Robert Barr

“ Nevertheless, I've staked my money on Ponderby, and predict that for the first time in your life you will realise the true bearing of the British aristocracy. America is said to be the land of the free, and I want a slice of liberty. I want to knock round with the boys, dine at their clubs, accept what invitations I receive, and have a good time generally, while poor Ponderby sits in splendid gloom at the swell hotel. I have an idea, Peter, that we won't catch a weasel asleep. If Flannigan is all you say, he will arrange an interview with Lord Stranleigh. ”

“ He will prefer to take the half loaf rather than go without bread altogether."
"I'd feel safer, Stranleigh, if you promised to join us after you learn that Preston has refused to deal with us at all."
"All right," cried his lordship, springing to his feet, as joyously as if someone had challenged him to a game of billiards, "I'll stand by you."
"Nevertheless," demurred Mackeller, "I don't want to lure you into a fight which you consider hopeless."
"My dear fellow, nothing is hopeless until your mind says it is so. Hopelessness is a mental quality, not something pertaining to a case. ”

“ Then his thoughts turned to the two farmers who had lunched with him; splendid specimens of independent, stalwart men, sane with the sanity of all out-doors; the common-sense of the open air, the fields, and the woods. Next his mind wandered to a vastly different type: to Stiles and the men he represented, working hard from dawn till dark for insufficient wages, on insufficient food; living in insanitary dwellings under conditions nothing like so luxurious as that enjoyed by Stranleigh's pigs at the Home Farm. ”

“ The young man dismissed his cab at the corner and walked past John Bendale's premises to the much more magnificent establishment of Richard Brassard. He noticed the meagre display in the former, like the collection of a junk shop as compared with the bright, steely glitter of the wares behind the plate-glass window, and he admitted to himself that, if in search of a poniard, and knowing nothing of either man, his custom would have gone to Brassard. ”

“ Lord Stranleigh?"
"Oh, no; you are merely taking advantage of the situation which your own genius has disclosed. I have been but clay in your hands, Mr. Brassard. I entered this place, as I thought, an honourable man, and I leave it a cool villain. But suppose I refuse to pay you twenty-five thousand pounds, what then?"
"What then? In that case I shall crush Bendale like an eggshell, and I shall further inform him of your intrigue with his wife." ”

“ Lord Stranleigh laughed, and raised his champagne glass.
"Well, here's to our better acquaintance," he said. "What you say shows how little a man really knows himself. I had never imagined I was a human Port Arthur, to be approached by such military-like strategy, and finally captured by courage and tact. I had supposed myself one of the most accessible men in London."
"My lord, you are surrounded by people whose business it seems to be to frustrate the ambition of the public to make your acquaintance." ”

“ Give me time to recover my admiration for the tactics of the Great Southern Railway, and please remember that I am a large shareholder in that road. I own twenty thousand shares of stock, so, in spite of your Scottish rigidity, do show a little compassion for the man who expects his twenty thousand shares to increase in value because of the manipulation you have just explained. Sit down, Peter, with the one man who is able and willing to lend you all you ask, and, believe me, it is only reasonable that I should require some inkling of what you propose to do when you obtain the money. ”

“ Bronson Marlow went on, "I am a member of the Scientific Society's Club. London, as you know, is full of clubs, each organised for a definite object; social, political, literary, sporting, scientific, or what-not. It is a remarkable thing that there filter into all clubs certain men who to outward appearance have not the least qualification for membership, and this anomaly the Scientific Society's Club has not escaped. One of our prominent members is a gross, fat man, named Isador Isaacstein, who, whatever his attainments may be, is quite innocent of even a smattering of science." ”

“ All the time I was in America I never spoke to a woman. Now, Mrs. Mackeller has taken a violent dislike to me. Peter is so honest and transparent that I can see right through him, and I know she's filling his mind with prejudice against me. There was a little business arrangement in America which she wanted Peter to pull off, and which Peter was perfectly willing to pull off, but suddenly Peter, like a man who can't swim wading in an unknown river, stepped out of his financial depth. ”

“ THE RISE OF THE BENDALE STORES Two workmen walked down Piccadilly together; one a grim, soured, pessimistic, elderly man, the other a cheerful, humorous person who seemed to be enjoying the Vanity Fair exhibited by this celebrated street of wealth and fashion, whose pavements were crowded by well-dressed, leisurely promenaders, and whose roadway gave forth a gentle purr of expensive automobiles, punctuated by the sharp click-click of hoofs belonging to high-bred horses drawing, in elegant vehicles, no less high-bred ladies, or otherwise, as the case might be. ”

“ When one looks at this immense emporium, when one threads his way through crowded shops to this office, which contains the brains of the business, and when one realises that this has all been built up in ten short years by a man single-handed, it doesn't take much perspicuity to understand that such a man cares little for the opinion of his fellows."
Brassard's eyes were wide open now, but his gaze on the other was more penetrating than ever. Some doubt arose in his mind that he had rated the young man properly in classing him as a floor-walker. ”

“ I'll give your husband five thousand for his business cash down across the counter. I've always wanted to own a shop. I'm essentially democratic in my tastes, although I try to do my duty by the aristocracy. I'll buy out the store of cutlery and put your husband in as manager at a good salary. I fear I should not make a good shopman, especially in the sale of pocket-knives, for if any tatterdemalion boy came in who hadn't quite enough money for the weapon he wanted, I fear that sympathy with his desire would overcome my shrewdness as a tradesman and I should let the knife go under cost price. ”

“ The newspapers rang with this important announcement. The richest man in England, if not in the world, was holding a private conversation, no witnesses present, with the greatest manipulator of railways then in existence. It was boldly stated that this had been the object of Lord Stranleigh's visit to the United States, and that he was going to place a thousand million of dollars at the disposal of P. G. Flannigan. Flannigan stocks rose like balloons; that two hours and a half behind closed doors sent an electric thrill through the whole investment world. ”

“ Lord Stranleigh. I can't both have my cake and eat it. As I've sold you this business for more than five times what it is worth, it would be absurd that I should receive nearly half of it back again."
"Nothing is so deceptive as these old adages, my dear Bendale. Thousands of men possess their cake and eat it too. There is our friend Brassard, for instance. He has built up a tremendous cake by gaining possession of the small cakes that belonged to other people and welding them together, as one might say. He not only has his cake, but the more he eats of it, the bigger it seems to grow. ”

“ I'm the easiest man to provide for that ever stepped aboard a yacht. Give me a bit of salt junk—if that's the right term—some hard tack, and a tankard of rum that smells of tar, and you've got me as contented as little Jack Horner with his Christmas pie. If, now that you're rich, you wish to live the simple life, as you said, come to me and take lessons."
The Honourable John Hazel, in spite of the effort he made, found some difficulty in clearing his perturbed brow. Several things that Lord Stranleigh said, quite unconsciously, had touched him on the raw. ”

“ The utter breakdown of the rural delegation was not lacking in a certain element of humour, even though it appealed strongly to the young nobleman's sympathy, and his inherent love of justice.
"If you give way in one thing, my lord, you must be prepared to give way in all," Wilson went on in hard accents of common sense.
"What do you mean by 'all,' Wilson?"
"I mean, my lord, that the farmers will want repairs to their houses, and out-buildings, when they learn how successful their labourers have been in getting you to listen to their complaints." ”

“ He is living, perfectly happy, in a fool's paradise. His daughter cannot even persuade him that he is in danger. It is she who sees what is ahead."
"Well, Peter, in spite of your compliment to my brain, the girl sees a great deal further ahead than I do. If you give me complete control of a company; if, after that, you double the capital I need, and if the company possesses an invention as useful as you indicate, I'd snap my fingers at Wall Street, Flannigan, and the London Stock Exchange combined. Isn't this young woman of yours just a trifle over-suspicious?" ”

“ Of course, he's a Duke, and I'm only an Earl."
"Don't boast. You're no Earl; you're merely a fisherman."
"True. I had forgotten for the moment. Well, Belmont paints the delights of society in most entrancing hues, but he's popular with the women. You see, I don't know how to talk to them. I'd speak to a woman as if she were a man, and quite reasonably she doesn't like that. Remember what a foolish remark I made to Miss Drummond, in the greatest of innocence, intimating that Stranleigh was no judge of art, and would buy her pictures because I asked him to, not through their merit at all. ”

“ Isaacstein. If I did go to Lord Stranleigh, he'd merely laugh at me. He does not believe I am shrewd enough either to save him, or to help myself. No, Stranleigh wouldn't pay ten thousand pounds for anything I could do for him, therefore you are quite safe. I will not waste time in protesting, though I would not sell you out because I am practically selling out Stranleigh, but I am showing you what is much more to the point—that if I attempted to betray you there are no buyers. Now are you satisfied?"
"Yes, that's the way I like to hear a man talk. That's business. ”

“ Lord Stranleigh, out of courtesy to yourself, I shall not declare this conference ended, and will take the trouble to make some explanation to you that may put this in a clearer light in your mind. A great railway company cannot be troubled by branches that do not belong to itself; that: are not under its own control. Branch lines rarely pay their cost of working, even under the most advantageous terms. They are merely feeders to the main line. But when a branch railway is under no control from the central office, an intolerable state of things ensues. ”

“ The young man came to a standstill, slightly raising his admirably glossy silk hat, but no light of recognition came into his eyes.
"I see you don't remember me, and no wonder," continued the woman breathlessly. "I called out before I thought, but I knew you very well as a lad, if I may be forgiven for calling your lordship a lad. I was Sally Hopkins, daughter of Job Hopkins, who kept the lodge at the west gate of Stranleigh Park, my lord."
A gentle smile came to the lips of Lord Stranleigh; a smile so winning that it would have disarmed the rancour of a socialist. ”

“ You never miss the water till the well runs dry, Peter. I'm trying to drive wisdom into that thick head of yours."
"I want to interest you in the business that is taking me to New York."
Stranleigh slowly shook his head.
"My boy, I have no desire to be interested. Interest usually involves excitement, which produces energetic action, and the first thing one knows, he's in a turmoil. I'm taking the rest cure, and living the simple life; I can get all the excitement I want at the race course." ”

“ The man who takes from his pocket a full purse after two o'clock in the morning, in a deserted side-street of London, runs considerable personal risk, and cannot be accounted overwise, even by his most ardent admirers, but Stranleigh had seldom been molested as he took his walks abroad at all hours of the day and night, and even when, upon occasion, he had encountered a band of roughs, he was known to have won them over by a certain charm of manner and speech which was as new to them as it was disconcerting. ”

“ Don't protest, but listen, my dear Bendale. More money than brains, who has not only paid you in cash the full value that your shop is worth, but has returned part of the stock, and has offered you a handsome salary to remain as manager. The chemist will be more than human if he does not at once implore you to give him an introduction to this financial idiot. ”

“ Pullman car train; lots of millionaires present, and newspaper men too. The newspaper men did not flinch; I'll say that for them, but I nearly scared the mortal lives out of some of your best financial citizens."
"Six hundred thousand! Third and last time! Mr. Flannigan, it's against you, sir."
"Wait a moment," said Flannigan, as if he commanded the universe; then to Lord Stranleigh, "Go on, sir."
"I had the engineer and fireman jump off and send us along the line at sixty miles an hour against some forty trucks of railroad iron standing on the single track. ”

“ So when it was announced that Lord Stranleigh was about to visit New York, the Press of that city was full of conjectures as to the cause of his western journey, and it also assured him that he would receive an enthusiastic reception on his arrival at the Empire City. The masculine leaders of finance, and the feminine leaders of fashion, were equally determined that the young man should find his visit interesting, and from what they had read of him, they were quite unprepared for the disdainful aloofness that characterised his conduct the moment he left the shores of old England. ”

“ If you tell me that the Council have not the power to authorise my cottages to remain, then I shall not say another word."
"Oh, it possesses the power right enough," replied he truculent Timmins.
"Then I submit, with all due respect, that in asking you to exercise this power I am not attempting to make you break the law."
"He's got you there, Timmins," said Mr. Grice, one of the farmers, with a hoarse laugh.
"What is it you propose, Lord Stranleigh?" asked Mr. Bennet, the other farmer, leaning forward. ”

“ A TOWN IN PAWN Just as Lord Stranleigh was putting up his cue after a most satisfactory game—he was very fond of billiards—an attendant of the Corinthian Club brought him a card on a silver salver. Lord Stranleigh took it rather languidly, but when he saw the name "Peter Mackeller," he brightened, and went down the stairs rather more eagerly than was his wont, to greet the mining engineer in the lobby of the club. He had not seen Peter since July, and it was now November. Even in July Peter had come to him because sent for, and not of his own accord. ”

“ Stranleigh sprang at him like a tiger-cat, landed one right-hander in his left eye, and a left-hander in his right eye, in such quick succession that the man staggered and threw up his hands, only to get a right-hander square in the mouth, then a left-hand blow at the point of the jaw, and a terrific right-hander, as the man's head turned sideways, under the ear that sounded like the back of an axe striking an oak post. ”