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JOHN! PROMro By EMERSC AUTHOR of |THE MISSISSIPPI ILLUSTRATIONS by Ra COPYRIGHT 1912 BY EMERSOI t SYNOPSHfc 1 CHAPTER I-John Raws to hem tB Texas. Early in life he shows sl*ns of masterfulness and Inordinate selflahnow. CHAPTER II?He marries Leura Jolro on. He Is a clerk In & St Louis railway wCflce when bis daugnter Grace Is born. Tears later he hears Grace's lover, a yanng engineer named Charles Halseyt apeak of a scheme to utilize the lost currant of electricity. With his usual unscrupulous n ess he appropriates the idea Is his own and induces Halsey to perfect Ma experimental machine. He forms a company, with himself as president, at a alary of $100,000 a year, and Halsey a? cperintendent of the works at a salary A D.WV. _ CHAPTER /XL?Rawn takes chM-ge o" t?e office in Chicago. Virginia Delaware, a beautiful, capable and ambitious young woman, is assigned as his stenographer. Che assists in picking the furniture and decoration for the princely mansion Rawn has erected. Mrs. Rawn feels out cf place In the new surrounding? CHAPTER rV-Halsey goes to New York with Rawn and Miss Delaware to ? ^qIot.c -nor-/ner new mo 4.VV??>0 tor to tb? impatient directors. H9 gets a message that a deformed daughter has been bora to his wife. Grace Rawn. He turns to Chicago. CHAPTER V? Rawn bargains with M!ss Delaware to wear his Jewelry and appear in public with him. as #*. met-na to help bid In a business way. CHAPTER VT?Rdwn Is fortunate h* *?rket speculations, piles up wealth and attains prominence. CHAPTER VTI?He frets because his *ife does not rise with him In a soclaj way. He gives her a million dollars to laav* him. *TER IX?Grace moves to Graynail. and Halsey continues to live In the cottage near the works. CHAPTER X?Halsey*s machjne proves success, but no Keeps ine men. ? *?cret. CHAPTE i XT?Virginia Delaware beww more and more indispenslble to Jtaira. He takes her to New York on a business trip. Idle talk prompts Mm to offer her marriage. CHAPTER XII?They are married. Through Virginia's tact and ability they aake a place Cor themselves in the social world. CHAPTER XITI-Halsey threatens to fot a divorce because his wife refuses to return to him. He tells Rawn that he has l>roken up all the machines after proving tho success of the invention. Rawn, in a ?reat rage, threatens to kill him. CHAPTER XIV?Halsey declares win never build another machine for 2tawn and slaps his face. Virginia Rawn intercepts Halsey as he is leaving the house and, with arms about his neck, implores him to reconsider, because his decision will ruin them all. CHAPTER XV?Halsey tells V!rg*n!a that he has abandoned nis invention ueeause It would put a great power In the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. CHAPTER XVT?At Rawn's instigation Virginia agrees to try to bring Halsey to terms, no matter what it costs. CHAPTER XVII?The directors plan tc ret the control of the company away from Rawn. CHaPTT-R XVTTT?Rawn goes to New York to attempt to avert impending disaster. The wolves of finance are closing In on him. Halsey closes the factory and takes up his residence at Graystone hall, where his wife and daughter are seriously 111. He admits to himself that he loves Virginia. "Virginia Hawn smlleC, and turned the pages. The next journal had little else but detailed discussion of the Rawn collapse. It also asserted the scheme of the International Power company was the most bold and rapacious fraud of the day. With journalistic vaticination it insouciantly declared that the intention of the company was to establish central distributing points for power stolen from the public's great water powers, and the retail of what the journal in the argot or tne aay canea cannea power, in cheap and portable small motors applicable to countless semi-mechanical uses, all with an end of abolishing the need for horse power and for man power alike. The result, it pointed out, would be the throwing out of work of countless thousands of laboring men by the use of electricity stolen from the people themselves. The gigantic combination already was covering the main water powers. The people's present openly had been disregarded, the people's future openly and patently had been put in the gravest of peril. The entire system of government had been laid by the heels. The name of the republic had been made a mockery. Above all, it was asserted, the most intimate intent of the International Power company had been the throttling of the labor unions?against which John Rawn was known to be personally bitterly opposed?the very essence and soul of the conspiracy haviner been this device whose aim was to wipe out /the need of unskilled labor, and to make useless and unpaid the power of human brawn. Following these assertions?which after all were not in the least bad journalism, however good or bad had been the design of International Power? the same journal exultantly declared that labor need not yet despair, for that the gigantic conspiracy now had fallen in ruirs; its leader had abdicated and fled, and hio ill-gotten gainshad been dissioatod in his last desperate att' rs?to i: ve his holdings in other stocks. In bis ultimate light lie Vi o J . *!-*/ \ / > r\ i /"> K ^ 11 r\ T _ iiavi cun . v.*;:* * VL. cii^ xix ternational, so long a.'cl desperately held in Ins ownership, and now was ousted from the presidency, other managers being left in charge of the wreck of a desperate marauder's attempt to throttle a republic and to rale a cour:..y A~u so forth, to uuuiiy IAWN IENT CITIZEN )N HOUGH BUBBLE; 54-40 OR FIGHT iy Walters though extra pages>~'aH aellclously "explicit, and wondrous welcome alike to those who purchase and those who purvey the news. The chronicle of all this was accompanied in this journal not only with pictures of Graystone hall, but of the abandoned factory of the International Power company; also with portraits of Rawn and his wife and of Charles Halsey, late superintendent of the company; as well as those of Jim Sullivan, the foreman, Ann Sullivan, his wife, and other labor leaders some; times concerned about the mysterious factory which had housed the desperate secret of International Power. As it chanced, the portraits of Ann Sullivan and Virginia Rawn had been exchanged, so that the beautiful Mrs. ^ -3 - Jttawn appeared aa a uaru-icaiuicu Irish woman of more than middle age; whereas Mrs. Sullivan, wife of the well-known labor leader, presented a somewhat distinguished figure in her eminently handsome gown and obviously valuable jewels. Virginia Rawn looked calmly, smilingly, over these and many other varying details of these closing scenes in her career. "Very well," said she, pointing to the likeness accredited to her name, 'this is the last time m* portrait will appear in print, i sup pose. What difference does it make? The older and uglier I am, the better the story! Perhaps for once Mrs. Sullivan, when she sees her picture? young, rich, with plenty of jewels? will think her dreams have come true! Maybe she's dreamed?I know I did; and I know what I am. The names and nictures are right, just as they are. She wins, not I. "But yes, I suppose this is the end of it all. as you sav." she added weari ly, almost indifferently. "Of course, we've known it was coming. I suppose there was nothing else could come of it all." __ Halsey at first could make no answer except to drop his face in his j lianas. A half groan escaped him, in spite of his attempt to rival her courage or her indifference, whichever it might be. "I've done this," he said at last; "I've brought all this on you. It's all my fault, and it's too late now for me to help?it. We cou.Mi *t straighten out things in the business now, even if I went back to work. It's too late. I've ruined you, Mrs. Rawn." "Yes, that's plain," she answered ! quieuy. jbul isnx mis just wnai you wanted? Haven't you always resented the success of others, deprecated the wish of some men to get money at any cost? Aren't you a Socialist at heart? Didn't you want this?just this?" "Want it? No! How could I want anything which meant harm for you? j If only you had come to me and asked ! me to go back?as^ied me to get into line!" "You'd have done it, wouldn't you, Charley?for me?" She smiled at him, her small, white teeth showing. But back of her smile he felt the pulse of a mind. "I don't know?how could I have helped it?" "Then you'd have forgotten all your loyalty to those people over there? You'd have forgotten all about the rights of man of which you told me, and your devotion to the principles of this republic of which you talked?is that true? You'd have forgotten all, everything, for me?" ( "Yes, I would!" He looked her fair in the eye, truthfully. "I know that, now?I didn't know it then, but I do now. Yes, I would. Just as I told him?Mr. Rawn." "You told him, what?" "Why, that we all have our price. I suppose I had mine." "So you'd have done that if I had asked you?" <?nrvi_ _ n ^ j),. U.. j: J liicn in vjruu s> uarae wuy uiu juu not ask me? At least, I'd have saved you this!" He smote on the paper with his clenched fist "Why didn't you ask me to save you this humiliation ?" "I did not, because I knew all along what you'd do if I did ask you." Silence fell between them now. "Why didn't you?" he once more demanded, half-whispering. "You'd already won. You'd have won me?my principles?my honor." "Because I did not want to win!" she answered sharply. "Win what?" "I was sent to bring you into camp, to get you, Charley. I did not want to?I did not! I was afraid I would!" "I dor.'t think I quite understand." His face was white, his voice low and clear, his eye full on hers. "I was sent out for you, Charley? by my own husband! You know it. we both knew it. I suppose he's been waiting somewhere for me to get word ' o him that I ha a done what I was ! id to do?that I got you in hand, willing to :011 our. " everything that you VM good in ; our own life. "Well, it's '00 lato, now! I'm glad!" "He sent you out after me?With -what restrictions??" "None. T' didn't care how. He told me be uidn That's why I've been kt ftuir vou. I was afraid . ^^e ail tins." i ' _ I She nodded "her "head. Including the splendors of the mansion house, its view of the lake, all the gracious, delicate ministries of wealth. "Good God!" Halsey broke out. "The man who would do that is not worth a woman's second thought." "Of course not. And the woman who would do that??" "Don't ask me about that; I can't think. All I know is that if you had asked me to do anything in the world, I think I'd have said yes." "For me?" "Yes, for you. It's the truth. It's all out, at last! There's the whole story now of John Rawn?all of it, in black and white! Here's all my story ?to you. You must have known?" "Yes," she nodded; "of course. That was why, I said, that I've evaded you so long. It was very hard to do, Charley; a hundred times I've been on the point of sending for you. But I didn't." "I'm glad, too," he said simply, seeing it was to bt soul facing soul, between them now. wI've missed you. I've never passed such days in my life as I have here. There's Grace hating me, you ought to hate me?I ought to hate you! Oh, Rawn, man! Where would you have stopped, to get money, to get power? Oh, excellent?to set ! your wife as a trap for another man! I T)n+ TrrrvrVoflf Tt nrml/1 haro hppn I ? I done!" He looked her frankly in the face as he finished. "I love you, Virginia," he said simply. "I suppose I have all along. It's cheap, after all? at thfc price. But for all this, I never could have told you. "But one thing I will say,"?the unhappy young man added, after a long time; "it's the one thing I can claim n" ovnuoQ Mw T-irir>o ran a lnvo fnT iVl au CAVUOV. |/* *V\y T( MM f V ?W? you, and good love. It was the whole love of man for woman?I never knew before what thai meant! It wasn't for money, but for you. That great, mysterious second current?what you yourself said was the one vast power of all the universe?that belonged to everybody?love?love?I thought that belonged to me, too. I can't see even now where that is wrong. I can't think, I don't know. If it is wrong, then I've been wrong. We're down in rviiva tnafit V?oi? f T rQ <rcr&f] VOT1 IUC 1U11C *. V there. And once I dreamed of doing something to -lift people up?that was why I mutinied and tore up the motors. And I had my own selfish price. ... I can never lift up my head again. But I love you!" She looked at him, her lips parted, her bosom agitated * now, her eyes large, her color slowly increasing. "You must not?Stop, we must think! Charley " "But why didn't you?" he demanded fiercely. "Why didn't you finish your work as you promised?" "I never promised. I didn't finish it ?because I knew I could. I told you ?it was?Charley?yes?it was? love!" "For me?" Jtie nair stariea up now, Dut sue raised a hand to restrain him. "The servants!" she whispered. In .JKT "I Was Afraid I'd Save All This." deed, even as she spoke she saw the livery of the butler disappearing at the tall glass doors letting out to the gallery. She did not know that the butler had seen much and heard somewhat; that being a butler he was wise. "But it's got to be?we've got to go through now!" he went on savagely. "Why did you start this, then? Why did you let me know?" "It was he who started it in me? ambition! No, I always had it. From the day I was born I wanted to climb, to win, to be rich, to have things in my v nds. All girls want that, I suppose, till they know how little it is. So I married him?I tried to, and I did. I knew he had money. . . . But then there was more I wanted, after all. I only wanted that something else, *too, that any woman wants?what she's got to have, once in her life, rich or poor, because she's a woman?some one who truly loves her for herself as she is, because she is what she is?' Kaa.-\iicia ollfi'c Q Tl'ATTi O T5 f UCV/CIUOC 011 V_/ O u> TIVU1WW. "Oh, I looked all around me here, a long time after I came here, for what I'd missed. I've never been happy here. I didn't have it. I wanted it. At last I taw it. I wanted it. Its price is ruin?l'or two. you and me. I'm like I you. If it!s wrong, I don't know where ! the wrong began! I didn't mind, so I far as I was concerned. Let a woman : love you. and she'll do anything, no | matter how it hurts?herself. But not ! you?not the man she loves and wants to respect, Charley." "But?me? I am not good enough for you!" "Oh, boy! How sweet that sounds to me! Say it over again to You make ma think I might some uay + . i i i ???? LL I * mi it 1 1 he Newbert Capital Stock "The Bank That A SOUND (T\ ^T3lI4T A R wJJLHUVl Jr?MA Coyyrieht 1909, b> A Bank A tige to a vidual, is convc and places. W kets with currei 1 1 - 1 roooery, wnen money in our b at will? V'ife pay 4 per V and $1.00 today and see how.; est multiplies your i J be worth a man's love. It's got away goou, cle from us now. It's all too late. Every- world? I coi thing's too late. When he?Mr. Rawn what to do. ?comes back, we've got to tell him. you put thes< I've done what I was set to do?but and you expe not the way he thought, not the way them. I can't any of us thought!" was over for "Yes, he must know!" Halsey nod- when I knew -- A _ _ ded. He held her hand now In his a nnger to yo own. They swept on, as upon some nie love you t vast wave, helpless, clinging to each would have c other, he doing what he could to save at .first?" her. "They'll sa "I don't know how to tell him," she band lost his wailed. "There was something Pagan ^es?" nc i in me and I didn't know it. I thought and believe i I was in hand, but I wasn't! I started "No? that low, and I wanted to climb up?and w*th him the up?and up! Oh, Charley, look!" She rand for leaned toward him across the table, man wbo will pleading. "I was just ambitious, just with him?fr< like any American girl?like every him? 1 never < wnmnn in the world. I SUDDOSe. If I I Sold OUt?W sold out, I didn't know it. I didn't fitness fo: want you to care for me. But you did, was 1 c you do! I kept away from you, so that t0 some 01 you wouldn't, so that we couldn't?so me now ' that I'd always feel that you, at They sat, t least?" able drama t "Where can it end?" he asked quiet- forward; tast jy. tion's ripene - -3- xl X?_ TIM f Vl + Vl o TTO C f "I don't care vnere it enas, mat hi ?*?.? -?uk, the worst of it; I don't care! One I hunger for th thing only is to my credit. I've kept | in a garden c my bargain?with him. I've paid the "If it costs price I agreed to give. There is no you," he said scandal about me?yet. And there out a hand tc might have been!" "No, no!" e "Yes." I want to tbi "But some way, when he sent me A discreet i out for you, talked to me as he did, ler approach treated me like a piece of merchan- wore a half s: dise as he did?for once I wavered, i sneer of the For once, Charley, it seemed to me j doubted, and that I was released from all obliga- j whether the 1 tions to him, that I was where I ought be forthcomic 1 to have a chance for my own hand, to ing papers, j see life as life could be for itsol?, to | he began, j have the love that's life for a "0"ian. | "What do y i I wanted to be wocrjd and won by speak to me!' i 3?-rr.A nnp who loved me. iust as anv care to be di woman wants to be, Charley, seme He did go; time! And I wasn't?I wasn't. . . . ; rand of his oa IT was Horrible 11 was HOIS in Grace rible. ... I wanted to give love , but*ers soniel for love. I wanted what I couldn't get, j venSeand saw it was too late to get it fair. Halsey and Tvh^n J cir*rvT a irf for ^ tittip ^ou'd sell ojjt tor me?why, where waa 1 orea??^ n v Savings Bank 1 ? I 1 $50,000 \ dways Has The Money" ADVICE | J 9 -ZaMMlk' 1 m Account ' C. ?. Zimmerman Co.?No. 45 account lends pres- j ny business or indi- I anient at all times I hy load your poc- I ncy and run risk of I you can put your 8 ank and check out B ![ <( [jifW| j| cent on savings deposits, fj sians cui atcuuiue i/u n rapidly compound inter- 1 noney. I jB : . sun grew warmer. Alter a time ! ;an tning left in all the rose, and they passed from the gallfl ildn't tell. I didn't know toward the interior of the house. I don't know now. But tray upon the hall table held a sea 3 papers before me now, morning load for It?one letter anfl ct me to shed tears over telegram; the former addressed J I don't care. The worst Mrs. Charles Halsey, the latter to H me before now. It came self. " 9 J t 10 T tJM ii?. . H M f. t H - -H you a love me u iu ia.iaa "it musi ra rrom mm, oo ss u. Why didn't you make She tossed it to him. > Irst?long ago? Then all "Home to-night John Bann." ome right. Back there? (TO BE CONTINUED). iy that when your hus- r 'jj * fortune he lost his wife. ^ >dded. "They'll say that |||gj it! That isn't true!" isn't true. I was done 3 & T '. ? moment he set this er- & jS Trf^l JLOOKS vvv( No woman can love a tig II |jl p do that. But I was done llj H Isl jAP Vp f| yg' )m the first I never loved l| v| I AWQa. O Mil II / - vai i ^Jr.iL.1 ^4''" *! uuiy uiaiiicu uxui. vtai-ro w m . . __ _ _ hat: had to sell, myself, H ! 'V? , ST^I r a place like this. That | "l? 1''.,0"'! ailed success! I wanted store TOD AY or, iftodS le in the world! Look at beinconvenientforyou,mthe netrfutJ -and let us SHOW YOU a1 | :wo figures in an inexor- good points of that marvellous ? :hat swept relentlessly I pitiful, merciless human , , . . v , i iat other fruit that huDg tMade bT ,olm ^1 ,nce not lost ?"the PERFECT interior flat fink ' f? ? ' J L ? S Here are SOME (not all I) of , he^uddenly GREAT BIG ADVANTAGES; he cried. "Wait! Wait! Moderate cost, easily applied, beautiful co nk!" effects, sanitary and hygieaic, washable as ;0Ugh sounded. The but- china dish, vapor and dampness do not affect ed bearing coffee. He won't rub off, won't powder off.easily refcwl> Deer on his face new, the Furthermore, it's ready mixed, in many t unpaid mercenary. He and white, and may be used successfully, I had cause to doubt, ?cly on new walls but on walls of pla: ast month's salary would ! cement, stone, brick, or il.o:e previously fir.ul ,o-. i with calcimine, cola water paint, enamel or ig for butlers read morn- . , ' . r- ? i , ' ? ? paint; also oo metal ceilings or walls, on bur 01*1 rs, -Aca* n . _ _, _ ' ' canvas, paper, ctc.9 c c. % ? We have a bcok cc !ea ".".'ccLra ai- AiU ou want? How dare you > uv o;ve ,t aw-v ' she rejoined. "I do not! sturbed! You may go!" ! and this was on an er- j Halsey's chambers. For | Newberry Hardware Co. I times take ingenious re1 Virginia Rawn sat on ?.? j *hr> table, the almost un^ui oeiore them. The j HMMMHHIHBHlSHflSiiHHB J / ^ ft