The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

504 THE BUNKEL MYSTERY. ‘No, sir; I only said I should go to work at that figure. I cannot ac- cept your offer because I am engaged at the price named, with free house rent,’’ said Mr. Lamb, in the gentlest terms possible. ‘Vou are engaged? Whatdo you mean by that? Do you mean that you won’t work for me?’’ asked the magnate, beginning to boil over with wrath. ‘“T only mean that I am engaged for a year.’’ ‘Engaged to whom ?”’ ‘*Mr. Singerlay.’’ - ‘‘Singerlay! That is downright treason !’’ foamed the Onongo man. ‘Treason ? I think you discharged me, Mr. Barkpool.’’ ‘Vou might have waited till tomorrow before you engaged yourself.’’ ‘But Mr. Singerlay wanted me tonight.”’ The Onongo magnate was overwhelmed, and he rushed from the cottage as though a demon were pursuing him. CHAPTER XV.—THE TREASON OF DOLPH SINGERLAY. Mr. BARKPOOL, seemed to be completely upset when he went out of the cottage into the darkness of the evening. There were many people in the road who had walked as far as the upper dam to see the effects of the explo- sion, and the scene had been illuminated by fires on the shore. ‘The magnate avoided them, for he was raging like a pent up volcano. It was not a question of work to be done in the mills—of making goods to fill waiting orders—or anything of that kind, which rejoiced one magnate and enraged the other; it was only the success of one and the failure of the other in annoying his rival. Each desired to vex the other by having his mill in operation in spite of the disaster. Mr. Barkpool realized that he had lost the battle, and lost it by his own folly. He had been willing to humiliate himself by ‘‘ backing down ”’ to the machinist ; but even that had been a failure. The people who passed him in the road saw that he was in an unhappy frame of mind, dark as it was, for all his movements proclaimed the fact. He walked so rapidly that he soon reached his mansion. Phin was in the office, and his father talked to him about his affairs; but they were on no better terms with each other than the father and son in the other great man- sion. Like Dolph, Phin was a spoiled child; and it coull hardly be other- wise after the weak indulgence of the foolish fathers. If one of them had a boat, the other must have one. From row boats they had gone to sail boats. Phin had been the first to be supplied with this luxury, and then came the Dragon, larger and better fitted up in many respects. Then Phin appeared in town riding on a pony. Three days later, Dolph was mounted on the finest steed that money would Dy. Then Diana was seen on the lake in a sail boat which outstripped all the others in elegance, for it had been brought from New York, and the builder had not been limited in the matter of expense. This last boat made Phin GEomicbookssco =|