"STAR" TALES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10292, 25 October 1911, Page 4

"STAR" TALES.

BURNING DAYLIGHT. (By JACK LONDON.) Author of "The Call of the Wild," "The Sea Wolf," etc. [Ail Rights ■ FAUT 11. CHAPTER. XVI. All weok everyone in the offico knew that something now and big was afoot in Daylight's mind. .Beyond somo deals of no importance, bo had not •been interested in anything for several months. But now ho went about in an almost unbroken brown study, made unexpected and long thy trip:; across the bay to Oakland, or sat '.it hia desk silent and motionless for hour;). He seemed particularly happy with what occupied hia mind. At times men 'came in and conferred with him—and With new faces and differing in type from those that usually came to sec him* I On Sunday Dede learned all about .. j "I've been thinking a lot of our !tal&," he began, " and I've got an idea I'd like to give it a flutter. And I've a proposition to make your hair ptand up. It's what you call legitimate, and at the same time it's the coah-dangdeat gamble a man ever went Into. How about planting minutes wholesale, and making two minutes grow where one minute grew before? .Oh, yes, and planting a few trees, too ■f —say, a million of them. You remember the quarry I made believe I was looking atP Well, I'm going-to buy it. I'm going to buy these hills, too, clear ■from here around to Berkeley and down 'tie other way to San Leandro. I own [a lot of them already, for that matter, jfeut mum is the word. I'll be buying a' long time to come before anything [much is guessed about it, and I don't Want the. market to jump up out of Vieht. You see that hill over there. It's my hill running clear down its glopes through Piedmont and halfway 'alorig those rolling hills into Oakland. Und it's nothing to all the things I'm goillg to-.buy." He paused triumphantly. "And all to make two minutes grow where one grew before?" Dede queried, at the same time laughing heartily at his affectation of mystery. i He stared at her fascinated. She tad such a frank boyish way of throwing her head back when she laughed. And her teeth were an unending delight to him. Not small, yet regular and firm, without a blemish, he considered them the healthiest, whitest, prettiest teeth he had ever seen. And for months he had been comparing them with the teeth of every woman ho met. ( It was not until her laughter was over that he was able to continue.

! " The ferry system between Oakland i®nd San Francisco is the worst one.torse concern in the United States. [You cross it every day, six days in the jweek. Tliat'a, say, twenty-five days a Eonth, or three hundred a year. How ng does i£ take you one wtfy? Forty inutes, if you're _ lucky. I'm going to put you across in twenty minutes. [lf that ain't making two minutes grow [where one grew before, knock off my jhead with little apples. I'll save you (twenty minutes each way. That's ytorty minutes a day, times three hunJdred, equals twelve thousand minutes [a year, jiisb for you, just for one person. Lets see: that's two hundred [whole hours. Suppose I save two hundred hours a year for thousands of other folks—that's farming some, ain't it?"

Dede could only nod breathlessly. jShe had caught the contagion of hi 3 enthusiasm, though she had no clue as to how this great time-saving was to be accomplished. "Come on, 1 ' he said. "Let's ride bp that hill, and when I get you out on top where you can eee something I'll ;ialk sense." [ A small footpath dropped down to jthe diy bed of the canon., winch they orossed before they began to climb. The slope was steep and covered with matted brush and bushes, through which, the horses slipped and lunged. ®ob. growing disgusted, turned back suddenly and attempted to-pars Mab. >Tho mare ivafi thrust sidewls®' into the'denser bush, where ehe nearly fell. 'Recovering, she flung her weight against Bob. Both rukrs' leys were caught in the consequent squeeze, and. ka Bob plunged ahead downhill, Dedo fras nearly scraped off. Daylight threw ■■ his horse on to its haunches, and at • tie same time di-aggr.d Dado back into the saddle. Showers of twigs and leaves fell upon them, and predicament followed predicament, until they emerged on the hilltop, the worse for Wear but happy and excited. Here no trees obstructed the view. The particular hill'on which they were outJutted from the regular lino of the range, so that the sweep of their vision extended over three-quarters of the circle. Below the two cities they could see the white ferry boats on tho ■wator. Around to their right was Berkeley, and to their left the scattered villages between Oakland and San Leandro. Directly in the foreground

was Piedmont, with its desultory dwellings and patches of farming land, and from Piedmont the land rolled down in successive waves upon Oakland. " Look at it ; " said Daylight, extending his arm in a sweeping gesture. " A hundred thousand people there, and no reason there shouldn't be half a million. Thero's the chance to make five people grow where one grows now. Here's the scheme in a nutshell. Why don't more people live in Oakland? No good service with San Francisco, and, besides, Oakland is asleep It's a whole lot better place to live in than San Francisco.. Now, suppose I buy in all the street railways of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, San Leandro and the rest—bring them under one head with a competent management? Suppose I cut the time to San Francisco one-half by building a big pier out there almost to Goat Island, and establishing a ferry system with modern, up-to-date boats? Why, folks will want to live over on this side. Very good. They'll need land on which to build. So, first I buy up the land. But the land's cheap now. Why? Because it's in the country, no electric roads, n-1 quick communication, nobody guessing that the electric roads are coming. I'll build the roads. That will make the land jump up. Then I'll sell the land as .fast as the folks will want to buy because of the improved ferry system and transportation faoilitie3.

" You see. I give the value to tho land by building the roads. Then I sell the land and get that value back, and after that, there's tho roads, all carrying folks back and forth and earn, ing big money. Can't lose. And there's all sorts of millions in it. I'm going to get my hands on some of that waterfront and the tide-lands, Take between where I'm going to build my pier and the old pier. It's shallow water I can fill and dredge and put in a system of docks that will handle hundreds of ships. San Francisco's water-front is congested. No more room for ships. With hundreds of ships loading and unloading on this side right into the freight cars of three big railroads, factories will start up over here instead of crossing to San Francisco. That means factory sites. That means me buying in the factory Bites before any body guesses the cat is going to jump, much less, which way. Factories mean tens of thousands of working-men and their families. That means more houses and more land, and that means me, for I'll be there to sell them the land. And tens of thousands of families means tens of thousands of nickels every day for my electric cars. The growing population will mean more stores, more banks, more everything. And that'll mean me, for I'll be right there with business property as well as home property. What do you think of it? Before she could answer, he was off again, his mind's eyos filled with this new city of his dream which he builded on the Alameda hills by the gateway to the Orient.

" Do you know—l've been looking it up—the Firth of Clyde, where all the steel ships are built, isn't half as wide as Oakland Creek down there where all those old hulks lie? Why ain't it a Firth of Clyde? Because the Oakland City Council spends its time debating about prunes and raisins. What is needed is somebody to see things, and, after that, organisation. That's me. I didn't make Ophir for nothing. And onco things begin to hum, outside capital will pour in. All Ido is start it going. ' Gentlemen,' I say, ' here's all tho natural advantages for a great metropolis. God Almighty put them advantages hero, and he put "me "here to see them. Do you want to land your tea and silk from Asia and phip it straight EastP Here's the docks for your steamers, and here's the railroads. Do you want factories from which you can ship direct by land or water? Hero's the site, and here's the modern, up-to-date city, with the latest improvements for yourselves and your workmen, to live 111.'

" Then there's the water. I'll come protty close to owning tho watershed. Why not the waterworks, too? There's two water companies in Oakland now, fighting like cats and dogs and both about broke. What a metropolis needs is a good water system. They can't give it. They'ro etick-in-the-rcmds. I'll gobble them up and deliver the right article to the city. There's money there, too—money everywhere. Everything works in with everything Each improvement makes the value of everything else jump up. It's people that are behind the value. Tho .bigger the crowd that herds in one place, the mere valuable is the real estate.. And this is the very place for a crowd to herd. Look at it. Just look at it! You could never find a finer site for a great city. All it needs is the herd, and I'll .stampede a couple ol hundred thousand pepole in here inside two years. And what's more, it won't be one of these wild-cat land booms. It will be legitimate. Twenty years from now there'll he a million people on this side the bay. Another thing is hotels. There isn't a decent one ir. the town. I'll build a couple of up-to-date ones that'll make them sit up and take notice. I won't care if they don't pay for yoars. Their effect will morn than give mo my money baok out of the other holdings. And, oh yes, I'm going to plant eucnlvptus, millions of them, on these hills.'

"But how am you going to do it?" Dodo asked. " You haven't enough money for all that you've planned." "I've thirty million, and if I need more I can borrow on tho land and other things. Interest on mortgages won't anywhere near eat up the increase in land values, and I'll be selling land right along." In the weeks that followed, DaySight was a busy man. He spent most of his tirno in Oakland, rarely coming to the office. He planned to move the ■jffice to Oakland, but, as he told Cede, iho secret preliminary campaign of buying had to be put through first. Sunday by Sunday, now from tln3 hillkip and now from that, they looked down upon llio city and its farming ■ üburbs, and he pointed out to her his 'atost acquisitions. At first it was matches ami sections of land hero and there; hut as the weeks passed it was the unowned portions that became rare, until at last they stood as islands surrounded by Daylight's land. It meant quick work on a colossal scale, for Oakland and the adjacent country was not slow to feel the trt;•nenclous buying. But Daylight had tho ready cash, and it had always Deen his policy to strike quickly. Before iho others could got the warning of 'lie boom, he quietly accomplished 11 any things. At the same time that ! iis agents were purchasing corner 'ots ind entire blocks in the heart of the •msiness section, and the waste lands for factory sites, Daylight ivas rushing Iranchises through the city council, capturing tho two exhausted water '■ompanies and tho eight or nine independent street railways and getting his ■;rip on the Oakland Creek and the V.y tide-lands for his dock system. The iae-lands had been m litigation for years, and he took the bull by tho horns —buying out the private owners

and at the jam© "ime .'easing from ";he city fathers. T3y' the time that Oakland was aroused by ihis unprecedented activity in every direction and was questioning excitedly the meaning of it. Daylight secretly bought the chief Republican i newspaper and tho chief _ Democratic organ, end moved boldly into his now offices. Of necessity, they were on a large scale', occupying four floors of ! .h» only modem office building in the t,own--tho only building that wouldn t 'iMve to he torn down later on, as Daylight put it. There was department '.lter department, a score of them, and hundreds of clerics and stenographers. \s he told Dede: " I've got mora companies than you can shake a stick at. Thero's the Alaueda and Contra Costa Land Svndi■■ate, the Consolidated Street Railways, ihe Yerba Buena Ferry Company, the United Water Company, the Piedmont K'ealty Company, tho Fairview and t'ortola Hotel Company, and half a t'.onrn more that I've got to refer to a iiotebook to remember. There's the Piedmont Laundry Farm, and Rodwood Consolidated Quarries. Starting in with our quarry. I just kept a-going till I got them all. And there's the shipbuilding company I ain't got a name for yet. Seeing as 1 had to have ferry-boats, I decided to build them myself. They'll be done by the time the pier is ready for them. Phew! It's all sure beats poker. And I've had the fun of gouging the robber gangs' as well. The water company bunches are squealing yet. . I sure got them where the hair was short. They were just about all in when I came along and finished them off." " But why do you hate them so?" Dede asked. " Because they're such cowardly skunks." " But you play the same game they do." "Yes; but not in the same way." Daylight regarded her thoughtfully. " When I say cowardly skunks, I mean just that—cowardly skunks. They set up for a lot of gamblers, and there ain't one in a thousand of them that's got the nerve to be a gambler. They're four-flushers, if you know what that means. They're a lot of little cottontail rabbits making believo they're big rip-snorting timber wolves. They set out to everlastingly eat up some proposition, but at the first sign of trouble they turn tail and stampede for the brush. Look how it works. When the big fellows wanted to unload Little Copper, they sent Jakey Fallow into the New York Stock Exchange to .yell out: 'l'll buy all or any part of Little Copper at fifty-five I'—Little Copper being at fifty-four. And in thirty minutes them cottontails—financiers, some folks call them—bid up Little Copper to sixty. And an hour after that, stampeding for the brush, they were throwing Little overboard at for-ty-five and even forty. " They're catspaws for the big fellows. Almost as fast as they rob the suckers, the big fellows come along and hold them.up. Or else the big fellows use them in order to rob each other. That's the way the Chattanooga Coal and Iron Company was swallowed up by the trust in tl;e last panic. The trust made that panic. It had to break a couple of big banking companies and squeeze half a dozen big fellows, too, and it did it by stampeding the cottontails. The cottontails did the rest all right, and the trust gathered in Chattanooga Coal and Iron. Why, any man, with nerve and sawee, can start them cottontails j tupping for the brush. I don't exactly hate them myself, but I haven't any regard for chicken-hearted four-flushers." CHAPTER XVII. For months Daylight was buried in work. The outlay was terrific, and there was nothing coming in. Beyond a general rise in land values, Oakland had not acknowledged his irruption on the financial scene. The city was waiting for him to show what he was going to do, and ho lost no time about it. fhe best skilled brains on the market were hired by him for the different branches of the work. Initial mistakes he had no patience with, and he was determined to start right, as when ho engaged Wilkinson, almost doubling his big salary, and brought him out from Chicago to take charge of the street railway organisation. Night and day the road gangs toiled on the streets. And night and day the pile-drivers hammered the big piles down into the mud of San Francisco Bay. The pier was to be three miles long, and the Berkeley Hills were denuded of whole groves of mature eucalj'ptus for the piling;. At the same time that his electric roads were building out through the hills, the h;.',y-ff?kls were being surveyed and broken up into city squares, willi here ana there, according to best modern methods, winding boulevards and strips of park. Broad streets, well graded, were made, with sewers find water-pipes ready laid, find macadamised from his own quarries. Cement sidowalks were also laid, so that all the purchaser had to do was to select his lot and architect and start building. Tho ouick service of Daylight's new electric roods into Oakland made this big district immediately accessible, and long before the ferry system was in operation hundreds of residences ' were going up. The profit on this land was enormous. In a day, his onslaught of wealth had turned an open farming community into one of the best residential districts of the city. But this money that flowed in upon him was immediately poured back into hia other investments. The need for olectrio cars was so great that he installed his own shops for building them. And even on the rising land market he continued to buy choice factory sites and building properties. On tho" advice of Wilkinson, practically I every electric road already in operation was rebuilt. The light, old-fash-ioned rails wore torn out and replaced by tlio heaviest that were manufactured. Corner lots, on tho sharp turns of narrow streets, were bought and ruthlessly presented to the city in order to make wide curves for his tracks and high speed for his cars. Then, too, there were the main-line feeders for his ferry sjsteim, tapping every portion of Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley, and running fast expresses to the pier end, The same large-scale methods were employed in the water system. Service of tho best was needed, if his huge land investment was to succeed. O'nkland had to be made into a worthwhile city, and that was what he m-

tended ';o dc. In addition to his big hotels, lie built amusement parks for the common people, and art galleries and club-house country inns for the more finicky classes. Even before there was any increase in population, a marked increase in street-railway traffic took place. There was nothing fanciful about liis schemes. They were sound investments. " What Oakland wants is a first-class theatre," he said, and, after vainly trying to interest local capital, he started the building of the theatre himself; for ho alone had vision for the two hundred thousand new people that were coming to the town. But no matter what pressure was on Daylight, his Sundays he reserved for his riding in the hills. Tt was not the rainy wintry weather, however, that brought these rides with Dede to an end. One Saturday afternoon in tho office she told him not to expect to meet her next day, and, when he pressed for an explanation:— " I've sold Mab." Daylight was speechless for the moment. Her act meant one of so many serious things that he couldn't classify it. It smacked almost of treachery. She might have met with financial disaster. It might be her way of lotting him know slio had seen enough of him. Or ...• "What's the matter?" ho managed to ask. " I couldn't afford to keep her with hay forty-five dollars a ton," Dede answered. " Was that your only reason?" he demanded, looking at her steadily; for ho remembered her once telling him how she had brought the mare through one winter, five years before, when hay had gone as high as sixty dollars a ton. "No. My brother's expenses have been higher, as well, and I was driven to the conclusion that since I could not afford both, I'd better let the mare go and keep the brother." Daj'light felt inexpressibly saddened. Ho was suddenly aware of a great emptiness. What would a Sunday be without Dede? And Sundays without end without lierP He drummed perplexedly on the desk with his fingers. "Who bought her?" he asked. Dede's eyes flashed in tho way long sinco famiiiar to him when she was angry. " Don't you dare buy her back for me," she cried. " And don't deny that that was what you had in mind." " No, I won't deny it. It was my idea to a tee. But I wouldn't have done it without asking you first, and soeing how you feel about it, I won't even ask you. But you thought a heap of that mare, and it's pretty hard on you to lose her. I'm sure sorry. And I'm sorry, too, that you won't bo riding with me to-morrow. I'll be plumb lost. I won't know what to do with myself " " Neither shall I," Dede confessed mournfully, " except that I shall be able to catch up with my sewing." "But I havent any sewing."

Daylight's tone was whimsically plaintive, but secretly he was delighted with her confession of loneliness. It was almost worth the loss of the mare to get' that out of her. At any rate, he meant something to her. He wa3 not utterly unliked. " I wish you would reconsider, Miss Mason," ho said softly. " Not alone for the mare's sake, but for my sake. Money don't cut any ice in this. For me to buy that mare wouldn't mean as mutili as it does to most men to send a bouquot of flowers or a box of candy to a young lady. And I've never sent you flowers or candy." He observed the warning flash of her eyes, and hurried on to escape refusal. " I'll tell you what we'll do. Suppose I buy the mare and own her myself, Mid lend her to you when you want to ride. There's nothing wrong in that. Anybody borrows a horse from anybody, you know." Again he saw refusal, and headed her off.

_ " Lots of men tales women buggyriding. There's nothing wrong in that. And the man always furnishes the horse and buggy. Well, now, what's the difference between lny taking yen bujrgy-riding to-morrow and furnishing tho horse and buggy, and taking you horseback-riding and furnishing tho horses P" She shook her head, and declined to answer, at the same time looking at the door as if to intimate that it was time for this unbusinesslike conversation to end. Ho made one more effort. " Do you know, Miss Mason, i haven't a friend in the world outside youP I mean a real friend, man or woman, the kind you chum with, you know, that you're glad to be with am! sorry to be away from. Hegan is the nearest man I gat to, and he's a million miles away from me. Outside business, we don't hitch. He's got a big library of books, and wma crazy kind of culture, and he spends all his off time reading things in French and German and other outkiuli:;h lingoes—when lie ain't writing plays and poetry. There's nobody I feel chummy with except you, and you know how little we've chummed—once a week, if ifc didn't rain, on Sunday. I've'grown kind of to depend an you. You're a sort of—of—cf " " A sort of habit," she said with a smile. "That's about it. And that mare, and you astride of her, coming along the road under the trees or through' the sunshine—why, with both you and the mare missing, there won't be anything worth waiting through the week for. If you'd just lot me buy her back " 11 No, no; I tell you no." Dedo arose impatiently, but her eyes were moist with memory of her pet. " Please don't mention her to me again. If you think it was easy to pari- with her, you are mistaken. But I've seen the last of her, and I want to forger, her." Daylight made no answer, and tho door closed behind her. Half an hour later ho was conferring with Jones, the erstwhile elevator boy and rabid proletarian whom Daylight long before had grubstaked to literature for a year. The resulting novel had been a "failure. Editors and publishers would not look at it, and Daylight was now using the disgruntled author in a little private secret service s.vstetr. lie had been compelled to establish for himself. Jones, who affected to be surprised at nothing since his crushing experience with railroad freight rates on firewood and charcoal, betrayed no surprise now when the task was given him to locate the purchaser of a certain sorrel mare. "How high shall I pay for her?" he asked. " Any price. You've got to get her, that's the point. Drive a sharp bargain so as not to excite suspicion, but get her. Then you deliver her to that address up in Sonoma County. The man's the caretaker on a little ranch I have there. Tell him he's to take whacking geed care of her. And after 'hat forget all about it. Don't tell me tho name of tho man you buy her from. Don't tell me anything about ;t except that you've got her and delivered her. Savvee?" But the week had not passed, when Daylight noted the flash in Dede's eyes that boded trouble. " Something's gone wrong—what is it?" he asked, boldly, " Mab," she said. "Tho man who bought her has sold her already. If I thought you had anything to do with it " •' T don't even know who you sold her to," was Daylight's answer. " And, what'B more, I'm not bothering my lie ad about her. She was your mare, and it's none of my business what you did with her. You haven't 1 got her. that's sure, and worse luck. _ And now, while we're on touchy subjects. I'm going to open another one with you. And you needn't get touchy about ifc, for it's not really your business at all." She waited in ilie pause that followed, eyeing him almost suspiciously. "It's about that brother of yours. He needs more than you can do for iiim. Selling that mare cf yours won't send him to Germany. And that's what his own doctors say ho needs—that

crack German specialist _ who rips a man's bones and muscles into pulp and then, moulds them all over again. Well, I want to send him to Germany and give that crack a flutter, that's all." "If it were only possible!" she said, half breathlessly, and wholly without anger. "Only it isn't, and you know it isn't. I can't accept money from you " "Hold on, now," he interrupted. " Wouldn't you accept a drink of water from one of the Twelve Apostles if you was dyinjr of thirst? Or would you be afraid of his evil intentions"—she made a gesture of dissent —" or of what folks might say about it?" " But that's different," she began. " Now look here, Miss Mason. You've I got to get some foolish notions out of your head. This money notion is one . of the funniest things I've seen. Suppose you was falling over a cliff, wouldn't it be all right for mo to reach out and catch you by the arm? Sure it would. But suppose you needed an- j other sort of help—instead of the | strength of my arm, the strength of , my pocket? That would be all wrong, j That's what they all say. But why do j they say it? Because the robber gangs ' want ail the suckers to be honest and respect money. If the suckers weren't honest and didn't respect money, whero j would the robbers be? Don't you see? : The robbers don't deal in arm-holds; ! they deal in dollars. Therefore arm- j holds are just common and ordinary, j while dollars are sacred—so sacred that j you dassent let me lend you a hand j with a few. " Or here's another way," he conI tinned, spurred on by her mute protest. "It's all right for me to give the strength of my arm when you're falling over a cliff. But if I take that same strength of arm and use it at pick-and-shovel work for a day and earn two dollars, you won't have anything to do with th'o two dollars. Yet it's the same old strength of arm in a new form, that's all. Besides, in this proposition it won't be a claim on you. It ain't oven a loan to you. It's an armhold I'm giving vour brother—just tho 6ame sort of arm-hold as if he was falling over a cliff. And a nice one you ar*, to com© running out and yell ' Stop I' at me, and let your brother go on over the cliff What he needs to save his legs is that crack in Germany, and that's the arm-hold I'm offering. " Wish you could see my rooms. Walls all decorated with horsehair bridles—scores of them—hundreds of them. They're no use to mo, and they cost like Sam Scratch. But there's a lot of convicts making them, and I go on buying. Why, I've spent more money in a single night on whisky than would get the beat specialists and pay all the expenses of a dozen cases like your brother's. And remember, you've got nothing to do with this. If your brother wants to look on it as a loan, all right. It's up to him, and you've got to stand out of the way while I pull him back from that cliff." Still Dede refused, and Daylight's argument took a more painful turn. "I can only guess that you're standing in your brother's way on account of some mistaken idea in your head thai this is my idea of courting. Well, it ain't. You might as well think I'm courting all thoso convicts I buy bridles from. I haven't asked you to marry me, and if I do I won't come trying to buy you into consenting. And thero don't bo anything underhand when I como a-aslung." De-do's faco was flushed and angry. "If y6\i knew how ridiculous you are, you'd stop," she blurted out. "You can make mo more uncomfortable than any man I ever knew. Every little while you give me to understand that you haven't asked me to marry yon yet. I'm not waiting to bo asked, and 1 warned you from the first that you had no ohance. And yet you hold it over my head that some time,, some day, you're to ask me- to many you. Go ahead and ask me now, and get your answer,, and get it over and done -svith.'' Ho looked at her in honest and pondering' admiration. "I want you so bad, Miss Mason, that I don't dast to ask you now." he said, with such whimsicality and earnestness as to make her throw her head back in a frank boyish laugh. " Besides, as 1 told you, I'm green at it. 1 never wont a-courting before, and I don't want to make any mistakes." "But you're making them all the time,'' she cried impulsively. " No man over courted a woman by holding a threatened V' 0!? over her head like a club." 1 won't do it any more," he said, humbly. " And anyway, we're off the argument. My straight talk a minute ago st'H holds. You'ro standing in your brother's way. No matter what notions you've got in your head, you've ftot to get out of the way and give him a chance. Will you let me go and see him and talk it over with him ? I'll make it a hard and fast business proportion. I'll stake him to get well, that's nil, and charge him interest." She visibly hesitated. " And just remember one thing. Miss Macon. It's his leg, not yours.'' Still she refrained from giving her answer, and , Daylight went on strengthening his position, " And remember, I go over to seo

him alone. He's a man, and I can deal with him bettor without womenfolks around. I'll go over to-morrow afterneon." (To bo continued next Monday.)