Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain)

p reported, and after he had pocketed his tip, went slid

ducing Company turned with a good

rough with that one. I'll have to ask you to

private parlor where Simon Harley lay stretched on a lounge with his wife beside him. She had been reading, ev

ise, almost of alarm, so that the man o

my card?" he

ust have gone to Mr. Harvey again. He is Mr. Harley's private secretary, and ever sinc

ional intrusion, Mrs. Harley. When I was told to com

t to his feet and now came

gway, and to get the opportunity to express o

r man touched his lightly befo

to see you, Mr. Ridgway," she

r own lips that you are none the worse for the adventures you ha

" Harley announced from the davenport. "Thanks also to God,

his audacity could not ignore his host entirely, but it gave him the least consideratio

very good to me. I do not know how I can repay the great kindness of so many friends," she said wi

for the service in doing

re not to forget it,"

polite insolence, the hostilit

ply my portion so abundantly that I

Mrs. Harley's life?" his riva

in her innocence she had resolved to bring them together. How could her inexperience know that she might as well have tried to induce the lion and the lamb to lie down togeth

that your business was disarranged so much

Ridgway smiled. "But I am glad to be back i

never before was in a place where there was no grass and nothing green in sight. And to-night, when I looked out of the window and s

bit," he confessed. "My sober second thought insists that those molten ri

oke that hangs so heavy over the town, but instead I saw a

ind is right. In fact, a day

sunshine. I know that's a bit of the child stil

tor saw that they had disposed themselves for a quiet uninterrupted evening by the fireside. The domesticity of it all stirred the envy i

loom of the sulphur fog which seemed to

. I suppose you read a good deal. Mr. Harley lik

such impulse as makes a man bite on sore toot

ur reading? I should like t

but she looked inquiringly at

We have been reading the book through. Mr. Ha

and her clear, sweet voice took

from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from

nst me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run a

of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be n

insatiable cruel years that lay behind this man, and he marveled that with such a past he could still hold fast to that simple faith of David. He wondered whether this ruthless spoiler went back to the Old Testament

f their lips even be taken in their pride:

they may not be: and let them know that God

in meditation, gazed at the ceiling. His guest felt a surge of derision at thi

great deal," he said ironically, but it was in

much in them that is

he might," agre

ir every-day lives as he does," she replied in a lo

re you a

now when the newspapers are so full of falsehoods about him? And the magazines are as bad, he says. It seem

ticed that," he answered

these writers? They can't WANT to distor

A good deal of what they say is true in a way. Personally, I don't object to it

about you, too?" she ask

led. "When they think

ey can," he heard h

what they s

t be very bad," she

tter read i

tand business a

rightens me. Business isn'

frighten you. All life is a battle-somet

turn imply trage

d loser. We lose and

tle, it must be gained a

the distant smelters and mills, at the great hill opposite, with its slagdumps, gallows-frames and shaft-houses black against the dim light, which had yielded its millions and millions of tons of ore for the use of mankind. "All this had to be fought for. It didn't grow of itself. And because m

she a

s I am to run away from my work, what I do must make some unhappy. I can't help that if I am to do big things. When you hear people talking of t

knew that this man was saying good-b

y grow between me and Mr. Harley, it has nothing to do with y

r that, too," he

his and failed. I am the only man alive that has ever resisted him successfully. I don't underestimate his power, which is greater than any czar or emperor t

breath of summer wind. For she saw now that the cleavage

ng to win?" he

that he came here to ruin

n. Business offers legitimate ways of robbery, and I transgress them. His ways are not m

are both good men. I know you are

hope for no reassurance

His secretary had gone, and he was lying resting on the lounge. He opened his eyes and smile

itantly after the slightest of paus

nantly as he shook hands with the departing guest. "I shall hope to see

y." To the girl he said merel

affectionately across h

her psalm, my dear?

r before she answered wearily. "I am a little tired

and left her with her maid after he had kissed