Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VTALIANT6S fIALLIL ELlI ILLUSTRAT[D y' I WPC'/W,# 17/2 AY J OO3-AEA R/ CO CHAPTER I. The Crash. "F'ailed!" ejaculated John Valiant blankly, and the hat he held dropped to the claret-colored rug like a huge rwhite splotch of sudden fright. "The 'Corporation-failed!" The young man was the glass of liashion, from the silken ribbon on the spotless Panama to his pearl-gray gait ers, and well favored-a lithe stalwart figure, with wide-set hazel eyes and strong brown hair waving back from a candid forehead. Never had his innocuous and but ter-ily existence known a surprise more startling. lie had swung into the room with all the nonchalant hab its, the ingrained certitude of the tnan born with achievement ready-made in his hands. And a single curt state ment-like the ruthless blades of a !pair of shears-had snipped across 'the one splendid scarlet thread in the (woof that constituted life as he know it. ie had knotted his lavender scarf 1that morning a vice-president of the Vallant Corporation-one of the great test and most successful of modern iday organizations; he sat now in the fading afternoon trying to realize that the huge fabric, without warning, had (toppled to its fall. How solid -and changeless it had !always seemed-that great business Ifabric woven by the father he could iso dimly remember! His own invested fortune had been derived from the great corporation tho elder Valiant had founded and controlled until his death. With almost unprecedented oearnings, it had stood as a very Gib iraltar of finance, a type and sign of brilliant organization. Now, on the heels of a trust's dissolution which would be a nine-days' wonder, the vast structure had crumbled up like a card board. The rains had descended and )the floods had con., and it had fallen! The man at the desk had wheeled tin his revolving chair and was looking at the trim athletic back blotting the daylight, with a smile that was little tshort of a covert sneer. Ie was one of the local managers of the corpora tion whose rulin wast to be that day's sensation, a colorless man who had ac aquired middle age with his first long treouse's and had been dedicated to the comnmercial trea!inill before he had bought a safety-razor. lie despised all !loiterers along the primrose paths, and John Valiant was but a decorative fig urehead. Valiant started an the other spoke at his elbow. lie ha.I come to the win dow and was leokinig down at the pavement. "I-low quickly some news spreads!" For the first. time the young man noted thai the :treet below was filling with a desuiltory crowd. Ie distin guished a knot of Italian laborers talk ring with excited gesticulations - a smudged plasterer, tools in hand, clerks, 'some hatless and with thin ~alpaca coats-all peering at the voice ~less front of the great building, and 'all, he imagined, with a thriving fear in' their faces. As he watched, a womn an, coarsely dr-essed, ran across the 'street, her handkerchief pressed to her keyes. "The notice has gene up on the (door," said the manager. "I sent word to the police, Crowds are ugly some times." Valiant drew a sudden sharp breath. tThe corporation down In the mire, with crowds at its doors ready to clamor for money entrusted to it, the jaggiregate savings of widow and or, ,phan, the p1iteous hoarded sums earned 'by labor over which pinched sickly faces had burned the midnight oil! The older man had turned back to the desk to draw a narrow typewrit 'ten slip of paper fm-om a pigeonhole. "Her-c," ho said, "is a lIst of the bonds of the sublsidiary companies recorded i1n your name. These are all, of ~cour'se, en gulfed in the larger failure. You have, however, your private for ~tune. If you take my advice, by the way,'' ho added significantly, "you'll make sure of keeping that." "WVhat do you mean?" John Va liant faced him quiekly. T.ihe oilier laughied shortly. " 'A word ~to the wise,' " ho quoted. "It's very good living aliroad. There's a boat Jleav'ing toimorrow'' A (lull red'( sprang into the younger ~face. ''You mean--" "Look at that crowd down thneie you can hnar them now. There'll be a legislative invmestigation, of course. And the devil'll get the hindmost." Hie struck the desk-top with lie hand. "Ihave you ever seen the bills for this ;furnituro-i D~o you know what that trug under your feet cost? Twelve thousand-It's an old Persian. What koyou supp0se the papers will do to ~hat? Do you think such things will feem amusing to that rabble down there?" ils hand swept toward the (window. "ft's been going on for too fmany years, I tell you! And now ysome one'il pay the piper. The light. fning Won't strike me-I'm not tall 1enough. You're a vice-president." 'Do you imagine that I Jcnew these ithings-tbat I have been a party to ~what you seem to believe has been a 1deliberate wrecking?" ' Valfant tow ~ered over him, his breath coming fast, (life hands clenched hard. ."You?". The manager laughed again (MR3. IML[ FIVI S PO5T WnEELrR1 AUREN STOUT -an unpleasant laugh that scraped the other's quivering nerves like hot' sandpaper. "Oh, lord no! How should you? You've been too busy playing' polo and winning bridge prizes. How many board meetings have you at tended this year? Your vote is prox-. led as regular as clockwork. But you're supposed to know. The people down there in the street won't ask questions about patent-leather pumps. and ponies; they'll want to hear about such things as rotten irrigation loans in the Stony-River Valley-to market an alkali desert that is the personal property of the president of this cor poration." Valiant turned a blank white face. "Sedgwick?" "Yes. You know his principle: 'It's all right to be honest, if you're not too damn honest.' lie owns the Stony River Valley bag and baggage. it was a big gamble and he lost." Valiant was staring at tho othnu I with a strange look. anotions to which in all his self-indulgent life he had been a stranger were running through his mind, and outro passions had him by the throat. Fool and doubly blind! A poor pawn, a catspaw raking the chestnuts for unscrupulous men whose ignominy he was now called on, peis force, to share! In his pitiful egotism he had consented to be a figurehead, and he had been made a tool. A red rage surged over him. No one had ever seen on John Valiant's face such a look as grew on it now. le turned and without a word opened the door. The older man took a step toward him-ho had a sense of dangerous electric forces in the air but the door closed sharply in his face. lie smiled grimly. "Not crooked," he said to himself; "merely callow. A well-meaning, manicured young fop wholly surrounded by men who knew what they wanted!" He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his chair. Valiant plunged down in the eleva tor to the street. lie pushed past the guarded door, and threading the crowd, made toward the curb, where his bulldog, with a be 'k of delight, leaped upon the neat of a burnished car, rumbling and vibrating with pent up power. There were those in the sullen anxious crowd who knew whose was that throbbing metal miracle, the chauffeur spick and span from shining cap-visor to polished brown puttees, and recogniz.ed the white face that went. past, pelted it with muttered sneers. Hut he scarcely saw or heard them, as he stepped into the seat, took the wheel from the chauffeur's hand and threw on the gear. He drove mechanically past a hun -dred familiar things and places, but he saw nothing, till the massive marble fronts of the uipper park side ceased their mead dance as the car halted be fore a tall iron-grilled doorway with wide glistening steps, between win dews strangely shuttered and dark. Hie sprang out and touched the bell. The heavy oak parted slowly; the con fidential secretary of the man he had come to face stood in the gloomnly doorway. "I want to see Mr. Sedgwick." "You can't see him, Mr. Valiant." "But I will!" Sharp passion leaped into the young voice. "He must speak 'to me." The man in the doorway shook his head. "He won't speak to anybody any more," he said. "Mr. Sedgwick shot himself twe hours ago." CHAPTER Ii. Vanity Valiant. "The witness is excused." In the ripple that stirred across the court room at the examiner's abrupt conclusion, John Valiant, who had withstood that pitiless hail of ques tions, rose, bowed to him and slowly crossed the cleared space to his coun sel. The chairman looked severely over his eye-glasses, with his gavel lifted, and a statuesque girl, in the rear of the room, laid her delicately gloved hand on a companion's and smiled slowly without withdrawing her gaze, and with the faintest tint of col or in her taco, Katharine Fargo neither smiled nor flushed readily. Her smile was an in dex of her whole personality, languid, symmnetrical, exquisitely perfect. The little group with whom sihe sat looked somewhat out of place in that mixed assemblage. Smartly groomed and ptalpably members of a set to whom John Valiant was a familiar, they had had only friendly nods and smiles for the young man at whom so many there had gazed with jaundiced eyes. Tio the general public wvhich read its daily newspaper perhaps none of the glded set was better known than "Vanity Valiant." The new Panhard he drove was the smartest car on the avenue, and the collar on the white bulldog that pranced or dozed on its. leather seat sported a diamond buckle. To the spacowriters of the social cel 'umns, he had been a perennial inspira-' tion. The patterns of his waistcoats, and the splendors of his latest bache .bra' dinner at Sherry's-with such Items the public had been kept suffi ciently familiar. T1o it., he stood a per feet. symbol of the eider ease and in Relent dlisplay of inh'erited wvealth. And the great majority or those who hnA fnund~ ni-arcn in that I.,,..J.. chiii. ber to listen to the ugly tale of squan dered millions, ldoked to him with a resentment that was sharpened by his apparent nonchalance. Long before the closing session it' had been clear that, as far as indict mnenta were concerned, the investiga tion would be barren of result. Of Individual criminality, flight and sui cide had been confession, but more sweeping charges could not be brought home. The gilded fool had not brought himself into the embarrassing purview of the law. " " " * $ + M The jostling crowd flocked out into the square, among them a fresh-faced girl on the arm of a gray-bearded man in black frock coat and picturesque broad-brimmed felt hat. She turned her eyes to his. "So that," she said, "is John Valiant! I'd almost rather have misted Niagara Falle. I must write Shirley Dandridge about it. I'm so sorry I lost that picture of him that I cut out of the paper." "1 reckon he's not such a bad lot," said her uncle. He hailed a cab. "Grand Central Station," he directed, 'with a glance at his watch, "and be quick about it. We've just time to make our train." A* + 0 -k 0 1 1 Some hours later, in an inner office of a downtown sky-scraper, the newly appointed receiver of the Valiant Cor poration, a heavy, thick-set man with narrow eyes, sat beside a tabie on which lay a small black satchel with a padlock on its handle, whose con tents-several bundles of crisp papers -he had been turning over in his 'heavy hands with a look of incredu lous amazement. A sheet containing a inas of figures and memoranda lay among them. The shock was still on his face when a knock came at the door, and a man entered. The newcomer was gray haired, slightly stooped and lean jowled, with a humorous expression on his lips. le glanced in surprice at the littered table. "Fargo," said the man at the desk, "do you notice anything queer about me?" His friend grinned. "No, Buck," he said judicially, "unless it's that neck tie. It would stop a Dutch clock." "Hang the haberdashery! Read this -from young Valiant." He passed over a letter. Fargo read. le looked up. "Securi ties aggregating three millions!" he said in a hushed voice. "Why, unless I've been misinformed, that represents practically all his private fortune." The other nodded: "Turned over to the corporation with his resignation as ,a vice-president, and without a blessed string tied to 'em! Vhat do you think of that?" "Think! It's the most absurdly idiotic thing I ever met. Two weeks ago, before the investigation * * * but now, when It's perfectly certain they can bring nothing home to him-" le paused. "Of course 1 suppose it'll save the corporation, eh? But it may be ten years before its securities pay dividends. And this is real money. Where the devil does lie como in meanwhile?" The receiver pursed his lips. "I knew his father," ho said. "le had the same crazy quixotic streak." Ile gathered tho scattered docu 'ments and locked them carefully with the satchel in a safe. "Spectacular young ass!" he said explosively. "I should say so!" agreed Fargo. "Do you know I used to be afraid my Katharine had a leaning toward him. But thank God, she's a sensible girl!" Dusk had fallen that evening when John Valiant's Panhard turned into a "It's Very odLvn bod Tr'saBeat Leaving Tomorrow." cross-street and circled into the yawn ing mouth of his garage. A little later, the bulldog at his heels, he ascended the steps of his' club, where he lodged-ho had dis p~osed of his bachelor apartments a fortnight ago. The cavernous seats of ~the lounge were all occupied, but he did not pause as he strode through the hall.' He took the little pile of letters the boy handed him at the desk and went slowly up the stairway. He wandered into the deserted libra ry and sat down, tossing the letters on the magazine-littered table. He had suddenly remembered that it was his twenty-fifth birthday. In the reaction from the long strain he felt physically spent. He thought of what he had done that afternoon with a sense of satisfaction. A re versal of public judgment, in his own case, had not entered his head. He knew his world-its comfortable facul ty of forgetting, and the multitude of sins that wealth may cover. To pre srve at whatever personal cost the ont rnbln mnment his fater'as genius 'iad reared, and to right the: wrong that, would cast its gloomy! shadow on his name--that had beegj his only thought. What he 'ad dope, would have been done no matter what [the outcome of the investigation.- But 'nnw, he told himself, no one could say the, adt -had been wrung from. him. fThat, he fancied, would have beep his, tether's -way. Ie smiled-a slow smile of reminis cence-for there had come to him at that moment the dearest of all those; memories-a play of his childhood. I He saw himself seated on a low stool, watching a funny old clock with; a moon-face, whose smiling lips curved' up like military mustachios, and wish] ing the lazy long hands would hurry.j He saw himself stealing down a long; corridor to the door of a 'big roomj strewn with books and papers, that 'through some baleful and mysterious' spell could not be made to open at' -all hours. When the hands pointed! right, however, there was the "Open 'Sesame"--his own secret knock, two' fierce twin raps, with one little lone-. some one afterward-and this was un failing, Safe inside, he saw himself, tanding on a big, polar-bear-skin, the door tight-locked against all coniers, an expectant baby figure with his lit tie hand clasped in his father's. The white rug was the magic entrance to the Never-Never Country, known only to those two. He could hear his own shrill treble: "Wishing-louse, Wishing-'louse, where are you?" Then the deeper voice (quite unrec ognizable as his father's) answering: "Here I am, Master; here I am!" And instantly the room vanished and they were in the Never-Never Land, and before them reared the big gest house in the world, with a row of white pillars across its front a mile high. John Valiant felt an odd beating of the heart and a tightening of the throat, for he saw a scene that never faded from his memory. It was the one hushed and horrible night, when' dread things had been happening that he could not understand, when a big man with gold eye-glasses, who smelled of some curious sickish-sweet perfume, came and took him by the hand and led him into a room where his father lay in bed, very gray and quiet. The white hand on the coverlet had beckoned to him and he had gone close up to the bed, standing very straight, his heart beating fast and hard. "John!" the word had been almost a whisper, very tense and anxious, very distinct. "John, you're a little boy, and father is going away." "To-to Wishing-House?" The gray lips had smiled then, ever so little, and sadly. "No, John." "Take me with you, father! Take me with you!" - Ills voice had trembled then, and he had had to gulp hard. "Listen, John, for what I am say ing is very important. You don't kmnow what I mean now, but some time you will." The whisper had grown strained and frayed, but it was still distinct. "I can't go to the Never Nover Land. But you may sometime. If you * * * if you do, and if you find Wishing-House, remember that the men who lived in it * * * be fore you and me * * * were gen tlimen. Whatever else they were, they were always that. Be * * * like them, John. , * will yo?" "Yes, father." The old gentleman with the eye glasses had come forwptrd then, hasti ly. ."Good-nIght, father-" -He had wanted to kiss him, but a 'strange Cool hush had settled on the room and his father seemed all at once to have fallen asleep. And he had gone out, so carefully, on tiptoe, wondering, and suddenly afraid. (Continued Next Wi~eek. SOME DONT'S 1-ar Stomach and Liver Sufferers Dor't take medicine for y'our Stomach all Inents mornIng, noon)1 and night, as usualm ly suchi meicliines only give tempoary relief and, siimly digest the fool th atim hppenis to lie in tihe Stoumach. D~on't perumit a surgical opemra:tioni. Theme is ahvays serioums dlanger in operatmions and Iin imany cases of .Stoimach, liver andI intestinal Ajihnents the knife can be avoided if tihe rightL remetdy isq taken in time. D~on't go nround with a fouml smelling b~reathi caused iby a disordleredl Stoimch anid ILiver, to tihe discomfort of thmose ymt come in 'onitamct with. If you are a stommach Sufferer don't thinkyo Cannot lbe heiped, probaliy worse cases thian yours have been restored by M.ayr's WVonderful Stomach Rtemuedy. Aiost stommach milmnts ar mmnainily caused by a catamrrhmal conditi:'n. Mamyr's WVondlerfuml Stomamch Renmedy niot onlty reimove's time camtarrhal imucomms bt allays time chmronic inlammmation aind assists In renudering time enitire alinmntary and intestinml tract antisepttic, and this is tihe secret of its mar veloums success. Don't suiffer comitstant iain andt ngonsy and allow your stomachm aiments to pimysically under mine youmr bealthm. No mamtter hmow severe youmr case may he or how ilong youm ha~ve suferedl - one dose of Magr's Wondmuerfuml Stomiachm Remedy shmomuld conymnce you that you cani he restored to hiealthm agaimn. imyr's Wonduerful Stomiacm Reumedy hmas beenm taken and' is ighlty recommmended biy Miembers of Congress. Justice of the' Suipreme Court, Edmucators. Lumwyers, Merchants, Blankers, Doctors, Drmugglsts, Nmrses, Manuflacturrs Priests, MInisters, Farnmera and people in all walks of life. Send for FREE valuable booklet on Stomach Ailment, to Geo. Ii, Mayr, 154-156 Whiting St., Chicago, IlL. UUNZNS D0 CS, Druggist. Everywhere. Jhne. W. hWeu'gaon C. C. Featherste W. B. Enight PItGUm4, PBA TNMBSTNE & KNII Afterbeys at Law Lasues, S. C, Prnmpt and careful alanbeon givem Offie Over limetta Bank. I*. 409 HE BAN ED HIS MONEY AND BECAME A BU5INESS PARTNER., YOU CAN DO THE SAME You hear them say that "So and So" gave "What's His Name" his 'first start by taking him into partnership. No! The MONEY HE HAD IN THE BANK gave him his first start. "So and So" needed him and could use him and his money in the business. Besides, the boy who is putting money in the bank can be trusted. Rich men are hunting for them. Make OUR bank YOUR bank. We pay interest in Savings Department. Enterprise Bankl N. B. DIAL, Pres. G. H. ROPER, Cashier ----- -~ -- ---- - - . ~ Drop in with, or Mail your architect's plans and builder's list, and let us figure with you on a complete house bill. You will be surprised and pleased. Our stock is so complece and varied, you can easily satisfy yourself on the most particular and exacting specifications. Controlling the manufacture of our entire out put as we do, from stump through our own saw and planing mills to the finished product, we furnish mill work and interior finish that is of the highest standar d. Complete house bills our specialty. "Buy of the Maker" Sash, Doors, AUGUSTA LUMBIDR Co. , Blinds, Etc. AU~GUSTA. GA. J. S. MACHEN Real Estate ILaurens, S.C. City and Surburban Property and Farm Land. One new seven room cottage near Watts Mill. One four room house with four lots included, near Watts Mill for twelve hundred and fifty dollars for quick sale. House anid lot cost more than price asked. Reason for selling, party owning moved to lower part of the state.* 3i1-4 acres on Farley Avenue. 2 acres on Farley Avenuc, a bargain in both of these iots. Good building sights. One two story house, well constructed of best material on Hampton street. One small store room and good size lot on corner Fleming and Mills streets for $600.00 cash. One two story brick building on East Main street with fine shade trees. Tn good neighborhood. This place can be bought for $3,000.00. The buildings on this lot worth the money. .100 acres farm land with necessary buildings in two miles of Princeton at $20.00 an acre. 100 acres four miles south of Laurens near New Prospect school. This is a good farm. Price $2500.00. 343 acres near Clinton. This is a fine proposition for mak ing some money. 50 acres flue farming land just outsideo city limits at $65 per acre. 65 acres near Barksdale Station. 110 -acres in two miles of Ora for $2500.00. Lands adjoining sell for forty and fifty dollars per acre. One acre and 6-room house on East Main St., near Min eral Spring at $3,000 One 8-room house on Laurel St., at $2,500. O'ie H-reom house on Laurens St., at $a,500 One 15-roomi house on South Harper St., near the square. 146 iuere farm near Trinity Ridge school. Fine neighbor hood and best school advantages for the man who buya tis~ 30 acres in half mile of city limita at $55.00 per acre.