The Argosy, March 1907 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

__- * particular cause to complain. Se ae | ‘THE PLACE, THE ‘TIME, AND “THE MAN, - Gardiner, who by this time had some- -what recovered his equanimity, let a smile _ flicker over his lips. “That is a pretty large order,” he said; “ yet I suppose no success was ever achieved except on the same terms. If you are willing to risk it, I certainly ought to be. I have everything to win and nothing to lose.” 7 “Exactly my argument,” assented the director. ‘‘ Still,’’ cautiously, “ you may be less eager when you learn precisely what is going to be required of you. The situation is this,” starting to unroll his blue-prints. “1 think I understand the situation,” interposed Gardiner quietly. ‘‘ You want me to contrive a link connecting Melton and Berkely, so as to hook you up with the Southeastern, and thus save you from being gobbled in by Burns and the Pennsylvania Midland crowd?” Stearns whirled around in his chair and stared at him. “How did you learn all that?” he demanded sharply. ‘Have some of these experts we put on the proposition been talking?” ‘No; or at least not to my knowledge. But I am familiar with the territory out there, you must remember; and when I _ observed an unaccountable sagging in the . price of your stock it did not take me long to put two and two together.” “You keep yourself informed on fi- nancial matters, then?”’ interestedly. ‘Yes, in a measure. You see,” with a little burst of confidence, “‘I have an ambition to become a figure in the rail- road world some day, and I have realized that to do so I must know more than merely how to build a line. I must also acquaint myself with the -processes of control. Therefore, I have tried to keep in touch with the financial end of the game. [I consider it in a way so much schooling.” “But a little different sort from the kind you got up at Morningside Heights, eh?” quizzically: — “ Slightly,” assented Davis, with feel- ing. ‘ Up there we had professors, text- books, and courses of study, but down here in Wall Street a man’s only guide -is the fluctuation of the ticker. Still,” he added, a trifle assertively, ‘‘ I have no My chief purpose, as 2] said, has been education rather than profit; yet I have managed to land on the right side in most cases.” “Yes,” agreed Stearns, although more as if to himself; of you. You are one of those cool-head- ed yet nervy chaps who Excuse me,” as the telephone-bell on his desk tinkled sharply, and he turned to take up the receiver. A moment’s conversation over the wire in brusk, hasty sentences, and he turned to Gardiner again with a little frown of irritation creasing his brow. ‘A very important matter has just come up, Mr. Davis,” he explained, “which necessitates my leaving you at once, and will, I expect, occupy the greater part of my day. It is very an- noying, for I wanted to go over this Spring Creek project with you in de- tail, in order that you might get on the ground as quickly as possible. How- — ever, I suppose there is no help for it, and I shall have to ask you to defer our consultation until to-morrow. “Or stay,” struck by a sudden thought; “would it be convenient for you to drop around to my house this evening? My wife has some sort of lit- tle festivity on hand, I believe, but you needn’t mind that. Just tell the man at the door to show you to my ‘den,’ where we will be entirely free from in- terruption and can discuss the thing at our leisure. Here is the address,” picking up a sheet of paper from the desk and scribbling the number across it. In his haste he folded the sheet with- out blotting it, and Gardiner, who was slipping into his coat at the time, stuffed it into his pocket without taking the trouble to examine it. - A trivial incident, apparently, yet one that caused the young engineer a con- siderable amount of perplexity that eve- ning when he started out to keep his ap- pointment; for Stearns’s chirography, none too legible at the best, was in this case still further obscured by being smeared with ink. Davis studied the hieroglyphics for quite a time under the light of a street- lamp, and finally managed to decipher that the address given him was either 827 or 829 Fifth Avenue. The.exact — nature of that curl on top of the final ‘“T can well believe it -comicbooks.com —