10
Semi-monthly magazine
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JIAT'S all, thank you, Ferguson; I'll
ring: it 1 want you again. The butler
set the tray on the tabourette beside
the desk, filled the cup with coffee from
the silver pot, and left the room, clos
ing the door behind liim.
John Coyle drank the coffee slowly,
as he bent over his desk, studying the
neatly-tabulated columns of figures be
fore him with careful attention. Then
lie leaned back in his chair, and his stern mouth re
laxed. The telephone in the hall rang sharply, and pres
ently came a knock at the door.
"Well?"
"Mr. Mannering on the wire, sir," announced the
butler. "lie says he must speak to you that it 's
a matter of life and death."
Coyle shook his head.
"Tell him I 'ni not at home. If lie wants to talk
to me, let him call me up at the office in the morn
ing. And don't disturb me again, Ferguson."
"Very well, sir."
f OYLE lighted a cigarette and, rising, strolled
over to the long French window that opened on
the side verandah.
Before him the lawns lay bathed in a flood of
moonlight, trees and shrubbery rising in black sil
houette, or touched with silvery radiance. A vagrant
breeze brought to his nostrils the scent of the climb
ing roses and honeysuckle that clustered about the
trellises; a cricket chirped cheerily at the edge of
the driveway; from somewhere, afar off, a whip-poor-will's
plaintive call sounded faintly.
"Just four years," said John Coyle aloud. "Four
years ago tonight. And tonight " He flung the
half-burned cigarette out onto the lawn, where it lay
a glowing point of light, with a slender spiral of
smoke ascending and dissolving in the warm air.
"And tonight, " he repeated. Then he shrugged
his shoulders, as if to shake from them a burden that
weighed too heavily, and went back to his desk.
"John !"
lie turned. Just inside the room a woman was
standing, one hand resting on the window frame, the
other half extended toward him. She was all in
white. Her gown, soft and clinging, showed the
long, sweeping lines of her slender figure. Her
head was thrown back, and the light from the elec
tric globes fell full on her beautiful, upturned face.
"John!" she said; "John won't you speak to
me?" Her voice was low, and musical, and held a
note of pleading.
For the barest fraction of a second, Coyle hes
itated. Then he rose, bowed and stepped forward.
"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Mannering. I had no
idea anyone was here. 'When you spoke, I was a
little startled. Will you sit down?" He indicated
a chair.
"I should not have come this way, I know; but I
saw the light from your windows, and knew you
were here. It it seemed a little less trying than
ringing the bell, and and all that. I don't know
what you will think of me for coming here at all;
but I am past considering conventionality. I I
had to see you, John. And so I came."
'ERS
BINDING A BARGAIN IN
CONSOLIDATED NORTHERN
BY
LILLIAN BENNET-THOMPSON
ILLUSTRATED BY
WILSON DEXTER
Again Coyle bowed.
"Won't won't you sit down, John ? I 'm afraid
I can't say what must be said if you stand there.
You look so stern and uncompromising. I I
hardly know how to begin." She was clasping and
unclasping her fingers nervously about the carved
jade handle of her fan. "Please be a little patient
with me; I shall not keep you long."
"I am quite at your service, Mrs. Mannering,"
Coyle said quietly. Beyond that first involuntary
start he had given no sign of agitation. He turned
his chair half around, so that his back was toward
the light.
"What can I do for you?" he asked, while his
grave eyes regarded her steadily. She had not
changed. There was the same satin-smooth skin,
with its tints of ivory and rose; the same deep blue
eyes, veiled behind long curling lashes; the same
wonderful pale-gold hair
"You find me altered, John ?" She seemed to
read his thoughts.
"No."
"But you you are older, John. There are gray
hairs about your temples; your face is thinner."
"V'OU had something you wished to ask of me,
Mrs. Mannering?" he interrupted, evenly.
"Not that," she begged. "You make it so much
harder for me by treating me as a stranger. It is
hard enough without that."
His mouth tightened, and the knuckles of the
hand that rested on the edge of the desk showed
white. From under lowered lids, she watched him.
Assuredly, she had lost no whit of her power over
this man.
She waited for him to speak, but he did not. A
sigh escaped her.
"I am sorry," she said simply; "and yet I realize
that it is not your fault. Will you hear what I have
come to say, John, and try not to judge? I will
try to be brief; I know you are busy; I "
"I am quite at your service," he told her again.
"But first, let me ask you one question : did you come
here tonight of your own free will ?"
"I I "
"Thank you; I am answered," grimly. "Per
haps I can state your errand for you? You have
come to ask that I do not demand delivery of certain
blocks of stock, amounting to 20,000 shares, in the
Consolidated Northern Railroads."
"But" "
"The closing price today of C. N. was 150 bid
and none offered. None will be offered. I do not
know whether you understand financial terms. Mrs.
Mannering; but the situation resolves itself into this.
"Mannering & Company sold to me 20,000 shares
of Consolidated Northern at fifty, in the expectation
that the stock would go down. Instead, it ad
vanced. As I told you, it closed at a hundred and
fifty today. But" and Coyle smiled, a smile that
was not pleasant to see "there is not a share of
C. N. to be had at any price except from me.
The certificates are in my safe. I control C. N. ; I
own C. N.; I am C. N. Is that quite clear to your
husband, Mrs. Mannering and to you ?"
SHE nodded, her face averted.
"I know" very low. "He my husband
has explained it to me. It means ruin, John.
And I have come to ask you to be merciful. He
must have the shares; you can put your own price
upon them and force him to pay it. But it means
that we shall be paupers, if if you are not gen
erous." (Continued on Page IT)
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I control C. N. ; I own C. N. ;
! am C. N. Is that quite clear
to your husband, Mrs. Man
nering, and to you ? "