan again.
+
+"Mr. Langdon is only a very little wiser than yourself about what has
+happened to his daughter, during the last few weeks," he said, with a
+touch of coldness in his tones. "I am somewhat better informed than
+either of you, and in order to save my old friend from utter ruin--in
+order to save his life, for ruin would spell death to him--I shall
+tell you what you wish to know, even though I have been implored not
+to do so. Frankly, I believe it better that you should know the truth,
+only"--he hesitated a moment--"I shall ask you to remember who you are
+and what you are, and to govern yourself as your father's son should."
+
+"Well, Mr. Melvin?"
+
+"Miss Langdon is at Three-Star ranch, in Montana. She has been
+there--"
+
+"One moment, Melvin!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You said, _Miss Langdon_. Do you wish to correct that statement by
+any change of name? Was it a slip of the tongue, caused by momentary
+forgetfulness?"
+
+"No."
+
+"'Three-Star' is the name of a brand owned by Richard Morton, is it
+not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Three-Star ranch is one of his many properties, I believe."
+
+"It is."
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"I repeat: Miss Langdon is at Three-Star ranch, in Montana. She has
+been there since a little more than a week after her disappearance. I
+was the first to be informed of the fact. The information came to me
+through a letter written by her to me. I have fulfilled the requests
+made to me in that letter--until now, when I am revealing truths which
+she wished untold. Through me, her father has settled one million
+dollars upon her. She now enjoys the income of that amount. That is
+all."
+
+"The letter! May I see it?"
+
+The lawyer methodically took a red-leather pocketbook from his coat,
+extracted an envelope therefrom, and passed it across the table to
+Duncan.
+
+"Dear Mr. Melvin," the young man read, half-aloud, although to
+himself, "I am at Three-Star ranch, one of the properties of Mr.
+Richard Morton, in Montana. The full address is inclosed, written upon
+an additional slip of paper which I trust you will destroy at once;
+also this letter. I am with Mr. Morton; I am caring for him. More than
+that, you need not know. I desire you to tell my father that it is my
+wish to forego any inheritance I might have received from him, but
+that if he is disposed to make any present settlement upon me, I shall
+cheerfully receive it. I shall not communicate with him; I do not wish
+him to communicate with me. I cannot command your silence, or his,
+concerning me; but I expect it. Unless he should demand of you
+knowledge of my place of abode, I prefer that you withhold it from
+him. Concerning others, I implore your entire silence and discretion.
+I shall communicate with you again only in the event that it should
+become necessary to do so.--Patricia Langdon."
+
+The letter fluttered from Duncan's hands to the floor. He bent forward
+and picked it up, his face white and drawn and set and suddenly
+haggard. He folded the letter carefully, returned it to the envelope,
+and then, with slow precision, tore it into bits, carried the mass of
+fragments to the hearth, piled them into a heap and touched a lighted
+match to it. The lawyer watched the proceeding without emotion,
+without a change of expression. But he gave a slight nod of
+satisfaction when it was done.
+
+Duncan did not return to his chair. He stood for a moment before the
+hearth, with his back turned toward the lawyer; then he wheeled about
+and came forward three steps, until he could reach his hat which was
+on the table.
+
+"Thank you, Melvin," he said. "I shall entirely respect your
+confidence. Good-day."
+
+"Where are you going, Duncan?"
+
+"I don't know. I haven't thought of that--yet."
+
+The lawyer rose from his chair, and rested the tips of his fingers on
+the table in front of him, bending slightly forward.
+
+"She was a good girl; and you loved her. Don't forget that," he said.
+
+"No; I won't forget it, Melvin."
+
+"And--there are others, just as good; don't forget that, either."
+
+"No. There are no others like her. She was the last woman--for me; the
+last woman; and she is dead."
+
+"The last woman? Nonsense!"
+
+"The last woman, Melvin. You don't understand me."
+
+"No, I do not understand you."
+
+"Good God! Don't you see how it all came about? Don't you know
+Patricia Langdon?"
+
+"I know that I won't hear a word against her, even now--even from you,
+Duncan," said the lawyer, with a touch of savagery.
+
+"Don't you understand that, having put her name to a written contract
+with me, she would not break that contract, or repudiate it? And don't
+you see that she has intended, all along, to force me into a position
+where I would be the one to repudiate its terms? You're a poor judge
+of character, Melvin, if you don't see that. You have never known
+Patricia Langdon, if you don't understand her, now. And"--he hesitated
+an instant--"your association with me has taught you mighty little
+about my character, if you haven't guessed what I will do--now!"
+
+"What will you do, Roderick? What do you mean?" asked the lawyer,
+alarmed by the deep intensity with which Duncan spoke those last
+words.
+
+"I shall go to Montana. I shall start to-night. I shall find Patricia
+Langdon. I shall live up to the terms of the contract I made with her,
+and I shall compel her to do the same. I shall make her my wife. I
+shall bring her back to New York, to her father, to her home, as Mrs.
+Roderick Duncan. That is what I shall do. That is what I mean."
+
+"God bless you, boy! But--it can't be done."
+
+"It shall be done."
+
+"But, she will never consent to such an arrangement. She is the last
+woman in the world to drag your name--"
+
+"The last woman; that is it. She is the last of the Langdon's; she
+shall be the last of the Duncan's, too. She will keep to the letter of
+her contract, if I force her to it. I know that. And I will force her
+to it."
+
+"But the man! What will you do with him?"
+
+Duncan stared a moment. Then, he smiled, as he replied:
+
+"After Patricia Langdon has become Patricia Duncan, I will kill him.
+Good-day, Melvin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE REASON WHY
+
+
+Roderick Duncan traveled westward in a special train made up of his
+own private car, a regular Pullman, and a diner. With his valet for
+company, Duncan constituted the personnel of the first of these; the
+second was occupied by the Reverend Doctor Moreley, his wife and two
+daughters. The reverend gentleman was aware of a part of the purpose
+of that trip; the members of his family were yet to be told of it. A
+lavish use of the magician, Money, had prepared everything in advance
+for Duncan, and he had now only to carry out the arrangements he had
+made. There was a slight delay in making the start, but after that all
+things moved as smoothly as possible. Ultimately, the special train
+was sidetracked at a point that was within a few miles of the house
+and outbuildings of Three-Star ranch.
+
+The state of Montana held no finer ranch and range, no better or more
+up-to-date buildings, no better outfit in all respects, than
+Three-Star. The house, set well up along the side of a hill, faced
+toward the south, and commanded a view which had been the pride of its
+former owners, before Richard Morton bought up all the rangeland in
+that locality and converted it into one huge estate of his own. A
+broad veranda extended from end to end, at the front, and from that
+vantage point miles upon miles of rich pasture could be seen, dotted
+with grazing thousands of cattle. Trees, set out with a view to the
+future, by the creators of the ranch, imparted an aspect of homely
+comfort, of seclusion, peace and contentment to it all.
+
+Just at sundown when Patricia Langdon came through the wide door and
+stepped out upon the veranda toward the broad flight of steps which
+led down to the flowered inclosure in front of the house, she stopped
+suddenly, her right hand flew toward her throat, and her face, flushed
+and angry until that instant, went as pale as death itself. She gasped
+and caught her breath, swayed a second where she stood, and then drew
+herself upright again; and she stood straight and tall and brave, face
+to face with Roderick Duncan who appeared at the top step at the
+instant when Patricia advanced toward it.
+
+For a space, neither one uttered a word, or made another gesture,
+save that, in the first instant, Roderick raised his hat in silent
+salutation, and now stood with it held in his hand.
+
+Patricia's first act was to cast a half-furtive and wholly
+apprehensive glance over her shoulder, toward the doorway through
+which she had just passed. Then, she sprang forward like a young fawn
+and darted down the steps toward the pathway.
+
+"Come with me," she threw back at him. "There must be an interview,
+but it cannot be held here. Follow me."
+
+Duncan obeyed her, but without haste; and she led him into a pathway
+among the trees, soon emerging upon an open space in the center of
+which a rustic pavilion had been erected. It was overgrown by a riot
+of climbing vines; an inclosure with windows at every side of it,
+occupied the center of the space beneath the roof, and inside the
+inclosure were all the evidences of feminine occupancy. Wicker chairs
+and chairs of willow, rugs, hassocks, cushions, pillows with
+embroidered covers, littered the place. One could discern at a glance
+that it was a place of retreat and rest for a woman of taste. In
+reality, it was Patricia Langdon's place of refuge--at least, she so
+regarded it.
+
+She did not speak again until she had mounted the steps which led up
+to it; nor did the man who followed her. But then, when they were
+beneath the roof of the pavilion, she turned about and faced him.
+
+"Now," she said, "why are you here? Why have you dared to come to this
+place, in search of me?" She spoke without emphasis, but the very
+absence of all emotion gave her words the more weight and power.
+
+Duncan stood tall and straight before her, calmly facing her. If her
+face showed no emotion, now that she had regained control over
+herself, neither did his. Before he replied to her question, he took a
+folded paper from the breast-pocket of his coat, and held it in his
+hand.
+
+"I have a document here, which bears your signature, and mine," he
+said, then. "It recites the terms of a certain contract which you have
+agreed to fulfill. I am here to insist that you carry out the terms of
+this agreement. It is time now, for action on your part."
+
+Patricia gasped. She took a single step backward, and rested one hand
+upon the top of a willow armchair. Her composure seemed about to
+forsake her utterly, but by a great effort she controlled herself,
+lifting her free hand to her throat as if something were choking her.
+
+"It--is--impossible--now," she muttered, at last; and she swayed where
+she stood, as if she might fall.
+
+"Be seated, Patricia," he said, using her name for the first time;
+and, when she had complied, he passed around the chair until he stood
+behind her. It was a delicate act on his part--a consideration for her
+feelings which might not have been expected, under all the
+circumstances. He thought he understood how terrible this interview
+must be to her, and he did not wish to compel her to face him, while
+it endured. Patricia shivered when he passed her; otherwise she gave
+no sign. "It is not impossible," he went on, without perceptible
+pause. "It has never been impossible; it can never be so. On the
+contrary, it is imperative; more than ever imperative, now."
+
+She shivered again, and did not reply when he paused. He continued:
+
+"Patricia Langdon, you are not one to refuse the terms of a written
+contract which you have signed and sealed with a full knowledge of its
+meaning, particularly when the other party to it insists upon its
+fulfillment. I am the other party to this contract, and I do insist
+upon its complete fulfillment. You are the last woman in the world
+to--"
+
+"I am the last woman in the world--the very last!" she interrupted
+him, vehemently, but she did not turn her head toward him. He
+continued as if he had not heard her:
+
+"--to repudiate the distinct terms of an agreement you have knowingly
+made."
+
+"I have already repudiated them."
+
+"No, you have not. And you shall not."
+
+"Shall not?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do--do you mean that you would force me to a compliance with the
+conditions of that agreement you hold in your hand?"
+
+"Yes--if such a course is necessary."
+
+"But you cannot! You cannot!"
+
+"Yes, I can; and I will, Patricia."
+
+"Don't speak my name!" she cried out, hotly. "Don't utter it again!
+Don't you dare to do so! Don't you dare!"
+
+"Very well."
+
+"How will you force me? You cannot do it."
+
+"There is a penalty attached to all legally drawn contracts," he lied,
+glibly enough; and, realizing that she was startled by what he had
+already said, he did not hesitate to add more to it. "I have come
+here prepared to insist that you fulfill your obligation. You know
+that I am not one to relent, once I have set my course. There are
+officers of the law in this county and state, as well as within the
+county and state where you made the contract." He stopped a moment
+when she shrank visibly in her chair, for he was about to say a really
+cruel thing. He would not have said it, had he not deemed it entirely
+necessary, in order to coerce her to his will; but he went on,
+relentlessly: "If you make it needful to do so, I shall not hesitate
+to send officers here, to take you before a court, there to relate why
+you will not carry out the conditions of your contract."
+
+Duncan expected that Patricia would fly into a rage, at this; he
+thought she would leap to her feet, confront him, and defy him. He
+looked for a tirade of rage, of abuse, or of despair; or, failing
+these, for an outburst of pleading on her part that he would relent.
+
+There was no evidence of any of these emotions. Indeed, for a moment
+it seemed as if she had not heard him, so still did she sit in her
+chair, so utterly unmoved did she appear to be by the statement he had
+made.
+
+If, at that moment he had stepped around in front of her and looked
+into her face, he would have been amazed by what he saw. He would have
+seen great tears welling in her eyes, held in check by her long
+lashes; he would have seen a near approach to a smile behind those
+tears, although she was unconscious of that, herself; he would have
+noticed that she caught her breath again, but not in the same manner,
+nor from the same cause that had led to the like effort, earlier in
+their interview. When, at last, she did reply to him, it was in a
+far-away, uncertain voice, so soft, and so like the Patricia of quiet
+and sympathetic moods, that Roderick was startled, and he found
+himself compelled to hold his own spirit in check, lest he should
+forget the studied deportment he had determined upon for the occasion.
+
+"Why do you insist upon it?" she asked him. He replied, without
+hesitation--and coldly:
+
+"Because I love you."
+
+"Because ... you ... love ... me," she said, slowly, and so softly
+that he barely heard the words. They did not form a question; they
+comprised a statement, like his own.
+
+"Yes," he said.
+
+"But"--she hesitated--"there is another reason."
+
+"Yes. We need not dwell upon that."
+
+"Nevertheless, I should like to hear it."
+
+"No."
+
+"You will not tell me what it is?"
+
+"It is not necessary. It is begging the question."
+
+"You wish to give me the protection of your name. I think I
+understand."
+
+"Have it so, if you wish."
+
+"You wish to make me your wife. I am beginning to comprehend you,
+Roderick." The name slipped out, unconsciously, on her part, although
+he was tragically aware of it. "Have you remembered--have you thought
+of--are you quite aware of what you are doing?"
+
+"Quite. I have remembered everything, thought of all things."
+
+"And your reason for all this is--what? Tell me again, please."
+
+"You make my task harder," he said, coldly. "My reason is that I love
+you."
+
+Again, Patricia was silent for a time. Then:
+
+"How do you propose to carry out this chivalrous conduct? Who will
+marry us, if I agree to your absurd proposal?"
+
+"It is not absurd. It is the only logical thing for you to do. Doctor
+Moreley will marry us. He came with me, in my special train." She
+caught at the arms of the chair, and clung to them. "Mrs. Moreley,
+with Evelyn and Kate, accompany him. It is a short ride to where the
+cars are sidetracked, waiting. You can ride there in the morning--or
+go there with me this evening, if you will."
+
+"Do ... they ... know--?"
+
+"They know nothing save the one fact that we are to be married, that
+Doctor Moreley is to perform the ceremony, and that the members of his
+family are to act as witnesses. Nobody knows anything at all, save
+that. Nobody ever shall know. Your absence from New York has
+occasioned no suspicion--save only in the mind of one man, Radnor. The
+fact of our marriage will be published and broadcast at once, and even
+his suspicions will be stilled."
+
+"And ... afterward ... after we are married--what?"
+
+"We will discuss that question after the ceremony."
+
+"No. We will discuss it now. Afterward--what?"
+
+"You will be my wife, then. It is right and proper that you should
+return to New York, that you should live in my house. I shall take you
+there, and install you, properly. I shall insist upon that much.
+There is no way for you to escape the fulfillment of your contract.
+When you are my wife, you will have entered upon another contract
+which you will also keep. The contract to honor and obey."
+
+"To love, honor, and obey," she corrected him.
+
+"I shall not insist upon the first of those terms. The second one I
+shall endeavor to merit. The third one, I shall insist upon. Now, when
+will you--"
+
+"Wait. You are sure that you do this because you love me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you are ready to sacrifice your name, your life, to a creature
+who, according to your view of conditions, should be the very last
+woman to bear your name--to become your wife? You do this because you
+love me? It must be a great love, indeed, Roderick, to compel you to
+such an act--oh it must have been a very great love, indeed."
+
+"It is a great love; and there will be no sacrifice: there will be
+satisfaction."
+
+She arose from the chair, but stood as she was, with her back toward
+him.
+
+"You have forgotten one thing," she said, gently.
+
+"I have forgotten nothing."
+
+She raised her right arm, and pointed toward the house, through the
+trees.
+
+"You have forgotten the man, in there," she said, no less gently. It
+was his turn to shudder, but he repeated with doggedness in his tone:
+
+"I have forgotten nothing."
+
+"You mean to deal with him--afterward?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How? If I consent to all that you have asked, will you deal with
+him--gently?"
+
+"Can you plead for him, even now, when--?"
+
+"Hush! Answer my question, if you please."
+
+"I will deal with him more gently than he deserves. I promise you
+that."
+
+"I shall be satisfied with that promise." She turned about and faced
+him, and there was a smile on her lips, now, although Roderick
+entirely misunderstood the cause of it. He drew backward, farther away
+from her. But she followed after him, holding out one hand for him to
+take, and persisting in the effort when he refused to see it. There
+were tears under her lashes again, but she was smiling through them;
+and then, while she followed him, and he still sought to avoid her,
+Patricia lost all control over herself. She half-collapsed, half-threw
+herself upon the chair again, and buried her face in her hands,
+sobbing.
+
+"Don't Patricia; please, don't," he said to her, brokenly. "You make
+it much harder for both of us. This has been a terrible scene for you
+to pass through, I know, but after a little you will realize its
+wisdom--and the full justice of the cause I plead."
+
+She controlled herself. She started to her feet.
+
+"Come with me," she cried out to him; and then, before he could stop
+her, she darted away out of his reach, flew down the steps, and along
+the pathway, toward the house. He followed. There was nothing else for
+him to do. She waited for him at the top of the steps where he had
+first seen her; and, when he would have detained her, she eluded him a
+second time, and fled through the doorway, into the wide hall of the
+house--of Richard Morton's dwelling place.
+
+"Come," she called after him again; and again he followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE MYSTERY
+
+
+The house was a large one. It covered a great deal of ground although
+it was only one story high. A wide hall ran through the center of the
+main building, and there were doors to the right and the left. Through
+the first doorway to the right, Patricia made her escape; and, through
+it, Roderick Duncan followed her. But he brought up suddenly, the
+instant he had crossed the threshold, and stood there, staring.
+Patricia had passed swiftly ahead of him, and Roderick saw her drop
+upon her knees beside a couch-bed, whereon a man was lying--and that
+man was Richard Morton.
+
+Duncan was too greatly amazed for connected thought, but he was
+conscious of the fact that Morton's eyes sought him over the shoulder
+of Patricia, who knelt beside the couch. He had never thought that
+Morton's eyes were quite so expressive. They seemed almost to speak to
+him, to wonder at his presence there; but, stranger than all else, to
+express unquestionable pleasure because of his presence. He thought
+it remarkable that Morton did not move; that the man made no effort to
+rise, or to speak; that there was neither smile nor frown upon his
+white, still face. Then, Patricia's voice broke the spell that was
+upon him. She turned, and beckoned to him.
+
+"Come here, Roderick," she said, softly. "Come and speak to Richard.
+Tell him that you have come all the way out here, by a special train,
+to marry me, and that you have brought a minister along with you to
+perform the ceremony. Come, Roderick, come. He will be made very happy
+by the news." She turned toward the stricken man, again, and added:
+"Won't you, Richard?"
+
+Slowly the lids dropped for an instant over those strangely brilliant
+eyes, and, when they were raised again, the eyes seemed to smile at
+Roderick; but there was no other emotion visible about the prostrate
+man.
+
+"I have not told you about him, Roderick," Patricia said, rising to
+her feet, "but I will do so now, in his presence. He wishes it so; do
+you not, Richard?"
+
+Again, those eyes closed for an instant, and Roderick understood that
+the gesture, if gesture it could be called, meant an affirmative.
+
+"Richard wishes you to know all the truth about him," she continued.
+"I have promised him, many times, that some day I would tell you. He
+meant to kill himself that night, when he drove his roadster away from
+Cedarcrest. He guided his car, purposely, into the mass of rocks at
+the roadside. I found him there. Patrick O'Toole, who is devoted to
+me, was with me, you know. We saw the wreck, and stopped. Then, we
+found Richard. Oh, it was awful. I thought he was dead, and I believed
+that I was his murderer. I still think that I was the unconscious
+cause of it all, although he will not have it so. I was moaning over
+him, when Mr. Radnor--you remember him?--found us. He took us to a
+sanatorium that he knew about, where he said there was a good doctor;
+and so it proved. I forgot all about Jack Gardner's car, but later I
+sent Patrick back after it."
+
+Morton's eyes began to wink rapidly, and Roderick called Patricia's
+attention to the fact.
+
+"Yes; I know that I am getting ahead of my story," she said, as if she
+perfectly understood what the winking meant. "Richard was like a dead
+man when we arrived at the sanatorium--all save his eyes, and the fact
+that he breathed. He was completely paralyzed; only his eyes, and the
+lids over them, retained the power of motion. He was terribly
+injured. The doctor said he would not die, but that he would never
+move a muscle of his body again, no matter how long he might live. The
+power of speech was gone, too. Only his eyes lived; the rest of
+him--all but his eyes and his great heart--was dead."
+
+Morton's eyes began to wink rapidly, again.
+
+"Yes, I shall tell it all; only, let me do it in my own way," Patricia
+said to him. "Mr. Radnor told me that he had given fictitious names
+for both of us to the doctor. At first, I was offended because of it,
+but later, I was glad. The doctor permitted me to assist in the
+nursing--I ... I told him that I was Richard's wife. Mr. Radnor had
+already given that impression. I did not deny it; I made it more
+emphatic, in order that I might take the direction of affairs. When
+Mr. Radnor went away, he said he would return the following day; but I
+did not want him to do that, and so, when the next day came, I
+persuaded the doctor to telephone to him that he must not come. Also,
+when Mr. Radnor took his departure, I sent Patrick with him, to care
+for Jack's car. I told him to deliver it at the garage, and then to
+return to me, at the sanatorium, for further orders. But, when he
+came back, he told me he had abandoned the car in the streets of New
+York, knowing that it would be found and claimed, and wishing to avoid
+the necessity of answering questions. Am I telling the story
+satisfactorily now, Richard?"
+
+Slowly, the speaking eyes drooped their assent, and she went on:
+
+"At the end of a few days, Richard was much better of his hurts. There
+was no change in the other condition--the one that still holds him so
+helpless. I seemed to have a positive genius for understanding him,
+and he made me know--you see, I kept asking questions till he made the
+positive or the negative sign. I hit upon that idea because once,
+Roderick, you made me read 'The Count of Monte Cristo,' and I
+remembered old Nortier--Well, Richard made me understand several
+things. One was that he wished to come here, as soon as possible;
+another was that, most emphatically, he did not wish to have any of
+the old friends and acquaintances in New York know what had happened
+to him. Fortunately, he had a large sum of money in his pockets--What
+are you insisting about now, Richard?" she concluded, with a smile,
+perceiving that the eyelids of the stricken man were working rapidly.
+He looked steadily at her, and she shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Very well," she said, "I understand you. Roderick, he wishes me to
+tell you that he had the money with him because he intended to run
+away with me, that evening, and that he came very near to doing so. He
+wants me to tell you that he was a brute, and everything bad and mean
+and low and--there! I hope you are satisfied, Richard."
+
+The eyes slowly closed and opened again.
+
+"Richard had a large sum with him. I, also, had a considerable amount
+with me. I had had some thought of running away from all of you, and
+had prepared myself for such an emergency. Well, when I knew what
+Richard wanted, I took command of things. I did not consult him at
+all, but went directly ahead, in my own way. I always did that, you
+know, Roderick. I engaged a private car and a special train to bring
+us here; engaged them in the name of--in the assumed name, you know.
+One week from the day we entered the sanatorium, we left it again,
+went aboard the special train, and came here. Patrick came with us. He
+refused to leave.
+
+"Oh, yes; I am forgetting something. You needn't wink so hard,
+Richard. I shall tell all of it. Richard protested with his eyes
+against my accompanying him. I do believe that he never once stopped
+blinking them, all the way out here. He would have said horrid things
+to me, if he could have spoken. I think that I was sometimes really
+glad he could not do so, fearing what he might have said. But nobody
+else could understand him; I could, and did. He was utterly helpless,
+and it was my fault that he was so. Yes, it was, and is, Richard, so
+stop protesting. I bribed the doctor at the sanatorium, to say nothing
+at all about us, and above all to keep every bit of information away
+from Mr. Radnor. Then, we came here.
+
+"At first, it did not occur to me that I should remain, but, when I
+understood how entirely dependent Richard was upon me, I had to stay.
+Think of what he had been, Roderick, and of the condition to which I
+had brought him! It seemed a very little thing for me to do, to stay
+here and be his wife--Yes, that is what I decided to do; only, he
+would not let me. Just think of it! I have begged and pleaded with him
+to marry me, and he has refused."
+
+Again, the eyes began a violent winking, and Patricia, smilingly,
+said:
+
+"Oh, yes. He wants me to tell you that he has begged and pleaded, just
+as hard, for me to return to New York, and leave him here, helpless
+and alone, and that I have been just as contrary about this, as he was
+about the other. There! Can you imagine our quarreling, Roderick?
+Well, just before you appeared here, this evening, we had been having
+a violent quarrel. I was really angry at Richard, when I went out upon
+the veranda--and met you. He had ordered me out of the house. He had
+said, as plainly as he could look it, that he didn't want me here;
+that I was only a trouble to him; that I made him unhappy by
+remaining; that he would be much better in every way if I were gone.
+He ... he made me understand that my ... my good name was in question;
+that I would be talked about. I confess that I had never thought of it
+in that light, before. I asked him again to marry me, and let me
+remain; but he refused. Then, I left him, in a huff, declaring that he
+couldn't drive me away. And then"--she turned directly toward Roderick
+this time, and held out both her hands--"I almost ran into your arms,
+Roderick."
+
+"Do it now, Patricia," he replied, taking her hands, and drawing her
+closer.
+
+"I can't. You are much too near to me. But--"
+
+She did not finish what she was about to say; and Roderick held her
+tightly in his embrace for just one glorious moment, while the eyes of
+the stricken man glowed upon them with unspeakable joy in their living
+depths.
+
+Patricia drew slowly and reluctantly away from Roderick's embrace, and
+once more got upon her knees beside the couch.
+
+"You were right, Richard, after all," she said. "I think it would have
+killed me if I had found Roderick again, after I was the wife of
+another. You were right, dear one. You have always been right. But
+everything is made clear, now. Roderick is here. He loves me. You are
+pleased that he is here, and that he does love me, and my cup of
+happiness is filled to the brim. Speak to him, Roderick."
+
+"Dick Morton, I think you are the bravest man I ever knew," said
+Roderick, stepping forward and permitting his hand to rest for a
+moment upon Morton's forehead. "I want you to be my friend, as long as
+you live, and I want Patricia to continue to care for you, just as
+long as you need her. We will go back East in a day or so, and you
+shall go with us."
+
+The eyes winked a vehement negative, but Roderick continued:
+
+"Oh, you'll think differently about it, after a bit of thought. In
+the meantime, how would it suit you to have a wedding, right here, in
+your room, before your eyes? Eh? He says 'Yes' to that, Patricia."
+
+It was twenty-four hours later. Patricia and Roderick Duncan had just
+been united in marriage by the Reverend Dr. Moreley, and had turned
+about on the platform which projected from the front of the veranda to
+receive the congratulations of their witnesses, who were made up of
+the entire outfit of Three-Star ranch. The couch of the invalid was
+beside them, a cheer was still ringing in the air, when two
+dust-covered horsemen rode upon the scene.
+
+They came to a sudden halt when it was discovered what they had
+intruded upon, but Burke Radnor, never at a loss for words, jumped
+from the saddle and came swiftly forward. The bride saw him,
+recognized him instantly, and smiled. Then, she beckoned to him.
+
+"Come up here, Mr. Radnor," she called. "You were very good to me when
+I needed a friend, and I want to thank you for your silence, since
+then." Radnor flushed. "Please shake hands with my husband, and
+remember that I want both of you to forget your old differences. There
+shall be nothing but happiness here, now. And this is our dear friend,
+Mr. Richard Morton. He cannot shake hands with you, but he can look
+his pleasure at greeting you."
+
+"How are you, Radnor?" said Roderick. "I think, we'd better follow
+Mrs. Duncan's advice, and be friends; eh? I think I know why you came,
+and now I'll see to it that you have a good story to wire to your
+paper, to-night. It will beat the one you hoped to get, all hollow.
+I'll get you to one side and alone, presently, and tell you all about
+it. Listen to those cowpunchers cheer, will you! But, I'll tell you
+what, it isn't a patch on the cheer that is in my heart."
+
+"You have won the first woman in the land, Duncan," said Radnor,
+shaking hands heartily.
+
+"The first woman? No, the last. It takes the last woman to do things,
+Radnor."
+
+"And the best; eh?"
+
+"Both, old chap."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+=BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS=
+
+=Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.=
+
+
+
+=THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal life. With illustrations by
+Charles Livingston Bull.=
+
+Appeals alike to the young and to the merely youthful-hearted. Close
+observation. Graphic description. We get a sense of the great wild and
+its denizens. Out of the common. Vigorous and full of character. The
+book is one to be enjoyed; all the more because it smacks of the
+forest instead of the museum. John Burroughs says: "The volume is in
+many ways the most brilliant collection of Animal Stories that has
+appeared. It reaches a high order of literary merit."
+
+
+
+=THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Illustrated.=
+
+This book strikes a new note in literature. It is a realistic romance
+of the folk of the forest--a romance of the alliance of peace between
+a pioneer's daughter in the depths of the ancient wood and the wild
+beasts who felt her spell and became her friends. It is not fanciful,
+with talking beasts; nor is it merely an exquisite idyl of the beasts
+themselves. It is an actual romance, in which the animal characters
+play their parts as naturally as do the human. The atmosphere of the
+book is enchanting. The reader feels the undulating, whimpering music
+of the forest, the power of the shady silences, the dignity of the
+beasts who live closest to the heart of the wood.
+
+
+
+=THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A companion volume to the "Kindred of the
+Wild." With 48 full page plates and decorations from drawings by
+Charles Livingston Bull.=
+
+These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in
+their appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. "This
+is a book full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull's
+faithful and graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own
+tell the story of the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the
+pen pictures of the authors."--_Literary Digest._
+
+
+
+=RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak Wilds,
+and His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 illustrations,
+including frontispiece in color and cover design by Charles Livingston
+Bull.=
+
+A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome
+reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of
+the hunt from the point of view of the hunted. "True in substance but
+fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and
+free-footed, those who know animals and those who do not."--_Chicago
+Record-Herald._
+
+
+=GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York=
+
+
+
+
+=FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS=
+
+=IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS=
+
+Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size,
+printed on excellent paper--most of them finely illustrated. Full and
+handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.
+
+
+
+=NEDRA, by George Barr McCutcheon, with color frontispiece, and other
+illustrations by Harrison Fisher.=
+
+The story of an elopement of a young couple from Chicago, who decide
+to go to London, travelling as brother and sister. Their difficulties
+commence in New York and become greatly exaggerated when they are
+shipwrecked in mid-ocean. The hero finds himself stranded on the
+island of Nedra with another girl, whom he has rescued by mistake. The
+story gives an account of their finding some of the other passengers,
+and the circumstances which resulted from the strange mix-up.
+
+
+
+=POWER LOT, by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Illustrated.=
+
+The story of the reformation of a man and his restoration to
+self-respect through the power of honest labor, the exercise of honest
+independence, and the aid of clean, healthy, out-of-door life and
+surroundings. The characters take hold of the heart and win sympathy.
+The dear old story has never been more lovingly and artistically told.
+
+
+
+=MY MAMIE ROSE. The History of My Regeneration, by Owen Kildare.
+Illustrated.=
+
+This _autobiography_ is a powerful book of love and sociology. Reads
+like the strangest fiction. Is the strongest truth and deals with the
+story of a man's redemption through a woman's love and devotion.
+
+
+
+=JOHN BURT, by Frederick Upham Adams, with illustrations.=
+
+John Burt, a New England lad, goes West to seek his fortune and finds
+it in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and
+pitilessly crushes his enemies. The story of the Stock Exchange
+manipulations was never more vividly and engrossingly told. A love
+story runs through the book, and is handled with infinite skill.
+
+
+
+=THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations by
+Lester Ralph, and inlay cover in colors.=
+
+A great dramatic story of the city that was. A story of Bohemian life
+in San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like
+accuracy. Compressed into it are all the sparkle, all the gayety, all
+the wild, whirling life of the glad, mad, bad, and most delightful
+city of the Golden Gate.
+
+=GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York=
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Minor inconsistencies in spellings have been corrected;
+   the original spelling has been retained.
+
+   page 303: In the sentence: "The fact of our marriage will
+   be published broadcast at once, and even his suspicions
+   will be stilled." The word "and" has been added after
+   "published."
+
+   The table of contents was created for this eBook and
+   does not appear in this form in the original text.
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST WOMAN***
+
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