H. Bedford-Jones

“ Armstrong shrugged, but eyed his friend curiously. "You handle him with the voting trust, and avoid trouble. Be a diplomat."
"Diplomat, hell!" Macgowan leaped up, faced Armstrong with a bitter snarl. "Wake up! Are you a dursed weak-kneed idealist, blind to everything but your ideals? Can't you see that at times you have to be something else? Are you one of these temperamental cusses, strong one minute and up in the clouds the next? Cut out this drivel! I tell you, Findlater is a danger spot! Want to wake up and find you and your sentiment landed in the gutter, do you?" ”

“ Findlater won't object? He's rather puffed up over his job of president, these days."
"I'd like to see him object!" said Macgowan, drily.
Thus it had been arranged.
Now, watching visions in the ruddy flames, Armstrong's heart warmed to the thought of his friend. Few men had such a bar of steel at their back! Best of all, he had not bought Macgowan with gold. He had bought him with friendship, with the fairy coin of a mutual dream.
"I must be luckier than most," mused Armstrong. "They say that a man has only one person who'll never go back on him—his wife. ”

“ Only an artist can blend raw colors.
"Thank the lord, there's no formality about this house. Good things in plenty, but no useless frippery made for effect and expenditure. When one comes in here, it's to find a home that's lived in, used, created for comfort and enjoyment. Reese, old man, you're to be congratulated! With the cynical egotism of one who is too largely surrounded by a world of sham, I say that I myself could have done no better with this house. It is perfection."
"And that's a huge compliment, Dot, for Lawrence Macgowan to pay!" exclaimed the beaming Armstrong. ”

“ His voice reached her, now more restrained and thoughtful. "The Association is the only thing now between Macgowan and his loot; it's not me they're behind, however. We're not fighting for ourselves, at heart—though we're not prating about our altruism, naturally. It's for the sixteen thousand investors, the people scattered up and down the country—the fishes in Macgowan's net!"
"Ah!" said Dorothy suddenly. "But it's a fight of sixteen thousand and one, Reese—with the one man at the head of it who's worth it all!" ”

“ Deming somehow fumbled himself into a chair, become an old man in ten minutes.
About the table reigned silence. Men looked one at another and dared not speak. Ried Williams, with a slight shrug, lighted a cigarette; his sallow features were very cynical. Slosson stared at Deming, at Armstrong, with surly anger in his eyes. One would have said that he hated this man for whom he worked, this man whose daughter he had failed to win, and the other man in shirt-sleeves who had won her.
Armstrong read that gaze, and smiled at the fright, the anger, the bitter venom, of it. ”

“ She knew that her warning was futile.
"Very well, dear,"' she said, and forced a smile to her lips. "Did I startle you?"
Armstrong nodded, gravely searching her face. "Yes, Dot. I've never thought of Mac except as a trusted confidant, a friend who would never fail me."
"There's only one person who'll never fail you, dear," she murmured, then started at a sound from below. "Oh—mother's home! Don't tell them about Jimmy Wren's news. It would only worry them—"
"Then pay me for my silence," exclaimed Armstrong happily.
Dorothy felt again that her warning had been useless. ”

“ The blow was sudden and severe, staggering him and sending all his scheme of things into reeling chaos; yet it was not in him to take it with any hysterical whirlwind of outward display. Instead, as he came to cold realization of the truth, all the acute perception of his character was wakened and rallied to face the situation.
The hurt was there, and it was deep, but not so deep as Jimmy Wren thought with the first blaze of pain. His quick, sharp wakening was proof sufficient of this. ”

“ With Dorothy at the piano, Armstrong got his harp in shape and they settled down for an hour of music, while Macgowan smoked and listened with critical appreciation, or discussed the vicissitudes of that harp.
"A man can never be known for what he really is," he exclaimed during a pause, "until he can be observed either at the height of fortune, or at the lowest point of disaster. Observing you, Reese, at the summit of success, I find you exactly the same person you were the first day you entered my office. Feel any different inside?" ”

“ And how smoothly had Macgowan averted that danger, only to go to Washington and start his campaign?
So, Armstrong faltered. How could he fight, after all? He was alone, powerless, stripped of all connection with Consolidated. He had even agreed to sell his stock to Macgowan; unless he broke this agreement, he had nothing to fight with. A struggle now would mean battle to the death, without quarter; a battle of lies and deceit and powerfully entrenched men against one man who had nothing at his back. Nothing? Ah! This one man had behind him the faith of sixteen thousand people. ”

“ Well, there's one thing you can't grip, my man."
"What d'you mean?" Armstrong exclaimed, wondering. "Is Dorothy—"
"There's one thing ye can't grip, as you'll learn. No; I'm telling the truth when I tell ye that I don't know about Dorothy. This thing is mental and spiritual with her. She's been so bent on having it out with ye that it'll either kill or cure—oh, ye poor blind fool! There's no fool like a sincere fool—"
Armstrong smiled suddenly. "I know it, Irvin," he said quietly. "I should have written Dorothy—but it's one of those things that's mighty hard to write. ”

“ It is well known that the aforesaid metropolitan eye accepts a man at face value. This face value of Reese Armstrong was countersigned by a clean, alert, inspiring brain; it was untouched by the corroding fingers of greed or self-indulgence or crafty brooding. One instinctively perceived that this man held his given word above any minted pledge.
Armstrong had sought a letter of introduction to the best corporation lawyer in New York, and this letter brought him to Lawrence Macgowan. ”

“ The lawyer smiled, as though from a weary knowledge of mankind.
"My dear sir, that action was forced by Macgowan's control of the voting trust; and, further, by your state of mind upon discovery of his treachery. Every man in the world has at some time been betrayed by the friend he trusted; such, at least, is the supposition upon which I shall go. One or two men on a jury will certainly have had such an experience."
Armstrong nodded, then produced an evening paper. ”

“ Why, look at Armstrong! He'd let a man sit down and talk an hour. With all his cursed blue-law character, he'd listen to any proposition—he's big enough to do it. But not you. Why are you stalling about these suits?"
Macgowan's eyes narrowed, then a smile crept into them; not a nice smile. This unfavorable comparison with his enemy, particularly coming from Findlater, stung him unbearably. ”

“ Nothing so stings the soul of a man as injustice, and the entire content of that Seattle letter was false to the core—falser even than Armstrong dreamed at the moment. It was not the threatened trouble which hurt, not the warning sent Macgowan, but the black falsity of the whole affair.
Armstrong laughed at the thought of heading off the threatened inquiry. Any probe into the methods of Consolidated or of the Armstrong Company, would only result in exoneration. That the salesmen were misrepresenting Food Products was ridiculously untrue. Armstrong knew his salesmen. ”

“ Dorns and his men were vigilant, Mansfield was quick to parry and strike back. So transparent were the artifices of Macgowan that Armstrong was almost lulled into a feeling of security.
The tide steadily set in favor of the Protective Association. The body of stockholders were whipped into a frantic condition; suit and counter-suit, charge and counter-charge, all contributed to lash them into wild alarm. Upon some the crafty wiles of Macgowan prevailed; his campaign for proxies was reaching a desperate climax. ”

“ The cool audacity of the thing was staggering. No wonder Windsor was convinced by the evidence furnished him! Affidavits from two of the former Deming directors, actually implicating themselves, probably supported by cunning additional evidence twisted out of the truth to suit the occasion—why, it was damning!
Armstrong realized instantly that unless either Williams or Slosson could be shaken in their statements, he was doomed. If they stuck by their guns, nothing could save him. He turned suddenly on Robert Dorns, the flicker of a smile on his lips. ”

“ Another man might have pondered his folly, mourned the consequences of his blindness. Jimmy Wren was abruptly stirred to sanity, to a cold anger, to a keen lust of fight. His one thought now was how best he could strike back, repay this blow, use this bitter knowledge to repair the damage he must have unwillingly caused Armstrong. ”

“ A singular smile twisted the lawyer's lips.
"I know Judge Holcomb very well, Mr. Armstrong; we are friends of long standing. Old as he is, no man has a more reputable position, and no man can fight harder. I suggest that the entire truth be laid before him at once, and his help invited by you."
"I'll do it," assented Armstrong. "Now, I propose making an active campaign to reach each individual investor in Consolidated Securities. Of course, I have as yet no direct proof that Macgowan and his friends mean to loot the company; once that proof is secured, I'll go ahead strong." ”

“ Partnership, that was it! That was the mystery, oldest of the world's life, before which men and women fall down and worship in prayer and joyous laughter and exalted fear, the mystery wherein two becomes as one, one in faith and hope and tears and laughter, one for better or for worse; and each of them knowing with a deliberate surety that though all the sky crash down in ruin, there remains to welcome them one soul who cannot falter or fail—past life, past death, into hell or heaven itself. ”

“ Armstrong shrugged. "I'm not an automatic machine, and don't want the reputation of being one. It's because I'm human, Mac, that we've got nearly sixteen thousand investors on our books, letting us handle their money. Next year, twenty thousand. I don't believe in using a man for what you can get out of him, then kicking him off the pedestal. Findlater may be a fool and a crook, but he helped us. I don't care to be known as a business machine; can't afford it. The business of to-day and to-morrow isn't being run that way."
"Chivalric balderdash!" Macgowan growled and mouthed his cigar. ”

“ Macgowan's gaze searched Armstrong with a steady and appraising scrutiny.
"If it was my affair, Reese, I'd throw 'em out. Bounce them hard, get rid of them for good! They're under contract to serve for three years, without salary, in return for stock allotted them; we're where we can do without 'em, and we owe them no debt of gratitude for getting Consolidated under way. A bunch of real live men on the board would help us tremendously just now. I say, if they start any fuss, bounce them and begin over!" ”

“ With every day that passed, Armstrong found himself more impressed with Mansfield's advice as to this committee. Judge Holcomb had entered the fight with the ardor of a boy; a jurist of the highest integrity, a financier intimately associated with men in high places, he was invaluable. So, too, was Bruton—a man whom Macgowan could not possibly attack on any grounds. As for Rupert Sessions, a fiery but scholarly publicist and lecturer—Armstrong could not but feel sufficiently grateful for the chance which had flung such a man to his support. ”

“ I want to help Reese—for your sake. I want to save him, if I can. But don't give me that campaign bunk—it's nothing else. Listen to facts! Don't you know why he's pretending to fight for the sixteen thousand investors? Because that's his only possible shield. If Macgowan came out and charged him with wrecking Food Products and stealing it from your father, Reese could stand on his dignity and deny the charge. But what can he say to the law—to indictments and proof, and conviction? A grand jury has to be shown facts. If Macgowan shows those affidavits that I signed with Williams—good night! ”