THE HIGH HAND.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10761, 8 May 1911, Page 6

THE HIGH HAND.

(fly Jacques Futrello.)

A SERIAL STORY.

VII.

11l the aerie height of an office which overlooked the whole of the city of ,Vew York .Mr Pointer sat, a shrivelled wisp (,f a man, and —like Tenfelsdrockh —peered down "into all that wasp-nest or lieehive. and witneKM?d their wax

hiving ;m<l honey making :mrJ poison brewing, and choking liy .sulphur. . . . Tin' joyl'ul and tlit; .'urr.ini'ul are then'; men are dviiiji I liori*: men arc being horn : men are praying. . . Councillors o| state sit plotting and playing their high-cla»s game, whereof the pawns an' men." Mr Pointer rasped his skinny hand* together and. cackled dryly. "Whereof the |Kiirii,s are men!'' Tho phrase- pleased him; he played the game him.-cll rattier adroitly. Mr Pointer was one of the many tentacles of the octopus; a clearing-house of politieal information and adviser-in-chief of a host of men who guarded the political interests of certain gigantic corporations. He was the, one man -.who knew precisely why Governor Blank was not mad* United States Senator from the. state.of So-and-So; and why Dash wasn't returned to the city council from a certain district in the city of This-and-That; and why the mayor, of YouKnow vetoed bill No. 18, which was an act to repeal an act, et cetera. He knew these things -because'it was liis business to knowrthem—rand the. octopus paid him well. It was to him that Francis \Everard Lewis came, panic-stricken. Under the flittering eyes of this shrivelled little man he told his story;-'aIT of it, froriv ; •fim Warren's announcement ■ of, hid; candidacy up to and including the incident of the captured burglai 1 , who'had been sent by J'ranques to recover the photographs. He remembered with, abject horror.'the weary hoiirs "following that conversation Wsv'er-the telephone. Jim Warren had said he would turn the

burglar-over-to the police; if he had But he hadn't; he had released him. What motive lay back of that, lie didn't know, unless perhaps it was Jin:' Warren's desire to keep himself out of a possible controversy as to the breaking open of a certain safe. •'Why were yon keeping all your letters and ours?" Mr Pointer queried curtly. "What was the use of it?" "I thought perhaps they might be of value at some time," Lewis replied haltingly. " " "Of value.in case we ever decided to throw you down? Is that right? It was a ciub over our head?" "I don't know why I kept them," Lewis said desperately. "Certainly I didn't want them to get into the hands of any one else." "I * understand," said Mr Pointer testily. "The same scheme has been tried* before. It never works." He paused and stroked his withered chin. "Just when was it your—your man tried to recover the letters?" "Night before last." "Nothing has appeared since?" "Not yet; but Jim Warren's got them a!!. He" practically admitted as much over the 'phone to me." "And now what'tin you purpose doing?" "I don't know; that's why I am here. What <an I do?" "There are several things yon can do," said Mr Pointer. He turned to the window and stood

staring down upon the" placid bosom of the Hudson for, a minute or more. A jiiant steamship swashed and wallowed her way toward the open sea; mosquito-

like tugs darted hither., and thither; cumbersome ferryboats toiled along endlessly. "There seem to bo some very good reasons why Jim Warren will not proceed to extremes in the use of those

letters—unless he has to," he remarked finally. "Yon say lie has demanded vour withdrawal and the endorsement of your machine as the price of the photographs?" "Ves." ' . Ajxain Mr Pointer was silent tor a minute or more. "Why don't you withdraw?" he asked casually. •'Withdraw!" Lewis repeated incredti-

lously. "Give up all- ""•' "Withdraw,".- Air . Pointer echoed rrabbedly, "and name some oilier man who would have a chance to beat Jim Warren. It would be a voluntary act and would shut off- the letters. If Jim

Warren beats your, man it is no reflection upon you; if your man wins' you ran throw him out after one term. By that time' Jim Warren will be tame enough,-I dare say."" ' ' "I won't do it," Lewis declared hotly. Reason was not there; it y»%s only anger against Jim Warren. "1 won't do' it," he repeated. Mr Pointer squinted out of lialfclosed eyes at his.visitor for an instant, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if you're going to stick, go at him systematically," he advised in a different tone. "Block him in the caucuses. You can do that?" "Yes; not only in my machine but in Simmonds'," said Lewis. "But he's announced that he would ask no favor of any caucus." "He might. You can do the same thing in the primaries? Choke him off?" "Yes." "Can you keep bis name off the ballots.-"' "I can. Two of the commissioners of flections belong to me." "Then go to Simmonds and make a deal. Give Simmonds the mayor in return for his machine's support of you for the legislature." "I'd thought ofj.that and felt out Siiiiinonds on it.'"- He's willing."

Then for a long time there was .silence between the .two men. Mr

Pointer, his small, sTirivell'e'd face drawn into ;i thousand wrinkles, merely looked at this man. He knew the type—the .sordid soul of him, the selfishness, the greed and the cunning' boldness that would lead him to any length. ."All these suggestions, of course, are based on the idea that you'll have to fight it out," ~he said- finally. "But there comes to me another scheme which might end the fight in your favor immediately."

"AVhat is it?" Lewis' drawn face lighted eagerly. ."It's true, isn't it, that, to win, Jim Warren must have the support of your machine?" Mr Pointer asked in turn. . "And he knows that, doesn't he?"

. "Generally speaking, that's true; yes. "Why?"

. "Every man has his price, you know." The shrivelled little man's thin lips were drawn into a sneer. "Find Jim AVarren's price. Offer him a commis-sioner-ship, or something of the sort, if hc» will quit in your favor." "" Lewis sat up straight in his chair. "By George, I hadn't thought of that!'-' lie exclaimed.- .'.

"You don't have to give it to him, you know," the elder man pointed out. "You can. always double-cross him." ' ! Lewis arose excitedly'and paced the length of the room half a doze?i times, his face aglow, jhis 'fingers working exultantly. I "I think lui'd fall for that," he declared. "Of course I don't have to give it to him.. Why-: " And he laughed. "I think that's the answer." .There was nothing of this relief v.isible upon the wrinkled face of the little man;.instead he sat perfectly still, watching Lewis. • "It will be a condition of that agreement, of course," he said, "that the photographs and plates are to be returned to you ; and. when you get them they are to he returned to me!" He laughed oddly. "Meanwhile you will return to me all the original fetters 1 have ever written to von. I'll just trim your claws."

; Lewis shot him ;i <|iiick. curious glance. "Ho understood perfectly. . "One <itli*»r thini:. Louis,'' the littlo man went on implacably. "If this .liin U'arren person cloys l>eat you. in spite of all this, of hou- iiiiK'h use will you be to us afterward r" "As much use as ever I was.'' Lewis replied positively. "Of more use, perhaps." "\ou'll be discredited to :i certain extent, of course: and '"'

■•Hut." Li-wis put in .sharply, Tilliiijiliii:>t is my man. I put him in then- y> make him yovi-rnor. Neither Jim Warren nor any ot'ner man i-an stop me from doin<j that:-'' "Von an' kiiiv of liim ':"

"Sure of him J-" Lewis rppeated. "Alisciiutcly. I :ini tioinp: to marry his daughter Ivlna. Kvery man has his price, as you .say. That's my price. She's worth a million or so in hor own n'Klit!"

On the afternoon of the following day Franques called upon Jim 'SYarren

and they were closeted together for half an hour. Curiously enough, half a. dozen newspaper men, brought there by .some inspiration, were waiting outside when Jim Warren ushered Franques through the door.

"Toll Francis Everard Lewis," said Jim Warren distinctly, heedless of listening ears, "that iie can't buy me. I've j;ot his [lumber- —and it's twontytliree."

There was no particular mystery to Lpu is in Jim Warren's refusal ot : a live - thousand - dollar -a - year commissioiiership —simply, ii wasn't enough. Hi- hadn't given I'Yanque.s sulfieient authority. The only tiling to do. ho tinally saw. would he to rail upon this Jim Warren prrson himself and adjust mattors. Uuying him off, of rour.se, was the feasible thing. Ho would go and do it. Xo; on .second thoughts he would make Jim Warren come to him. To this end he dispatched a courteous little note to Jim Warren asking him to drop hy the Hotel Stanton at his early convenience to talk things over.

"if you want to see me you know where my office is," Jim Warren answered curtly. "If you come, come alone after Six o'clock."

"If you come, come alone!" Lewis found a- grain of comfort in that ambiguous sentence. Of course it meant that Jim "Warren was amenable to reason if reason took a ' substantial form. The finality of the note lie construed as merely an out-cropping of the egotism that Lad come u to Jim. : Warren with his first feeling oflpower/ So lie pocketed his pride and called — alone —after six o'clock. -Jim. Warren grinned when he came in, and shook the proffered hand without hesitation. ::.Lewis purred a few preliminaries while he studied the freckled face, the lean jaw, the whimsical sky-blue eyes. He felt himself to be a keen judge_ of men, did Lewis; and instantly he isolated'and elas&ined to liis own Satisfaction those;qualities that drew .men, to Jim' Warren and made them'believa in him. Confidently h'e/c"ania down to -the matter in hand.. ,

"It's unfortunate,^"Mr AVarrerii" he began we.never met before you—er —before'you became a candidate for the legislature. : I'm' sure if we had met it would never, have happened that we would haver bee'ii «p- : posed politically." - . ~ ;'.,..;. •: For several reasons Jim Warren didn't mention- the; ; fact 'that; he -hadcalled upon him in the beginning and didn't find him; instead he fussed' around his desk for a box of cigars. Casually, quite casually, his finger touched an electric button hidden under a pile of newspapers. Lewis accepted and lighted a cigar. "You want me to quit?" Jim Warren inquired pointedly. Lewis waved his hands deprecatingly. . "Well, it's unfortunate that we should be opposed," he temporised. "Matters might have been adjusted in another way if I had only understood. Now, if you had proceeded in the regular way "' ", "Now, Lewis,"let's cut:out the blab," Jim Warren interrupted curtly. "How much' is it worth to me to quit?" There is nothing so disconcerting to a diplomatist as utter frankness. For a minute Lewis stared at Jim Warren, then the whole expression of his face changed; his lips curled into an exquisitely courteous smile which nevertheless "was a sneer. He glanced about the room.

"Speak your piece," Jim Warren directed. "There is no one to hear but me; not a soul in the building but you and me."

"I think it's possible for us to get together, Mr Warren," Lewis said slowly after a moment. "You've met me frankly; we'll get along."

"How much is it worth to me to quit?" reiterated Jim Warren. "How' much" is it worth?" Lewis reflected. "Well, you declined the offer of a cominissionership at five thousand a year, made through Franques; so "Talk business!" said Jim Warren impatiently. "That was merely a sop and you would probably have doublecrossed nie. How much real money is it worth to me to quit?" Lewis smiled blandly. The difficulties he had anticipated were thinning out, vanishing. "On a cash basis?", he queried. "On a cash basis. Make your proposition.". "Ten thousand ly"Not enough. Come again." Lewis was still smiling. Jim Warren's withdrawal at any price within reason woulcl be : cheap, both to himself and the interests he represented. This year was to bring the harvest of many schemes that had been under way for months. With- Dwight Tillinghast as speaker, and with himself on three or four choice committees, there' was no end to possibilities. "Twenty thousand?" he suggested briskly; and he rubbed his well-mani-cured hands together ingratiatingly. "That is to be paid on condition that yon get out arid stay.out; and that you return to me all plates and all photographs of-the various papers in my safe. Twenty thousand dollars is real money, as you call it."

Jim Warren's sky-blue eyes were fixed intently upon Lewis'. After a while Jim Warren drew a long breath and grinned cheerfully. "Those photographs seem to stick in' your craw," he remarked pleasantly. "I believe we had a short conversation about them one night over the telephone, didn't we?" Lewis chose to ignore, the question. "Does twenty thousand go?" he asked.

"Oh, why not make it'twenty-five ?"• "Twenty-five it is then," Lewis exclainici; and he banged the desk with quick impatience. The price was stiff, but it meant his political life and he was in no position to haggle. "That offer, of course, carries the conditions I have named."

"And. I get it?" "The day'-you announce in the newspapers over your signature that you have withdrawn—the details can he arranged to suit you," Lewis explained ; "and you'll Teturn the plates and photograph's." "How do I know I'll get it?" Jim Warren stared at him. "Even then?" he added. .

"Ask an y. mail "I've ever dealt with He'll tell you I never break my word.'

"Who, for instance?" Jim Warren went on naively. "What reference can you giye? ; . What public man have you done business - 'with'?" "All this is absurd," Francis Everard Lewis declared'. "Does the' twenty-five thousand go?" Jim Warren arose and lazily stretched his sinewy arras.- Half gaping he stood at the window' looking out upon the iron yard. 'Twas there that his fight had begun; 'twas there that he'd given his pledge to the boys. Finally he turned' back upon'his caller. ' "Lewis, I haven't started on you yet," he said .quietly. "When I do : I won't leave a whole hone, in your body." He thrust a calloused finger into the boss' face. "I'm going to make you quit—believe me; I m going to make it so hot for you you'll be glad : to quit!" His voice had risen as he talked, his freckled face glowed with anger, the skyrblue eyes flamed. "Now, get out of here; quick—quick! I can't keep my hands off you!" - v Lewis, vastly ; astonished, but still composed, arose. "So you were playing :t game, eh?" he sneered. "It's just as well; so was I." Suddenly his self-possession deserted him. the polish sloughed off and he raged at the trick that had been- played upon him: but his voice was cold, level, merciless: "My grip in this state extends farther back, Warren, than you can believe. I'm going to have you. arrested for safe-robbery and you'll never have a chance. For I'll railroad voti."'

-Staring .straight into Lewis' fare, Jim Warren laughed. "By withdrawing now, Lewis, you pan save your face!" •'Withdrawing?" The word camo explosively. "I'll—l'll " "You have just placed in my hands the weapon with which I'll compel you to withdraw ; " Jim Warren continued. "There's no hurry about it, though. The election is a long time off, ,so 7 am going to give you a whole week to think about withdrawing and get used to the idea. I have the weapon. If, at the end of a week you don't withdraw I'll use it!"

Lewis glanced about the room, dazed with a sudden fear. What weapon? Had their conversation been overheard ? •'You mean some on lias been listening to u.s?" he demanded thickly. "There's not a soul in the building, Lewis!" Again Jim Warren laughed. "Til railroad you!" Lewis shouted, blin'ded by uncontrollable anger against

tills man. "'l'll milroad you for saferobbery!"

"Go ahead," Jim Warren '"Have me arrested. I'll wait here until tlic police come. Or"—he added insolently—"Or shall I along with you now to the police station r"

Fate arranges the affairs of this work!

according to hoi" own caprice. So strangely does slio work that one may have to travel around the world to shake hands with the man who lived next. door. It was Fate —the kindliest one in the calendar —who took charge of Jim Warren on the following Sunday. He had stopped in at the factory for a little while, and'then, lured into the open hy the zippy, nippy air of fall, had hoarded :i trolley ear and ridden to the end of the line, some dozen or fifteen miles from Warbnrton. Crimson forests and golden hedges had beckoned him on even then; lie strode straight through the little village, up the hill on -the other side-, and looked down into the rainbow valley beyond. The ribbonlike road curved seductively a thousand feet farther on. He would go that far anyway, just to see what might lie around the bend.

' He paused to cut- a. slender switch and, snapping it against his log rhythmically, went on, inhaling deep breaths of the scented jiir. He was very well satisfied with himself, was Jim-Warren;-on. this "particular morning. Things were going well with him, and, above all, the big idea was coming thr.ough! Any doubt that might ever have existed-in his mind as to this was gone ,jiow. At the proper time and in the proper "way he would make Lewis quit if he didn't quit before of his own volition; and then He fell to building air-castles. He would be governor, of course—that was the natural sequence of his play—and after that anything ho liked. Governor Warren! United States, Senator:"Warren! He grinned;.. ~ :-. '' Just before he""Minded the bend he caught the steady "tap-tap-tap" of — what ? A woodpecker.? No; it was more metallic than that. He strode .on; then he saw. - Directly ahead of him, in the dip of the valley, an automobile was standing-beside -thfe road — a long, low, rakish-looking craft, creamy white, with tan trimmings. The dainti;riess of -its color, scheme contrasted strangely. with, the lusty look of the brute, with its high wheels-and its massive rear axle. "Tap-tap-tap" came from underdeath. As he drew nearer silently through the dust, Jim Warren paused uncertainly for an instant. On one side of the car, from underneath, protruded a pair of feet —silly little feet they were, incased in absurdly sturdy boots, laced high about" the ankles. By George, a woman! She had spread'her blankets on the ground and, lying 'flat on her back, was at work underneath the car. Apparently she paid not the slightest attention to him as he approached ; as a matterVof. fact, she didn't., hear him. "Tap'-tap-tap,"' said the hajumer. "Hello, under there!" Jim Warren called. "Can I help?" The.fpet vanished in a swirl of skirts, some one exclaimed "Goodness!" in a startled tone and a girl scrambled out from beneath the car. Her hair was dishevelled and strands of it were stringing down over her* face, scai;let from exertion. Across an alabaster brow was a streak a grease; her gloved hands were smeared with it. So was the hammer she held in one of them.

For an instant the girl stared up into his face with questioning eyes. Then she smiled.

"Good morning. Is it you?" "Good morning. It is." She glanced around inquiringly. "Where did you come from? How did you get-here?" . . "Nowhere; walked," • replied Jim Warren. "Can I help?" The girl, pushed the hair back from her face with a greasy glove.

"Wo always seem to meet at critical moments, don't wc!'" she queried. "The last time you rescued my glove from a do.a;; this time " She laughed. "Da you kuo\v anything about automobiles?"

"Not a thing in the world, but I can help," said Jim Warren. "Are yon 'way onshore all alone, with that big—big * tiling ?" The t'reiriendous size of tlie car rose up and smote up in the eye. A girl alone in the wilderness with a locomotive like that!

"All alone," she said. "It's a newcar and I was trying it out." He dropped on. the gronnd beside her and peered underneath the car., A perfect mess of joints and bolts and levers and rods and nuts—a million of them, more or less. It made his head swim. "And what, may I ask, is the matter?"

"I snapped off the pin in my first universal joint," she explained, "and the llanges are bent so I can't drive it out." He looked at her blankly. "You don't say!" he commented. "Where is it? Perhaps I can drive it out." He started to crawl underneath. "But yon don't know anything about automobiles 1" she expostulated. "But I do know something about machinery," he informed ' her; "and a universal joint is a universal joint in any language." Again he started to crawl underneath.

"Take off you coat and roll up your sleeves, then," she .commanded. "You can't wear clothes under an automobile —that is, if you ever want to wear them again." He obeyed orders* baring two sinewy forearms that she had only to look at to know that her troubles were over. They put their'heads together under the car and she explained the trouble "in detail. He knew precisely,what was the matter, but he liked to hear her talk.

"And now," he said at the end, "a monkey-wrench." She handed, him one, some five or six inches long. He glanced at.it, mentally compared it with the great piece of solid steel to be twisted back into shape and grinned. "•My dear madam, you couldn't set a watch with that," he said. "I mean a monkey-wrench." "I have another, so large/I.can hardly lift it," she explained."' "I call it 'Grandpa' for short." She fumbled in the toolbox, and produced it—a two-foot wrench that would fit into a man's hands, with jaws on it like the maw of Doom. He fitted it to the twisted flange. "Are you sure the car'won't move?" he asked. >",'.'. "No. /The brake's on." "Get back a little, please. If this should slip it would kill you." There are ways and ways of bending, steel: one'the quick; violent way, which will snap it off like glass;; another, a slower, steadier way, by which it can be eased, back into position. Jim Warren knew his metal. Slowly but surely, the sinews in his leairarms flexed, grew taut and the massive body of the car creaked on its springs. It was muscle againststeel. The girl, fascinated by the tremendous power, of the shoulders and arms, the inflexibility of inexorable steel, suddenly felt very weak and puny. She had tried to turn that with a small wrench! alight .as well have used a hatpin. "It's j moving," said : .;Jiin Warren, without so muqh.as. a puff;; then after a moment:"There; 1 : 4 think we can drive out the'bro v ken''pln'now. Have you an extra: one ?". ~..., hdlltx !vk "gw";h rSt :fneto'.' ypu'Jfys Lrc, The broken pin fell r biit' as he spoke; it was five.. minutes', wor,k to jput in a new one; then they both crawled out from under' the bar' and sat" on the ground looking at each other: "I don't know liow.l'll.ever be able to thank, you," said the girl. "I can't imagine what I would have done if yon hadn't come along. I've already been hero more than an hour." .)im Warren cleaned his hands on a piece of waste. "Do you know," he remarked irrelevantly, "I have the strangest impression at having met you somewhere before?"

'"That day in the bank, of course," :he girl replied.

"Before that," lie corrected, wonder where it could have been!"

"I wonder!" She. was bending over the toolbox, replacing "Grandpa." There was a queer, introspective light in her limpid eyes. "I had that impression tlie first time ] saw you," she went on. "It miist linve been because

I had see]] your picture in the newspapers. I know who yon are, of course," she added hastily. "You do?" Jim Warren asked almost eagerly. ; 'I am at a disadvantage, then. I don't know who " "Yon are Mr Jim Warren, of Warburton, and you are running against Mr Lewis for the Legislature!" There was mockery in her eyes.

"I am; and further, I shall have the satisfaction of beating him —believe •me," said Jim Warren. The girl laughed lightly and shook her bead. "It's been tried before."

"I know; but I've got his number." The girl leaned forward and pressed a button. The engine crackled and roared, then settled, down to a quiet purring. "If you do beat him," she taunted, "it may bo that you and I shall meet again. I live in. Sandringhani, the capital, you know. If you don't beat him wo probably shall not meet again." She offered a .slim, bare hand ; Jim Warren took it. "If you do beat him I shan't like you in spite of all you've done for me; if you don't 1 will. Goodbye. J'm more than an hour late and Sandringham is twenty-five miles away."

She leaped lightly into the car, pushed one lever—pulled another —and the car moved. "An revoir!" she said. Jim "Warren stood looking after her until the ear swung over a hill in the distance and vanished below it. Turning, he strode hack up the hill toward the trolley line. "I wonder who.she is!" Ho asked the question a dozen times. An hour later it occurred to him that, had he taken the trouble to notice the number of. the car and inquired at the first police station*, that question, in all probability; would have been answered. (To bo Continued.)