VII.

This was the situation of affairs with Edgar Braine when he graciously

spared the cigarette-smoking apprentice, and passed into his editorial

sanctum on the morning of his suicide.

He was putting the sunshine of his own hopefulness into an article on

the practical means of promoting Thebes's prosperity, when Abner

Hildreth entered.

"You're a worry to me, Braine, when I think of you," said the banker,

after a greeting.

"Why, how's that? I'm sure--"

"Oh, don't let it trouble you. It's this way. As a banker, I pride

myself on knowing how to size a man up. The man who can't do that, to a

hair, had better let banking alone and devote himself to some quiet

business, like preaching the gospel, or running a sawmill. I thought I'd

sized you up to a fraction when I put you in here, and as to the paper

I had. I knew you'd make it the livest sheet in the Mississippi Valley,

and you've done it; I knew you'd make it push Thebes with a forty

horse-power, and you've done that too. But I missed badly on one point,

and it bothers me. It undermines my confidence in my judgment."

"In what particular have I disappointed you, Mr. Hildreth?"

"Well, that's hardly what I mean. I'm not disappointed. But I missed

badly as to your business capacity. I knew you were smart at writing,

and all that, but I didn't know you had such a head for business on your

shoulders. I expected to have to lift you out of money holes every six

months or so, and was ready to do it, but bless me, if you haven't made

a business go of the thing from the start. You're not in debt much, are

you--for the office I mean?"

"Not a cent, for the office or myself. I get enough to live on out of

the paper, and have bought new type, a new steam press, a

ruling-machine, and other things besides. The paper will pay me a good

income now."

"That's splendid!" said the banker, in admiration; "that means you've

put the shop ten thousand dollars to the fore. Good! You've been worth

a hundred thousand to me, and the laws only knows what, to Thebes. Now,

such a business head as you've got oughtn't to be wasted on a single

little business like this, and I've made up my mind to take you into

bigger things. That's what I'm here for to-day."

Edgar expressed his gratitude for the banker's appreciation and good

will, and declared his willingness to take hold of larger things

whenever opportunity should offer.

"Well now, there's this special election. The Common Council will order

it, you know, for the twenty-fifth. There's only one thing to be voted

on, and that is the proposition to give the Central Railroad the right

to run down the levee to the Point, and take the Point for a depot and

wharf."

"Yes, I know. I have an article ready on the subject. I haven't

discussed it yet, because I want to kill it at one blow and see that it

stays dead."

"But I think you don't understand it just right, Braine, and I want to

talk to you about it."

"Certainly I understand it. You and I talked it over three days ago, you

remember. I understand perfectly that the thing is a trick to rob Thebes

of her most fruitful source of revenue, by giving the levee, and with

it the exclusive right to collect wharfage, to this railroad crowd. I

know the resolution to be voted on has been drawn so as to make it seem

nothing more than a grant of right of way, but that it really authorizes

the Common Council to give away the levee and the wharfage rights

absolutely. I have found out that our rascally aldermen intend to do

just that, and I mean to find out how much they have been paid for doing

it and who has paid them. But in the mean time, I intend to defeat the

whole rascally scheme at the polls, by exposing it."

"Now, wait a minute, Braine, and don't go off half-cocked. Really,

that's your one fault, and you must cure it. Let me tell you about this

thing. I felt as you do about it, but since we talked it over, I've had

more light. I've been in correspondence with the railroad people, you

know, and I understand their plans better now. I have a letter from

Duncan this morning, in which he says,--let me see," glancing over the

letter, and finding out the part he wanted to read. "Oh, yes, here it

is: 'You quite understand me now. You're one of us'--no, that isn't

it--that refers to another matter. Ah! I have it: 'We depend upon you to

see the thing through in that charter election. Young Braine will

certainly kill it if he isn't gagged. Why not let him in on the ground

floor a little? He may be of great use to us in carrying out the other

matter, and if we don't control him, he's sure to do us a great deal of

damage. Can't you explain the thing to him, and make him see it in its

right light?' There, I oughtn't to have read the letter to you because I

can't read it all. Some of it's confidential, and hearing only a scrap

that way, the expressions seem blind and misleading to you."

"I think I understand better than you suppose, Mr. Hildreth. This man

Duncan has bought your favor for his scheme; you have been fighting the

ring, not to break it, but to break into it, and you've succeeded. Now

the fellow wants to buy me. He can't do it, that's all."

"Very well, only don't think Abner Hildreth a fool. I didn't blunder

into reading that part of the letter to you. I did it on purpose. I

wanted you to understand the lay of the land; and decide for yourself.

What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to expose the whole criminal conspiracy. I'm going to fight

this greedy gang of speculators, and I'm going to beat them at the

polls."

"How will you go about all that?"

"In the _Enterprise_."

"But I _own_ the _Enterprise_, you remember Braine, and naturally you

can't do it in my paper. I've never asked you to help me in any of my

enterprises, but I shan't let you use the paper to hurt the biggest one

I ever engaged in. You can't do this in any other paper, because you've

driven the _Argus_ out of town, and I took pains to buy the _Item_ this

morning early, on the chance of its being turned against me. I've got a

bill of sale of the whole concern, stock, lock, and barrel, in my pocket

now!"

"My God!" exclaimed Braine, for the first time realizing his

helplessness, and the consequences it involved with respect to his

marriage and his future.

"Don't swear, Edgar. It's immoral. I'm a religious man myself, and might

put the matter in a stronger way; but you're not a professor of

religion, and so I only say its immoral."

Edgar sat thinking for ten minutes, during which neither man spoke. Then

Hildreth said:

"You mustn't take an unbusiness-like view of this thing, Edgar--"

"Call me by my last name, please--somehow I like it better," interrupted

the young man.

"Oh, all right. As I was saying, you oughtn't to look at this thing in

your high and mighty way. It's unbusiness-like. It isn't practical. Let

me explain a little. This is a great business enterprise, far-reaching,

and sure to make Thebes great. The men who are engineering it and

putting their money into it, naturally want some return. They ask this

right of way--"

"And intend to steal the whole levee under cover of a swindling

document," broke in Braine.

"Now don't get excited, and use harsh terms. These men want certain

privileges in return for making Thebes a great railroad centre, and the

Common Council is willing to make the grant as soon as the people, by a

vote, give them authority under the law. You have thought it would be

your duty to oppose the thing, but I have shown you its nature, and

asked you to change your opinion. You can carry this election by the

influence of the _Enterprise_. We ask you to do it, and tell you that if

you do you shall be let in on the ground floor. I'll make that more

definite. If you help us, on the day after the election the

_Enterprise_--good-will, business, presses, type, and everything, shall

be Edgar Braine's, absolutely, to do what he pleases with, and in any

political, or other aspirations he may have, he will enjoy the support

of the moneyed interest of the State. If you refuse to help, why,

naturally, I must put a man in charge of the _Enterprise_ who will. He

is at my office now."

Braine said nothing for a long time. He was taking account of his

situation. He had thought himself prosperous. In fact, if he broke with

Hildreth, he had scarcely more than the fifty dollars with which he had

come to Thebes several years before. He might have saved a few thousands

from the earnings of the _Enterprise_, but he had preferred, in his

eagerness to make the paper successful, to spend the money in

improvements. All his plans had been laid with reference to his

continuance in his present position, with the certain income it secured.

But Abner Hildreth held all his prospects and all his plans in the

hollow of his hand, to do what he would with them.

It was a choice between certain ruin on the one hand, and practically

limitless success on the other, for he saw more clearly than Hildreth

did, how potent a lever the influence of the "moneyed interest" might be

made, and how much more perfectly he could command its aid than Abner

Hildreth dreamed.

The temptation was frightful. The horror of such iniquity in his soul

was not less so.

"This craze of speculation, which seems to dominate everything of late

years in our money-cursed country, is a very Juggernaut," he said at

last, in bitterness of spirit, and less to Hildreth than to himself.

"Juggernaut?" responded the banker, "that's the Hindoo car that runs

over people and crushes 'em, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Yes. Well now, let me call your attention to an interesting fact about

that car. Did you ever observe that it never runs over the people that

ride on it?"

"Yes. I've observed that. I'm not so sure that the analogy will hold,

however. One might get jostled off, and fall under the wheels. But I

seem to be almost under now." He hesitated a moment more, and then--"For

safety I'll get on, and trust to my grip to hold on. I'll favor the

proposal, Mr. Hildreth, and I'll carry it through at the polls."

Then changing his tone to one a little less grim and more cheerful, he

went on: "But our contract has been rather indefinite in the past. Would

you mind signing an agreement now as to the transfer of the _Enterprise_

to me on the day after the election?"

"No, certainly not. I'll write it."

He wrote hurriedly and signed. Braine looked over the paper and tore it

up.

"That's worthless," he said. "A contract without consideration can't be

enforced. I want a legally binding agreement this time. I'll draw it."

He did so, and then read it to the banker, who assented to its terms,

and was about to sign it when Braine stopped him.

"Wait a moment" he said; then raising his voice he called: "Mikey!"

The apprentice appeared, trembling lest judgment day had come for the

sin of smoking cigarettes.

"I want you to see Mr. Hildreth and me sign this paper. Never mind

reading it," he said, laying a blotting pad over the lines, as he saw

the boy's eyes wandering curiously over the document. When the two had

signed, he turned to Mikey and said:

"Now, write the word 'witness' in that corner, and sign your own name

under it."

When the lad had finished, Braine turned to Hildreth, who was beamingly

about to shake hands with him, and said in a strangely cold and haughty

tone:

"I believe that finishes our business, Mr. Hildreth, and as I have some

matters to discuss with Mikey, I beg you will excuse me. Good morning,

sir."

Hildreth passed out of the office, astonishment, vexation, and triumph

struggling for mastery in his mind.

"He's a cool hand, sure," he muttered, "to bow me out in that fashion,

just when I'd bought him, body and breeches! Somehow I can't feel quite

easy about this thing yet. He didn't act as though he thought he

belonged to me. Wonder if he's going to burst the whole thing up after

all! By--George! I haven't got a scrap of writing to hold him by! I

haven't got a line binding him to anything!"

With that he stopped short in the street, and after a moment's

reflection, muttered again:

"Abner Hildreth, you're a fool! You have sized that fellow up, and you

know he is too honorable to go back on his promise. Well, of course,

there ain't so much to be said about his honor now--but he won't lie,

that's certain. He'll keep his part of this bargain."

Braine when left alone with Mikey, said to the lad:

"Mikey, how far did you go in arithmetic at school?"

"Clear troo, sir."

"What did you get on examination?"

"Eighty-six, sir."

"Well, here's a sum I want you to work out for me. If a boy, fourteen

years old, smokes a dozen cigarettes a day at five cents a dozen,

allowing compound interest on the money, how much will the smoking cost

him by the time he's twenty-one? It will be a long sum to do. If you get

tired while working at it, here's a good Havana cigar to smoke for a

rest. Do the sum to-night, and bring me the answer in the morning. Go

along to your work now."

Then Edgar Braine sat down to write, for the first time in his life, in

advocacy of what he believed to be iniquity. The article was the most

difficult one he had ever tried to write, but when done, it was almost

startling in its vigor and persuasiveness.

When he had read it over, he thought:

"It almost convinces me that the thing is right, and _I_ know better. It

will surely convince men who don't know better. It's a strange

experience for a man who has conscientiously written for the public

instruction, to turn about and write with a deliberate purpose to

deceive the public and wrong it. But the Edgar Braine who worked for the

good of his fellow-men is dead. He committed suicide to-day. By the

way, he ought to have a good obituary. I'll write it."

And he did. The article began:

"There died in this town to-day, a young man much esteemed by his

fellow-citizens. The young man was known to all our readers as Edgar

Braine, the editor. He died by his own hand, and no cause for the deed

is known to the public."

It went on to give a sketch of the suicide's life, and an analysis of

his character, and the purposes which had animated him in his work.

When the foreman got the obituary with "must" written upon it, he was

thrown into a panic, and rushed into the editorial room to remonstrate.

"I can't believe you mean to kill yourself, Mr. Braine--"

"Be perfectly easy in your mind, Snedeker," replied Braine, with a

smile, "I'm not going to do myself any further harm."

The foreman wanted to ask what the thing meant, but was not encouraged

by the look on Braine's face to indulge his curiosity. He "set" the

article himself, thinking that should the editor change his mind about

it, it would be just as well not to give the journeymen a chance to

talk. But Braine did not recall it. He corrected the proof slip, and

went on with his work.

When the _Enterprise_ came out with the obituary of its editor staring

at its readers between turned rules, the little city was thrown into

something like a convulsion. It was soon learned at the newspaper office

that Braine was not dead--Abner Hildreth was the first to make the

inquiry--and the good news spread rapidly through the excited community.

But what did the obituary mean?

Conjecture busied itself with an effort to find a solution for the

mystery; for wildly, personal and audacious as journalism was in small

western towns at that time, the effrontery of this stroke startled the

community. One wise one suggested that Mose Harbell must have done the

thing for a joke, as he had manifestly done the mackerel story in the

same issue of the paper; but that theory was unanimously rejected as

soon as it was observed that the article did not once call Braine

"genial."

Finally the community settled down to the conviction that this was only

another of Braine's devices--a trifle more startling than the

others--for exciting interest in the paper, and making it a subject of

universal talk.

Abner Hildreth alone understood, and he was satisfied to be silent.