THE MAN TEAT QUIT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7057, 19 February 1910, Page 3

THE MAN TEAT QUIT.

(By Goorgo Randolph Chester, in "Munsoy's Magazine") Rest! He realised at last with what passion he had ccr.u:d it lie had foir-ht the i!»od fight, arid had won it over" and over again, at the expend of brain and nerves and body, until now, already past tho ago when wen ""7' , reasonably hope to retire, ho was gla<i that the breakdown had actually evme. Tho winning of his last great fight with Kane, fox tho control ot .National Pacific, had cost him more m s" 0 "" 1 ' 1 and energy than he had cared to acknowledge while tho burden ot it was upon him. Now that it wasall hi hiWlf was- forced to adu.it toU was climax, that had b.t . foretold by his angry I'r past ton years. J 1., teemed to keningly throughout his body; VL and oven hb limbs tremoled- the ka*t exertion nut him out ot breath, hult bl* eyeballs, muffled his hearing and sot 1m a/iuiver like an ague. thought distressed bun, . blurred his •mind, his virion, hie hearing. that he heard hi, stock of " u f stall you own," the doctor wrath full} iSSSX "Bvory cent that you hav must bo put into securities .-s ttaiJo lifo that you have been k-artmfi; you must not even sec a aowspapw.; }ou most go back to tho soil,, not as a Jusa humble tiller; you must '™ *? tho earth itself, or I would U«" snap of my fingers for your life. You must go at once, not to tho huuunib,, but to tho real country.' , "The real country!" repeated smiling. "Doc I don't need ursjW I h*a boon tho dream of .my life, but the time hadn't come. rvow » . rca '\fWhy, do you know I was born m tho country? All morning I have been SuiiK tho rich, brown furrow, fresh flawed after spring rams. tiustin« the mealy dust of tho road upon my.tongue, h earing tho musical clank ot tracechains. IHd you ever hear to. souud, doc? You only notice .it at evening ■whan the horses are coining home Ir.oin ?he fieldl I* used to bo tho happiest minute of tho day for me- when I could oSmb on top of old Frank's back-u tack so broad that my boy less stuck straight out both sides-and lumber ST leading Bess, with those chains rattTing and clinking at every stop. . M was liner still if I could trot them a hifctle, dinging to the bis,- wooden names and bouncing up and down until my-in-ner manikin should have been clmnwd to a froth—but that seldom happened. Frank and Bess were willing enough to trot, even at sundown, because they were going homo to supper, but dad wouldn t allow it. Oh, he was a Rood old dad—kind to everything that breathed and all right, vou old tyrant, and I m poms to stay there for tho balance of hit days. I tare the place-bought the old farm whore I was born—and I'm never going to seo a stock-ticker again. I m not «ven gome to have a telephone, nor any new-fa Wed. lights of aid farm the war it.used to be—and I'm going to quit being a slave; la going to be a king!" . , , ±l. "Don't talk bo much " retorted the doctor savagely. "Wait till you set real air In your lungs to do it wrtli. Dnexel, his excitement over for tne moment, was a trifle.exhausted. and bad closed hia eyes. Now ho opened them slowly, and emiled again at his old friend. ; ,„„, , 1 "All right." ho E axl, "111 be good. But wait till I have been back--in the country ono year, and if vou talk to me like that I'll lick sou!"

It was in a perfect spring-trmo that Tom. Drexel. the shaggy, sick lion of th ß Street, wont back to the soil. The pure, cool breezes, faintly scented, with the sweetness of a • thousand blossoms, blew ■UDon his throbbing brow and his pallid cheeks, and carried their precious cleansing forces deep through and through his lungs to his vitiated blood, to send it, renewed and revivified, tingling to his very tips. The healing sun beat down upon him, crisping his hair with new Lifo. tinting his pale, skin with its ruddy Hold. His worn and jaded stomach, returned gratefully to homely fare. Ho watched bud and leaf and blossom unfold, and fruit form and swell and wax ripe; he watched the brown fields turn to green, the tall grain shoot up, and head and beard, and wave yellow under the sun; he delved in tho soil with his own hands;. he planted dark, inert grains, and wondered at the eternal mysterv of lifo that lay concealed within them; he saw the tender shoots creep thrcuah in all their marvelous purity of olive and emerald; he tended each growing plant with the reverent oaTe that belonged to the God-ffiven miracle of its birth and growth and maturity, and he ate of his own provender tiros' magically evolved out of tasteless dint. He was up each mornipg with the rose-tinted dawn; through the sunlit hours ho courted blessed fatigue; the tender Doepdn,™ of the birds as they crept sleepily to their nests at dusk found him, too, heavy-lidded, and he slant ao he had not slumbered since ha had been a barefoot boy. He played "hooky." moreover. There were days when he stole away, whilo the chill dew still hung heavy on the grass, with runoh-pail in hand and pole swung over shoulder, and fished all tho long, lazy

morning and afternoon in tho little brook, which, alono of all things, had not changed since it had laved his youthful limbs. There- were other time* when he lay whole hffurs nxsmc- upon tils back on tufted (.'raw beneath wavinsr shade, gazing into tho deep, .steel blue ot the sky, and, like Antaeus of old, g'i.!heiiiig new- strength from his mother earth. Not ono trace of regret or discontent marred his i-nv in this richness of life that had come tt> him. He was back now ro his birthright, and lus Ion" years of tense exile had, ho thankfully pon-1 eicrod, ripened him to appreciate this vast boon that had become his. The earth and the fulness thereof I Bor pictures ho had all tho subtle shadings of Nature's palette; tho thousand tints of green in the endless varieties of verdure, the changing blue of the sky, tho purple and mauve of tho distant tree-clad hills, the yellow of smooth, dandelion-studded meadows, tho blending browns of the bare earth, tho pinks and reds and scarlets of ripening fruits and berries, and the wholo riotous gamut of colour in garden and wayside flowers. Iflor music he had the morning song ot a myriad buds, tho lowing of kine. the cackiing of fowl, the neighing of horses (lie barking of dogs, tfcft clear calls ot tho v.-orkmon in tho fields, the rustling of 'eow-s the tinkle of running, water, and, at night, tho cbii-ping of enckots and all broad, endless- undertone with wliieii Nature's vast, brooding silence is bo mysteriously underlaid. Tho spring .passed its blooming, and the .siuamer its ripening, and the winter fell. Now there were new ioys of cris,p~ ing air and crackling snow and pure r,-hite landscape, and the blood flowed ever richer and still more rich within Ms tightened veins. .Again tho spring drew on and the world was born anew. Over once more was enoicled tho miracle of bud and ieat and blossom, and fruit that formed and Hwollctl and waxed to its ripeness, and Tom Drexel was a new man, keen of e»o. brown of cheek, erect of carriage, tense of muscle, elastic of step, feeling within -him a glorious thrill and tingling as if he wero drawn tense and taut like the strings of a violin. There wero days when he sang and whistled like a schoolboy, and, like a schoolboy, felt the impulse to run and leap and shout aloud for the very joy of life itself. • iOn such, a day a big red machine came ohulfmg and chugging along tho road '.that bordered bis paradise. In the back seat, reclining against .-padded cushions, sat a ilabby, corpulent figure, that ho knew.

"Hello. Kane!" called Drexel, leaning comfortably over hiß fence. Tho automobile stopped, and tho corpulent man crazed, puzzled, upon this bronzed and sturdy white-haired farmer. "Hello. Kano!" called Drexel again. "What has tempted you out of purgatory?" „., . , Tho man in -the automobile remained silent for a. long moment until Drexel took his hat and, laughing, ran his fingers through Ms hair. . "Tom Bros el. "by gad'-" exclaimed Kano at tho familiar gesture, and clambered down from hie car. He shook hands heartily with the man who had smashed him two years before. Evidently Kano had not stayed smashed, and Drexel was sorry. "For," he explained, "you might have been driven •out into God's country!" "It might not have been a bad thing if I could have met with your regeneration." confessed Kano. "Show me your fountain of youth. Tom." Drexel glanced for a pitying moment at the deop, gray rpouches under tho other man's eyes, at the flabby, hanging jowls, at the triple chin, at the puffy hands. Then ho turned slowly, waving his hand in a sweep that took in all thifl Eden. "Here it is, Dave," he said. Thero is no secret about it. Cut your and come out into the Almighty e biggest benediction. 11l sell yon. half my farm, or give it to you." Kane shook his head with a smile, -though he dwelt enviously upon the cleau.iirm flesh, of Dresel's cheeks and tho clear eves .that.seemed in these last two years to have "bathed in the pure colour of the sky itself until they had taken on ite rpelluoid blue. "Can't seo it just yet." he replied. "T have a fight or two on my hands that Tather hold me to it; You ought to know how that is."

Drexel nodded comiprehendingly. "And yet, Dave," he said. "I wouldn't go back' into that maelstrom again under any inducement!" "I don't know," commented the other, shaking Ms head. "It is a mighty interesting maelstrom, and a man has to bo strong to Tosist being drawn down. Suppose you've heaTd of my Traction Consolidation' battle?" ";/. Drexel hoard it indifferently. "Not a word," he replied, "I haven't seen a newsipaper since I've" been here, and don't want to see one." "Nonsense.! Tou don't.mean iti" said Kane incredulously. "Am I to understand that you're not interested in Blakeley's fight aginst the President, and that you're not even keeping track of the w-ar?" "There ,is a war, isn't there?" answered Drexel. "I have heard talk of one some place on the other side of the earth, but I can't really see how it should interest mi" Kane whistled. , "Not even its influence on National Pacifio, I suppose?" he suggested, watching Drexel narrowly. "Not even that," was the steady reIf anything had stirred him it would have been this, for National Pacific had been his. ideal, his creed, his worship. The tremendous constructive operations of its lusty youth had fascinated him in his own young days. He had looked Upon it as the acme of human enterprise. When he had made his advent on the Street, its masters had seemed to him lords of creation, and when, after a struggle of years, he had held it in the hollow of his hand, he felt: for a time that he hod attained . the height of financial achievement. He was pleased, now, however, to find that even this magic name had lost its thrill. "No, Kane," ho said with a finality that was not by any means of the surface alone. "± am through with that, life forever. Here I have found rest and peace after what you have good reason to know was a rather stormy career, and here I propose to end my days in the supremest content that the Creator hart .provided for his like to show you what a Me this is. Stay overnight with'me. Stay a week!" Kano shook his head. "Sorry, old man, bat I can't do it." "Stop to supper., anyhow. I'll go so far as to call it dinner in your honour." "Can't possibly do it. Tom. I must be over at the junction by 7 o'clock. I inav drop down some time this summer "lor a week-end stay with you, but just now I must make up for lost time." Once more he shook hands with Drexi-1 and climbed into bis machine. "By the way, Tom." he oaid aa he settled himself down, "speaking of National Pacific. . you ought to see the war Harmon is' smashing it." "Harmon?" echoed Drexel"Tes. Ed Harmon. Ee'6 been after it hammer and tongs for six months now, with blow aftor blow, ho and his followers. They have Curtis, and that crowd, to whom you released your holdings, on the run. He has wrecked half a dozen of the minor lights, and is aPer Curtis himself. Tt is common talk on the Street that Harmon will have National Pacifio broken Into Httlo bits by fall, and will have gobbled up the pieces. Well, good-bye, old man I" 111. Kane whirred away. Drexel gaaed after the big red machine until it.was out of sight and then, with a sudden shrug of the, shoulders, he turned back to the field that -was his special pride. Here he was experimenting with a new line of wheat culture in which ho was vastly interested—a 1 shorter, heavier «row"th. with a head nearly twico as long

as tho beet known variety, and with grains much larger. It hjd been an absorbing occupation, the development of this grain; and for the rest of the afternoon he deyoted himself absorbedly to that day's observation and deduction. Occasionally- some thought of Kane and what he had said would recur, but it gave I)re:cel very little unrest. What did ho caro about the doings of the Street? Ho had attained happiness at last, and ho intended to retain his hold upon it. 110 pitied Kane and Curtis and the others who were chained for life to that pitiless wheal of Ixion. After suppor ho went out upon the porch, as was his nightly habit, and sat with, his feet upon the rail, looking across the level fields and above tho groon-sloped hills, to whore the fleecy, pearl-gray clouds that sailed in the golden sea of the jmnset were already taking upon themselves delicate carmine keels.

Harmon! His ancient enemy. tb« man he had thrashed and thrashed aaain until, in those later reara, a snarl from Drexel had been sufficient to drive him, whipped, to cover I Harmon '. Why, for rears Harmon had not dared to raise his eves toward anything that Drexel took under his protection; and now this cringeling of the Street was daring to attack National Pacific! What was the matter- with the Curtis faction? Did they not know Harmon's heel oif Achilles? Did they not know that the Midland Valley was his weak point? Did thor not know that it hung about hi.s neck like a millstone, that he could not gat rid of. it, that, it was the wall of clay in "his fortification of rock, that by attacking it they could reduco Harmon, to a driveling, crawling, fawning 6iippiiant for mercy? It could not be .possible that Harmon had at last rid himself of Midland Valley, or that, having rid himself of it, bo had no other vulnerable spot! Harmon! Bah! He was filled with disgust and something more. It was not just anger; it was more like vengefulness Ho was impatient with Curtis and !iis cliauo that they should al'ow any one. principled or unprincipled, Harmon or bis betters, to attack that, great, proud institution that had for its outward and visible sign a broad, double row of shining steel rails stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, carrying tho golden flood-tide of the traffic of th-3 continent I

Before Drexel was &pread the most beautiful sunset of the season. Tho neecy gray clouds that had at first but flecked tho golden sea had massed a 6 the gold changed to salmon, and now through tho roiling interstices came vast floods of deepest red. Whore the clear sky shone through between tie lacing of the trees upon the distant horizon, it was as if some great, ruddy flame had leaped up to devour the very firmament itself. Harmon! Impatiently Drexel jerked his feet from the porch railing and let his chair como down with a thump. He tossed his cigar away and stalked down off tho Twrch. striking straight across the field toward that glorious -panorama of the skies which he dad not see. man! That the our should dare to attack National Pacific I

All at once Drexel stopped abruptly, appalled by this- sudden fever that had descended upon him, this tremendous pull that had set up within him todras him back to that maelstrom from which he had escaped. Ho returned to tho porch and. forced iimself back upon the chair where he had enjoyed the tranquillity of eo many peaceful evenings. He. bent his mind away from tho turbing new thought by sheer power of will, and he . compelled himself to review in detail all of the many intereste tnat bound him to this neaceful retreat, until a.t last, the turmoil stilled, he rested upon the fascinating problem of his new wlieat .product that was to revolutionise the bread crop of the world. He smiled to himself as he realised how easily ho had shaken off the momentarily startling trumpet-call to his old battle-fields.

II was with a perfectly tranquillised ■mind that he went to Bed, and out oZ habit that - had grown up within thescpast healthful Wo years, ho dropped Into almost instant slumber; but in tho middle of the night he awoke to finci himself lighting Harmon back to hie hole with fierce energy, protecting National Pacific, and, building up anew ta»6 breaches that hail been made in its ramparts. He found himself again in the exercise 01 that fierce determination to win that - had made Tom Drexel the tornado of the Exchange. This time no mere force of will could drive out the battle-lust that Had come back to him. Like an irresistible flood from some .mighty daim that has been broken away, the very sounds of the conflict itself came pouring tumultuously upon his excited imagination; tho roar of the streets, the clang of gongs," the hoarse cries of the newsboys, the hurry and strain of closing-time, the pandemonium of the floor —all these, and a thousand other notes that went to make up the great symphony of modern business struggle, filled his ears and flooded his soul. . ' In the gray dawn of that morning, a man, furiously driving two fine country horses, flew along the. road toward the junction, where, within the hour, an early train was due. lit was Tom Drexel, going back to the fight I.