2 9 4 E
 
 EGAN 
 
 BY 
 
 HOLWORTHY HALL 
 
 Author of "Henry of Navarre, Ohio," 
 "The Man Nobody Knew," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 1920
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920 
 BY HAROLD E. PORTER 
 
 VA1L-BALLOU COMPANY 
 
 INSHAMTON AND NTW TO*K
 
 TO 
 
 DARRAGH DE LANCEY 
 
 AND 
 
 MAJOR ROBERT S. BOOTH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE OFFICIAL OFFICE CIGAR 
 
 2136167 *
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 The city of " Plainfield, Ohio," and all the charac- 
 ters pictured in this book are purely imaginary.
 
 EGAN 
 
 IN the smoking compartment of the Cincinnati Pull- 
 man there were three men; one of them was 
 Bronson Egan, and for that reason there had 
 been little conversation for the past half hour. 
 
 In Egan's favour, it must be understood at the outset 
 that the provocation was great, and that ordinarily he 
 was a man of indulgent tendencies, capable of stoicism 
 even in the presence of those who infest the pathways 
 of the returning soldier and inquire blithely as to the 
 personal habits of Black Jack Pershing, the sensations 
 of the human organism under fire, and the exact pro- 
 cedure by which the soldier won his decorations. Nor- 
 mally, he could have withstood any amount of this rail- 
 way bromide; and if his mood had chanced 'to be play- 
 ful, he would probably have monopolized the entire dis- 
 course from station to station, creating for his listeners 
 a vivid series of extravaganzas, based on pure imagina- 
 tion, coloured with wild adventure, absurd, impossible, 
 and yet to be believed because of Egan's drama and 
 convincingness, and to be excused because it was what 
 the listeners liked to hear. 
 
 Today, however, because he was nearing home, his 
 mood was far less playful than it had been for fifty 
 months. Indeed, he was fundamentally serious. 
 Glory, riches and a girl were waiting for him, and there
 
 3 EGAN 
 
 would be a shadow of sadness, too, for reminder that 
 the world wasn't all of his own choosing. He found 
 himself dwelling more upon the sadness than upon the 
 happiness. And from the moment of his entry into the 
 smoking compartment, where he had hoped to meditate 
 in peace, or at least without direct interruption, he had 
 fallen under the annoyance of a cross-examination 
 which took prompt rise from the fact that Egan was 
 still in uniform. 
 
 He had answered, courteously enough, every question 
 asked of him by a fatuous jewelry salesman in black- 
 and-white checks and sundry diamonds, and by an 
 older, florid gentleman in Palm Beach fabric and per- 
 spiration, but his final illustration of courtesy under 
 pressure had in it somewhat of the smothering quality 
 of a fire-extinguisher. As a result of it, the compart- 
 ment was flooded with refreshing silence, while the other 
 occupants stared hard at Egan, and wondered, with 
 the slightly constrained interest of stayers-at-home, how 
 much of a part Egan himself had really played in mak- 
 ing the world safe for democracy, and for them. 
 
 Unconscious of their none too deferential scrutiny, 
 Egan lounged in the window-corner, gazing straight out 
 at the level Ohio landscape, and rolling between his 
 thumb and forefinger, absent-mindedly, an unlighted 
 cigarette. His expression was neither sullen nor mel- 
 ancholy ; but it reflected deep introspection. His face, 
 long and a trifle thin, was heavily tanned; and at the 
 corners of his unusually bright and active eyes were 
 myriads of tiny wrinkles like those which aged mariners 
 wear as a badge of long devotion to their calling. The 
 shape of his head was boyish, and its crown of thick
 
 EGAN 3 
 
 brown hair was juvenile in its waywardness ; but his 
 lower face, with its strong and well-formed jaw and its 
 rather wide mouth, tight-lipped at the present moment, 
 was by contrast strikingly mature. By the calendar, 
 he was in the medium twenties; judged by the standard 
 of war-experience, he was a time-worn veteran. 
 
 He was in the uniform of a First Lieutenant of the 
 Air Service, and looked well in it. Above the left-hand 
 pocket of his blouse he wore the tarnished silver 
 insignia, the wings, shield and star, of a Junior Military 
 Aviator; and just beneath it, three ribbon bars in a 
 mathematically straight line the familiar narrow red 
 and green of the Croix de Guerre; the less known, less 
 frequent tricolour of our own Distinguished Service 
 Cross, and a third bar which the jewelry salesman had 
 been briefly told on application, represented the Croce 
 al Merito di Guerra of Italy. On the left sleeve of 
 Egan's blouse were four wide gold chevrons, to denote 
 at least two years of service with the American Ex- 
 peditionary Force. On his right sleeve he wore the 
 wound stripe. 
 
 Now the jewelry salesman had carefully acquainted 
 the gentleman in the Palm Beach suit, during the course 
 of their mutual investigation of Egan, with his own 
 great efforts to win the war, and the heart-gnawing fail- 
 ure of his dearest plans for still more heroic and self- 
 sacrificing labour plans which were permanently 
 dampened before fulfilment and even before trial, by the 
 cessation of hostilities. He had regretted, parentheti- 
 cally but with good voice, that the armistice had been 
 signed before his number was reached in the draft. His 
 disappointment was almost greater than he could bear ;
 
 4 EGAN 
 
 his only permanent satisfaction, he said, wagging his 
 head mournfully, was in his consciousness that he had 
 bought Liberty Bonds until it hurt but it did seem 
 to him a national disgrace that McAdoo hadn't pro- 
 tected the market so that a patriot wouldn't have had 
 to sell out at 94.36 in order to get his money back. 
 He had bought three thousand dollars' worth, he said, 
 and if any man questioned the statement he could pro- 
 duce the receipt of the bank from which he had bought 
 them, and also of the broker through whom he had sold 
 them. In fact, he had them in his pocket now, and if 
 anybody cared to look at them . . . 
 
 Palm Beach had glanced at Egan's shoulders, and re- 
 marked that Ordnance had thrice offered him a lieuten- 
 ant-colonelcy : but, like Caesar, he had thrice refused 
 the kingly crown because it didn't fit him. He had 
 reasoned that a civilian could do so much more than an 
 officer to speed up production that it was a deed of 
 actual patriotism to decline. It would have been a 
 pleasant honour, and a pleasant remembrance, but 
 after all, a man's duty to his country was as he saw it, 
 and he had simply obeyed his conscience. But it had 
 made him very tired, after the work he had done and 
 the honour he had refused, to have the Provost-Marshal 
 General draft the majority of his skilled mechanics, and 
 then have the Chief of Ordnance expect him to produce 
 at constantly increasing speed. The Government 
 should have struck a balance, somehow. 
 
 " Couldn't you train women ? " Checks and Diamonds 
 had inquired pertly. " Or wouldn't they wear overalls, 
 or what? My wife read in a magazine somewhere " 
 
 " Training be hanged ! 7 don't run any trade school
 
 EGAN 5 
 
 that's not in my line ! There wasn't time, anyway. 
 That was up to the Department of Labor. They had a 
 Committee on dilution and training, and they started 
 out to make a survey of what the country needed, be- 
 fore they'd begin to train anybody, and the war was 
 over before the survey was. Have 'em expect me to 
 lose all my best men in the draft, and fuddle around to 
 get priorities on materials, and spend all my profits on 
 bonds, and pay big taxes, and then run a school for 
 women or men either besides ? That's too much 
 of a good thing. No I had to cut down the output. 
 I was sorry, but what could you do? You can't make 
 a toolmaker out of a coalheaver. It can't be done." 
 
 The salesman had cocked his head wisely. " Well, if 
 I'd been in your place, I'd have trained women. I hear 
 they do more work for less money. Over in England 
 they " 
 
 The florid gentleman made a sweeping gesture of con- 
 tempt. 
 
 " England ! Yes, of course they did. They had to. 
 That's different. The war was close to 'em. And 
 over in England they didn't have any deferred classifi- 
 cation in the draft on the ground of dependents, either. 
 Every man was called on to do one thing or the other. 
 Work or fight. And if you worked instead of fighting, 
 it was only real work that counted. Something that 
 was needed for the nation. They said marriage was 
 only an accident, and hadn't anything to do with war, 
 so they took married men like you in the army, and paid 
 his family compensation. Women had to go to work to 
 fill those men's places. And here in America we had 
 ten million able-bodied men, deferred for dependents,
 
 6 EGAN 
 
 in non-essential occupations. So when you say what 
 you'd have done, and when you begin to quote Eng- 
 land" 
 
 The jewelry-salesman made a strategic retreat. 
 
 "Well, I wouldn't 'a cared much if I had been 
 drafted. I bet I'd 'a got to be an officer sooner or 
 later. Why, between you an' me, brother, I'd enlisted 
 if Crowder hadn't shut down the bars on enlistments 
 while the draft was goin' on." 
 
 " Very creditable idea," Palm Beach had nodded. 
 " But as I recall it, the bars weren't ever put down on 
 the Tank Corps, or Motor Transport, or " 
 
 " I wanted the Infantry," Checks and Diamonds had 
 inserted hastily. " And sweatin' inside them Tanks 
 ain't what I call a popular indoor sport with me, 
 brother. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die in the open 
 air. I was in the Home Guard out our place, and say ! 
 brother, if that comp'ny of ours ever got drafted in a 
 body, we'd 'a made them Marine Devil-Dogs look like a 
 lot o' old women runnin' away from a garter snake. 
 That's how much / was a draft-dodger, if anybody 
 wants to know it ! " 
 
 He had looked out from under his eyebrows at Egan, 
 but Egan, snatching advantage of the momentary re- 
 spite, was lost in retrospection and resolve. 
 
 " I gave a hundred to the National War Work 
 crowd, too ; not a lot, but " He shrugged his shoul- 
 ders, to express his full measure of devotion. 
 
 The florid gentleman was recessively amused. " I 
 dare say you helped along the Red Cross, too." 
 
 " Yes, I gave to that, too," the salesman had con- 
 fessed, fingering his cuff-links affectionately.
 
 EGAN 7 
 
 " And you invested pretty heavily in War Savings 
 Stamps, most likely? " 
 
 " Did I ! " The salesman had looked again at Egan, 
 and resumed the inquisition. " Say, Major," said 
 Checks and Diamonds brightly. " How do you fellers 
 that's been Over There feel about the fellers that wasn't 
 lucky enough to get acrost? Now you're back, I mean. 
 My friend here " at which the florid gentleman 
 winced " My friend here and I've been talkin' it 
 over an' we kinder wonder if you fellers think a man that 
 wasn't lucky enough to get acrost hasn't done nothin' to 
 help win the war; or whether or not you feel as if we 
 fellers over here was doin' our bit to help you fellers put 
 it acrost, and doin' all we could when we stuck on our 
 jobs, an' bought the bonds an' W. S. S. to /mance the 
 war, an' chipped in for the Red Cross an' the Jewish Re- 
 lief Fund an' so on ; or whether or not you fellers think 
 we" 
 
 At that juncture, Egan goaded beyond his ordinary 
 indulgence had turned on him, and in his well-bred, 
 slightly throaty voice, with the very smallest imagin- 
 able suggestion of remote Celtic ancestry in it, inter- 
 rupted the oily flow of interrogation. " Why, those of 
 us who were overseas not that I have any right to 
 act as spokesman ; but this is my own private opinion 
 those of us who were overseas think exactly as you do 
 over here. There was work to be done everywhere, 
 sir. Different in kind, but equally important. And 
 one can generally tell pretty accurately whether or 
 not a man did his share of that work by the charac- 
 ter of his explanations, sir." 
 
 It was immediately subsequent to this reply that the
 
 8 EGAN 
 
 conversation had languished ; and that Egan had en- 
 joyed nearly half an hour of blessed peace. 
 
 The jewelry salesman now exhaled wearily, sniffed his 
 independence, fondled his scarf-pin, and addressed the 
 florid gentleman in the Palm Beach suit. 
 
 "Goin'to Cinci?" 
 
 " Plainfield." 
 
 Checks and Diamonds honoured Plainfield by a gra- 
 cious inclination of the head. 
 
 " That's a nice little town, brother. Yours ? " 
 
 " No ; I've got some business connections there." 
 
 "That so? Who with?" 
 
 The florid gentleman, becoming more reserved as the 
 inquiry became more personal, responded vaguely. 
 
 " Oh, I'm doing business with a lot of different 
 people." 
 
 Egan sat up, and lighted his cigarette. His attitude 
 was more unbending, his demeanour more suggestive of 
 interest, than at any time since luncheon; his com- 
 panions, however, remaining in mind of the joint slur 
 he had put upon them, ignored him. 
 
 "Well, I make Plainfield myself every other trip. 
 Yes, it's a nice little town. She's a grower, too. Lot 
 o' changes there in the last three four years. I got 
 a lot o' friends there, myself. I'm quite well acquainted 
 there. Especially with the politicians. Good, solid, 
 substantial men like Eddie Macklin, for instance . . ." 
 He paused for effect. " You know Eddie Macklin? " 
 
 The florid gentleman waved his hand, perhaps to 
 imply that a mere Macklin or two was hardly worth
 
 EGAN 9 
 
 accounting for, perhaps to ward away a draught of 
 superheated air from the open window. 
 
 " I've met him." 
 
 " I'm an intimate friend of his." The florid gentle- 
 man's eyebrows went down a trifle at this. " I got a 
 cousin's a big lawyer in Dayton knows him, an' I met 
 him, through him. My home's Cleveland. Nice, bright 
 feller, Macklin is. Straight like a string. You know 
 he'll prob'ly be the next Mayor, don't you? " 
 
 " I'd heard it spoken of." The gentleman in the 
 Palm Beach suit looked curiously at Egan, who had 
 transferred his attention from the landscape to the 
 conversation. "What's your cousin's name?" 
 
 " Kaplan. Sam Kaplan." 
 
 " So ? " The florid gentleman wavered ; yielded ; 
 burned his bridges. " I know Sam Kaplan pretty well 
 myself. My own home's in Dayton." 
 
 The salesman's elbow served as punctuation for his 
 philosophy. 
 
 " Is that so? By golly, it is a small world, when you 
 come to think of it. Ain't it the truth? To think of 
 you and me travellin' along here all this time without 
 hardly sayin' a word to each other and both of us 
 knowin' Sam, an' Eddie Macklin! Well, what d'you 
 know about that! It certain'y is a small world, 
 brother. How'd you ever happen to know Sam ? " 
 
 " I beg your pardon." Egan had leaned out 
 towards them, and was speaking equitably to the space 
 halfway between his fellow-travellers. " But is that by 
 any chance the same Eddie Macklin who used to be a 
 clerk in Judge Perkins' office in Plainfield? "
 
 10 EGAN 
 
 The jewelry salesman surveyed him impudently. 
 *' Yeah. He's city counsel. They're gonna run him 
 for Mayor." 
 
 Egan smiled faintly, and relapsed into his corner. 
 " As you say, gentlemen, the town has changed . . ." 
 
 They looked uncomprehendingly at him for a moment. 
 Then the florid gentleman began to smile. Checks and 
 Diamonds hesitated with the annoyance of a slow-wit 
 who detects a winged thrust without actually feeling it, 
 and resumed his questioning. 
 
 " How'd you ever happen to know Sam, brother ? " 
 
 " Why, as it happens," said the florid gentleman, 
 " he's represented me once or twice in some small mat- 
 ters that's all. He's not my regular attorney." 
 
 " Oh ! And your name ? " 
 
 " Henderson," said the florid gentleman, reluctantly. 
 His manner made it evident to Egan that he didn't 
 fraternize by choice with men of the jewelry salesman's 
 importunities, but it was also evident that he was study- 
 ing the salesman carefully. Egan, idly attentive, 
 guessed that the florid gentleman was sufficiently 
 anxious for Sam's support, or good opinion, to make it 
 worth his while to appease the curiosity of Sam's ob- 
 noxious cousin. 
 
 " Not Martin Henderson ! " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 Egan stiffened. The salesman gulped, shot his 
 cuffs, and twisted around so as to face the florid 
 gentleman squarely. 
 
 " Well, wha'd' you know about that! So you're 
 Henderson! Martin Henderson! Well, I'll be 
 damned ! By golly, I will be damned ! You talk about
 
 EGAN 11 
 
 your small worlds! Why, man alive, it was me " 
 He rapped himself smartly on the chest, and repeated. 
 " Man alive, it was me that carried the message to 
 Garcia! Get me?" 
 
 " Message to . . ." Palm Beach was interested, but 
 out of his depth. 
 
 The salesman glanced sidelong at Egan. He shot 
 his cuffs once more purple striped cuffs they were, 
 and very decorative, and bounced forward to the edge 
 of his seat. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Henderson, I'm Charlie Feinberg. 
 Didn't Sam tell you? No? Why, the old tightwad! 
 Why, I'm the man brought him the news he passed on to 
 you the same day and took you to Plainfield on the 
 3.14 milk train that same night! I called it the mes- 
 sage to Garcia like the story Albert Hibbard wrote up 
 in a circular for free distribution to all the members in 
 my lodge. I was the man on the job get me? I was 
 in Plainfield, and somebody wants me to do something, 
 y'understand, an' I go do it. Get me? That was to 
 Sam, an' then him an' you got together, an' that was 
 all there was to it. By golly, I " 
 
 The reaction of the florid gentleman was three-fold. 
 He was taken by surprise, placed on guard, and made 
 conciliatory, all at the same time. " Feinberg? No, 
 Sam didn't tell me. I'm glad to meet you just the 
 same. And I'm very much obliged to you . . ." 
 
 Checks and Diamonds laughed exuberantly, and 
 caressed his scarf-pin in a tender passion of pride. 
 "Well, I'm certain'y glad to meet you. . . . Oh! 
 Vurry kind of you, I'm sure. That looks like a good, 
 strong cigar. . . . Well, sir, I'm awful disappointed
 
 12 EGAN 
 
 the deal worked out the way it did, but you can't blam 
 nobody for that." 
 
 The florid gentleman was beetle-browed. " No 
 no." 
 
 " I sh'd say not . Trust me, brother. Of course i 
 might kind of startle you, if you didn't know I wa 
 mixed up in it, but you gotta remember I'm a friend o 
 Eddie's and a cousin of Sam's. Strictly business, 
 carried the message to Garcia, for a favour, y'undei 
 stand, and that's as far as it goes. . . . Much oblige 
 for the cigar, Mr. Henderson." He snapped a gener 
 ous section from the perfecto, and kindled it withou 
 removing the band. " And anything I can ever d 
 for you " 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Feinberg ; I'll bear it in mind. 1 
 
 Checks and Diamonds wriggled importantly. 
 
 " S'pose it would of made any difference if it liau 
 gone through? " 
 
 " It might. It might." 
 
 " Well, I guess the old man never knew what hi 
 him, did he?" 
 
 " No. They said he died in his sleep. It was bette 
 that way, I suppose." 
 
 " That's right. What about his boy? " 
 
 " I imagine he's still in the army." 
 
 The salesman puffed appreciatively, and squinted a 
 the band of the cigar. " Eddie told me about him 
 Said he used to be about as cocky as they gro\* 
 Thought he owned the whole earth and a fence aroun< 
 it. Some merry little surprise when he comes norm 
 all right, all right." He laughed shrilly. " Well, t 
 a great life if you don't weaken. Only I guess he']
 
 EGAN 13 
 
 have to do some weakenin'. Not that I got anythin' 
 against him pers'nally, but after what Eddie said, I 
 guess it ought to do him good. The Egan Company's 
 down an' out, ain't it ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Henderson. " It certainly is." 
 
 " No, it isn't ! " This was from the young officer 
 by the window, and the swell of his voice was such that 
 both the other men sat up, instinctively defensive. The 
 young man was angry, and there was no mistaking it. 
 He showed it, and he intended to show it. That firm 
 jaw of his was pushed slightly outward, his blue eyes 
 had little dancing points of light in them, and one of 
 his big hands, resting on his knee, was doubled, auto- 
 matically. " Listen here ! I've let you people talk 
 I've given you all the rope you need I haven't any 
 idea who your friend Sam is, or what you mean by your 
 message to Garcia, or any of the rest of your veiled 
 secrets, and I don't want to know; but I've just waked 
 up to the fact that you've mentioned my father, and 
 my father's business, and myself. You " 
 
 "Your father!" gasped the jewelry salesman, sink- 
 ing into his chair, and sending the florid gentleman an 
 ocular appeal for help. 
 
 " Oh ! " said the big man, awkwardly. " Your fa- 
 ther! Then you must be Bronson Egan, eh? That's 
 rather embarrassing for all of us. I didn't recognize 
 you don't think I ever had the pleasure. Well, then 
 you know who 7 am Henderson of Dayton." 
 
 " I've heard of you." Aroused by the memory that 
 his father had despised and distrusted Henderson more 
 than any other man in the Middle West, he swung to- 
 wards .Feinberg. " And whoever you are, let me tell
 
 14 EGAN 
 
 you right here and right now I'm still quite cocky 
 enough to resent the use of my own name, or my fa- 
 ther's, the way you used them, in a public place by 
 anybody of your calibre or considerably bigger." 
 
 " Oh, come now, Egan " began the florid gentle- 
 man, pacifically. 
 
 Egan, greatly to the relief of the salesman, who was 
 sucking his cigar nervously, and watching, cat-eyed, 
 for developments, pivoted towards Henderson. 
 
 " Well ? Any comments ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Henderson. " Calm down a little. You 
 take offence too quick. Mr. Feinberg's repeated what 
 some one said to him about you, and that's as far as 
 it's gone. He didn't express his own opinion, did he? 
 It's too bad, but after all, nobody's said anything that 
 an apology won't cover." The salesman, picking up 
 his cue, darted feverishly into the debate. 
 
 " Oh, I apologize certain'y. I apologize. 
 Hadn't any idea who you were, y'understand. I cer- 
 tain'y apologize." 
 
 Egan had discs of wrath in both his cheeks. 
 
 " And for your own special benefit, Mr. Henderson, 
 I'll remind you that the Egan Company never had to 
 take any back talk from anybody in your outfit, from 
 yourself down and it's too late to begin now. Fur- 
 thermore, if you've got any personal remarks to make 
 about either my father or myself, or about our business 
 either, why, now's the time to make 'em ! " 
 
 The florid gentleman, deducing from certain land- 
 marks that his destination was near, stood up, swaying 
 to the motion of the train. He looked down at Egan, 
 and frowned; looked towards the salesman, and con-
 
 EGAN 15 
 
 tinued to frown. " He don't know it yet," he said to 
 Feinberg ; and then to Egan, kindly : " I'm awful sorry 
 this happened, son. It only goes to show it ain't safe 
 to talk anything but crops and Ford stories on a rail- 
 road train, or you step on somebody else's toes. I'd 
 give a thousand dollars cash if this hadn't happened. 
 But you're taking it too hard. You haven't been in- 
 sulted. You " 
 
 Egan was also on his feet, rigid. 
 
 " I want to know what you mean, then, by saying 
 our company's 'down and out'? That's too old a 
 trick of yours to get away with. Even if I passed over 
 what you said about me which I don't intend to." 
 This last was for Feinberg, who shrivelled under it. 
 
 " He don't know it yet," said Henderson once more 
 to the jewelry salesman, and again to Egan, most 
 soothingly : " Youngster I like you. I do ; hon- 
 est. Right off the bat. You're a born scrapper 
 just like your old man. You don't know when you're 
 licked. If I had a boy myself, I hope he'd stand up 
 for me the same way. Only this time you're on the 
 wrong track. While you've been away, a lot of things 
 have happened. If you don't know, why, I haven't got 
 time to tell you now, and you wouldn't believe me any- 
 way. It's no particular pleasure for me to be the one 
 to spring it on you. Still, if you've got to have it 
 now why, the war's over, and the Egan Company 
 went with it. I'm surprised Judge Perkins didn't let 
 you know it. Oh, I know you won't believe me; you're 
 too mad now to believe anything but ask the first 
 baggage-smasher you see at the Plainfield station when 
 you get off the train. Ask anybody. It's public
 
 16 EGAN 
 
 information. Or, if you'll take my advice, you'll make 
 for Judge Perkins' office the first thing and ask him." 
 
 Egan wavered, staring. His pupils were very wide. 
 He spoke as though partly stunned. 
 
 " You . . . you're not trying to tell me it's failed ! 
 Nonsense, man, nonsense. Don't you suppose I'd have 
 heard about it ? I " 
 
 " No, not simply failed." The big man stooped over 
 the basin, and allowed cold water to trickle over his 
 thick wrists ; he held them up, dripping. " Not simply 
 failed, Egan. I'm afraid it's dead. Permanently. 
 Lord knows I wouldn't have picked out the job of tell- 
 ing you and I'm mighty, mighty sorry this had to 
 happen this way. But I ought to know, if anybody 
 does. I took over some of its contracts myself, and 
 I'm coming over to Plainfield now to bid on some of 
 the machinery. . . . Don't think everybody that don't 
 agree with you's a liar, Egan. It don't pay." 
 
 The Lieutenant inspected him critically, moved to- 
 wards the doorway, paused, came back a step. " All 
 right," said Egan dispassionately. " And while you're 
 about it, you might get yourself out of the habit of 
 spreading idiotic rumours about your competitors. 
 That doesn't pay, either." 
 
 " Egan ! Be reasonable. Would I have any sense 
 to start any rumour now ten minutes from the Plain- 
 field station and to you ? I'm not trying to pick a 
 quarrel with you. I'm trying to do the opposite." 
 
 " Well, you're not succeeding." He shot a glance 
 at the leering salesman, who promptly froze. " As for 
 you, Feinbcrg just let me tell you one thing: I 
 know your breed. Infantry! Bah! . . . you mean
 
 EGAN 17 
 
 Nursery! I'm sorry you're too small to lick. But I 
 know just exactly what to expect from you, and I'm 
 going to discount it. You'd better listen. ... If I 
 hear any of your joyous ribald laughter coming out of 
 this compartment after I've gone, I'm coming back here 
 and make you damn well regret it. Is that clear? " 
 
 " Why, Egan," said the florid gentleman, in dis- 
 turbed protest. " I never knew your family had a 
 reputation for beating up men under your size. He's 
 apologized once. Calm down." 
 
 Egan, in the doorway, laughed very naturally, al- 
 though his pupils were still dilated with the astonish- 
 ment and apprehension he was trying so diligently to 
 conceal. 
 
 " I wouldn't fight him," he explained. " I'd spank 
 him." 
 
 He went out; the salesman sat motionless for a mo- 
 ment, cackled suddenly, clamped his mouth tight shut. 
 " By golly ! D'you . . . d'you s'pose he would the 
 big bluff? " 
 
 " Don't worry he'd love to," said Henderson dryly. 
 " Lord, they were a fighting pair, those Egans. The 
 Old Man as quiet as a mouse, and the boy as quiet as 
 a cyclone. Sort of takes the electricity out of the room 
 when he goes, doesn't it? And, say ... I wouldn't 
 make any funny faces at him out of the car window, 
 either, if I were in your place ; he'd come right through 
 it to get at you. . . . Queer I hadn't recognized him. 
 Never saw him before in my life, but when he told me 
 who he was " 
 
 The salesman drew a long breath. 
 
 " So that's the guy that everybody's sorry for, is
 
 18 EGAN 
 
 it?" He drew a still longer breath. " Well, 7 ain't. 
 I'm glad of it ! I'm glad of it ! The great big stiff ! " 
 
 " What I'm glad of," said Mr. Henderson, very seri- 
 ously, " is that you didn't talk any more than you did. 
 The best thing you can do if you'll excuse my say- 
 ing so is to keep your mouth shut in public about 
 that whole transaction. If you're a friend of Sam's 
 and Eddie's you will. You saw what it got you 
 into, didn't you? Call it a cheap lesson. Forget it. 
 Because, if the story ever leaks out, I'll know who to 
 blame." 
 
 Here the salesman became almost telescopically small. 
 " All right. All right, Mr. Henderson. I only thought 
 seeing it was you " 
 
 Henderson shook his head. " Forget it. Well : 
 I'm getting off here look me up some time when 
 you're in Dayton." 
 
 The jewelry salesman presently moved to the vacant 
 seat by the window, and waited, tense, until Egan ap- 
 peared on the platform ; waited then, growing tenser 
 every moment, until Egan's broad back was turned, and 
 Egan was fully twenty feet away, and through the gates. 
 
 " You great big stiff, you ! " said Mr. Feinberg, ar- 
 ticulating very clearly. " You great big bluff ! You 
 great big bum ! Lowlife ! You couldn't lick a postage 
 stamp! I bet you bought them ribbons in a depart- 
 ment store, you big piece of Limburger cheese ! " He 
 inhaled exultantly; honour was satisfied; he was 
 avenged. " I'm glad of it," said Checks and Dia- 
 monds, referring oracularly to his recent dialogue with 
 Palm Beach and perspiration. " Schwein-hund ! I 
 hope you choke ! "
 
 II 
 
 IT was on a sultry July night that Bronson Egan 
 had quitted Plainfield, headed overseas, and it was 
 on a sultry afternoon in mid-July, four years 
 later, that he came back. At the first glance, the mere 
 familiar appearance of the railroad station thrilled him 
 and made him feel the warmth of homecoming; but an 
 instant later, when he realized that there was no one 
 to meet him, no one to cheer him, no one even among 
 the taxi-drivers and baggage handlers who seemed to 
 remember him (or whose faces he could himself remem- 
 ber), he felt his excitement slip away by degrees, and 
 leave him only impatient to proceed. 
 
 As he hurried across the street, with Henderson's 
 gloomy prophecy dispossessing him of his rightful joy 
 to be at home again, he smiled diagonally at the con- 
 trasts in his own mind. Overseas, he had done so much 
 more than he had ever expected to do, and the public 
 reception was so infinitely less than he had visualized. 
 There was no reception at all, there was no welcome at 
 all; there wasn't even greeting. There wasn't even 
 recognition. And it hurt him, because he lived on rec- 
 ognition. To be sure, he attracted long stares of no- 
 tice from occasional passers-by, but it was notice of 
 the uniform, and not of the man within it. His isola- 
 tion of spirit made him feel like an alien, an expatriate. 
 He had once been accustomed to say, and to believe, 
 that he knew " everybody " in Plainfield. The absence 
 of familiar faces was almost a blow at his pride. 
 
 19
 
 20 EGAN 
 
 As he increased his pace, he heard his name called 
 excitedly, by a woman's voice. Stirred even by the un- 
 known, he wheeled swiftly. At the nearest curb was 
 parked a handsome touring-car, with an elderly woman 
 and two attractive girls in the tonneau. Instantane- 
 ously, Egan's brain was wiped clean of the prophecy. 
 
 " Bronson ! " The elderly woman in dark blue silk 
 was leaning far out to him, offering both her hands and 
 beaming with surprised pleasure ; beyond her, the pret- 
 tiest girl in Plainfield was aquiver with delight, and 
 admiration. The third occupant, nearest to Egan, was 
 a stranger. 
 
 "Mrs. Kent! And ... and Mary!" His black 
 leather suit-case was left standing on the edge of the 
 sidewalk to impede pedestrians as it would; his over- 
 seas cap was flung to the seat by the chauffeur, who 
 edged dignifiedly away from it. 
 
 " We knew you were coming, Bronson, but we didn't 
 know when. I'm so glad we stopped here. How well 
 you're looking ! Isn't he, Mary ? " 
 
 The daughter, wreathed in smiles, agreed with suffi- 
 cient enthusiasm. " Splendid ! " She couldn't keep 
 her eyes from Egan's ribbon-bars, and he was deli- 
 ciously self-conscious. The sight of her had giren him 
 back his sense of ownership of the world. " But I'd 
 hardly know you. You've changed so." 
 
 Egan laughed explosively. " So've you. So's Plain- 
 field. So's everything ! " He brought himself back to 
 the routine of the conventions. " Mr. Kent's well, I 
 hope." 
 
 " The colonel's due tomorrow, Bronson," said Mrs. 
 Kent with matronly satisfaction. " Yes, we've a sol-
 
 EGAN 21 
 
 dier in our family, too. He was a lieutenant-colonel 
 first, and then they promoted him to colonel. He's been 
 in the Quartermaster Corps in Washington." 
 
 " Really ! You must be awfully proud of him." 
 Egan said this with much sincerity, but he wasn't look- 
 ing at Mrs. Kent as he said it. 
 
 " Well confidentially, I am. . . ." She turned to 
 the pretty stranger. " Martha, I want you to meet 
 Lieutenant Egan you've heard so much about 
 him " The stranger and Egan bowed in unison. 
 " He's one of our dearest and oldest friends. Where 
 are you going, Bronson? Can't we take you some- 
 where ? " 
 
 " No, thanks. I'm only going up to Judge Perkins* 
 office." The stranger's face absorbed him ; he felt sure 
 that he had met her somewhere, but his mental processes 
 refused to set a time or place. And Mrs. Kent had 
 committed that common and stultifying error of neglect- 
 ing to mention the stranger's name. 
 
 " Oh. Well you're coming to see us soon, aren't 
 you ? Very soon ? " 
 
 Egan glanced at the daughter, and took pleasure in 
 the discovery that her cheeks were delicately flushed, 
 and her eyes expressive. She moved her head ever so 
 slightly up and down ; and then, as she quickly avoided 
 his gaze, flushed more deeply yet. Egan drew a long 
 breath. 
 
 " Very soon indeed," he promised, reaching for his 
 cap. " It's good to see you again it's making me 
 homesick. Overseas, I didn't have time for it." 
 
 "Mother" 
 
 " Yes, dear."
 
 2 EGAN 
 
 "Tonight?" 
 
 The older woman was gently vibrated from her poise. 
 Her eyebrows fluttered with a premonitory message of 
 caution. In the meantime, Egan had noted that the 
 stranger bore a marked resemblance to Mary, so that 
 he put her down as a distant relative, and stopped tax- 
 ing his mind about her. 
 
 " Why, I didn't quite suppose. . . ." She halted, 
 nonplussed ; and finally put her exquisitely gloved hand 
 * over Egan's, as it rested on the tonneau door. " To 
 tell the truth, we're having a little dance at the house 
 tonight, Bronson. I didn't quite know whether to ask 
 you up or not, but as long as Mary. . . . We'd love 
 to have you, of course, but if it's too soon " She 
 was prepared to interpret the faintest hint of his un- 
 certainty. 
 
 "No," said Egan. " I'll be glad to come." He 
 looked down at the cobblestones of the street. " You've 
 noticed I'm not wearing any arm-band. I'm not parad- 
 ing it at all. I'm not doing anything very differently 
 from what I would have, if he'd lived. That was some- 
 thing he always made a point of. He always used to 
 say that if anything like that happened to him, he 
 wanted me to go right on as usual, and just remember 
 how much he'd have enjoyed looking on. You won't 
 be offended if I don't dance, though? If I just come 
 to see you and meet some of my old friends ? " 
 
 The two Kents were palpably relieved. 
 
 " Do come, then : and do whatever you like." 
 
 Egan nodded, caught Mary's eye, and was fasci- 
 nated. Her lips formed the unspoken word : " Early." 
 
 " Right-o," said Egan, with dual purpose. He
 
 EGAN 23 
 
 bowed to each of the trio ; the touring-car slid forward ; 
 and Egan, lifted back to his normal plane of exaltation 
 by the chance meeting, turned to pick up his suitcase. 
 
 He was a few seconds too late. A bibulous wayfarer, 
 radiantly engrossed in things far, far above the com- 
 mon level of a down-town sidewalk, and on a higher 
 plane of exaltation even than Egan, had stumbled, 
 tripped, and snatching at vacancy, found vacancy filled 
 solid with the bulk of Egan, and clung to him, just as 
 he turned, as though he had been a friendly lamp-post. 
 
 " Ten thousan' years an' . . . hie! . . . twice ten 
 thousan' years have fled," observed the bibulous one, 
 carefully freeing one hand to settle his headgear. " An* 
 . . . hie . . . whoever y'are, on my b-bended knees I 
 thank you for k-keepin' the tryst at the appointed place 
 this sacred moment to save me breakin' my damn fool 
 neck." He gestured courteously to the sky with his 
 free hand, and continued to embrace Egan with the 
 other arm. 
 
 Egan, endeavouring to disengage himself, saw with 
 chagrin that the Rents' car was stalled in traffic only 
 a few yards away, and that the three women were look- 
 ing back at him. He was also painfully aware of the 
 amusement of every one else within sight and hearing. 
 
 " Here ! Behave yourself. This is a bone-dry state, 
 man. You'll get in trouble. You're all right now 
 brace up ! " 
 
 " What? " The man had put his heavy hands on 
 Egan's shoulders, and was straining into his face, as 
 Egan tried to avoid him. He was of middle age and 
 excellent physique ; he was well-dressed, and his features, 
 for all their present weakness, had points of character.
 
 24 EGAN 
 
 "Who are you, ch-child of Fate? You look like Old 
 Man Egan. You do, do you not ? Yes, you do. Then 
 who'n hell are you ? " Into his vacant eyes shot a 
 sudden gleam of recognition. Of joyous horror. 
 " Why . . . why, it's you, boy ! It's . . . it's Bronson 
 Egan come back home again, or I'm a ... I'm a. . . ." 
 He made a desperate effort to stand erect, and partly 
 succeeded. " Bronson ! " he said thickly. " Oh, Bron- 
 son ! Don't you know me, boy ? Don't you remember 
 me? No? Look a' me, Bronson. Do' know me? 
 Why, it's . . . it's your Uncle Stanley your Uncle 
 Stanley Adams an' I'm tight, Bronson . . . I'm 
 tight ! " 
 
 Over Egan there suddenly swept a flood of sunny 
 memory. More than twelve good years ago. The be- 
 K)ved mentor of his childhood ; one of his earliest demi- 
 gods ; the first to receive unsolicited the highest distinc- 
 tion that the boy Bronson could bestow the honorary 
 title of relationship. 
 
 " Uncle Stanley ! " he gasped. 
 
 J 
 
 The man stepped warily closer, and linked arms with 
 him. Half a block ahead, the three women were still 
 w-atching. 
 
 " Oh, Bronson . . . never thought you'd see your 
 Uncle Stanley tight! Want to cry. Not goin' to 
 cry ... no. Want to. Tight. Tight every aft'- 
 noon, Bronson. I like it. Le's go get a cup black cof- 
 fee. Black. Blacker . . . lite . . . better. Do' want 
 pale black . . . want dark black. Sober'n a judge 
 then. Le's go. Hang on, Bronson, ol' boy I'm 
 tight!"
 
 EGAN 25 
 
 Egan, red-faced with shame and outraged reminis- 
 cence, hesitated only the briefest instant. From boy- 
 hood, he had cared not the snap of his fingers what 
 was thought of him. He had followed his instincts, and 
 his moods unswervingly; he had held himself the only 
 true independent of all his fellows, totally contemptuous 
 of criticism, or of example. And the man beside him, 
 although undeniably tight, was nevertheless the beloved 
 Uncle Stanley of those brighter years. 
 
 When he had left Plainfield, he had dreamed of re- 
 turning as a great hero, to be met with the veneration 
 of the populace. He had dreamed of the triumphant 
 march he would make down Main Street, and of the 
 crowds that would pause to stare at him because he 
 was Bronson Egan. 
 
 Now he was making that march; and crowds were 
 pausing to stare at him. He was making that march 
 past the Rents' touring-car, still bound in traffic ; mak- 
 ing it past a score of citizens he recognized, each of 
 whom seemed to pop out of ambush like a jack-in-the- 
 box at this precise moment ; making it for six long 
 squares down Main Street to the nearest Child's res- 
 taurant, with his suit-case in one hand, and the stum- 
 bling idol of his boyhood clinging fast to his other arm, 
 for all of Plainfield to see, and to remember. The 
 crowds stared; not because it was Bronson Egan, but 
 because it was a humorous or a shameful spectacle, de- 
 pending on which way you looked at it. No one could 
 possibly have seen anything sentimental in it. Every 
 one had looked either disgusted or amused; every one 
 except the strange girl who, from her seat beside the
 
 26 EGAN 
 
 Kents, had regarded Egan, as he passed, with something 
 of the expression that Mary Kent had lately worn in 
 gazing at his ribbon of the Croix de Guerre. 
 
 An hour afterwards, when he gave his name over a 
 wicket to the severe young woman who, although yet 
 unscathed, was afraid that some one was eventually 
 going to flirt with her, he was told that Judge Perkins 
 was closeted with an important client, and wouldn't 
 be at liberty until half past five. Would the gentle- 
 man wait? The gentleman most decidedly would. So 
 Bronson Egan sat himself down on a very hard bench 
 by the wicket, and sitting^ there, permitted his thoughts 
 to drift backwards over the events of this extraordinary 
 afternoon, over the amazing statements of the florid 
 gentleman in the smoking compartment, and over the 
 pyramid of things, beginning at his birth, which had 
 terminated in the apex of today, and brought him here. 
 
 His thoughts were chiefly about his father.
 
 in 
 
 IN Plainfield, it had been commonly said that Old 
 Man Egan had displayed uncontrolled emotion 
 only twice in his life, and that on both occasions 
 he had shed tears. It was a hard report to believe, if 
 you looked him straight in the eyes, for Old Man Egan 
 retained just enough of the outward characteristics of 
 his grandparents to make you expect from him the same 
 bubbling humour, the same fighting passions, the same 
 unchecked sorrows, in general, the same spontaneity 
 of conduct as those ancestors of his had enjoyed in 
 distant Ballycastle, two full generations past and gone. 
 
 But all this reminiscence lay deep in Old Man Egan's 
 blue eyes^ and it never went further. No one in Plain- 
 field had ever heard him laugh outright, or heard his 
 voice lifted above the conversational pitch. There was 
 a vague rumour that in his younger days, before he had 
 settled down in Plainfield, he had been a roistering blade 
 worthy to uphold the best of Celtic tradition in peace 
 or quarrel, but this was wholly unconfirmed and, indeed, 
 was whispered over the tea-cakes chiefly by widow- 
 ladies, elderly spinsters, and large-hearted married 
 women, by way of a contrast, and to provide the ro- 
 mance which no handsome widower is suffered to be 
 without. 
 
 The first of these two guaranteed instances of Old 
 Man Egan's emotion dated from a certain night when 
 he had been a resident of Plainfield for perhaps three 
 
 27
 
 28 EGAN 
 
 weeks ; and that was more than twenty years ago. A 
 surgeon had appeared at the door of the waiting-room of 
 the little city hospital, hesitated, analysed his man, and 
 walked directly to Old Man Egan, and put his hand 
 on his shoulder. 
 
 " My boy," he said (for Old Man Egan was hardly 
 qualified as a legal voter then), " My boy, she's given 
 you a son and she may live an hour, possibly two 
 hours not more." 
 
 It was said that Old Man Egan's head had drawn 
 down into his shoulders as though he had been black- 
 jacked from behind. 
 
 " Does she know it, Doctor ? " he had asked. 
 
 " No." 
 
 Old Man Egan's chest promised to burst, but his 
 head was erect again, and his eyes, so the doctor re- 
 lated, were such that a common man couldn't bear to 
 look into them. 
 
 " Then she will not," said Old Man Egan, and went 
 in to her. She was both conscious and happy, piteously 
 weak and gloriously unsuspecting. He cheered her, 
 praised her, uplifted her, kept an invisible tie of faith 
 and love and encouragement between them to the last 
 minute, and a few minutes beyond. And then, after 
 that, there was no one within earshot whose face didn't 
 show a sympathy of pain for Old Man Egan, alone 
 there on his knees, sobbing his heart out for the girl 
 who had exchanged her life for Old Man Egan's son. 
 
 The second time was ten years later. Old Man 
 Egan and his young friend Stanley Adams, of the city 
 staff of the Plainfield Times, were sitting at dusk on 
 the veranda of Egan's tiny house. Through the gate,
 
 EGAN 29 
 
 up the walk, up the steps strolled Bronson Egan, a 
 nonchalant tatterdemalion, torn, bruised, discoloured, 
 with a mouse over one eye and a thin trickle of blood 
 from his lips. Not faltering, he came to his father's 
 chair and stood there, like a prisoner awaiting sen- 
 tence, but a prisoner who has waived extradition, and 
 come to judgment of his own accord, with self-respect 
 intact. Old Man Egan inspected him minutely, glanced 
 at Adams, and relighted his cigar. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 The boy stood on one foot. " Had a fight, dad," he 
 said. 
 
 His father smoked reflectively. " Who with? " 
 
 " Eddie Macklin." 
 
 "What about?" 
 
 " Aw, dad ! " 
 
 " What about, Bronson? " 
 
 " Well, he ... he ... he said Mary Kent's stuck- 
 up." 
 
 The corners of Old Man Egan's mouth twitched at 
 this reference to the daughter of G. Willoughby Kent, 
 his chief competitor in the local field, and prime mag- 
 nate of Plainfield. 
 
 " What's your own opinion on that point, son? " 
 
 The boy's feet shuffled, and his ears grew hot. 
 
 " Never mind," said Old Man Egan. " Who 
 licked? " 
 
 " I did." 
 
 "Sure?" 
 
 " I knocked his head off," said Bronson, none too 
 conservatively, " and he bawled, and ran home. Said 
 he'd tell on me."
 
 80 EGAN 
 
 " Lick him fair, did you? " 
 
 " Well . . . after he bit, I had to. Didn't begin it, 
 dad. Honest." 
 
 " Taste good, did he?" 
 
 " Naw ! " The boy's toothless smile was expansive. 
 " I didn't bite only twice, anyhow." 
 
 " Don't you ever bite again, whether the other boy 
 does or not. The Lord gives us fists to fight with an' 
 teeth to eat with. Don't mix the system. . . . Not 
 afraid he'd lick you next time he catches you ? " 
 
 Bronson patted his cut lip, threw out his chest, and 
 smiled sweetly. 
 
 " I can lick any feller my size in this town," he re- 
 marked ; and added, after a pause, " and maybe a little 
 bit bigger." 
 
 Stanley Adams said afterwards that Old Man Egan 
 had happy tears in his eyes and that his voice trembled 
 with pride as he ordered his son to go upstairs and 
 make himself fit to eat dinner with decent people. 
 
 " And what," asked Adams presently, " are you go- 
 ing to do with the boy, Jim? " 
 
 " How do you mean do with him ? " 
 
 The reporter had all the altruism of a bachelor. 
 
 " Why, simply this so far you've been able to keep 
 a house running for him to live in, and " 
 
 " Not a house a home," said Old Man Egan 
 stiffly, and Adams nodded. Old Man Egan's quixotic 
 persistence in maintaining his own establishment, when 
 he could so easily have sent Bronson to the Sisters of 
 St. Mary first, and to a good boarding school after- 
 wards, was a matter of common discussion.
 
 EGAN 31 
 
 It wasn't so well known, however, that Old Man Egan 
 did it because he had never ceased to think of his wife 
 at least once every quarter hour of his life. 
 
 " Quite right a home," said Stanley. " And you 
 had a nurse for him, and now you seem to have a pretty 
 fair housekeeper, but after all, Jim, he's been a young 
 animal up to now. Don't shake your head of course 
 he has. I'm not calling him names. Children are ani- 
 mals. All that mattered was his health. Isn't that 
 so?" 
 
 " Well, let's suppose it's so. I want to hear some 
 of a bachelor's theories on raising a boy." 
 
 " Don't worry, Jim you're going to. Why, I was 
 simply wondering how long you think you can keep it 
 up. He's growing up fast. Seems to me he'll be miss- 
 ing a lot of the influences he ought to have. If he's got 
 the family traits, he's sensitive. He's impressionable. 
 He's a fighter. He ought to have training that you 
 can't give him no man could. When he came in just 
 now was a case in point. You'll make a wild man out 
 of him. Now if you were to be married again " 
 
 " No." Old Man Egan's tone was subdued, but it 
 made Adams sense his own intrusion. " If I could 
 take charge of a lad one hour old, Stanley, and bring 
 him up to fight for a a lady " Egan grinned 
 flittingly, " at the age of ten, beat his man, come home 
 and tell me, not lyin' about the little girl who he does 
 think is stuck-up, but he likes her just the same and 
 maybe better for it, because he's by way of bein' stuck- 
 up himself an' not neglectin' to tell about the bitin' 
 part, which he knows is not fair if I can have him 
 come to me half expectin' to get trounced for fightin',
 
 32 EGAN 
 
 ft 
 
 look me in the eye and tell his tale and wait for orders, 
 get them and obey them then, I can bring him up 
 the rest of the way . . . maybe." 
 
 Adams conceded the possibility. " You've done won- 
 ders with him, Jim, no doubt about it. And built up 
 a good business besides Heaven knows how. But in 
 the daytimes, when he's out of school and you're away 
 . . . I'm just wondering whether you want him to grow 
 up to be a loose end, or what. You can't be everything 
 to him, you know. You'll make a he-man out of him, 
 all right, but the best kind of man has to be sort of 
 tempered before he's ready for the world. He'll get 
 his ideals second-hand unless he gets them from the 
 right kind of women. He " 
 
 Old Man Egan interrupted. " Yesterday," he said 
 mildly, " I bought the old Senator Servos house on Vine 
 Street, furnished." 
 
 " You did ? " Adams' brows gathered. " But what's 
 that got to do with Bronson? And what on earth can 
 you do with a small hotel like that? " 
 
 " Everything," said Old Man Egan. " I made ten 
 thousand five hundred last year, I'll make twelve this. 
 The house was on the market cheap, and I took subject 
 to mortgage. It's a first-rate investment. Bronson 
 and I are going up on Vine Street to live among the 
 swells." Puzzled by his air of finality, Adams held his 
 silence. " The boy'll learn all there is to be learned, 
 Stanley. He'll have the best neighbours and go to the 
 best schools. He'll have day school, and Sunday 
 school, and dancin' school all with women teachers. 
 He's a bit of a hellion, so every woman mothers him a
 
 EGAN 33 
 
 bit." Old Man Egan seemed to see miles over the end 
 of his cigar. " He'll have all the advantages that my 
 money can buy, and I'll have all the money I can make 
 without forgettin' that I'm a father. I intend to ask 
 two or three of my friends to come live with us, so he'll 
 hear sensible talk at his meals, an' get ideas that teach- 
 ers haven't the time to find out about. Politics, busi- 
 ness, life. When I'm done with the house, I've got a 
 better use for it than it's ever seen yet, and in the 
 meantime it'll do what I want it to. When he's, say, 
 twenty-five, out of college, with three or four years' ex- 
 perience, I take him in as a partner." Old Man Egan 
 leaned forward to tap Stanley's knee. " And as my 
 partner, Stanley," he said, " he'll have a half interest 
 in what'll be a quarter of a million dollar business by 
 that time, if I live and keep my health." 
 
 " Um," said Adams. " You're confident." 
 
 Old Man Egan was imperturbable. 
 
 " Confident ? Sure I'm confident ! Give a man 
 something to work for, Stanley ! I churn myself ten 
 miles before breakfast every morning on a bicycle 
 'there goes that crank Egan again I' Crank? Why, 
 Stanley, my health is his future ! Eat right, go to bed 
 early, drink seldom ' Old Man Egan's a faddist ! ' 
 No, but Old Man Egan's got something to work for. 
 A good loser? No. A good trader? Not by a damn' 
 sight ! A good loser hasn't any kick in him, and a good 
 trader generally lands before a referee in bankruptcy. 
 I'm hard to do business with, Stanley harder than 
 nails. Fair and square, the best I know how, but a cold 
 proposition on a new scheme, and bad pickin' for shoe-
 
 34 EGAN 
 
 string artists." He grimaced. " Fact is, I'm the 
 worst gambler in Plainfield, Stanley, only nobody knows 
 it." 
 
 " Don't make me laugh ! Gambler ! Next thing 
 you'll call yourself a souse 1 " 
 
 Old Man Egan made a gesture of confirmation. 
 
 " By instinct, Stanley and by practice until I was 
 married. I'd rather gamble than eat. Poker, stock 
 market, Board of Trade, business anything. Love 
 it, Stanley. But it's his money. It's his future. I 
 haven't risked a nickel on a gamble since Ninety-Four. 
 I wouldn't so much as match you for carfares ; I might 
 lose. I don't take chances any more. I'm tellin' you 
 this so you can see the point. So I guess I won't take 
 many chances on the other things education and mor- 
 als and society, and all that. I'll take no chances on 
 Bronson. The boy'll make me proud of him." 
 
 "Or ... ?" 
 
 " There isn't any ' or.' " He tossed the stump of his 
 cigar over the railing. " I will brag about only one 
 thing on this earth, Stanley, and that one thing is that 
 when an Egan makes a promise, even to himself, he 
 keeps it. I promise you the boy'll be a good man, a 
 strong man, and a credit to the mother he never saw 
 and I wish I could promise two per cent as much for 
 you. Come on in to dinner." 
 
 To the big, rambling house on Vine Street, Old Man 
 Egan took his young son Bronson to live among the 
 swells ; and measured by the gauge of Plainfield and the 
 era, it was a move to an impregnable position. The 
 house itself was comfortable and hideous: a slate-
 
 EGAN 35 
 
 roofed, raw-bricked structure of unexpected twists and 
 turns and architectural improprieties which, on the 
 outside, sadly offended the modern eye, but on the in- 
 side, gave deep respite to the modern body. 
 
 It took Bronson Egan, even under the spur of nov- 
 elty, two days of constant exploration to familiarize 
 himself with the four-acre estate; after that, he was 
 thoroughly acclimated. The abrupt improvement in 
 his scale of living never seemed to register on his con- 
 sciousness ; he simply took for granted the broad lawn 
 with its twin stags at bay (and rode them bareback at 
 the top of his lungs) ; he accepted without a tremor 
 the prim old barns and stables, with their empty bins 
 and stalls and all their manifold possibilities for pi- 
 rates' lairs, and club headquarters, and gymnasiums, 
 and general sanctuary from pursuit ; he was no less 
 even-pulsed, although pleased, when horses and a sad- 
 dle-pony came to live in those echoing stalls ; he wasn't 
 for a moment awed to dwell in an ex-Senator's mansion 
 with seventeen rooms and two baths, one of them almost 
 new. 
 
 On the ground floor, leading out of a square little 
 hallway, there was a reception room in unspeakably 
 fragile gilt, with many gold-framed paintings (" hand 
 done," the real-estate agent had taken his solemn oath) 
 in ebony shadow-boxes, and a gilded statue of Venus, 
 very nearly life-size, with a clock so placed as appar- 
 ently to record the amount of her appetite. This 
 apartment had the power to offend Bronson merely by 
 its atmosphere of unreality ; he shied from it, as he had 
 been taught to shy from too-brightly coloured candy. 
 It didn't digest well. On the opposite side of the hall
 
 36 EGAN 
 
 there was a drawing-room, much larger and more heav- 
 ily equipped; a room which somehow gave Bronson a 
 feeling of supreme arrogance as he stood in the centre 
 of it and slowly wheeled to all points of the compass. 
 Here was a grand piano in solid mahogany, and a 
 grandfather's clock in solid mahogany, and a grand 
 series of chairs and tables in the very solidest of solid 
 mahogany; five standing electroliers with mahogany 
 columns and parti-coloured shades, countless gold- 
 framed engravings suspended from the picture moulding 
 by gold and blue ropes, resetted at the top and adorned 
 with heavy tassels halfway down ; seven j ardinieres, 
 mainly blue, disposed in corners ; and, above all, the 
 most wondrous of carpets, thick and noiseless, an al- 
 most perfect boy-silencer. Further on, there was the 
 library, a huge, dusky room with practically all of the 
 Senator's books still resident; two gigantic baize-cov- 
 ered desks, and a magnificently cushioned window seat 
 where Bronson might repose at leisure and strain his 
 eyes to read in the faint light struggling through the 
 diamond panes of stained glass above his head. Later 
 on, this was to be the council chamber of the local chap- 
 ter of the St. Nicholas League the camouflaged title 
 of Bronson's penny-matching association and offensive- 
 and-defensive neighbourhood alliance. There was also 
 a commodious cellarette built into the wall; and if the 
 Senator had kept it filled with a stock as innocent as 
 Bronson's the rolling stock of the Plainfield Me- 
 chanical Railroad Company the house might not 
 have passed out of the Senator's possession, nor the 
 Plainfield Sanitarium acquired its most distinguished 
 patient.
 
 EGAN 37 
 
 On the second floor, reached by a broad staircase 
 with a sort of ecclesiastical window at the half-way 
 junction, were the bedrooms which gave to Bronson his 
 enduring sense of the majesty of sleep. His own was 
 nearly twenty feet square plenty of room to swing a 
 cat in, as Old Man Egan said, and plenty of room to 
 practise swinging a baseball bat in, which Bronson often 
 did. From the narrow, darkened hallway, a row of 
 massive doors gave upon unused room after unused 
 room; people touched their temples suggestively when 
 they spoke of Old Man Egan's folly in buying this un- 
 necessarily large house, and wondered what on earth he 
 could do with ten bedrooms for a family composed of 
 himself, his son, and his Scotch housekeeper. 
 
 Old Man Egan showed them. In accordance with his 
 preconceived idea, he invited to live with him Stanley 
 Adams of the Times, who would converse occasionally 
 with Bronson on topics of the day, and sharpen his 
 worldly wits. He compelled the Honourable George 
 Perkins, his lawyer and his closest friend, to renounce 
 his cosy boarding house, and to live in the ancient gran- 
 deur of Room Number Four. This was in hope that 
 Bronson would absorb much of dignity and worth from 
 Perkins. 
 
 Perkins and Adams paid to Old Man Egan regularly 
 weekly the same as they had paid for their last previous 
 board and lodging. " So that anybody," said Old Man 
 Egan, " can curse at the victuals, complain of the beds, 
 or quit without notice, an' nobody's beholden to any- 
 body." 
 
 The other four bedchambers (excluding Old Man 
 Egan's cubicle and the room which the housekeeper oo-
 
 38 EGAN 
 
 cupied) were kept fresh in linen for transient guests. 
 At the mere conception of Old Man Egan as an enter- 
 tainer, Plainfield had politely snickered; but Old Man 
 Egan, emerging from his long retirement, proved to be 
 a very competent entertainer indeed, although a sedate 
 one, and eventually it was understood that few visitors 
 of intellect, of commercial importance, of experience in 
 travel or in the arts and sciences, had any very pro- 
 nounced chance of getting away from Plainfield with- 
 out at least an invitation from Old Man Egan. Still 
 more to be marvelled at, a large proportion of these 
 distinguished visitors seemed to take a fancy to Egan ; 
 many of them came a second time, and repeatedly; 
 many remained at the Vine Street house throughout 
 their entire local stay; and Bronson listened to them, 
 and whether fascinated or bored, allowed the germs of 
 ambition to percolate into his brain. It was at about 
 this time that Old Man Egan joined the Metropolitan 
 Club, and those who were most amazed at his desire to 
 become a member were still more amazed when, after 
 paying his initiation fee and dues, he never availed 
 himself of the club's privileges. 
 
 " Humph ! " said Old Man Egan to Adams. " Have 
 they no remembrance of the Constitution and By- 
 Laws? Sons of members are ipso-facto junior members 
 at eighteen and full-fledged members at twenty-one. 
 And it's the best club in Plainfield although I don't 
 care much for clubs, myself. But young men seem to 
 like them." 
 
 When Bronson was twelve, Stanley Adams went away 
 to New York to join the staff of what he called a " real 
 newspaper," and Bronson was disconsolate, for Adams
 
 EGAN 39 
 
 had been a trusted and an understanding friend and 
 companion. After he had gone, Bronson, carrying the 
 journalist's parting gift, a coveted .22 Winchester re- 
 peater, sought his father. 
 
 " Dad," he said, " what made Uncle Stanley's breath 
 smell so funny when he said good-bye? " 
 
 Old Man Egan, a teetotaller against his inclination 
 for thirteen years, looked down at him with tenderness 
 in his eyes, but none in his voice. 
 
 " The wrath of God," said Old Man Egan enigmati- 
 cally. " In the form of liquor. Don't you forget 
 your Uncle Stanley, Bronson he'll be your best friend 
 and his own worst. You'll forget what I'm telling you 
 Here ! Stop that ! Don't ever point a gun at any- 
 body whether it's loaded or not but I'll be satisfied if 
 you don't forget your Uncle Stanley. He'll either be 
 a tramp or a great editor, Bronson, before he's forty; 
 and in either case, he'll be your best friend and his own 
 worst." 
 
 Bronson went by a circuitous route to a neighbouring 
 curate ; not that he needed a verification of his father's 
 definition, but because he felt that this was a matter re- 
 quiring the co-operation of the cloth. 
 
 " Mr. Simpkins," he asked, " what does the wrath of 
 God smell like?" 
 
 The curate was verging towards Unitarianism, and 
 didn't understand small boys. 
 
 " Sulphur matches," he responded flippantly, think- 
 ing of his Puritan forebears. 
 
 " You're a big liar," said Bronson, with awful dis- 
 tinctness. " It's booze." 
 
 It took the good offices of Uncle George Perkins to
 
 40 EGAN 
 
 settle the resultant tumult; and to bring out the fact 
 that when Bronson had to decide between his father and 
 a clergyman, the cleric naturally suffered by compari- 
 son. On Perkins' recommendation, made in view of the 
 boy's earnestness, Bronson wasn't punished, except by 
 ultimatum and temporary deprivation of his rifle. But 
 the curate prophesied frankly that Bronson would end 
 in a reformatory ; and when he shortly accepted a call to 
 Dayton, Old Man Egan didn't ask Bronson to be sure 
 to remember him. 
 
 From that point forward, two men and a housekeeper 
 brought up Bronson. He wasn't lonely, for his mental 
 resources were always amply sufficient. He made 
 friends easily, and as soon as he had made them, he led 
 them. At fifteen he was acknowledged cock-of- the- walk 
 in his own bailiwick: the handsomest, hardest-hitting, 
 best dancing youth of the best neighbourhood in Plain- 
 field and most of the others; and he knew it. There 
 was no barrier to his confidence; there was no achieve- 
 ment which he would confess to be beyond his powers. 
 He got what he wanted when he wanted it. 
 
 Old Man Egan watched him intently, and approved; 
 and the Honourable George Perkins watched him and 
 wasn't sure that Stanley Adams hadn't been right in 
 prescribing a second marriage for Old Man Egan. 
 Watched Bronson plough grandly ahead to the cap- 
 taincy of school teams, the presidency of school organ- 
 izations. Saw his name in the city papers first as 
 a star left-tackle, later as a frequent guest at those 
 junior affairs worth chronicling socially. Watched 
 him become, quite naturally and normally, that speci- 
 men of his age known as a lady-killer ; and devote too
 
 EGAN 41 
 
 much time to his clothes and his haberdashery. 
 Watched him slip unerringly into the social life of 
 Plainfield and because Plainfield was a manufactur- 
 ing city, there were no finely drawn distinctions of class ; 
 there was society, and there were the working people. 
 Bronson was in society; and thinking vaguely of wider 
 fields to conquer New York, for example, where 
 Uncle Stanley Adams was one of the elect, writing 
 signed articles for a great newspaper every day, and 
 sending a letter every three months to Old Man Egan 
 to explain how easy it was to break into the metropolis 
 if you knew how. His letters fretted Bronson and 
 made him restless. 
 
 In the meantime, the paternal shop had prospered; 
 Old Man Egan was manufacturing first-grade machine 
 tools, and had presently organized a corporation pay- 
 ing twenty per cent. Offered bank and other director- 
 ships, he shook his head. 
 
 " I've got a single-track mind," said Old Man Egan, 
 " with two trains on it now. Thanks for the compli- 
 ment, but I can't see my way clear . . ." He also held 
 tightly to nine-tenths of the capital stock, no matter 
 what outsiders bid for it. This, too, was to insure 
 Bronson's future. 
 
 Bronson enjoyed all the expensive juvenile luxuries 
 of the period ; and Old Man Egan, who a few years ago 
 had sat on the library floor with him to teach him the 
 fundamentals of railroading by use of his elaborate me- 
 chanical railway, now taught him how to care for his 
 motor-cycle as an introduction to elementary engineer- 
 ing. Uncle George Perkins scowled occasionally, and 
 muttered that Bronson was being given too much,
 
 42 EGAN 
 
 taught too much, and allowed to make too few mis- 
 takes. 
 
 At eighteen, when Bronson went to college, he was 
 the most envied boy in Plainfield. He was affable, keen 
 as a razor, straightforward, tremendously proud of his 
 father and of himself, and vastly too well done. Old 
 Man Egan had overtrained him, but Old Man Egan 
 never suspected it never suspected that the bulk of 
 Bronson's honours were conferred reluctantly, and not 
 because Bronson was popular, but because he was so 
 accomplished and so aggressive that he simply couldn't 
 be overlooked. Never suspected that the majority of 
 the girls who adored him were arrant little hero-wor- 
 shippers, glorifying the husk of the hero and belittling 
 the kernel. 
 
 Bronson took with him to college a check for a thou- 
 sand dollars, four trunks, a slithering red roadster, and 
 the photographs of eleven pretty girls. (Those of 
 seven girls not quite so pretty he left, with wickedness 
 aforethought, on the mantel in Uncle George Perkins* 
 room.) 
 
 " Now, boy," said Old Man Egan at the station, 
 " I'll not go further with you. You're man grown ; I've 
 made of you all I can ; the rest is yours. I'll give you 
 no old woman's advice, neither. All I have to say to 
 you is be honest, and be clean and one virtue or 
 the other will carry you through all but one trouble in 
 a hundred. If the hundredth trouble ever comes tel- 
 egraph collect." 
 
 The college looked upon Bronson, and found him 
 promising to look at. Higher education was rapidly 
 forced upon him, and he was abnormally quick to learn.
 
 EGAN 43 
 
 The trouble was that on account of Old Man Egan's 
 care and foresight, he had too little to learn for his own 
 benefit. He was a born student, a born athlete, a born 
 flirt, and Old Man Egan had over-developed him, omit- 
 ting only the final philosophy, the final factor of safety, 
 which Bronson should have understood long since 
 that he never need be on guard against his equals, but 
 against his inferiors, for they were large in numbers, 
 and more envious than schoolboys know how to be. 
 
 Again, the honours came to him with hardly an effort. 
 He was the first junior ever to be elected football cap- 
 tain. He spent more money than any man in his class ; 
 won more pewter trophies ; demoralized more police- 
 men ; and caused the hearts of more girls to flutter dan- 
 gerously when he came by. According to undergradu- 
 ate standards, he accomplished much, but he still re- 
 fused to recognize that there was any limit to what he 
 might accomplish. When the Senior Class voted him 
 its opinion that of all its members he was the most 
 likely to succeed, he took it as a matter of just due. 
 He thought so himself. His conceit was less offensive 
 than it might have been; but even so, success had af- 
 fected him more than Old Man Egan was able to per- 
 ceive. 
 
 When Bronson graduated and came home, society was 
 his to command, and right royally he commanded it for 
 a fortnight. His clothes were copied by the younger 
 set, his mannerisms duplicated. To have had a single 
 dance with him was a sort of official approval upon the 
 social pretensions of any Plainfield girl; to have had 
 two in an evening was equivalent to an Order of Merit ; 
 to have had more than three but only Mary Kent
 
 44 EGAN 
 
 attained that dizzy eminence, and it was considered tan- 
 tamount to an engagement. 
 
 " And now," said Old Man Egan, " you'll put in three 
 years studyin' management, and after that, you'll be an 
 equal stockholder with me in an enterprise worth four 
 hundred thousand dollars, what with foreign war orders 
 and all. Kent and I've rigged up a working agreement 
 that'll keep this man Henderson quiet for a while 
 maybe Kent and I'll consolidate sometime, and if we do, 
 you'll have a gold mine. Kent's only got a daughter." 
 
 Bronson's eyes wavered. 
 
 " I can't, dad," he said. 
 
 "Why not?" asked Old Man Egan, without excite- 
 ment. 
 
 "Well the war " 
 
 " War? It won't last another six months." 
 
 " It's lasted ten months now, dad. It'll go another 
 year, / think. They want men to drive ambulances on 
 the French front men who can look after their own 
 cars. That's what I heard a friend of mine wrote 
 me to come across. If you don't mind, I'd rather go 
 over " 
 
 " For the fun of it, Bronson, or to help? " 
 
 "To ... For the fun of it, dad. And to help, too. 
 Why, with the practice I've had in running things, I'm 
 just the kind of man they want." 
 
 Old Man Egan sighed. 
 
 " I can't blame you." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 Old Man Egan closed his eyes for a moment. 
 
 " I'll have to ask Perkins. It's too much for me, 
 Bronson. It's a question of justice. What's best,
 
 EGAN 45 
 
 and what's right, for both of us. I can decide things 
 for me, and I can decide things for you, but when it 
 comes to a matter between you and me, we'll ask George 
 Perkins." 
 
 The old lawyer, when consulted, had his answer all 
 ready. 
 
 " Le"t the boy go, Jim," he said. " I've been want- 
 ing to tell you something like this for the last five years. 
 It'll knock some of the damned conceit out of him, and 
 he needs it more than anybody else I ever knew. And 
 that's all he does need to make him human." 
 
 So the boy went, but Old Man Egan never spoke to- 
 Perkins again, except to say " Good morning " or 
 "Good afternoon " to him on the street, as long as he 
 lived.
 
 IV 
 
 NOW presently, when the Honourable George 
 Perkins had exhausted all the known formu- 
 las of welcome, and the hard duties of his 
 office had come home to him, he leaned far back in his 
 creaking swivel-chair, and making a right angle with 
 the extended and joined fingers of his two bony hands, 
 looked over the top of Bronson Egan's head and out of 
 a window badly in need of washing. He was a grizzled 
 campaigner of the law, bushy browed over clear gray 
 eyes; he stood six feet two without a stoop, and with 
 authority lurking in every inch of him. His dress was 
 proof that his pride in his profession didn't extend to 
 his person, and in sixty-five years he hadn't even cared 
 to learn how to make a neat bow out of his Democratic 
 black string tie. But his knowledge of men was even 
 greater than his knowledge of the statutes, and no legis- 
 lature could have repealed more than a trivial fraction 
 of what he knew. 
 
 The duty which lay before him was peculiarly un- 
 pleasant, but the Judge wasn't temporizing on that ac- 
 count. He was merely revolving in his mind the vari- 
 ous methods of presenting the narrative, in order to 
 spare Egan the greatest shock. As he considered, and 
 his thoughts inevitably ran backwards, he found him- 
 self analysing Bronson, and estimating that the war had 
 improved him by at least a thousand per cent, and 
 stopped another thousand per cent too short. 
 
 " If anything's gone wrong, and you're trying to 
 
 46
 
 EGAN 47 
 
 make it easy for me, Judge don't bother. I've heard 
 some rumours, anyhow. On the train. Is the Com- 
 pany having trouble? Why didn't you cable me? " 
 
 "Hm!" The old man started guiltily. "What 
 makes you think I'm trying to let you down easy? " 
 
 '* You look it, that's all. Well, go ahead. I'm not 
 a hog. Have we lost some money? I thought from 
 the papers everything in the country was booming. 
 But if anything's gone sour, I want to know it. I've 
 got to know where I stand." 
 
 The Judge found it difficult, just then, to look at him. 
 " I hate to tell you so, but it looks pretty bad, Bronson, 
 pretty bad. I didn't cable you because you couldn't 
 have done anything about it ... and until March 
 there was a chance of getting out of it whole some way 
 or other; and until a month or so ago there was a 
 chance of saving something. I'm the executor, Bron- 
 son you couldn't have helped a mite. And it's so 
 involved, I couldn't have sent you even the gist of it by 
 cable, not unless I spent a couple of thousand dollars. 
 So when you wired me you'd landed, I just told you to 
 come on as quick as you could. I've done my best for 
 you, son." 
 
 Egan's apprehensions redoubled. "What is it? If 
 it's as bad as you're making it out to be ... Please 
 hurry up and tell me, Uncle George." He was harried 
 by the thought of failure, but consoled by the thought 
 of the comfortable residue which surely would fall to 
 him. And a small income without any obligation to 
 work for it might prove even more enjoyable than a 
 large income with the need of sweltering under the ob- 
 ligation, and going to the office six days a week.
 
 48 EGAN 
 
 " Of course . . . Sure you won't smoke? I'll have a 
 pipe, then." He continued to talk as he filled a very 
 unfashionable corncob with still more unfashionable to- 
 bacco. " I don't know how much you know about the 
 fracas your father and I had when you went away. It 
 was too bad. He asked me what I thought about let- 
 ting you go. It nearly broke his heart to have you; 
 he wanted you to stay in the business. And he thought 
 you ought to, after all he'd done for you; he'd set his 
 heart on having you with him ; but he wouldn't say so 
 to you, because he didn't want to spoil your fun. He 
 asked me, and I told him he'd been blind. He'd brought 
 you up to be a boy with more possibilities than any one 
 else in this town, and with a bigger swelled head. Not 
 that you hadn't earned it ; but you had it. I told him 
 to let you go, because it might take some of the con- 
 ceit out of you, and I guess it has." 
 
 " Yes," said Bronson. " I guess it has." 
 
 The Judge bent over to minister to his all-wool 
 socks. 
 
 " So we had a fracas, and I came down town again to 
 live, and ... I might as well make a clean breast of 
 it, Bronson ... we didn't see very much of each other 
 after that. And then last fall . . ." The Judge 
 coughed heavily. " He made me sole executor. He 
 dictated me a little note the day before he died. He'd 
 asked to see me, but they wouldn't let him. Told me 
 he couldn't forgive me, not for thinking what I did, but 
 for admitting it. Said he knew it was my honest opin- 
 ion, and " The Judge coughed again. " Oh, hang 
 it all, Bronson, he said he knew, no matter what had 
 gone between us, I'd take care of your interests as
 
 EGAN 49 
 
 if they were my own. I appreciated that I cer- 
 tainly did." 
 
 " Why, Uncle George. Why, . . . why, 7 didn't 
 know you'd separated," said Bronson, bewildered. 
 " He never wrote me a word about it." 
 
 The Judge verified it with a solemn gesture. 
 
 " I imagine he didn't tell you because he always 
 hoped we'd patch it up somehow . . . We would have, 
 too ; if you'd come home sooner. I was ready any 
 time, but you know what your father was like when he 
 once got an idea in his head. Well ... as far as the 
 will was concerned, I guess I gave you a good synopsis 
 of it in my letters last fall. The Vine Street house 
 went to the City Hospital, Heaven only knows why ; 
 they can't use it very well ; they'll have to hold it as an 
 investment; I hear they've rented it to somebody 
 and all his cash and securities ( there wasn't much cash ; 
 it was mostly bonds) went to the county orphanage; 
 and he left you all his stock in the Egan Company. 
 On the books, the company was worth a good deal over 
 a million dollars, Bronson. They'd had smashing big 
 business in war orders, and all the experts said busi- 
 ness would be bigger than ever after the war. And 
 your dad held the control." 
 
 The Judge paused to wipe his spectacles, and to re- 
 place them on his forehead. Egan was electrified, but 
 his tone was important enough to convey his thought 
 that he was still a large beneficiary. 
 
 " You say * on the books ' as though you meant 
 Has it depreciated a lot? Down to what, Uncle 
 George ? " 
 
 " Wait a minute. . . . Along about February last
 
 50 EGAN 
 
 year, Bronson, money got pretty tight. The Old Man 
 wanted money and went to the banks. Never needed 
 'em before; the business had financed itself. But now 
 he had to expand in a hurry, and he had to have cash. 
 And a long time ago the banks wanted your father to 
 play in with 'em, and he wouldn't. So when he wanted 
 favours from 'em, in times like those, they sort of held 
 him up ... I don't mean they took any mean advan- 
 tage of him, but they held him pretty close to terms. 
 Collateral agreement. He didn't like it, but you know 
 what your father was - if he thought they expected 
 him to kick at it, he'd agree with 'em just as nice and 
 smooth as you please, and try to make 'em feel ashamed 
 of themselves. First off, he borrowed a hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars, and he put up as collateral a 
 hundred and fifty thousand of Egan stock. No sense 
 in it, of course, considering the market value, but he 
 did it to show 'em he could snap his fingers at 'em. 
 Paid his note when it was due, and borrowed more. 
 Left the stock as collateral again. You see, the busi- 
 ness was growing awful fast ; what it really needed was 
 more capital, but the Old Man wouldn't let anybody 
 else in ; wouldn't consider it. They said Kent once of- 
 fered him $600 a share for a thousand shares, but he 
 laughed at it. And then all of a sudden the influenza 
 got him, and it turned into pneumonia. Your dad was 
 sick a long time, Bronson. A man that hadn't taken 
 care of himself wouldn't have lasted half so long. 
 There was one of those notes due, and it wasn't paid. 
 It wasn't paid, and it wasn't paid. And the Old Man 
 never carried a personal balance to speak of, anyhow.
 
 EGAN 51 
 
 And since our fracas, he hadn't had any other lawyer 
 to look after his personal matters. Just took that 
 chance. So finally while the Old Man was still too 
 sick to know what was going on the bank took the 
 bull by the horns, and sold the collateral." 
 
 Egan's eyes were blinking, and his lips were curved in 
 a faint, mirthless smile. Much of the importance had 
 slipped away from him. Much of the maturity was 
 ironed away from his features. His eyes were as round 
 and translucent as a child's. 
 
 "The bank sold the collateral, did it?" he echoed, 
 with cuvious emphasis. It was plain that he consid- 
 ered himself the victim of vast injustice. " A hundred 
 and fifty thousand par value? " His jaw relaxed sig- 
 nificantly. " Why that lost the control. . . . 
 What bank was it? " 
 
 " Kent's bank. Citizens Trust." 
 
 Egan's throat was dusty. 
 
 "Kent's bank? Kent's bank! Why, I thought he 
 and my father were friends ! H'm ! And who bought 
 the stock? Do you know?" He was elaborately calm, 
 as befitted a young man bushwhacked, but with power 
 enough still left to right his own wrongs. 
 
 Judge Perkins cleared his throat. " Eddie Mack- 
 lin." 
 
 " No!" 
 
 " Sit down, Bronson Yes, Macklin bought it. 
 You can't blame him for grabbing at what looked like 
 a good bargain, can you? " 
 
 Egan, after a dynamic turn around the room, sat 
 down. His emotions were working on his brain alone ;
 
 52 EGAN 
 
 his muscles were apparently immune. The hot spot at 
 the base of his brain, however, was driving him towards 
 incoherence. 
 
 " And you let that little skunk you let anybody 
 get away from my father what he'd slaved a lifetime to 
 get? What was mine? What does that mean, Uncle 
 George? Does it mean I've lost that much? More'n 
 half the whole stock? Does it? I'll see Kent myself. 
 Why didn't Kent look out for him in the first place? 
 Why didn't some of his other friends protect him? 
 Why didn't you protect him ? By gosh, if I've got any 
 influence left in this town " 
 
 " Softly, boy, softly ! Shouting won't get it back 
 for us. I was in hospital with the influenza for two 
 months myself, Bronson. Kent was in Washington. 
 And friends didn't count for much just then it was 
 devil take the hindmost. If I'd been out, I could have 
 fixed it up overnight. Or if he hadn't been so close- 
 mouthed, he'd have had somebody who'd have acted for 
 him. He had a whole raft of bonds right in the Citi- 
 zens Trust vaults. But I wasn't, and nobody else did 
 a thing, and he was so sick he couldn't so much as hold 
 a pen to sign a power of attorney." 
 
 " I see." Egan was suddenly very dignified ; and tke 
 Judge, realizing that the pose was designed to conceal 
 a terrible disappointment, continued to gaze out of the 
 window. " So to pay a hundred thousand dollar note 
 for the company, my father had to lose three-fifths of 
 all its stock a controlling interest, and worth, as 
 you've just said yourself, over half a million dollars 
 proportionately for just how much?"
 
 EGAN 53 
 
 The Honourable George hesitated, and finally looked 
 at Egan. 
 
 " It brought a hundred and seventy-five thousand, 
 Bronson." 
 
 There was an interval of several seconds before Egan 
 could grasp the fact. He was baffled and dazed by the 
 unexpected answer. His expression was now of help- 
 less incredulity. He was as shaken as anybody of his 
 age should properly have been before such a thunder- 
 bolt. 
 
 " H-how could it go as low as that, Uncle George ? 
 When you just said . . . I'm all twisted up. I It's 
 an outrage it's robbery ! I don't understand that at 
 all ! " His bravado faded into the weakness of igno- 
 rance, and despair. 
 
 The Judge put down his pipe. 
 
 " I don't know. I wasn't around at the time. But 
 after I got out of hospital I heard that there wasn't 
 much bidding. In the meantime, there'd been a lot of 
 gossip that the company was getting in bad shape, 
 and " 
 
 " The Egan Company in bad shape ! " pleaded Egan. 
 ** Why, you've just said " 
 
 " You're not listening. I said in the meantime, 
 there'd been a lot of gossip that the affairs of the 
 company were in bad shape. They were good, strong 
 ones, too. There was talk about labour troubles, and 
 bigger taxes and cancellations of contracts, and all 
 sorts of things ; and this was just when business was all 
 demoralized. And it was a one-man concern, and your 
 dad wasn't expected to live. And money was scarce.
 
 54 EGAN 
 
 And the Times had printed a story about reconstruc- 
 tion that didn't give us any the best of it." 
 
 Egan passed a hand wearily over his forehead. His 
 shoulders had drooped perceptibly. 
 
 " We've got to do something about this, Uncle 
 George. We've got to get busy quick. It couldn't 
 have been Eddie Macklin's own money, could it ? " 
 
 " Oh, no. That is, not all of it. He gave it out that 
 twenty-five of it was his own, and the balance was trust 
 funds. He's trustee for two or three pretty good-sized 
 estates ; on the side." 
 
 Egan was struggling against the tide of realities. 
 
 " Well, even that price, less the face of the note and 
 interest and costs, must have left a balance of sixty or 
 seventy thousand in the company's favour, didn't it? 
 Where's that? Isn't that mine, anyway? " 
 
 " Not in the company's favour, Bronson ; in your 
 dad's. It was his stock personally. He borrowed the 
 money personally. The balance went to the estate; 
 and the cash part of his estate goes to the orphanage. 
 He made the note and put up the collateral before he 
 made his will." 
 
 Egan shivered. No importance clung to him. 
 
 " Who was running the business when Dad was sick ? 
 Garrity?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Hasn't he made some explanation of how he let that 
 infernal thing happen to us? Hasn't he said am/- 
 thing? " 
 
 " Not that I know of. It was your dad's personal 
 affair, anyhow. It was even his personal note. That 
 was the way he ran the business. Never like a cor-
 
 EGAN 55 
 
 i 
 
 poration at all. I always used to tell him a man who 
 ran a corporation like a personal enterprise didn't de- 
 serve the privilege of incorporation, but he wouldn't 
 listen to me." The old lawyer wiped his spectacles once 
 more, and replaced them firmly on his forehead, 
 " Bronson, in twenty-six years your dad never had a 
 strike. But a couple of days after he died, the direc- 
 tors had a special meeting and elected Garrity president 
 to fill the unexpired term. He's been superintendent 
 for a good many years ; and it looked all right. Then 
 inside of a week, the men went out in a body." 
 
 Egan was repeatedly wetting his lips. 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " More money. It seems that Garrity wanted to 
 fight, and the directors backed him up. The strike 
 lasted a week." 
 
 "I see. Who were the directors, Uncle George? 
 The same seven? " 
 
 " No. I got out four years ago. Why, you and 
 Kent and you were both away ; Garrity himself ; 
 Macklin he was elected to replace your dad ; Johan- 
 sen, Richards and Garverick." 
 
 " Eddie? How'd he get on the board? " 
 
 " Eddie bought that stock. The old directors had a 
 right to fill vacancies from the stockholders, and they 
 did. Eddie and Garrity." 
 
 " All right go on, please, Uncle George." Egan 
 was almost physically sick. 
 
 " Well, the men came back, but there wasn't a good 
 friendly feeling. Things were nervous. On edge all 
 the time. Garrity was an autocrat. And right off, 
 the men began to quit one by one, and look for other
 
 56 EGAN 
 
 jobs some went to Kent's, some to Henderson's in 
 Dayton, and the rest just drifted you know how 
 they do. Bye-and-bye there were only two toolmakers 
 left; there were six turret lathe operators; there were 
 four milling machine hands. There just weren't any 
 more to be had. So Egan's was getting ready to close 
 down, when all of a sudden the deliveries of steel 
 stopped; and every workman in the plant just naturally 
 looked for another job. You can't blame 'em, Bron- 
 son. You can't expect a skilled man to sit around and 
 do nothing, whether he's paid or not. Garrity closed 
 down the plant when he had to." 
 
 " I'm not blaming him yet," said Egan apathetically. 
 
 "That's right; let's be judicial. Well, the plant 
 closed down on November 9, and on November 11 we got 
 the news of the armistice. From that day, the Gov- 
 ernment was interested in stopping production; not 
 boosting it. And " 
 
 " Wasn't there anything but Government business ? " 
 
 " There was a lot of reservations, Bronson, but no 
 men and no steel. Henderson put up a big roar about 
 being ready for peace-time production ; Kent's factory 
 was all ready; The Egan Company was paralysed. 
 And then on the ninth of December, just a month later, 
 the city killed the lease." He chewed his lips reflec- 
 tively. " The city's leased your dad eight acres for 
 ninety-nine years at a dollar a year. That was when 
 you were a baby when Plainfield was crazy to get 
 manufacturers here. There was a provision that the 
 plant had to be in operation continuously. All those 
 old municipal leases ran that way, so's money would 
 keep circulating in the community. Thirty consecu-
 
 EGAN 57 
 
 tive days of idleness operated as a cancellation. That 
 was because we had a city administration then that 
 represented labour. They thought it was a cute trick 
 to put a martingale on capital." 
 
 Egan was again pathetically royal, although his fears 
 were increasing. 
 
 " And with my father giving his house and every cent 
 of his cash assets to the city, they went and can- 
 celled " 
 
 "Yes, Bronson. You can't complain; the city had 
 a right to do it. I'm sorry to say it was to the city's 
 interest to do it. You see, that land would fetch every 
 cent of fifty thousand a year in the market, and . . ." 
 
 " Who engineered it Eddie Macklin ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he's city counsel. He's the only one who 
 could do it." 
 
 Egan pounded the desk with his closed fist. " I 
 wouldn't trust that man " 
 
 " I know, Bronson, and after the year he spent in 
 here with me, neither would I, generally speaking, but 
 you've got to give the devil his due. It was his duty to 
 advise that cancellation his duty to his oath of of- 
 fice. And when he did it, it meant his losing the twenty- 
 five thousand he'd put into Egan stock himself, as well 
 as the hundred and fifty thousand he'd invested out of 
 his trust funds. It looks like the one really big thing 
 Eddie ever did. No, don't blame him this time, Bron- 
 son ; and I don't know who to blame. Nobody, I guess. 
 It's just our cussed bad luck." 
 
 When Egan spoke, after a long hiatus, it was with a 
 reminiscence of his father's stoicism. During the in- 
 terval his mind, trained for the last four years to en-
 
 58 EGAN 
 
 compass grave disasters and discount them, to receive 
 instantaneous impressions and act on them, functioned 
 according to its training. Already he was trying to 
 adjust himself to the facts. He had already accepted 
 them verbatim. It was a great tragedy, but in recog- 
 nizing its existence, and ceasing to combat any idea that 
 it couldn't exist, he had passed over the 'Summit of his 
 wretchedness. 
 
 " What's happened to the plant, Uncle George ? " 
 
 " It's being dismantled. They're selling off the ma- 
 chinery now. There wasn't another site anywhere, no 
 orders, no organization. The directors voted to dis- 
 solve. Kent's going to build a model factory there 
 when labour's easier; he's taken a long lease at fifty 
 thousand flat." 
 
 " Do you know what the company's financial condi- 
 tion is?" 
 
 " Oh, there'll be nothing left, Bronson. Not a sou- 
 markee. The Government had made some big advances 
 of money that weren't earned yet, and the plant was 
 full of half-finished war-products that aren't only worth 
 scrap prices, now the war's over. The assets won't any 
 more than equal the liabilities, if they do that even 
 counting the patents." 
 
 " Can the company sell my " father's patents ? " 
 There was no belligerence in his tone; he was frankly 
 asking for information. 
 
 " You're only a minority stockholder now, Bronson." 
 
 " But didn't he leave me his " 
 
 " He left you all his interest in The Egan Company. 
 The company owned the patents, and it's got to sell 'em 
 in liquidation."
 
 EGAN 59 
 
 Egan passed his hand over his eyes. 
 
 " I see that. . . . What have I got to live on, then, 
 Uncle George ? " 
 
 The Judge's voice was very kind. 
 
 " I really don't know, Bronson. You get your 
 father's personal effects, and some stock in The Egan 
 Company that's worth about ten cents on the hundred 
 dollars, and that's all. Have you got anything your- 
 self? " 
 
 " Only about eighteen hundred. Well it's just as 
 good you didn't try to cable me all that I'm glad you 
 didn't." 
 
 " I thought you'd say so. . . . What do you think 
 of doing, Bronson? " 
 
 He shook his head. All his perspective had fled away 
 from him. 
 
 " I'll have to think ... I can't decide anything just 
 yet. It's come on me too suddenly. There's no hurry, 
 anyway. But if I've got to go out and work for a liv- 
 ing, why, with my experience " 
 
 " Yes, it oughtn't to be much trouble for you to find 
 a job, Bronson." 
 
 Egan regarded him blankly. "Job? Well 
 hardly. I'll scare up something, Uncle George. But I 
 guess it'll be my own business. I hardly think I'd care 
 to go to work for anybody else. Not just yet, any- 
 way." 
 
 The Judge, rather taken aback, cleared his throat, 
 and decided to let the subject drop. It disturbed him 
 to observe that there was still a strong vein of overcon- 
 fidence in Egan. "Where are you staying tonight?" 
 
 " Plainfield House, I guess."
 
 60 EGAN 
 
 " Can you dine with me and spend the evening, boy? " 
 
 Egan gave a great sigh, and straightened his shoul- 
 ders. 
 
 " I'll dine with you, Uncle George, and be glad to. 
 But I can't spend the evening." 
 
 " Other engagements so soon? " 
 
 The son of Old Man Egan stood up, shook himself, 
 and laughed. Brought up in luxury, trained for power, 
 a cavalier of the clouds by recent profession, and 
 cast adrift in the world at twenty-five without capital 
 and without prospects, Egan could still laugh. The 
 first shock had passed, and he was prouder infinitely 
 prouder than ever. 
 
 " Right-o, Uncle George. I'm going to -a dance." 
 
 The Judge, clearing his throat, eyed the ribbons on 
 Egan's blouse, and nodded several times, as though to 
 indicate that courage in an Egan was a quality he could 
 understand. He picked up his pipe. His hands were 
 far more unsteady than Egan's. 
 
 " You're taking it the way the Old Man would like 
 to have you, Bronson." 
 
 Egan caught himself. " I thought the war was all 
 over. Maybe it's not. My own special, private war, I 
 mean. Well it doesn't do any good to gloom about 
 it, does it? We've made our reconnaissance. We 
 know the ground. If I've got to start in fighting all 
 over again, why, let's go. /'m ready."
 
 AS Bronson Egan, walking not so very rapidly 
 for a young man on his way to keep a tender 
 appointment, approached the corner of Vine 
 Street, he was gradually aware of a certain soft and 
 fitful illumination, not caused by any celestial body; 
 and as he peered with quickening imagination through 
 the summer night, he came in 'view of an extended lawn, 
 dotted with fine old trees, and lying dark as velvet be- 
 neath the swaying tremulousness of dozens and dozens 
 of Japanese lanterns. Japanese lanterns ! He had 
 entirely forgotten that anything so frail, so sentimen- 
 tal, so unessential to the prosecution of the war could 
 still exist. The scene struck him as one of the egg- 
 shells of life, and startled him by its very delicacy. 
 
 There was a two-foot hedge bordering the lawn, and 
 as he paused to look across it, he was bewildered to 
 perceive that back among the elms, where the Rents' 
 house had been, was a new white mansion, long and 
 broad, and glimmering now with lights from every win- 
 dow. As far as Egan's knowledge went, this was still 
 the Rents' property, although Mrs. Rent had said noth- 
 ing of a new house; but what puzzled Egan was that 
 such a house should have been erected during the war. 
 It didn't seem exactly consistent. 
 
 He stood there, thinking. Across the lawn he caught 
 a glimpse of elusive drapery ; a girl was sauntering here 
 and there among the trees. The whole picture was 
 somehow drenched with youth, and he, Bronson Egan, 
 
 61
 
 62 EGAN 
 
 stood apart, looking in upon it, and feeling very aged 
 and full of troubles about to happen. 
 
 He straightened; the girl was coming towards him; 
 he could see her features quite clearly now ; and he was 
 involuntarily afire with the flame that is youth before 
 age or trouble dampens it. As he leaped over the hedge 
 the girl stopped with a little cry, and then ran forward. 
 
 " Why Bronson ! " she said. 
 
 Egan took her hungrily into his arms ; held her soft, 
 warm daintiness to him for the space of a single heart- 
 beat ; kissed her. The flame of youth, which had surged 
 to its highest point as their lips met, flickered, and died, 
 and was ashes in Egan-'s consciousness. 
 
 " Hello, Mary," he said. 
 
 They stood there in a partnership of embarrassment ; 
 the man who thought he had learned by trial so many 
 of the secrets of the universe, and the girl who had 
 stayed at home, sheltered, guarded, innocent. Memory 
 was rushingly alive within them ; on his last evening in 
 Plainfield, and on this same shadowy lawn, they had 
 sent a wealth of promises through clearing. 
 
 "I ... I'm so glad you remembered, Bronson." 
 
 " Remembered what ? " 
 
 " To come early . . . I'm so proud of you . . ." 
 
 Egan flushed. " They used to say the best soldier 
 was the one that had a wireless from his bayonet to some 
 girl's knitting needle. ... I never happened to have to 
 use a bayonet myself, but " 
 
 " And I can't knit I " They laughed simultaneously ; 
 unnaturally. 
 
 " When did you build this house, Mary? " 
 
 " It's just finished . . . This is the housewarming."
 
 EGAN 63 
 
 " It looks like a fine house from here." 
 
 " It's beautiful, Bronson. Just beautiful " 
 
 " Yes. Your father must have kept the factory fires 
 burning, too." 
 
 Mystified both by his words and his restraint, she 
 hesitated. 
 
 " He's been working terribly hard first here, and 
 then in Washington if that's what you mean." 
 
 Frowning a little, Egan took the conversation in a 
 different direction. 
 
 " You're not . . . engaged ... or anything yet, 
 are you? " he demanded brusquely, and the girl shud- 
 dered and laughed in the same instant. 
 
 " How ferocious you are ! What ever made you ask 
 that? " 
 
 " Something Judge Perkins said at dinner, that's 
 all." 
 
 She stood plucking at the fabric of her gown. 
 
 " Tell me, Bronson. Am I supposed to be ... en- 
 gaged? " 
 
 " That seemed to be the idea." 
 
 "Who was it?" 
 
 " You ought to know if any one does." 
 
 " Oh Bronson ! " 
 
 " Well why don't you deny it? " 
 
 " Don't be silly! Let's sit down somewhere, shall 
 we? " She drew him beside her to a circular bench 
 under a patriarchal elm ; the radiance of a single golden 
 lantern fell across her face, etherealizing it. She was a 
 dark-eyed little girl, black haired and princess-like, 
 wonderfully delicate of feature and complexion, yet 
 with a spirit and vivacity foreign to her type which had
 
 64. EGAN 
 
 kept Plainfield at her feet for half a decade. She was 
 two years younger than Egan, but no one would have 
 suspected it. " I didn't ask you to come early to talk 
 about me ; I asked you to talk about you. Now tell me 
 all about it while I've got you to myself." 
 
 " All about what, Mary? " 
 
 " Everything you've done everything ! " 
 
 " I couldn't do that if I talked for the next twenty 
 years. But I drove an ambulance for three months, 
 and then I got into the French Air Service. I had a 
 little over a year there, and then switched to ours." 
 
 " Oh, we know that! Did you . . . did you get any 
 Huns?" 
 
 " Nine altogether that is, nine officially. Five 
 for France and four for us. Actually, I got fifteen. 
 But the others weren't confirmed." 
 
 She admired him tremendously. " We are proud of 
 you, Bronson dear. You're the only birdman we've 
 got. . . . And all your lovely decorations? Whatever 
 were they for? " 
 
 " I'll show you the citations sometime," said Egan. 
 " Who's coming tonight ? The old crowd ? " 
 
 " Pretty nearly. There are some awfully nice new 
 ones, too. Martha's sweet, isn't she? And she dances 
 Oh ! That reminds me. Aren'jt you going to ask 
 me for a dance? " 
 
 "I told you I" 
 
 " Oh, but you could sit out, couldn't you? " 
 
 " I hardly thought that would be fair to the other 
 fellows." 
 
 " Stupid ! You can have three just three. . . 
 What makes you so solemn, Bronson? "
 
 EGAN 65 
 
 "Am I? Thinking, probably. Not very compli- 
 mentary, is it ? " 
 
 " Well if it's about me, of course " 
 
 " No," said Egan, untactfully truthful, " it wasn't." 
 
 She pretended that she was gravely offended. 
 
 " You're not as gallant as you used to be, Bronson." 
 
 " Probably not, but I'm more sincere. I've learned 
 a lot. Especially in the last twenty-four hours." 
 
 She smiled straight up at him. 
 
 " What were you thinking then and not about me? 
 Was it somebody so very much nicer? Somebody you 
 met in France some awfully nice nurse, or " 
 
 *' No. Just about Judge Perkins, and poor old 
 Stanley Adams, and " 
 
 " Oh ! " She compressed her lips a trifle. " You 
 haven't been back long enough yet, I suppose, to hear 
 all those things. . . . Mr. Adams came home last Jan- 
 uary." 
 
 I know." 
 
 " He's on the Times again and I might as well tell 
 you nobody that is anybody has anything to do with 
 him any more, Bronson. It's . . . it's awful. You 
 can't afford it. He's a disgrace, to Plainfield ! You 
 just ought to hear what Father says about him ! And 
 even at that, Father says he's a perfect angel now, 
 compared with what he was in New York." 
 
 Egan's voice had more than a trace of obstinacy 
 in it. 
 
 " He used to live with us. He was mighty kind to 
 me, Mary." 
 
 " That doesn't make any difference. He's a dis- 
 grace ! He "
 
 66 EGAN 
 
 " As I remember it, he used to be quite a social light 
 when " 
 
 " Well, they've suspended him from the Metropolitan 
 Club." 
 
 "Uncle Stanley?" 
 
 " Certainly. For drunkenness ! So you can im- 
 agine what I thought this afternoon when you went 
 down Main Street " 
 
 " Somebody had to help him. I'm glad I was there." 
 
 She looked at him firmly, but a little fearfully. 
 
 "I'm beginning to believe you'd do better to think a 
 little less about Plairifield and a little more about me, 
 Bronson." 
 
 " I wish I could." 
 
 She stamped her foot at him. 
 
 " Bronson! What is the matter with you? " 
 
 He shook himself, and forced a laugh. " Overcome 
 by the past, I guess. . . . Has anybody told you lately 
 how pretty you are? " 
 
 " Oh, lots of people," she said. " But I never 
 thought you'd get that far not tonight, anyway." 
 
 " Well, it's true . . ." 
 
 There was a prolonged silence. The girl, who had 
 become extraordinarily serious, touched his arm. 
 
 " Bronson," she whispered. 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " I don't want to hurt you I don't want you to 
 think I haven't liked you more than almost anybody else 
 in the whole world I don't want you to ... oh, 
 Bronson, dear, / know what's kept you so solemn not 
 solemn, exactly, but I've been thinking of it, too, 
 dear, and I like you so much . . . but it's been so long,
 
 EGAN 67 
 
 and so many, many things have changed and we've both 
 grown up, and been away from each other, and met 
 different people, and " 
 
 " Mary ! " 
 
 " I ... I said I'm not engaged. ... It isn't an- 
 
 O O 
 
 nounced yet, but " 
 
 " Oh! " said Egan. His jaw came forward the mer- 
 est trifle. " Oh ! Didn't you know / was expecting 
 to marry you? " 
 
 " We were both to be perfectly free, Bronson, if I 
 thought you'd probably have met somebody over there 
 you liked better. I really believed you would, Bron- 
 son. I " 
 
 " We had an understanding," he said, very quietly, 
 " Had you forgotten it? " 
 
 She tried gently to calm him; she was herself not 
 calm enough. 
 
 " Don't, Bronson ! Don't quarrel with me, dear ! 
 Not tonight of all nights in the world ! Can't you un- 
 derstand? I couldn't bear not to have you know it. I 
 thought surely you'd come to tell me the same thing. 
 I" 
 
 " I've loved you," he said. " I always loved you. 
 Ever since the day I licked Eddie Macklin for you. 
 Remember it? That's a long time, Mary. I won- 
 djered why you stopped writing to me, but / didn't for- 
 get. You used to be in the air with me. You " 
 He tugged at his blouse pocket, plucked out a bit of 
 faded, discoloured fabric, and held it to her. " I never 
 went up once without that ... we all have talismans 
 or what d'you call 'em sort of a superstition with 
 us I carried it all the time I was flying. That's how
 
 68 EGAN 
 
 much I let myself forget you for somebody else." 
 
 She plucked at it nervously. 
 
 "Why what is it? " 
 
 " Handkerchief one of yours. I stole it that last 
 night." 
 
 "Really?" It was a woe-begone little object now, 
 but the souls of nine Huns were, in a manner of speak- 
 ing, officially bound up in it (to say nothing of the six 
 who had been unconfirmed), and the girl who had owned 
 it was powerfully stirred. " Why . . . why, Bronson 
 . . . isn't that that stain in the corner " 
 
 " Just a little blood," he said. " That was the day I 
 got my wound stripe he caught me in the shoulder. 
 Let me have it again, please. I want it." 
 
 "It's mine, isn't it?" 
 
 " It was. It's mine now ... So you couldn't 
 wait ? " His mouth bent in a grim smile. " And I 
 was counting on you tonight, too. Well " 
 
 " Oh, Bronson, please " 
 
 "Who is it, Mary?" 
 
 " Won't you . . ." 
 
 " I want to know. Don't you think I'm entitled to 
 that much? " 
 
 She lifted her face to him, and Egan saw that her 
 eyes were wet. 
 
 " It's . . . it's Eddie Macklin," she whispered. 
 
 The son of Old Man Egan flinched. Then he put 
 out his hand. He was preternaturally calm, because he 
 had received today so many shocks that his nerve de- 
 fence was all but impregnable. 
 
 "It's not," he said quietly. "That's what Judge 
 Perkins said, too but it's not ! "
 
 EGAN 69 
 
 " Bronson, you're hurting me! " 
 
 " I'm sorry: But " 
 
 " Let's go in. Please let's go in. I can't stand it, 
 Bronson. Not any more." 
 
 " Just a minute, Mary. I've come back to marry 
 you. I need you now. Four years ago I just wanted 
 you. Now I need you." 
 
 " Bronson, dear," she choked. " Don't you- under- 
 stand English? I can't." 
 
 The son of Old Man Egan felt all the violent arbi- 
 trariness of his nature leaping to the surface. He dis- 
 missed the thought that her father was an officer of the 
 bank which had helped to ruin him. He ignored the 
 fact that he was without money, without a definite fu- 
 ture, without a moral right to commit himself to matri- 
 mony before he had demonstrated that at least he could 
 support himself. 
 
 " You will," he said. " You will. Or else you lied 
 with your lips when you kissed me ! " 
 
 They were both on their feet; the girl frightened, 
 palpitant, wide-eyed ; and Egan passionately grim. 
 
 " Bronson ! " 
 
 He stepped towards her. 
 
 " Bronson ! Don't ! " 
 
 She was in his arms, helpless. 
 
 " Never again until you ask it, Mary but this 
 time " 
 
 " Bronson Egan ! Don't you dare! " 
 
 " I've dared too long to have any fears left, Mary. 
 And I told you I was counting on tonight . . ." He 
 bent, and while she fought furiously against him, 
 kissed her hair her forehead, then, as she suddenly
 
 70 EGAN 
 
 went limp in his arms her lips. He released her. 
 " I'll not ask your pardon, either . . . Nor will I lay 
 a finger on you ever again so long as I live, without you 
 ask it ... But I'll wait until the minister has said 
 ' Amen ' to you and some other man before I stop wait- 
 ing for you, and hoping for you, and wanting you, and 
 that's the solemnest promise I ever made. I can't lose 
 everything in the world, Mary . . . We'll wait until 
 you're yourself, and then go in ... I'll not be mean 
 enough to sit out dances with you while there are men 
 who want to dance them, but " 
 
 " I loathe you ! " she gasped. 
 
 " No, you don't," said Egan, " no, you don't, and 
 what's more, you never will, either. And now if you're 
 steady again you poor, dear little girl . . . let's go 
 in to your party. Not steady yet ? I'll help you . . . 
 There's my arm, Mary you'd better take it before I 
 put it around you. Good. Take your time, dear, 
 there's no hurry. That's it. You're all excited now 
 / know. I'm sorry. No, I'm not either. But you 
 want to get your strength back for your party. Talk 
 to me a little, can't you? About anything at all 
 anything but us. Talk to me about anything at all, as 
 long as you talk, and forget how rough I've been to 
 you won't you?"
 
 VI 
 
 MR. EDWARD MACKLIN, a plump and smil- 
 ing young courtier in the most zestfully 
 tailored of evening clothes, was in the very 
 act of arriving ; and when Mr. Edward Macklin took it 
 upon himself to arrive anywhere, he made the occasion 
 as memorable as he could. His greeting to his hostess 
 was halfway between the salutation of a lover and the 
 urbanity of a politician meeting an important con- 
 stituent ; he conveyed a delicate impression that he was 
 deeply honoured, but that it was desirable to shinny 
 on your own side nevertheless. 
 
 " You got my flowers ? " he inquired in a discreet un- 
 dertone. 
 
 Mrs. Kent gave him a flattered matron's smile of ben- 
 ediction. 
 
 " Yes, you thoughtful boy. Don't you see I'm wear- 
 ing them? " 
 
 Mr. Macklin professed the greatest astonishment and 
 pleasure. 
 
 " They're so much prettier than I remembered." 
 Mrs. Kent caught this on the fly, and glowed over it. 
 " Is Mary down yet ? " 
 
 " She just ran out to the lawn a moment. Those 
 were lovely roses you sent her, too. She's tremendously 
 excited, Edward ... I suppose you know Bronson 
 Egan came back this afternoon? " 
 
 The faintest flicker crossed Macklin's eyes. He 
 
 laughed lightly. " Is that why Mary's so excited? " 
 
 71
 
 72 EGAN 
 
 " Silly boy ! He's coming tonight, too." 
 
 " Indeed ! " Macklin was non-committal. 
 
 " Yes ; we met him on Main Street this afternoon. 
 He said he'd come. And with all the . . . the disap- 
 pointments he's haying, I'm afraid he'll feel just the 
 least little bit out of it. Passe. You know what I 
 mean. And you two used to be such awfully good 
 friends, too. So if you'd just see that he meets all the 
 new people, and all the nicest girls " 
 
 " Why, certainly," said Macklin with great hearti- 
 ness. " That's what I'm here for to do everything 
 I can to make you and Mary happy." 
 
 She gave him a grateful pressure of the hand. 
 " That's a dear boy. And find Mary for me, will you ? 
 And tell her that people are beginning to come now." 
 
 Through a thin stream of inevitably early guests, 
 through a little knot of lovely, chattering girls, in lus- 
 cious colours and dainty swirls of chiffon, Macklin 
 picked his leisurely way through the French windows of 
 the library to the red-bricked loggia, and standing 
 there, surveyed the dotted lawn before him. He had 
 ceased smiling. His mood was vaguely restless, and not 
 at all soothed by the first strains of music from the 
 house within. 
 
 " Ah ! " he said presently, took one quick step for- 
 ward, and stopped. And carefully put back the smile 
 again. 
 
 Egan and Mary Kent, coming up arm in arm from 
 the lower lawn, lifted their heads simultaneously, and 
 beheld him. Mary, with a little exclamation which 
 might have been for surprise, or might have been for 
 relief, dropped Egan's arm and ran to him.
 
 EGAN 73 
 
 " Why, Bronson, old man ! When did you get back? 
 It's . . . why, it must be four years since you and I 
 met each other ! " 
 
 " Nearer fifteen," said Egan with enigmatic good- 
 humour. He shook hands with Macklin, not out of 
 friendship for Macklin, but of love of Mary. 
 
 Macklin looked down, with a proprietary air, not lost 
 on Egan, at the girl who was beside him. 
 
 " People are coming, Mary. Your mother asked me 
 to find you." 
 
 "Oh!" she said. " You'll ... I'm afraid you'll 
 both have to excuse me then." 
 
 " Don't give anybody else my dances, Mary ! " 
 
 " I won't, Eddie. Don't worry." 
 
 The two men watched her flit out of sight. Macklin 
 sighed profoundly. " Cigarette, Bronson? " 
 
 " Thanks. I've got a match right here. . . . Did 
 you get it? " 
 
 Macklin inhaled gratefully. 
 
 " Yes. Much obliged. Well, how does it seem to 
 be back?" 
 
 " Fine," said Egan, cordially. " How does it seem 
 to still be here?" 
 
 Macklin leaned against a pillar of the loggia, and 
 laughed with abandon. " You're caustic as ever, Bron- 
 son." 
 
 " It always did rile me to be patronized, Eddie." 
 
 " Affects you the way sarcasm does me, eh? I could 
 be caustic myself if I wanted to, but I don't want to." 
 
 " That so? What could you be caustic about? " 
 
 Macklin gesticulated with the grace of a trained plat- 
 form speaker.
 
 74 EGAN 
 
 "Why, if you'd been home helping your father, as 
 you ought to have been, instead of going off looking for 
 glory, I wouldn't have lost every sou I had in the world, 
 and put myself in wrong with my best clients. Confi- 
 dentially, my faith in your blamed old Egan Company 
 just about broke me. It was a shame, too one of 
 the best known concerns we had here. I dare say you've 
 seen Judge Perkins? I thought so. I'm not talking 
 in riddles, then." 
 
 "I can't swear to that," said Egan, thoughtfully. 
 " But I think I can understand what you say. It's a 
 queer business, Eddie, awfully queer. Don't you think 
 so yourself? " 
 
 " You're very touchy, aren't you ? " He straight- 
 ened his tie, and dropped his voice a semitone. " Would 
 you be offended if I told you I'm sorry for your loss, 
 Bronson? I mean your family loss your father." 
 
 " No, on the contrary. I'm indebted to you." 
 
 Macklin shrugged his shoulders, and puffed at his 
 cigarette. The two men were silent, listening to the 
 distant music, the sound of gay young voices. Neither 
 of them appreciated how young they, too, might appear 
 to any disinterested onlooker. 
 
 " We'll have to do our duty and go in soon, Bronson. 
 I think it might brace you up a little if you realized that 
 things in Plainfield have changed a good deal since you 
 left. For one thing, I'm not quite so much of a non- 
 entity. In fact, I've done rather well, for me, in spite 
 of dropping most of my money in your company. I'm 
 in a position to be a good friend of yours. I hope to 
 be. But naturally, it rests more with you than it does 
 with me."
 
 EGAN 75 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " Because I'm the one who's ready. I'm the one 
 who's always been ready." He waited expectantly. 
 "Haven't you anything to say to that?" 
 
 Egan's eyes were wrinkled at the corners. " Eddie, 
 do you remember the only real fight you and I ever 
 had?" 
 
 Macklin grimaced. " Considerably. You almost 
 murdered me." 
 
 " I'm afraid I did. Not until after you bit me, 
 though." 
 
 " Bite ? " echoed Macklin, with extreme doubt. " I 
 don't seem to recall that part of it." 
 
 " I'd have bet you wouldn't. Nor what the fight 
 was about. But the trouble is, Eddie, that, once bit, 
 twice shy." 
 
 Macklin's lips retained their curve, and none of the 
 ingratiating quality went out of his voice. 
 
 " What's that, Bronson? A polite method of telling 
 me to go to the devil? " 
 
 " It's as polite as I know how to make it, time and 
 place considered." 
 
 Macklin shook his head. " I don't like that in you, 
 Bronson. Maybe I did bite Good Lord ! We were 
 about twelve years old, weren't we? What did you ex- 
 pect, Marquis of Queensberry rules? What's the mat- 
 ter with you, anyway? Have you been carrying that 
 spite around all these years just to hold up against me 
 now when I come to you, offering you " 
 
 " Offering me what, Eddie? " 
 
 " All I've got to offer my friendship when you're 
 in trouble."
 
 76 EGAN 
 
 Egan fired the words back at him. " Who said I'm 
 in trouble? " 
 
 Macklin stood up. " Why " 
 
 " Don't misunderstand me, Eddie. I'm not planning 
 to start anything. But as long as you've put it so 
 plainly, I don't care for your sympathy just now, and 
 I don't see any reason for it. * In trouble ? ' Why, 
 you don't know what trouble is ! Do I look to you like 
 a man in trouble? What kind of trouble? And to 
 keep on being frank about it, suppose I were in trouble, 
 exactly what do you think you could do to help me? " 
 
 Macklin studied the last inch of his cigarette. " You 
 seem to think I've insulted you. It's a rather funny 
 attitude for you to take, considering what I did say." 
 
 " I know perfectly well what you said. But I fail 
 to see how it'll do either of us the slightest good to bluff. 
 We aren't friends, and we never will be, and you know it 
 as well as I do. Come on out and admit it like a man. 
 There isn't room for you and me in the same house, or 
 the same club, or the same town. So why try to salve 
 it over? I don't get you on that at all." 
 
 " They haven't taught you much diplomacy in the 
 Army, have they, Bronson? " 
 
 " Not a bit." 
 
 Macklin stroked his chin reflectively. 
 
 " Well, I seem to be put in my place, all right. I'm 
 sorry. I am, honestly. You always were mighty 
 rough when you got started, but this time you're start- 
 ing wrong. I've liked you, Bronson I always did 
 even when you licked me. I've admired you a heap. 
 This isn't salve, either. I admired your going into 
 service something I couldn't afford. Twit me all
 
 EGAN . 77 
 
 you want to. I had a mother and a sister to support, 
 and you didn't. But I can admire 'you for being able 
 to go ; and you can't even give me credit for wanting to 
 go, too, and having to stay home. When the stories 
 about you drifted back here, I was proud to know you. 
 I'd give my shirt for one of those ribbons of yours 
 not all three, but just one. I admire you right now, 
 because it takes nerve to say what you've just said to 
 me. I'm not a zero in this town, Bronson ; and one or 
 two people have found it out to their disadvantage. As 
 your friend, I could make some things a good deal 
 easier for you. I've felt that I owed you a little some- 
 thing extra, because of what I had to do as a city offi- 
 cial although that broke me completely, just as it 
 broke you. I was figuring on going pretty far out of 
 my way to help you. But if you don't care to have it 
 that way " 
 
 " I don't, Eddie. Thanks for being frank about it, 
 though." 
 
 " Quite so. It's a bargain. All I wanted was to get 
 a line on how you felt." Macklin brushed invisible lint 
 from his coat collar. " Now Mrs. Kent, who you'll 
 admit couldn't very well be expected to know how much 
 of a grudge you've got against me, asked me to see that 
 you met the new people here tonight. I didn't feel like 
 telling her then that you might not want me to, and I 
 don't now. So to save all of us some embarrassment, 
 would you mind letting me present you to a few people? 
 I'll promise you that nobody'll cut you afterwards 
 simply because the introduction came through me.' 
 Then I'll duck out. And either of us can explain to 
 Mrs. Kent afterwards."
 
 78 EGAN 
 
 " Go ahead," said Egan. " Ready? " 
 " Whenever you are." 
 " I'm ready now." 
 
 " Allow me," said Macklin, courteously opening the 
 door for Egan to enter. 
 
 Four years ago, he had been distinguished among his 
 fellows, and now he wore the gaily-coloured ribbon-bars 
 which proved that he had distinguished himself before 
 the world. But he had never been popular in Plain- 
 field ; he had won great local prominence, but he had in- 
 spired too great a volume of envy ever to be truly pop- 
 ular. Tonight, it was known to every man under the 
 Rents' roof that Egan was deprived of his wealth, his 
 father, and his future. The conquests of his youth had 
 faded into nothingness ; his military record, glorious as 
 it was, meant comparatively little, now that the public 
 curiosity regarding the war and military affairs was 
 sated. He had come home to be deprived of his balance 
 of power ; and as he stood with Macklin in the centre of 
 the Rents' library, converted for the night into a smok- 
 ing room, he sensed, for the first time, what sort of re- 
 ception he might logically expect from those he had 
 walked upon in the past. 
 
 For a moment, keyed to high excitement in the midst 
 of old acquaintances, he stood with Macklin alone. 
 There were a dozen men in the room but men he had 
 known for years their conversation went on without a 
 pause. Egan's nostrils dilated the merest trifle ; Mack- 
 lin glanced at him, and smiled quizzically. 
 
 " Bronson ! " exclaimed some one. " Bronson 
 Egan!"
 
 EGAN 79 
 
 And then Egan knew, with an inrush of relief which 
 nearly suffocated him, that the old acquaintanceships 
 were still valid, and that one of his greatest fears 
 conceived since the meeting in Judge Perkins' office 
 was groundless. His misfortunes had washed the envy 
 out of mind. 
 
 To a man, the dozen rushed upon him. Foremost, 
 was Little Johnny Jones six feet three in his dancing 
 pumps and after that first terrific handshake, even 
 Egan's fingers were numb for the rest. He tried to 
 speak, but there was nothing to say. In his ignorance, 
 he had fancied that the loss of his money might mean 
 the loss of his friends. 
 
 " Bronson, you stiff-necked old Irishman ! Put her 
 there!" 
 
 " H'lo, Bronson. Where you been? " 
 
 " Glad to see you, old man. You're looking great ! 
 Say, hunt me up around lunchtime tomorrow will 
 you?" 
 
 " Hello, there, Bronson. Thought we'd lost you. 
 Sit down and tell us about it." 
 
 " My heavens, man ! How much'd you put on 
 twenty pounds ? " 
 
 " Are you out yet ? " 
 
 " Get him a drink he's discharged, anyway." 
 
 " Cigar, old boy? Cigarette? " 
 
 " Say, Bronson, there's a girl here who's so crazy to 
 meet you, she " 
 
 Macklin put his hand on Little Johnny Jones' shoul- 
 der. 
 
 " Do me a favour, Johnny ? I promised to present
 
 80 EGAN 
 
 Bronson to some of the new people. You do it for me, 
 will you? I've got this dance taken." 
 
 Between two introductions, Egan, whose spirits had 
 begun to lower again at the sight of Mary and Macklin 
 dancing together, caught sight of the pretty stranger of 
 the afternoon, who had just come in from the hall- 
 way. 
 
 She recognized him promptly as he approached her, 
 and met him smilingly. 
 
 " I'm so glad you came, Lieutenant." 
 
 " So am I." 
 
 She continued to remind him of Mary, but she had 
 about her a certain indomitable boyishness which made 
 the principal difference, and gave her a strength of 
 character which Mary lacked. She was all superla- 
 tives the blackest of hair and eyes, the rosiest of 
 cheeks, the trimmest of figures, and she was wearing an 
 amber-coloured gown which Egan thought was the most 
 entrancing creation he had ever looked upon. Her 
 name still eluded him, but he hesitated to ask the bold 
 question outright. Instead, he explained again that he 
 wasn't dancing. 
 
 " Oh, I don't mind sitting it out," she alleged cheer- 
 fully. " It always amuses me to watch ; doesn't it 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes, it does," said Egan. " I suppose one reason 
 is that most people look so happy when they're danc- 
 ing." 
 
 "Don't they, though? You couldn't ever tell 
 whether they had bad dispositions or not ! " 
 
 " After what I've been through," said Egan, follow-
 
 EGAN 81 
 
 ing Mary Kent with his eyes, " it almost scares me to 
 see a pretty girl in a pretty dress again.'* 
 
 She nodded with quick comprehension. 
 
 " They look so breakahle ? " 
 
 " Yes and so angelic." He gave her a whimsical 
 smile. " I'm not a Mormon, or anything like that, but 
 I think I could adore every girl in this room without 
 an effort. No matter what their dispositions are." 
 
 " We thank you," she said graciously. 
 
 He turned to look at her again, and liked her still 
 better. There was a pleasant twinkle in her eyes, a 
 friendly spark of companionship with no nonsense about 
 it. He approved of her, inclusively. He liked her 
 poise, and her naturalness. Her mere presence made 
 him feel more normally synchronized to the world. 
 
 " You haven't lived in Plainfield very long," he said 
 abruptly. 
 
 " I don't live here at all. I'm only a guest." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 She laughed spontaneously. " I'm sure you can't 
 be as disappointed as all that, Lieutenant Egan." 
 
 " Would you be offended if I insist that I am ? " 
 
 " No," she said, amused. " I don't believe I would. 
 At a dance, one always makes allowances." 
 
 " Not always," said Egan, " and I am disappointed. 
 I was hoping you lived here." 
 
 " I've been here long enough to hear a good deal 
 about you, though." 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " Oh, my, yes ! Mary's talked so much about you 
 that I felt I knew you rather well, even before I met 
 you."
 
 82 EGAN 
 
 "Oh, she has, has she? I wonder what she could 
 have said." 
 
 The pretty stranger smiled. " The nicest things she 
 possibly could." 
 
 " Then she can't have told you so very much about 
 me, after all. That's quite evident." 
 
 " You say that as though you're worried about some- 
 thing, Lieutenant Egan." 
 
 " Not to speak of. I'm sorry I gave you that im- 
 pression." 
 
 " If it's anything / could . . . You see, I know 
 Plainfield as an outsider knows it. I'm in the cross- 
 currents. If I could " 
 
 Egan shook himself. " I don't want to bore you 
 with my troubles. I owe you an apology for getting 
 into this sort of thing. Please don't hold it against 
 me. . . . By the way, where do you live when you don't 
 live in Plainfield?" 
 
 She gazed at him an instant, and unexpectedly 
 stepped back. " Let's try it out of doors," she said. 
 " Shall we ? I don't believe you like it in here any bet- 
 ter than I do." 
 
 Puzzled, but not unwilling, Egan permitted her to 
 choose a path to the lawn. The hour was yet too early 
 for sitters-out; they were practically isolated among 
 the trees and lanterns. Egan discovered that the quiet 
 and the dim light were soothing to him. 
 
 " Here ! " she said. " Let's sit down here." It was, 
 fortuitously, the same bench on which Egan had sat 
 with Mary Kent an hour previous. " Now," she said, 
 " suppose you just begin at the beginning and tell me 
 all about it."
 
 EGAN 83 
 
 Egan stirred out of his lethargy. " Why what 
 do you mean ? " 
 
 " Of course," she said gently, " there's no particular 
 reason why you should trust me I'm probably silly 
 to expect it but all my life, ever since I was a little 
 girl, most of the boys I've ever known have come to me 
 to hear their troubles. I can't help much ; all I can 
 do is to listen. But I try to understand. ... It 
 would have been just wasting time to watch the dancing 
 and try to talk ... I could tell that in a second. And 
 perhaps I'm safer than some one else would be, because 
 I don't live here . . . And it really isn't as personal as 
 it sounds, you know ; it's like talking to a tree, or some- 
 thing, because I'm so used to it. Why, the reason you 
 said you were disappointed I don't live here was simply 
 because you wished you knew me well enough to talk to 
 me wasn't it? " 
 
 Egan slowly nodded assent. 
 
 " You must be a very clever girl. You've hit it ex- 
 actly." 
 
 " I'm not. But I understand men better than I do 
 women. I've been wanting to talk to you, too." She 
 waited patiently. " You've just come back from over- 
 seas ? " 
 
 " Only today. I've been away lour solid years." 
 
 " Oh." Her eyes were large and soft, but there 
 wasn't the slightest trace of sentimentality about them. 
 Her voice, too, was reassuring to Egan ; it sounded like 
 the voice of a friend who could be relied upon. She 
 surveyed him earnestly. 
 
 " And while you've been away she's . . . she's got 
 engaged ? "
 
 84 EGAN 
 
 Egan jumped. " How on earth did you guess 
 that? " 
 
 " I told you I'd heard a great deal about you. I 
 suppose you must think I'm frightfully rude, but when 
 I saw you up there tonight it wouldn't have made 
 the slightest difference who you happened to be, I just 
 had to think about you." 
 
 " This isn't very interesting talk for a party," said 
 Egan awkwardly. " No I don't think you're rude. 
 But if I'm as transparent as all that, I'd better wear a 
 blanket over my face after this." 
 
 " You weren't transparent. I've known it for two 
 weeks. It made me almost dread meeting you." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Why, when any man has been big enough to leave 
 everything he cares for, and then to come back and find 
 As soon as I saw you up there tonight, I realized 
 you knew." 
 
 " It's a common enough occurrence these days, I 
 suppose," he said bitterly. 
 
 " Maybe it is but only once to each man. It's 
 just as harsh and raw and discouraging for you as it is 
 to any one else who's had to go through the same thing. 
 I I think I'll have to admit something to you, if you 
 won't be too angry at me. I was going to look for you 
 especially tonight." 
 
 Egan couldn't understand why it was that he found 
 her sympathy so welcome. He couldn't understand 
 why it was that the altruism of a stranger should move 
 him so deeply. He didn't perceive that she had that 
 great motherliness with which all girls of strong and 
 gentle characters are born. He was cognizant only of
 
 EGAN 85 
 
 her sympathy, which he had won without flirting 
 for it. 
 
 "Were you?" 
 
 She turned a degree or two towards him. In her 
 manner there was a quality which he had never observed 
 in any other girl, because he had never looked for it. 
 Evidently she appraised him not as the great Bronson 
 Egan, but as a young man hitherto without benefit of 
 the confessional. 
 
 " Maybe you wouldn't imagine," she said, " that I'm 
 much of a philosopher. I like outdoor sports, and 
 dancing, and music, and about everything else that other 
 girls like, and I came to this dance expecting to have a 
 good time dance every dance, and have a lot of men 
 say nice, silly things to me, and all that . . . but if 
 somehow I could make one man make you feel any 
 better, any really happier, or any less unhappy, for 
 talking to me about things that are real I'd have a 
 better time with myself, and think more of myself after- 
 wards, than if I'd just . . . frivolled. You see, it's 
 all such a contrast. Here's a whole houseful of people 
 enjoying themselves, without a single care on their 
 minds and here's you. And it wouldn't make the 
 slightest difference who you were, I couldn't stay up 
 there and enjoy myself when I knew all this, and knew 
 you were coming. Please don't think I'm martyring 
 myself, Lieutenant Egan. I'd rather be here than 
 there. Truly. Until you're tired of me. Dancing's 
 something I can do any time . . . There's one thing, 
 though, you ought to remember. It's about the men 
 who went over. There's been so much talk, and so much 
 in the papers, about their falling in love with English
 
 86 EGAN 
 
 and French girls . . . I'm not trying to do anything 
 but show you how a girl who was left over here for a 
 long time might get to thinking . . ." 
 
 " Some of them did do that. Thousands of them. 
 But I didn't. Even some of the married ones . . . 
 There was a Canadian I knew. Came from a small 
 town, and married a stupid little girl he'd always 
 known. And went to England and fell in love with a 
 wonder. And didn't dare to go home, and he couldn't 
 have the English girl anyway. He just draped him- 
 self over a Hun machine gun at Loos to settle his 
 problem . . . But I waited." 
 
 " No one could ever blame you for being bitter, after 
 everything that's happened to you " 
 
 "Bitter?" repeated Egan. "I'm not bitter. 
 That's over with and done for since the last few 
 minutes." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Since you were generous enough to give up so much 
 of your evening to me. You've cheered me up wonder- 
 fully, just to know that there's somebody like you in 
 the world. I don't need to tell you what's happened; 
 you know it already. But it's good to have you say 
 you know. No, I'm not bitter but I've spent four 
 years in learning how to take care of myself. I'm going 
 to do it." He looked at her, and smiled grimly. " And 
 I won't be so very easy with anybody who gets in my 
 road. If you know so much about me I suppose 
 there's been plenty of gossip about one part of it, at 
 least you'll know what that means." 
 
 She was regarding him with serious concern.
 
 EGAN 87 
 
 " What are you going to do fight your way back 
 to where you want to be? " 
 
 " Every step of it." He held his lips compressed 
 for the briefest moment, and suddenly burst out laugh- 
 ing. " For Heaven's sake, don't ever tell anybody what 
 I've just said! " 
 
 " Are you ashamed of thinking it, or just saying it? " 
 
 " Saying it. By tomorrow morning I won't be able 
 to look in the glass. It's the same old story. You 
 tempted me to boast, and I fell. And I'm glad of it. 
 Because I'm going to make it good." 
 
 " I believe you'll succeed," she said thoughtfully. 
 
 " So do I," said Egan, " provided I have luck." 
 
 " You'll never need much luck. You're not that kind 
 of man. I'm really sorry for the . . . the one who 
 couldn't wait for you. I'm a friend of hers, of course, 
 but I can say that to you, can't I? Until a little while 
 ago, I was sorriest for you. Now I'm beginning to feel 
 that way about her." 
 
 "And why's that?" 
 
 " Because she's liable to miss the chance of making 
 you into a very fine man." She said this with so little 
 intent to flatter him that he was doubly flattered. 
 
 " In what way that she'll miss the chance, or that 
 I won't ever amount to a hill of beans anyway? " 
 
 She hesitated. " Intuitions are awfully funny things, 
 Lieutenant . . ." 
 
 " I've often played hunches myself. They usually 
 lose. But go ahead." 
 
 She looked up at him. 
 
 " If she misses the chance," she said, " you'll make
 
 88 EGAN 
 
 yourself a finer man than she could. You make me feel 
 that you've got it in you to do splendid things. Only, 
 from all I hear you'll have to be careful. You're so 
 awfully proud so awfully confident so awfully 
 mercurial. I imagine you sometimes go ahead too 
 blindly, without thinking things out. You've got a chip 
 on your shoulder all the time. You'll have to get over 
 that. You'll have to learn tact. And . . . and cau- 
 tion. But if you do " She inclined a little towards 
 him, " you may win back everything you've lost. Ev- 
 erything. Please think that over. Everything . . . 
 I couldn't have gone to sleep tonight until I'd told you 
 that. I know it. That's really what I brought you 
 down here to tell you. Please don't misjudge me. 
 I" 
 
 " Are you sure of that? " he demanded, tense. 
 
 " Haven't I told you so ? If you're careful and 
 courageous, you'll win." She was tearing at her cor- 
 sage bouquet. " I'll tell you how sure I am ... I 
 want to give you something to remember this by, so 
 that twenty years from now you can look back, and see 
 that I was right, so when I say * I told you so,' you'll 
 have to admit it. . . . Would you keep it just for that? 
 Just to please me? " 
 
 Egan, staring at the little gold safety-pin she held 
 out to him, was crimson. 
 
 " Now, how in the name of all that's holy," he said, 
 " did you know I'm just the kind of creature to appre- 
 ciate that?" 
 
 " Because of your eyes and your tongue. You've 
 a lot of imagination, and for all your talk, Lieutenant,
 
 EGAN 89 
 
 I'm not sure you've ever grown up. Would it help you 
 to remember, a little ? " 
 
 " Thank you," said Egan. " You make me very, 
 very much afraid of you." He took the pin gingerly. 
 " Now I don't know when anybody has played on my 
 weaknesses like that " 
 
 " And we're surely going to be friends, aren't we ? " 
 She said it so naturally and so pleasantly that Egan, 
 who would have balked at the first trace of coquetry, 
 was disarmed. 
 
 " You've been a better friend to me tonight than I 
 have to myself. ... I hope you'll let me come to see 
 you sometime." 
 
 " I'll always be glad to have you I'm at the Kents* 
 for all the rest of this month, and I'll probably be here 
 part of September and maybe a part of October, too." 
 
 Egan didn't respond. Across the lawn, a man was 
 walking directly towards them walking rapidly, al- 
 most running and Egan had recognized him as Little 
 Johnny Jones. He stood up. 
 
 " Bronson ! Is that you? " 
 
 " What's the matter, Johnny? " 
 
 " Matter enough ! Stanley Adams is up at the house 
 looking for you ! He's tight as a drum. Henry Luke's 
 trying to hold him down, but they can't keep him quiet, 
 and he won't go, and if he doesn't calm down, they'll 
 have to throw him out, or call the police, or something. 
 For the love of mud, come on and take him home. He 
 won't go 'til he sees you. Mrs. Kent's having hysterics 
 all over the place ! " 
 
 " Till tomorrow ! " said Egan over his shoulder.
 
 VII 
 
 THE orchestra, following its instructions, was 
 playing in fortissimo the loudest jazz in all 
 its loud repertoire when Egan hurried into the 
 house; and there were still many couples dancing, by 
 the feverish request of their hostess. Egan noted, in 
 his swift passing, that the faces of most of the men 
 were stem-set, and that the faces of most of the girls 
 reflected apprehension; and even although he could 
 hear, above the tumult of the orchestra, the ring of 
 voices from the smoking-room, and could judge of the 
 confusion caused by poor old Stanley Adams, uninvited 
 and irresponsible, he was still mightily scornful of the 
 whole party scornful that forty adult males couldn't 
 handle a trifling emergency like this without calling for 
 Bronson Egan. All they could conceive was violence. 
 They had no adaptability. And what was the fuss 
 about, anyway? Why should it have caused more than 
 an instant's flurry. What delicate susceptibilities these 
 townsfolk had ! It came to him, suddenly, that perhaps 
 only he, out of all that gathering, was trained in a 
 school in which the emergency was the usual thing. 
 To have to send for a specified individual in order to 
 remove one undesired spectator! 
 
 As he reached the library, with Little Johnny Jones 
 at his heels, he saw Adams, guarded by half a dozen re- 
 luctant volunteers, at bay before the fireplace. Henry 
 Luke, whose undergraduate nickname had been " Dea- 
 con," was endeavouring to appeal to his reason. 
 
 90
 
 EGAN 91 
 
 " There! " roared Adams. " There he is he is so! 
 Lied to me, didn' you you . . . Told you he's here, 
 'n here he is ! Lied to me " 
 
 " Uncle Stanley ! " Egan had him by the arm. 
 " You hush yourself up ! Here I am. I was down on 
 the lawn. Just going home just this minute. 
 You're coming with me, aren't you? " He was wholly 
 unconscious of the reaction of the men about him. " I 
 just dropped in to take you home, Uncle Stanley. You 
 and I are going together. Aren't we? You bet we 
 are. Where's your hat? " 
 
 " Here's his hat, Bronson. For Heaven's sake, if 
 you can keep him from shouting on the street " 
 
 " Oh, shut up, Henry ! Right you are, Uncle Stan- 
 ley. . . . Who's going to take his other arm? " 
 
 ** I've got him, Bronson." That was from Little 
 Johnny Jones, and no one else had moved. " Guess you 
 forgot I was here, didn't you ? " 
 
 " I certainly did. Come on, then. Where does he 
 live?" 
 
 " Same place I do." 
 
 Together, they steered him, tractable enough now, 
 out through that silent, intolerant lane of men; toc- 
 gether they passed the terrified, unforgiving scrutiny 
 of their hostess, receiving lavender salts in the hallway ; 
 together they guided the journalist out to the sweet 
 night air. 
 
 " You're a peach, Johnny," said Egan. " You're a 
 prince. Watch that step, there . . ." 
 
 " I've got it. Turn right." 
 
 " I ... I am all ego . . . but not egotism," re- 
 marked Adams, quite distinctly. " Stood before Spinx
 
 92 v EGAN 
 
 . . . Shphink . . . oh, that damn' concrete bird in 
 Egypt . . . Sphinx ... at midnight, an' all ego lef 
 me. Un'stan'? Lef me. Quit me cold. 'At un'- 
 stood by every gen'leman present? Call next case. 
 Hurray for crime ! " 
 
 " Where do you live, Johnny? " 
 
 " 1630 Vine." 
 
 Egan stumbled inadvertently. 
 
 "Well, I'll be hanged!" 
 
 "Oh that's so, isn't it? I thought you knew it. 
 Why, yes, it's leased to a Mrs. McCain to run for a 
 boarding-house, and it's a pretty decent old shack in 
 a good location, you know, so I moved in a week ago. 
 So'd he, just about the same time. Say, he's a bird, 
 isn't he?" 
 
 "Bird? Wha's bird do besides sing? I like to hear 
 li'l birds sing," remarked Mr. Stanley Adams. " That 
 damn' concrete Egypt bird . . . Spink . . . ol' Billy 
 Napoleon shot her nose off, but look a' her mouth! 
 Gen'lemen, on my bended knees I pray you, look a' her 
 mouth. Mona Lisa. Tha's all the 'Talian I know. 
 Mona Lisa. You think I'm 'Talian t' hear me speak 
 language, would you not? Yes, you would not. So'm 
 I. Riddle of ages, Mona Lisa. I mean Spink. Con- 
 crete riddle bird. . . . Pers'nally, I consider dirty Irish 
 trick shoot off her nose. Never shot off lady's nose 
 all m' life. Wouldn' know wha' do with it after I 
 shot it off. Can't wear it on watch chain. 
 Wha'd he shoot her off for? Bronson le's get Ouija 
 board ask Tommy Napoleon why he shot off nose. 
 WOOSH ! " This was mere joviality rushing to the sur- 
 face.
 
 EGAN 9& 
 
 ** He's a lot quieter now," said Little Johnny Jones, 
 " When we get in, I'll slip downstairs and make him a 
 cup of coffee " 
 
 " Oh! Are you onto that, too, Johnny? " 
 
 " Rather. I've lived in the same house with him for 
 a week. It's like paregoric to a baby. Here we are. 
 Column right, march! . . . Look natural, Bron- 
 son? " 
 
 They were going up the front walk of Egan's boy- 
 hood home, and the cast-iron stags were still on guard, 
 and looking very familiar. But Egan had no oppor- 
 tunity to be sentimental. 
 
 Now after the transgressor had been flooded with 
 bitter black coffee and put away comfortably for the 
 night which was no idle task Little Johnny Jones, 
 and Egan sat in the room formerly reserved for dis- 
 tinguished visitors of the highest rank, and went into 
 executive session. It was Johnny's room now, and char- 
 acteristic of him. Excessively disordered, it still re- 
 tained the marks of a broad and cheerful personality; 
 from the luxury and brilliance of the unnumbered neck- 
 ties hanging from the electric light fixture, to the heap 
 of miscellaneous treasures on the centre table. Every 
 available inch of space was tenanted ; a handsome hat- 
 box served as receptacle for silver toilet articles, let- 
 ters, golf balls, and cigarettes ; clothing was everywhere ; 
 tobacco was nowhere out of reach ; and every corner 
 fairly dripped with matches. The room was redolent 
 of the very spirit of youth, which admits no minor 
 responsibilities. Egan hadn't felt so thoroughly at 
 home for four years.
 
 94 EGAN 
 
 "Know what you're going to do, Bronson? " asked 
 Jones, finally. 
 
 Egan yawned. " Not yet, Johnny. Get out of uni- 
 form as quick as I can, and start something going." 
 
 " Got a place to stay yet ? " 
 
 " No. Hadn't even thought about it." 
 
 "Why don't you come and live here? There's 
 plenty of rooms vacant the one you used to sleep in 
 isn't taken yet. Have that. I think she wants fifteen 
 a week for it." 
 
 Egan started to laugh at the price, but desisted, out 
 of consideration for Johnny. 
 
 " That sounds reasonable ; I might do it." 
 
 After a prolonged silence, Little Johnny Jones burst 
 out : " Bronson, how much rough stuff can you 
 stand?" 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid some of the crowd has got it in for you. 
 . . . Not ours, exactly, but the older crowd. I don't 
 want to hurt your feelings, Bronson, but you ought to 
 know that quite a few people aren't disappointed to 
 have you in dutch." 
 
 " I guessed that." 
 
 " I'm simply warning you, old man. Don't ask too 
 many favours. Understand?" 
 
 " Easily. I didn't intend to." 
 
 " And about the social end of things are you go- 
 ing to be supersensitive ? " 
 
 " I doubt it, Johnny." 
 
 " Because oh, thunder ! You've got eyes in your 
 head, haven't you? Money means more than it used 
 to in Plainfield; family means more. You mustn't
 
 EGAN 95 
 
 let it get on your nerves. . . . We're all back of you, 
 but" 
 
 " Well," said Egan, " as far as I've been able to find 
 out, money's the standard for just two kinds of peo- 
 ple the kind that got it without working for it, 
 and the kind that's scared to death for fear they never 
 will get it. That's nothing. It doesn't interest me." 
 
 Jones motioned towards the door. " And about that 
 fellow across the hall. He doesn't belong any more. 
 Of course I know how you feel about him, but you know 
 what happened tonight well, that's typical. And a 
 lot of people won't appreciate what you think about 
 him." 
 
 Egan failed to respond. At length : " What do you 
 know about Eddie Macklin? " 
 
 " Finest chap in town," said Jones promptly. " He 
 didn't use to be, but he's developed wonderfully. Ever 
 since that loss he took on Egan Company stock, he's 
 a sort of popular hero. And a good friend of yours, 
 too." 
 
 " Not exactly." 
 
 " I know better, Bronson. He's been boosting 
 
 you" 
 
 At this juncture, the door opened, and Stanley 
 Adams came wandering in, clad in pajamas and a gor- 
 geous dressing-gown. He was painfully unsteady, but 
 partly sober, after a brief sleep, and his eyes were 
 glowing with the brilliance of his stimulation. 
 
 " Hello, boys." 
 
 The two exchanged glances. 
 
 " Sit down, Adams. Have something to smoke? " 
 
 " Thanks ... oh, my head ! Go ahead and bust,
 
 96 EGAN 
 
 confound you, and get the thing finished ! Don't let 
 me interrupt you what were you talking about ? " 
 
 Eddie Macklin." 
 
 The journalist nodded. 
 
 "'Not a bad topic. No, I'll take that back. A very 
 bad topic. Ugh! Either this is rotten shag you fel- 
 lows smoke, or else I'm off colour . . . well, what about 
 him?" 
 
 " I'm telling Bronson that Eddie's a real citizen." 
 
 The journalist made a wry face. 
 
 - " You'll excuse me, boys, if I deliver my famous lec- 
 ture on the nonentity of the non-existent nought? . . . 
 Thank you. I am occupied by a large quantity of 
 liquor, boys, and I lecture best when slightly wafted 
 aloft. . . . Johnny, my lad, the only virtue in life is 
 good judgment. Ergo, you're drenched in vice. Your 
 judgment is punk. You think a thing is true simply 
 because it agrees with your own experience. There is a 
 difference between truth and accuracy. You are ac- 
 curate, Johnny, but untruthful. Don't ask me what I 
 mean I don't know. I will now proceed, my dear 
 hearers, to chapter Two. Life. Life is like a series of 
 spiral springs, set vertically we go 'round the loops, 
 generation after generation sometimes going higher, 
 sometimes going lower. Lower. Where was I? Oh, 
 yes. If you're going up, you have to keep going around 
 the loops before you can get up, you have to go down, 
 but when you're at the bottom of a higher loop, you're 
 higher up than you were at the- bottom of the lower 
 loop . . . n'est-ce pas? French. Eventually, all of 
 us will be at the top of the spring. Millennium. Hang 
 the clergy. Q. E. D."
 
 EGAN 97 
 
 Jones and Egan looked at each other. 
 
 " There's nothing new under the sun. Easter isn't 
 a Christian holiday it's a pagan festival to celebrate 
 the birth of spring and the death of winter. John D. 
 Rockefeller isn't a novelty he's just another Solo- 
 mon. Solomon was the first president of a trust com- 
 pany. Read your Bible. Somebody stole mine nine- 
 teen years ago, and I can't remember to buy another. 
 . . . There's nothing new. Not even a new Bible for 
 me. All is unchangeable, except human nature, but 
 there's nothing new. A dog walks around before he 
 lies down ; his wild ancestors did it to mat down the 
 grass. Human nature is eternal. I have stood before 
 the Sphinx at midnight, and there's no answer. Civ- 
 ilization was born in Egypt more years before Christ 
 than we've lived after it four thousand years of 
 veneer washed off bj a married man kissing another 
 man's wife, or by the distant jingle of a dollar bill. 
 If the Ten Commandments were obeyed, there could be 
 no wealth, and no modern improvements. Eddie Mack- 
 lln's a pole-cat, net, and if Bronson had been omniscient, 
 he'd have choked him to death fifteen years ago when 
 he had a chance. N'est^ce pas? French." 
 
 Little Johnny Jones was interested. 
 
 " What makes you think so, Adkms ? " 
 
 "Because the world is just," said the journalist, 
 swaying gently from side to side. " Justice is con- 
 science. Everything depends on conscience. Ergo, on 
 justice. Q. E. D. If there's a God, He's got to be 
 just love has got to be just everything's got to 
 be just. Justice is logic. If the world isn't logical, 
 we'd better go jump off the dock. Life hereafter
 
 98 EGAN 
 
 spiral spring. If you've been good in this world, you 
 go up a loop next time. Bad, you go down a loop. 
 Reincarnation all pagans believe it. The Turk's 
 harem. The Indian's happy hunting ground. Eddie's 
 going to be reincarnated into a snapping turtle with a 
 Mona Lisa smile. I've stood before the Sphinx at 
 midnight " 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Egan. " The Cooks ought to 
 give you a commission, Uncle Stanley. But Eddie's 
 clever, isn't he? " 
 
 " Clever? Hah ! 'Course he's clever as things go. 
 Man's got to be either damn clever or damn stupid to 
 be a politician. But clever? In the larger sense? 
 Boys, after I stood before the Sphinx at midnight, I 
 entered the pyramid of Cheops. The Egyptian thought 
 the immortality of the soul depended on the preserva- 
 tion of the body. He salted his relatives. Preserved 
 them. Pickled them. Not as I am pickled, but per- 
 manently ah, the Egyptians ! Pyramid was to make 
 sure ol' Ferdie Cheops wasn't disturbed. Then along 
 come the Cook's tourists. Hunt for the door. Door 
 ought to be in middle of one side, down on the ground 
 level n'est-ce pas? French. Was it? No. Fifty 
 feet up, thirteen feet left centre. Took 'em four thou- 
 sand years to find the latch-key. Crawl in on hands 
 and knees to the lobby, had to tunnel into it ; blocked 
 up by stones that can't be blasted with TNT mono- 
 lith in marble, two sarcophagi. Cheops and Mrs. 
 Cheops ? Nix. Poof ! Vanished. Observe, ladies and 
 gentlemen, no cuffs or moustache to deceive. Some say 
 the hand is quicker than the eye. Now you see the 
 Cheopses ; now you don't. Lift the middle shell. An-
 
 EGAN 99 
 
 other dollar gone. But they found the Cheops family 
 up in an attic through the ceiling. Four thousand 
 years! Clever? Eddie Macklin clever? Hell!" 
 
 " He's a good booster for Bronson though." 
 
 " He's a crook and a hypocrite and a blackguard, 
 and I've believed from the time he got a strangle-hold 
 on the Egan Company, he strangled it. I believe he'd 
 tomahawk his grandmother for a side-bet of a dollar 
 and a quarter. I believe he juggled you folks on your 
 land, and I always will. Apart from that, I believe 
 he's as pure in heart as Galahad was when he was 
 asleep ! " 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " asked Egan. 
 
 " This." Adams tapped his forehead. " Little grey 
 clusters of brain, Mr. Stanley Adams, sole proprietor 
 and general manager. . . . Every time I think of that 
 damn Spinx I get sleepy. If you two pragmatists will 
 excuse me, I am, with renewed assurances of my most 
 respectful consideration " 
 
 " It's too far to walk back to the hotel," said Little 
 Johnny Jones. " And it's two o'clock. Bunk here 
 with me, why don't you? " 
 
 " Good idea," said Egan. 
 
 " Then you can see Mrs. McCain in the morning. 
 All right. Let's call it a day." 
 
 " Fine." Egan yawned whole-heartedly. " I got 
 pretty well toughened up in service, but believe me, I'm 
 tired. It's been some day! . . . Oh, by the way, 
 Johnny, do you happen to know the name of that girl 
 I was talking to when you came out to get me? " 
 
 " Yes. She's Martha Henderson. Lives in Dayton.
 
 100 EGAN 
 
 House-guest of the Kents. Seems like a nice girl, 
 doesn't she? " 
 
 " Hm," said Egan, thoughtfully, as he thrust a gold 
 Safety-pin into the pocket-flap of the blouse he had just 
 taken off. " Yes, she does." 
 
 No wonder her features had been familiar to him.
 
 VIII 
 
 HE woke in the early morning, fully refreshed, 
 and for a time lay in half-conscious revery, 
 prolific of golden memories and still more 
 golden plans. Little Johnny Jones was still subdued 
 in sleep ; Egan watched him for a minute or two, grinned, 
 and crept out quietly to the nearby bath. Half an 
 hour later, he had renewed his acquaintance, in pass- 
 ing, with the gilt reception-room and the solid mahogany 
 exhibit, and he was down on the lawn by the cast-iron 
 stags, reviewing his youth. 
 
 It was not yet seven o'clock, and all the world was 
 clean-washed, and cool and fragrant. Despite his 
 monumental perplexities, Egan had responded buoy- 
 antly to the morning; his heart was lightened, and the 
 weariness was absent from his eyes. Standing before 
 the familiar old stable, he chuckled at the reminiscences 
 which came to meet him ; and, in his almost automatic 
 adjustment to his present circumstances, felt scarcely 
 a pang to think that all this property might have been 
 his. That pang would come later, but there was no 
 accommodation in his heart for it now. He was still 
 chuckling jovially when from behind him he heard a 
 smothered little exclamation, and turned to discover 
 its source. 
 
 A few feet above him, on the slope of the lawn lead- 
 ing down to the stables, was a girl he had never seen 
 before. She had evidently just come out of the house, 
 
 and had been in full career when the sight of Egan had 
 
 101
 
 102 EGAN 
 
 stopped her, for her attitude was that of suddenly ar- 
 rested action. She was an appealing little girl of per- 
 haps seventeen, an ash-blonde, with big and childlike 
 eyes, and she was wearing a gingham dress, very sim- 
 ple and unornamented, which Egan thought was very 
 becoming to her. 
 
 " Good morning," he said, cheerfully. 
 
 " Oh good morning." Her return of the courtesy 
 was shy. " Did you want anything? " 
 
 Egan's smile was far-reaching. " Are you the lady 
 of the house, then? " 
 
 " Oh, no," she said, in a tone to reprove the sacri- 
 lege. " That's Mrs. McCain. I'm Miss McCain." 
 
 He bowed to it. " I'm glad to meet you. I'm Lieu- 
 tenant Egan ... er ... no, that was last week. 
 Mister Egan this week." 
 
 " Oh ! " she cried. " Really ? " Her eyes were wider 
 yet as she absorbed the number of his decorations. 
 " Why, you used to own this place, didn't you ? " 
 
 Egan winced. " My father did. And now I'll be 
 satisfied with one small room in it. That is, I want to 
 live here again if I can. Do you happen to know if 
 it's possible ? " 
 
 " I'm sure it is," she said breathlessly. He gathered 
 that she was almost always breathless. " I know it is. 
 But, how on earth did you get here so early in the morn- 
 ing?" 
 
 " Oh, I stayed last night with Mr. Jones." 
 
 " Oh, yes." She came a few steps nearer to him. 
 " I've heard so much about you, Lieutenant Egan. . . . 
 I used to see you sometimes, too, when I was a little bit
 
 EGAN 103 
 
 of a girl, and you were in high-school . . . you don't 
 remember me, of course " 
 
 " Oh, of course I do," Egan perjured himself mag- 
 nificently; and had his reward in her inspired blushes. 
 " I remember you just as well " 
 
 "Honestly?" 
 
 ** I might not have remembered your name, but I cer- 
 tainly do remember you." 
 
 There was no answer available to her. Eventually, 
 she had to fall back on business. 
 
 " And you you honestly do want to come and have 
 a room in our house? " 
 
 " More than I want anything else I can think of, 
 Miss McCain. My own room, too, if I can have it. 
 It's to your left at the top of the stairs." 
 
 Hero-worship shone in her eyes; and there was also 
 a spark of some other emotion. " There's no one in it 
 now of course you can have it. And that makes 
 six," she said. 
 
 "Six guests?" 
 
 " Yes. You and Mr. Jones and Mr. Adams and Mr. 
 Pennypacker and Mr. Wilson and Mr. Ganzenberry. 
 He's an artist. Oh, he paints beautifully ! " 
 
 " But six isn't a houseful," said Egan. " Not unless 
 the house has shrunk." 
 
 " Oh, no." She gazed for a moment at the ground. 
 " We counted on sixteen. We've only had the house 
 four weeks, though. But if more people don't come 
 pretty soon. . . ." 
 
 " Hm," said Egan. " How much are you charg- 
 ing? "
 
 104 EGAN 
 
 " Fifteen dollars." She said it breathlessly. 
 
 " Regardless of what room it is ? " 
 
 " Whj, yes." 
 
 " Suppose two men room together? " 
 
 " Why, we thought fifteen dollars would be fair for 
 everybody." 
 
 " You've not been at this business very long, have 
 you?" 
 
 " No," she said, averted. " No." 
 
 Egan was sorry for her. " You'll have to work out 
 a better system than that," he said kindly. " It 
 sounds fair, but it really isn't. Not businesslike." 
 
 " We don't know anything about business," she told 
 him shamefacedly. " You see ... we never did any- 
 thing like this before . . . but when our lawyer made 
 a bad investment for us " She broke off there, and 
 stared at him in an embarrassment of fear that she had 
 said too much. It was the stare which presently en- 
 lightened Egan. 
 
 " Oh ! " he said. " Was your lawyer, by any chance, 
 Mr. Macklin?" 
 
 She nodded, speechless. 
 
 " And he bought Egan Company stock for you and 
 your mother? " 
 
 Again she nodded. 
 
 " Do you happen to know what it's worth today ? " 
 It was his first encounter with one of that group which, 
 in reaching for the great bargain, had suffered entire 
 loss, and he was very uncomfortable about it. He won- 
 dered how many of the group would feel that he was in 
 some measure responsible, simply by virtue of being in 
 the Egan family.
 
 EGAN 105 
 
 " N-nothing," she said, hushed. " So Mother and I 
 rented this house from the Hospital, Mr. Macklin 
 fixed it up for us. As long as they had to rent it to 
 somebody, and it had been your house, and we'd lost 
 all our money in your company, they made it a low 
 rent, so " 
 
 " How much stock have you got if it's not an im- 
 pertinence? " 
 
 "I ... M-mother never told me." 
 
 Egan drew a long breath. Macklin had told part 
 truth, at least. 
 
 " Tell me," he said, " when I can see your mother." 
 
 She came impulsively nearer yet, and her eyes were 
 gorgeously brilliant. " You . . . you're not . . . you're 
 not going to buy it back ! " she faltered. " Oh, Lieu- 
 tenant Egan ! If you only would! " She was highly 
 excited, and excitation gave her cheeks a charm not 
 wasted on Egan. " If you only would do that ! It 
 would . . . why, it would be the bravest thing you've 
 ever done. The noblest. The . . . the best" 
 
 The corners of his mouth went upward. She was a 
 silly little thing, so intense, so dramatic. 
 
 " I don't know that I could do that, exactly, but 
 could I see your mother before breakfast? " 
 
 Impulsively she snatched his hand. " Come! " said 
 Miss McCain, with abandon. 
 
 After a somewhat staccato interview on other mat- 
 ters, Mrs. McCain, a timid lady with recessive manners, 
 had looked hurriedly into Egan's face, then fixedly at 
 Egan's feet, and told him that the room was his. 
 Thereafter, she had made several false starts, and
 
 106 EGAN 
 
 finally said, as though uncertain of her own adminis- 
 tration : " You'd better come in to breakfast, now." 
 
 Her daughter was more efficient. " Why, mother ! 
 Nobody's rung the gong yet." 
 
 Mrs. McCain grew pink (in the presence of Egan) 
 and prim (in reproof of her offspring). " Thank you, 
 Milly. I was just about to." She retraced her steps 
 to the foot of the stairs, and with absorbed precision, 
 performed for a moment upon the chimes. " Now we 
 can go in," she said imperially, but she wasn't sure 
 even then whether she ought to precede Egan or let 
 him precede her. 
 
 She took her stand at the head of the table, and as- 
 sumed a misplaced air of authority. " Will you sit 
 there, Lieutenant Egan ? " 
 
 " Mother ! That's Mr. Adams' place ! " 
 
 Mrs. McCain smoothed out the salient of her mouth. 
 " He won't be down. Georgina's taking up a tray. 
 . . . Oh, good morning, Mr. Pennypacker. Permit me 
 to make you acquainted with Lieutenant Egan." 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker, a short, impersonal, middle-aged 
 statistician, emitted a burst of utterly unaccented laugh- 
 ter. This, as it soon appeared, was merely a sort of 
 vocal punctuation ; it meant nothing overt. " Pleased 
 to meet you." 
 
 "Shall we all sit down?" 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker transfixed Egan with his bright 
 little eyes. 
 
 " Are you out of the service yet, sir? " 
 
 " I was discharged Monday, at Mineola, Mr. Penny- 
 packer." 
 
 " Then you'll have to excuse me if I don't call you
 
 EGAN 107 
 
 1 Lieutenant,' Mr. Egan. No offence, sir. I always 
 like to be accurate." 
 
 " Oh, they often call people titles afterwards ! " in- 
 terposed Millicent. " General Grant, Colonel Roose- 
 velt " 
 
 " What would you like for eggs, Lieutenant Egan ? 
 Fried, or boiled? " 
 
 " Fried, please." 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker was unabashed. " I see you have 
 the Croix de Guerre, Mr. Egan. Did you know that 
 only four hundred and seventy-nine American officers 
 are entitled to wear that decoration? " 
 
 "No; I" 
 
 " Mr. Wilson, permit me to make you acquainted 
 with Lieutenant Egan." 
 
 " Ouch ! Howdy-do, Lieutenant." Mr. Wilson 
 came all the way around the table to give Egan a 
 putty-like grip. 
 
 " Sleep well, Wilson? " Mr. Pennypacker winked at 
 Egan. 
 
 " No, I can't say I did. I judge I slept about three 
 hours. Tried it on my right side 'til I heard the clock 
 strike twelve, and then I tried it on my left side 'til I 
 heard it strike one, and then I got up and read a little 
 Greek until half past two." 
 
 " He reads Greek," said Mr. Pennypacker to Egan, 
 very humorously. " Perhaps you do, too." 
 
 " Oh, I might remember a few words," laughed Egan. 
 
 Mr. Wilson glared at Mr. Pennypacker. " You 
 don't need to make me out a fool. I said a little 
 Greek." 
 
 " I bet it was. How about some coffee, Milly."
 
 108 EG AN 
 
 " Mr. Jones, permit me to " 
 
 " Oh, we know each other ! How's the boy, Bron- 
 son? Sort of hot, isn't it? " 
 
 " Mr. Ganzenberry, permit me to make you ac- 
 quainted with Lieutenant Egan." 
 
 " Good morning, everybody. . . . Glad to see you, 
 sir. Any relation of Charles C. Egan of Philadel- 
 phia ? " The artist shook hands warmly. " I knew 
 Charles C. Egan very well indeed. A brother artist. 
 No relation at all? I'm sorry. . . . Sleep well, Wilr 
 son?" 
 
 " Of course he didn't," said Mr. Pennypacker, with 
 another burst of laughter. " What's the use of ask- 
 ing that every morning? " He turned to address Little 
 Johnny Jones. ** It may seem hot to you, but I've kept 
 a diary for twenty-nine years, and my own personal im- 
 pression is that this is as cool a July, on the average, as 
 we've ever had. I'll look that up and " 
 
 " Please don't bother," said Johnny, hastily. " Til 
 take your word for it." 
 
 " Oh, it won't be any trouble at all. I'm interested, 
 now you've brought up the subject. If you'll just wait 
 half a second " 
 
 " Sit down, Pennypacker," advised the artist. 
 " When are you going to learn not to spring the book 
 on people? We'll all take your word for it." 
 
 " Georgina, pass Lieutenant Egan the toast. . . . 
 Oh, don't take that burned piece ! Georgina, get Lieu- 
 tenant Egan some fresh toast." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mr. Wilson, explosively. " Are you 
 James Egan's son? " 
 
 " Yes."
 
 EGAN 109 
 
 There was a rather noticeable pause. 
 
 " What do you think's going to happen in Russia, 
 Mr. Pennypacker? " 
 
 "I'll teU you, Wilson " And Mr. Pennypacker 
 was as good as his word. 
 
 Egan, who was placed between Mrs. McCain and her 
 daughter, wished that he were sitting next to Jones. 
 He hadn't liked that sudden quiet when his identity 
 was announced. So far, he was of course ignorant of 
 public sentiment regarding the Egan failure. He 
 didn't know whether he was personally pitied, or per- 
 sonally blamed or what was generally thought about 
 his father. He wondered if Johnny's forecast of last 
 night was to be applied to all Plainfield. 
 
 " Marmalade, Lieutenant? " 
 
 " There's always some kind of a war or another," 
 Pennypacker was saying. " International, civil, race, 
 wage, class I don't care what you call it ; there's 
 always something. And during every war, there's bol- 
 shevism. Now to go on to the next point " 
 
 Mr. Wilson addressed Egan across the table. 
 "Hear what he's saying? He says the war isn't over 
 
 yet." 
 
 " More butter, Lieutenant Egan ? " 
 
 " I said," affirmed Mr. Pennypacker, " if you'll do 
 me the honour to quote me correctly I said that the 
 war isn't over ; a war is over. Mr. Egan hasn't come 
 
 back from the war ; he's come back from wai or from 
 
 a war. Now he's ready to engage in some other kind 
 of war. I use the word in its broad sense, Wilson. 
 I'm not a quibbler. Mr. Egan, or any of the rest of 
 us, can't get out of it. War doesn't necessarily mean
 
 110 EGAN 
 
 simply artillery, and horses and guns and . . . and so 
 forth. It can mean commercial struggle. It can mean 
 society. It can mean 'most anything." 
 
 " So can you, Pennypacker. . . . Cream, Georgina." 
 
 " I'm sure," said Mrs. McCain, " we're all of us con- 
 stantly striving, if that's what you mean." 
 
 " For instance, the temporary check in Mr. Egan's 
 career something we all look upon, sir, as a great 
 shame and a great misfortune why, isn't that com- 
 parable as a mere incident in his life to, say, McClellan's 
 failure before Richmond? If you stretch your imagi- 
 nation " 
 
 " Not as far as from here to Richmond," observed 
 Mr. Ganzenberry, dryly. 
 
 " No, but seriously. What is life but a continuous 
 campaign? War against inertia. War against pov- 
 erty. War against sickness. War against competi- 
 tors. War against your own nature. Do I make my- 
 self clear? " 
 
 He had; and he had also succeeded in placing a sti- 
 letto in the secret sensibilities of every one present, so 
 that there was no immediate rejoinder. 
 
 To Egan, however, his grandiloquence sounded 
 prophetic. Life was nothing but a continuous cam- 
 paign. Not the war ; but a war. 
 
 " If you don't see what you want, Lieutenant Egan, 
 I do hope you'll make yourself perfectly at home, and 
 ask for it." 
 
 But it wasn't until after breakfast that the insta- 
 bility of Egan's position began to affect him. Stanley 
 Adams, pale but resolute, had dropped in for a mo-
 
 EGAN 111 
 
 ment, and departed for the office of the Times; Little 
 Johnny Jones had made haste to report at his insur- 
 ance agency; the other boarders had their appointed 
 tasks, and went to face them; Egan was adrift. 
 
 As a preliminary to action, he smoked a long cigar 
 in Jones' room. There was no use in glooming over 
 his situation ; it was too present a reality. Besides, 
 every one would expect him to be dazed by it, and that 
 was exactly the reason why he refused to be. Obvi- 
 ously, if he didn't care to become anybody's employe, 
 he must originate some means of living independently. 
 He told himself that he wasn't snobbish; he merely 
 didn't like the idea of going to work on the same basis 
 as those who hadn't had all Egan's advantages. Of 
 course, if anybody would pay him what he was really 
 worth, that might be safer than launching out alone. 
 Without prejudice, he catalogued his various abilities, 
 setting them down mentally as though he were framing 
 an advertisement for the " Situations Wanted " col- 
 umn of Adams' newspaper. 
 
 " Young man, recently discharged from the Army, 
 desires employment in any clean and rather exclusive 
 business which promises to make a great success, which 
 it will generously share with him. Age 25, college grad- 
 uate, best of health. No experience in anything ex- 
 cept spending money to get the least return from it, 
 and in piloting various types of airplanes. Salary de- 
 sired to start " 
 
 Egan totalled his requirements. Room and board, 
 fifteen dollars. Incidentals, fifteen dollars. Every- 
 thing else, forty dollars. That was his idea of the ir- 
 reducible minimum. Seventy dollars a week. His own
 
 EGAN 
 
 modesty rather appealed to him. Why, his Army pay, 
 counting in the extra-duty allowance for flying, had 
 amounted almost to that much. But, on the subject 
 of airplanes 
 
 Egan reached for a sheet of paper, and began to set 
 down rapid figures. His eyes grew brilliant, and his 
 cigar went out, unheeded. He was himself, again. 
 
 At ten o'clock, he put on his cap, and went down to 
 see the Honourable George Perkins. 
 
 " Well, sir ! " said the Judge. " How've you capital- 
 ized your time since I last saw you? " 
 
 " I've found out something about the Egan Com- 
 pany, anyway ; and I've got a scheme." 
 
 " So soon? Who from? Not about the scheme just 
 yet the Company." 
 
 " From a Mrs. McCain. She's a widow. She was 
 one of the people who let Eddie Macklin buy Egan 
 stock, Uncle George. Her husband left her fifty thou- 
 sand. Eddie was her lawyer, and managed her finances. 
 He bought fifty for her. She's the one who's rented 
 our old house on Vine Street from the City Hospital, 
 and she's taking boarders. I'm going to live there." 
 
 " Oh, you are, are you ? " 
 
 " Yes. . . . That's all I could get out of her. She 
 seems to have the idea in her head that she mustn't talk 
 about it. Pride, I .guess. She's very . . . genteel. 
 Only it's some relief to know Eddie doesn't lie all the 
 time." 
 
 " It is. Well, I told you I didn't think that he lied 
 this time. . . . What's your scheme? " 
 
 Egan's chest expanded. " First, I want you to give 
 me desk-room here free, gratis, for nothing."
 
 EGAN 113. 
 
 " It's yours telephone and all. What's next ? " 
 
 " I want you to come and take a room at 1630 Vine. 
 Your old room's empty, Uncle George. I'm back in 
 mine, and it feels great. It'll please me a lot to have 
 you there. Uncle Stanley's there, too. Will you? " 
 
 The Judge's fist bumped on the desk. 
 
 " By gum, I will ! It's the only mantelpiece I ever 
 saw was just the right height, without scorching my 
 shins in the winter time." 
 
 " That's bully. Now, where are the personal things 
 Dad left me? And all my old clothes and everything? 
 I want to get out of this uniform as soon as I can." 
 
 " In storage, Bronson. I'll order 'em sent up to 
 the house this morning, so they'll be there tonight. 
 Now sit down there and tell me what your scheme's all 
 about." 
 
 " Well there's no sense in figuring on anything 
 coming to me out of the Company, is there? " 
 
 " Not that I can see. In the long run, there may be 
 something left over, but it's not worth banking on." 
 
 " And there isn't any job there for me? " 
 
 "No. There isn't." 
 
 " That's how I doped it out, myself. So I've either 
 got to go get a job with somebody else, or start some- 
 thing of my own, haven't I ? " 
 
 " No disputing that, Bronson." 
 
 " All right ; I've got a scheme. All I need is five 
 thousand dollars to put me on my feet." 
 
 The Judge whistled. 
 
 " Five thousand dollars ? " 
 
 " Yes, and don't you try to loan it to me, either. 
 I'll take desk room from you, and that's all I will take.
 
 114 EGAN 
 
 I'm going to earn it by the middle of August. Then 
 I'm out for bear." 
 
 "How'llyouearnit?" 
 
 Egan was very optimistic. " One of the best friends 
 I've got we used to be clubmates at college is vice- 
 president of an airplane factory up in New York State. 
 I'm going to get him to sell me a J N 4 H that's an 
 advanced training plane on time." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " And then," said Bronson cheerfully, " I'm going to 
 get a concession at the County Fair and if the cal- 
 endar hasn't shifted in the meantime, that's the middle 
 of September and I'm going to take up passengers 
 at a dollar a minute. Plainfield hasn't seen much of 
 any flying, and practically nobody here ever had a 
 ride, and it ought to go big. Like the idea? " 
 
 The Judge scowled. " Not very dignified, Bron- 
 son." 
 
 " Neither is being broke." 
 
 " They'll say you're deliberately going out of your 
 way just to be theatrical " 
 
 " No, only spectacular. And I want the money, and 
 I want the publicity." 
 
 " You won't have much caste left, will you ? " 
 
 " I'm hot worried about that, Uncle George." 
 
 " Well, suppose you make as much money as you 
 think you will, then what'll you do ? " 
 
 " Aerial transportation," said Egan boldly. 
 " There's no use in denying it it's the coming busi- 
 ness. I've figured it all out. It isn't guesswork ; I 
 know what I'm talking about. We can get any number 
 of good pilots there were seventeen thousand of 'em
 
 EGAN 115 
 
 when the war ended. We can buy ships anywhere 
 the country's full of them. People laugh but did 
 you ever read Booth Tarkington's book called * The 
 Magnificent Ambersons ' ? People laughed at the auto- 
 mobile the same way. I want to start an aerial ex- 
 press between here and Dayton. Start with the H 
 it'll carry a couple of hundred pounds after it's fixed 
 over a little and then add more, and then branch 
 out. Then to Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and Chicago. 
 They're doing it in England already. The mail serv- 
 ice works pretty well, doesn't it? Well, why shouldn't 
 we go ahead and be pioneers in the express business ? " 
 
 The Judge emphasized his remarks with his corncob. 
 " It's impractical, boy ! And even if it wasn't, you're 
 not old enough. You haven't had any business training 
 at all ! You're making the same mistake you always 
 did thinking you can do anything anybody else 
 could!" 
 
 " Well, that makes one more reason why I won't let 
 you loan me any money, then, Uncle George, if you 
 think that way. I'll only risk my own if I make 
 any." 
 
 " But you can't get franchises on a thing like that ! 
 You can't buy a right-of-way. Anybody with more 
 money or more brains could come along and put you out 
 of business in half a second." 
 
 " I guess I can look out for that. . . . Don't forget, 
 Uncle George, the world isn't going to sleep . . . the 
 Government's planning to use the Air Service in for- 
 estry work, and coast and geodetic surveying, and " 
 
 " But I hate to have you risk so much on so little 
 prospect, Bronson."
 
 116 EGAN 
 
 / 
 
 " Would you rather have me go to work in a shoe- 
 store on ten dollars a week." 
 
 " No, but ... I don't like this County Fair scheme. 
 You might get hurt. And I don't suppose you can get 
 insurance. . . . Pshaw ! " The Judge laughed guilt- 
 ily. " I forgot you haven't anybody to be a benefi- 
 ciary. Somehow I usually think of you as married. . . ." 
 
 " Just a minute ! " said Egan sharply. His fore- 
 head was deeply lined with wrinkles. Presently he drew 
 a long breath, and sat up. " Uncle George, you're 
 right even Lloyd's didn't care to insure fliers. But 
 the records show that at the American flying fields 
 it wouldn't be fair to drag in the records abroad 
 there was only one fatality for every hundred and 
 ninety-four thousand hours' flying, and three quarters 
 of 'em were caused by stunting at low altitudes. Now 
 . . . what would you say to a company to write aerial 
 insurance only; injuries to fliers and passengers ; dam- 
 ages to express; damages to farms or buildings or in- 
 dividuals from crashes. ..." He paused, dazzled by 
 his own thoughts. " It hasn't been done not that 
 I know of and there's money in it. Not millions, of 
 course, but . . . think of what you could collect by 
 writing insurance per passenger per trip? There'll be 
 a hundred thousand people in the air this next year. 
 Curiosity seekers. Everybody's crazy to go up. 
 Would a man pay ten dollars, say, for a five thousand 
 dollar policy on a ten minute flip? I rather guess he 
 would ! " 
 
 The Judge sat hypnotized. 
 
 " You're so visionary, Bronson ! Get down to earth 
 get down to common sense."
 
 EGAN 117 
 
 " And Professor Langley was hooted into his grave 
 and ten years later they took his old original machine 
 up to Keuka Lake and flew it." 
 
 " You can't count on those infernal things to " 
 
 " They won the war, didn't they ? And they've made 
 transatlantic trips, haven't they? And they're car- 
 rying mail for the Post Office Department, aren't 
 they?" 
 
 The Judge filled his pipe unsteadily. 
 
 "Are you serious about all this, Bronson?" 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 " Suppose it fails? " 
 
 " How can it ? " inquired Egan, with dignity. 
 
 " You can't run both enterprises at one time." 
 
 " I wouldn't have to. I've got a man in mind for 
 the insurance end." 
 
 "Who's that?" 
 
 " Little Johnny Jones. Best man in town." 
 
 The Judge was cumulatively depressed. 
 
 " I know him. He's a nice young fellow, and they 
 say he's a hard worker, but, Bronson, you can't ex- 
 pect to go out with a couple of playmates, and com- 
 pete with insurance companies and express companies ! 
 You'd better think this over some more. You're jump- 
 ing too fast. Of course, I know you're all stirred up, 
 and no wonder, but you don't have to go off on a wild 
 tangent like this, just to make a start. Take a couple 
 days off to get acclimated, and then we'll sit down and 
 go over things, logically." 
 
 Egan held his tongue, but it took will-power. 
 
 " Well when can I have my desk-room ? " 
 
 " You can pick it out now."
 
 118 EGAN 
 
 " Thank you, Uncle George. I'll look around a bit, 
 and let you know." 
 
 " Here ! You're too quick on the trigger ! Where 
 you going? " 
 
 " Why," said Egan, surprisedly, " I'm going to find 
 a good place for my desk, and then I'm going over to 
 talk to Uncle Stanley about what sort of publicity we'd 
 need when I mean if we start this thing." 
 
 The Judge bit his lip. " Just to please me, Bron- 
 son " 
 
 " But it won't do any harm to talk it over with him, 
 will it?" 
 
 The Judge swallowed. He looked at Egan, and 
 looked away, uneasily. 
 
 " No," he said in an undertone. " That is, I hope 
 it won't. But, Bronson " 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 The Judge motioned feebly. 
 
 " Nothing. ... Go on."
 
 IX 
 
 SHE was dressed quietly enough, but with a cer- 
 tain style which made most other women feel 
 like part of the background; and as she came 
 out from the swinging doors of Plainfield's leading de- 
 partment store she radiated an alert independence which 
 again distinguished her from the herd of chronic con- 
 servatives marching before and behind her. She was 
 a size or two smaller than the current standard of 
 debutantes, or even the current standard of post- 
 debutantes, but she had a magnificent figure, and car- 
 ried herself like a member of the King's Own Rifles. 
 She walked with a healthy swing not a swagger, but 
 a swing designed to take her from one place to an- 
 other by the shortest measured distance, and at the 
 least drain on the clock. Finally, she was good-look- 
 ing in the most inclusive sense ; not superficially attrac- 
 tive, but with that particular sort of intrinsic sweet- 
 ness which belongs only to a lovable disposition, and 
 can't be imitated. 
 
 Under the circumstances, it was inevitable that Bron- 
 son Egan should catch his breath. " Miss Hender- 
 son ! " he said, with almost an apology in his saluta- 
 tion. With the memory of last night, and of her par- 
 entage, vivid in his mind, he couldn't decide whether 
 he was glad or sorry to meet her. 
 
 She stopped, and met him with frank pleasure. 
 " Lieutenant Egan ! " 
 
 " I've been thinking about you," he said soberly. 
 
 119
 
 120 EGAN 
 
 " So have I. ... Are you walking my way ? " 
 
 Egan, with her smile warming him, knew that he was 
 glad. 
 
 " Yes," he said promptly ; and she laughed outright. 
 
 " But you don't even know yet which way it is ! " 
 
 " It makes no difference," said Egan. " It's mine, 
 too." 
 
 He was glad to see her, and he felt that he owed her 
 a great deal, but the fact that she was Martin Hen- 
 derson's daughter wouldn't down. They traversed half 
 a block in silence. 
 
 " That was a very courageous thing for you to do 
 last night," she said abruptly. 
 
 " To take poor old Uncle Stanley Adams home ? 
 Why was it?" 
 
 "It ... created a wrong impression. It was bound 
 to, and you knew it. He's not accepted here, and you're 
 not afraid to be kind to him. Mary said she'd already 
 warned you that people would criticize you for being 
 friendly to him. I call it mighty brave." 
 
 " I'm not positive about that," said Egan awkwardly. 
 " When men drink too much, their friends have to look 
 out for them. I'm his friend whether he's sober or not. 
 He needs me more when he's not. That's all." 
 
 " The difficulty comes in the friendship, Lieutenant." 
 
 Egan was alert. " Some people always exaggerate 
 those things. I can be his friend without following the 
 same line of conduct, can't I? " 
 
 " I'm almost sorry for the friendship itself be- 
 cause he's anything but a friend of my father's. . . . 
 He's written some terrible things about him in the 
 Times."
 
 EGAN 121 
 
 Egan made no answer. The sunlight threatened to 
 fade out of his world. 
 
 " It was courageous, just the same," she said. " And 
 as a matter of fact, if I hadn't seen you doing the same 
 thing yesterday afternoon, I mightn't have said all I 
 did to you last night." 
 
 Egan wasn't unpleased. " Would you mind if I 
 asked you a personal question, Miss Henderson? What 
 were you doing all through the war? " 
 
 She glanced at him in some perplexity. 
 
 " I don't exactly see the connection " 
 
 " There is one, though." 
 
 " Why," she said, " I was a sort of teamster for 
 the first part of it, and then I was a chauffeur." 
 
 " I beg your pardon a teamster, did you say ? " 
 
 " Teamster," she repeated. " Life was nothing but 
 one drive after another, and I was one of the drivers. 
 Red Cross, Liberty Loan, War Camp, War Savings, 
 Y. M. C. A., and" then the United War Work the 
 only thing I wasn't in was a drive to raise money to 
 relieve the people who'd bankrupted themselves in all the 
 other drives. And then I went into that Woman's 
 Motor Corps, you know, and drove an ambulance. I 
 suppose you could even call me ' Sergeant ' if you 
 wanted to." She laughed merrily. " It wasn't like 
 being overseas, of course, but sometimes it was pretty 
 lively, especially during the flu epidemic, and twice 
 when we had big explosions. I had a wonderful old 
 'bus ; Hawkins she was our Major, and an awfully 
 good sport, too, even if she -was an old maid Hawkins 
 said I had everything in it but lace curtains and a fire- 
 less cooker."
 
 122 EGAN 
 
 Egan managed to laugh also ; the sunlight was grow- 
 ing brighter. He hadn't actually believed that she was 
 as unpatriotic as her father; but now that he had her 
 own statement, he was relieved. 
 
 " I suspect you've kept yourself busy, anyway." 
 
 " Once I was on duty for twenty-seven hours 
 straight," she said. " It was a fire." She looked at 
 him sidewise. " The idea of my running on like that, 
 when you've done something real ! " 
 
 " I haven't done so much no more for me, prob- 
 ably, than you have for you." 
 
 She observed that this was intended primarily as a 
 compliment, and not as insincerity. 
 
 " Nonsense ! Why, you've flown an airplane, haven't 
 you? Most of the men around here haven't gumption 
 enough to fly a toy balloon." 
 
 " Looking back on it, it makes me feel like a high- 
 class taxi-driver." 
 
 " Oh, don't be silly ! " said Miss Henderson sturdily. 
 " I know what's the matter with you you're all tired 
 out nervously, that's all. And I know why, too. The 
 let-down's too much for you. You're tuned up to high 
 C, and the rest of the world's in low B flat. I felt the 
 same way when we demobilized. All I could seem to 
 want to do was to find somebody sort of harmless, and 
 cooing and squshy, and sit back and rest my mind and 
 let him sort of prattle at me for awhile. I know just 
 how you feel." 
 
 Egan was convulsed. " So you think I need that sort 
 of treatment, do you? " 
 
 " You probably do," she said. " Just a good old- 
 fashioned sociable session with some nice little harm-
 
 EGAN 123 
 
 less vampire, or else just the opposite lots of action. 
 Tennis and swimming and everything. They're the 
 only two ways I know to get over the blues. I meant 
 to tell you that last night. It's a prescription." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Egan. " I'm astonished at you." 
 
 "Are you? Why?" 
 
 " It doesn't seem like you to suggest that." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because in every other way you've been so prac- 
 tical." 
 
 Her smile was this time more comprehensive. 
 
 " You do need a teacher. Don't you know that you 
 must never, never, never tell a girl she's practical, 
 whether you think so or not? It simply isn't done. 
 But between ourselves, don't you think that's prac- 
 tical? I do." 
 
 " It's impossible," said Egan shortly. 
 
 " It seems to me I've heard you used to be rather 
 a success at it." 
 
 " That was before the war." 
 
 " The war didn't change you so much, did it ? " 
 
 " It turned me inside out," said Egan, " and there 
 isn't any girl-sense or any game-sense left in me." 
 
 She came to a tardy standstill. " I'm leaving you 
 here, Lieutenant; I do hope you'll remember to come 
 to see me. My father came to town yesterday, and 
 I'll probably go home with him the end of the week. 
 . . . But it isn't impractical. I know it isn't. Won't 
 you just give up your ideas of logic for once, and be- 
 lieve me without trying? " 
 
 " You think it's sound reasoning? " 
 
 " No," she said with a cheery smile, " but it gener-
 
 124 EGAN 
 
 ally works. And you come to see me sometime, and 
 I'll cheer you up so you could flirt with a broom-handle. 
 All it needs is a heart and a sense of humour. Good- 
 bye, Lieutenant." 
 
 For a moment or two, Egan loitered at the corner, 
 contemplative. At length he came to himself, and with 
 a little start of perception realized that he had halted 
 squarely before the Times building. The occasion was 
 propitious ; so that he went up into the business office, 
 and inquired the whereabouts of Mr. Stanley Adams. 
 
 " Third floor rear," said the cashier smartly. " Take 
 elevator left." 
 
 Obediently, Egan took elevator left, and emerged 
 from it into the apotheosis of disorder. The limited 
 floor space was crammed with ancient typewriters on 
 rickety tables, with heaps of sooty newspapers, soap- 
 boxes filled with cuts, heaps of electros with dried ink 
 encrusting them, files and files innumerable. Life was 
 at extremes here ; men either dawdled or rushed ; imper- 
 tinent small boys sat playing " jeff " with em-quads or 
 plunged at top speed down narrow alleys between the 
 desks. The atmosphere was aquiver with suppressed 
 energy; the Times, an early morning and an early 
 afternoon paper, was on the verge of going to press. 
 This was that portion of the day during which the 
 majority of the staff earned their salaries. 
 
 Egan, thrice directed and re-directed, ended at a 
 cubicle some eight feet by ten, containing a heavily 
 nicked-and-scarred desk, a cane-seated chair, a type- 
 writer, a hundred pounds of accumulated dust, and Mr. 
 Stanley Adams, who was in his shirt-sleeves, a cigar
 
 EGAN 125 
 
 slanted in his mouth at the proper angle to keep the 
 smoke out of his eyes, pecking dreamily at the ma- 
 chine. 
 
 " Hello, Uncle Stanley." 
 
 Adams bounced erect. 
 
 " Hello, boy." He seemed to have some difficulty 
 in meeting Egan's eyes. " How's your good health? " 
 
 " Bully. . . . Am I interrupting you? " 
 
 " Not so you could notice it." 
 
 " Writing an editorial? " 
 
 " Not just now." He squinted unfavourably at the 
 cigar. " Fact is, Bronson, I'm a sort of general util- 
 ity man. I'm an expert expert. I'm doing a review 
 of the art show at the Municipal Art Museum." 
 
 Egan had known that the man was versatile, but this 
 was news. 
 
 " I didn't know you're an art critic, Uncle Stanley." 
 
 " Hey ? Art critic ! I'm an every thing-critic. On 
 a newspaper you don't learn to be an expert they ap- 
 point you one. I hear it's a good exhibition, too." 
 
 " Haven't you seen it? " demanded Egan. 
 
 "Me? Seen it? Gone 'way over there to rub el- 
 bows with a lot of whiskers and rubber at a lot of 
 pictures ? Catch a weasel asleep ! I got a program. 
 How's this most of it's quoted from an artist who 
 used to be a friend of mine, Bob Chambers but it's 
 hot stuff. ' The portrait of Rudolf Ganzenberry, by 
 himself,' " 
 
 " Hello ! Is that the one who's up at our house? " 
 
 " The same one. Listen. * is more than a self- 
 painting; it is cosmic autobiography. One can con-
 
 126 EGAN 
 
 ceivably be an artist with one's own self for canvas and 
 medium both. To this extent, Mr. Ganzenberry has 
 achieved the impossible. To be an artist is not neces- 
 sarily egoism, nor is it always calculation. It may im- 
 ply such spontaneity as a man might display in relat- 
 ing, without self-consciousness, his own personal expe- 
 riences to a group of friends, and unwittingly revealing 
 to them his inward self, while he thought only to regale 
 them with a cross-section of his most outward and least 
 important emotions. So it is with Mr. Ganzenberry's 
 canvas.' ' 
 
 " Holy Smoke ! " said Egan. 
 
 " ' But to those who feel that this portrait is insuffi- 
 ciently realistic, it should be said that it is the mistake 
 of the crowd to regard art merely as the interpreta- 
 tion of experience. Such interpretation is the cross- 
 section of the eternal, and not the standard of truth. 
 It is ontology, but it is not life. Art, in its larger 
 sense, had nothing to do with life. Life tends to claim 
 all for itself ; and therefore tends to kill art. In other 
 words, life claims art, and art does not claim life. For 
 if this were not so, art would be unexpressed, and art is 
 the revelation of the undetermined, which can only reach 
 its fulness in the quietude of the soul such quietude 
 as that in which Mr. Ganzenberry evidently painted 
 this picture, which ' ' 
 
 " And you never saw it ! " breathed Egan, aghast. 
 
 " ' Which also is framed suitably to the unusual sub- 
 ject,' ' : finished Adams, with a grotesque smirk. 
 " There, by God ! That's genius ! " 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me that the public'll stand 
 :forthat?"
 
 EGAN 127 
 
 '* The ones who ever read the art column anyway'll 
 lap it up," said Adams. " Because they won't know 
 what it means. Neither do I. Neither does Cham- 
 bers. But I've actually seen that particular picture; 
 Ganzenberry showed it to me. It looks like the Cheshire 
 cat after it had disappeared." 
 
 Laughingly, Egan shook hands. " All right. Now 
 that you've got all that poison out of your system 
 and you ought to feel a heap better tell me how many 
 columns I can get free in the Times? " 
 
 "What about?" 
 
 " Me." 
 
 " Plain puff or what? " 
 
 " Plain puff," said Egan. " Hundred per cent, 
 blurb." 
 
 " Why, 'most any amount, I guess. That is, if you 
 give me time enough ahead. I can manufacture news 
 out of 'most anything." 
 
 " Would it be news if I should take the prettiest girl 
 in Plainfield up for a twenty minute jazz in an airplane 
 on the opening day of the County Fair? " 
 
 " You bet ! " said Adams, animatedly. " You bet ! 
 Anything in it ? " 
 
 " Then you'd better put a fresh ribbon in your type- 
 writer, Uncle Stanley. . . . One thing more ; would you 
 care to get out of the newspaper business? " 
 
 Adams chewed his cigar. " There's only two kinds 
 of men in the newspaper game, Bronson. One kind 
 plans to get out of it as soon as it's saved enough 
 money. The other kind's resigned to it only because 
 it knows it never will save enough money. I'm in 
 Class II."
 
 128 EGAN 
 
 " Would a hundred dollars a week tempt you ? " 
 
 " Tempt me ! It'd paralyse me ! What multi-mil- 
 lionaire done that ? " 
 
 " Then get ready to leave here the fifteenth of Sep- 
 tember, Uncle Stanley. The Ohio Aerial Transport 
 Company's going to want you." 
 
 " The what? " 
 
 Egan repeated it, sonorously. 
 
 " But as what ? What capacity ? Who's the " 
 
 " Press agent advertising manager." 
 
 Adams leaned forward ; his forehead was wrinkled and 
 his eyes narrowed. 
 
 " Are you kidding me, Bronson? " 
 
 "Do I look it?" 
 
 " No. But tell me some more about it, Bronson." 
 
 " I can't. Not quite yet. But it's the real thing 
 no joking. If you want to get out of here, I can get 
 you out. With good prospects good ones. George 
 Perkins and myself are going to start the first aerial 
 express company in the Middle West. And I want 
 some publicity to get us started right." 
 
 The journalist stared at Egan; suddenly jerked his 
 head forward. " Then I'm with you, Bronson. If 
 you've made up your mind to try yourself out on your 
 own, and you think you need me, I'll come. Whenever 
 you say so. Just let me know eight days ahead, so I 
 can give a week's notice. Then I'm yours." 
 
 Egan was now on the verge of his most difficult con- 
 version. 
 
 " The only thing about it, Uncle Stanley I hardly 
 know how to get at this " 
 
 "Oh!" Adams' cheeks went dull red. "Oh!
 
 EGAN 129 
 
 Don't say a word, Bronson. . . ." He lighted a match 
 to rekindle the cigar; Egan noted that his hands were 
 very unsteady. " That's something I'd really rather 
 not discuss just now if you don't mind. I'll tell 
 you sometime. It'll be all right. Take it for granted, 
 will you? " 
 
 " Very well." Egan, too, was relieved. " Only " 
 
 " I know, boy. Just wait a little I'll tell you. 
 
 It's all right. It's all right." Which, of course, was 
 
 merely the common method of expressing what both of 
 
 them understood that it wasn't. 
 
 It was dusk when Egan reached his boarding-house, 
 formerly his home, and he was tired. In the lower hall- 
 way, he passed Miss McCain, who venerated him with 
 her eyes, and plainly showed that a little brief conver- 
 sation would flatter her; but Egan didn't pause, not 
 even to tell her that he had snared Judge Perkins as 
 another client. He climbed the stairs wearily, and 
 went into his room, closed the door and, as an after- 
 thought, locked it. There was no necessity of this ; no 
 likelihood of interruption; he merely desired to inten- 
 sify his solitude; for the consciousness of his poverty 
 was suddenly heavy upon him, and he was very down- 
 cast and downhearted. He tossed his cap idly on the 
 bed, and sat down. 
 
 The room was obstructed by a dozen trunks and 
 packing-boxes; it was more barn-like than ever. He 
 told himself, idly, that he should have to waste a pre- 
 cious lot of time to overhaul all that luggage, and make 
 the place habitable. He doubted if he cared enough 
 about it to do the work. He doubted if he cared about
 
 130 EGAN 
 
 anything, anyway. So many men of his age, so much 
 less deserving, so much less competent to enjoy good 
 fortune had it. It looked as though life, after all, 
 were a matter of luck. 
 
 He had taken four old friends, including little 
 Johnny Jones, to lunch at the Plainfield House, and 
 the check had amounted to fourteen dollars and seventy 
 cents. He had given the waiter two dollars. It was 
 damnable that a man should have to think of these 
 things. Yet in his present state of finances, he couldn't 
 help thinking about it. He who had spent money like 
 water when he was a college undergraduate, had now 
 a matter of eighteen hundred dollars between himself 
 and the ultimate zero; and he would unquestionably 
 have to spend fifteen out of the eighteen on the pre- 
 liminaries of his venture. Pretty soon, he might ac- 
 tually have to borrow. . . . 
 
 Of course, if all his plans came nicely to fruition, 
 he would be rich again. And they were clever plans, 
 too. His own. But he couldn't possibly spread two 
 hundred and twenty dollars over two months. It was 
 damnable ! 
 
 A white envelope, propped against an ornamental 
 candle-stick on his bureau, attracted his attention, and 
 wearily he edged between two trunks to reach it. The 
 Kents' stationery. Probably a note from Mrs. Kent. 
 To thank him, no doubt, for his preservation of the 
 peace at her house-warming dance. 
 
 *' Dear Bronson : 
 
 " In spite of everything, I'm asking you to come over 
 after dinner tonight, because Martha's going home
 
 EGAN 131 
 
 Saturday, and she likes you. Father gets in from 
 Washington at five. We won't mention last night to 
 anybody. Please don't ever speak of it to mother. 
 I don't believe I'll ever forgive you, but I'm willing to 
 give you one more chance to see if you know how to 
 behave. 
 
 " M." 
 
 Egan read the note twice. He replaced the missive 
 in its envelope, unlocked the door, and stepped around 
 to Little Johnny Jones' room. 
 
 Little Johnny Jones was there, reading the Times* 
 and chuckling over the art column. 
 
 " Sorry," said Egan, " but I can't spend the evening 
 with you after all, old top." 
 
 " Why, don't apologize to me, Bronson. You were 
 the one suggested it." 
 
 " I know ; I had some business to talk over with you. 
 But it's all off. I'm going somewhere else." 
 
 " Going lady-killing? " 
 
 " Going to be lady-killed," said Egan. " I'm going 
 over to call on the Kents. And say! I may have to 
 ask you for a couple of things, Johnny. My trunks 
 are here, and I'm going to put on cits. But I don't 
 know what there is, and " 
 
 " I'll lend you anything you need from a shoe-horn 
 to a scarf-pin, Bronson." 
 
 " Thanks," said Egan. " But I don't think I'll have 
 to ask you for a scarf-pin, Johnny. I've got one.' 1
 
 THE laird of the manor of Kent (one of the 
 oldest and most honourable manors in all the 
 county, for the present laird's father had 
 bought the land quite sixty years ago, when Plainfield 
 had only a fourth-class postoffice) was the type of gen- 
 tleman who, if you had met him for half a dozen min- 
 utes, would have left you confident that he was a citizen 
 of great importance in his own community, and not to 
 be sneezed at elsewhere. This confidence, however, he 
 would have engendered not by what he actually said, or 
 even intimated, but rather by what he withheld. He 
 was a stoutish gentleman of passing fifty, pleasant to 
 look at when his mood was pleasant, and not an adver- 
 sary to be ignored. He smiled much, and talked little, 
 but he had the air of a man accustomed to dictatorship, 
 and few could overlook it. 
 
 If you had hunted up his patronymic in Who's Who, 
 you would have found precisely the kind of biography 
 you would have expected. 
 
 KENT, G(eorge) Willoughby, capitalist; 6. Plain- 
 field, O., Feb. 81, 1865 ; s. Ephraim and Mary G. (Bos- 
 worth) K. ; ed. Plainfield pub. sch. ; A.B. Knox coll., 
 111., 1887, A.M., Wooster U., 1908, LL.D., Knox, 1914 ; 
 m. Estelle Rogers of Plainfield, O., Aug. 5, 1889. En- 
 tered employ Am. Express Co., Plainfield, O., 1888, 
 Plainfield Savings Bank 1890, Plainfield Machine Co. 
 1893. Purchased control of Central Machine Co., 
 
 1895. Organized Kent Manufacturing Co. by consol. 
 
 132
 
 EGAN 
 
 several small corporations 1898, pres. since organiza- 
 tion. Pres. Plainfield Lt. and Power Co. 1899-1917, 
 when sold to municipality. Also pres. Plainfield Gear 
 Co. Dir. Citizens Trust Co. of Plainfield, Plainfield 
 Savings Bank, Plainfield Motor Car Co., County Tele- 
 phone Co., Wood Products Co., Interurban Elec. Rys., 
 Plainfield Hotel Co., Electric Foundry Co., Egan Co., 
 High Speed Steel Co. Trustee Plainfield City Hosp. 
 Governor Plainfield Country Club, Metropolitan Club. 
 County chmn. Am. Red Cross. Comd. Lt. Col. 
 Q.M.O.R.C., July 3, 1917. Col., Q.M.C., U.S.A. May 
 6, 1918. Mem. Am. Chem. Soc., Soc. Automotive 
 Engrs., A.I.E.E., Am. Soc. Mech. E., S.A.R., etc. 
 Republican. Episcopalian. Clubs. Metropolitan, 
 Citizens, Fortnightly, Plainfield Country, all of Plain- 
 field, 0. Home: 1404 Vine St., Plainfield, O. 
 
 The laird of the manor was standing before the living- 
 room fireplace, his feet well apart, his hands clasped 
 behind him, very much after the manner of the English 
 hunting squires whose descendant he was quietly proud 
 to be. He had hurried out of uniform several hours 
 ago, but in his rough cheviot suit, he still looked mili- 
 tary, and commanding, and was perhaps secretly con- 
 scious of it. Mr. Kent was by way of being a kindly 
 autocrat, but in the present moment, he faced a repre- 
 sentative of autocracy such as he himself, lacking the 
 proper ancestry, had never practised. Having known 
 Old Man Egan in his prime, Mr. Kent wasn't wholly 
 overjoyed to come to argument with Old Man Egan's 
 son. He found himself wishing that, under the cir- 
 cumstances, Egan had come in his Lieutenant's uni- 
 form, and he himself had worn the silver eagles of his
 
 134 EGAN 
 
 colonelcy. It would have established their relative au- 
 thority so much the clearer. 
 
 Unable to compete with Egan on purely technical 
 grounds, he sought refuge, at length, in commercial 
 generalities, where he was more at home. 
 
 "But civil aerial transportation?" he repeated. 
 " Well, now, I don't know about that." 
 
 The two girls, who had been equally startled by 
 Egan's declaration of his intentions, also looked as 
 though they didn't know about it. " Oh, what a per- 
 fectly wild idea," said Mary, indulgently. 
 
 Mr. Kent gave her a military nod of approval. 
 
 " When you talk about the airplane as a military 
 necessity, I can't debate with you. But when you talk 
 about it as a peace-tune method of transportation, I'm 
 entitled to an opinion. I've been connected with trans- 
 portation companies for twenty years or more. It may 
 be done; I don't say it won't. It may make money; I 
 dare say it will, sometime. But I don't know that I'd 
 advise any young man to make his first business plunge 
 in such an uncertain field. Of course, I can see the 
 possibilities, Bronson, but my advice is to let it alone. 
 Leave it to somebody with more money to lose, and more 
 experience to cash in on." 
 
 Egan was respectfully on the offensive. " What 
 would you suggest my doing, then? " 
 
 Mr. Kent was now in his favourite status that of 
 a gratuitous counsellor. " Why, if I were in your 
 place, I think I should pick out the general line of 
 business I wanted to grow up in, and then I think I 
 should pick out the best individual concern in that line,
 
 EGAN 135 
 
 and then I think I should take any j ob in it I could get, 
 and let the future work itself out." 
 
 " But maybe you wouldn't hire him, Father," said 
 Mary wickedly. 
 
 " Sh-h ! " Mr. Kent smiled at Martha. " That's a 
 compliment, but it's also knocking our competitors. 
 Maybe Bronson thinks the Henderson outfit has better 
 possibilities. Strictly as a matter of fact, though, I'd 
 hire him in a minute." 
 
 " There ! " Mary motioned toward Egan. " There's 
 your chance, Bronson! Take him up! And then 
 everything's settled." 
 
 " / wouldn't," said Martha quietly. 
 
 There was an odd little pause. " What's the mat- 
 ter, Martha?" asked Kent good-humouredly. "Do 
 you people in Dayton think of bidding for him? " 
 
 She shook her head. " No, but of all times in the 
 world, this is when I'd try new things if I were a 
 man." 
 
 " But it's so silly," protested Mary. " Like well, 
 like perpetual motion. Nobody'd ever want to ride 
 in one of those noisy things, and do you think for a 
 minute anybody'd send anything in one of 'em, if they 
 ever wanted to see it again? Bronson, if you go into 
 that scheme, you're just a plain nut! " 
 
 Egan flinched. " I've got one ally, anyhow 
 haven't I, Miss Henderson ? " 
 
 " I'd do exactly what I want to," she assured him. 
 " There mightn't ever be another chance." 
 
 As Egan smiled his gratitude at her, he intercepted 
 a glance of appraisal from Mary. He wondered if, in
 
 136 EGAN 
 
 Mary's estimation, he was bestowing too much of his 
 interest upon Martha. He deduced, after another rec- 
 onnaissance, that Mary thought he was. To be sure, 
 he had practically committed himself to look neither 
 to the right nor to the left until Mary had put herself 
 out of his reach by marrying some one else; but he 
 was annoyed that she should even notice his interludes 
 with Martha. Mentally, he begged Mary's pardon for 
 thinking of the dog in the manger. It wasn't a nice 
 thing to think about, but it fretted him that she should 
 object to Martha, of all girls in the world. Then he 
 blushed for the scarf-pin he was wearing, and he was 
 glad that it was such a universal article. He realized 
 now that Mary might be piqued, too, that he had sent 
 American Beauties to both girls, instead of to Mary 
 alone. 
 
 " 111 tell you what HI do," said Kent. " Rather 
 than have you put your neck in any noose like that, 
 1*11 find you a place in my office any time you want 
 it." 
 
 Egan was at some pains to restrain his indignation* 
 
 "That's just the point you'd have to find it. 
 That's as much as to say it doesn't exist now, Colonel 
 Kent. I didn't come back here to Plainfield to have 
 any one find a place for me. I want to make one for 
 myself. And I'm going to, too. And I don't want to 
 trade on my father's reputation either. It's good of 
 you to make me that offer, but between you and me, I 
 expect to make more money by myself than you'd want 
 to pay me." 
 
 " How much would he be worth to you, Father? " 
 Mary was badgering.
 
 EGAN 137 
 
 " Oh, probably eighteen or twenty dollars a week to 
 start." 
 
 " Eighteen or twenty ! " Mary was overwhelmed. 
 '* Why, that would hardly pay for his laundry ! " 
 
 Her father beamed at her. " I began on three dol- 
 lars and a half, myself." He didn't go on, and draw 
 the moral, but it was evident to all three of the younger 
 people that Egan had been delicately criticized for 
 Mary's exclamation. As a matter of fact, Egan him- 
 self was staggered by the Colonel's estimate of him. He 
 was belittled. He had expected the Colonel to say 
 fifty or sixty at the very lowest and that was far too 
 low for a man of Egan's social position. 
 
 " But if Bronson only had that, why, he couldn't do 
 anything ! Not a single thing. He couldn't belong to 
 the Country Club, or the Metropolitan, or have clothes 
 or ... or anything. Is that the best he could get 
 anywhere? Or do you scrimp more than other manu- 
 facturers do? " 
 
 " It's good pay for a young man with no business 
 experience at all, Mary. And, ordinarily, I'd pay fif- 
 teen. Every year we take a few college graduates 
 and that's where Bronson stands now and we've al- 
 ways paid 'em fifteen to start. Then they're expected 
 to show us what they can do, and they're paid accord- 
 ingly. But I know Bronson. In ten years, if he 
 worked hard and kept his eyes in the boat, he'd be get- 
 ting up towards the head office, and drawing real 
 money." 
 
 Mary was thoughtful. " Well, then I guess you'd 
 better take it, Bronson. It certainly isn't much, but, 
 after all, it's a lot better being with a big company
 
 138 EGAN 
 
 like ours than going off on a crazy airplane scheme. 
 And if that's where all the other young men begin, 
 why " 
 
 Martha was again pleasantly opposed. " Don't you 
 let them manage you, Lieutenant Egan," she said. 
 " You stick to your principles." 
 
 " I'm going to," he promised, conscious once more 
 that he had awakened at least a spark of belligerence 
 in Mary. " And I hate to say so, Colonel Kent, but 
 I'm not awfully tempted, anyway. Why, with my al- 
 lowances and all, I got over twenty-^ve hundred in the 
 Army, and everybody knows the Army pays officers less 
 than they'd earn anywhere else." 
 
 " Any time you change your mind, come and see me," 
 said Kent heartily, and as he excused himself, he was 
 glad that the argument hadn't become acute. He was 
 afraid that he should have lost his temper. An Egan 
 in full course was more of a matador than a steam- 
 roller, and the Colonel loathed to be baited by a younger 
 man. 
 
 For the balance of the evening, when the young peo- 
 ple were alone, Egan took a philosophical pleasure in 
 fanning the spark he had aroused in Mary. Not that 
 he flirted with Martha far from it. But he liked 
 her, and he wasn't unwilling to have Mary perceive it. 
 Furthermore, he was a trifle dissatisfied with Mary's at- 
 titude toward his ambitions. She seemed to him to be 
 remarkably intolerant. And her casual assumption 
 that he would accept her father's offer an offer 
 which was charitable on the face of it irked him. In- 
 deed, she had phrased her judgment in the words of a 
 command. As though she owned him! And she was
 
 EGAN 139 
 
 piqued not only because he had rebelled, but also be- 
 cause he had collaborated with Martha in the rebellion. 
 Eighteen or twenty dollars a week! There wouldn't 
 be many American Beauties for Mary out of a salary 
 like that ! He couldn't remember when he had been so 
 humiliated. 
 
 Martha was first to withdraw from the trio. When 
 she had gone, Mary was punctual with upbraiding. 
 
 " Bronson Egan," she said, " I don't know what to 
 think of you ! Here I've been just as nice to you as I 
 could be, and forgiven you for being so horrid last night, 
 and everything, and then you go rushing Martha right 
 in front of my eyes ! . . . Oh, she's the sweetest girl in 
 the world, and all that but if you're in love with her 
 already, after what you said to me " 
 
 "Wait. . . . Have you forgiven me?" 
 
 She dropped her eyes. 
 
 " Well, I'll admit you don't deserve it." 
 
 " Perhaps I don't. But have you ? " 
 
 " Well, I might have if you hadn't behaved like a 
 regular Lothario tonight." 
 
 In spite of himself, Egan felt a joyous thrill' of ac- 
 complishment. 
 
 " I'd hardly go as far as to say that." 
 
 " Well, you act like it. And the way you looked at 
 her. ... Of course, it's perfectly immaterial to me, but 
 if you wanted me to believe you meant what you said. 
 . . . The only thing is that I'd really like to know just 
 what you're thinking, Bronson. I'm engaged ; / 
 haven't any right to criticize you, only after what you 
 said, you know " 
 
 He told himself raptly that at least she wasn't in-
 
 140 EGAN 
 
 different to him. It was something to be scolded like 
 this. 
 
 " I'll stand by what I've said, Mary. Can't I even 
 look at your friends without your jumping at conclu- 
 sions ? " 
 
 " It wasn't only that. You agreed with everything 
 she said and you acted as though / didn't have any 
 brains at all. Of course, it's none of my affair, only, 
 if you're going to pretend you care enough for me to 
 wait until . . . well, to wait . . . and at the same time 
 let me see you losing your head over some other girl 
 why, that's different. I guess it's lucky for your peace 
 of mind that she's going home tomorrow afternoon, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 " Is she really going then ? " 
 
 "There! Didn't I tell you I" 
 
 " But, Mary ! that was only a simple question. 
 I" 
 
 " It was simple enough." 
 
 " Please, dear " 
 
 She tried to be severe, and failed. 
 
 " Well " At his first movement, she shrank back. 
 " Oh, I haven't quite forgiven you yet, but " 
 
 "But almost?" 
 
 " Well almost." 
 
 Egan sighed. 
 
 " Did I seem to you to lose my head, Mary? " 
 
 " You well, no. Only you looked as though you 
 might." 
 
 " I'll take care of that, all right," said Egan con- 
 fidently. 
 
 Nevertheless there was a moment, just at that June-
 
 EGAN 141 
 
 ture, when he was honestly puzzled. He certainly 
 hadn't lost his head, but while Mary had been displeas- 
 ing him, Martha had more than preserved the average 
 of his content. It came over him, involuntarily, even 
 while he was busy making peace, that perhaps he had 
 been unfair to himself when he covenanted to be a 
 second-string, or substitute, suitor to Mary Kent. Not 
 that he had changed his mind about her not at all 
 but the arrangement had proved to be, in practice, just 
 a little bit one sided. 
 
 As he was saying good night to her, her father re- 
 appeared. 
 
 " Just a minute before you go, Bronson." 
 
 " Certainly, sir." 
 
 Accordingly, the two men were later together in the 
 library. Kent began without preface. 
 
 " I've been running over your air proposition, Bron- 
 son. Your figures are splendid, only I don't believe 
 you can raise capital enough, and I don't believe you're 
 the man to run it. You're too young. Somebody'll do 
 it, and make a big thing out of it, but you're not the 
 man. You lack commercial training. You'd better 
 come with us. I'd like to have you partly for your 
 father's sake, but mostly for your own. And I don't 
 want you to start out in life with a failure. That's 
 what it'll come to, if you go on with this idea you 
 mark my words. And I believe, with us, you'll grow 
 up to be a valuable man. So I'm willing to stretch the 
 point a little. You'll learn quickly I'll give you 
 twenty-five dollars a week to start." 
 
 " It's hard to refuse anything that comes from you, 
 Colonel, but I'll have to."
 
 142 EGAN 
 
 " Why, Bronson, isn't that enough for you? " 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 " Really think you're worth more, do you? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. I know it." 
 
 "Well how much?" 
 
 " Two or three times, at least." 
 
 "Why, Bronson! Is that final? Is that what you 
 really think? " 
 
 " Yes, ColoneL Frankly, I'd as soon work for you 
 as anybody, if I intended to work for anybody. But 
 I don't. And I need a lot more money than that. As 
 Martha said, this may be my only chance to be inde- 
 pendent. I want to go on with it." 
 
 Mr. Kent spread his hands. " All right. I'm sorry. 
 HowTl you raise your capital? " 
 
 " For the present, that's a secret." 
 
 " Oh ! Well that's all I wanted to say." 
 
 Egan hesitated. 
 
 "While Fm here, Colonel, would you mind telling 
 me what you know about my father's note transaction 
 at your bank? And why you think our company went 
 to pieces so fast afterward? " 
 
 The Colonel shook his head. "I haven't any idea. 
 Fve been in service, and I didn't even hear about that 
 note until the auction was over. If I had, I could have 
 saved you people. And Eddie did his best for the com- 
 pany afterwards he let Garrity manage it. It was 
 hard that his duty as city attorney made him lose his 
 own money, and his clients', too, when the city had to 
 cancel the lease. Incidentally, I didn't have anything 
 to do personally with getting your land that is, not 
 until it was put on the market. My own manager wired
 
 EGAN 143 
 
 me I was in Washington that it was available, and 
 we could have it. Some one was bound to get it, of 
 course, and I couldn't see why I should stay out simply 
 because of my old relationship with your father. Of 
 course, I was a director in your company, just as your 
 father was in mine. Each of us held one share of stock, 
 that's all. Neither of us ever interfered with the 
 other's business. I hadn't attended one of your meet- 
 ings for a year and a half. So I don't know exactly 
 what did happen, but I do know that Ed Macklin is a 
 pretty good loser." 
 
 " I wondered if Henderson could have started any- 
 thing. Helped along the strike, for instance. ... I 
 understand a lot of our workmen left to go to his plant, 
 and he was interested in our contracts and our ma- 
 chinery and everything. I beg your pardon if I " 
 
 " That's all right. He's no friend of mine, Bronson, 
 any more than he was of your father's. Martha simply 
 happens to be a friend of Mary's. Why I wouldn't 
 put it above him. That doesn't prevent Martha from 
 being pretty nice, though, does it? " 
 
 In the hallway, at the foot of the stairs, Egan encoun- 
 tered Mary. She had been crying, and she looked like 
 a lovely, heart-broken child. 
 
 " Why, Mary dear ! " he said, and his arms went out 
 to her. 
 
 She motioned him away. " I heard you. I heard 
 you. Every word." 
 
 " You listened? " he asked, incredulous. 
 
 " Yes, I did. Why shouldn't I? I had a right to 
 listen. I thought you were going to do what I want
 
 144 EGAN 
 
 you to and tell Father you'd go with him. And you 
 : you just made the horridest suspicions you could 
 a^out about Eddie, and Martha's father. I'm going 
 to tell them. Both of them. Go away! Go away! 
 Don't touch me ! I don't want to see you again as long 
 as I live." 
 
 Egan's education had failed to include the lessons of 
 some wise woman. His arrogance failed him at the 
 wrong time. He obeyed. He thought she really wished 
 him to. He didn't touch her, and miserably he went 
 away.
 
 XI 
 
 YEARS afterward, when his closest friend asked 
 him how he had been able to bear up so well 
 under the double shock the loss of his future 
 and the loss of his fiancee, in a single day Egan was 
 slow about the answer. " Well," he said finally, " it 
 was like this ; I must have been too mad to have any 
 time to be morbid." 
 
 And, indeed, he wasted few of his hours in valueless 
 regrets. He had a remarkable vitality, which refused 
 to let him be idle, unrebuked. His body, as well as his 
 mind, craved action. And, in addition, he had suffered 
 a violent concussion of his pride. Unable to endure 
 the stigma of being without money, without prestige, 
 he adopted, not the complaining course of a weakling, 
 but the strenuous career of a man whose only weaknesses 
 lay in his strength. 
 
 Notwithstanding the necessity of getting rich quick, 
 he clung pertinaciously to his social requirements, as he 
 saw them. In the earlier days, he had accepted his 
 lordship as a pleasant fact, not subject to analysis; 
 but when he perceived the value of analysis, he made it, 
 and made it correctly. 
 
 " A man might as well look himself in the face," he 
 said to Johnny Jones. " I've got to be doing some- 
 thing all the time, or I haven't got any pep." 
 
 Johnny assented. " Considering that there's hardly 
 one of our crowd you haven't put it over on, one way 
 or another " 
 
 145
 
 146 EGAN 
 
 " Just so. Any time I slip, good night ! " 
 
 " Like the leader of a wolf-pack," said Johnny. 
 
 " Precisely. That's why I'm so anxious to get some 
 of these schemes moving." 
 
 " You're fixed all right for money, aren't you ? " 
 
 Egan winced. He hated to be reminded of his status, 
 which, incidentally, he had carefully concealed from 
 the world. He wasn't soured by misfortune, but he 
 fretted actively over it. A dozen times a day he was 
 humiliated by the thought that it might be wise to quell 
 his inclinations, and begin to practise economy. Three 
 or four times out of each dozen emergencies, he revolted, 
 and let the inclinations govern him. So had it been 
 today, when he had paid his dues to the Metropolitan 
 Club. The reserve fund to be applied to aeronautics 
 was little enough, anyway. 
 
 " Oh, not so worse." 
 
 " You're an awful expense to yourself, though, hon- 
 estly. Of course, I suppose you've still got consider- 
 able of a wad left, but just the same, I could live on 
 a third of what you throw away." 
 
 " Pretty soon you won't have to, Johnny. Not when 
 we get the insurance game running." Egan's manner 
 implied that money was the least of his own worries, and 
 not a subject for discussion. 
 
 Johnny looked sidelong. He was devoted to Egan, 
 but he knew in his heart that the insurance game 
 wouldn't run. It might stumble forward once or twice, 
 but it would never acquire a real stride. He was 
 afraid to betray this conviction to Egan, because Egan 
 was so dogmatic. Johnny would rather let his friend 
 be converted by some one else, than to quarrel with him.
 
 EGAN 
 i 
 
 " Making any progress with the express business ? " 
 
 " First class. I don't see what more I could have 
 done in a week. I've been out in a motor looking at 
 land " 
 
 " Hired a car, I'll bet ! " 
 
 " Yes certainly. How else could I do it? " 
 
 " Wait 'til Saturday afternoon or Sunday and let 
 one of the gang drive you 'round for fun." 
 
 " Had too many dates for the week-end. . . . Well, 
 I've looked at land, and got some idea of costs, and 
 doped out a prospectus." 
 
 "To be printed?" 
 
 " Oh, no. Just so as to have it all down in black- 
 and-white." 
 
 " Who's going to be your salesman ? " 
 
 " Why, I am myself." 
 
 Johnny wasn't over-enthusiastic. " Think that's a 
 good idea? Personally, I never could see where there 
 was much percentage in a promoter's going out and 
 selling his own proposition. It's so much better to hire 
 a crackajack solicitor, somebody who talks the lan- 
 guage, and pay him enough commission to make it worth 
 his while to hustle. When you go out with it yourself, 
 you lay yourself wide open." 
 
 Egan gave him a hoot of scorn. " D'you think I'd 
 pay anybody a commission for anything as easy as sell- 
 ing stock in a concern like this? When it'U practically 
 sell itself? Well, hardly. I can use that commission 
 just as well as a solicitor can." 
 
 Again, Johnny avoided the issue. " Got any bites 
 yet?" 
 
 " I haven't put on any bait yet. But when I spoke
 
 148 EGAN 
 
 of it at dinner the otner night, both Wilson and Penny- 
 packer got interested right away, and Pennypacker 
 came up here afterwards to ask a lot more ques- 
 tions. . . ." Egan chuckled. " I made him help me 
 move trunks." 
 
 " Well, has he got any money ? " 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder. He said something about 
 liquidating some securities he owns. And strictly be- 
 tween you and me, he's just the kind of man we want 
 as stockholders. He doesn't know the first blamed 
 thing about aviation. He'd have to let us alone." 
 
 " Don't fool yourself about that ! He wouldn't, 
 whether he had to or not. Any idea what he'd put up, 
 if he put up anything? " 
 
 " Oh, when you come right down to it," said Egan, 
 superciliously, " I don't suppose he has much. Five or 
 ten thousand'd be his limit. Still, that's a start." 
 
 " I hate to hear you talk so careless about money. 
 Five or ten thousand's a lot." 
 
 Egan only laughed. " To change the subject, how 
 do you like the room, now I've got it fixed up? " 
 
 " Pretty good." 
 
 " I think it's a corker." Egan inspected it with 
 much pleasure. 
 
 " Too much junk to take care of, isn't it? " 
 
 " I don't have to do it." 
 
 It was perhaps a blessing that he didn't, for the 
 room would have given a conscientious housekeeper the 
 blind staggers. It was a kaleidoscopic review of the 
 past, dating from 1907, when Egan had sat in his first 
 group photograph of a high-school football team, to 
 the week before last. The wall-paper was visible only
 
 EGAN 149 
 
 in an occasional narrow streak between two pictures. 
 Trophies from college and from France disputed for 
 shelf-room. All Egan's prize cups were in evidence; 
 a winning oar was there, too ; and at least a hundred 
 pounds of correspondence, in cardboard transfer-cases 
 already bursting with boredom. 
 
 " You've certainly made it easy for your biog- 
 rapher," said Johnny, thoughtfully. . " But I notice 
 you haven't brought it up to date yet." 
 
 "How's that?" 
 
 " I'm looking for a model airplane, or something. 
 Something that might remind you of next year instead 
 of last year when you get up and walk " 
 
 " Oh, you go to thunder ! " said Egan, scaling a pil- 
 low at him. " What have you been doing reading 
 the American Magazine? Or studying Professor Tur- 
 gid Bean's book on how to judge somebody's character 
 by the way he eats soup? " 
 
 " Go on and laugh. . . . Only I knows what I 
 knows." 
 
 " Go ahead and tell it. It ought not to take long." 
 
 "All right, I'll tell what we both know. It won't 
 take any longer. . . . Haven't you got any further 
 than Lesson Two? " 
 
 "What?" Egan began to flush. "What's that 
 you're talking about ? " 
 
 " Lesson Two. ' Learn to be a Business Executive. 
 In your own home. Half an hour a day, unless addled 
 sooner.' Over there on your desk." 
 
 Egan made as though to rise, and sank back again, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Oh, that. Business Management. Oh, of course
 
 150 EGAN 
 
 it's all bunk. I'm only reading it for amusement. I 
 thought I'd put those books out of sight." 
 
 " I know you did," said Johnny gravely. " I al- 
 ways keep mine on the table . . ." 
 
 During the week, Egan had called twice on the Kents, 
 but on both occasions Mary had been out. He was 
 distressed by the new strain in their relationship, but 
 he had too much faith in the power of the calendar to 
 consider the present impasse as permanent. Besides, 
 his daily association with Judge Perkins was calming to 
 his nerves. 
 
 He also took much pleasure from the company of 
 Adams. Adams, sitting shoeless in his room at twi- 
 light, was capable of almost as many visions as Egan. 
 With his feet resting on the window-sill, and a good 
 cigar giving off its aroma to his nostrils, Adams occu- 
 pied himself, as long as Egan would listen to him, with 
 disconnected accounts of the vast fortunes made in New 
 York by men no older than Egan. 
 
 " Yes," said Adams. " About all you need is fore- 
 sight and capital. There was a chap just about your 
 age. There was an old hulk down on the Jersey shore. 
 Wrecked. The owners had taken her machinery out 
 of her and left her there. This chap figured she could 
 be salvaged, and have sails bent on her, and do for a 
 freighter. This was in 1914. So he borrowed $60,000, 
 and got her off the sand, and fitted her up, and sold her 
 the war had started then for $175,000 cash. Now 
 he's in the shipping business, making a million a year." 
 
 " And all he had was foresight 1 " 
 
 Adams gently brushed the ash from his cigar. " Yes,
 
 EGAN 151 
 
 and capital or rather credit, but it amounts to the 
 same thing . . . and I suppose he knew something 
 about ships, too." 
 
 " Oh, yes of course." 
 
 " Then there was a nice young fellow who was in 
 England just after the war started. Out of a job, too, 
 I guess. And as soon as they began to talk about a 
 long war, he saw an opening, and dashed for it. He got 
 turned down in England, and then he dashed over to 
 France. And the result of it was that he got a com- 
 mission of about two cents a gallon on at least half 
 the gasolene that went over there. I don't dare to 
 guess how much he made. And that's the same story 
 over again." 
 
 "Foresight! Just where we've got 'em! And I've 
 got a little capital." 
 
 " To be sure ; to be sure. He saw the big chance, 
 and took it. Didn't even have any capital. But he'd 
 worked ten years for the Standard Oil Company, and 
 he knew the business." 
 
 " I've always felt that I could make money if I had 
 to," said Egan, hushed. " It's nothing but a question 
 of the right idea " 
 
 " And the right people to run it," said Adams, unob- 
 trusively. 
 
 " And a little money in the bank." He breathed reg- 
 ularly. " We'll all be rich some day, Uncle Stanley." 
 
 " Ever decide for yourself just what that means? " 
 
 " Y-e-e-s, in a way ... I don't think I'd ever want 
 any more than my father had. Enough to be comfort- 
 able on." 
 
 " You would be, Bronson."
 
 152 EGAN 
 
 Egan looked at him suspiciously. " You're still sure 
 of the Transport Company, aren't you? You haven't 
 got cold feet, have you ? Don't you think we three 
 or four, counting in Johnny don't you still think 
 we're going to make a lot out of it, Uncle Stanley ? " 
 
 Adams put down his feet, and gazed at the ash of his 
 cigar. " Yes, Bronson. If I didn't, I wouldn't be so 
 willing to quit my job on the Times and come with you, 
 would I? I think we're going to get a lot out of it, 
 Bronson a lot."
 
 XII 
 
 MR. EDWARD MACKLIN was no cloying 
 sentimentalist with cereal for brains and a 
 smirk for every pretty passer-by; on the 
 contrary, he was a cool, alert, well-poised young attor- 
 ney who in his time had been a rattling good plunging 
 halfback, and still looked it. He could ride and shoot 
 and sail and swim with the best of his sex, and some- 
 times did, but at other moments, he was extremely fond 
 of the society of girls, and not ashamed of it. It was 
 his boast, however, that in politics of all kinds, he knew 
 what he was doing, every minute. And he knew, a 
 minute beforehand, what he was going to do next. 
 
 Among men, he had rather a reputation as a cryptic 
 (as far as any politician could afford to be) but it 
 would have been a very difficult matter for any girl of 
 social experience a girl like Martha Henderson, for 
 example to misunderstand him. Heredity and en- 
 vironment, delicately balanced, had given him a dis- 
 tinctive set of traits, and a distinctive method of exer- 
 cising them ; men were baffled by them, women were flat- 
 tered. A most accomplished squire of dames, he had 
 never permitted any girl to imagine, even remotely, that 
 her future depended on him, until, after a long cam- 
 paign of research, he had carefully and logically se- 
 lected the one who best would complement his career. 
 
 Miss Millicent McCain, however, was lacking in 'ex- 
 perience. To be sure, her striking ash-blondness and 
 
 her big, expressive eyes had already got her several 
 
 153
 
 154 EGAN 
 
 desperate proposals from impecunious young gentlemen 
 hardly within the draft age, but she wasn't plastic 
 enough to have acquired maturity out of these inci- 
 dents. She was the sort of girl who could live indefi- 
 nitely without absorbing sufficient j oy, or sufficient sor- 
 row, to be mature; the sort of girl whose children, if 
 she ever had any, were predestined to become her guard- 
 ians before they were out of their teens. 
 
 She was just now approaching the age at which 
 every girl, no matter how innocent, no matter how 
 womanly, regards every detached young man, perhaps 
 without crystallizing the idea into conscious thought, 
 as a more or less eligible candidate for the serious part- 
 nership of life. But Millicent, on the threshold of that 
 age, was also on the point of crystallizing that thought. 
 
 Naturally, then, she had misjudged Bronson Egan, 
 and put him down in the list of cold-blooded aristo- 
 crats. Her first interview with him had excited her 
 acutely, and after it she had thought that he was al- 
 most grand enough to be the hero of a novel ; but sub- 
 sequently, as she slowly gathered that he had no more 
 sentimental interest in her than in a newel-post, she 
 was both shocked and insulted. The armour of the 
 hero had misled her into thinking a hero inside. She 
 had fancied that he would straightway buy back from 
 her mother that worthless Egan stock not as an act 
 of impulsive, short-sighted altruism, but in swift reac- 
 tion to the charms of Millicent. She had so dreamed, 
 and so built. Then, when she learned that he had no 
 intention of reviving the dramatic part of King Co- 
 phetua, she lost a large fraction of her admiration for 
 him ; and she lost most of the rest of it when it appeared
 
 EGAN 155 
 
 that he was poor in pocket, and critical of his break- 
 fast. It was enough to irritate the best of daughters ! 
 Thereafter, she followed the normal procedure nor- 
 mal for a girl of her tendencies of arguing that all 
 his outward qualities were as deceiving as his sentiments. 
 He ceased to be a courtier in her eyes. He ceased al- 
 most to be a gentleman. He was a polished villain ; and 
 as she devoured apples and Robert W. Chambers in the 
 solitude of her own room, she could almost see him 
 stalking cold-bloodedly through the pages of her book 
 until he died, in the ante-penultimate chapter, a con- 
 science-tortured suicide. By that time, Millicent her- 
 self would presumably have married the Christy illus- 
 tration in the frontispiece, and lived happily ever 
 after. 
 
 Nothing galled her so much, now that her antagonism 
 towards him was feeding fat, as the necessity of caring 
 for his room. She was still outraged by the necessity 
 of helping out Georgina, and caring for any man's room 
 at .all, but some of the other quarters were moderately 
 endurable, and some of them even had their points of 
 attraction. Stanley Adams' apartment, for example, 
 was beautifully ascetic ; she felt no more personality in 
 it than in a hospital cell. Judge Perkins' room was 
 soothingly dry with law and tobacco smoke. Johnny 
 Jones' room was as laughable as a vaudeville perform- 
 ance, except when he had put cigarette ashes in the 
 washbowl. Mr. Ganzenberry's had lovely pictures in it. 
 
 But Egan's room had the power of affecting her with 
 mysterious qualms. She hated to enter the door; but 
 once inside she hated to go out again. It was a semi- 
 morbid hypnosis beyond her comprehension. She knew
 
 156 EGAN 
 
 only that to touch the pillow his head had rested upon 
 filled her with abhorrence; and yet with a certain fugi- 
 tive pleasure in the abhorrence itself. His personal be- 
 longings were as mesmeric as snakes ; potent to arouse 
 curiosity; potent to arouse the wish to destroy, as 
 though the destruction of them meant personal injury 
 to himself. His clothing made her turn pale with in- 
 determination ; she used to stand sometimes, wondering 
 vaguely and half-hysterically what she could do to vent 
 her fury upon these immaculate garments of his, which 
 seemed to be alive with his own person. Alive, but 
 without emotion. So diabolically characteristic of the 
 man himself. Especially his uniform, now hanging 
 neatly in the closet, aroused her passion. He had 
 looked so brave, so soldierly in it when she had come 
 upon him that first morning. If she had dared, she 
 would have carried that treacherous uniform out by the 
 tips of her fingers and burned it. She prayed with- 
 out a spark of humour for moths to ruin it. Once 
 she kissed it, over the heart ; and that was the day she 
 wondered if it would pay to run away and be an actress. 
 
 And as Egan gradually took upon himself, more and 
 more distinctly, the role of villain in the novel she was 
 mentally constructing out of her own life, the obvious 
 mechanics of the situation compelled her, since there 
 was no Christy illustration among her lesser acquaint- 
 ances, to cast Macklin for the hero. 
 
 Macklin was good-looking. He was prominent in 
 politics, and aiming higher, and he was said to have 
 good aim. As her mother's lawyer, he had been al- 
 ways kind and casually attentive to Millicent. He had 
 almost wept when the Egan disaster ruined the McCain
 
 EGAN 157 
 
 fortunes, and he had told Mrs. McCain that they were 
 fellow-sufferers. He had made a community of feeling 
 out of it. He had sympathized with them to the ex- 
 tent of offering Millicent a clerkship in his office; but 
 Mrs. McCain couldn't spare her. He had persuaded 
 the City Hospital to rent them the Egan house at a 
 remarkably low figure, and he had sent them three 
 boarders. It was degrading to take boarders, and the 
 three he had sent were all rather eccentric, but if one 
 had to take them, it was well to have a friend to serve as 
 reference, and provider. If Macklin had got control 
 of the Egan Company sooner, its downfall might ac- 
 tually have been averted by his efforts. Like son, like 
 father. Perhaps Old Man Egan had been a villain, 
 too. 
 
 And Macklin wasn't nearly so recessive, so formal, as 
 Egan. He shook hands differently, lingering over the 
 courtesy as did the patrician suitor on page 124. He 
 had twice patted her shoulder at farewell. How could 
 she know that this was merely a reaction from the 
 chronic aloofness of his evangelistic mother, and the 
 touch-me-not acidity of his sister? He was no senti- 
 mentalist, but he had never known affection in his own 
 refrigerated home ; so that he bestowed it charitably 
 upon horses and dogs and girls like Millicent. 
 
 She didn't know of his predilection for Mary Kent. 
 That engagement had never been announced, and gossip 
 rarely drifted from the upper levels of Plainfield society 
 down to Millicent. She never dreamed how Macklin 
 still sensed that the quickening of the pulses under the 
 influence of a pretty face doesn't by any means guaran- 
 tee a cheerful companionship for ever, or any tangible
 
 158 EGAN 
 
 assistance to a sprouting career. She didn't suspect 
 that Macklin, calculating even in his loneliness, refused 
 to fall or stumble into love, because he felt that it would 
 be just as easy to fall or stumble out of. She took it 
 for granted that he would marry from instinct, which 
 isn't at all the same as marrying from choice. And on 
 this assumption, why shouldn't he marry Millicent? It 
 would be such a stunning blow to Egan. 
 
 Yes, Macklin was a success. In popular estimation, 
 he was going up, while Egan was going down. 
 
 She was reading a comic paper one day, and ran 
 across a superannuated story which was new to her. A 
 gentleman in a restaurant had ordered soft-shelled 
 crabs ; when they were brought to him, they were minus 
 the claws. The waiter, replying to a vigorous protest, 
 explained that a score of live crabs, left unguarded, 
 had engaged in a battle royal, and that some of them 
 had consequently been disarmed. 
 
 " Then take them back," said the guest promptly, 
 " and bring me a couple of the winners." 
 
 Long after she had forgotten the style of the story, 
 she was influenced by its lesson. A moral is a moral, 
 whether contained in a farce comedy or not. Only the 
 future ages can decide whether Billy Sunday's humour 
 has been more effective than the gravity of Dr. Tal- 
 mage. 
 
 Eddie Macklin, striding buoyantly into the gilt and 
 fragile drawing-room of the old Egan mansion, found 
 it tenanted only by Miss McCain, who had dropped on 
 her lap a volume by her third favourite author, and 
 was wondering blissfully how it would seem to have
 
 EGAN 159 
 
 Maurice Hewlett write about her. Macklin smiled, and 
 coughed lightly, and Millicent started. 
 
 " Oh ! " she said. "I I I didn't know you were 
 there ! " 
 
 " Well, I am," said Macklin. 
 
 She gave him her hand as aristocratically as she 
 could manage, and surveyed him from under her telling 
 lashes. Macklin had a thrill; not the kind of thrill 
 which threatens employment to the caterer and en- 
 graver indeed, Mary Kent herself had never given 
 him that; it was solely in recognition of the facts. 
 She was as fascinating as a young kitten, with equal 
 grace and superior deportment, just as warmly alive 
 and no more dangerous. 
 
 " Won't you sit down ? " 
 
 " In a minute." He was still smiling down at her. 
 
 Millicent caught her breath. She misunderstood the 
 light in his eyes. The book sprawled to the floor as 
 Millicent stood tremulously upright, almost^ defensive. 
 
 " What's the excitement about ? " asked Macklin, and 
 because she was very near to him, and to his way of 
 thinking as safe as his angular sister and vastly more 
 appealing, he slipped his arm around her, in strict neu- 
 trality of emotion. Instantaneously, Millicent went 
 stone-rigid; and instantaneously, he was aware of his 
 egregious error. Some one had taken him seriously, 
 and when he least expected it. Before he knew what 
 was happening, she had crumpled against him, and 
 buried her face against his coat. 
 
 Macklin was paralysed. No one, not even Mary 
 Kent, had ever before cried on his shoulder, as Millicent 
 was doing now. Intuitively, although without guilt, he
 
 160 EGAN 
 
 knew what it meant; just as he had known intuitively, 
 years ago, when he had had his ears boxed for the first 
 time by a girl, that the tingle carried full forgiveness 
 with it. Those are the only two known instances in 
 which a woman isn't subtle. 
 
 " Oh, Eddie ! " she said, in a funny, muffled, broken 
 little voice. "Oh Eddie ! " 
 
 He continued to hold her, because he didn't know 
 what else to do. His numbed faculties took the form 
 of a reflective narration to himself in the present tense, 
 as though he were describing to himself what a predica- 
 ment he was in, what a compromise. She clung to him 
 more tightly, and his throat was dusty and his eyes were 
 hot and strained. If any one should come in! The 
 existing moment, even while he was so exquisitely con- 
 scious of its peril, seemed not to exist, but to be a recol- 
 lection of some distant horror, long since in the past. 
 
 " I really don't see what I can do about changing 
 your room, Mr. Ganzenberry. I " Mrs. McMCain 
 pushed open the portieres, and Mrs. McCain, not being 
 as careful of her utterances as people surprised are 
 often supposed to be, cried out sharply and f renziedly : 
 " MiUicent! " 
 
 In the doorway, the little artist was standing with 
 hands upraised, in ministerial amazement. Mrs. Mc- 
 Cain motioned furiously to him. " Go back ! " she 
 said. " Go back. Out of the house. Anywhere . . ." 
 Very, very reluctantly, Mr. Ganzenberry went back. 
 Bfe had seen a picture that he wouldn't forget. It gave 
 him a beautiful idea for a cover-design that he might 
 conceivably sell to a magazine. Startled lovers, with 
 Mother at the door.
 
 EGAN 161 
 
 Millicent, forest-wild, had fled headlong. Macklin, 
 nervous to his finger tips, was standing by the window, 
 in a very black and chilly mood. Mrs. McCain, thor- 
 oughly aroused for once in her pale blue life, faced him. 
 Her chin was very mobile, and she was breathing un- 
 pleasantly through her nose. Her whole body vibrated 
 with wrath. Her white collar, ordinarily impeccable, 
 was all awry, and Macklin couldn't keep his eyes from 
 it, couldn't keep it from coming irrelevantly into his 
 thoughts. He wished it could somehow get straight- 
 ened. 
 
 " And you have the gall the unmitigated gall," she 
 said, in a penetratingly low voice, " to stand there and 
 tell me me it was just in fun! Fun!" She was 
 moving towards him, and Macklin was steadily, unwill- 
 ingly, backing away. " What do you mean by it? 
 How can you dare to stand there and tell me me a 
 thing like that ! Lay your hands on my daughter, and 
 say it's nothing ! In my own house ! In a public room ! 
 Do you think for one minute I'm fool enough to believe 
 my daughter lets every Tom, Dick and Harry that 
 comes along make love to her in her own house? I 
 want you to answer me " 
 
 " I'm trying to," said Macklin, sullenly. He had 
 attempted honey, and injured innocence, without re- 
 sult. " If you'd be calm and " 
 
 " Yes * be calm ! ' You'd be calm yourself, 
 wouldn't you? That's a man for you ! Be calm ! An- 
 swer me ! " She stamped her foot heavily. " Answer 
 me!" 
 
 Macklin put out his hand. 
 
 " Well, if you don't believe what I tell you "
 
 162 EGAN 
 
 " Believe what you tell me when I saw you with my 
 own eyes? I know better. What's fun for you may 
 not be quite so funny for me, young man." 
 
 Macklin found himself cornered. " I've told you 
 over and over again. I'm sorry. I'll apologize until 
 I'm black in the face, but that won't change the facts. 
 She took it the wrong way. So do you. There wasn't 
 any harm in it " 
 
 " Ohi Wasn't there? How do you know? I'm the 
 one to decide that, young man. So it's just that! 
 * No harm in it 1 ' * Yoo, didn't mean anything at 
 all ! ' ; Her breathing became more pronounced. 
 " Well, just you wait while I bring Millicent down here 
 and let's have you tell her that. Let's find out what she 
 thinks you meant. Let's see how funny it is to her. 
 You wait ! " 
 
 " No. Don't do that." Macklin had sidled out of 
 his corner, and arrested her just in time. " I tell you 
 that's all there is to it. Damn it " 
 
 " Don't you dare to swear in my house ! I won't 
 stand it ! As though it isn't enough " 
 
 " I tell you, it's ridiculous. It's impossible. You 
 don't understand. You " 
 
 " Oh ridiculous, is it ? " She shuddered, and 
 Macklin drew back. 
 
 " Yes," he said stoutly, " ridiculous. For one thing, 
 because it was all in fun, as I've said over and over 
 again ; and for another " He determined, hurriedly, 
 upon the only alibi that would probably end any of her 
 ideas that she could coerce him into a declaration. 
 " because I'm engaged. You'll simply have to be- 
 lieve me, Mrs. McCain. I'm not as bad as you'd make
 
 EGAN 163 
 
 me out to be. It was just a moment. I'm sorry. 
 If I'd the faintest idea in the world she'd take it '* 
 
 " So you're engaged? " she asked, her voice suddenly 
 falling. " Engaged ! Engaged to be married to 
 some other girl. And then you come " She laughed 
 scornfully in his face. " Did you think I owe you so 
 much you could do as you like around here? With 
 Milly? " 
 
 " You owe me a good deal," said Macklin. " I 
 shouldn't have mentioned it if you hadn't." 
 
 She was silent for a moment, her mouth working. 
 Then she flung out her hand towards the door. 
 
 "You leave the house," she said. "I'll tell Milly 
 myself. You're not fit to. If you ever dare speak to 
 her again I ... I'll . . . Get out of here, you . . . 
 you swindler ! Yes, that's what I said ! You've swin- 
 dled Milly out of ... I can't bear the sight of you. 
 I can't bear to look at you. Get out ! And don't you 
 ever show your nose around here again." 
 
 Macklin, white and apprehensive, went a step or two. 
 
 " What I came up for," he said, coldly, " as I've 
 told you over and over again, was to show you a way 
 to get back the money you lost in Egan stock. And if 
 this is the way you take it " 
 
 Against her will, she heard; and hearing, she lost 
 what mental balance she had retained. 
 
 " You know my you know my own money every 
 penny I had you know " She was shaking with 
 rage. " What are you trying to do you! Trying 
 to buy trying to buy my daughter with your dirty 
 fifty thousand dollars? " 
 
 Privately, Macklin said to himself that she wasn't
 
 164 EGAN 
 
 worth it. " No, Mrs. McCain. I'm trying to shov 
 you how you're misjudging me. I came to do you a 
 tremendous piece of good. I " 
 
 " You've done enough. I won't hear you ! Will you 
 go, or shall I " 
 
 He realized that he should have to go, and return 
 when she was more tractable. He made a final effort to 
 be nonchalant. 
 
 " Well what ? Call the police ? " 
 
 " No," she said. " Just Milly." 
 
 Her eyes were like gimlets through his mind as he 
 went out. 
 
 Mr. Ganzenberry was complacently sitting on the 
 front steps and sketching on the back of an old envelope 
 as Macklin slammed his way out of the house.
 
 XIII 
 
 GRADUALLY, at the end of his third week in 
 Plainfield, there stole over Egan the conscious- 
 ness that his money was melting away far too 
 rapidly. He had never squandered energy on an ex- 
 pense account, and he had never bothered to live on a 
 budget system. He wished, whimsically, that some- 
 body could treat him with chemical which would have 
 the same effect on him as creosote has on a roof. He 
 wanted to be expenditure-proofed. 
 
 If he had intended to go to work in one of Plain- 
 field's old and settled concerns, his present bank bal- 
 ance, of course, would remain as a decent nest-egg. 
 But the greater part of that balance was consecrated to 
 investment in his own company. There were only three 
 avenues of refuge open to him, and two of these were 
 dangerous. One was to draw upon the reserve fund, 
 and trust to luck ; one was to borrow shamelessly from 
 the Honourable George; one was to persuade some 
 open-minded friend to subscribe, even before incorpora- 
 tion, for a block of Transport stock. Then Egan 
 could legitimately pay himself a commission out of it, 
 or even a salary. 
 
 The last of the three possibilities appealed to him. 
 It would test out his ability as a salesman, and it would 
 provide him with funds without disclosing his need of 
 them. And Egan shrank with horror from any deed, 
 
 or ,vord, which would suggest even to his closest friends 
 
 165
 
 166 EGAN 
 
 that he hadn't still some pretty considerable resources 
 of his own. He went so far as to regret his confession 
 to Judge Perkins. 
 
 The choice of his first subscriber was a matter of 
 nice discrimination. Egan began to consider it on Sat- 
 urday afternoon, while he was practically unrecogniz- 
 able in a sea of lather at the barber's, and he continued 
 to reflect upon it during his manicure, later. He was 
 loath to make overtures to any -of his younger Vine 
 Street friends, and he was particularly averse to sound- 
 ing Adams, or Jones, or Kent. Whatever he did, he 
 must do circumspectly, almost indifferently; and his 
 appeal must be made to some one who wouldn't inter- 
 pret its truth. 
 
 Pennypacker! Egan's start of triumph made the 
 manicure come within an ace of committing mayhem 
 with the cuticle-scissors. 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker had shown great interest in the 
 venture, and he had spoken vaguely of selling other 
 securities in order to participate in Transport profits. 
 Pennypacker evidently held one end of the line of least 
 resistance, and Egan decided to follow it forthwith. 
 But Mr. Pennypacker, beginning at the other end, fol- 
 lowed it first. 
 
 It was at a particularly inauspicious hour that Mr. 
 Pennypacker knocked on the door of Egan's room. 
 Egan had just finished arraying himself in the newest 
 of evening raiment, the most exclusive of shirtings, the 
 most silken of three-dollar hose. He had tied four ties 
 once apiece, and one tie four times, and he wasn't yet. 
 f^Hir 15 "' 1 with the result. Nor was he reconciled to the 
 lulls which would presently flutter upon him for all this
 
 EGASP 167 
 
 glory. " Still," he said to himself. " A man with my 
 social position to keep up " 
 
 At this juncture, Mr. Pennypacker had knocked 
 daintily. 
 
 "Come!" 
 
 " Ah ! " said Mr. Pennypacker. ** An orgy of self- 
 beautification." And given his loud, unemphasized 
 laugh. 
 
 Egan was in too much of a harry to set the trap. 
 
 " Anything I can do for you? " 
 
 ** Why, I don't know. Don't mind me ; go on with 
 your dressing. Gone any further with your develop- 
 ment? 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker settled himself comfortably. " Fre 
 been thinking it over, Mr. Egan, and Fve pretty nearly 
 made up my mind to make you a proposition. Of 
 course, statistics show that in this state alone, the new 
 incorporations per day are only two and a third tones 
 the bankrupticies and dissolutions. But Pm almost 
 settled on going behind of the statistics for once. In 
 other words, Pd_ like to have a chance to he in with you, 
 in a small way, on your company. I've read all the 
 last issues of Aerial Age, Air Power, Aircraft Journal, 
 and Flying, and Pm willing to take a small gamble, if 
 you want me. If you can see your way clear to meet 
 me half way." 
 
 Egan wheeled from the mirror, a fresh tie in his hand. 
 He was profoundly impressed, and delighted, but he 
 had an appointment which was sacred. ** That sounds 
 good to me. But couldn't you wait 'til tomorrow? 
 I've got to go out as soon as I "
 
 168 EGAN 
 
 " Oh, no hurry, no hurry. I just thought ... If 
 you get in before midnight, you might drop in to see 
 me. I'm a night-owl." 
 
 " I will." He managed to get the exact twist he de- 
 sired. " Any idea how much you'd like to come in 
 for? " His voice was ever so little unsteady. 
 
 " Well, I've got some securities. I'd like to have you 
 take some of 'em off my hands. And some cash, too, of 
 course." 
 
 " Any idea what the securities are worth? " 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker nodded. " The par value is six- 
 teen thousand dollars." 
 
 Egan rigorously restrained himself. "Bonds?" 
 
 " No ; industrials. Common stock." 
 
 " Easily marketable? " 
 
 " Well, they're not quoted on any Exchange, but I 
 guess they'll be worth par to you. I'm sure they will." 
 
 Egan glanced at his watch. He should have dearly 
 loved to hear this story out, but the story could wait, 
 and his appointment couldn't. 
 
 " What did you want to do, Mr. Pennypacker 
 trade even ? " 
 
 " That's what I'd thought." 
 
 Egan was uplifted, and almost immediately let down 
 again. Just as he had told Johnny Jones, no solicitor 
 was necessary. Here was a statistician, a man of snail- 
 like slowness and accuracy, coming of his own accord 
 to bid for stock, after hearing merely an outline of the 
 Transport Company. The idea had sold itself. 
 
 " That sounds reasonable. . . . You'll excuse me for 
 running, won't you? But I like your suggestion, and 
 I'll certainly be glad to talk it over with you."
 
 EGAN 169 
 
 " Oh, no hurry, no hurry." He laughed stridently. 
 
 Egan was visited by a timely inspiration. " Entirely 
 separate from any trade deal, Mr. Pennypacker if 
 you'd care to make any subscription in cash, there'd be 
 a stock bonus of, say, twenty-five per cent. Just think 
 that over, too, while you're about it, and " 
 
 Mr. Pennypacker looked up ingenuously. 
 
 " Well, I could make you some sort of offer there, 
 too, I guess. Not any big amount. But the average 
 income in this state, according to the last tax census, 
 was about thirteen hundred dollars " He laughed 
 shyly. " I'm making considerable above the average, 
 anyway. And I've saved some. You drop in and see 
 me, and we'll talk it over. . . . Going to dance? " 
 
 " Yes." Egan found his stick and gloves. 
 
 " Nice, cool night for it. Coolest for this date in 
 nineteen years. Well, be sure and look in on me. I'd 
 kind of like to get it settled." 
 
 " Yes, so would I," responded Egan cordially. 
 
 Within the hour, Egan had committed the next of his 
 greatest indiscretions and, to put the matter plainly, 
 it was due to wrath and geography combined. It wasn't 
 a question of the proverbial inch, nor yet of the pro- 
 verbial mile, but if Mary Kent had lived, say, half a 
 dozen blocks further distant from the corner of Main 
 Street and Central Avenue, or if Egan's resentment 
 hadn't carried him downtown from Mary's house with 
 the speed of a motion-picture pedestrian, this particu- 
 lar indiscretion might have been averted. But the lay 
 of the land was permanent, and Egan hadn't even be- 
 gun to slow down when he reached the corner.
 
 170 EGAN 
 
 He had been on the Kent lawn not more than ten 
 minutes when wrath was engendered in him, and not 
 more than fifteen minutes before he surreptitiously de- 
 parted ; and inasmuch as the lawn under the trees pro- 
 Tided a low visibility, his preparations of the afternoon 
 and evening proved to be quite as futile as the efforts 
 of the darkey who ran a furlong in order to acquire 
 impetus enough to jump a two-foot fence. No one, 
 not even Mary, had appreciated his expensive gran- 
 deur, or comprehended it. 
 
 The arrangement had been for nine young people to 
 meet at the Rents', and to go out to the Country Club 
 by motor. Egan, pardoned by telephone, was the odd 
 man; but at the time of his arrival, he found himself, 
 pending the appearance of the last girl, one of two 
 odd men, and the other one was Henry Luke. 
 
 Henry's father was president of the Citizens Trust 
 Company, and Henry, who was no older than Egan, 
 had done what everybody reads about, and few accom- 
 plish; he had gambled in Wall Street in 1916 and 1917 
 and made money ; and stayed out of it in 1918 and saved 
 all he had made. 
 
 He had always been a good and pompous friend to 
 Egan; and except for his habit of extremely plain 
 speech, Egan liked him well enough to endure him for a 
 quarter of an hour. 
 
 "Did you walk over, Bronson? Pretty hot, wasn't 
 it? Pd have picked you up on the way if you'd tele- 
 phoned me." 
 
 Egan's supersensitive ear caught a patronizing note 
 which wasn't there. 
 
 " Oh, only four blocks, Henry."
 
 EGAN 171 
 
 " I know, but uphill, on a night like this " 
 
 " I hardly think I'll walk up it many more times." 
 Egan here made one of those rash declarations which 
 every one alive has sometimes made, and seldom, had 
 such reason to regret afterwards. It was purely spon- 
 taneous, perfectly harmless, and a man less literal than 
 Henry Luke, who wore tortoise-rimmed spectacles and 
 had no sense of humour, would have taken it at the 
 proper discount. " I'm sort of thinking of getting a 
 car myself." 
 
 Henry peered at him through the dusk. " What 
 kind? A flivver? " 
 
 Egan snorted. The idea of being patronized was 
 sufficiently repulsive in itself, but it was doubly accen- 
 tuated in the current instance. Partly because Henry 
 was Henry, and partly because Henry had been lucky 
 in Wall Street. Besides, Egan was counting his chick- 
 ens before he had cornered the hen. He was banking 
 solidly on Mr. Pennypacker to come through. More 
 than that, he had really told himself, a day or two ago, 
 that he wished he had his old red roadster back. So- 
 cially, and in the solicitation of business, it would have 
 been a decided asset* And he had really wondered how 
 soon he could have a car. A flivver. 
 
 But after Henry's innocent question 
 
 " Hardly ! " said Egan. " I've got my eye on a 
 sportster now." 
 
 Henry looked at him queerly. He knew from old 
 experience that Egan would defend his wildest state- 
 ment to the last ditch. Henry laughed. It wasn't a 
 cruel laugh, or even a cynical laugh, but one of pure 
 amusement.
 
 112 EGAN 
 
 " Don't you be an ass, Bronson." 
 
 "What?" said Egan. 
 
 Henry glanced behind him to make sure that they 
 were out of earshot from the girls. He was a trifle 
 startled by the response to his opening gun, but when 
 Henry fired, he generally fired for effect. 
 
 " Ayop," said Henry, as an affirmative. " That's 
 what I said. Don't be a silly ass." 
 
 Egan had no vocabulary to spare at that moment. 
 He could only yammer. 
 
 " That's what they're all saying," said Henry, with 
 the air of a conscientious reporter. " Everybody's 
 saying you're talking a lot about what you're going to 
 do, and then not doing it. I thought I owed it to you 
 to tell you, Bronson. If I didn't, somebody else might 
 tell you sometime not in the friendly spirit 7 tell you. 
 I've known you a long time, and I know you're a darn' 
 fine fellow, and all that, but I don't believe you want 
 the whole town to go around saying you're bluffing all 
 the time, and yet that's exactly what they're doing, 
 Bronsun. And about this car thing, there doesn't need 
 to be any bluffing between you and me. You can try 
 bluffing somebody else if you think you want to, but 
 you and I know each other too well for you ever to think 
 of putting anything like that over on me." He put out 
 a hand which he meant to be fatherly. " It's for your 
 own good, Bronson," he said. "You just gotta stop 
 this bluffing. Don't forget I'm a director of the Citi- 
 zens Trust Company and I know you can't afford it. 
 The first thing you know, everybody in this town will 
 be saying you're nothing but an old blowhard."
 
 EGAN 173 
 
 " Blowhard ! " said Egan, under his breath. He was 
 still knocked endwise by the unexpected assault. 
 
 " Yes," said Henry, peering down at Egan from the 
 height of six feet five. " An old blowhard. That's 
 what they're just getting ready to say about you. 
 This airplane scheme of yours is so darn' big, it's only 
 funny to hear you talk about it. But when it's only a 
 car " 
 
 A wave of superheated indignation passed over Egan, 
 and set his brain afire. His throat was arid. The 
 worst of it, the sickening part of it, was that Henry 
 Luke had no imagination. When he quoted, he quoted 
 verbatim. When he merely reported, he reported faith- 
 fully. 
 
 " Blowhard ! " said Egan, with almost an interroga- 
 tion in it. 
 
 " I'll tell you who's as much as said so. First, there 
 was " 
 
 "Don't!" 
 
 " Well," said Henry, " you see what I mean, don't 
 you ? So when you talk about getting a car " 
 
 Egan was caught in a flood of furious shame which 
 he couldn't resist, and it was multiplied a thousandfold 
 by the gruesome contrast between the effect he had 
 intended to produce on Henry, and the effect that 
 Henry had succeeded in producing on him. He turned 
 aside from Henry, and found himself facing, at an in- 
 terval of only a few yards, that group of half a dozen 
 of his old friends. He dared not attempt to guess how 
 many of them shared in this awful characterization of 
 himself. But he knew that he couldn't go through this.
 
 174. EGAN 
 
 evening as he had planned. Nor any other evening, 
 until he had erased the characterization. He also knew 
 that above all things, he mustn't obey the driving im- 
 pulse to fall upon Henry tooth and nail, and wipe out 
 the base insinuation. A weaker man might have 
 laughed it off; but Egan had been hurt to the last, in- 
 finitely tender tissue of his pride. He had never been 
 so hurt in all his life. His brain almost ceased func- 
 tioning. He saw blood-red. Blowhard! 
 
 His Irish wrath, whipped up in an instant, assumed 
 the absolute command over him. 
 
 " Here ! Bronson ! Come back here ! Hey ! Lis- 
 ten a minute ! " 
 
 Egan had disappeared into the dusk. A few min- 
 utes later, when the last girl arrived, no one could lo- 
 cate him. Presently, after allowing him a reasonable 
 law, the double quartet got itself in motion. The mys- 
 tery of his disappearance remained, however, a topic of 
 discussion for the next hour. Henry Luke, truthful to 
 the bitter end, said he guessed that Bronson had sud- 
 denly been taken sick or something. They telephoned 
 from the Country Club, but Miss McCain, irked by the 
 knowledge that it was from the Country Club that they 
 telephoned, answered coldly that he hadn't come in. 
 
 Then all the others were uncomfortable, and Henry 
 Luke felt very sheepish. 
 
 In the meantime, billow after billow of degradation 
 had rocked over Egan's head. He had no sequence of 
 thought; his brain was merely a receptacle for a vast 
 mass of hot and quivering anger. Blowhard! And 
 for this he had purposed to give to the town of his na-
 
 EGAN 175 
 
 tivity the glory of his initiative, and genius! So it 
 was common gossip, then. People talked about it. 
 What people? What right had Henry Luke or any 
 one else in the whole wide world to gossip about him, 
 and what he would do or wouldn't do, and what he could 
 afford? 
 
 He was hardly aware that his wrath had carried him 
 to the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue; he 
 hadn't gone there of his own accord, but unwittingly, 
 instinctively. He had followed the trail of memory 
 which led him to a huge show window, wherein stood a 
 low, shining, battleship-grey roadster, magnificent with 
 upholstery and instruments. It wasn't worth a third 
 of what his old red runabout had cost, but it was a car, 
 and not a flivver. He was swept inward. 
 
 " How much that? " he demanded. 
 
 The proprietor stared at Egan, stared at the car, 
 and stared at Egan again. Egan was distinctly not in 
 the spirit of a purchaser. His aspect indicated that he 
 needed a sedative more than an automobile ; but his voice 
 was peremptory enough to bring a respectful answer. 
 
 " That? Why, that's been used for a demonstrator. 
 It's gone about eleven hundred miles. The price of a 
 new one, f.o.b. Detroit, is fourteen sixty, and I " 
 
 " How much that? " Egan had gestured so vehe- 
 mently that the agent side-stepped. 
 
 " Why, I guess we could let you have that, if you 
 want it, for eleven hundred flat. I " 
 
 " When? " Even in his headlong momentum, Egan 
 had time to remember the support that was to come 
 from Mr. Pennypacker. 
 
 " Why why, when did you want it, sir? "
 
 176 EGAN 
 
 " When can I have it? " 
 
 The agent blinked, and laughed a little. " Why, if 
 you can pay for it, you can have it as soon as you can 
 take it out of the window. I " 
 
 " Take a check? . . . My name's Bronson Egan. 
 Father's James Egan, of . . ." 
 
 The agent reacted favourably. 
 
 " Oh, certainly. . . . Your check's good here. 
 Now " 
 
 Egan was already flinging riotous blobs of ink from 
 his fountain pen. 
 
 " I'll drive it out." 
 
 The agent gulped, but the check looked good. The 
 name of Egan was better yet. He turned, and bel- 
 lowed to the supply department in the rear. 
 
 " Hi, Jake ! Come help roll out this Model G. 
 Guy's in a big hurry ! " He turned back. " Under- 
 stand how she drives, do you? She's got plenty of oil 
 in her, and ten gallons of gas " 
 
 Egan, on the sidewalk, had already begun to cool, 
 while the engine was warming up. Wrath had guided 
 him to a great folly, and geography was too late to 
 help. He climbed into the little roadster, and gingerly 
 tested the gears. 
 
 " I guess you can manage her all right, Mr. Egan. 
 Thank you very, very much. Any time we can do any- 
 thing for you " 
 
 " All right." Egan let in the clutch. At the next 
 corner, he drew a long and tremulous breath ; slackened 
 speed ; almost stopped. A brief spasm of reason shook 
 him. He could still return, and probably get his check 
 back. It would be embarrassing ; but
 
 EGAN 177 
 
 '* Blowhard ! " he said unexpectedly, aloud. 
 
 The epithet brought colourful recollection to him. 
 Egan swallowed hard. His eyes felt strained and hot. 
 Determinedly, he stepped on the accelerator. Out Cen- 
 tral Avenue towards the Country Club and Henry 
 Luke and all the others. 
 
 " To hell with 'em ! " said Egan passionately. " To 
 hell with 'em!" 
 
 Out of deference to tomorrow's pulpits, the dance had 
 ended at five minutes of twelve. Henry Luke, after the 
 others had finished their superficial examination and 
 equally superficial compliments, had drawn Egan aside. 
 
 " Bronson," he said gravely, " I'm sorry if I made 
 you put your foot in the bucket. I'm afraid you're 
 in wrong. But I want to assure you right here and 
 right now I disclaim all responsibility. All I told you 
 was " 
 
 " The only trouble with you Hank,'* said Egan, 
 using the nickname which Henry loathed beyond de- 
 scription. " The only trouble with you, Hank you 
 talk too much." 
 
 He drove home the prettiest girl he could find, and 
 detach. And he flirted with her outrageously. He 
 took the little car up Vine Street, and ran it into the 
 old barn. He went upstairs, and knocked softly at the 
 door of Mr. Pennypacker's room. Mr. Pennypacker 
 was sitting up for him. Mr. Pennypacker had got out 
 his securities, and had them on his table. 
 
 " Whose car was that I heard come in here? " 
 
 Egan gulped. " Mine." 
 
 '* Oh ! . . . Something new ? Oh ! . . . indeed.
 
 178 EGAN 
 
 Well, there's one to every seven and a half people in this 
 state alone. ... So you bought yourself a car, eh? " 
 Mr. Pennypacker smiled lugubriously. " Well, that's 
 fine, that's fine. Enjoy your dance? Good. I'm glad 
 to hear it. ... Now about this trade of ours. If you 
 bought yourself a new car, I guess you're in a position 
 to trade, all right." 
 
 " Any water in here ? " 
 
 " Over in the corner. Go right ahead ; help your- 
 self." Mr. Pennypacker sat back and watched him. 
 " Now if you're ready to talk " 
 
 Egan's eyes were caught by something on the table. 
 He came over swiftly. 
 
 "What's this?" 
 
 " That's what I want to trade with. Every nickel I 
 had went into it. So with you buying cars and every- 
 thing, I thought the least you could do would be to 
 trade even, and give me a chance on your next scheme 
 'isn't it? Sixteen thousand in your airplane scheme 
 against sixteen thousand Egan common? " Mr. Pen- 
 nypacker's gaze was devastating. " I thought that's 
 only fair, sort of. Seeing it's all in your family. You 
 don't need to look so sick about it. ... I lost my pile 
 in your father's outfit, didn't I? I said it was an in- 
 dustrial stock. I said I guess they'd be worth par to 
 you. Ain't your reputation worth an even trade ? All 
 I ask is a trade share for share. Just so I have a 
 chance on your new scheme to make up for going 
 broke on the old one. Since it's all in the family. And 
 and just to show I'm not a hog, I'll give you, in cash, 
 to boot I'll give you one-third of all I've got in the
 
 EGAN 179 
 
 bank. Then I'll have some sort of run for my money. 
 You're bright ; I might make " 
 
 Egan was breathing to the bottom of his lungs. 
 
 " How much money ? " 
 
 " That would be let me see that would be one 
 hundred and eighty-six dollars and forty two cents. 
 But seeing it's all in the family, Mr. Egan, and . . . 
 Here ! Where you going ? " 
 
 Egan stopped short. 
 
 "Why . . . I don't know." 
 
 " Don't know? " Mr. Pennypacker emitted his 
 laugh of punctuation. 
 
 " No. I " 
 
 " Well, can't you say something? Here I've sat up 
 and waited. . . . Can't you say whether it's a trade or 
 not, or whether you'll think it over, or something? " 
 
 " Yes ... of course," said Egan apathetically. " I 
 . I'll think it over."
 
 XIV 
 
 IN the morning, Egan was doubly penitent, and 
 doubly demoralized. His utter surrender to the 
 resentment arising out of Henry Luke's revela- 
 tion afflicted him, when viewed in perspective, with cold 
 shivers. A residue of anger still remained to him, but it 
 was anger directed chiefly towards himself. 
 
 Half -dressed, he sat soberly considering the potential 
 results of his mad impetuosity. What had he accom- 
 plished by it? Why, he hadn't even convinced Henry 
 Luke! 
 
 Presumably, he could come to terms with the agent, if 
 he wanted to, but even so, he couldn't come to terms 
 with himself. But was it the right thing to recant, 
 now? Was it advisable for him, after one childish 
 blunder, to prove Henry Luke's case for him by going 
 around and selling that car back to the agency? 
 Wouldn't that fan a greater flame of gossip than 
 ever ? 
 
 Granted that Henry had goaded him into blind rash- 
 ness ; that was simply an explanation, and not an ex- 
 cuse. 
 
 To think that he, who had regarded himself as so 
 capable and so clever, had stultified himself like that ! 
 The mere visualization of that poor little car afflicted 
 him with nausea. What would Martha Henderson 
 think of it, if she knew? What would Judge Perkins 
 say, when he did know? 
 
 As he tardily continued dressing, he realized that he 
 
 180
 
 EGAN- 181 
 
 had a headache. He also realized that he didn't want 
 to face Mr. Pennypacker across the breakfast table. 
 
 Out to the open air went Egan, and like the morning 
 schoolboy, crept at snail's-pace unwillingly towards the 
 corner of Main Street and Central Avenue. It never 
 occurred to him to drive downtown; he walked. He 
 had no predetermined course of action ; he was turning 
 over in his mind a number of unsettled possibilities. He 
 wondered if he could save his face by agreeing, perhaps, 
 to run the car for a thousand miles, and then turn it 
 in at a fixed price. 
 
 For a single instant he reflected upon the desirability 
 of getting out of the transaction altogether. He might 
 force the issue by stopping payment on the check. But 
 he dismissed the conception as another folly. He had 
 discounted his intelligence to a sufficient extent already. 
 The sale had been made in good faith, and the least he 
 could do was to play fair. 
 
 He was within a few yards of the fatal corner before 
 he realized that it was Sunday, and that the agency 
 would be closed. 
 
 He went slowly over to the Plainfield House, and as 
 he breakfasted, he could see Martha Henderson's face 
 when she comprehended how badly he had used her coun- 
 sel. He could fancy how, if the news got out in an un- 
 favourable setting, it would seriously handicap him as a 
 promoter. No one would assume that any stability of 
 character was in him. He told himself fiercely that 
 never again would he boast about what he was going to 
 do no, not even after he had done it ! But the pres- 
 ent contingency was more important than his future
 
 1S2 EGAN 
 
 ethics. To keep the car would be to place himself, within 
 a few days, in the position of an insolvent ; to return it, 
 would be to bring down ridicule upon his aching head. In 
 either case, he was fair prey to criticism, and discredit. 
 
 His appetite failed him. He paid his reckoning, and 
 went out again. He didn't want to go home, for he 
 should find Perkins, and Adams and Pennypacker ! 
 there. He didn't want to walk, for fear of meeting 
 some one he knew. 
 
 Aimlessly, he wandered through the silent streets of 
 the business district, until, with all the sentiments of a 
 criminal returning to the scene of the crime, he was im- 
 pelled to turn his footsteps towards Vine Street. 
 
 From the lawn, Mary hailed him cheerfully. 
 
 "Hello, J. Pierpont!" 
 
 " Hello," said Egan. 
 
 " When are you going to ask me out for a ride ? " 
 
 Instinctively, he put on a smile of gracious ease. 
 " Any time you say." 
 
 "This afternoon?" 
 
 " Name the hour." 
 
 " Half-past four." 
 
 " Right ! " said Egan. " 111 come for you." 
 
 And went on home, and deliberately took the little car 
 out of the barn, and parked it at the curb. 
 
 It was on that same morning, immediately after the 
 breakfast which Egan had escaped, that Mr. Ganzen- 
 berry cut off Adams' retreat before he could leave the 
 dining-room. 
 
 " Come upstairs ! " he said in an undertone. " I've 
 got something to show you."
 
 EGAN 183 
 
 Adams, following him, and not being gifted with pre- 
 monition, was bored. They went into the artist's room, 
 where Mr. Ganzenberry promptly dived into a huge 
 portfolio. 
 
 " You're such a good art critic," said Mr. Ganzen- 
 berry, concealing the canvas until he had finished his 
 preliminary address, " I thought I'd ask your advice. 
 You see, I never was the least bit commercial. But 
 I hear these commercial artists . . . well, this is a sort 
 of pot-boiler. And I thought as long as you know so 
 much about these things, you'd tell me who'd be likely 
 to be interested in it, and ... er ... and about how 
 much I ought to get for it." He turned the painting. 
 " It's for the cover of a magazine," he said. 
 
 Adams looked at it, and then looked closer. 
 
 " That's pretty realistic," he said. 
 
 Mr. Ganzenberry giggled. " Well, it ought to be." 
 
 Adams looked more closely yet. " Those are pretty 
 nearly regular portraits." 
 
 Mr. Ganzenberry bridled. " Well, I suppose I was 
 some influenced . . ." 
 
 " But that wasn't from life? " 
 
 " Yes, and no. It ... er ... it made an impres- 
 sion on me at the time. I didn't intend to portray the 
 actual faces of the . . . er . . .participants, but if 
 some resemblance has crept it, why you know what 
 they say about the artist's memory." 
 
 Adams looked at him keenly. 
 
 " Something like this actually happened, did it? " 
 
 " Oh, yes. But that's neither here nor there." 
 
 ** When was it, Mr. Ganzenberry? " 
 
 *' Saturday week."
 
 184. EGAN 
 
 " And in the reception room. Gracious ! How well 
 you've done it." 
 
 Mr. Ganzenberry blushed. " If you think the faces 
 are too recognizable, I'd better paint over " 
 
 " Oh, no. Not at all." Adams stepped back for a 
 clearer view. " To you and me, of course under- 
 standing art as we do ... How much did you expect 
 to get for it, Mr. Ganzenberry ? " 
 
 " Why, I wondered ... I think it's worth fifty dol- 
 lars, don't you? " 
 
 "Y-e-e-s. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'U give you 
 fifty dollars for it myself." 
 
 The artist was joy-smitten, but doubtful. "Why, 
 whatever could you do with it? " 
 
 " Oh, I can use it in my business," said Adams, cas- 
 ually. " It has a universal appeal yes, I could use 
 it myself very nicely at that price." 
 
 " Oh, but in that case, I had better change the faces a 
 little more. I " 
 
 Adams gently relieved him of the canvas. " Non- 
 sense. Nobody but you and I'd ever know the inside 
 of it. And / wouldn't have, if any one but you'd done 
 it. You and I see deeper into these things. I don't 
 believe any one else would ever stop to think whether 
 these people in the painting look like actual folks, or 
 not. They'd take 'em for figures not folks." 
 
 " That's so. Of course, I'd hate to have anybody 
 think. . . . Are you sure it isn't too true to life ? " 
 
 " Positively," said Adams, with the picture under his 
 arm. " I'll bring you down a check in two minutes. 
 And a bill of sale to sign so it'll be all regular."
 
 XV 
 
 IT was on a baking afternoon in August, gratefully 
 near dusk, when Martha Henderson, strolling 
 leisurely down the shady side of Main Street, met 
 Egan to face to face. 
 
 " Why, Lieutenant Egan ! " she said. Her eyes, 
 wandering to his cravat, stayed there, fixed on the gold 
 safety-pin he was wearing. 
 
 " Miss Henderson ! Of all things ! When did you 
 get here? " 
 
 " Yesterday, for another week with Mary. How's 
 everything? " 
 
 " Everything? That's a good deal to answer. But 
 most things are fine." 
 
 " How's the express company? " 
 
 " Beautiful, thank you. I'm more convinced than 
 ever it was the right thing to do." 
 
 "I told you so, didn't I?" 
 
 ** I know you did. And I've often wished you could 
 have a share in it yourself." 
 
 " Oh, I'd love to ! " she exclaimed. " And if I were a 
 man " 
 
 " You'd want to help run it," he finished for her. 
 " I know. Well, it's a fascinating scheme." 
 
 " You're getting plenty of people to subscribe for 
 stock? " 
 
 " Well, not as many as I'd like, of course." He 
 
 didn't think it necessary to tell her that he was strug- 
 
 185
 
 186 EGAN 
 
 gling desperately to dispose of a few thousand dollars' 
 worth in advance, so as to keep his head above water. 
 
 " I wonder," she said, reflectively, " if my father 
 wouldn't be interested in a plan like that. He's only a 
 boy, anyway. I've never thought of mentioning it to 
 him. I wonder why I don't speak to him about it." 
 
 Egan winced. " Do you want to do me a very par- 
 ticular favour, Miss Henderson ? " 
 
 " Of course I do." 
 
 " Then promise me that you won't ever breathe a sin- 
 gle word of it to your father." 
 
 Her eyebrows lifted. " Why, how extraordinary ! " 
 
 " No, it isn't, really. I just don't want you to. It's 
 ever so good of you to think of it, but " 
 
 " Certainly I won't, if you don't want me to," she 
 said. Suddenly her eyes widened. 
 
 " Oh ! Of course, I know that he and your father 
 weren't awfully good friends, but is that any reason 
 for you to feel the same way is it? I'm sure you 
 don't feel that way about me, do you? I'm not of- 
 fended, Mr. Egan, but I'm just a little bit hurt. You've 
 never even met him, have you ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I've met him ; but it isn't that, honestly. 
 I well, I just wish you wouldn't." 
 
 " Then I won't," she said, pleasantly enough. " But 
 I'm certainly going to bring you two men together and 
 let you find out for yourself what he's really like. . . . 
 What are you doing now? I'm to meet Mary at the 
 milliner's, and go home with her. Why don't you come, 
 too." 
 
 " Did you ride down, Miss Henderson ? " 
 "No; we walked."
 
 EGAN 187 
 
 " I left my car over by the Lawyers Building. If 
 you'll wait or maybe we'd better find Mary first. 
 Where is this milliner's? " 
 
 The milliner's was in the same block, and Mary was 
 waiting and comforting herself by her reflections in a 
 triplicate mirror. She greeted Egan without restraint, 
 and demanded praise for her new hat and got it. 
 
 " Now what ? " he inquired. 
 
 " Aren't you busy, Bronson? " 
 
 " Not when you're around," he said. 
 
 It appeared that Mary was bent on iced refresh- 
 ments, but she declined Egan's invitation to patronize 
 the tea-room of the Plainfield House. " We'll all go up 
 and sit on the lawn," she declared, " and have things 
 there. Save your pennies for gasolene, Bronson ! " 
 
 Egan flushed, laughing. " I never could under- 
 stand," he said, " how people fuss so about gas. / al- 
 ways said that if a man has to bother over that much, 
 he hadn't ought to own a car, anyway. But if you're 
 talking about depreciation that's different." Nev- 
 ertheless, as he hurried over for the runabout, he 
 thought privately that Mary might have been a little 
 more tactful. 
 
 On the short drive to the Kents' house he found him- 
 self marvelling once more at the likeness between the two 
 girls. They had the identical colouring; the features, 
 almost, of twins; they were even dressed similarly in 
 blue georgette crepe. Mary was a living miniature of 
 Martha. And yet, when they were together, he invol- 
 untarily made comparisons. It was hampering to him 
 to realize that the comparisons weren't all in Mary's 
 favour.
 
 188 EGAN 
 
 " Getting lots of subscriptions, Bronson ? " asked 
 Mary. 
 
 Egan nodded. " Some. I'm having to do it all 
 alone." 
 
 Martha looked at him critically. " Aren't you 
 afraid some one else may start a company first? 
 They're doing it all over the rest of the country." 
 
 " That's exactly what I am afraid of. But you see, 
 it's such a mixed-up sort of proposition. Before you 
 get your ships, you've got to have at least your ter- 
 minal fields. I've got options, but they don't last for 
 ever. Then you've got to have some sort of hangars 
 and shops. I've got estimates, but that's all. You've 
 got to engage pilots and mechanics. You've got to 
 have supplies and spare parts. And that takes 
 money." 
 
 " Very much money ? " 
 
 Egan was serious, but not solemn. 
 
 " A good deal. Originally, we thought we could 
 start on a shoestring, but it doesn't look as though that 
 would be worth while. It would be too easy for some- 
 body else to come along with big capital and swamp us. 
 We want six ships and we'll need six to insure a 
 regular schedule. After we get a rep for reliability, 
 we won't be afraid of competition. Well, there's no 
 use contracting for anything until the money's in sight, 
 and if we wait until we've got money it may take six 
 months or more to collect the equipment and lease the 
 fields and get the building done. So you see it's as bad 
 as a jig-saw puzzle. We need a hundred thousand dol- 
 lars at the minimum." 
 
 " Wouldn't it have been better," asked Mary, " for
 
 EGAN 189 
 
 you to have gone and got a position with one of the 
 Eastern companies first, and learned something about 
 it, before you tried to go into it as a business? " 
 
 " I want to stay in Plainfield," said Egan, and Mary 
 blushed. 
 
 At the house, Mary vanished in search of a maid to 
 brew what she called the " cooling drafts," and Egan 
 and Martha were left on the red-bricked loggia. 
 
 " When I asked you how * everything ' is," she said, 
 guardedly, " I meant everything." 
 
 Egan somehow didn't care to talk about it. 
 
 " Aren't you and Mary good enough friends so you 
 know already? " 
 
 " Not quite good enough for that, I'm afraid." 
 
 " Still, you're supposed to have intuitions " 
 
 " Oh, yes. I have." 
 
 "Useful ones?" 
 
 " Perhaps." She looked at him steadily. " I don't 
 believe you're entirely out of it, even yet. Not if you, 
 keep on fighting." 
 
 " I've been keeping at it the best I can." 
 
 " Sure? " 
 
 " Perhaps not the -very best " 
 
 " Oh ! That's too bad. Why not ? " 
 
 He was impelled to blurt out the truth to her, for she 
 seemed to expect it. But there wouldn't be time. 
 
 " I've been too confoundedly quick, I guess." 
 
 " Still, I don't believe you've done anything to hurt 
 your your case, Mr. Egan. And I'm sure I'd know- 
 it if you had." 
 
 Egan sat motionless. 
 
 " Why do you think I've still got a chance? "
 
 190 EGAN 
 
 " I feel it, that's all." 
 
 " If there should be," he said, " my promise holds 
 good. And I'm still hoping." 
 
 "I don't think I know what promise that is." 
 
 " You can guess," he said evasively. 
 
 " Not what you promised me? " 
 
 " No. What I promised her. You know." 
 
 "No, I don't. Truly. Unless it was to wait for 
 her" 
 
 " That's it." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 " The strongest principle I ever had was not ever to 
 break a promise, even to myself," said Egan. " That's 
 the way I was brought up. I don't say things unless I 
 mean them literally." 
 
 She delayed her comment. 
 
 " Then why haven't you kept your agreement with 
 me, Mr. Egan? " 
 
 His first impulse was to protest vigorously; his sec- 
 ond made him feel guilty. 
 
 " Did I ever make one ? " 
 
 " Not in so many words, perhaps. What were all 
 those things you were going to learn for me? " 
 
 " I suppose I have got a temper." 
 
 " It isn't temper, Mr. Egan." 
 
 " What do you think it is, then? " 
 
 " Aren't you confessing it to yourself this minute ? " 
 
 " Are you thinking about the . . . that car of mine ? 
 Did any one tell you about that ? " 
 
 " Yes, and what's been printed in the Times about 
 you. It would hurt you horribly if anything came up 
 to spoil your plans now, wouldn't it? You're so ...
 
 EGAN 191 
 
 so headstrong. I didn't think you'd forget so soon." 
 
 Egan was genuinely abashed. " I do wish you lived 
 here," he said. " I wish I could see you oftener ... I 
 care more about having you think I'm . . . the deuce 
 of it is that Mary hates to have me pay so much atten- 
 tion to you when you are here." 
 
 " P-pay attention to me! " 
 
 " Yes," said Egan. He entirely forgot that any 
 moment Mary might emerge from the house. He for- 
 got his hardiest resolutions regarding her. He forgot 
 everything except this that in place of his old attach- 
 ment for Mary, in place of the emotions which for four 
 years had endured within him by reason of sheer mo- 
 mentum, there had arisen now a sudden new series of 
 desires. That momentum of desire for Mary had run 
 its course ; he still cared deeply for her, but he felt that 
 he had grown beyond her. His impetuosity of that 
 first evening was the final forward movement. Her 
 character engendered great affection in him, but little 
 respect, little admiration especially since he had 
 come to know Martha. Martha was the only girl who 
 had ever taken a true impersonal interest in him for his 
 own sake. The only one to whom he had ever wanted 
 to admit his faults. The only one whose judgment had 
 ever sunk into his thoughts. He knew that his recent 
 escapade, which had struck Mary as delicious comedy 
 and a horse on Henry Luke, wouldn't be funny to Mar- 
 tha. He wished that he had time to tell her about it, 
 and ask her what to do. " She doesn't like it at all," 
 he said lamely. 
 
 " But, Mr. Egan, doesn't she know we're only good 
 friends ? "
 
 192 EGAN 
 
 " I'm not sure that I do myself." 
 
 She looked at him with perplexity, not unmixed with 
 alarm. 
 
 " I hope I haven't made a mistake to be so out- 
 spoken, Mr. Egan." 
 
 " No. But it won't do any harm for you to realize 
 I hope it won't do any harm for you to realize 
 that if it weren't for that promise if I could only 
 come to see you, and talk to you " 
 
 His intonation betrayed the meaning of all that he 
 didn't say. She was instantly on her feet. " Oh, Mr. 
 Egan ! " 
 
 Egan rose as swiftly. " I'm not being treacherous, 
 Miss Henderson, or even unfair. I just want you to 
 know that if I can't always do exactly as I'd like to, it 
 isn't because I wouldn't if I could." 
 
 " But don't you see that when you talk like that, 
 you're making it impossible for me to stay any longer 
 with Mary? Don't you see that? I can't come here 
 any more, and be a guest in her house, knowing what 
 you've just said. It wouldn't be right for any of us. 
 W^y did you ever go and " 
 
 " All I've said is that I wish I " 
 
 " Don't say any more please! It's bad enough 
 now." 
 
 " Bad? " 
 
 " I mean ... oh, Mr. Egan ! Why couldn't you 
 have waited? You make me feel like a spy in Mary's 
 house ! " Her distress was increasing. " This isn't 
 being friendly to her, or to each other, and I wanted so 
 much to have you for a friend." 
 
 " I intend to keep my promises to both of you. I did
 
 EGAN 193 
 
 when I made them. But is there anything criminal in 
 my ... in my caring something for you, too? Is 
 there anything wrong in wanting to see you, and talk to 
 you? When you've been so splendid about every- 
 thing? " He made a great effort to free himself of the 
 complications. " I could do that, even if I were . . . 
 married. Couldn't I? " 
 
 She shook her head. " Oh, I'm sorry I met you this 
 afternoon at all ! I'm sorry I came to see Mary again. 
 If I'd dreamed you " Meeting his gaze at last, she 
 trembled. " I'll have to go back home tonight, now. 
 No, not tonight it might make Mary suspect but 
 tomorrow, tomorrow." 
 
 " Miss Henderson ! I haven't made you do that ! " 
 
 " Yes, you have. . . . And I'd looked forward so to 
 seeing you again. . . . How can I stay here, if j ust my 
 being here might make something between you and 
 Mary? How can I act towards her, when I know both 
 sides of it? How can I be hypocrite enough to try 
 to ... to make things come out right? Don't you 
 see? " 
 
 Egan stiffened. Argument was useless. " Can't I 
 come to see you in Dayton ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " That wouldn't be fair, either? " 
 
 '* No. Oh ! You've done exactly the same thing 
 over again over and over and over. And I thought 
 you'd remember ! I really did ! And you've spoiled 
 our own friendship and maybe mine with her ! Why 
 couldn't you have waited? " 
 
 Egan caught the sound of a closing door at the 
 house.
 
 194 EGAN 
 
 " Sit down ! Sit down ! " he said peremptorily. 
 " Here's Mary ! " 
 
 The subsequent hour was in the nature of a little 
 triumph for Mary. Egan, she observed, could hardly 
 control his voice when he spoke to her, and his eyes were 
 significant. Martha was evidently subdued by her own 
 inferiority of fascination. For Egan scarcely looked 
 at Martha, even when, toward dinner time, he took his 
 rather brusque leave.
 
 XVI 
 
 BY the first of September, it was commonly said 
 by those older men who prided themselves on 
 being practical, that Egan was " queer." The 
 mere mention of his scheme for aerial transportation 
 was good for a laugh in almost any company. It 
 wasn't, of course, that the scheme was so impossible in 
 itself, but it was queer that a man with no more ex- 
 perience, with no more backing, and with no more pres- 
 tige than Egan should expect to float it. It showed 
 that Egan was a block off the old chip ; and that his 
 confidence in himself amounted to foolhardiness. The 
 same gentlemen who, under their glass desk-pads, kept 
 little cards reading " It Can't Be Done But We Did 
 It ! " and other slogans of like purport, poked fun at 
 Egan for his vaunting ambition, which they called 
 " cheek." One of them said jocularly that the only 
 trouble with him was that he hadn't learned to con- 
 sume his own smoke. 
 
 Any of the serious-minded pioneers of industry could 
 have foretold his disappointments, for the routine is as 
 unchangeable as human nature. The order of events 
 is first, scoffing at the plan, secondly, scoffing at the 
 combination of the plan and the man ; finally, ridiculing 
 the pioneer on intimately personal and immaterial 
 grounds. 
 
 Time and time again Egan would sketch for a pros- 
 pective investor the world's activities in conveying pas- 
 
 195
 
 196 EGAN 
 
 sengers and express by air. He dilated on the Paris- 
 London line, with its famous transport of a grand piano 
 across the Channel, to show just what could be done; 
 and its passenger schedule which originally went into 
 operation for the convenience of the British members of 
 the Peace Conference. He recited the history of the 
 Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Great Britain, 
 with its service, already active, between London, Glas- 
 gow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Wales, and 
 Ireland. He dilated upon the Paris-Alsace air lane, 
 used with instant success. He quoted the published an- 
 nouncements of the American Express Company, dating 
 as far back as January, 1919. He mentioned the trans- 
 atlantic trip of Commander Read, and of the Vickers 
 Vimy bomber, and of the R 34. He expanded upon 
 commercial beginnings in Canada, Australia, Italy, 
 Brazil, Sweden, and even China. 
 
 " As usual," he said, " we developed the thing, and 
 now we're letting every other country in the world beat 
 us to it. And it's only for the lack of support from 
 men like you." 
 
 But when the theory was admitted, the next point of 
 negation was always the point of Egan's youth, and 
 the next after that was always the very fact which he 
 was trying so hard to obviate his lack of capital. 
 
 " Yes," he said to one particularly obstinate listener, 
 " a lot of people talk just that same way. They tell 
 me to interest some other men first, and then come back. 
 It's like telling a boy to stay away from the water until 
 he knows how to swim." 
 
 He had been disagreeably astonished to discover that 
 the plan didn't sell itself; but he consoled himself by
 
 EGAN 197 
 
 arguing that it was for lack of publicity. After the 
 Fair, the public would snap hungrily at it. He was 
 positive of this ; so positive that it had shamed him 
 scarcely at all to keep his little runabout, and to bor- 
 row a few hundred dollars from the Honourable George. 
 Conjointly with Adams, he had prepared a careful pros- 
 pectus, accurate, conservative, and, he believed, unan- 
 swerably convincing. But he had managed to secure 
 no cash subscriptions at all, and he had been able to 
 wring pledges of only eleven thousand dollars, with 
 every cent conditional upon his raising infinitely more. 
 These pledges came from personal friends of his father, 
 and there was nothing whatsoever from Mr. Penny- 
 packer. But even at this stage, he never distrusted his 
 ability to organize and administer the vast concern 
 which would render his father's corporation insignifi- 
 cant by comparison. He never doubted that eventu- 
 ally he should stand among the immortals of swift 
 achievement. These men who listened to him now and 
 refused their aid, would later sit down of an evening to 
 figure out what fortunes they had lost by their ob- 
 stinacy. He rather contemned them for their stupidity. 
 As to the men of his own age, men whom he had lav- 
 ishly entertained and cleverly talked to without result, 
 he thought them merely immature. 
 
 To the vast relief of both Judge Perkins and Little 
 Johnny Jones, he had finally consented to hold the in- 
 surance company in abeyance, pending the organization 
 otf the more important project. He hated to relinquish 
 it, and nothing but the report of the State Commission, 
 offered in evidence by Johnny, had induced him to shelve 
 it temporarily. It had seemed so timely, and so novel,
 
 198 EGAN 
 
 and it was all his own conception, too. But Johnny 
 had craftily shown him the pitfalls, demonstrated the 
 need of large capital, and reminded him that any of the 
 large casualty companies could, by merely undertaking 
 the writing of aerial risks in addition to their other 
 lines, compete at tremendous advantage, and Egan had 
 presently yielded. 
 
 " Just until we can get loose from the transportation 
 company, though," he said warningly. 
 
 To the transportation venture itself, the Honourable 
 George was still flatly Missourian, but Egan had got 
 him the report of the British Parliamentary Committee 
 on Civil Aerial Transport, and furnished data on 
 eleven organizations already in the American field, and 
 the old lawyer had grudgingly conceded that Egan had 
 a perfect right to hazard his own money on it. 
 
 They had made it a very modestly capitalized con- 
 cern, with Egan and the Honourable George and Uncle 
 Stanley Adams the directors. 
 
 " I've heard from my friend in Buffalo," said Egan, 
 " and they'll ship me an H on ten days' notice. After 
 the Fair, we can sell all the stock we want to, and buy 
 the rest of the ships." 
 
 " Got your concession from the Fair Committee 
 yet? " asked the Honourable George. 
 
 Egan hadn't, but he promised to set about it straight- 
 way. " There can't be any hitch there," he said con- 
 fidently, " so I guess it's pretty nearly time to start up 
 the publicity, and get my license from the Joint Board 
 in Washington." 
 
 Accordingly, Uncle Stanley Adams started up the 
 publicity in the Plainfield Times, and Plainfield or
 
 EGAN 199 
 
 that part of it which hadn't previously shared the 
 knowledge of Egan's dream it gasped. Even people 
 like Henry Luke took a different attitude, because of 
 the direct and positive statements in the press. For 
 the moment, Egan's repute swung backwards, and lo- 
 cally he was almost a hero again. His civilian license 
 duly arrived, and the Times ran a column and a half 
 on the front page, with a half-tone of Egan in his 
 Lieutenant's uniform. 
 
 Late one afternoon in the week before the Fair, he 
 came wearily into the Honourable George's office, and 
 sat down hard in the nearest chair. His mouth was 
 very firm and straight, and his eyes had metal in them. 
 
 " What's the trouble? " asked the Honourable George 
 quickly. 
 
 " Big trouble," said Egan, rubbing his forehead. 
 " Eddie Macklin." 
 
 " What's he done now? " 
 
 " Done ? " Egan shrugged his shoulders. " Did 
 you know he's on the Committee of the County Fair 
 Society? I didn't. Well they've refused to give me 
 space, that's all." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed the lawyer. " Not really ? Is 
 that a fact ! Well, don't you give up, Bronson ! Maybe 
 we can use some influence and " 
 
 " No use. No use at all." Egan laughed hollowly. 
 "They must have jumped as soon as we ran that first 
 stuff in the Times. They must have gone at it hammer 
 and tongs. Anyway, they've gone and made a contract 
 with another flyer oh, they were as polite as could 
 be ; Eddie wasn't in the office ; they showed me the con- 
 tract and it's an exclusive privilege. And that's the
 
 00 EGAN 
 
 end of it. There isn't another decent landing field 
 within three quarters of a mile. It's all farms under 
 cultivation. The infield of the race track is all there is. 
 That's what I'd counted on. And even if I tried to run 
 it outside the grounds, enough people to make it worth 
 while wouldn't travel three quarters of a mile on their 
 own initiative not in Fair week. And a couple of 
 thousand dollars' profit wouldn't be anything it 
 wouldn't hardly pay for the risk. I wouldn't make 
 enough to pay for the ship even figuring on selling it 
 to the transportation company afterwards. The whole 
 point was having it take off and land inside the grounds, 
 where everybody could see it close up. We're cooked." 
 
 The Honourable George endeavoured to conceal his 
 relief. 
 
 " Even so ... well, that was only a grandstand 
 play anyhow, Bronson. I wouldn't feel so bad about 
 it, if I was you. I never did approve of it, and I told 
 you so. It's too bad, if you'd set your heart on it, and 
 it's dirt mean of Eddie if he had anything to do with it, 
 but why don't you wipe it off the slate, and begin to 
 work on the main scheme? " 
 
 "With whose money?" inquired Egan presently. 
 " You see, I'd counted on putting up close to five thou- 
 sand myself. That would have got us started. That 
 was for the first bunch of expenses. Maybe that sounds 
 a little wild, but I thought I could do it. I figured I 
 could get a change pilot for little or nothing, and we'd 
 get in 'way over a hundred hours before the Fair closed. 
 At a dollar a minute. And the expenses would be 
 practically nothing. Now that's blown " He ex- 
 haled prodigiously. " Hang it, it's a lot worse having
 
 EGAN 01 
 
 it killed now than it would have been if I'd tried it, and 
 fallen down. I hate to get throttled off like that 
 but the worst of it is that I won't ever know whether the 
 darned scheme would have paid or not. Like losing a 
 golf ball you don't care so much about losing the 
 ball, but you hate to lose the ball. Well it's all off. 
 We're buffaloed. Forget it. ... What can we do 
 about the transportation company? " 
 
 " It begins to look to me, Bronson, as though you'd 
 have to depend entirely on outside capital." 
 
 " It does to me, too." 
 
 " I'm awfully sorry I can't see my way clear to ... 
 I'll help you every bit I can, and I'll do your legal work, 
 and be a director, but somehow I can't let you have 
 that money myself; I'm positive you'd go lose it. It 
 isn't stinginess, either. You can have all I've got if 
 it's for you, Bronson for you to live on, if you need 
 it but not for those cussed flying machines. I don't 
 trust 'em." 
 
 " I know." Egan was very subdued. " I don't 
 blame you, Uncle George. That's your way of looking 
 at it. But of course that may be just the thing that'll 
 prevent me from interesting anybody else. We've got 
 to consider that possibility, too. People would nat- 
 urally want to know how much we three are in for. 
 Practically everybody I've seen has asked me that, as 
 it is. And that added to the fact that none of these 
 people have seen much flying, and I was counting so 
 much on the Fair for publicity " 
 
 " True." The Honourable George scratched his 
 head. " You've got to get outside capital to start 
 with. If you can't get it, you'll just have to let the
 
 302 EGAN 
 
 thing slide. I'll back you to the limit in any ordinary 
 commercial proposition, but this is one too many for 
 me. And just the same, I hope you get it going, and 
 make it succeed so well I'll look like an old fool." 
 
 Egan bristled. " You don't think I'm licked, do 
 you? I tell you, I'm going to start it, and I'm going 
 to run it, and I'm going to control it, and I'm going to 
 put it over no matter what happens. That's settled." 
 
 " How are you going to live in the meantime, though ? 
 Sell your car ? " 
 
 Egan had the grace to blush. The Judge had never 
 once criticized him for his extravagance. 
 
 " I've been thinking it over while we've been talking, 
 and I've got a plan that ought to work out very nicely. 
 I thought if I could land something that would just 
 pay my running expenses, and leave me time enough to 
 talk this transportation scheme with people who have 
 money, there wouldn't be so much of a rush about it. 
 Then when we've got enough guarantees to go ahead 
 with " He broke off as the door ripped open to ad- 
 mit Stanley Adams, very red of face, and prodigiously 
 out of temper. 
 
 " Hello, Adams. Come on in," invited the Honour- 
 able George cordially. 
 
 Egan gestured towards the reporter. " Come and 
 listen to this, Uncle Stanley. I'm telling what I'm go- 
 ing to do next. The Fair Committee " 
 
 " I know all about that," said Adams, shortly. " The 
 infernal cut-throats ! " 
 
 Egan looked at him inquiringly. " Well, I'm not 
 going to cry about it, so I guess you don't need to. 
 Eddie's having his inning: ours'll come later. For-
 
 EGAN 203 
 
 tunes of war, that's all. I'm just telling what I want 
 to do. I've got a heap of interesting war stories, and 
 I know this town about as well as anybody else does I 
 don't see why I couldn't act as a sort of special writer 
 for the Times, to tide me over for a while, do you? I 
 wouldn't want much ; say, thirty or thirty-five dollars a 
 week. Uncle George'll loan me the rest. And that'll 
 give me time enough to " 
 
 Adams interrupted him savagely. " Seen today's 
 Times? " 
 
 " Why no." 
 
 " Here's one. Just off the press." He flung it 
 towards Egan, who eventually had to get up and re- 
 trieve the damp pages from the floor. " First page 
 top of fourth column boxed you can't miss it." 
 
 He began to pace the floor impatiently while Egan 
 unrolled the tightly creased journal, and found the 
 place. He halted, and glared at Egan. Egan read, 
 blanched, and without a word, walked over and put the 
 sheet before the Honourable George. 
 
 DON'T LET YOUR CHICKENS FLY 
 BEFORE THEY'RE HATCHED 
 
 The Times announces with regret, not unmixed with 
 a soupcon of grave humour, that the promised yea, 
 the trumpetingly heralded exhibition flights during 
 Fair Week will not be made by our youthful townsman, 
 Mr. Bronson Egan. Nor does it appear, now that the 
 truth has emerged from hiding, that Mr. Egan will 
 have the opportunity of carrying voluntary passengers 
 towards Heaven at the rate of about two cents a foot, 
 which was his avidly concealed intention, not included
 
 204 EGAN 
 
 in his published utterances. Indeed, Mr. Egan, who 
 was but recently discharged from the Air Service, 
 seems to have promptly enlisted in the Hot Air Serv- 
 ice, and placed himself on active duty in our too gul- 
 lible midst. 
 
 The facts the official, incontrovertible, copper- 
 riveted facts are that Mr. Egan, despite the com- 
 muniques emanating from him during the last few days, 
 will not fly at all during Fair Week (which, under the 
 usual misnomer, will last a fortnight). What other 
 essentials he neglected to provide for, we cannot say, 
 but he certainly neglected to arrange for a concession 
 covering the use of the race track, and his various state- 
 ments to the Times were therefore without the slight- 
 est authority. In the meantime the Fair Committee 
 had already corresponded with, and actually contracted 
 with, ex-Lieutenant R. C. Utley, who formerly held the 
 American record of 135 consecutive loops. Mr. Utley 
 will fly daily, stunting at 10 :30 A. M. and 3 p. M., and 
 taking up passengers between times at a reasonable 
 figure, all for the profit of the Fair, and not for any 
 individual. 
 
 This correction is printed at the request of the Fair 
 Committee, in justice ta it, and to Mr. Utley, and 
 it may be with reverse English to Mr. Egan. 
 
 The Honourable George laid down his spectacles ten- 
 derly, and nursed his knees. 
 
 " Who wrote that, Adams? " 
 
 " A little squirt on the city staff. I didn't see it 
 until it was off the press damn it ! " He turned on 
 Egan. " What was that pipe-dream you had a while 
 ago? Get you a job on the Times? After that? 
 Well, not exactly." He snorted violently. " What
 
 EGAN 205 
 
 I'm worrying about is where my next job is. I'm go- 
 ing to need money myself, and need it bad." 
 
 " Did you quit ? " asked the Honourable George, with 
 a glance for Egan, who was standing in abject silence 
 at the window. 
 
 Adams motioned belligerently. 
 
 " I didn't have time. They fired me." He displayed 
 the knuckles of his right hand. ** I did that on the 
 chap who wrote it. He's got a glass jaw. The old 
 man's got a kick left in him yet, by thunder ! And 
 they that's the only thing I'm sorry for they fired 
 me before I could stop stuttering long enough to quit. 
 I'm through, and I'm glad of it." 
 
 Egan turned back from the window. 
 
 " It's going to be darned hard sledding for me to sell 
 five dollar gold pieces for sixty-nine cents apiece after 
 that," he said. " But I'm going on trying to put that 
 company over until I'm dead, hear me ? " 
 
 Judge Perkins cleared his throat. " Stanley," he 
 said, " don't you think it's pretty near time you showed 
 Bronson the best way to go about getting a job? "
 
 xvn 
 
 THE billboards of the city had changed, in the 
 last few months, that percentage of their 
 blazoned appeal which had been purely pa- 
 triotic. Except for a few neglected corners, pathetic 
 in their belated insistence upon Administration dogmas 
 " Food Will Win the War," " Fuel Will Win the 
 War," " Thrift Will Win the War," " Can Vegetables 
 and Can the Kaiser, Too," " Buy W. ,S. S. Now and 
 Help Win the War," the spaces contributed to the Gov- 
 ernment by the outdoor advertising companies now 
 showed a series of warnings to an already forgetful de- 
 mocracy. " A Job for Every Soldier, and a Soldier for 
 Every Job," " If They Were Good Enough to Fight for 
 You, They're Good Enough to Work for You," " Hire 
 the Fighting Man First." But the Administration dog- 
 mas had been dignified by three-sheets, while all that 
 the United States Employment Service could afford, 
 now that the war was safely over, and the policy of 
 retrenchment begun, was a modest little square not 
 much larger than a desk blotter. The space was gra- 
 tuitous, but the Government was economical even on 
 printing. 
 
 And in spite of the message of those modest little 
 squares, which represented a lower expenditure than any 
 manufacturer would consider adequate to put a new 
 brand of cigarettes or talcum-powder before the public, 
 the democracy was edging slowly towards the business- 
 like point of view. Publicity, and sounding slogans, 
 
 206
 
 EGAN 207 
 
 exert the best influence when they suggest something not 
 too expensive for the average reader. Patriotism is 
 harder to sell in peace-time than winter underwear in 
 Borneo. And one of the very hardest things in all the 
 world is to persuade a man to hire somebody he doesn't 
 affirmatively want to hire. 
 
 As Egan told himself dumbly, Captain Eddie Ricken- 
 backer, the leading American ace, could naturally com- 
 mand a lofty salary in many fields, because Captain 
 Rickenbacker had originally been an automobile expert, 
 and because the press had given him, for the last two 
 years, greater publicity than ten million dollars could 
 buy. And there was a large percentage of returning 
 fighters like Rickenbacker for whom the billboards per- 
 formed no service. Any one who had learned to com- 
 mand men, or learned to be a genius in paper work, or 
 perfected himself in some non-combatant specialty, was 
 worth more than ever to a prospective employer. But 
 Egan had commanded no men, and learned no specialty 
 except that in which he purposed to make himself a 
 leader. He had no desire to ally himself with any other 
 aircraft venture, and to be an underling in it. And 
 there was none of these in Plainfield anyway, and he 
 wanted to live in Plainfield. 
 
 Indeed, as Egan saw the situation, the non-combatant 
 executive had acquired the most valuable experience of 
 all. Men like General Guy Tripp of Ordnance Pro- 
 duction ; Colonel George Mixter and Lieutenant H. H. 
 Emmons of Aircraft Production; Lieutenant Colonel 
 Bingham and Colonel Walter Dill Scott, chief of Army 
 personnel work ; Colonel Vincent of the Liberty Engine 
 and General Kenly of the Air Service and Captain
 
 208 EGAN 
 
 Grover O'Neill, his aide, and Captain Carroll Dunham 
 and Major Clarence Little of the Air Service Person- 
 nel ; Colonel Warren, Father of the Questionnaire, Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel Bab Andrews of the Motor Transport 
 Corps, all acquaintances of Egan or of his father ; these 
 were types of men whose non-combatant achievements 
 gave them a hugely increased value professionally or 
 commercially, and insured their future, whether they 
 needed additional insurance or not. They had gained 
 more breadth of experience in a year and a half, or two 
 years, than twenty years of peace could have provided. 
 
 But the typical fighting pilot, as such, had made no 
 record which any employer except the War Depart- 
 ment or an aircraft manufacturer could rightfully set 
 down among his prima facie assets. Experience in 
 command of men, experience in administration, experi- 
 ence in production, experience in conservation, trans- 
 portation, finance, experience in the sciences from 
 the holy science of medicine to the unholy science of 
 gas defence experience in the Service of Supply and 
 in the all-but-civilian bureaucratic units, had a com- 
 mercial outlet. Why should an employer hire as a 
 clerk or as a general manager, an individual without 
 the usual qualifying characteristics, habits, and ten- 
 dencies, merely because the candidate had beaten off 
 three Fokkers over the Bois d'Barricourt? 
 
 Except for the irrelevant fact that Egan had lost a 
 great inheritance, he was in the same category with 
 thousands of young men of the same age. He was col- 
 lege-trained ; but the mere circumstance of having at- 
 tended a few lectures at an institution operated on the 
 assumption that youth comes to college to be educated,
 
 EGAN 209 
 
 has never yet borne with it the assumption of innate 
 ability, and never should. The business of life is to 
 make, to transport, and to sell. Egan had learned 
 only how best to destroy. 
 
 He had won honours for cruising above the clouds, 
 magnificent and lonely as an eagle, and equally a source 
 of terror to his prey. Now that his feet were on the 
 ground, he wasn't worth a penny an hour more than the 
 boy who had stayed at home, and, after spending a few 
 minutes on the war bulletins before dinner, studied a 
 correspondence course in efficiency until bedtime. In- 
 deed, he was worth considerably less. 
 
 He was twenty-five, without a single item of mental 
 equipment to put him above the average of value of a 
 man just strutting forth from college with diploma in, 
 hand. He was well disciplined, but the discipline was 
 of a sort to set the brakes on his initiative. He was 
 accustomed to military ways of correspondence, to mili- 
 tary ways of decentralized authority, to military ways 
 of counting lead-pencils and sometimes neglecting to 
 count freight-cars. And his normal taste was for a 
 commanding position in the world a position carry- 
 ing with it a good income, and a good status in society. 
 
 His misfortune wasn't in any sense his fault. It 
 wasn't the fault of his Government. It wasn't any- 
 body's fault ; except, perhaps, that the hysterical writ- 
 ers of special magazine articles might have blamed it 
 on the grandfather of Germany's last Kaiser. But it 
 was stultifying, nevertheless. Egan would have reacted 
 sharply to the theory that the Government, having 
 helped to prevent him from learning how to make a 
 living, thereby owed him one. The war had been indi-
 
 210 EGAN 
 
 vidualistic. He had fought not for an abstract ideal, 
 but for a personal cause. Even if he had been drafted, 
 he should still have felt that it was an individual propo- 
 sition. It was merely his contribution towards the 
 privilege of living among Americans. Indeed, he saw 
 no merit in the placarded suggestion of the Employ- 
 ment Service to the effect that mere contact with the 
 Army should be regarded as a sort of general refer- 
 ence. 
 
 He realized that the war, bringing sudden and acute 
 demands for certain things and stifling the production 
 of others, had arbitrarily made manufacturers richer 
 than they had ever dreamed, or made them poorer than 
 they had ever feared. The rich employer was still 
 willing, in many cases, to hire discharged soldiers 
 whether he needed them or not. It was a spectacular 
 thing to do. Half a dozen factories in Plainfield even 
 specialized in cripples, capitalizing the charity. The 
 empty-sleeved veteran was already to be noted at the 
 doorway of large buildings; it was hardly noticeable, 
 now, whether the elevator operator wore ribbon-bars or 
 not. By the same token, Egan could have found a 
 place for himself in twenty minutes. He could have 
 found it with Kent. And it would have been worth just 
 about what it cost him in self-respect. 
 
 The dry-goods clerk who became a second-lieutenant 
 in the Quartermaster Corps and worked in a domestic 
 Depot, the mechanic who got his chevrons for Motor 
 Transport work at cantonment, the laboratory-worker 
 who began and finished his service at Edgewood in 
 Chemical .Warfare, the metal salesman who broadened 
 his knowledge and won the contumely of Congress by
 
 EGAN 
 
 living as an Ordnance officer in Washington all these 
 were better fitted to earn a living than they had been 
 before. Skilled workmen were precious, regardless of 
 their trade. But the well-born youth who would nor- 
 mally have gone into something cleanly and conven- 
 tional selling bonds or taking up the reins of luV 
 father's business he had merely won conscience, and 
 lost time. To this extent, the draft-dodger had won 
 the inside track from him. 
 
 Egan could take his choice of twice a hundred jobs 
 in Plainfield. A hundred and fifty of them were char- 
 ity, masquerading as patriotism. Forty of them were 
 in common labour. Nine of them were kid-glove op- 
 portunities, excellent for the high-school graduate with 
 vanity and little foresight white collar jobs, with 
 nothing ahead but hard-wrung increases of a dollar a 
 week, and eventually a jerry-built white house with two 
 mortgages on it. 
 
 Two weeks sped past, on borrowed money, while he 
 thought it over.
 
 XVIII 
 
 SOCIALLY, for a fortnight, Egan had all but 
 eliminated himself from Plainfield. It was 
 neither out of youthful pessimism, nor out of 
 rancour; it was neither because he was afraid, nor be- 
 cause he was ashamed to resume his old life; he had 
 calmly considered the circumstances, and made a vol- 
 untary choice. The clock was his counsellor. He had 
 no time for diversion. Society, in its common aspect, 
 would have been a liability to him instead of an asset. 
 Some of his none too friendly acquaintances, and some 
 of his analytical ones, like Henry Luke, might judge 
 that he had deliberately run to cover ; and a few might 
 even go so far as to hint that after the expose in the 
 Times he had been dropped, but Egan wasn't inter- 
 ested in what they thought, or said. He knew that 
 society partakes of the distinguishing quality of a 
 nettle. He knew that society, regarded as a more or 
 less organized form of exclusiveness, takes its promi- 
 nence not so much from the complacence of those who 
 are a part of it, as from the tacit consent of others to 
 be excluded or at least their tacit recognition of the 
 fact that excluded they are, and ^ill be. Egan con- 
 sented to no exclusion of himself, nor did he admit a 
 cause. He knew that he could still go where he chose, 
 when he chose. And while he was studying, and trying 
 to make up his mind what to do, he chose to go nowhere, 
 except to the Metropolitan Club. 
 
 At first, he hadn't recalled his vested privilege. Old 
 212
 
 EGAN 213 
 
 Man Egan's admission, twelve years ago, had automati- 
 cally placed Bronson in nomination at twenty-one. 
 He had been elected during his senior year at college, 
 and Old Man Egan had paid his dues for him up to last 
 autumn. Between graduation and embarkation, he 
 hadn't found time to use the club, but when he first came 
 home, he had remembered, and he had rather inferred 
 that his long absence and failure to pay his tithes had 
 disenfranchised him. He had asked the Honourable 
 George Perkins about it, and the Honourable George 
 had found out for him that members in service were 
 exempt from dues, and that Egan was still carried on 
 the rolls. 
 
 He had always liked the Metropolitan, and, as he be- 
 came gradually aware that it had been a grave mistake 
 for him to try to spur his sentiments by going to live 
 at the old house on Vine Street, he fell into the habit of 
 using the club more and more. The sense of repose he 
 got from it was almost as refreshing as though he had 
 been a hen-pecked benedict ; he liked especially the li- 
 brary, high-ceiled, ruddy-lighted, almost perfectly 
 quiet ; and at the end of a long day of interviewing re- 
 calcitrant prospects on the Transportation project, or 
 at the fag end of a futile evening of worry about per- 
 sonal finances and a well-paying job without too much 
 labour attached to it, he often spent a few solitary 
 hours there, relaxed and with a blank brain, before he 
 went on home. 
 
 " Home " was a term which seemed to be growing less 
 and less applicable to the house on Vine Street. Egan 
 was minded of one of his old fraternity songs : " There 
 Is No Place Like Home to Me That's Why I Stay
 
 214. EGAN 
 
 Away." The atmosphere of it had become almost in- 
 sufferable, now that Miss McCain, submerged in the 
 depths of unrequited love, had foundered with her do- 
 mestic tragedy. Miss McCain was frequently passed 
 on the stairs, or in the hallway, and her behaviour, at 
 such times, was irritating. She crowded the wall, like 
 a timid fawn in the presence of a Mohock, and snif- 
 fled. Egan couldn't determine whether the sniffle was 
 meant as a direct indictment, or as the best available 
 substitute for a salutation, but in any event, it wasn't a 
 happy sound. Wherever Miss McCain went, the air 
 had an excess of moisture in it. She constantly car- 
 ried a handkerchief, balled tight. 
 
 Her mother, having been a mother only once, never 
 of a son, and never having cultivated either a sense of 
 humour or an understanding of the irresponsibility of 
 youth, was of military dignity and repression. Her 
 mouth might have been ruled thin by a hot iron. Her 
 eyes were perpetually unsmiling, and fixed on the fourth 
 dimension. Occasionally she would find herself bobbing 
 her head for emphasis, while she made up vitriolic 
 speeches for Eddie Macklin. It was a little discon- 
 certing for the spectators. She was sometimes forget- 
 ful of her duties, too, and Egan had occasion more than 
 once to dislike his breakfast. He was sorry for her 
 chilled heart, but he couldn't carry his sympathy over 
 to apply to his eggs. 
 
 It was a house of drab memories for almost all its 
 inhabitants. The kind of house which encourages no 
 laughter at all, and causes voices to be hushed, even in 
 privacy. In another season, it would certainly smell 
 musty, no matter how much it was ventilated.
 
 EGAN 215 
 
 To Egan, the presence of the Honourable George in 
 his old room had its drawbacks, also. The Honourable 
 George was unquestionably ageing. His temper had 
 frayed a little, and although he was fond of Egan, and 
 sympathetic, he had begun to think, at odd moments, of 
 the next life. The Honourable George, like Egan, 
 hadn't a living relative, and philosophy is cold comfort 
 for a man who slips into the habit of waking up at 
 night, and dreaming of facing the end of things alone. 
 His interest in his practice had commenced to wane, his 
 interest in Egan's transportation company was hardly 
 more than veiling for his fondness for Egan. He was 
 an agnostic, and consequently a grave problem to him- 
 self in old age. 
 
 As for the other boarders, Little Johnny Jones was 
 everybody's friend, and rarely at home. He was still 
 making sporadic attempts to drag Egan out into gaiety 
 with him; but when Egan wouldn't go, Johnny went 
 alone. Adams was Adams. The disgruntled artist 
 who ate by induction and gestured with his thumb on 
 all occasions was merely an excitable bore. Mr. Wil- 
 son predicated his remarks upon the assumption that 
 everybody was interested in his insomnia, his appetite, 
 and the trip he had taken to California in 1902. Mr. 
 Pennypacker was a thorn. 
 
 Egan would have fled the house in an instant, save 
 for the responsibilities he felt that he had undertaken. 
 Judge Perkins had joined the household on Egan's rep- 
 resentations. But there was no valid reason to prevent 
 Egan from spending his evenings at the Metropolitan 
 Club, and whether or not he felt guilty about it, he spent 
 them there.
 
 216 EGAN 
 
 He was sitting in the library one night, pawing over 
 some magazines, when one of his conditional subscribers 
 came up to him with a newspaper in his hand. The 
 man was a small manufacturer who had sold nuts and 
 bolts to Egan's father for fifteen years. He had prom- 
 ised to invest a thousand dollars when the rest of the 
 subscriptions, put together, totalled a hundred thou- 
 sand. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I guess that roast they gave you 
 in the Times didn't hurt as much as I thought it would." 
 
 Although the matter had rarely been mentioned to 
 him, or even hinted at, the profound disaster of Egan's 
 Fair Week program had seriously damaged his chances 
 for the larger glory. That article in the Times had 
 carried too much of a sting in it. That sting was a 
 thousand times more potent than a two-column destruc- 
 tive criticism, written in learned polysyllables, could 
 ever have been. Most men who had read it, instinc- 
 tively shied away from Egan's arguments, their minds 
 glued to Fair Week, and the Times. Only those who 
 hadn't seen it, those who denounced the Times as yel- 
 low, and those who believed in Egan primarity as the 
 son of his father, had been willing to listen seriously to 
 Egan afterwards. 
 
 " What's the idea ? I don't understand you ? " 
 
 " Why," said the older member. " I guess I'll have 
 to write you a .check one of these fine days, Mr. Egan, 
 won't I?" 
 
 Egan smiled, uncomprehending. " I hope so." 
 
 " I certainly do congratulate you. I see you've 
 taken my advice." 
 
 " Er . . . what advice was that? "
 
 EGAN 217 
 
 " About subordinating yourself in your scheme to 
 older men with ah prestige." 
 
 " Do you mean Judge Perkins ? He's been con- 
 nected with me from the very beginning. I'm sure I 
 told you that." 
 
 The older member was momentarily stumped. " I'm 
 sure the Judge is the best man in Plainfield for his 
 place^' he said awkwardly, " but I was I think the 
 business men you've associated with you make it a much 
 better proposition. I mean, from a selfish point of 
 view. I must admit I was disappointed not to have my 
 own name " 
 
 " The other business men ? " 
 
 " Exactly. Mr. Henderson, and " 
 
 Egan caught at the reference. 
 
 " Say that again ! " 
 
 The third of the trio stepped involuntarily back- 
 wards. " Gracious ! . . . Why, I said Mr. Henderson, 
 and " 
 
 " Henderson? " 
 
 *' Yes, Martin Henderson. The Dayton man. He 
 and" 
 
 ** What on earth ever gave you the impression that 
 he's associated with me? " 
 
 " Why, the Herald says so tonight, Mr. Egan. Isn't 
 it true? " 
 
 Egan's face was a study. " It most assuredly is 
 not." 
 
 " Why that's curious." 
 
 " Where was this in the Herald, did you say ? " 
 
 " Yes. Oh, that's so. The edition was pretty late 
 tonight. Isn't there a copy here ? I just brought this
 
 218 EGAN 
 
 one in myself. It's on the front page here. Right 
 there by my thumb." 
 
 The informer strained his eyes to peer over Egan's 
 shoulder, just as though he hadn't read the item before. 
 
 AIR TRAFFIC COMPANY ORGANIZED 
 BY LOCAL CAPITALISTS 
 
 Plainfield Keeps up With World's Progress 
 and Beats Most of the World to it. 
 
 Incorporation of Air Traffic Company with capital of 
 
 $500,000 assures Plainfield a prominent niche 
 
 m history of aviation. 
 
 Announcement is made this morning of probably the 
 most important single event in Plainfield since the first 
 railroad line was completed. Leading citizens of Plain- 
 field, without blare of trumpets, have for the past six 
 weeks been perfecting arrangements for a large fleet 
 of airplanes, each capable of carrying from 25 to 40 
 passengers, or from 3,500 to 6,000 pounds of freight. 
 
 With the assurance that these planes can be deliv- 
 ered by January 1, the pioneers of aerial transport in 
 this section have incorporated the Air Traffic Company, 
 capitalized at $500,000. It is understood that all the 
 stock has been purchased by the incorporators for 
 cash, and that the funds are on deposit in this city. 
 A bond issue of $500,000 is also planned, and will be 
 underwritten by the Citizens Trust Company and sold 
 to local investors exclusively. 
 
 The principal officers of the company are: Presi- 
 dent, Stephen W. Luke, president of the Citizens Trust 
 Co. ; Vice-Presidents, Edward W. Richards, vice-presi- 
 dent of the Plainfield Gear Co. and of the High Speed
 
 EGAN 219 
 
 Shell Co. ; Charles B. Garverick, president of the Elec- 
 tric Foundry Company ; Edwin F. Johansen, president 
 of the Wood Products Co. ; and two technical experts 
 not yet named. The Secretary will be B. C. Boyd, 
 president of the Plainfield Times Company; and the 
 Treasurer, H. F. Hoyt, who for this purpose has re- 
 signed the treasurership of the Plainfield Motor Car 
 Co. The directors will be the officers and, in addition, 
 Martin Henderson of Dayton and Plainfield (chair- 
 man), S. W. King of the Herald, and others. 
 
 In an interview given last night to a Herald re- 
 porter, Mr. Luke said : " Scores of concerns will be 
 organized during the coming year to establish aerial 
 transport lines. We believe that the great speed of 
 the airplane makes it a valuable means of transporta- 
 tion, and that people will be glad to pay extra to have 
 their packages delivered in half or one-third the time 
 required by other means of transportation. 
 
 " It has been estimated that aerial express could be 
 carried profitably at a charge of $2 per pound for pack- 
 ages of a given size between New York and Chicago. 
 We propose to carry packages not to exceed 50 pounds 
 in weight at 20 cents a pound per hundred miles or 
 fraction thereof. Immediate service will be provided 
 between Plainfield, Dayton, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chi- 
 cago, Columbus and other large centres within a ra- 
 dius of 1,000 miles. The size of our fleet means reg- 
 ular and frequent schedules and prompt delivery. Pas- 
 sengers will be carried at rates to be announced later." 
 
 Mr. Richards, operating vice-president, said : " Our 
 planes, which are of the general type known as the 
 Handley-Page, will make Chicago in less than three 
 hours, against nine by rail. They are costing us 
 $17,000 apiece. The life of the motors, if run throt- 
 tled down, is over 500 hours of flying, but the life of
 
 220 EGAN 
 
 the plane itself is greater. Depreciation will therefore 
 not be serious. We are sure we can keep our traffic 
 down, and still make a good profit. If the public 
 wants to know why it costs so much to run an airplane, 
 and why our charges are therefore so high, it costs 
 about 46 cents a mile for a mighty small one. The 
 two low-compression Liberty engines on our planes, and 
 other expenses-, will make it cost us about 66 cents. 
 Upkeep is the big item, and not fuel. You get four to 
 seven miles per gallon. Salaries of mechanics, repairs 
 and replacements are what eat up the profits." 
 
 Mr. Hoyt, Treasurer of the new company, said: 
 ** I have nothing to say except that this triumph is due 
 to the energy and imagination of one man of whom 
 Plainfield ought to be proud, and I regret that his name 
 is not connected with the company except as a stock- 
 holder. All I can say is that this is the modesty of 
 true greatness." 
 
 Mr. Henderson, chairman of the Board, said : ** I 
 first became interested in this subject by an editorial 
 in the New York Tribune. It told me that you could 
 go from London to Paris on schedule time for $75, 
 and that the company was actually making money. 
 I found that with aerodromes only a hundred miles 
 apart, commercial flying is almost as safe as walking; 
 and if your planes are bi-motored, it is safer yet. All 
 our planes will be bi-motored. If one motor stalls, the 
 other can pull through with no more delay than the 
 average railroad train. In cold weather, passengers 
 can wear the same kind of electrically heated clothing 
 that aviators have worn for the last two years. I be- 
 lieve this is a tremendous thing, and I am glad to be 
 connected with it, and to help give Plainfield a modern 
 industry." 
 
 The temporary offices of the company will be on the
 
 EGAN 221 
 
 6th floor of the Times building. The local landing field 
 will be on the old Rigby farm adjoining the Fair 
 grounds. Title to this property has not yet passed, 
 but an option on it was obtained some time ago, and will 
 promptly be exercised. The purchase price is said to 
 be $30,000 for 150 acres. Buildings will be con- 
 structed by the Plainfield Construction Corporation, 
 which is now engaged in completing the Sanford trolley 
 Line. 
 
 A large force of clerical employes will be required, 
 and Mr, B. C. Boyd, Secretary of the Company, states 
 that all applicants should refer directly to him. Me- 
 chanics, riggers, testers, trouble-shooters and labour- 
 ers should apply to the office of the operating vice- 
 president. Positions in all grades of labour will be 
 open in seven cities simultaneously. 
 
 It is understood that applications for positions as 
 pilots and assistant pilots will not be received, as the 
 company has made the necessary arrangements through 
 the Department of Military Aeronautics to secure hon- 
 ourably discharged pilots of the Army Air Service for 
 this purpose. 
 
 Not only as a civic duty, but also as a source of high 
 enjo3Tnent, loyal Plainfielders are urged to book space 
 for early flights. Take a trip to Chicago by air as 
 safe as sitting in a rocking-chair. Send your express 
 parcels, and especially perishable goods, by air 
 quick, cheap, and certain. Support this most imagi- 
 native of Plainfield's industries, and watch Plainfield 
 grow! 
 
 Egan, whose hands had shaken a trifle as he first 
 grasped the entire purport of the article, finished it 
 stone-cold. His jaw was set hard, and his eyes were
 
 222 EGAN 
 
 round and staring. The fear of rivalry had always 
 been with him, but it had never been a really penetrating 
 fear. 
 
 It wouldn't have been half so astounding to him if 
 some organization of technical men had come into this 
 field. Indeed, his fears had been based upon the as- 
 sumption that only technical experts would come into 
 it at all. He had comforted himself with the assurance 
 that his own data, his own experience, his own mission- 
 ary work in Plainfield would at least give him a pleas- 
 ant entree to such an organization, if one arose against 
 him. The last thing he had anticipated was that local 
 magnates, unskilled in the science of aerial navigation 
 or of aircraft production, would plunge into action 
 without even consulting him without even including 
 him. 
 
 The shock was less to his hope than to his pride. He 
 had fancied that he knew more about aviation than any 
 one in Plainfield. He had assumed that he was quite 
 capable of building and directing a great organization 
 he didn't assume it on the basis of any profound 
 ability ; on the contrary, he thought it was too easy. 
 It had been the sort of dream which every college senior 
 practises in silence, or confesses towards midnight be- 
 fore an open fire. A golden dream of generalizations, 
 with all the practical details left for some one else to 
 trip over, pick up, and stagger under. 
 
 Of a sudden, he was stricken by a flashing concep- 
 tion of his own youth. It was exactly what his pros- 
 pective clients had been saying, but he had discounted it. 
 Youth ! Younger even than youth boyishness. Four 
 years of service overseas had developed him not the
 
 EGAN 223 
 
 slightest in commercial acumen. It had merely given 
 him an external veneering of metal. That veneering, 
 still capable of high resistance under the stress of his 
 anger when he came home to find his hopes despotically 
 abolished, had gradually eroded as he passed from a 
 military to a civilian state of mind. Successive reve- 
 lations of his unimportance to the community had weak- 
 ened his defence. He still had physical courage in 
 abundance, he still had all the fighting instincts of his 
 race, but in learning how to control them, he had nec- 
 essarily had to learn when he was beaten. 
 
 He was beaten now, and he knew it. There was no 
 possible counter-attack. He was utterly helpless in the 
 face of this immeasurably superior power. It wasn't 
 simply the money barrier, it was organization. Money 
 meant comparatively little to him; organization was 
 everything. He couldn't fight the unified capitalists of 
 Plainfield. 
 
 The shock made him dizzy for just a moment. It 
 had wiped out both his standing place and his perspec- 
 tive. His thoughts, following along those mysterious 
 lines of suggestion which no one will ever comprehend, 
 or can ever resist, gave him a mental picture of a gi- 
 gantic bubble, shimmering blue and silver in the sun- 
 light, and then collapsing in a lightning stroke, and 
 floating off in a burst of silver spray for a single sec- 
 ond before the smallest fragments disappeared, and left 
 nothing. The bubble brought up the swift image of an 
 observation balloon which he had seen shot down im 
 France. The observer had promptly gone over the 
 side, and the Fokker victor had spiralled down around 
 the parachute, shooting at the helpless target adrift.
 
 224 EGAN 
 
 That was up in the Argonne. Damned unpleasant 
 place Argonne. Egan had flown there in the early 
 days when the life of the average pilot was two hours 
 in the air. It was cold. Also muddy. You stick in it 
 like glue. Once he had got himself mired in a camion, 
 going back to rest billets. The harder they tried to 
 get out, the deeper they got in. History repeats it- 
 self. He was mired in failure. 
 
 H]e heard his own voice speaking. " No," he said, 
 " that's not my company. That's something new." 
 " Is it indeed. Then does that mean " 
 " It means," said Egan, " that Fm through. . . . 
 Can I have that paper? Thank you." 
 
 The older man must have thought him very rude, but 
 Egan had no thought of courtesies. All he thought of 
 was to reach Judge Perkins as soon as he could. Per- 
 kins or Adams or Johnny Jones. Adams was the man 
 he reached first. 
 
 At the end of the hour, the journalist tossed away 
 his cigar and looked Egan straight in the eyes. 
 
 " I see the Interurban Trolley wants some outdoor 
 men for gang-bosses," said Adams. " Chance to rise, 
 and all that. It beats inside work all to pieces for a 
 man like you, Bronson. Good pay, too. Four a day." 
 
 Egan drew a long, shuddering breath. " That's bet- 
 ter than being bossed around by an anaemic little mutt 
 in an alpaca coat in somebody's office," he said.
 
 XIX 
 
 IN the library of the new Kent homestead, the laird 
 of the manor and Eddie Macklin had almost worn 
 a trail in the carpet around the mahogany centre 
 table. In the first instance, it was Macklin who had 
 done the walking, while Kent sat listening and digesting 
 and judging. Presently, the two had been on their 
 feet at once. Lately, Macklin had sulked in a chair 
 while Mr. Kent became peripatetic, and diffuse. 
 
 " But merciful heavens, man ! " said Kent for the 
 dozenth time, " what were you ever thinking about? 
 Why couldn't you keep your wits about you? As if 
 you didn't know that a man in your position mustn't 
 stub his toes ! " 
 
 Macklin, freshly sublimated at the recollection, held 
 up his hand for mercy. " Kent, I give you my 
 word " 
 
 " Don't bother ! Haven't I said already I believe 
 you? Those things do happen. But you and I, as 
 men of the world, take a different slant on it from what 
 some other people may. You know what campaign 
 dope is, and you know what other women are. I can't 
 answer for what Maryll think. And you've got four 
 people to reckon with the two McCains and Adams 
 and Pennypacker." He halted, impatient. " But 
 what gets me " 
 
 " You don't need to say it all over again," said 
 Macklin wearily. ** They've simply got us up a blind 
 alley. They haven't done anything; they haven't said 
 
 anything. All that's happened is that Adams came in 
 
 225
 
 226 EGAN 
 
 my own office and showed me a photograph of a draw- 
 ing. He didn't make any threat at all. And you see 
 where that leaves me. I don't know what his idea is. 
 If I try to buy the darned thing, he can use that against 
 us. And if I don't, he can use the picture. And he's 
 got a job on the Herald now, and that's against us, 
 anyway." 
 
 Kent stood by the window, crumpling the curtain. 
 " The one sensible thing you've done is to come and tell 
 me, like a man. The next thing is for you to tell Mary. 
 If you don't, and she gets any rumour about it, you 
 know what it's likely to be they'll make a regular as- 
 sault out of it." 
 
 "I suppose you're right, but " 
 
 " But think, man, think of the slogan they can get up 
 about you in November. They killed a man's chances 
 ten years ago just by calling him * Silk-Hat Harry.' 
 Ridicule's the sharpest sword there is and I wouldn't 
 guarantee that your own organization would try to 
 push you ahead of any evidence as strong as that. Be- 
 cause it would kill you permanently, and weaken the 
 organization for a long time if they tried it and lost." 
 
 " Oh, don't ! " said Macklin miserably. 
 
 Kent sat down. He was angry, but not so com- 
 pletely angry that he could disregard the farcical side 
 of Macklin's dilemma. " How can we stop their 
 mouths? Those four? And prevent it from going 
 any further and undo anything they may have done 
 so far?" 
 
 " We can stop the McCains', possibly." 
 
 " Well, how? " 
 
 " I'm pretty sure Mrs. McCain hasn't talked to any-
 
 EGAN 227 
 
 body yet. If she had, I'd have heard of it before this 
 or Mary would. Those things travel. I've got her 
 scared to death on the stock deal; the only question is 
 how long her scare'U last. And from what Adams said, 
 I don't believe he's even discussed it with the McCains 
 yet. But if I could go to Mrs. McCain, and have her 
 assign me her stock and pay her something in real 
 money for it " 
 
 " Wouldn't that make her worse yet? " 
 
 " I don't think so. I know it wouldn't. It would 
 clinch the thing for ever. She'd be happy to get a few 
 thousand dollars. She isn't making expenses. And as 
 a matter of fact, I took the liberty of hinting to her 
 that same day that we might make some sort of dicker 
 . . . that is, if you think it's worth trying." 
 
 " It's not worth a very great deal." Kent pondered. 
 " But it might be a wise idea to offer her something, es- 
 pecially as the Egan receiver tells me the schedule looks 
 better than it did a while ago. The stockholders may 
 eventually get twelve or fifteen per cent. I suppose we 
 could offer her five thousand now. Or we might in- 
 ject some human interest into it. Would it be any 
 stronger if you went to her, offered to buy the stock 
 for twenty-five hundred flat and just to show your 
 sympathy and your willingness to make amends, and all 
 that sort of rot, told her that you'd be glad to send 
 the child to some Eastern boarding school for a couple 
 of years? That wouldn't cost much. And it would 
 get the little girl out of the way, too." 
 
 "She'd fall," said Macklin" confidently. "They'd 
 both fall. And you could buy Pennypacker with a 
 couple of hundred dollars. But you've got to make a
 
 228 EGAk 
 
 clean sweep of the whole crowd, or there's no use trying 
 it. That's why I came to you without doing any mis- 
 sionary work myself first. You can't reach Adams 
 with money." 
 
 Kent began to scowl. " I can reach him with some- 
 thing else, though. We'll see him together. I'm not wor- 
 ried about Adams. I'm worried about these women." 
 
 The younger man had to be content. " Then I'll see 
 Mrs. McCain tomorrow, shall I? And I'll go to 
 Adams with you any time you say. Now, about elec- 
 tion. If I should lose " 
 
 Kent smiled meaningly. 
 
 " If I were you, I shouldn't lose." 
 
 " Oh, but I might. There's always that possibility. 
 That's what we're talking about, isn't it? Then do I 
 get the job of general counsel for Air Traffic as well as 
 the Kent" 
 
 " You're mistaken, Eddie. You can't lose. If you 
 do, there's nothing left. You can see that, can't you ? " 
 Kent shook his head gently. His eyes were kindly, 
 but his j aw was wicked. 
 
 Macklin wiped his forehead, and there was a short 
 silence. " That's a little sudden, isn't it? " 
 
 " I don't think so, particularly. You've intelligence 
 enough to understand facts. The only way you can 
 be very useful to us is as city attorney, or mayor. Of 
 course, I'd do all I could for you, privately, and you'd 
 make good money, but those jobs you speak of aren't 
 for life-nets. They're for an #r-mayor, perhaps, but 
 not for a beaten candidate. Up to a few weeks ago, 
 you had a walkover. I'm giving you something to hush 
 up this present mess. But if that gets out, and Hen- 
 
 .
 
 EGAN 229 
 
 derson cuts loose at the same time and you fall down, 
 why, we can't afford to do a great deal for you politi- 
 cally. That's axiomatic, isn't it? " 
 
 Macklin writhed involuntarily. " I'll do my best, 
 Colonel." 
 
 " I know you will. We'd better go out now, I think. 
 Somebody's come to call. I heard voices, anyhow." 
 
 Neither of them was overjoyed to find that one of 
 \ the voices was Bronson Egan's. 
 
 During the interval before her father and her fiance 
 appeared, Mary had still further threatened Egan's 
 balance. This was because, in a very docile mood, she 
 had brought back to him a vivid recollection of what 
 formerly she had been to him. In this mood, she was 
 adorable. To her strictly personal charms she had 
 added a coat of sympathy which was becoming and se- 
 ductive. She had always liked Egan, and tonight, 
 when he was so patently in need of her encouragement, 
 she liked him better than ever. 
 
 ** That was terribly too bad about the Fair," she 
 said. " I almost cried when I read it in the Times. 
 And I always wanted to ride in an airplane, Bronson." 
 
 To Egan, unexpectedly finding her in this relenting 
 mood, the occasion was peculiarly moving. His life in 
 Plainfield, since his release from the Army, had been 
 highly emotional. He had gone through three months 
 of strong reactions such as a man might have who shoots 
 the Lachine Rapids in a canoe. Then the river of his 
 life had widened, and slowed. This quiet, friendly con- 
 versation with Mary had swung him into a lazy whirl- 
 pool, reminiscent of the rapids, but not so stimulating.
 
 230 EGAN 
 
 He was excessively grateful to her ; and he had no rea- 
 son to suppose that she was very sorry for him. 
 
 " You will yet." 
 
 " Just once. Once is all I want. . . . You don't 
 really believe Eddie had anything to do with putting 
 you out of it, do you ? Because he hadn't honestly. 
 He feels you think he did. But it isn't true. Please 
 believe it isn't." 
 
 "I'd just as soon," said Egan. "In fact, I'd 
 rather." 
 
 " Do you like what you're doing for the Trolley 
 Company, Bronson ? " 
 
 " Pretty well. It's handling men, and that's always 
 good practice. And it's sort of interesting, too. You 
 aren't dealing with anything fixed ; you've got a human 
 equation. Some men get two or three times as much 
 work out of a gang as other men can. It's manage- 
 ment. And there's going to be an enormous lot of con- 
 struction work in the next ten years. I think it's good 
 experience." 
 
 " Better than going with Father? " 
 
 " Yes, I think so." 
 
 " It certainly isn't very exclusive, I shouldn't think." 
 Her voice was less critical than her words, for in real- 
 ity, she was impressed by his independence. 
 
 " Neither would I. But it's out of doors, and it's 
 ^ort of rough. I don't suppose you can understand 
 why I like that. But the pleasure of getting dirty 
 qgain, and feeling that you've done something that's 
 fundamental and real " 
 
 " You don't actually do any digging yourself, I 
 hope."
 
 EGAN 231 
 
 "No just boss. Fm head of a gang of about 
 forty of the loveliest wops you ever saw. Of course, I 
 don't pretend I like it better than doing what I'd hoped 
 to do, but out there in the sun and wind, it " 
 
 " I was sorry about the Air Traffic Company, too," 
 she said. " But I don't suppose that could be helped, 
 either. If Father had anything to do with it, of course 
 you could have a splendid place there, and one that 
 would just suit you. But he hasn't." 
 
 Egan was honestly glad to hear it. " Do you know 
 if Martha's father started it, then? " 
 
 It was at this moment that the door of the library 
 had opened and Kent and Macklin emerged. 
 
 "What's that that Martha's father started?" in- 
 quired Kent, as he shook hands. 
 
 Egan nodded politely to Macklin. 
 
 " We were talking about Air Traffic, sir." 
 
 " Oh, yes." Kent was locating a box of cigars. 
 "Try one of these? . . . Well, sir, that man has had 
 enough of Dayton too much, I guess so he's com- 
 ing over here. Had you heard that? " 
 
 " Not permanently ? " 
 
 " So they say. If your father had lived, and I 
 hadn't been in Washington these last two years, he 
 couldn't have got a foothold here to save his life. 
 Neither of us could stand him for a second. Martha's 
 a friend of Mary's, and that's all. Why, it seems that 
 he's negotiating for some land to build a tremendous 
 plant on, and move his business over here. I under- 
 stand he's quietly bought up interests in seven or eight 
 different small concerns to use as feeders. And he's 
 getting prices on houses in this section I know that
 
 232 EGAN 
 
 for a fact. He's a fast worker, too, when he gets 
 steam up. He'd get up at two o'clock in the morning 
 any time to put something over on the fellow who sleeps 
 'til quarter past." 
 
 Egan abruptly recalled the occasion of their first 
 meeting. ** I know he would," he said. " I remember 
 hearing that once last fall he jumped a milk-train from 
 Dayton at three o'clock in the morning rather than 
 wait " He broke off to stare at Macklin, who had 
 emitted a curious sound from his throat. 
 
 "It's all right," said Macklin. "Swallowed the 
 wrong way. Ha-ha! Go on, Bronson. Sorry I in- 
 terrupted." 
 
 " It was nothing but an illustration," said Egan. 
 
 " Go ahead with the rest of it," urged Kent, with a 
 glance for Macklin. 
 
 " There isn't any more," said Egan, and he also 
 glanced at Macklin, and saw something to remember. 
 
 " But you weren't here last fall. You were in 
 France." 
 
 " Oh, a man told me about it on a train," said Egan. 
 He laughed spontaneously. " Very interesting chap. 
 His name was Feanberg. Not that his name makes any 
 particular difference " 
 
 " Hm." Kent was absorbed with his finger-nails. 
 " How are they treating you out at Sanford, Bron- 
 son? " 
 
 " Mighty well, thank you." 
 
 " Not many men like you would have had the nerve 
 to go into that sort of work, after the education you 
 had."
 
 EGAN 233 
 
 " It was partly to deliver me from my friends," said 
 Egan, laughing. 
 
 "And the other part?" 
 
 " Six dollars a day. I'm paying off my debts." 
 
 Kent looked at him queerly. The confession was 
 remarkably unlike Egan. 
 
 As Egan rose to depart Macklin rose with him. " I'd 
 better be running along, too," he observed. 
 
 " No stay a while," said Kent, elaborately care- 
 less. Macklin stayed. 
 
 On a later evening of the same week, the two Hender- 
 sons, father and daughter, came sympathetically closer 
 to each other than they had ever been before ; and yet, 
 specifically, they weren't on common ground at all. 
 
 For the first time in a decade, Martha had shed un- 
 explained tears. Henderson, endeavouring to console 
 her, found himself helpless. 
 
 " If you'd only tell me," he repeated, smoothing her 
 hair, " maybe I could do something, Martie." 
 
 " N-nothing," she sobbed on his shoulder. 
 
 " Women in my family don't cry for nothing." 
 
 " Y-yes they do, too," she insisted loyally. 
 
 "If it's any of that infernal Kent tribe " Mr, 
 Henderson had noted her receipt of a letter with the 
 Plainfield postmark. 
 
 " Don't it isn't that ! you mustn't say those 
 things " 
 
 His touch became as femininely gentle as he could 
 make it. " Or if it's anything to do with that Egan 
 boy"
 
 EGAN 
 
 " No not that, either " 
 
 " Well, what the mischief is it, then? I can't do you 
 much good until you tell me what the matter is, can I? " 
 
 She could hardly tell him that it was the triple com- 
 bination of Macklin and Mary ; Mary and Egan ; Egan 
 and herself. 
 
 Mary had written her a piteous little note in which 
 there were almost as many hints of quarrels and mis- 
 understandings with her fiance and her father as there 
 were punctuation marks. And the letter had re- 
 lated startling facts about Egan. Egan had sold his 
 runabout at a ruinous sacrifice to Henry Luke, re- 
 signed from his clubs, vanished from society, and taken 
 a position so menial that his old friends spoke of it in 
 horrified undertones. But Mary thought that he was a 
 perfect wonder to stand on his own feet like that, and 
 didn't Martha agree with her ? 
 
 "What do you think about Eddie Macklin?" 
 managed Martha with some effort. 
 
 " That bird? He's a weak sister. Wouldn't trust 
 him around the corner. What's he got to do with " 
 
 " Oh, nothing, nothing ! " said Martha, wretchedly. 
 
 It shocked her beyond expression to realize that un- 
 less her friend patched up these quarrels and misun- 
 derstandings, and married the bird that Henderson 
 wouldn't trust around the corner, Martha herself had 
 probably seen the last of Egan. She knew that it was 
 wicked to hope that the quarrels would be patched up. 
 For if they weren't, four different people, two now and 
 two later, were going to be disappointed in love. That 
 was what she was crying about.
 
 XX 
 
 FOR many days of high compression, Mrs. Mc- 
 Cain had kept her lips tight shut on a subject 
 very near to her, but when, out of a clear sky, a 
 gift from the Greeks came tumbling into her lap, she 
 felt herself physically unable to continue her silence 
 longer. Macklin had been her counsellor. His dere- 
 liction meant that she had no one to advise her. Her 
 distrust of him, now too well grounded to be shaken, 
 extended even to the philanthropy which he had so un- 
 expectedly offered her. 
 
 The loss of her counsellor made her doubly depend- 
 ent upon counsel. She needed to pour out to some one 
 the tale of all her relations with him, before she could 
 sleep of nights. Until recently, she had gone no fur- 
 ther than to despise him and mistrust him ; but when he 
 came to her to offer reparation, she was afraid. Her 
 fear was multiplied by his insistence that there was no 
 necessity of it. And because she began also to be afraid 
 of herself, she cast about her for a substitute for Mack- 
 lin, and chose the Honourable George Perkins. 
 
 A dozen times she planned exactly how she would 
 approach him. She rehearsed her introduction. She 
 devised stealthy little ways of exonerating herself, in 
 case it should appear that she had done wrong. She 
 put off the interview as though it had been an appoint- 
 ment with a dentist. She gathered plenty of courage 
 at impossible times and places, only to lose it as soon 
 
 as she met Perkins face to face. She wasn't afraid of 
 
 235
 
 236 EGAN 
 
 the Honourable George ; she was afraid of Macklin 
 and of herself. 
 
 She could have cornered the Judge after breakfast 
 any morning, but when she finally did conquer her reti- 
 cence, she preferred to go to him at his office. At the 
 first glance, he could see that he had a client for a 
 landlady. 
 
 " I'm in trouble, Judge Perkins." 
 
 The Judge had risen, and bowed her to a chair. Now 
 he sat down opposite her, bending forward interroga- 
 tively, and with immense kindness. 
 
 " Well, that's too bad ! Suppose you tell me what 
 it's all about." 
 
 Mrs. McCain's fingers were weaving ceaselessly. 
 
 " I don't know what to do, Judge, ... I don't know 
 "what to do. It isn't for me I'm thinking of Milly. 
 What that girl's had to suffer ! I don't know anything 
 about these things ... I I hope there's nothing 
 wrong." Her little laugh of deprecation was hollow. 
 " You see, Mr. Macklin isn't advising me any more, 
 since well, for quite some time. It's so hard to un- 
 derstand these things alone. I've always had some- 
 body Mr. McCain, and then Mr. Macklin " 
 
 The judge waited patiently. 
 
 " It's about this one day a year ago Mr. Macklin 
 came to me. He knew I had some money in the sav- 
 ings bank. He told me there was some stock in the 
 Egan Company for sale, very cheap. It would pay 
 four or five times as much as the savings bank would, he 
 said. He said Well, we all know what the Egan 
 Company was. He said he was buying some himself. 
 So I said I'd give him fifteen thousand dollars and . . .
 
 EGAN 237 
 
 and finally he persuaded me I ought to put everything 
 I had in it, and I did. It was about fifty thousand dol- 
 lars. I'd been getting almost forty dollars a week 
 from the bank. I thought I was going to make a hun- 
 dred. I trusted him so. He told me over and over I 
 shouldn't mention it to a soul it was some sort of in- 
 fluence that let him get it so cheap, and there might 
 be bad feeling, and, maybe you see, I don't under- 
 stand those things. I hope there wasn't anything 
 wrong, Judge Perkins." 
 
 " Don't you fret a mite," said the Honourable George 
 soothingly. " Don't you fret a mite." 
 
 She sighed cavernously. " That relieves me so t 
 Well then before I'd ever got any dividend, I saw 
 in the papers the Egan Company was in trouble. I 
 said to Mr. Macklin, * What shall I do ? ' He said to 
 wait. And the next thing I know the company had 
 failed. . . ." She clenched her hands. " I asked him 
 how much I could get for my stock. He said I couldn't 
 get anything. He said he was ruined, too. He said 
 it was more important than ever I shouldn't tell. I 
 might even have to pay something for having got my 
 stock so cheap, through his influence. At least I think 
 he said that. I was too sick to remember very much. 
 I didn't have any money. I didn't know where to turn. 
 Then Mr. Macklin was very kind. He was always 
 very kind. He got me the house, from the hospital, and 
 he said the time might come when he'd do something else 
 for me, if I'd just keep quiet. I'm only just hardly 
 getting a living out of the house now. I'd have lost 
 money if it hadn't been for the boarders Mr. Macklin 
 sent me. I couldn't pay the March rent, and he loaned
 
 238 EGAN 
 
 me the money. When I thought of maybe having to 
 pay something on that stock I was simply crazy. I 
 didn't know what they could do to me. You see, I don't 
 understand these things very well. Then then Mr. 
 Macklin . . . You see, I caught him ... he was phi- 
 landering with Milly. And we had a scene. And 
 and then he came back the other day, and he said if I 
 wouldn't say anything about it, he'd pay back out of 
 his own pocket a little of the money I lost, and forgive 
 me the money he lent me in March, and send Milly to 
 boarding school for two years, and I was frightened, 
 Judge Perkins. He said it was just a friendly act to 
 show he was thinking of me, and looking after my in- 
 terests, but it frightened me. So I thought I'd bet- 
 ter come and tell you everything." 
 
 " Don't you fret a mite," said the Honourable George 
 gently, although his brain was seething. " There's 
 nothing in the world anybody's going to do to you. 
 Did you take any money from him? " 
 
 " Not yet." 
 
 " Agree to take any ? " 
 
 " He he may have thought so." 
 
 " H'm ! Now, how did you buy that Egan stock in 
 the fiyst place, Mrs. McCain? Did you go to the auc- 
 tion ? ... or did " 
 
 " I gave Mr. Macklin the money. He sent me a cer- 
 tificate for it. Five hundred shares. He said it was 
 worth at least three times what I paid for it." 
 
 The Judge frowned, arid the widow trembled. 
 
 " Just one thing more : Did you ever sign any paper 
 of any kind in connection with this stock ? " 
 
 "I don't know ^- Wait." She thought hard.
 
 EGAN 239 
 
 " Yes, I think I did. A little piece of paper about some 
 kind of a meeting. He asked me to sign it. I think 
 it just said Mr. Macklin was going to represent me at 
 a meeting, or something. Yes, I remember it quite 
 well." 
 
 "A proxy?" 
 
 " That was it a proxy ! " 
 
 The judge's smile of encouragement was more than 
 .paternal it was patriarchal. 
 
 " There wasn't anything wrong about that, was 
 there? " she asked apprehensively. 
 
 " Not a thing." He leaned back in his chair, and 
 made a tent of his hands. " I'm awful sorry you didn't 
 come to me with this, first thing. You'd have saved 
 yourself a lot of worry. If you've told me all there is 
 to tell, you can just put it out of your mind for good. 
 Suppose you write me a little letter, though, and say 
 you want me to be your lawyer, and that you haven't 
 any other. I'd sort of like to have it with me in case I 
 go see Eddie." 
 
 Mrs. McCain gazed blankly at him. 
 
 " Is that all you want of me, Judge Perkins ? Isn't 
 there anything for me to do but that ? " 
 
 " That'll be quite enough," said the Honourable 
 George, dryly emphatic.
 
 XXI 
 
 IT was with swaying sentiments that Martha Hen- 
 derson accompanied her father to Plainfield in 
 early November. Her own especial reason for 
 coming there was to select a house which could be 
 bought, or rented, for occupancy early in the year; 
 and ordinarily she would have had all a normal woman's 
 pleasure in the hunt. Under the present circumstances, 
 she was more than apathetic, for she didn't know that 
 she cared to live in Plainfield at all. There were too 
 many old acquaintances she would be embarrassed to 
 meet. 
 
 Henderson brought her, however, to the best suite in 
 the Plainfield House, and for two days fancied that she 
 was happy. On the third morning, he had leisure 
 enough to see through her workmanlike pretensions. 
 
 " What's biting you, Martie ? " he demanded. " You 
 act as if somebody*d run off with your smile. Isn't 
 there anything that'll put it back? What's on your 
 mind?" 
 
 " When was it," she asked, abstractedly, " that you 
 decided to go into that air business ? " 
 
 " Oh, a couple of months ago. What's that got to 
 do with it?" 
 
 ** I wish you'd told me then, instead of letting me find 
 it out from the newspapers." 
 
 Henderson shook his head good-naturedly. 
 
 " In the first place, you ought to know by this time I 
 don't bring my business home with me ; and, in the sec- 
 
 240
 
 EGAN 
 
 ond place, I don't generally ':eil what I'm going to do 
 until after I've done it. There isn't as much romance 
 in it as you'd think. Just another investment." 
 
 " Was it your own idea ? " 
 
 " Lord, no ! I don't know whose it was. Richards 
 was the man who sold me on it." 
 
 " Is Mr. Egan in it anyhow ? I know he isn't now, 
 but is he going to be ? " 
 
 " That's one too many for me, Martie. I haven't 
 anything to do with personnel. But I don't seem to 
 remember anybody mentioning him. Why? " 
 
 Martha looked down. " Why, nothing. Only his 
 ambition was to start something like that himself. So 
 I took it for granted you'd hare him in, sooner or later." 
 
 Henderson shook his head. 
 
 " No, the scheme he was mixed up in wasn't the same 
 sort at all. He was going to do something or other at 
 the Plainfield Fair, but " 
 
 " He wanted an express company, too. He was try- 
 ing to raise money for it. And " she looked up, none 
 too cheerily " and he asked me especially not to men- 
 tion it to you. I saw Mary Kent this afternoon ; she 
 thinks you were the man who began it. If she does, 
 other people do. Probably he does. And he's work- 
 ing out on the Sanford Trolley line. And you can see 
 what position that puts me in, can't you? " 
 
 Henderson laughed. " Aren't you making a moun- 
 tain out of a molehill? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 Her father caught the overtone, and stopped laugh- 
 ing. 
 
 " You're afraid he'll feel as though you gave away his
 
 EGAN 
 
 bright idea ? I wouldn't feel that way, if I were in your 
 place. Anybody on earth could have started that com- 
 pany or any other. He's got more sense than to 
 feel that way." 
 
 "It isn't only that," she said; "but he oughtn't to 
 have been left out. He'd collected the most wonderful 
 information you ever saw, and he had costs and every- 
 thing all figured out, and he's a splendid sort of man 
 besides and a flyer and he's used to controlling 
 other men, and he's from Plainfield and everybody knows 
 him why, you've just got to have him ! " 
 
 Henderson had become as serious as his daughter. 
 " It does look as though he'd be valuable. But Old 
 Man Egan and I were as friendly as two strange bull- 
 dogs. Nobody's fault we simply didn't get along. 
 The boy inherited the idea that I'm a bad actor. If I 
 should ever make him any proposition, it might have 
 just the wrong effect." 
 
 "Well? Suppose it did? It wouldn't hurt you to 
 make it, would it? " 
 
 He gazed searchingly at her. " Don't care whether 
 you make a martyr out of your Dad or not, do you? " 
 
 " We owe him something." 
 
 "/do? How's that?" 
 
 " Not you." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Henderson in mock dismay. " Confound 
 it ! Just as soon as you let a woman edge into a busi- 
 ness proposition ... I never knew it to fail. Oh, 
 well ! It's immaterial to me. We need a lot of young 
 fellows, and I suppose he'd be as ornamental as any- 
 body else. I suppose I'll have to see whether they 
 planned to hire him or not. If they didn't " He
 
 EGAN 243 
 
 paused. " Here's something else : Maybe the directors 
 don't want him at his price. How much do you care 
 about his being with us? Come, now! What do you 
 really care? Would you be willing to underwrite his 
 salary just to make sure he gets a job with us! " 
 
 " Yes," said Martha. 
 
 Henderson pursed up his lips. His daughter had 
 rarely been a mystery to him. 
 
 " It'd take half the income from your mother's es- 
 tate. Don't be rash." 
 
 " I don't need it, anyway." 
 
 "In earnest?" 
 
 " Yes," she said. " I am. I ... I owe it to him." 
 
 Henderson shaded his eyes with his hand as he stared 
 across at her. 
 
 " Then you won't have to," he said. " If you feel 
 as strong as that about it, he's as good as hired al- 
 ready." 
 
 " Even if the other directors " 
 
 Henderson's mouth straightened. 
 
 " When I'm Chairman of a Board," he said, " I make 
 decisions first, and we sometimes take a vote after- 
 ward." 
 
 At half-past eleven in the morning, Mr. Martin Hen- 
 derson, bouncing stiffly in the tonneau of his big blue 
 touring-car, perceived far ahead of him a knot of la- 
 bourers. For the fourth time since they had left the 
 city limits, he began to pick out, from a distance, the 
 figure of the foreman. 
 
 The country hereabouts was earthily unprepossess- 
 ing. The roadway was level, raw with fresh excava-
 
 244 EGAN 
 
 tion, and heavily rutted. The farms on either side were 
 impoverished ; the buildings innocent of paint and of 
 repair. A recent drought had set a crust of senna 
 over the landscape, and the late autumn sun was slowly 
 baking an oven-finish on it. The new rails shone 
 brightly, blindingly out of their nest of very hard-look- 
 ing ballast ; Henderson didn't like to look at them. 
 
 Ahead, there were construction shaclcs, and great 
 irregular heaps of crude materials. Heavy motor- 
 trucks stood athwart the roadbed. The labourers, half 
 clad yet dripping from none too vigorous exertion, lan- 
 guorously swung picks and shovels, every ear attuned 
 to the whistle still thirty minutes away. The foreman 
 mechanically harangued them. 
 
 Henderson, bounced up and down and sidewise over 
 the execrable highway, managed to lean forward without 
 losing his balance. " St . . . stop here," he said. 
 
 Obediently, the chauffeur stopped. Henderson drew 
 a long breath, mopped his steaming face, and, reclining 
 with a sigh of relief, watched. The foreman, indifferent 
 to casuals, continued his steady harangue. 
 
 " Get a move on you, Giuseppe that shovel isn't 
 going to bite you. Three and a half feet deep over here 
 that right ? Go sit down a minute, Angelo you're 
 all in. No, they won't dock you. Fm bossin' this job. 
 Three foot five? Not enough. See if you fellows can't 
 level that out by noon. Andiamo! Cavalleria RtMti- 
 cana! Pagliacci! " 
 
 Half a dozen of the toilers laughed toothfully, and 
 gestured with great breadth of expression. " Ah, Pag- 
 liacc' ! Pagliacc' ! " 
 
 " Same for tutti-frutti," observed the foreman.
 
 EGAN 245 
 
 " Hey, there ! You long-legged bandit with the green 
 handkerchief ! " 
 
 " Ah, banditt' ! " chorussed the toilers gleefully. 
 
 " What's your n-ame ? Sapolio ? Well, Sapolio, 
 don't you forget I'm putting up a quarter for the first 
 pick that strikes bed-rock. And I'll give the last one 
 a poke in the eye maybe. Understand ? You saw 
 the hook I landed on Pietro when he soldiered on me, 
 didn't you? Go to it." Here he caught sight of Hen- 
 derson, and, in spite of himself, started. 
 
 Henderson beckoned. " Come here a minute, young 
 man, will you? " 
 
 At a distance of thirty feet, Egan surveyed him. 
 Egan wasn't as natty as on the occasion of their last 
 meeting, and he felt it. He was wearing an old pair of 
 corduroy trousers, and an olive drab flannel shirt, open 
 at the throat; an Army web belt and clumsy Army 
 shoes. He was very tired and dirty, and for the day's 
 work he received six dollars. He had been here since 
 sunrise. 
 
 He surveyed Henderson, calmly. The Egan of three 
 months ago would have revolted sharply even at the 
 faintest hint of patronage ; but the Egan of today was 
 a very clear-seeing young man. Presently, after just 
 enough hesitation to betray something of what was in 
 his thoughts, he came forward to the rich man's car. 
 
 " You look as though it wouldn't hurt you much to 
 take a rest," said Henderson, pleasantly. 
 
 " It is different from riding," said Egan. Face to 
 face with Henderson, he scorned him less than he might 
 have imagined. He didn't respect Henderson, but he 
 did respect Henderson's ingenuity. The man could
 
 246 EGAN 
 
 smile, too, just as though nothing lay on his conscience. 
 
 "Want to take a ride? " . 
 
 " No, thanks. This is the company's time." 
 
 Henderson grinned. " I noticed you gave away some 
 of it just now, though." 
 
 Egan glanced over his shoulder towards his gang. 
 They had deduced that the stout gentleman in the lux- 
 urious car wasn't here on traction matters, and at the 
 idea of Egan consorting on friendly terms with such a 
 fat aristocrat, they frankly gaped partly in order to 
 soldier less obviously. Egan waved an imperious hand 
 at them. 
 
 " You mean Angelo over by the shack ? That's dif- 
 ferent. He's sick." 
 
 " Still, you took the responsibility." 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 Mr. Henderson nodded. " Well, I don't -mind taking 
 some myself. I'm a director in this outfit, too. I want 
 to talk to you." 
 
 " I think I'd better stay in this neighbourhood, thank 
 you." 
 
 Mr. Henderson, casting about him, detected a lone 
 tree a hundred yards away. " We'll run up under that 
 spreading chestnut tree," he said. " You and I've got 
 something to say to each other." 
 
 Egan gazed at him. " All right. Go ahead I'll 
 be right over." He turned, and went slowly back to 
 his gang. He was puzzled by his own reception of 
 Henderson ; he wondered if he had ceased to hate Hen- 
 derson, and why. He remembered something that 
 Judge Perkins had once said : " It's been my experi- 
 ence," the judge had said, " that when you get to hat-
 
 EGAN 
 
 ing a man, you hate him all over. K you get to think- 
 ing a man's a villain, you think he's a villain from the 
 time he gets up in the morning to the time he goes to 
 bed at night. You'd think there was something shady 
 behind it if you saw him walk into a church, or give a 
 dollar to a blind beggar outside." Egan had indeed 
 felt this way about Henderson. Now, he didn't. 
 Though the man had fought Egan's father, and sup- 
 posedly destroyed the loftiest of Egan's commercial am- 
 bitions, still, he didn't hate him. He merely disliked 
 him and wanted to know what he had to say. 
 
 " You keep on hustling," he said to his squad. " Big 
 boss hustle like merry diablo. Whistle blows in a 
 few minutes." 
 
 As he went on towards the shady oasis, he was no 
 longer conscious of his appearance. Pride was swell- 
 ing in him, but not the empty pride of other days the 
 pride of labour. He felt infinitely more independent 
 than when he had last seen Henderson, infinitely more 
 aged and stable. He could even look down on Hender- 
 son. He was stronger, too ; strong enough to listen to 
 this man, and keep his temper. He wondered idly 
 and with no more emotion than that if Henderson 
 would have found it worth while to drive out from town 
 to see him. 
 
 The chauffeur had been furloughed, and was smoking 
 cigarettes out of earshot. Henderson made room on 
 the seat beside him. 
 
 " I'm obliged to you for this opportunity, Egan." 
 
 " Oh, that's all right." 
 
 The big man was very considerate. 
 
 " How's everything been with you ? "
 
 248 EGAN 
 
 Egan grimaced. " I'm not kicking." 
 
 " I suppose you're wondering what brought me out 
 here?" 
 
 " I can't imagine." 
 
 " This Air Traffic Company." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 Henderson offered him a cigar, which Egan accepted, 
 with the mental comment that it wouldn't kill him. 
 " The only time we ever met each other before wasn't 
 quite so politic as it might hare been. I've been sort 
 of sorry for it." 
 
 " So have I." 
 
 " Well, I have. You and I needn't have quarrelled. 
 But you lit into us so quick, you know. I'm sort of 
 peppery myself once in a while. And it was an awful 
 hot day, you remember. But that's neither here nor 
 there. . . . What I want you to understand is that I 
 wouldn't do one single thing to damage you in any way, 
 shape, nor manner. YouVe had hard luck enough." 
 
 " That's very kind of you." 
 
 '* Now don't be hard to talk to. You know what 
 brought me out here ? " 
 
 " You've already said what it is." 
 
 Henderson waited until the screech of sirens from all 
 the Plainfield factories had died away. " I hear you've 
 met my daughter Martha since she's been visiting over 
 here." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I've been out of town a good bit in the East. I 
 haven't had much time with her this summer. That's 
 how she could visit here so long. And that's why I 
 didn't know until today you'd had any air plans up
 
 EGAN 249 
 
 your own sleeve. I didn't know it until she told me. 
 And she'd never mentioned it until today." 
 
 " Indeed." 
 
 " Yes, sir. I don't know whether I'm like other 
 men or not, Egan, but I don't hardly ever take my 
 business home. I don't believe in bothering women 
 with a whole lot of junk they have to try to understand 
 whether they want to or not. And when I go into a 
 proposition that's got a smell of novelty in it, I don't 
 stand for a word of it creepin' out 'til after it's served 
 up so tight it can't break. So it wasn't 'til today, 
 when Martha told me you'd been scouting around " 
 
 " You don't mean to say you didn't know I'd been 
 scouting around? " 
 
 " Well, I didn't know much about it. That's a gos- 
 pel fact. I didn't know you had any transportation 
 ideas. You might have planned some kind of an exhibi- 
 tion scheme a flying circus, or I didn't know. 
 That's gospel truth." 
 
 " I'll take your word for it." 
 
 Henderson felt that he was making little headway. 
 
 " So Air Traffic put a crimp in you, did it? " 
 
 " I don't know that I'd call it that, exactly ; but it 
 meant a whole lot to me." 
 
 " This job you've got here isn't what you think is 
 your limit, is it? " 
 
 " Meaning what ? " 
 
 " I mean, are you satisfied? " 
 
 " What would you judge? " 
 
 " I'm asking you." 
 
 " Then I don't know whether I'm satisfied or not." 
 
 Henderson deliberated. " I guess I won't beat
 
 250 EGAN 
 
 around the bush. If I'd known you had any interest in 
 this air game, I'd have tried to let you in for a piece of 
 ours. You're qualified, fast enough." 
 
 Egan laughed. " As one of your pilots? " 
 " Better than that. Director of Flying Operations, 
 or something on that order." 
 
 " Are you actually offering me a place in your com- 
 pany, Mr. Henderson ? " 
 
 The stout man gesticulated. 
 
 " Wait ! I don't want you to make any snap deci- 
 sions. I don't want you to go off half-cocked. Take 
 time on it. Don't say a word. Now, listen: you're a 
 scrapper, and that counts one for you. You know the 
 air game. You've had ideas. You've bossed men. 
 You've had military training. I came out here to try 
 to make you see we hadn't " 
 
 " Was this Air Traffic Company your own scheme ? '* 
 
 " No ; they got it up two or three months ago, out 
 
 here. I came in later. They put it up to me when I 
 
 was off in New York ; I got some advice, and decided to 
 
 go into it." 
 
 " But you're speaking for the group ? " 
 " I'm speaking as chairman of the Board of Direc- 
 tors. I haven't talked to any of the others of 'em 
 since this morning, and I don't have to. When a crowd 
 wants me for a director, they want me for a director. 
 Listen ; you're in the position lots of men with good 
 ideas .get in. Big capital comes along and swamps you. 
 And in this case, it may be lucky for you it did. You 
 wouldn't have had a Chinaman's chance to make a suc- 
 cess of it. You'd have busted, just as sure as fate.
 
 EGAN 251 
 
 Not because you're no good but because you aren't 
 good enough to be a big executive yet. In the right 
 place, you'd be a valuable man. I don't believe this is 
 the place, out here on a buckaroo's job. I want you 
 to take plenty of time to think this over. A couple of 
 days, anyway more if you want. You're not an ex- 
 perienced man except for one class of work. That's 
 where you're valuable ; that's where you'll get the most 
 money. You can come with us and be Director of Fly- 
 ing Operations at three thousand. You'll have a good, 
 fair try-out. If you make good, we'll fix it easy for 
 you to grab off some stock, and if you earn the promo- 
 tion, pretty soon you'll be junior vice-president, and a 
 Member of the Board, yourself. That's what's ahead 
 of it. It's worth thinking over. Suppose the worst 
 occurs, and the company don't pay. If you've done 
 well, you'll have made a reputation with the heads of 
 the biggest concerns in Plainfield. You'll have a fu- 
 ture. And I'm not here to throw you any sops or any 
 bouquets, either. I came out the minute I gathered you 
 might be in the market for this kind of a job." 
 
 Egan hesitated. 
 
 " Was that the only reason that brought you? " 
 
 " Yes. After what Martha told me." 
 
 " I see." Egan looked down. " Of course, if you 
 insist on my thinking it over, I'll say I'll think, but " 
 
 " Oh, I know if you answered now you'd say * No.' ' 
 
 "Do you?" 
 
 " Certainly. That's why I want you to think. 
 We've got a meeting this afternoon and one Saturday. 
 I'd kind of like to have you make up your mind by Sat-
 
 252 EGAN 
 
 urday. That gives you four days. And " He un- 
 expectedly put his hand on Egan's knee. " Be reason- 
 able." 
 
 "The answer'll be < No, x Mr. Henderson." Egan 
 spoke very quietly. 
 
 "Now don't " 
 
 " I'll get word to you again by the end of the week, 
 but " 
 
 " Egan, it's the chance of a lifetime. You can't 
 lose, no matter what happens." 
 
 " It doesn't please me to have a woman brought 
 into " 
 
 " Egan, I tell you, she just told me what you'd been 
 doing. She didn't send me out here." 
 
 " Is that true? " 
 
 " Absolutely. I asked her where I could find you." 
 
 " And it's because you think I'll work loyally and 
 faithfully for you, and help put money in your pockets, 
 and" 
 
 Henderson's shoulders expressed his opinion. 
 
 " It's a job, just the same as any other job." 
 
 Slander was on the tip of Egan's tongue, but he held 
 it back. Martha had sent Henderson here ; and Egan's 
 gratitude to her gained immunity for the parent. 
 
 " The answer'll be ' No,' but I appreciate 
 
 " Nothing's final yet. You've got four days. We 
 want all the local men we can get. It's good business 
 to have local men in it, Egan. There's nothing fishy 
 about it. I wanted you to know as quick as you could 
 I hadn't intended to cramp your style. I wish I'd 
 known before. I wish you'd have come to me. You 
 wouldn't have found me a bad man to .do business with,
 
 EGAN 253 
 
 no matter what you'd been brought up to think. Your 
 old man and I had plenty of scrimmages, but that don't 
 prevent us from getting together. I could've helped 
 you. I can help you right now. You think it over." 
 He signalled to the chauffeur. 
 
 Egan clambered out to the road. His curiosity was 
 highly aroused; he couldn't comprehend what motives 
 were really behind Henderson's apparent magnanimity. 
 He thought to himself that the man was either a power- 
 ful actor or a powerful hypocrite, with not much lati- 
 tude for choice. 
 
 " All right," he said. " I'll get word to you some- 
 how by Saturday morning." 
 
 And having scarcely ten minutes left for lunch, made 
 his farewell with very scanty ceremony. 
 
 He had heard, of course, that Martha was in Plain- 
 field. He wanted to see her, and when he had weighed 
 the matter, he decided that there was no disloyalty 
 involved. The only thing about it was that Mary, on 
 Sunday afternoon, had held Egan's hand with significant 
 firmness, and begged him not to forget that they were 
 friends. Mary had been very much upset, that Sun- 
 day. She seemed to need more cheering up than usual. 
 She had made Egan feel that while he wasn't actually 
 engaged to her, his obligation was doubly binding. 
 And, for a fact, he had been greatly moved by her evi- 
 dent dependence upon him. She had aroused all his 
 protective instincts. It was a shame that she was 
 bound to a man like Macklin. Egan was inclined to 
 think that chivalry compelled him to maintain his status 
 toward her, if only as a bulkhead. She needed his
 
 254 EGAN 
 
 friendship so much and she might need more. Be- 
 sides, she had vaguely reminded him of his promise. 
 Curious girl, Mary. She would be seriously offended 
 if he called on Martha. 
 
 But he went eventually to the Plainfield House, and 
 saw Martha in the gorgeous public drawing-room on 
 the second floor. Publicity meant safety, anyway. 
 
 They were both acutely self-conscious as they shook 
 hands. 
 
 " I thought I'd better come to see you," he said, 
 contriving to get himself together. " Your father 
 looked me up this morning. You knew he would, didn't 
 you? " 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 " What I want to find out from you is what you said 
 to him that made him come." 
 
 Martha flushed at his brusqueness. " What I said ? " 
 
 " Oh, I know you must have said something. He ad- 
 mitted it. That's what makes it rather awkward now. 
 I wouldn't do anything in the world to hurt your feel- 
 ings, if " His voice sank. " If there were any other 
 way out of it." 
 
 Since he wasn't, looking at her, she dared to look at 
 him. 
 
 " Hurting my feelings, Mr. Egan ? Whatever do 
 .you think would do that ? " 
 
 " Wouldn't it hurt your feelings if, after all you've 
 tried to do for me and I'm more grateful than I 
 could ever tell you I found I couldn't couldn't 
 possibly ... go with that company? " 
 
 She gave a little start of surprise. " Why, I thought 
 that was all decided ! "
 
 EGAN 255 
 
 " It is, practically. But " 
 
 " But ' She was breathing a little excitedly. . . . 
 " Why, Mr. Egan, don't you know what happened this 
 afternoon? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 She leaned forward, very intently. " Sure? " 
 
 " Positive." 
 
 She sat back. "Tell me how you think it's de- 
 cided." 
 
 " I came to go over it with you, so you'd under- 
 stand. I've turned it down." 
 
 " When? " 
 
 " This morning." 
 
 "To Dad?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 She was confused; so confused that her tone was of 
 protest. 
 
 " But he can't have understood it that way ! " 
 
 " I think it was as clear as anybody could make it, 
 Miss Henderson." 
 
 Her eyes were very wide. " That's awfully funny. 
 . . . Why did you turn it down? Because your father 
 didn't like Dad~? " 
 
 " Why " 
 
 " We've always been perfectly frank with each other, 
 up to now, haven't we? I've known you didn't like 
 Dad. I told him I felt it and he explained how he'd 
 always had to fight your old firm, and how there got 
 to be hard feelings but that shouldn't have made you 
 keep it up, necessarily. And after he found out from 
 me this morning what you'd been planning to do, and 
 how Air Traffic must have crushed you, he was so sorry.
 
 256 EGAN 
 
 . . . / didn't suggest his getting you ; he thought of it 
 himself. He said you were exactly the man. . . . And 
 this afternoon, they had a directors' meeting. He tele- 
 phoned me just before dinner. He'd told the other di- 
 rectors he wanted you and and some of them, not 
 all of them, but somd of them were against it. Oh, 
 awfully set against it. Mr. Luke wanted his son there, 
 and didn't want you. And they had a long, long squab- 
 ble and . . ." 
 
 " I told him I couldn't accept," said Egan blankly. 
 
 " And he told the directors they'd have you or they 
 wouldn't have him ! " 
 
 " No ! " said Egan. 
 
 "But he did! That's exactly what he told them. 
 He said they hadn't been fair to you. He said you're 
 the only man he could put his hands on who knew 
 exactly what was needed, and had all the qualities they 
 wanted. And he said if they wouldn't let him have his 
 own way and he resigned, he'd publish a statement in 
 the newspapers and tell exactly why. And they wanted 
 to take a vote, and he wouldn't let them. They wanted 
 to leave it to Mr. Luke, the president, and Dad 
 wouldn't let them. He just sat on it until everybody 
 crumbled." She brushed her eyes. " So that's why I 
 can't understand " 
 
 Egan cleared his throat. " You say Mr. Hen- 
 derson did all that ? " 
 
 " Yes, he did. And just because he's sure you're the 
 man he wants. He said he'd only seen you twice in his 
 life, but he knew. And then you talk about not . . . 
 liking him ! "
 
 EGAN 257 
 
 " I didn't say I didn't like him," said Egan under 
 his breath. 
 
 " Maybe you didn't say so in so man}'' words, but 
 I've always known it. And it's true, isn't it? " 
 
 ( T > 
 
 "Isn't it true?" 
 
 " I'm afraid it is." 
 
 " And you don't know him any better than he does 
 you ! " 
 
 " Yes I think I do." 
 
 "Well how?" 
 
 Egan was rattled. " I just feel that I do." 
 
 " And so you don't want to work for Air Traffic 
 simply because you don't like him, and he's a director? 
 I don't see why you were willing to work on the trolley 
 line, then. It's the same thing. He's a director of 
 that. You aren't going to give up the position you've 
 got now, are you? Don't you see how silly that would 
 be? " 
 
 Egan, conceding reluctantly that it might be rather 
 silly, said that he hated to feel that he was offered 
 preference out of pity. 
 
 " Pity ! " she echoed, with gentle asperity. " The 
 only way I pity you is because you're so stubborn you'll 
 miss half the good things in life without your ever 
 knowing it ! The idea ! Take an absolutely ridiculous 
 dislike to a man, without the first little thing to justify 
 it, and then cut off your own nose to ... you're such 
 a big old stupid, Bronson Egan ! " 
 
 Egan started, and looked away. 
 
 " Would it please you so much if I took that job? " 
 
 " Why, 7 don't care," she said. " / don't care
 
 258 * EGAN 
 
 whether you do or not. It doesn't affect me one way 
 or the other. But it's such a good chance for you. 
 It's exactly the right thing just as though it were 
 made for you." 
 
 "Well, wasn't it?" 
 
 " Wasn't it what, Mr. Egan? " 
 
 *' Made for me." 
 
 ** No ! I've told you over and over again. And if 
 you let silly prejudices stand in your way all the time, 
 you won't ever amount to anything, after all. I'm not 
 going to beg you to take this place. I'm sorry you feel 
 as you do about Dad. If you've made a decision you 
 won't change, why, that ends it. Only it seems to me 
 that what Dad did for you this afternoon ought to 
 make you see. He told me that if I'd explained to him 
 before what you'd hoped to do by yourself, he'd have 
 had you in Air Traffic sooner. Please be sensible." 
 
 Egan tried to think what was sensible. There was 
 the money end of it. There was the association. 
 There was a potential future. There was Hender- 
 son. And there was also, indirectly, Martha. 
 
 It occurred to him suddenly that every one of the 
 Air Traffic directors had been intimately concerned 
 with his progress. Some of them had been connected 
 with the Egan Company; some were owners of news- 
 papers. 
 
 Egan fell to stroking his chin. What might he not 
 learn by association? 
 
 " Would it please you if I changed my mind, and 
 accepted? " he asked, soberly. 
 
 " Yes, it would, Mr. Egan." 
 
 ** Then I'll change it," he said ; and the instant the
 
 EGAN 259 
 
 words were spoken, he almost wished them unsaid. Not 
 for any of the reasons which had previously influenced 
 him ; but for another, and a curiously illuminating rea- 
 son. He had to confess to himself that it was Mar- 
 tha's personality which had swayed him. Would he 
 have done it for Mary? Had he in fact yielded to 
 Mary when her father had offered him a place? 
 
 " I'm glad ... as glad as I was when I heard 
 you're . . . keeping your promise to me now.'* 
 
 Abstractedly, he said good-bye to Martha. He 
 hoped fervently that she would be well and happy.. 
 Unsatisfied, he went slowly over to the Metropolitan 
 Club. On the way, he confessed to himself that he 
 wouldn't under any circumstances have done it for 
 Mary.
 
 XXII 
 
 IN the lobby of the club, Stanley Adams, no longer 
 privileged to pass unchallenged into the inner 
 rooms, was sitting patiently. 
 
 " Hello, Bronson ! I knew you'd show up here sooner 
 or later." 
 
 "So? What's up?" 
 
 " I'm not sure. Let's get off in a corner where we 
 can talk. Let's go in the grill. I want some coffee." 
 
 Egan, after an instant's scrutiny, put his hand on 
 the reporter's arm. " Good. I'll have some with 
 you." 
 
 Adams shivered. " If you'd just preach or swear, 
 Bronson " 
 
 "What's the use?" 
 
 "There you have it! 'What's the use?' Well, 
 maybe there is a use once in awhile. Maybe this is the 
 while." 
 
 They went down to the deserted grill, where Egan 
 commandeered a table, and put his elbows on it. 
 
 " You act like a man with something on his mind, 
 Uncle Stanley." 
 
 The journalist's eyes were very bright. "I've been 
 having more fun than a barrel of monkeys. The best 
 part of the newspaper game is playing sleuth-hound. 
 Everybody's got a certain amount of that in him, and 
 I've got a lot. It's a great business. Trying to pry 
 
 into other folks' affairs, and spade up all their buried 
 
 260
 
 EGAN 261 
 
 skeletons. Fine business fine business ! I've done 
 lots of it. I've been nosing around for your benefit. 
 I've struck something for us, Bronson I sure have 
 struck something. I was going to wait 'til I'd fin- 
 ished the job myself, but it's time for you to come in. 
 Music cue." 
 
 " Who've you seen? " 
 
 " Garrity," said the reporter. " Big Bill Garrity. 
 We've got as thick as thieves, only, as Harry Lauder 
 says, perhaps I'm a trifle the thicker-r-r of the two." 
 " Garrity ? Our old superintendent ? " 
 " Garrity. Big Bill. A gentleman of infinite ca- 
 pacity." Adams laughed. " The original square- 
 head, Bronson. His neck keeps right on going as far 
 as his cowlick." 
 
 " What on earth have you been doing with Garrity ? " 
 Adams drank half of his coffee at a gulp. " My 
 own hunch has always been that Garrity's the universal 
 joint of that busted company of yours. Garrity ran 
 the plant all alone for nearly three months. First, 
 when your dad was sick, and then afterwards Gar- 
 rity was in charge when everything happened. Garrity 
 was in charge during the strike. If there was any mys- 
 tery committed around there, Garrity's carrying it 
 under his hat, and it's lonesome. And Garrity's a 
 thirsty soul with one ambition. He wants to have 
 twenty-five thousand dollars in the bank, a big red au- 
 tomobile, and a stucco house with a glassed-in veranda 
 on it by the time he's sixty. He's fifty-six now. He 
 says he saved up ten thousand once, but he lost it on 
 a speculation. Garrity'll talk to the high bidder 
 that's my guess."
 
 262 EGAN 
 
 " Well, who's bidding? " 
 
 " Wait ! " Adams finished his coffee. " I went down 
 to Garrity a few days ago to get his views on shop 
 management. Went to his house, and acted Kke Dicky 
 Davis come to interview the Czar. Little article for 
 the Sunday Herald how the foreman can make or 
 break the boss by the way he handles his men. Garrity 
 shied off like a scared elephant. So I led the conver- 
 sation around to pleasant things. Garrity thinks the 
 Republicans brought on the war, put up the taxes, and 
 outlawed the booze. I let him convert me, but he had 
 to fight for it. His chief argument is that anybody 
 who doesn't agree with him must be a damned fool. 
 When I got converted, he decided to come down hand- 
 some. I let him bring out some of the worst imitation 
 of fusel oil I ever had to sample. You could use it for 
 a shampoo. He had the grace to make faces when he 
 drank it himself. The medicinal twitch. But it's 
 ag'in the law, so he loved it. I told him about a little 
 private cache not too far from here. The next night 
 we didn't make faces." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 Adams smiled with self-approval. 
 
 " He's told me how a shop foreman can make or 
 break the boss, Bronson. Oh, he hasn't admitted any- 
 thing! Far from it. These were generalities. But 
 he lacks imagination. I've got a hunch that all his 
 generalities are out of his own experience. So, we 
 can hunt up some of the men who worked under Garrity 
 and find out how the labour trouble in the Egan plant 
 happened. If it happened in about the same general 
 way as Bill described, why "
 
 EGAN 263 
 
 Egan was thoughtful. 
 
 " Hold on. Was Garrity quite responsible for what 
 he said? " 
 
 " Up to a certain point," said Adams, grinning. 
 " If you mean was he coherent yes, he was. He 
 called me ' brother.' Then he called me ' old pal.' 
 Then he called me ' gossoon ' or * trombone ' or one of 
 those old-fashioned Hibernian pet names. I think he 
 loves me." Adams turned serious. " No, Bronson, 
 we're on the trail. Garrity was certainly talking out 
 of his own experience. Whether it was an echo of last 
 fall, or not, remains to be seen. Anyway, I've gone 
 as far as I can ; it's your turn next." 
 
 " Why did you think I ought to mix into it person- 
 ally? " 
 
 " It's this way Garrity's temperament doesn't 
 show until he's had a few drinks. Sober, he's about as 
 soft and pliable as a brick. But when he isn't sober, 
 he sort of slops over. You can make him cry as easy 
 as anything. Thinks he's abused, you know. The 
 hand of every man's ag'in him, and he wants to be 
 petted. Now the way to get information out of Gar- 
 rity " 
 
 " Is the way you went after it? " 
 
 Adams straightened. " Don't the ends justify the 
 means ? " 
 
 " Well go on with your idea." 
 
 Adams hesitated, and finally went on. 
 
 " Well, if you could get at him when he's mellow, 
 I think you'd get something out of him. I don't know 
 what his reactions come from, Bronson, but he's bitter 
 as the devil against the Old Man, and he's full of soft
 
 EGAN 
 
 soap about you. I didn't dare to touch on it but just 
 a little. He thinks the Old Man ought to have given 
 him more authority and a bit of stock. He doesn't 
 think he ever had a chance there. He talked about the 
 Old Man's heel on his neck. And he spoke about you 
 as though you'd had the toughest kind of luck. As 
 though you hadn't a chance, either. I believe that 
 if you can hit him at the right time " 
 
 Egan shook his head slowly. " I don't think I could 
 quite do that, Uncle Stanley." 
 
 The journalist looked hard at him. 
 
 " I've paved the way, Bronson if you're interested. 
 I took it for granted you " 
 
 " I am interested." 
 
 " But not to that extent ? " Adams' smile was 
 forced. 
 
 " I'm afraid not, Uncle Stanley." Egan hated to 
 say it. " I appreciate everything you're trying to do 
 for me, of course, but even if your idea is the only 
 one that'll work, I can't do it. I just can't. I'm 
 sorry." 
 
 Adams half-whistled and drummed on the table. 
 
 " I don't believe you make very many allowances 
 for people, Bronson. In fact, I don't believe you make 
 any allowances for anybody. You're too darned self- 
 satisfied. . . . Ever drink anything yourself? " 
 
 " Oh, yes. I'm not a prohibitionist." 
 
 " Ever get soused? " 
 
 " Once. Everybody's entitled to find out what his 
 limit is." 
 
 " You're hitting at me, Bronson? " 
 
 " I'm not hitting at anybody."
 
 EGAN 265 
 
 " But you think I'm a fine old specimen of a repro- 
 bate? " As Egan hesitated, he went on : " Go ahead 
 don't be afraid to say it." 
 
 " What difference does it make what I think? " 
 
 " It makes a lot to me." 
 
 " I wish I thought so, Uncle Stanley." 
 
 Adams continued to drum on the table. " Once I 
 was going acro'ss Broadway," he said presently, " and 
 a bum stopped me and asked for half a dollar. I asked 
 him why in thunder 7 should give him a half a dollar. 
 He said : * Us gentlemen ought to stick together.' 
 So I asked him how he knew I was a gentleman. ' Oh,' 
 he said, ' I can tell it by your fur coat.' " 
 
 Egan laughed inquiringly. " That isn't all, is it? " 
 
 " That's the end. Period." 
 
 " I don't get the point." 
 
 " Maybe you judge too much by appearances." 
 
 Egan laughed again, but not too mirthfully. 
 
 " I well, it's a difficult thing to argue about." 
 
 " I don't think you know," said Adams, quite simply, 
 " that when I was in New York I wasn't any howling 
 success did you? " 
 
 " I thought you were." 
 
 " Then why'd you suppose I came back here? " 
 
 "Why" 
 
 " Prohibition's a great thing for the people who 
 don't need it. But I've got to have some sort of 
 eraser. Just get pickled enough to forget what a fool 
 I was to get pickled once too often. . . . You don't 
 need to look at me that way; I haven't committed any 
 crimes. . . . Only . . . there are too many things I 
 don't like to remember. So it's really killing two
 
 266 EGAN 
 
 birds with one stone when I have these sessions with 
 Garrity." 
 
 " Even at that, Uncle Stanley " 
 
 " You won't even close your fingers on the bird in 
 the hand? " 
 
 " Not that way. I couldn't." 
 
 "Well " Adams stared at him, shrugged his 
 shoulders, and suddenly pushed his chair back. " Then 
 let's go home." 
 
 In the old living-room now the communal " par- 
 lour " of the Vine Street house, two men arose si- 
 multaneously as Adams and Egan went past the door. 
 
 " That you, Adams ? " Eddie Macklin, followed by 
 Mr. Kent, came out into the hall. " The landlady said 
 you'd be in shortly, so we waited. Can we have ten 
 minutes or so privately ? " 
 
 Adams stared. 
 
 " I guess so. Come up in my room. Good night, 
 Bronson." 
 
 " Good night, everybody." Egan was perfectly sat- 
 isfied to make his escape. 
 
 Adams escorted his visitors up the dim-lit stairway, 
 set out chairs for them, offered cigarettes. " What 
 brought you around ? " 
 
 Mr. Kent leaned toward him in a suave preliminary. 
 " Adams, you're a sensible man." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Kent, thank you. That makes it 
 unanimous." 
 
 Mr. Kent frowned at the levity. " You know that 
 Eddie, here, is likely to be the next mayor of Plain- 
 field?"
 
 EGAN 267 
 
 " I've heard it mentioned once or twice." 
 
 Kent threw a note of aggression into his voice. " If 
 he's nominated, he'll be elected." 
 
 " That's true enough. Yes, I'll subscribe to that 
 myself." 
 
 " And he'll be nominated, too." 
 
 " It may be so." 
 
 Mr. Kent was profoundly impressive. " Anybody 
 who plays with fire is liable to get his fingers burned, 
 isn't he? " 
 
 Adams had grown very sober. His eyes were still 
 brilliant. 
 
 " It sounds reasonable." 
 
 Kent dropped his voice a semitone. 
 
 " What we want to know is, speaking as man to 
 man are you going to oppose Eddie's nomination? " 
 
 Adams laughed aloud. " How can a poor newspaper 
 man " 
 
 " Your job on the Herald isn't half good enough for 
 you. Suppose you got your job on the Times back, 
 with a decent salary. Would you write and sign an 
 editorial article of the proper tenor? " 
 
 " Proper? Is anything in politics proper? " 
 
 " Yes ; in favour of Eddie's candidacy." 
 
 " That's an important question." 
 
 " Well, how'll you answer it? " 
 
 Adams hesitated. " In the first place, I wouldn't go 
 back to the Times. They haven't got money enough 
 to hire me for ten minutes. In the second place, I 
 wouldn't write political dope if I did go back. In the 
 third place, I wouldn't promise to back any candidate." 
 
 Kent stiffened. " But I think you'll do all three."
 
 268 EGAN 
 
 "Do you?" 
 
 " Something tells me so, Adams." 
 
 " One of those little birds you read about ? " 
 
 " Exactly." 
 
 " I'd like to know what it said." 
 
 Kent glanced at Macklin who had been sitting very 
 erect, listening carefully. " When I was in New York 
 in 1917, that little bird flew over the river to me from 
 Hoboken " 
 
 " Ah! " The journalist winced. 
 
 "Am I right?" 
 
 " So far." Adams was visibly shaken. 
 
 "Shall I go on?" 
 
 " Not necessary." Adams bit his lip, and Macklin 
 grinned at him. 
 
 " I thought not. Now you have in your possession 
 a drawing, or a photograph, or several of them, that 
 might inject a bit of destructive ... er ... humour 
 into this campaign. Correct? Suppose you destroy 
 it. Suppose you and I both bury a certain portion of 
 ... er ... the past. Suppose you go back to the 
 Times I'll arrange so that it'll be smooth enough 
 sailing for you, and " 
 
 Adams' backbone was rigid. 
 
 " And support Eddie ? In a signed article ? " 
 
 " Precisely." 
 
 " And the alternative " 
 
 " That'll be what you make it." 
 
 Adams, who was sitting next the door, suddenly 
 reached out and opened it. 
 
 " Oh, Bronson ! " he called. " Bronson ! Come in 
 here."
 
 EGAN 269 
 
 Macklin snatched at his arm. 
 
 "Adams! You fool! Shut that door? Keep that 
 fellow out of here ! " 
 
 Egan appeared, pajama clad, on the threshold. 
 "Want me, Uncle Stanley?" 
 
 " You bet ! Sit down, Kent. You too, Macklin. 
 Hold 'em, Bronson ! " 
 
 The two visitors, barred by Egan's hundred and 
 eighty pounds of energy, halted. Kent was apoplectic. 
 " Adams, if you . . . this is the most damnable " 
 
 "Hold 'em, Bronson. Don't let 'em get out just 
 yet. I just want you to hear: " 
 
 " Shut up ! Shut up, or by God ! I'll make you " 
 
 '* They want me to go back on the Times and support 
 Eddie, or" 
 
 " Adams, I've warned you ! " 
 
 " Or they'll tell what I almost told you at the 
 club an hour ago." Kent relaxed. Macklin's mouth 
 dropped in a feeble smile. Adams, his mouth working, 
 went on relentlessly. 
 
 " That two years ago, after a newspaper party in 
 Hoboken, when nobody was quite sober, I I got mar- 
 ried. On a bet, they said afterward. I don't really 
 know." 
 
 Kent looked over at Egan. " To a chorus-girl, 
 Bronson. Aren't you proud of your friend? Well 
 that settles it. Tit for tat. Go on and print your 
 story. We'll print ours. Come on, Eddie." 
 
 " Not quite yet." Egan had put his back to the 
 door. " What do you gentlemen think you're going 
 to do now? " 
 
 " That's our affair ; not yours."
 
 270 EGAN 
 
 Egan's brain was working backward, and finding 
 items of value. Today's talk with Henderson had fixed 
 two incidents in his mind. 
 
 " Oh, but since this is a family party . . . Eddie, 
 why haven't you ever been to see me since that last 
 night we spent together at Mr. Kent's house? Isn't 
 that something that ought to be aired, too ? " 
 
 The room was vibrant with silence. Adams had gone 
 over and sat down limply on the bed, his head in his 
 hands. Macklin was stone. 
 
 " Bronson," said Mr. Kent with difficulty, " you and 
 I are too old friends to stand here bickering like this. 
 If these other two want to fight, let's you and I drop 
 out of it. I've simply beaten Adams at his own game. 
 He tried to blackmail Eddie, and I " 
 
 Egan nodded at Macklin. " Told Mr. Kent about 
 Charlie Feinberg, yet? " 
 
 The prospective mayor gulped. " Y-yes, Bronson. 
 That's all right." 
 
 Mr. Kent looked from one to the other. " Maybe it 
 is and maybe it isn't. Eddie says ... go ahead, 
 Bronson." 
 
 "Shall I, Eddie?" 
 
 Macklin, driven to desperation, shook his head in a 
 jerk of hysteria. Kent, staring at him, smiled crook- 
 edly. " By God ! " he said, " I believe you lied to me 
 about that, too ! " 
 
 " No, Mr. Kent no, I didn't " 
 
 " We'll see. Bronson " 
 
 Adams lifted his head from his hands. " Chase 'em 
 out, Bronson. My head aches. I can't go this any 
 longer. Chase 'em out, will you? "
 
 EGAN 271 
 
 Egan stepped aside from the door. " As long as it's 
 Adams's room, gentlemen " 
 
 Kent had snatched up his hat. " Can I see you a 
 minute? " 
 
 " Not tonight, I'm afraid." 
 
 " Tomorrow morning? " 
 
 " I'll be out at Sanford." 
 
 " Tomorrow night? No, Monday night? If I tele- 
 phone and confirm it ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "My house?" 
 
 " That'll do." 
 
 " Come along, Eddie. . . ." 
 
 After a long pause, Egan went over and put his hand 
 on the journalist's shoulder. 
 
 ..." I heard you givin' 'em hell, Bronson. Good 
 boy. . . . Oh, what a hog-pen of a world ! They tried 
 to club me, did they? . . . Look in the top drawer of 
 my bureau. . . . See? . . . Tried to club me to kill 
 that, and let Eddie. . . . Newspaper work's an awful 
 strain, Bronson. . . . You use up so much energy you 
 take to stimulants to keep going. You get to drinking. 
 7 did. . . . Not any to hurt. Just enough to put the 
 brilliancy into you. . . . Two o'clock in the morning 
 brilliancy you can't get it any other way. But once 
 I went too far; I had a row with the city editor and 
 I got fired. I guess that was bad for me. It made 
 me sort of belligerent. I said to myself I didn't need 
 to take any back talk from anybody and I didn't. 
 That made trouble. I could get a job easy enough, 
 but I sort of kept getting fired. Same old thing
 
 272 EGAN 
 
 I'd get tired, and then I'd get an edge, and then I'd 
 have a row and get through. . . . The Old Man never 
 knew that. I didn't write about it. I guess I was on 
 every paper in New York. Bye and bye I hit bottom. 
 Worst sheet in New York simply rotten. I used to 
 feel ashamed to have to read my own stuff in it. The 
 way I salved myself was to say that my stuff was my 
 stuff, and the character of the paper couldn't hurt it. 
 It was awful yellow, Bronson. . . . Once they wanted 
 a sensational inside story about the hop j oints 
 opium, you know. So I thought I'd do a de Quincey 
 on the side. Make it realistic. De Quincey at the 
 corner of Mott and Pell streets. . . . Don't be scared ; 
 I haven't got the habit. . . . But I was in a public 
 ward for about a month. Sort of poisoned. When I 
 got out I was all shaky. I had about ten dollars left 
 and no job. There wasn't a place for me anywhere in 
 New York. Had to get a couple of drinks to put me 
 on my feet. 
 
 " I met some acquaintances in a saloon, and they sent 
 for some of theirs, and we had a party. ... I got 
 mar/ried that night. I heard afterwards it was a dare, 
 but one man says it was a bet. ... . It was in Jersey. 
 After it was all over, I tried to figure it out what to 
 do. I was crazier than when I'd gone to Bellevue. 
 She liked the idea of being married it was so sort 
 of respectable. She's playing in high-class burlesque. 
 She won't get a divorce, and I can't. I couldn't get 
 any more jobs in New York, so I came home. . . . 
 She's never taken any money from me won't take 
 any. You see, she might be worse. Not much but 
 some. She's let me alone pretty well. . . . I've never
 
 EGAN 
 
 seen her since. But I've got that on my mind, Bron- 
 son. On my mind. . . . Well, the cat's out of the bag 
 now. I knew it would come sometime. They tried to 
 club me with it. Kent did. Now you know. . . . 
 What're you going to do about it ? " 
 
 Egan's face was putty. He put out his hand again 
 to the journalist's shoulder. 
 
 " Why help if I can," he said, under his breath.
 
 XXIII 
 
 THE day opened gloriously, flooding the world 
 with strong December sunshine and a flippant 
 little breeze from westward. Even the sombre 
 precincts of the old Egan mansion responded to it, once 
 the morning had rushed through the lofty windows, 
 and taken the citadel by storm. It was a day of whip- 
 ping curtains, when the long, white draperies floated 
 inward and danced in mid-air; refusing to be quelled 
 except by strictures on the ventilation. To be sure, 
 Mr. Wilson complained that he had been kept awake 
 all night by the constant rustling, and Mr. Pennypacker 
 lectured from the almanac on the behaviour of air cur- 
 rents, but breakfast was more cheerful, nevertheless. 
 Judge Perkins was too sprightly to reflect upon the 
 immortality of the soul, and Adams, after a week of 
 profound despondency, was alert again. Even Mrs. 
 McCain managed to relax a degree or two of her oval 
 tension, and Millicent wore the expression of a lady 
 in mourning who has worn mourning almost too long. 
 
 Judge Perkins and Egan walked down town together. 
 
 " Bronson," said the Honourable George suddenly, 
 " how much have you thought about this circus per- 
 formance of Eddie Macklin's? At our house, I mean. 
 Stanley's campaign bomb." 
 
 " A good deal," said Egan. 
 
 "How'd it affect you?" 
 
 " Why the way it naturally would, I suppose." 
 
 " If it has," said Perkins, " you're barking up the 
 
 wrong tree. I'd just quit." 
 
 274
 
 EGAN 275 
 
 Egan regarded him without comment. 
 
 " Once I reminded you," said the old lawyer, " that 
 when you once get to hating a man, you hate him all 
 over. Of course you do. Everybody does. That's 
 why a jail-bird finds it so hard to get another chance. 
 Nobody'll hire an ex-bank-robber for a shipping clerk 
 for fear he might steal some of the stencil-ink. And 
 so on. When as a matter of fact you see what 
 I'm driving at about Eddie? " 
 
 " I think so." Egan was non-committal. 
 
 " Right this minute," said the Judge, " Eddie's 
 safer behind his reputation than you'd be if you'd 
 turned the same trick he did. An established reputa- 
 tion's an awful hard thing to beat, even in politics. 
 And campaigns are so rough, everything's discounted, 
 anyway. You used to be something of a lady's man, 
 and Eddie's supposed to be an ascetic. Excuse my 
 making it personal. But Stanley's got it in his mind 
 to make a big hoorah-boys about it, sometime before 
 election, and I don't want you to get the idea into your 
 head that there's anything in it. There isn't. It won't 
 beat Eddie. Either politically or personally, as re- 
 gards you and me. What does it signify? " 
 
 " It signifies that Eddie's a bit of a cad, anyhow." 
 
 " It don't even signify that ! I tell you, if we made 
 a law say, that no man could ever hold public office 
 that had ever kissed another girl after he was engaged 
 or while his wife was alive lordy ! Wouldn't politics 
 be simple! You'd have to advertise to get congress- 
 men. Nonsense. One of the damnedest, cussedest 
 things in this whole rotten life of ours is what decent 
 people like to suspect about people that's just as decent
 
 276 EGAN 
 
 as they are. And more? Who in the world hasn't 
 made a mistake? And that's about all Eddie did. 
 There wasn't any moral obliquity in it, I'll bet. And 
 you get a sight farther along if you just look for nat- 
 ural things. You feel a lot cleaner-minded yourself. I 
 know." 
 
 Egan was silent for half a block. 
 
 " Stanley had an idea that he could use that as a 
 lever, and maybe make Eddie tell a few things. I 
 wasn't very strong for it, myself. But " 
 
 " He's passed it on to the right people already, and 
 they're holding it in reserve. But that's neither here 
 nor there. What are we after, boy? I don't give a 
 continental cuss what Eddie's morals are. They don't 
 concern me, or you, either." 
 
 " Yes, they do." 
 
 " Well, then that's your business. But what Stanley 
 and I are after mainly is to find out whether anybody 
 deliberately steered The Egan Company onto the rocks. 
 If they did, then we're going to be in a position to 
 collect something. If they didn't, we aren't. The only 
 morals of the other fellow that concern me are the 
 morals he followed in this particular business. Now 
 we're all working together, instead of everybody think- 
 ing he's the only one that's trying to protect you, we're 
 out on the trail of a big discovery, and Stanley goes 
 and gets sidetracked on nothing. Let him be Mayor. 
 That won't save him." 
 
 Egan nodded. " I'm half inclined to believe you on 
 that. But it doesn't make me like Eddie any better." 
 
 " Oh, damn ! " said the lawyer pathetically. 
 "What's that got to do with it? Well, good luck to
 
 EGAN 277 
 
 you. Be sure to come to lunch at one. I'll have seen 
 the receiver then, and got the latest news for you." 
 
 Intrinsically, it was a beautiful Monday, but it 
 would have seemed no less beautiful to Egan if it had 
 been raining cats and dogs. As he continued his way 
 down-town, he was scarcely aware of the multitude of 
 joyous fancies mushrooming in his brain. He was 
 fairly tingling with energy ; his grip on life was almost 
 a physical grip. His eagerness was partly mental and 
 partly muscular ; he was as excited as when he had first 
 set out for flying school when he felt like running 
 the last hundred yards to headquarters, not because 
 he would gain anything material by running, but be- 
 cause the compulsion of his joy went to his feet. And 
 now that he had turned his case against Macklin over 
 to the Judge and Adams, he had released just so much 
 energy to be happy with. 
 
 In the elevator, it was all that he could do to repress 
 his impatience. His blood was warm with animation. 
 His mouth was set in a wide smile which almost ached. 
 And yet, for the first time since his return to Plainfield, 
 his self-apprehension amounted to pure modesty. The 
 opening of the door at the proper landing sent a pinch- 
 ing throb to his heart. 
 
 He emerged into a reverberating chaos of activity. 
 Here and there, partitions of new wood were already in 
 place, many of them rising independently like illustra- 
 tions in the plane geometry. New office furniture stood 
 about at random, piles of it. The floor was littered 
 with fragrant sawdust and shavings ; and the depth was 
 slowly increasing as a score of carpenters, blocking
 
 278 EGAN 
 
 the passages with saw-horses, trimmed yet more parti- 
 tions, and in the process, made the human voice incon- 
 sequential. Little groups of men stood talking and 
 watching; Egan recognized some of them. They 
 seemed also to be uplifted by the stimulus of construc- 
 tion; childishly impetuous to get the work done, and 
 yet childishly happy to stand idle and watch it being 
 done by others. 
 
 " Mr. Egan ? " One of the watchers had detached 
 himself and come forward. " Glad to see you. I'm 
 Mr. Hoyt. Sorry I was out when you called Friday. 
 Well, what do you think of it? " 
 
 " Great," said Egan, as he shook hands with the 
 Treasurer. 
 
 " They're getting along bit by bit we ought to 
 be pretty well settled by Wednesday. Some of the 
 offices are ready now. I think yours is. Want to 
 have a look at it ? . . . Let's meet some of the other men 
 first, though." He beckoned to the group he had just 
 left. " Oh, King ! and everybody else ! Come over 
 here a second. I want you to meet Mr. Egan. He's 
 the son of his father. He's going to run the flying 
 end for us." 
 
 Egan shook hands with three affable young men who 
 seemed fully as excited as he was, himself. He shook 
 hands, less pleasurably, with Henry Luke. The fifth 
 man, a grey-haired personage with his hat on the back 
 of his head, needed no introduction. He was Richards, 
 one of the former directors of The Egan Company. 
 Egan had known him slightly for twenty years, but 
 Richards, for all he acknowledged at the moment, might 
 have been an utter stranger.
 
 EGAN 279 
 
 " Well, young man," he said, raising his voice to 
 carry over the bang and droning of the carpenters, 
 " how many brand-new ideas did you bring with you? " 
 
 Egan looked at him, and saw that he wasn't smiling. 
 
 " Brand-new ideas? " he echoed. 
 
 Richards motioned briskly. 
 
 " Ideas. That's what you're here for. Don't for- 
 get it. You're very young for your job. Ideas are 
 all that count. Hope you make good." He nodded 
 stiffly, and turned away. Egan discovered that Henry 
 Luke was grinning at him. 
 
 " Come look at your office," said Mr. Hoyt, taking 
 his arm. " Don't mind Richards," he added, in a lower 
 voice. " That's his way. He likes to shake young men 
 up a bit, and watch how they react. He thinks it's 
 medicinal, I guess." 
 
 Egan, picking his way through heaps of wainscoting 
 material, was amused. " That's all right." 
 
 Hoyt steered him through a labyrinth of partitions 
 to an open space. " Here you are. Right next to me. 
 It isn't awfully big, but it'll do for awhile, don't you 
 think?" 
 
 To Egan, it was palatial. It was a room perhaps 
 ten feet by fifteen, on the side of the building, looking 
 out over lower structures to the west. There was light 
 in plenty. Two or three shining flat-topped oak desks 
 were in the middle of the room, with smaller, steno- 
 graphic desks piled atop. A big table in one corner was 
 burdened with vertical files, chairs, waste baskets, and 
 a dozen or more of wire correspondence trays. 
 
 " You'll have an office down at the field, too, but 
 that'll be just for occasions. Not much more than
 
 280 EGAN 
 
 desk-room. This is where you'll be regularly. Name 
 on the door, and everything." 
 
 Egan turned to the ground-glass door which had 
 been swung inward against the wall. It bore, in letters 
 hardly dry, the gold-leafed inscription: 
 
 DIRECTOR OF FLYING OPERATIONS 
 LIEUTENANT BRONSON EGAN 
 
 Pleased, but uncertain, he turned back to Hoyt. 
 
 " I'm out of the service now, you know." 
 
 Hoyt bobbed his head. 
 
 " Yes, but it's an asset. We're going to use all 
 those military titles for a while, anyway. It's common 
 enough in a complimentary sense. Has been ever since 
 the Civil War. It won't hurt you any. Now you see 
 there's a connecting door into my room. You and I 
 and Richards are sort of supposed to be a sort of cen- 
 tral committee " 
 
 " Control Board? " 
 
 " That's it. You ought to be a big help to us in 
 organization. This thing ought to be worked on more 
 or less military lines. . . . Well, we three are supposed 
 to work pretty much together. Flying, Finance, and 
 Administration. If I were you, the first thing I'd do 
 would be to get up an organization chart of your own 
 department, to show just what you think you're going 
 to need, and then I'd get up one for the whole works. 
 That's the sort of stuff Richards likes. Something 
 concrete. You want to stand in with Richards." 
 
 " How about my personnel? " 
 
 " Hire it yourself. We figured you could do with
 
 EGAN 281 
 
 two stenos, and a clerk to start. I'll give you the 
 salary limits. Get 'em where you can. And I've got 
 about a thousand pilots' applications to look over as 
 soon's you're ready." 
 
 " I'm not expected to hire the pilots, am I ? " He 
 was oppressed by the responsibility. 
 
 " You hire the pilots, but the Maintenance Depart- 
 ment hires the mechanics and so on." 
 
 " Then my j ob, as I see it " 
 
 Hoy t waved his hand. " Your j ob is to get the ships 
 from one place to another on time. Maintenance fur- 
 nishes the ships in proper condition. Traffic loads and 
 unloads 'em. Supply gives you fuel. Maintenance 
 gives you landing fields. You get the ships there and 
 back. How you're going to do it, I don't know. Per- 
 sonally, I don't know the difference between an aileron 
 and a triplane. That's what you're here for." Hoyt 
 sat down on the edge of one of the desks. " You'll get 
 all your instructions in plenty of time. There won't 
 be any actual business until spring, of course. But as 
 long as I've got you here . . . Richards doesn't think 
 the express and passenger business is all there is to it 
 by a long shot. He has all sorts of ideas. He thinks 
 there are countless sidelines we can make a profit on. 
 Maybe he's right. I'd advise you to think over the 
 possibilities. Get up a list of everything you can scare 
 up for the Company to do. Maybe we'll do some con- 
 sulting work as aeronautical engineers. We can give 
 lessons in flying. We can act as agents for sport and 
 commercial planes. As a matter of fact, we've got 
 state agencies for six or seven of them already. We 
 can write insurance ; our charter covers that, too. We
 
 282 EGAN 
 
 can sell accessories. We can get up sight-seeing trips, 
 and rent ships for long-distance parties. We can have 
 exhibitions. We can get up advertising stunts. We 
 can write aerial insurance. There's dozens of things 
 that might fit in. Well you're the doctor on the 
 flying end of it. Go to it, and let's see what you think 
 up." 
 
 His brief outline had pushed Egan's perspective al- 
 most out of sight. " You're going to try to do all 
 these things at once? " 
 
 Hoyt shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? The 
 men who've put money into this concern aren't pikers. 
 They've all got other businesses. They can afford to 
 lose every nickel they've put into this. It isn't a ques- 
 tion of playing safe ; they'd rather run it so as to have 
 the company either flat broke or paying fifty per cent, 
 right off the reel. Of course, it's an experiment. . . . 
 I doubt if this air business follows the old line of least 
 resistance. You take the bicycle business. I guess 
 you're too young to remember that, though well, it 
 started slowly, and then overnight there were five hun- 
 dred companies competing all at once. There was a 
 hot competition, and all but two or three of the biggest 
 ones went broke. The automobile business got going 
 the same way, and it's finishing the same way. Now 
 the airplane business is different. Publicity's come 
 into it. The people who manufactured battle planes 
 have had so much free advertising during the war that 
 people who start manufacturing now may never catch 
 up. I'm no expert, by a long shot, but you talk about 
 the Liberty Engine, or the Hispano-Suiza, and I've 
 heard enough to know they're good. You talk Hand-
 
 EGAN 283 
 
 ley-Page, or Caproni, or De Haviland to me, and it's 
 the same thing. Well, the public's familiar with these 
 names, and it'll take an awful long time to forget. 
 And I believe that the first transportation companies 
 to cash in on all that publicity, by specializing in ships 
 and engines that everybody knows won the war, '11 have 
 the inside track right from the start, provided they go 
 out in a big, broad way. This isn't any question of 
 building up a future the way the pony express devel- 
 oped into the Wells-Fargo business ; we're starting off 
 big, and if there's any merit in the idea, we ought to 
 win out. So we're going to jump in all over, and 
 capitalize the publicity and squeeze every cent out 
 of it while the going's good." 
 Egan drew a long breath. 
 " There's plenty to do, then, all right." 
 " Plenty for everybody, especially you. . . . Here's 
 your office, and you can fix it up to suit yourself. Get 
 some stenographers tomorrow. Wade in. Look over 
 the applications from pilots, and get 'em in some sort 
 of order. Start on your charts. Of course you'll have 
 to keep in touch with the other departments, and you'll 
 want to swing around the circle of the seven cities once 
 or twice in the next month or so to keep your eye on 
 the different fields, and get the hang of it By the 
 way, I'd run out to the one here this afternoon, if I 
 were you. It hasn't got a name yet none of 'em 
 have. That's something we'll all have to think about. 
 We'll have a young fleet of automobiles to run us back 
 and forth in. Just introduce yourself to the men on 
 the field, and you can have whatever you want. There's 
 an ex-Lieutenant in charge : his name's Utley the
 
 284 EGAN 
 
 man that flew here in Fair Week. He's a nice boy. 
 He'll be your right-hand man out there. Now let'a 
 look through the other offices. . . . We've had to rent 
 another floor already, and maybe we'll need three. 
 Watch out for nails. . . ." 
 
 From the instant that he stepped from the little tour- 
 ing car to the level of the old farm now in process of 
 transformation to a flying field, Egan was completely, 
 irresponsibly happy. The cares and the problems of 
 his other life slipped away from him. The very air 
 tasted differently. It was a commercial flying field, but 
 a flying field nevertheless. He felt almost the same 
 numb, terrified, jealous pleasure as when his moniteur 
 had first pointed to the clipped-wing Penguin in which 
 he was to take his first flying instruction. He was 
 desperately apprehensive of his own ability, but he 
 wouldn't have missed for all the world the opportunity 
 to test it. 
 
 The raw bones of several hangars were already glis- 
 tening white in the sunshine, and the skeleton work of 
 other buildings shops, warehouses, administrative 
 offices was under way. The old farmhouse was be- 
 ing remodelled for storage purposes. Beneath a tem- 
 porary housing of canvas stood an old training plane, 
 and Egan's heart jumped as he saw it. 
 
 " That's our pathfinder," said a pleasant voice be- 
 side him. Egan met the friendly grin of a sun-burned 
 young man in flannel shirt, whipcord breeches and put- 
 tees. The young man was very debonair, with a Gallic- 
 looking black moustache, but he had an efficient manner 
 and Egan liked him spontaneously. " You're Lieuten-
 
 EGAN 285 
 
 ant Egan, aren't you? I'm Utley in charge of the 
 field. Almost said ' O.I.C.' " 
 
 They shook hands firmly. 
 
 " Where were you ? " asked Egan. 
 
 " Me? Oh, I never got over. I was one of the eight- 
 een million officers who were under orders when the 
 armistice was signed. I was in the Canadians vol- 
 unteered up there, and got a transfer back here. Stunt 
 instructor in Texas most of the time." 
 
 Egan nodded, and sidled towards the old plane, his 
 fingers itching. 
 
 " I never drove one of those things. . . ." 
 
 Utley laughed. " Well, I never drove much of any- 
 thing else. I began on it. They put us through in 
 Canada on the sink or swim system. I had ninety min- 
 utes dual before they gave me a ship and told me to 
 take her up." He laughed again. " Got off the 
 ground somehow Heaven knows how ; 7 don't. They 
 told me to circle the field three times at 2,000 feet and 
 come down. I circled it three times and couldn't re- 
 member how to get down. Bye-and-bye I got my nerve 
 and pushed over the stick." 
 
 " With power? " Egan was humorously interested. 
 
 " You bet ! She dived, and I was standing on the 
 rudder. Zowie ! I was scared to death. So I hauled 
 the stick back and the next thing I knew I was circling 
 the field at 3,000. Went around some more and tried 
 it again. Same result. Dived and came to at 
 4,000. Once more, and I was circling at 5,500. It 
 was getting along towards dusk. I had to get down. 
 But I couldn't remember what to do. Bye-and-bye I 
 thought of the gun. So I tried it out, and got into a
 
 286 EGAN 
 
 glide, and took the banks all right, and I was down to 
 about 1,500 when right under me I saw another Hun 
 crash. Woof ! Gave her the gun and up to 3,000 
 again." He laughed gleefully. " When I did land, I 
 cut right in front of the line, and never hit a thing. 
 Almost pitch dark, too. That's the way they taught 
 us in the early days. . . . Want to take her up for a 
 little jazz?" 
 
 " I ought not to," said Egan, regretfully. 
 
 " Oh, come on ! ... She's all right. Of course, 
 after your experience " 
 
 Egan swallowed hard. " That's not it. Got some 
 spare goggles ? I really ought not to, but " 
 
 " I've got everything. It's warm as toast up to 
 3,000, and these old buses are slower than tar, anyway. 
 Lend you a winter flying suit if you want it. Come 
 on!" 
 
 Egan looked at the sky. His heart was thumping 
 heavily against his ribs, and to his own astonishment, 
 his breathing was rapid. 
 
 " I came out to look over the field. I " 
 
 " Well, you've seen all you can see from here. Come 
 upstairs and get a new slant at it. We'll go out a few 
 miles and I'll show you where we plan to put our guide 
 marks. Big white arrows with an A at one end and a T 
 at the other. Made out of granolithic. Come on." 
 
 Egan climbed up to peer into the " office " the for- 
 ward cockpit. The plane compared with his old ma- 
 chine as a buggy compares with a racing car, but the 
 principle was there, just the same, and the possibility. 
 
 " For . . . for just twenty minutes," he said, hesi- 
 tantly. " I really ought not to, but "
 
 EGAN 287 
 
 " You're on. You stay here. I've got a spare out- 
 fit in the shack. I'll take her up, and then you can 
 show me something." 
 
 Something came up into Egan's throat, and choked 
 him. 
 
 " Contact ! " said Utley, in the rear cockpit. 
 
 " Contact ! " echoed Egan. 
 
 He released the propeller and leaped aside. The 
 heavy mahogany blades gave a curious lethargic start, 
 like the involuntary movement of a fat man, and slid 
 into easy revolution, with the engine purring softly. 
 Egan, transfigured, kicked away the blocks from the 
 wheels, and climbed to his seat. The propeller-wash 
 flooded him as he snapped his belt; and he loved it. 
 The engine was turning over a bare six hundred revolu- 
 tions per minute, but firing perfectly on all cylinders. 
 Utley warmed the motor thoroughly, and throttled 
 down for a second. 
 
 "All right?" 
 
 " Let her go ! " 
 
 The engine sprang into deafening life, flattening the 
 high, dead meadow grass for a hundred feet to the 
 rear, and sending skyward a cloud of brown dirt in its 
 wake. The car moved forward, not with the grad- 
 ually acquired momentum of a geared automobile, but 
 in a sudden burst of motion. The wheels bumped and 
 rumbled as on flat tires. Then the tail lifted; Utley 
 had gathered flying speed. One gentle surge upwards, 
 and Egan was looking down at a recessive world. His 
 joy was as impersonally sensual as though he had in- 
 haled a lungful of pure ether. Every muscle was taut
 
 288 EGAN 
 
 with it. He wanted to shout aloud in pure abandon. 
 
 .The pungent, exotic odour of burned castor oil en- 
 thralled him. He thrust his head beyond the wind- 
 shield for the mere ecstasy of feeling once more the lash 
 of air waves, incomprehensibly severe except to those 
 who know it. Of course, this little ship . . . still, he 
 was flying! 
 
 The needle of the altimetre pointed to the figure 
 2,000, and Egan was dumbfounded until he remembered 
 that he was used to calculating in metres instead of 
 feet. He gazed out, fascinated, at the brown-green 
 chessboard of the earth. Bands of silver marked the 
 location of water-courses he had never known to exist. 
 Behind him, Plainfield was a toy village lurking under a 
 veil of grey. The horizon had fled immeasurably dis- 
 tant. 
 
 The roar of the engine diminished to a throaty purr, 
 and the ship rocked lazily in the swell of the air. Egan, 
 grinning, turned. Utley, grinning back, raised his 
 hands high above his head, the signal to " take her." 
 Egan's stomach went out of him as he took the stick, 
 and put his feet out to the rudder. 
 
 He bethought himself of a page from Captain James 
 Nornian Hall's " High Adventure." It was about the 
 enchantment of just such moments. " A world planned 
 and laid out by the best of Santa Clauses for the eternal 
 delight of all good children. And for untold genera- 
 tions only the birds have had the privilege of seeing 
 and enj oying it from the wing. Small wonder that they 
 sing. . . ." 
 
 Egan felt like a bird. He wanted to feel still more 
 like a bird. Delaying only until he had the " feel " of
 
 EGAN 289 
 
 the unusually clumsy ship clumsy because he was 
 accustomed to the best on earth he gently pushed 
 the stick forward to gather excess speed, eased it back, 
 and as the nose of the little car began to lift in response, 
 pulled the stick well in to his stomach. His brain was 
 almost asleep with content. A sentence from his school 
 instructions rolled into his brain. " As the ground is 
 again seen, throttle motor, and ease gently out of re- 
 sultant nose dive." Egan had looped the loop. 
 
 He had relentlessly limited himself to twenty min- 
 utes, and he filled them with acrobatics which soothed 
 his soul. He turned wing over wing, and fluttered to- 
 wards earth like a wounded swallow. He made the 
 retournement, and looped again. Be climbed high, 
 and lost by successive Immelmanns the altitude he had 
 so recently gained. He sent the ship to rotating on its 
 own axis, while in level flight, in the drunken gyration 
 of the barrel-roll. He dived, and spun, and rose again, 
 in open defiance of what were held for centuries to be the 
 inviolable laws of nature. At last, wearied only by his 
 own reactions to the sheer pleasure of it, he slipped 
 earthwards, glided into the field from a broad S, and 
 landed as surely as though he himself had worn the 
 fabric wings, and managed them as accurately as his 
 arms. He taxied around a circle, and brought the ma- 
 chine to rest in front of its canvas hangar. The en- 
 gine stopped, with a final puff of coal-black smoke from 
 the exhaust. Egan pushed back his goggles, and un- 
 strapped his belt. 
 
 " Say ! " said Utley. " I thought I was going to 
 show you those guide marks of ours ! " 
 
 Egan laughed in staccato.
 
 290 EGAN 
 
 " I'll have to come out again tomorrow to see those," 
 he said. 
 
 By previous agreement, he went over to the Plain- 
 field House that day to lunch with the Honourable 
 George Perkins and Stanley Adams. Both of them 
 had news for him, news which couldn't wait until dinner 
 time. 
 
 " I've seen Garrity again," said Adams. " Remem- 
 ber I said he told me he'd lost ten thousand dollars on 
 a speculation? Well, I took a chance on putting it up 
 to him, and I was right. He bought Egan stock, too 
 through Eddie. And he told me two other people he 
 knew who'd done the same thing. Pennypacker was 
 one of 'em. He used to be too afraid of Eddie to talk 
 about it, but he's got a new angle; he says Eddie's 
 going to be licked and he wants to tie himself up to 
 the winner ! " 
 
 " We're getting to the point, Bronson," said the 
 Judge. " It's beginning to be clear that Eddie per- 
 suaded six or eight comparatively poor people, Mrs. 
 McCain and Garrity and others, to chip in to buy 
 that stock from the Citizens Trust, so that he or his 
 principals wouldn't appear in the transaction, and got 
 these people all to give their proxies, which he voted 
 at the annual meeting a year ago October. He re- 
 elected the old directorate, putting himself on it in 
 place of the Old Man, and the old directorate made 
 Garrity president, and gave him free rein. Then the 
 company went on the rocks. I'm getting surer and 
 surer it was done deliberately. All the evidence is that 
 way "
 
 EGAN 291 
 
 " Garrity says he took his orders from Eddie," 
 chimed in Adams. 
 
 " Exactly. And who did Eddie take his orders 
 from? That is, if he took 'em from anybody? Who 
 would possibly be interested in having the Egan Com- 
 pany crash ? Only two George Kent and Martin 
 Henderson." 
 
 " Sh-h ! " said Adams suddenly. They were seated 
 in the main dining-room, and the daughter of George 
 Kent and the daughter of Martin Henderson had just 
 appropriated a none too distant table. Every one 
 bowed. 
 
 " More likely to be Henderson," said the Honour- 
 able George guardedly. " Old Man Egan always said 
 he" 
 
 " Kent's tried to play horse with me," said Adams ; 
 " but ,that was a political defence. I hardly think 
 he'd go so far as to try sabotage. And Henderson 
 well, I'll have to admit I'm getting sort of sold on him, 
 too. Personally, I don't believe it was either one of 
 'em. It was Eddie all alone." 
 
 Egan, tasting his entree, told himself that it cer- 
 tainly looked dark for Henderson. He wondered if 
 Henderson's showy kindness to him had been mere alibi. 
 The Kents had at least played in the open. All he had 
 against them was Mary's fickleness, and the colonel's 
 attack on Adams pure politics. But Henderson had 
 got him this chance to fly again ; and it harried him to 
 think of giving it up. He hoped to find that Eddie 
 had worked alone. And yet there was Eddie's individ- 
 ual loss of twenty-five thousand dollars. 
 
 "I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out -plain bad
 
 292 EGAN 
 
 management," he said. " I can't see where we've got 
 grounds for suspecting anybody else just yet. I've 
 met him on the street twice since the other night and 
 he's dodged me both times." 
 
 Adams and the Judge exchanged glances. 
 
 " The one bright thing about it," said the Judge, 
 " is that the receiver says the company's coming out 
 fine. Henderson bought the patents for a big price. 
 It looks as though sooner or later there'll be perhaps 
 a couple of hundred thousand for the stockholders." 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 Egan was visited by a delightful thrill. Nothing 
 gives a young man quite the sense of mental intoxica- 
 tion that the unexpected acquisition of money does. 
 And he had rather stopped thinking about The Egan 
 Company; he had certainly stopped thinking about it 
 as a source of future revenue. In the hurly-burly of 
 his present business affairs, and the complexity of his 
 personal matters, he had lost much of his interest in 
 the past. The old tragedy had become weakened in 
 its power to move him, financially or sentimentally. At 
 the Honourable George's announcement he was as much 
 startled, and exhilarated, as though a long-forgotten 
 speculation had burst into glorious bloom like Bethle- 
 hem Steel in 1915. A couple of hundred thousand dol- 
 lars? Why, two-fifths of it would be his! 
 
 " So he says. And that means that the McCains and 
 Garrity and the other lambs'll get back as much as they 
 lost, and you'll have oh, sixty or seventy thousand, 
 anyway. But not for a year or more, Bronson." 
 
 Egan was thrilled beyond regret that the salvage was 
 too late for him to fulfil his independent visionings.
 
 EGAN 293 
 
 " That's wonderful !*" he said. " That's wonderful." 
 
 " And that gives you a chance to be a real philan- 
 thropist, if you want to. Of course, you don't have 
 to but the failure was what stopped that Milly girl's 
 education. And Lord knows she needs some more. 
 And bearing in mind what Eddie's proposition was 
 if you want to offer to loan Mrs. McCain enough to 
 send Milly to a good school to finish with, why, I'll 
 advance you the money temporarily. It just seems 
 sort of appropriate, somehow. It'll only be a loan. 
 She'll pay it back when she gets her money, and I'll 
 carry you in the meantime. I thought you might like 
 to have it in your name." 
 
 " Yes," said Egan soberly. " I'd like to." 
 
 " One more talk with Garrity," said Adams, " and 
 if I give him that information maybe we'll have the 
 answer out of him. And whether it's Kent or whether 
 it's Henderson, it nails Eddie." 
 
 " Are you going to publish what we all know about 
 Eddie?" 
 
 " The day after he's nominated," said Adams grimly. 
 " And that'll kill his mayoralty, whether we get the 
 goods on him the other way or not." 
 
 " Even if they retaliate ? " 
 
 Adams coloured. 
 
 " Oh, what difference does it make to me? Ever 
 since you knew it, I feel as though everything's all 
 right." 
 
 " Oh, by the way, Uncle Stanley ! Is there anything 
 in sight for you yet? " 
 
 " A real job? No. Got one for me? " 
 
 " Yes, I have. Assistant."
 
 294 EGAN 
 
 Adams's eyes brightened, and then dulled. " Do you 
 think that crowd would stand for it? " 
 
 Egan borrowed some of Henderson's vocabulary. 
 " When I'm put in charge of a department, I'll take 
 on anybody I like, and get an O. K. afterward. Be- 
 sides, it's a great chance to pick up ideas. Didn't you 
 notice that every one of the old Egan directors, and 
 Henderson, and both the Herald and Times men are 
 on this board? What did you think I went into it for, 
 if it wasn't that? " 
 
 Adams laughed, and nodded toward the nearby table. 
 
 "I'll take your job, anyway," he said, "provided 
 you don't mind a teetotaller. . . . What? Why, sure; 
 I've cut out the booze ! Now that you two fellows can 
 talk over my rotten old secret with me, and cheer me 
 up, and boost me along, I don't seem to need any other 
 stimulants . . . and the doctor said I was getting liver 
 trouble, anyhow." 
 
 Egan put his elbows on the table. 
 
 " I won't forget," he said, " that you were willing 
 back there, to leave the Times and come in with me on 
 my scheme if I'd ever started it when you 
 knew " He included the Judge in his gesture 
 " when both of you knew it wouldn't go. ... It took 
 me a long time to realize what that amounted to. I 
 never thought it was anything but plain business. But 
 when I woke up, and saw daylight. . . . Well, if you 
 were willing to stick to me on a wild gamble just be- 
 cause I'm I, then I'm going to break my neck for you 
 people, just because you're you." 
 
 " I couldn't let you go it alone, Bronson . . . could 
 I?"
 
 EGAN 295 
 
 " The point isn't whether you could or not . . . you 
 wouldn't. Won't you come in and help me now, Uncle 
 Stanley?" 
 
 The Judge motioned to Adams. " Do it," he said. 
 
 On his way out, Egan stopped at the table where 
 Martha, as it appeared, was entertaining Mary Kent 
 in a farewell ceremony. " Yes," said Martha, not 
 looking at him as directly as she usually did, " we're 
 going back to Dayton tonight. Father's staying over 
 for one more meeting. Won't you sit down? " 
 
 Egan declined, with profuse apologies. To sit be- 
 tween these two girls was rather too much of an ordeal. 
 " Did you find a house? " 
 
 " Yes, rather a nice one. We're to move in the first 
 of February." 
 
 " It'll be splendid to have her over here, won't it, 
 Bronson? " 
 
 "Oh ... splendid," he agreed. 
 
 He couldn't decide whether it was more difficult to 
 be at ease with the daughter of Kent, or the daughter 
 of Henderson. Innocent as children, both of them, but 
 the father of one or the other had probably "I 
 beg your pardon? " 
 
 Martha was smiling at him, a little wistfully. " I 
 said, if you happen to come to Dayton, you must be 
 sure to look us up." Sitting, so to speak, directly un- 
 der the guns, it was the most cordial invitation she 
 could venture. 
 
 Egan glanced at Mary; Mary was outwardly very 
 tolerant. 
 
 " I'll scratch your eyes out, Martie," she said hu-
 
 296 EGAN 
 
 morously. "Didn't you know I'm his chaperon? I 
 am, too; aren't I, Bronson? " 
 
 Underneath the humour, however, there was a tone 
 which chilled Egan. 
 
 " I'm afraid there's not much chance of my getting 
 over ; but if I ever should " 
 
 " Don't forget us, please." As though he could ! 
 For a single hour of a single day ! 
 
 " Good-bye, then, Miss Henderson." 
 
 His clasp was meant to be as formal as the time 
 and place demanded, but presently he awoke to dis- 
 cover that Martha was growing roseate. 
 
 " For goodness' sake, Bronson," said Mary Kent, 
 " don't you know you shouldn't hold hands in public ? 
 I'm amazed at you ! Right in front of your chaperon, 
 too!" 
 
 There had been an instant when his heart had glowed 
 with new warmth, but the chill which Mary gave it 
 endured surprisingly.
 
 XXIV 
 
 AT the office, Hoyt was fuming in wait for him. 
 " Oh, there you are ! " he said. " I was 
 just going to send out a searching party! I 
 thought you'd mislaid yourself for good. Directors' 
 meeting at the hotel at half past three, and they want 
 you." 
 
 "Me? What for?" 
 
 " Third degree, I guess. They want you to outline 
 your whole idea." 
 
 " My whole idea ? My " 
 
 " Just so. Put up a workable project." 
 
 Egan was alarmed. " Why, Mr. Hoyt, they've got 
 the cart before the horse ! " 
 
 " I know it." The treasurer hesitated. " Oh, thun- 
 der ! There's no sense in letting you go it blind. We'll 
 settle down to an even keel in time, I suppose, but just 
 now there's a big wrangle over policies. Policies and 
 politics. You're a Henderson man, and " 
 
 "lam, ami?" 
 
 Hoyt stared. "Well, aren't you? I'll grant it 
 would have looked more logical if you were Kent's, 
 but " 
 
 " Where in the devil does Kent fit into this ? " 
 
 Hoyt's stare was prolonged. "Fit? My lord! 
 He's one of the chief stockholders. He isn't a director, 
 himself, but he's got a majority on the board, or close 
 to it. He's playing inside stuff. As a matter of fact, 
 
 297
 
 298 EGAN 
 
 I guess I'm the only independent there is. Richards 
 and Luke are the principal henchmen for Kent 
 they're the ones that'll bother you." 
 
 Egan grimaced. " So I'm going under fire because 
 I'm a Henderson man, am I? " 
 
 "That's about the size of it. They'll do their 
 damnedest to pick flaws in every idea you've got. That 
 is, the Kent crowd will. It's not so much to discredit 
 you it's to show Henderson that he's got to let Luke 
 and Richards pick their own men." 
 
 "Well" 
 
 Hoyt reflected, and decided to hold back part of his 
 information, and to disguise the rest. 
 
 " It's nothing to me, one way or the other. I just 
 didn't want you to get caught unawares. But I'm sort 
 of sympathetic with Henderson on this, because it seems 
 to me he's got the best judgment. I think it'll help the 
 Company, and sort of square up things, and let Hender- 
 son keep the whip-hand if you make a good showing. 
 If you don't, something's likely to blow. That's all." 
 
 " But what am I supposed to say ? " 
 
 " They'll ask you questions," said Hoyt. " Don't 
 let 'em horse you. That's all. Remember there isn't 
 a man jack who knows the air part of it. They're all 
 executives. It's a wonderful chance to say exactly 
 what you think. I'd go to it." He felt that it was 
 inadvisable to tell Egan that the directors' meeting 
 really didn't care two straws for Egan's opinions, but 
 was convening more as a caucus to see which leader the 
 big interests would support. It was a matter of Hen- 
 derson against the field.
 
 EGAN 299 
 
 When Hoyt and Egan entered the banquet-room on 
 the top floor of the Plainfield House, going up on tip- 
 toe as they crossed the threshold, the directors' meet- 
 ing was already in full swing. The question under 
 lively debate was so much a matter of finance, and 
 so little within Egan's comprehension, that he had am- 
 ple time, before any attention was shifted to himself, 
 to take a mental photograph of the various personali- 
 ties he had to deal with. At the first glance, it was 
 obvious that friction had developed early ; but wonder 
 as he would, Egan couldn't separate the two factions. 
 He simply couldn't tell them apart ; because he should 
 naturally have imagined that all the local dignitaries 
 would support Kent. 
 
 As he listened, restively, he also wondered why Kent 
 had chosen to remain in the background. Kent wasn't 
 a director, and he wasn't present, but his influence was 
 there as definitely as though Kent were sitting at the 
 table. Egan felt it even although, from moment to 
 moment, he couldn't determine accurately who were the 
 Kent spokesmen. The atmosphere was there. And 
 Kent had sponsored this company Kent, who had 
 been Egan's first friend to pronounce air transporta- 
 tion an impracticability. It was an indigestible and 
 a mystifying discovery. He couldn't understand what 
 motives could have impelled Kent to such doings in 
 darkness. It was as though Egan, standing appar- 
 ently on firm ground, had slipped, and found no sup- 
 port. 
 
 The argument died out in a final sputter of protest, 
 and a hasty vote, and Henderson, who hadn't previ-
 
 300 EGAN 
 
 ously taken the slightest notice of Egan, suddenly 
 looked up and beckoned to him. Egan, circling the 
 big table, was increasingly conscious of an unexpected 
 attitude on the part of Henderson, an utterly passion- 
 less attitude not directed towards Egan alone, but to- 
 wards the group in general. The stout man was neither 
 j ovial nor cynical ; he was strictly business to the finger 
 tips. 
 
 " Here's Mr. Egan," he said, and added, parenthet- 
 ically, " Sit down, Mr. Egan." He surveyed the Board 
 coolly. " Any questions you have to ask Mr. Egan " 
 He gestured his unconcern, and, averting himself, be- 
 gan to pare the end from a long cigar. Egan, the tar- 
 get of a dozen pairs of eyes, was wrapped in uncer- 
 tainty. He was, prima facie, a Henderson man ; Hen- 
 derson had got him his place, and Hoyt had said that 
 he was a Henderson man ; and yet 
 
 For a moment or two, the room was silent. Eyes had 
 left off staring at Egan, pencils were tracing aimless 
 designs on blocks of paper. King and Garverick were 
 exchanging views in mumbled undertones. The room 
 was very still. Egan was unwillingly assuming the 
 status of a defendant. 
 
 "Well?" said Henderson. He had pared the cigar 
 to his liking, and lit it slowly, as though he enjoyed the 
 mechanics of the act. His tone was slightly acid. 
 
 Luke, the president of the company, a man with a 
 worried manner and the steadiest sort of grey eyes, 
 took a printed slip from his pocket-book, and adjusted 
 his glasses. Without even looking at Egan, he began, 
 with a school teacher's querulous inflection : 
 
 " If you were in absolute power over the affairs of
 
 EGAN 301 
 
 this company, Mr. Egan, and had unlimited funds 
 what type of airplanes would you buy? Knowing 
 what we purpose to do, and what we've already con- 
 tracted for what type would you buy ? And how 
 many ? And why ? " 
 
 Egan looked at Hoyt, and got no satisfaction. He 
 looked at Henderson, who was in rapt contemplation 
 of an irregular ash. He got no information there. 
 He swept the table for a clue. The faces of the di- 
 rectors, without exception, were placidly vacant of as- 
 sistance. Some of the men were intent, some were 
 elaborately indifferent, one or two were smiling. Egan 
 cleared his throat. The room was very quiet. 
 
 It struck him forcibly that this little knot of men, 
 seemingly so callous to their power, controlled not only 
 the million dollar Air Traffic Company, but also, in 
 their various other capacities, two-thirds of the indus- 
 trial machinery of Plainfield. In mass, they repre- 
 sented probably twenty million dollars' worth of prop- 
 erty and good-will: and they were silent, waiting for 
 what he had to say. He had time, even then, for a 
 fleeting estimate of what would have happened to him 
 if he had tried to establish his own little company 
 in this same field. Seldom had he felt so young, so 
 insignificant. To think of this directorate as against 
 his own trio Adams, Perkins and himself ! 
 
 " I wouldn't buy any more airplanes," he said. His 
 own voice was very low. 
 
 The president methodically folded his slip of paper 
 and put it in his pocket. He removed his glasses, and 
 snapped them prisoner in a gold case. Egan, without 
 turning his head, felt that Henderson had turned his
 
 302 EGAN 
 
 slowly, and was studying Egan between puffs of his 
 cigar. Hoyt had suddenly taken to tapping the arm 
 of his chair with one forefinger, and Garverick was 
 making faint curious sounds with his lips. Otherwise, 
 the quiet was still undisturbed. 
 
 " What would you buy ? " Mr. Luke seemed hiding 
 behind his eyelashes. 
 
 " Small diribles," said Egan. 
 
 There was a little rustle and stir among the Board. 
 Men glanced at each other. One laughed outright. 
 Richards leaned forward and rested his elbows on the 
 table. " And yet you planned to start a company of 
 your own with airplanes, didn't you ? " 
 
 Egan's eyes held the level until Richards looked 
 away. 
 
 " My views haven't changed, Mr. Richards. I've 
 only answered the question." 
 
 " Explain yourself," said Luke, shortly. " It's 
 rather late in the day but go ahead. Let's hear 
 what you've got to say. Give us your reasons." He, 
 too, brought out a cigar, and clipped it, with nervous 
 haste. 
 
 " The airplane is made for high speed for short dis- 
 tances, Mr. Luke. The dirigible is a weight carrier. 
 And we're more interested in freight than passengers. 
 That's the main reason." 
 
 " And takes all night to go fifty miles ? " 
 
 " Seventy-five miles an hour, Mr. Luke." 
 
 Egan had an impression that Henderson was either 
 very much amused, or very much annoyed, but he didn't 
 attempt to verify the intuition by visual evidence. He 
 was absorbed by the sight of Boyd, owner of the Times,
 
 EGAN 303 
 
 and King, owner of the Herald, sworn enemies for a 
 generation, whispering to each other in the greatest 
 good-humour. They had all the symptoms of men who 
 were partners in an excellent joke. Johansen, a mild- 
 eyed dreamer who emerged from dreams just long 
 enough to be a remarkable chemist, was gazing at the 
 ceiling; his expression was that of a man who is being 
 comfortably shaved. Hoyt was drawing pictures on 
 his tablet of paper, and admiring them with his head on 
 one side. 
 
 The president took to jiggling his watch-charm. 
 
 " Did you ever fly one ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Ever travel in one? " 
 
 " No, sir." Egan began to appreciate the weakness 
 of his position. 
 
 " Ever seen one? " 
 
 " Yes, a good many." 
 
 " Where do you get your facts about speed? " 
 
 " From the British Air Ministry, and Glenn Curtiss. 
 Curtiss designed the N C seaplanes that made the trans- 
 atlantic flight." Egan observed that the president was 
 uneasy about something. 
 
 Garverick had straightened up. " If they're so good 
 as all that, as good as you're trying to say they are 
 why didn't we use 'em? Why didn't the Government 
 use 'em in the war? That's what I want to know." 
 
 " The Navy did use them. This country was slow 
 in getting into production." 
 
 Johansen, blond, repressed, and with his 'round-the- 
 corner manner, cast in an observation : " I always un- 
 derstood that Germany's program of dirigibles failed."
 
 304 EGAN 
 
 Egan's assent was vigorous. He was gaining confi- 
 dence. 
 
 " That was in combat. It failed because England 
 had a good defence. That doesn't affect their value 
 commercially. Nobody's going to shoot at freighters 
 in peace-time. And England wouldn't have had a 
 chance to spoil that program unless Germany'd been 
 able to get their dirigibles to England pretty regu- 
 larly. Isn't that logical? In other words, the pro- 
 gram failed not because Germany couldn't get the 
 dirigibles where they wanted to, but because England 
 could destroy 'em after they got there. You've heard 
 only one side of it, at that. Perhaps you didn't know 
 that England actually owned more dirigibles than Ger- 
 many does. And they wouldn't have gone into that 
 game unless they knew what there was in it, would 
 they?" 
 
 The president moved slightly. " What other rea- 
 sons have you ? Any ? " 
 
 Egan was quite at his ease. His technical su- 
 periority was encouraging. 
 
 " Well, for one thing speed in an airplane means 
 safety. You have to maintain pretty high speed to 
 stay in the air at all. When you lose speed, you're 
 likely to have difficulties. In a dirigible, it doesn't 
 make so much difference. Hardly any. A dirigible 
 doesn't always have to come down if it has engine trou- 
 ble. You can sometimes repair the engine in the air, 
 if you want to. That's a tremendous advantage, both 
 in time, and in safety. So you can travel over rough 
 country where it wouldn't be safe to fly an airplane. 
 That's because the question of landing places isn't im-
 
 EGAN 305 
 
 portant. Or, rather, it's important but it isn't im- 
 perative, because you don't just have to land as soon as 
 something goes wrong. It's safer for passengers, and 
 a lot more comfortable. Then in an airplane you've 
 got to be careful to fly level, and in a fog it's danger- 
 ous ; a dirigible stays level all the time, and you can 
 just keep going. You can stand up and walk around 
 in a rigid dirigible. You can " 
 
 " Doesn't the gas or rather, isn't it inflammable ? " 
 Richards had asked the question, and Johansen was 
 smiling. 
 
 " Yes, but it's safer than an airplane at that. Eng- 
 land lost only one dirigible in two and a half mil- 
 lion miles of flying, that way." 
 
 " If you use helium gas, it isn't inflammable," said 
 Johansen. "Not inflammable just expensive." 
 
 " To fly seventy-five miles an hour, how much weight 
 could they carry ? " 
 
 " Oh, thirty or thirty-five tons." 
 
 The Board, to a man, sat up. Questions shot at 
 Egan from all sides. Hoyt, tapping the arm of his 
 chair, wore a huge grin. 
 
 " Suppose you had to leave one outdoors in bad 
 weather? " 
 
 " They used to do it regularly. Month after month. 
 They don't " 
 
 " In a high wind ? " 
 
 " You moor them to big masts. It's " 
 
 " Not use hangars ? " 
 
 " Only for long repairs. Save time." 
 
 " How high do they have to fly? " 
 
 " That's another point. An airplane, to be safe,
 
 306 EGAN 
 
 has got to fly around 3,000 feet at the lowest, so as to 
 have room to start the engine with a nose dive if it ever 
 cuts out, or to recover from loss of control, or to pick 
 landing fields and have room to land in. A dirigible 
 is pretty safe anywhere even a hundred feet, except 
 in a storm like " 
 
 " How about quick landings for fuel or to load or 
 unload? " 
 
 Egan laughed. " They could carry almost fuel 
 enough to go 'round the world. And for stops why, 
 use grapnel. That's the usual way. Anchor," 
 
 " And at night ? How do they steer ? " 
 
 " Think of the Zeppelins, Mr. Luke. You can navi- 
 gate by the stars or by compass. Night flying's just 
 as easy as day flying." 
 
 " What's the cost ? " This was an explosive demand 
 from Garverick. 
 
 " I don't know ; but I do know that two small dirigi- 
 bles flying around our loop, even if they cost three or 
 four hundred thousand dollars apiece, would show more 
 profit than ten or twenty or fifty airplanes. You can 
 slash your rates all to nothing, too. And even if you 
 did take twice as much time as an airplane would, you'll 
 cut the railroad's time in less than half, for passenger 
 traffic and save, say between here and Chicago, one 
 day on express, and a week on freight." He ventured 
 now to glance towards Henderson. The Chairman's 
 face was ironed smooth of any expression, but in his 
 eyes there was a precious light. Egan looked at Hoyt. 
 Hoyt was intent on vacancy, as though vacancy de- 
 lighted him. The Board rustled. 
 
 " Can you tell us, Mr. Egan, why if this is your
 
 EGAN 307 
 
 honest belief you planned a company of your own 
 with" 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed," said Egan buoyantly. " Air- 
 planes are cheaper. You can get quicker deliveries. 
 They're a tiny bit more spectacular, because the public 
 over here isn't fed up on them yet. I never considered 
 them myself because I knew I couldn't finance one." 
 
 " But your professional opinion is that " 
 
 " Is that you ought at least " 
 
 Henderson interrupted him lazily. " Don't say 
 * you ' say ' we.' ' 
 
 Egan nodded, and took the amendment. 
 
 "We ought at least to look at the subject and see 
 what's in it. It needs experimental work, and a lot of 
 it, but that's what we're here for, isn't it ? " He smiled 
 at the president, trying to make the smile infectious. 
 " Of course, there are some disadvantages. Landing 
 in a high wind, for instance. And motor trouble that 
 can't be fixed in a hurry, and lets the ship drift. But 
 if you had a multimotored airship, with reserve engines 
 ready. . . . You see, if any one had asked me ... I 
 was trying to raise a hundred thousand dollars be- 
 cause I didn't think I could possibly raise more than 
 that, anyway. And that meant starting with planes 
 not dirigibles. There was another point, too . . . 
 I could fly myself, and keep expenses down." 
 
 A little flare of laughter burnt itself out. 
 
 Henderson crossed his legs comfortably. " I hope 
 you gentlemen are slowly beginning to understand why 
 I hired this boy. If you'd ever taken the trouble, any 
 of you " He got more emphasis by stopping here 
 than if he had finished the sentence.
 
 308 EGAN 
 
 Johansen, fiddling with his heavy blond moustache, 
 said a word for progress. " Mr. Egan may be right. 
 He may be wrong. Certainly the reason why the 
 United States is so far behind in these matters is be- 
 cause we're not intensive students. But we're here to 
 plan for the future." 
 
 " Of course," said Hoyt, " there's nothing to prevent 
 our going ahead with the airplane contracts, and get- 
 ting some sort of service under way as soon as possible, 
 and then " 
 
 " Investigate? " 
 
 " Certainly. Do the pioneering, if necessary. Have 
 all kinds of service. Airplanes for fast, daily service, 
 and dirigibles for heavier stuff, less often. Express 
 and freight. Just carry out the original idea plus" 
 
 Directors began to talk to each other in undertones. 
 Egan, isolated, caught snatches of dialogue. 
 
 " My God, man, on a tonnage basis ! Suppose he's 
 right, why " 
 
 " Say even thirty tons. Against our estimate of a 
 ton and a half ! " 
 
 " The cost's what bothers me" 
 
 " We certainly ought to have looked into it, any- 
 how." 
 
 " You could carry freight for a quarter cent per 
 pound per mile. A hundred pounds to Chicago a 
 hundred times a quarter cent times four hundred " 
 
 " That's about eight dollars. Delivered with 
 stops in a day." 
 
 " Call it a hundred and fifty a ton. Forty-five hun- 
 dred " 
 
 " Forty-five hundred for one trip! "
 
 EGAN 309 
 
 " Different equipment everything." 
 " You can't control the wind, though? " 
 " If you only went out filled to a third capacity " 
 " Why should we experiment ? Let the Government 
 do it." 
 
 " Well, what do the damned things cost? " 
 " I know, but somebody's got to do the experiment- 
 ing. I'm strong for it." 
 
 " I suppose we'd need two one on schedule, and 
 one reserve " 
 
 " It means gas plants. I'm afraid of it." 
 " But the load ! Think of the bulk business ! It's 
 a monopoly ! " 
 
 " Well if it could be made to work, it's the an- 
 swer! " 
 
 Henderson rapped on the table. " Gentlemen 
 please. Some one make a motion to appoint a commit- 
 tee to report on this at the next meeting? " The con- 
 versation settled down to a desultory whispering. 
 
 Richards addressed the Chair without looking at it. 
 " Move the Chair appoint a committee of three 
 three directors to investigate and report next meet- 
 
 ing." 
 
 " Second the motion." 
 
 "Moved and seconded any objection? None? 
 Quite so." Henderson sat up. " Committee will be 
 appointed presently. Next business, election of two 
 directors. . . . That's all, Mr. Egan, thank you. . . . 
 According to constitution, the stockholders having 
 failed to elect a full Board, the directors are authorized 
 to fill the vacancies. Directors must be stockholders. 
 Any nominations ? . . . That's all, Mr. Egan. Thank
 
 810 EGAN 
 
 you very much." Egan rose, and went out to the little 
 ante-room, where he had left his hat. He didn't know 
 whether he had succeeded or failed, but he had a good 
 intuition that he had done more than Hoyt had ex- 
 pected of him. 
 
 " I nominate G. W. Kent." 
 
 "Second!" 
 
 "Second!" 
 
 " Here ! Henderson ! Mr. Egan. . . . Shh ! He's 
 getting his hat. He's " 
 
 " I nominate Edward W. Macklin." 
 
 "Second!" 
 
 " Shut up ! Wait 'til Egan's out of here ! " 
 
 Egan closed the door with a bang, but the voices of 
 the Board pursued him through the thin partitions. 
 
 Hoyt's voice. " I nominate Bronson Egan." 
 
 "I object to that!" 
 
 "Not a stockholder!" 
 
 " Second the nomination." 
 
 " Second . . . second ! " 
 
 Egan, waiting for the elevator, was stunned. 
 
 " I tell you he's not a stockholder ! You " 
 
 Henderson's voice, very clear. " The Secretary will 
 inform the Board whether or not Mr. Egan is a stock- 
 holder in this company and if so, when he acquired 
 his stock." 
 
 Boyd's voice, drawling " Bronson Egan one 
 share certificate Number 46A transferred by 
 Martin Henderson. December twentieth." 
 
 December twentieth was today. The elevator boy 
 wondered why Egan stumbled.
 
 EGAN 311 
 
 The final edition of the Herald announced that G. 
 Willoughby Kent and Bronson Egan had been elected 
 to the Board of Directors of the Air Traffic Company, 
 and that Richards, Hoyt and Egan were a committee 
 to investigate and report upon the feasibility of dirig- 
 ibles. To Kent, it meant a great deal. To Egan, it 
 brought complete bewilderment and the fresh realiza- 
 tion that he should have to work early and late to jus- 
 tify his position and his salary. To Macklin, the de- 
 feated candidate, it meant everything. And this re- 
 gardless of whether the Company made a huge success 
 or a colossal failure. That was immaterial. 
 
 In the morning, Hoyt paused for an instant at 
 Egan's desk. 
 
 " You may not know it," he said in an undertone, 
 " but you broke up the whole show yesterday. ... It 
 took 'em right off their feet. It was good work, too. 
 Know who you beat for the director's job? " 
 
 " I have an idea," said Egan, cautiously. 
 
 Hoyt bent lower. " It's an omen. The faction that 
 controls the Board is going to control Plainfield. It's 
 practically a primary. It's the only meeting where 
 there's complete representation of all sides. Keep it 
 under your hat. I think it was a straw vote on Mack- 
 lin." 
 
 In the meantime, having had no telephone message 
 from Kent, Egan let him alone.
 
 XXV 
 
 ON Christmas morning, Egan went for a long 
 walk over the hills with Little Johnny Jones, 
 and, for the first time in months, enjoyed a 
 thoroughly informal conversation. 
 
 " Your friend Eddie," observed Jones at one junc- 
 ture, " seems to be losing a little ground, doesn't he? " 
 
 " I thought he was your friend," retorted Egan. 
 
 Jones had smiled feebly. " So did I. But he's been 
 making too many mistakes lately to suit me." 
 
 " You're not just a fair-weather friend, Johnny, I 
 know. If you had been, you wouldn't have been willing 
 to go in with me on that fool insurance scheme I tried 
 to crowd down your throat." 
 
 Jones had considered the point judgmatically. 
 
 " No-o, I don't think so. I'd have played with you 
 on that because you sure did need somebody to lean on. 
 And after it busted, I could have got my old job back. 
 But I've got my limits. I guess other people have, 
 too. I hear Eddie's been having rows with his own 
 crowd. There's even some talk that he won't be nom- 
 inated. It's a sure thing he's got a fight on his hands, 
 anyway." 
 
 Egan lifted his eyebrows. " Who's back of him, 
 anyway? I mean, in politics. Just Kent? " 
 
 Jones looked astonished. 
 
 " Oh, the whole manufacturing crowd Kent and 
 Luke and Richards, and that outfit. They got him his 
 
 job as city counsel. He was supposed to be a sort of 
 
 312
 
 EGAN 313 
 
 representative of all the big Plainfield business. Eddie 
 was quite a boy for a couple of years. But I under- 
 stand he doesn't like to stay put. He seems to think 
 he's got so strong he can win out without any backers 
 at all. At least, they say he's beginning to buck Kent." 
 
 " Hm." Egan was thinking of the ghastly humor- 
 ous weapon in Adams' hands. 
 
 " If you want to know it, there's a lot of talk about 
 your going in with that crowd again, too," said Jones. 
 
 "What kind of talk?" 
 
 " Oh, nothing much only it helps along the im- 
 pression that Ed's on his last legs, and Kent's losing 
 some of his grip, too. Everybody knows how you two 
 get along together. Nobody'd put you in the same 
 room and expect anything but a scrap. So it was one 
 or the other. The talk was that if Eddie lost the nom- 
 ination, or if he got it and then got licked, he was go- 
 ing to be the attorney for Air Traffic. It'll be the 
 biggest account in Plainfield the whole legal side of 
 the thing's so new. A mighty fat job. And it was 
 going to be a semi-political plum for Kent. But when 
 Henderson took you on, some of these wise old birds 
 said he was sort of putting it straight up to Kent. It 
 was to feel him out. If he'd been strong enough with 
 his crowd and the independents combined to get you out, 
 it would have shown that his crowd is still backing him. 
 They say that the fact you're in there as a Hen- 
 derson man shows that the old crowd hasn't the old 
 pep. Because they had to choose between you and 
 Eddie." 
 
 Egan snorted. " All this bunk about using me for a 
 kind of a tennis ball to see which way the wind blows "
 
 314. EGAN 
 
 " Well, I'm not trying to explain anything I'm 
 only repeating what I heard. Where are you having 
 dinner with the Kents ? " 
 
 "Me?" said Egan, surprisedly. "Why, no. I'm 
 having it at the house. I've got too much work to do 
 this afternoon to go out anywhere." 
 
 For decades, the world of commerce has laughed at 
 what it terms " Army red tape." Men who call them- 
 selves, and by others are also called, " business men," 
 speak of Army procedure as the apotheosis of the slow 
 molasses train of thought and action ; and even those 
 who have been a part of the Army often resent the cum- 
 bersome methods so characteristic of it methods 
 which, to a nervously-constituted critic, spontaneously 
 suggest fanaticism. 
 
 It is of course true that the Army could learn many 
 a valuable lesson from Business. It is, however, no less 
 true that Business could learn twice as much from the 
 Army. Egan, having only the one kind of experience 
 to guide him, and finding himself in unquestioned com- 
 mand of his own department, put into effect certain 
 systems, certain regulations, certain ways of doing 
 things, which attracted prompt notice. 
 
 In the absence of any actual flying operations to di- 
 rect, his present work, save for his duties on the com- 
 mittee to investigate the dirigible situation, was entirely 
 in the realm of planning. He therefore began at the 
 beginning, and established the four-basket system of 
 correspondence. He introduced the custom of having 
 his own named typed at the end of his letters, in order 
 that even if his signature were misread, the reader would
 
 EGAN 315 
 
 be corrected instantly. With the very first letter he 
 dictated, he ordered three carbons one to forward 
 with the letter itself, two to file. 
 
 Hoyt, who was more than ever interested in Egan 
 since the youngest executive of the staff had played so 
 perfectly into Henderson's hands, came to Egan with a 
 grin. " More of your red tape, eh? " he said. " Of 
 course, this is your office to run as you like, and my 
 hat's off to you and Adams most of the time as it is, 
 but why send a carbon with a letter? Think the fel- 
 low who gets it reads one sheet with each eye? " 
 
 Egan explained. " I'm having directions printed on 
 my stationery, so everybody'll understand. Why, sup- 
 pose a couple of months from now the man who gets this 
 letter wants to write me about it. In business, he'd 
 say ' Referring to your letter of October 5th,' and then 
 go on, and I might be absolutely in the dark, and be- 
 fore I'd even know what he was driving at, I might have 
 to dig through the files. Or he might refer to the 
 wrong date, or no date at all. But I want him to come 
 back, if he ever does, like this * Referring to your 
 letter of October 5th, copy attached ' and I'll have 
 the whole story right there. Just the same reason that 
 I keep two carbons instead of one. If I ever want to 
 take this up again myself with the other fellow, I'll 
 begin, ' Referring to our letter of October 5th, copy 
 attached,' and so on. Saves hunting through files, and 
 overloading your memory, and guesswork, and all sorts 
 of things." 
 
 " Hm ! " said Hoyt. " You won't have room in here 
 for your files alone." 
 
 " I don't intend to have any files here at all. It's
 
 316 EGAN 
 
 bad business. All correspondence ought to be in one 
 place. I've sj>oken to Luke he agrees with me. 
 Nothing can get into the files without somebody's ini- 
 tials as authority for filing, and after that, nobody can 
 get it out without an order slip. The chief file clerk 
 charges whoever takes anything out, and follows it up 
 in forty-eight hours to see that it gets back." 
 
 " Suppose somebody writes us a letter, and later on, 
 we want to refer it to somebody else " 
 
 " You don't. You send a copy. The rule is never 
 to let anything with ink on it get out of the office." 
 
 Hoyt laughed indulgently " You'll get the place 
 top-heavy with formality. Our job's to make money 
 for the house." 
 
 Egan was perfectly serious. " I've told you already 
 this is the only way I know how to do things. I wish 
 you would criticize. . . . I'll show you some of my de- 
 signs for card records Here's an efficiency record, 
 borrowed from the rating-card of the Committee on 
 Classification of Personnel in the Army. It takes five 
 minutes to rate a man, and if you do.it with ordinary 
 intelligence, it'll tell you things you never even sus- 
 pected ; . . . it'll show you who's falling back, and who 
 ought to be promoted, and by gosh ! it works. . . . 
 Here's a card to show every pilot's performance, good 
 or bad what conditions he flew under, and everything. 
 . . . Here's the trip card. Data of loading. Data of 
 maintenance. Data of trip itself. So if the chief me- 
 chanic here O. K.'s a ship bound for Chicago, and it 
 has to make a forced landing because of fouled plugs, 
 the pilot isn't charged with the delay. It shows the 
 fuel, and what grade, and who inspected it the whole
 
 EGAN 317 
 
 works. If any single thing goes wrong, you know ex- 
 actly where to pin the blame, and you know where to 
 give praise, too. . . . Here's the ship card, to show ex- 
 actly what it costs us to operate. . . . Here's the " 
 
 " But a lot of that is nothing but duplicating records ! 
 Some of it's the Secretary's job. Some of it's Luke's. 
 Some of it's mine." 
 
 " I don't care whether it's duplicating or not. I need 
 it. That's the whole answer. The Treasurer may not 
 keep his books so as to tell me whether one ship or an- 
 other will pay better to start on a special trip to Cin- 
 cinnati, under certain weather conditions, with a cer- 
 tain load, with four different pilots to choose from. I 
 don't see why you should keep that stuff, and I " 
 
 " So you'll multiply your clerical help " 
 
 " No, I don't think so, and I won't spend ten cents 
 more per person than you do for yours, and I won't 
 have any system in here that doesn't pay for itself, 
 directly or indirectly. What's bothering you is that 
 you don't check up the indirect methods. There won't 
 be any loafing in here, if I can help it. The big point 
 is to hire just the right grade of intelligence. I need 
 about twelve dollars a week's worth for this sort of 
 thing. Say, sixty dollars a week for the records alone. 
 I'll save a month of that on the first special trip we 
 ever make, and a year of it after we've operated a month 
 on schedule." 
 
 Hoyt threw up his hands. 
 
 " Go to it. Give it a fair trial. I'd like to see how 
 it works. But what's this ? Going into the rubber- 
 stamp business? " 
 
 "That's the Alibi Section," said Egan. "Time-
 
 818 EGAN 
 
 Stamp on all incoming correspondence. Time-stamp 
 on all outgoing. Combined stamp and dater for inter- 
 office work. Suppose I want to send this letter over to 
 you it wasn't really intended for me, but for you. 
 ' Referred to Mr. Hoyt 10-5-19 11 A. M: You'd 
 have hard work to prove it stayed on my desk too long." 
 
 " You might forget to send it to me." 
 
 ** No I wouldn't have to remember. I heave it in 
 my * OUT ' basket. I've seen Luke about this, too. 
 We have three or four messengers circulating from the 
 mail desk. Boys. Every ten minutes by the clock one 
 comes to my desk, leaves whatever he may have for me, 
 gathers up everything to go out, and takes it all of 
 it to the mailing desk. The mail clerk licks all the 
 stamps and gets the outgoing mail under way. This 
 isn't outgoing mail. It's interoffice stuff. In not more 
 than ten minutes, one of those boys is going to your 
 desk the same way. That's what you do heave 
 things in the ' OUT ' basket and go on about your 
 work." 
 
 " More salaries for messengers ! " 
 
 "And no taking your stenographer off her job, or 
 running around yourself, or burying the thing and for- 
 getting it a day or two. Messengers? Eight dollars 
 a week." 
 
 " But if all this is workable," demanded Hoyt, " why 
 did it ever take so infernally long to get correspond- 
 ence answered in Washington ? Why " 
 
 " Sh-h-h ! " said Egan. " For results, give me a 
 fresh kid just out of school, and a blondined steno who 
 hews gum, if they know they can be fired if they don't 
 .get the work out."
 
 EGAN 319 
 
 " Oh ! " 
 
 Egan was suddenly aware that for several minutes he 
 had been speaking, to an older and a more experienced 
 man, in a tone of arbitrary confidence. He blushed, 
 and recalled his own business record. 
 
 " Of course, you know a lot better than I do whether 
 this is good stuff or not. If you say so, I'll cut it all 
 out." 
 
 " We-e-1 we'll see how it pans out. Has Richards 
 seen it? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What does he think? " 
 
 Their eyes met, and both men smiled faintly. 
 
 " Did you ever notice," asked Hoyt irrelevantly an- 
 swering his own .question, " that you can't strike sparks 
 on mush ? " 
 
 In the generality of his new surroundings Egan was 
 so happy that he forgot to be specifically distraught 
 about the past. The question of whether he had been 
 wronged by this man or that ceased to concern him so 
 acutely as to clog his thoughts. He was still clinging 
 firmly to a resolution to discover, sometime, what had 
 really happened a year ago, but he had succeeded in 
 putting this matter in its proper place intellectually. 
 It wasn't properly the subject of a direct crusade; it 
 was a side-issue, important, but not to be exaggerated 
 not to be allowed to interfere with his progress. 
 And since Adams and Judge Perkins had volunteered 
 to conduct a quiet investigation for him, he was well 
 content to stand aside, and let them do it. 
 
 Henderson, naturally enough, was a puzzle to him,
 
 320 EGAN 
 
 because Henderson was such an apparent contradiction 
 in terms. But for that matter, who wasn't? Adams 
 was. Kent was. Egan himself was. Life was too 
 short, thought Egan, to permit of the analysis of every 
 passing motive. It was all right for Arnold Bennett 
 to do it, but that was Arnold Bennett's business, and he 
 made a profit out of it. 
 
 He had abruptly learned that it was more fun to be 
 a pioneer, with other pioneers to support him than to 
 inherit a parental business, or to go it alone. It was 
 fun to deal with improbabilities gradually becoming 
 probable. It was fun to be back in an organization 
 with de-centralized authority, and to make his own 
 mistakes and profit by them. Old Man Egan had 
 preached for years of the inherent virtues of one-man 
 control. Perhaps that was why the Egan Company 
 had disintegrated so rapidly without Old Man Egan's 
 supervision. 
 
 Life was unfolding itself to him as merely a perpetual 
 series of tolerations. You either tolerated, and kept 
 fairly happy; or refused to tolerate, and lived through 
 hell. Except for the amount of money involved, the 
 occurrences of last autumn had no more permanent sig- 
 nificance to him than the bickerings of a Dorcas So- 
 ciety. His brain was slowly arriving at the stage 
 where all men's brains ought logically to arrive. He 
 was learning to discard, without effort, everything non- 
 essential to his happiness. 
 
 My friend Samuel Merwin (forgive this obtrusion of 
 personality) has given us one of the very best similes
 
 EGAN 321 
 
 ever wrung from the English language. It refers to 
 the storage battery in the modern automobile, which 
 automatically cuts itself off from the generator when 
 fully charged and to the similar construction of some 
 people's emotional natures. 
 
 Egan had one of these natures. His own problems 
 had overcharged them, and automatically he cut 
 them off. 
 
 He fell into the habit of calling rather often at the 
 Kents', but at times when he knew the Colonel to be 
 absent. It was a habit due partly to actual desire, 
 and partly to an uncomfortable sense of reaction from 
 Martha Henderson. On one of these occasions, Mary 
 took him to task for his impersonality: 
 
 " Bronson," she said aggrievedly, " I don't believe 
 you like me any more at all ! I don't ! " 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Well, you you don't act the same way." 
 
 Egan laughed a trifle constrainedly. " I made you 
 a promise a long time ago, didn't I? " 
 
 " Well yes. Only if you're coming to see me at 
 all you might just as well show a little interest." 
 
 When he went home that night he found himself 
 wondering whether he had been quite fair to Mary.
 
 XXVI 
 
 THERE were two destinations toward which 
 Egan, with equal loyalty to his employers, 
 might have travelled on the first of February. 
 It was merely necessary that some one from the Home 
 Office hasten to both places in the earliest possible mo- 
 ment. Egan himself would go in one direction, and 
 have Adams go in the other. The choice of objectives 
 called for no delicate analysis of the company's needs ; 
 each man could handle the ground architecture of a 
 field as well as the other. Dayton was perhaps one 
 degree more important, for this particular purpose, 
 than Cincinnati perhaps one degree, perhaps not 
 even that. But from the moment that Egan began to 
 weigh his own responsibilities, he knew in his heart that 
 his judgment was already made. He declined to give 
 Cincinnati the benefit of even that single degree of 
 doubt. He should send Adams to Cincinnati, and he 
 himself should go to Dayton. He even planned to go 
 on Sunday morning, in order to insure a fine, fresh start 
 on Monday. 
 
 On the train, he convinced himself, as though it were 
 a new and unforeseen subject, that there was really no 
 reason why he shouldn't go to call on Martha Hender- 
 son. He mustn't, of course, allow such a pretty diver- 
 sion to interfere with business. But there was plenty 
 of time plenty of it. He had carefully arranged for 
 it in advance. One can't do very much business on 
 
 Sunday afternoon. That was providential. 
 
 322
 
 EGAN 823 
 
 Fortunately, Martha was at home. She was " at 
 home " in more than one sense, as Egan discovered to 
 his disappointment. Somehow he had never imagined 
 Martha as " popular." He had rather fancied that her 
 best qualities wouldn't appeal to the masses. He had 
 prided himself as an appreciative critic of the unosten- 
 tatious. Now, while he waited by the hall-mirror for 
 the maid to announce him, he was healthily piqued by 
 the variety of masculine voices drifting in from the 
 living-room. There were girls' voices, too, but these 
 were inconsequential. A woman's place is in the home, 
 anyway even in Martha's home. But the men were 
 out of harmony with Egan. 
 
 Martha herself came out to greet him. She seemed 
 to have even more poise than he had remembered, and 
 Egan seemed to have even less than he had counted on 
 
 " Why, what a surprise. " she cried, giving him both 
 her hands. " I thought Father said you'd gone to Cin- 
 cinnati ! " 
 
 " I . . . er . . . changed my mind," said Egaiu 
 " Am I interrupting " 
 
 " Nonsense ! Do come in. ... I always wanted you 
 to meet my friends. And now that you're here, they're 
 all together ! " Her tone was cordial enough, and her 
 pleasure at his arrival was apparent, but Egan's mood 
 sank appreciably. He had no reason to resent the 
 presence of other men, but he did. While he argued 
 that he ought to be glad to be here at all, and while he 
 recognized that he was glad, he was unhappy about it 
 Porcellian. The sight of at least eight young men in 
 the living-room made him worse. 
 
 Her friends proved to be neither more nor less at-
 
 324 EGAN 
 
 tractive than Egan had expected; the girls didn't suf- 
 fer by comparison with Plainfield girls, and the men, 
 Egan thought, grudgingly, were really quite personable. 
 They understood the elements of hospitality, too. They 
 did their obvious best, for Martha's sake, to make him 
 temporarily one of themselves ; there was a good deal 
 of camaraderie which was plainly created out of stock 
 on hand. Egan was too sage to be flattered, even when 
 the liveliest admiration of his business connection was 
 professed. He knew that Dayton was the cradle of the 
 airplane. He knew that he was no more a hero in this 
 setting, and brought no more novelty to it, than if he 
 had joined the staff of a new automobile company in 
 Detroit. Why, some of the people in this very room 
 might have taken their bicycles to the Wright brothers 
 to have new tires put on, or the chain graphited. The 
 sudden upset of his emotions led him almost to feel that 
 he was unwelcome. 
 
 His grewsome thoughts of departure were checked by 
 the unanticipated appearance of Martin Henderson, 
 who came in jubilant. Egan, speculating upon the 
 cause of his effervescence, was rather confused to find 
 that it was nothing more important than the present 
 gathering. He had never suspected Henderson of pop- 
 ularity, either. But whatever his reputation in Plain- 
 field, Henderson seemed to attract plenty of honour in 
 his own country. The barometer of the younger set is 
 pretty accurate. Instantly upon his entrance Hender- 
 son had been surrounded. He was a great favourite. 
 
 " Why well, if it isn't Mr. Egan ! " he exclaimed 
 heartily. " Welcome to our city ! I thought you'd 
 gone to Cincinnati ! Martha asked me about you only
 
 EGAN 325 
 
 last night, and I told her you were going the other way ! 
 I do like your taste. Well ! How'd you like our boys 
 and girls? " He radiated his satisfaction in their gen- 
 eral average. " Great, aren't they? " 
 
 To Egan, although he spoke in warmed-over super- 
 latives, it was as though his host had drawn an insur- 
 mountable line of demarcation between them. 
 
 More and more keenly, as the afternoon wore into 
 dusk, he felt his own intrusiveness. It put him over 
 half a dozen different mental hurdles. He was regret- 
 ful, irritated, resigned, envious, tortured and regretful 
 again. Twice he determined to leave; twice he re- 
 pented, without quitting his seat. It appeared that 
 Sunday night supper, with every one supposed to lend 
 a hand, was already getting under way. Egan, the 
 only guest, who wasn't perfectly at home, lingered be- 
 hind the others until Henderson, genially dominating, 
 swooped down upon him. Presently, without quite un- 
 derstanding how he had got there, Egan was in the 
 kitchen, with a big checked apron over him, slicing 
 cheese for rarebits, and making a very inefficient job 
 of it. There were only three other people in the 
 kitchen two girls and a man. Martha, nodding to- 
 wards the pair who were rummaging in all the closets, 
 had just whispered to him: " They're engaged! " She 
 leaned close to him to whisper, and her hair brushed his 
 cheek. 
 
 Egan went on stolidly, although it was sheer luck 
 that he didn't slice his fingers. It was his first experi- 
 ence, for many years, in this superficial sort of domes- 
 ticity which has so many fatal endings. He thought 
 that Martha had never appeared more adorable.
 
 326 EGAN 
 
 "Mary doesn't care much for this sort of thing," 
 he said, all but unconsciously, 
 
 " Oh ! Why, no, I don't believe she does." 
 
 After a pause. " You like it, don't you ? " 
 
 " We've always done it Sunday nights," she said. 
 
 " No cook or anything? " 
 
 " Mercy, no! What do we want a cook for? Isn't 
 this more fun? " 
 
 Egan slashed viciously at a fresh slab. 
 
 " That's so." 
 
 " Let me take what you've got ... I always make 
 a cream gravy first ; it keeps it from being stringy." 
 
 Egan absent-mindedly followed her to the range, his 
 brain mechanically occupying itself with the salary of a 
 cook. The engaged couple had slipped out, announc- 
 ing to the world at large that they were bound to ran- 
 sack the ice-box, and could do it unassisted. 
 
 " I'm awfully glad you made me take that job," he 
 said. " For one thing, it's taught me how much I 
 didn't know." 
 
 Martha, flushed from her propinquity to the stove, 
 looked up and laughed. " I didn't know I made you." 
 
 " Well . . . you did. . . . Isn't there anything else 
 I can do to help you ? " 
 
 " I don't think so ; we'll have to wait a few min- 
 utes . . ." 
 
 Egan was happily ignorant of the effect of the apron. 
 
 " One way and another, you've pretty nearly man- 
 aged mv life for me since I came back." 
 
 O / 
 
 She laughed again. " Well, if I have, I hope you 
 like the way I've done it."
 
 EGAN 327 
 
 " I almost do," said Egan gravely. Here their eyes 
 met, and both of them moved imperceptibly backwards. 
 They watched the stove for a moment. The pot re- 
 fused to boil. 
 
 " I hope you're as happy about everything as my 
 father is," she observed absently. 
 
 "Oh! Is he so happy? " 
 
 " Yes." She looked at him sidewise. " Perhaps 
 you'd never guess it, but he's one of the most sensitive 
 men I ever knew." 
 
 " No ; I wouldn't have imagined that." 
 
 " It's meant ever so much more to him to have you 
 go with the Company than it has to you. I'm pretty 
 sure you know why, too . . . don't you? And if you 
 could get j ust a little more confidence in each other, he'd 
 tell you lots of things." 
 
 "What sort of things?" 
 
 " I really can't . . . ooh, Bronson, it's boiling ! " 
 She snatched frantically, burned her fingers not quite 
 enough to precipitate a climax ; and Egan, snatching to 
 help her, burned his so briskly that for the space of 
 several minutes he lived wholly in the immediate pres- 
 ent. After that, he had leisure to be inspired by the 
 recollection that she had called him " Bronson." In 
 spite of their mutual comprehensions, it was the first 
 time. For the remainder of the evening, although he 
 hadn't another word with her in private, and for the 
 most part sat separated from her by a dozen feet, he 
 felt as near to her as though they had embraced. 
 
 He remained for a week in Dayton, and after the
 
 328 EGAN 
 
 first night, he stayed at the Hendersons'. Conscience 
 rebuked him doubly ; once because Martha lived in that 
 house ; and once because Henderson lived there. 
 
 The Martha part of it he could manage to discount ; 
 for he assured himself that not the mere circumstance 
 itself, but only his behaviour towards it, could deserve 
 censure. But in regard to Henderson, he had to con- 
 fess that he was uncertain. He had begun to respect 
 Henderson for a few definite virtues; he could manage 
 even to like some of Henderson's personal qualities. He 
 owed his present high status in life entirely to Hen- 
 derson, but perhaps he owed a part of the paternal ca- 
 tastrophe to Henderson, too. He would have given 
 much to know which of them rested under the greater 
 obligation. 
 
 He daily excused himself on the ground of expedi- 
 ency. He had always maintained that his chief rea- 
 son for joining the Air Traffic forces was to study 
 Henderson and his methods at close quarters. He tried 
 to persuade himself that his residence with Henderson 
 was for the same purpose. But there was no denying 
 that his theory was equivocal. Egan knew it. He 
 should either accept the man's hospitality uncondi- 
 tionally, or rej ect it likewise ; and not accept it simply 
 to be near Martha. 
 
 Nothing could have shaken his inherited dogmatism 
 more profoundly than this close association with Hen- 
 derson. 
 
 " The thing that bothers me the most," his host said 
 to him one evening, " is education. Out here in Ohio I 
 can scrabble along all right there's so many others 
 in the same boat. Most of us started the same way.
 
 EGAN 329 
 
 But in New York and Philadelphia and Boston ! 
 My God, they act as if they think a man must be either 
 crooked or incompetent if he didn't go to college some- 
 where. And if he ever worked with his hands, he's got 
 the gate before he starts. I'd give my shirt to have it 
 to do over again ! " 
 
 "You'd have gone to college, Mr. Henderson?" 
 
 "Worked through, yes. I know it's no joke to do 
 that, but it pays. I can see it now. Then, I thought 
 it was wasted time. Quit school when I was sixteen, 
 and took to a trade." 
 
 " What was it, Mr. Henderson? " 
 
 " Oh, I got to be an instrument-maker." He 
 laughed. " Maybe you wouldn't guess it, but it's still 
 sort of hard for me to remember sometimes that I don't 
 represent a union. When I'm talking to a capitalist, 
 and he says something capitalistic I get just as bellig- 
 erent as if I was on the other side of the fence yet. 
 Never got over it. But oh, I worked and I studied 
 and I read. Read everything I could lay my hands on. 
 The point ain't that I've got three thousand books in 
 that library there but I've read 'em. You've noticed 
 they're mostly technical. And oh, it worked out 
 pretty well. All except that one thing. When I get 
 real mad, I can't get mad like an educated man, I get 
 mad like a workingman." He regarded Egan tenta- 
 tively. " That's why your dad and I fell out." 
 
 Egan made no comment, but his attitude was inviting. 
 
 " We had a conference one time about a trade ar- 
 rangement to divide up competing lines so we wouldn't 
 cut each other's throats too much. And he was an 
 awful good trader. I guess I thought he was too good,
 
 330 EGAN 
 
 and he thought I was out to get something for nothing. 
 And you know how he was when he got mad. Like a 
 piece of granite. Like a turtle in a shell. That al- 
 ways stirs me up; I could always fight with my hands 
 and I could always fight with my mouth, but I never 
 could fight keeping still. So I said a lot. Oh a lot I 
 Probably no worse than what he was thinking, but he 
 didn't say it. And it was pretty rough that's what 
 I'm telling you. And the very next day he went and 
 made a deal with George Kent, and I accused him of 
 using what I'd told him the day before as a sledge to use 
 on Kent and that's that." The big man gestured. 
 " Bronson, my reputation in Plainfield's based on that. 
 Not another damned thing. Your dad's opinion. I 
 was wrong and he was wrong. But your dad and 
 George Kent thought I was a roughneck. That made 
 'em think I was unprincipled. That made 'em look for 
 trouble. Every mistake in a bill of goods to Plainfield 
 just made 'em keep on saying Henderson's trying to put 
 something over. Every hold-up on delivery. Every 
 claim. Every everything. But if you ask 'em in 
 Dayton . . ." 
 
 The reason for Egan's silence was founded exactly 
 upon this point. He had quietly been asking 'em in 
 Dayton. And either Dayton had been hoodwinked for 
 twenty years, or Old Man Egan had made a rotten bad 
 appraisal of Martin Henderson. 
 
 " You're not fond of Kent, then I take it? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 "Nor Eddie Macklin?" 
 
 " Humph ! " Henderson's mouth expressed his scorn. 
 " I'll give you an idea of that chap's value. When the 
 

 
 EGAN 331 
 
 Citizens Trust was going to sell your stock, he sent me 
 word in a roundabout way suggested I buy it so as 
 to grab your control away from you ! Wanted twenty 
 per cent commission for giving me the information. 
 And your dad dying at the time ! " 
 
 " And you said " 
 
 " I said I'd put him out of politics for it. He tried 
 to tell me that somebody was going to buy your stock, 
 and it might as well be me. I wish I had, now; I 
 wouldn't have made the mess of it that those fellows did. 
 But I said I'd put him out, and I'm doing it. Now. 
 This minute. The idea of his sending me word he had 
 the biggest chance of a lifetime and I got up at two 
 o'clock in the morning to take the Owl because he said 
 every minute counted ! " 
 
 Egan said nothing, immediately. But he thought 
 much. And when he had arrived at the terminal of his 
 thoughts, he had done what is perhaps the hardest thing 
 for any high-spirited young man to do in cold blood. 
 He gave Henderson a tacit apology for an unspoken 
 opinion about him. But he couldn't say it aloud. 
 Henderson was too big and too sincere, to let him 
 say it. 
 
 " That's mighty interesting." He was inclined to 
 tell Henderson how George Kent had blazed up at the 
 mere mention of this incident, but he decided that there 
 was little use in extending the radius of the informa- 
 tion. Judge Perkins and Stanley Adams were already 
 acting upon it. 
 
 He had a number of pleasant opportunities to make 
 the better acquaintance of Martha, and pleasantly he
 
 332 EGAN 
 
 made it. She reminded him so much of Mary. He re- 
 ligiously counted the days before he could return to 
 Mary's neighbourhood. Once he said to himself 
 " must " instead of " could," and he was awed by the 
 substitution. His ancient affection for Mary had 
 never waned, but the expression of its present degree 
 was- difficult. He had felt that in view of her engage- 
 ment, the expression of it was almost unmoral. And to 
 a man of Egan's nature, there arose a set of inhibi- 
 tions around the things he couldn't express. His af- 
 fection for her had become almost dogged, to prevent 
 him from forgetting that he had it. 
 
 His mission in Dayton was to end on Saturday, and 
 out of sheer ancestral arbitrariness, he determined to 
 go to Plainfield on Saturday night, because he held that 
 to linger over the following Sunday would be a compro- 
 mise he wasn't prepared to make. To be sure, Mary 
 would have no time for him on Sunday, and Martha 
 would have plenty, but this wasn't the point. He ar- 
 gued that it was inconsistent of him to enjoy himself. 
 
 Henderson picked him up at the local field at five 
 o'clock, and drove him home. In the living-room, Mar- 
 tha was peacefully embroidering. 
 
 " I had a letter from Mary with some Plainfield 
 news in it for you," she said. " Eddie Macklin wasn't 
 even nominated for Mayor ! " 
 
 " That happened yesterday, Martie," said Hender- 
 son, in kind confirmation. " I meant to tell you at 
 breakfast." 
 
 Egan grew red. "Not even nominated? " He was 
 striving to bury his satisfaction ; honestly trying not to 
 gloat. His pleasure wasn't malicious ; Macklin's de-
 
 EGAN 333 
 
 feat seemed to him the best possible thing for the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Henderson put his hand on Egan's shoulder. " That 
 was settled weeks ago. I thought you had foresight, 
 Bronson. The meeting when you were elected a di- 
 rector." 
 
 Egan dimly recalled what Little Johnny Jones had 
 said to him about submarine politics. " Was that 
 did that make any difference ? " 
 
 The capitalist nodded. 
 
 " You've got to bear in mind, my boy, that that 
 little directorate of ours represents the seventeen big- 
 gest manufacturing businesses in Plainfield, both the 
 papers, all the banks, and then some. We don't con- 
 trol politics ; we are politics. That meeting was more 
 of a try-out than anything else. Me and George Kent. 
 We had a show-down that afternoon. Eddie didn't 
 get one single, solitary vote. So we beat him yesterday 
 without using even half of our ammunition. Adams. 
 I'm glad we kept that out of it ; aren't you ? " 
 
 " Yes, but ... but I don't see " 
 
 Egan was bewildered by Henderson's apparent om- 
 niscience. 
 
 " Didn't you know that Ed couldn't get anywhere 
 without Kent, and Kent's friends ? " 
 
 " Why, I " 
 
 " When the directors outvoted Kent that afternoon 
 for the first time in his life it meant good-bye for 
 Eddie. They've done with him. He's no good to 'em 
 from now on, and if they pushed him for Mayor it would 
 have cost too much money. I'll spare your blushes, 
 and leave out some of it. But "
 
 334 EGAN 
 
 " But, Mr. Henderson. When you live here, 
 and" 
 
 Henderson nodded again. " I own both your papers, 
 though, and I've got all the way from five to fifty per 
 cent interests in a dozen different concerns over there. 
 I'm going to move over bag and baggage next year. I 
 don't mix into politics much, but when I do I don't 
 always need the sort of campaign material that your 
 acquaintance Adams showed me the last time I was 
 over there." 
 
 Egan gulped. " You own the Times? " 
 
 " Through a Jersey holding company. What's the 
 matter? " 
 
 " When did you buy it, Mr. Henderson ? " 
 
 " Oh, about a month ago. Just before that meeting. 
 I bought the Herald the same week. Why? " 
 
 Egan relaxed. " Nothing." 
 
 Martha, who had been listening intently, rose. " You 
 ought to have told me you'd bought the Times" she 
 said reproachfully. " It's time to get ready for dinner 
 but you ought to have told me. There's a man there 
 you've simply got to have discharged." 
 
 Henderson's face clouded. " Careful, Martie. And 
 listen, both of you. You're not to mention outside that 
 I've got any interest in either of those papers. It isn't 
 time yet. Remember? " 
 
 " No," said Martha. " I won't be careful. I mean 
 it. The man who wrote that awful piece about Bron- 
 son. I want him discharged." 
 
 " He went long ago," said Henderson, on the 
 threshold.
 
 EGAN 335 
 
 At dinner, they talked chiefly of aerial navigation, 
 and of the enterprise in which they all were chiefly in- 
 terested. 
 
 " Of course you know," said Henderson over the 
 salad, " I expect we'll fail, don't you ? " 
 
 Egan and Martha had stared at him in equal con- 
 sternation. 
 
 " Yes," said Henderson thoughtfully, " I expect we 
 will. I don't see how we can help it." 
 
 " But, Father ! What made you go into it if you 
 thought " 
 
 " What's happened to the first steamship lines ? Or 
 the first railroad companies? Or even the first few au- 
 tomobile companies ? " 
 
 Egan laid down his fork. " Haven't we advantages 
 they didn't have? And capital? And patience? " 
 
 " But we'll probably fail . . . Martie, I don't do 
 everything just for the money there is in it. This is 
 something bigger. Maybe there wouldn't be many men 
 to agree with me, but I'd feel more like bragging about 
 my great-great-grandfather if he'd backed Robert Ful- 
 ton and gone broke than if he'd taken shares in a West 
 Indiaman for rum and molasses, and made a fortune. 
 We're frontiersmen in this thing and they're the 
 ones who blaze the trail. They're the ones who work 
 like dogs to lay out the lines, and make it easy for the 
 second generation to build roads, and the third gener- 
 ation to buy Pullman tickets. We've got to fail, Bron- 
 son as every scheme that's aimed at world-utility has 
 got to fail. I dare say we've got one chance in ten 
 thousand."
 
 336 EGAN 
 
 Egan was fundamentally distraught. " Do you 
 mean to say you went into this expecting to lose ? " 
 
 " Why not ? Wasn't there a bird they called a 
 Phoenix? He had a fine trait in him. You could broil 
 him for supper, and he'd sort of get up, and walk off 
 the dish, and call it another day. . . . We're like that. 
 We may fail not that we'll try to but if we do, 
 we'll have gone a big jump ahead. The next war'll be 
 in the air. The next great channel of transportation'll 
 be in the air. This company's a mile behind the others 
 already. I'm simply buying some Liberty bonds on 
 the future. You'll wear a uniform again before you're 
 thirty-five, Bronson. And you and I'll be in a position 
 to do some constructive good." He caught Egan's 
 eye. " If we should fail, don't be afraid I won't take 
 good care of you " 
 
 " I wasn't thinking altogether of that . . ." 
 
 "I know; but you thought a little about it. Well, 
 don't you worry." 
 
 " Do you think all these new companies will go under, 
 then?" 
 
 "The majority the great majority. Survival of 
 the fittest. The whole thing's changing so fast. A 
 novelty today's obsolete tomorrow. That's why. But 
 if we go under with the rest, Bronson " 
 
 Martha laughed. " You'll walk off the dish and call 
 it another day, Father? " 
 
 " That's how we get along," said Henderson. He 
 beamed at Egan. " I've got another dish for you to 
 walk off of as soon as you're ready, son. Richards is 
 quitting." 
 
 "Is that so?"
 
 EGAN 337 
 
 " By request," said Henderson. " How'd you like to 
 take his place ? " 
 
 Egan was thrilled, but shook his head. " I ... I 
 don't believe I can swing it yet, Mr. Henderson." 
 
 " That's what I thought you'd say so we're boost- 
 ing your salary instead." 
 
 Egan's train was scheduled to leave at 9.40, so that 
 after dinner, and the customary cigar with Henderson, 
 there remained only the fraction of an hour for a last 
 interlude with Martha. Her father had considerately 
 pleaded a deep desire for some modern literature, and 
 wandered into the library, noiselessly closing the door in 
 order that he shouldn't be disturbed. 
 
 Before the open fire the two young people sat si- 
 lently, for at least half of their allotment. In the fire, 
 they each saw countless fantasies not to be disclosed. 
 Both were self-congratulatory that they had come 
 through this week without the need of regret. 
 
 At length Egan coughed, and not as a symptom. " D 
 couldn't go away without letting you know I'm friends 
 with your father." 
 
 She turned radiantly. " Oh, Bronson ! That's the 
 best thing " 
 
 " It's a funny world," said Egan. " Darned 
 funny . . ." 
 
 She put out her hand to him, and he held it for a swift 
 instant of comprehension before she withdrew it. The 
 clock continued its relentless pacing-off of the eve- 
 ning. 
 
 " I'm so glad to have had you here this week," she 
 said, her chin resting on her palm. 
 
 " You're no gladder than I am."
 
 338 EGAN 
 
 " Yes, I think I am. I've learned to know you so 
 well. So much that I never would have known." 
 
 Egan couldn't keep his eyes from her, and his eyes 
 sent burning despatches to his heart. She was peri- 
 lously dear to him, and the certainty of leaving her to- 
 night brought gloom to his innermost soul. Out of 
 this gloom, he was rudely shaken by the sudden realiza- 
 tion that he wanted to snatch her in his arms . . . 
 
 " Weren't we going to keep on being friends ? " 
 
 "Yes, but " 
 
 The drumming of his heart affected his tongue, and 
 made him stammer. 
 
 " I expect to be in Dayton pretty often and then 
 if you come to live in Plainfield " 
 
 " It wouldn't be the same again," she said. There 
 was strong essence of regret in her tone, and yet she 
 wasn't fencing. She was voicing a genuine feeling. 
 That was a splendid trait of Martha's ; you could bank 
 on what she said. 
 
 "Not ever?" 
 
 "Not ever." 
 
 Egan leaned far towards her. 
 
 " What's the matter ? Are you going to treat me so 
 very differently after this? " 
 
 " It isn't about me it's about you." 
 
 " What is? " he demanded. 
 
 She sat up, and looked across at him. Her eyes 
 were very soft and expressive ; Egan was vaguely sus- 
 picious of a shadow of pity in them. 
 
 " I told you you'd win didn't I ? There was some- 
 thing else in my letter. I didn't want to tell you be-
 
 EGAN 339 
 
 fore Father. About Mr. Macklin. But you ought to 
 know before you get there you'd want to." 
 
 Egan's pulse quickened. " What's happened to 
 him? " 
 
 Martha smiled. Not so much pity now a gentle 
 smile, in which was summed up all that she never might 
 say to him. 
 
 " Mary's broken her engagement, Bronson."
 
 XXVII 
 
 AFTER mature reflection it seemed to Egan 
 hardly fitting for him to call at once on Mary 
 Kent. He was relieved that his tact laid this 
 injunction on him, for in sober earnest he was loath to 
 call. Things had been going crossways, and he wanted 
 plenty of latitude to think them over. The prospect of 
 G. Willoughby Kent as a father-in-law had definitely 
 ceased to be alluring. The prospect of Mary as a wife 
 an unequivocal, everyday wife was startling. He 
 had never really visualized her, until now, as a wife. 
 He had thought of her only as a sort of perpetual 
 fiancee. Wifehood as a career was palpably unsuited 
 to Mary. She would belong not to her husband, but 
 to society. Yet he had made her a reversionary pro- 
 posal. Automatically, that proposal became effective 
 on the moment that she turned aside from Eddie Mack- 
 lin. And she was said to have turned. 
 
 He had hurried away from Martha for Mary's sake, 
 but he kept away from Mary that Sunday for his own 
 sake. He went out aloue over the frozen roads to the 
 flying fields, and found a certain perversive comfort in 
 the grey bitterness of the weather. He tried desper- 
 ately hard to think of Mary, and to think of her ex- 
 clusively, because he felt that it was the only right thing 
 for him to do. But the task of arguing himself into 
 acute concentration was beyond him. He was ashamed 
 of the weakness of his resolution ; he called himself harsh 
 
 names, and fancied that he was beyond redemption. 
 
 340
 
 EGAN 341 
 
 He didn't realize, then, that no man has ever been the 
 despotic master of his thoughts, not even at a funeral. 
 For a single instant, he could compel himself to con- 
 centrate on Mary. Mary whom he had adored since 
 boyhood. He remembered fighting Eddie Macklin for 
 her after school. He remembered how Eddie had bit- 
 ten him. He grinned reminiscently as he found himself 
 touching his ear. That same ear had been frost-bitten 
 in the Vosges. A cruel country, that and these iron- 
 rutted roads, by comparison, were splendid boulevards. 
 He had a swift vision of his last ambulance, turned up- 
 wards in an icy ditch, and wriggling its wheels like 
 some monstrosity of an insect. But it wasn't funny, 
 especially for the men inside. One of them had recov- 
 ered, and won a D. S. C. His name was Bergwasser, 
 and he came from . . . oh, Lord ! What was the name 
 of the place that man came from? Never mind. Well 
 
 oh, there was Mary. Pretty yes, superlatively. 
 Sweet dispositioned yes, but But what on earth 
 teas the name of the place Bergwasser came from? 
 Good old Bergwasser. Used to tell about his father's 
 little tannery, just ready to fail when the war broke out 
 and Russian roubles made him a rich man. War profits 
 
 a nice thing to tell your grandchildren. Plainfield 
 had made millions tens of millions. Kent had prob- 
 ably made four or five himself. And The Egan Com- 
 pany had gone by the board. That skunk Macklin ! 
 That man and Mary. To be sure Mary. What 
 could she have seen in him? Poor Mary. Dear little 
 Mary. She Eureka ! The name of the place Berg- 
 wasser came from was Waupoos, Iowa ! 
 
 But when Martha Henderson became all at once a
 
 342 EGAN 
 
 pa-ssenger on his train of dreams, that train never 
 halted, nor turned out on a siding, nor wrecked on a 
 matter of geography. 
 
 He sat huddled on the steps of the little administra- 
 tion building to smoke a cheerless cigarette. Ethics 
 were hampering devices for the accurate calibration of a 
 man's soul. He felt that he must be a scoundrel for 
 harbouring all these curious reflexes, and yet he couldn't 
 feel as scoundrelly as he thought he ought to. He had 
 read somewhere that when a man charges himself with 
 any serious defect, he is merely self-conscious of his 
 own self-esteem, for privately, the average man would 
 still consider himself to be a pretty decent fellow, in 
 spite of the defect. He wondered if he were as con- 
 ceited as all that. It was so horribly unsatisfying to 
 be in doubt about it. He wondered if it were indeed 
 scoundrelly to consider this particular obligation to- 
 wards Mary in the same light as he would normally con- 
 sider any conceivable obligation, except this one. The" 
 obligation itself was basically imaginary. There was 
 only one party to it himself. Mary had been en- 
 gaged to Macklin at the time, and she had promised 
 nothing. Egan had stated to her a fact, and an inten- 
 tion. The fact was that he loved her. The intention 
 referred to marriage by victory over Macklin. The 
 past facts may not necessarily be present facts. This 
 one wasn't. Intentions, weathered by experience, can 
 crumble without depositing so much as a dusty residue 
 of regret. These had. Would it be fair to Mary 
 would it not be fair to Mary to tell her the truth and 
 have done with it? 
 
 Ordinarily, it wasn't a thing to be done. Chivalry
 
 EGAN 343 
 
 forbade. Chivalry would condemn a man to hold his 
 tongue, and two or ten or twenty years later the woman 
 would condemn him because, forsooth, he had held it. 
 She would ferret out the secret, sooner or later. Then 
 she would hate him. What was the best course to take ? 
 The greatest good for the greatest number? Martha, 
 Mary, and Egan. Two out of three. Marriage is no 
 fulfilment of an obligation, but the beginning of count- 
 less millions of petty obligations, legal and moral, per- 
 sonal and social, daily, unending. Death is the only 
 fulfilment and even then, only after mutual happi- 
 ness. 
 
 He knew that he had no longer the desire to marry 
 her. He had loved her but if he had taken no per- 
 sonal credit for what was absolutely beyond the free- 
 dom of his will, why should he take discredit on him- 
 self, now, for what he was equally powerless to control? 
 He would once have married her, and she hadn't waited 
 for him to come back. Was there less mutuality in a 
 betrothal than in a marriage? Legally, of course . . . 
 but except for the wedding ceremony, law comes in only 
 to sweep up the shattered fragments of love . . . 
 
 What would a sincere woman do if she found that she 
 had given her promise too soon, and to the wrong man? 
 What had Mary herself done? First, to Egan, in re- 
 gard to their unofficial " understanding " ; secondly to 
 Macklin, when the engagement had been more formal. 
 What was right for a man to do? What was just? 
 What was fair? 
 
 The stubble before him was littered with half-smoked 
 cigarettes. Egan rose, shivering. Mechanically, as 
 he set out for home, he concentrated upon the virtues,
 
 344 EGAN 
 
 the delicacies, the womanly qualifications of Mary. Un- 
 wittingly, he was trying to persuade himself back into 
 that era when he had loved her. He was the same 
 now, she was the same now, as they used to be. 
 What diabolic influence had altered him? He was com- 
 pelled to blame himself without a cause. Revile him- 
 self. But he said fiercely to his conscience that he 
 would hold to his word, and let somebody else usurp the 
 woman's privilege, if he liked. 
 
 And all that had happened was that Egan had lived 
 a little longer, and all there was to blame how could 
 he ever have admitted it, even if he had known ? was 
 the soul of the world and the flight of time. 
 
 To blame? To blame a man for the unfathomable 
 workings of the universe? For the ungovernable twist- 
 ings and turnings of the human mind? 
 
 Suddenly his face lighted, and Egan smiled. The 
 peace of God isn't the only phenomenon which passes 
 all understanding. His whole life hung on the decision 
 he had made today, yet suddenly, out of the gloom, 
 Egan smiled, and the lines momentarily vanished from 
 his forehead. 
 
 Waupoos ! 
 
 In the next instant, his own littleness was never 
 clearer to him. 
 
 He had hardly set foot in the hallway when Stanley 
 Adams appeared at the door of his room. Adams had 
 the strained expression of Sister Anne, but a slightly 
 different vocabulary. " Bronson ! Where in hett have 
 you been all day? We've been waiting for you since 
 two o'clock."
 
 EGAN 345 
 
 Egan wearily climbed the last few steps. " I'm 
 pretty tired, Uncle Stanley. Can't you wait awhile? " 
 
 The journalist took his arm. " No, we can't. Bill 
 Garrity's here ! " 
 
 The greater part of his fatigue dropped away from 
 Egan. 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " Yes, and he's ready to talk. He's scared stiff. 
 Come on in. You can't afford to be tired now." 
 
 The room, as Egan entered it, was dense with cigar 
 smoke hanging in close-packed, mica-like layers. The 
 Honourable George Perkins, coatless, was tipped back 
 in his chair against the wall, a ruminative Daniel. In 
 the middle of the room sat Garrity, middle-aged, short, 
 stocky, shiny-headed, painfully-dressed in a seventy- 
 dollar suit of clothes and a twenty-five-cent necktie. 
 
 The judge, maintaining his balance, waved a welcom- 
 ing hand. 
 
 " Hello, boy have a good trip? " 
 
 " Fine, thank you." 
 
 " You know Bill Garrity, of course." 
 
 " Oh, yes." Egan shook hands with him. 
 
 " You've growed some," said Garrity, as a conven- 
 tional form of address. 
 
 " I have a little." He sat down on the edge of 
 Adams' bed. "What's the conference about?" 
 
 After a faintly uncomfortable pause, Perkins threw 
 out a feeler. " Garrity's a friend of ours, Bronson." 
 
 " I was sure of that," said Egan cordially. 
 
 " He had some news he thought we'd like to know, 
 so he brought it to us. To you especially." 
 
 The explanation was plausible enough, but Egan
 
 346 EGAN 
 
 could see at a glance that Garrity was nervous. The 
 former superintendent had put on his hat, raking it 
 backwards to an acute angle; and his feet were alter- 
 nately tapping the floor. His linen collar, barely three- 
 quarters of an inch high, but already five-eighths of 
 an inch too much, was slowly liquefying. 
 
 " That's good," said Egan, pleasantly. 
 
 Garrity gazed at him without speaking. 
 
 " Now that we're all here," suggested the Judge. 
 
 Garrity drew a tremendous breath. He looked from 
 one to the other of the trio, looked at the floor. " Am 
 I to begin, then, your Honour? " 
 
 " Yes, Garrity go ahead." 
 
 " So I will, then." He focussed intently on the car- 
 pet. " Twenty years did I slave and labour for Old 
 Man Egan, and devil a chance did I have, and no one 
 else, neither, for the Old Man he carried the business 
 under his hat, like, and he was president and treasurer 
 and manager and superintendent and office-boy and all, 
 no matter what we was called that worked under 
 him." 
 
 Egan, fascinated, bent his head a little nearer, for 
 Garrity's voice was very low. 
 
 " When he was took sick, there was neither head nor 
 tail to us, not knowin', as they say in the west of Ire- 
 land, which was the why nor for ever after. One day 
 comes a letter from the Citizens Bank which I and the 
 bookkeeper opens, and we find it's about a big sum of 
 money owed that we know nothin' about, so I and the 
 bookkeeper goes to the bank and sees Mr. Luke. * Gar- 
 rity,' he says, * this don't concern you. This is a bit 
 of private business betwixt this bank and your boss.
 
 EGAN 347 
 
 Chase yourself out of here.' ' Tell me, then,' I says, 
 
 * what I'd best do with it, for the Old Man is sick, and 
 who is his lawyer I dunno, now Judge Perkins and him 
 is on the outs.' ' Garrity,' he says, ' you go to Eddie 
 Macklin. He's a good lawyer, and he'll see to the Old 
 Man's interest.' So I go to Eddie, and I go back to 
 my work." 
 
 Adams glanced at Egan. " Dovetails nicely, doesn't 
 it? " 
 
 " Eddie comes to me, bye an' bye. * The Old Man 
 has hocked some of his own stock, and cannot buy it out 
 of the bank,' he says, ' and the bank will sell it to the 
 high dollar on Saturday week. If you've ready money, 
 you can buy cheap. Give me what you've saved, and 
 I'll get it for you.' I had always wanted stock. I 
 give him all I had ; he bought the stock Saturday ; the 
 Old Man died Tuesday. Wednesday, Eddie comes to 
 me. * Bill,' he says, ' we'll make you president of 
 Egan's.' * Do you mean it? ' I says. ' I do,' he says. 
 
 * On one condition. The plant must cut down its 
 costs.' * Cut wages? ' I says. * Cut costs,' he says." 
 
 The Honourable George silently proffered another 
 cigar, which Garrity proceeded to smoke dry. 
 
 " ' Drive the men harder,' he says, ' and save payin' 
 overtime. Put the whole crowd on piece-work.' 
 ' There'll be big trouble,' I says. ' The men will never 
 stand for it.' * Then we'll replace them,' he says. 
 ' Replace hell,' I says. * In these days? Bull! Am I 
 to watch my own money be throwed away ? ' * That's 
 all right,' he says, * we will replace them. Kent is in 
 Washington, and he'll frame a deal with a man called 
 Darragh de Lancey, who is practically the director of
 
 348 EGAN 
 
 the war business. This de Lancey can have skilled 
 workmen furloughed out of the Army and sent us to 
 complete our gover'ment contracts. They'll be glad to 
 get furloughed to keep out of the trenches, and we'll get 
 all the men we want at our own terms. Another thing,' 
 he says, * if we are to get soldiers, we must show a clean 
 slate. Every man with a Dutch name must go.' " 
 
 Adams coughed gently to direct Egan's attention. 
 
 " There was trouble on the piece-work, and after a 
 while, the boys voted to strike. * Tell them to strike 
 and be damned,' says Eddie. * If they don't come back, 
 Kent'll help us from Washington.' So the boys went 
 out, but all we got from Washington was an order to 
 behave. * Take them back, then,' says Eddie, ' and 
 you and me will have a talk with Colonel Kent, who is 
 home from Washington.' So we have a talk. * Are 
 the boys dissatisfied? ' says he. * They are,' says I, 
 * unimously.' * We'd best clean house, then,' he says, 
 ' before the Labour Department begins on us. I can 
 arrange matters. Keep up the discipline. If the men 
 is dissatisfied, leave them drift off. We will have sol- 
 diers furloughed and save money.' He shows me a 
 clipping from a newspaper where hundreds of men is 
 furloughed for the cartridge brass industry, and I am 
 convinced. The men is dissatisfied, and they drift. 
 One day we're with half the machines standin' idle. 
 Kent and Eddie is both out of town. I send a telegram 
 to this here de Lancey, askin' where are the soldiers. 
 Two days later, we are notified our steel delivery is to 
 be cut two-thirds. The same day I hear from this de 
 Lancey. He says he never heard of us in all his life,
 
 EGAN 349 
 
 nor Kent, neither. Eddie is home over Sunday. ' What 
 vou've done,' he says to me, ' is to gum the whole game. 
 You'd better have kept your face shut. You've put 
 Kent in a hell of a hole. You're lucky if you ain't in- 
 dicted. You blew the secret of what we aimed to do 
 by the furlough, and that's why they stopped your 
 steel.' ' What do I do now? ' I says. ' Close down? ' 
 * Close down is right,' he says, ' and keep your face 
 closed down while I get in touch with Kent and fix this 
 up. We'll be runnin' full blast again in two weeks.' 
 So we close down, but we wasn't runnin' again in two 
 weeks, nor four. Eddie comes to me. ' The city will 
 take back its land,' he says, * and The Egan Company 
 has bust. You did it,' he says. * Your damn fool 
 telegram did it. You killed the best business in Plain- 
 field. I know you lose you ten thou,' he says, ' but 
 other folks lose fifty to your one. If you peep,' he 
 says, * you'll likely land in the cooler. Kent is crazy. 
 Go get a job and forget it, and some day when Kent is 
 cooled down I'll see you get your money back provided 
 you keep your face shut.' So I get a job, but I don't 
 forget it. Then there is trouble in politics in this town, 
 and both ends is against the middle, and I am part of 
 the middle. Kent has sent for me, and Eddie has sent 
 for me, and I see where I am the goat. But goat or no 
 goat, I'll stand by an Egan until the last trump. I am 
 convinced since yesterday morning there was a dirty 
 trick there at the plant. So I come to you, and here 
 I am." 
 
 He finished wearily, and continued to stare at the 
 carpet.
 
 350 EGAN 
 
 " I suppose you'd be willing to sign an affidavit, 
 wouldn't you ? " asked Adams, breaking the silence. 
 
 Garrity lifted his head. He answered Adams, but 
 he looked at Egan. 
 
 " I'll sign anything the Judge says. He's my law- 
 yer." 
 
 " We'll draw it up tonight." 
 
 " Not tonight," said Garrity. " I got to go to 
 Cleveland. My sister's sick. I'll be back tomorrow 
 afternoon." 
 
 " Tomorrow night, then." The Judge sighed with 
 relief. " Well, I guess that clears the path for us, gen- 
 tlemen." 
 
 He smiled broadly, but Egan, confronted at last by 
 the certainty that his father's old friend and Mary's 
 father had planned his strategy of destruction, was so 
 infinitely depressed that nothing could have wrung an 
 answering smile from him. Not even Waupoos. Not 
 even what Garrity, on his feet for departure, was bab- 
 bling in loyal eulogy of Old Man Egan.
 
 xxvin 
 
 AT the usual hour on Monday, Egan was in his 
 office, and he remained there throughout the 
 greater part of the day, although his mind was 
 absent without leave. He was so detached from his 
 duties that the announcement of Hoyt as general man- 
 ager and himself as assistant could hardly wring a word 
 of satisfaction from him ; nor could the choice of a new 
 advertising executive stir him to congratulation. At 
 four o'clock, sedulously avoiding Adams, he slipped out 
 and went to the Metropolitan Club for private medita- 
 tion, and to perform a friendly service for a friend. At 
 five o'clock, a boy brought the message to the writing 
 room that a caller was waiting for Egan downstairs, 
 and Egan, delaying only long enough to seal an en- 
 velope, went down. The caller was a young man in a 
 strikingly checked suit and vivid haberdashery, set off 
 by numerous articles of diamond jewelry. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Feinberg ! " said Egan. 
 
 The young man approached him nervously. 
 " Howdy-do, Mr. Egan. Long time since we met each 
 other, ain't it? " He attached himself by thumb and 
 forefinger to the lapel of Egan's coat. " You know 
 something? I got a friend of mine wants to do some 
 business with you. I got a oitermobile outside here. 
 Ninety cents a hour. They told me at your office you'd 
 be here or home, and you wasn't home, so I come here. 
 Just a couple minutes. It's no fake honest." 
 
 851
 
 352 EGAN 
 
 Egan tried to detach himself, but the jewelry sales- 
 man wouldn't let go. 
 
 "Who is it?" 
 
 " E M," said Mr. Feinberg, mysteriously. 
 
 " Oh ! What's the idea of sending you here ? Why 
 didn't he come himself? " 
 
 " He couldn't. . . . Say, this is an elegant clubhouse, 
 ain't it? " 
 
 " Well, why didn't he telephone? " 
 
 " He couldn't do that, either." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Well, he couldn't. I tell you, it's no fake, Mr. 
 Egan. I'm payin' ninety cents by the hour. He " 
 
 " You can tell him for me," said Egan shortly, " that 
 if he wants to see me, he can come here." He succeeded 
 in freeing his lapel, but the jewelry salesman promptly 
 caught him by the sleeve. 
 
 " I ask you please, Mr. Egan, be a good sport. I 
 wouldn't come here only if it wasn't important. It 
 won't take you hardly any time at all. It's no fake. 
 Honest. It's about . . . you know." He danced 
 back impressively. " He said I should tell you it's to 
 . . . you know." 
 
 " No, I don't," said Egan impatiently. " And I 
 don't think I care a whale of a lot, either." 
 
 " Well, it's no fake. I give you my word of hon- 
 our, Mr. Egan. It's worth going for. Please hurry 
 up, Mr. Egan." 
 
 Egan wavered. " And he can't come here ? " 
 
 " No, sir. If he could, he would have. Honest. 
 It's just like I said. I should bring you back just as
 
 EGAN 353 
 
 soon as I could. I got a car outside here now, and it 
 won't cost you a cent." 
 
 " Well " 
 
 Feinberg stopped him as he turned. " Please don't 
 tell anybody, Mr. Egan. Please. You shouldn't 
 worry. Honest. Don't say a word. It's important 
 you shouldn't." 
 
 Egan stopped wavering. 
 
 " All right," he said. " I'll be with you as soon as I 
 can get my coat and hat, and leave something at the 
 office." 
 
 At the hall desk, he wrote the superscription " Board 
 of Governors " on the envelope in his hand. Within, 
 was the petition which would release Adams' suspen- 
 sion, and place him on active membership in the club 
 once more. 
 
 The door of the small house was opened by an acidu- 
 lous young woman with an oil lamp in her hand. At 
 sight of Feinberg, she stood aside to permit the pair to 
 enter. 
 
 " Go right in the poller," she said unemotionally. 
 Egan, entering the poller, was immediately alone. 
 Feinberg had remained in the hall, and closed the door. 
 
 For an instant, Egan was expectant of surprise, but 
 he dismissed the thought of ambush with a contemptu- 
 ous shrug of his shoulders, and gave himself to a critical 
 inspection of the room. It was a very low-ceiled apart- 
 ment, lighted by a large kerosene lamp, and luxuriously 
 furnished in red plush. The carpet was Brussels, with 
 cabbage-sized roses on it. Egan's eyes were soothed by
 
 854 . EGAN 
 
 antimacassars, wax-fruit displays underneath glass 
 bells, crayon enlargements surrounded by elaborate gilt 
 frames, and a glorious array of prisms dangling from 
 the gasolier which sprouted downward from a plaster 
 rosette in the ceiling. Distinctly not a room in which 
 melodrama would feel at home. 
 ,The door opened again, and Egan turned back. 
 
 " Hello, Eddie." 
 
 His ancient enemy didn't offer to shake hands. " I'm 
 glad you came, Bronson." 
 
 " Always happy to oblige." 
 
 " You're mighty decent to come, anyway." 
 
 Egan felt it himself. 
 
 " Whose place is this ? " 
 
 " My mother's. Let's sit down. . . . Smoke a cig- 
 arette?" 
 
 " I have some, thanks." 
 
 "Matches?" 
 
 " Much obliged." 
 
 Macklin sat down, his feet profaning one of the roses 
 which, except on the occasion of two funerals and a few 
 ministerial visitations, had never seen the full light of 
 day since it was transplanted there. His look to Egan 
 was unusually direct. 
 
 " You've won, of course you know," he said in an un- 
 dertone. 
 
 Egan's heart thumped. " Won ? How do you 
 mean ? " 
 
 Macklin acted as though his nerves had been crushed. 
 
 " The first night you were back ? Remember you 
 said there wasn't room for both of us in the same town? 
 Well, I'm leaving."
 
 EGAN 355 
 
 His despondency was so profound that Egan, even at 
 this long-wished-for instant of complete success, could 
 almost be sorry for him almost. 
 
 " Is that so ? " His tone was a challenge. 
 
 " I hope it is." Macklin's hands twitched uncon- 
 trollably. " You can make it sure if you want to. I 
 thought under all the circumstances you might want 
 to." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 Macklin blew a volley of smoke squarely into the out- 
 raged features of a lugubrious hypocrite in a crayon 
 enlargement. " Help me get away." 
 
 Egan laughed. " Isn't that rather a large order? 
 Under all the circumstances ? " 
 
 " It is, and it isn't. I want to get to St. Louis." 
 
 "Why St. Louis?" 
 
 " That's my business, Bronson." 
 
 " Well, the railroad's still running." 
 
 " But I can't take it." 
 
 " You can't expect me to help you with " 
 
 " I don't suppose I ought to expect you to lift a 
 finger. Only I do. I'm banking on it." 
 
 Egan inspected him minutely. " I'd like to hear a 
 little more about it, Eddie." His sense of triumph was 
 atrophied. The victory was too hollow. And it was 
 highly doubtful if it would be to Egan's interest to let 
 Macklin set foot outside the state. 
 
 Macklin was quivering as from an attack of palsy. 
 " All I want to do is to begin over again. Start with a 
 clean slate. I've got a lawyer friend in St. Louis who'll 
 give me a job. . . . What. I want to do is to get out of 
 here fast, and not have too many people know I'm
 
 356 EGAN 
 
 getting out. After two days, I don't care. Nobody's 
 going to chase me, except maybe you. I thought we 
 might have an understanding for good and all. After 
 that, you can do as you like. But I want to get out of 
 Plainfield before anybody knows I'm gone, or where I'm 
 going. I sent for you so I could put all the cards on 
 the table, and find out just what your ideas are." He 
 flipped the butt of his cigarette into a hand-painted 
 china plate on the table, and got to his feet. " Bron- 
 son, it's a rotten crooked world. God knows I've tried 
 to play the game square, but it don't work. Unless 
 you've got money, you can't afford to be square. I'll 
 tell you why I'm going out because I was too damned 
 honest. I'm in wrong everywhere." He sat down 
 again. " Oh, I know you've been chumming with Hen- 
 derson, and your pal Adams has been pumping Bill 
 Garrfty but the only man who can fill in the chinks 
 is me. I'm going to do it. ... Can we bargain? " 
 
 Egan, triumphant, was still judicial. " I don't see 
 yet why you need me. Why don't you just go, if you 
 want to? And if you think you can get away with it." 
 
 Macldin regarded him sharply. " I'm going to put 
 my head* in the noose. You'd find it out anyway. I 
 tell you, I'm banking on you. And you've always mis- 
 judged me. I don't want you to this time. I'd rather 
 have you believe me than any other man I ever knew, 
 and that's no bull, either. If you won't give me a 
 lift . . ." He fingered his throat as though it hurt 
 him. " Bronson, it was Kent and his crowd made me 
 city counsel. I was straight as a string, by God, until 
 they began to get after me for favours. One day Kent 
 asked me for some legal advice quite on the side on
 
 EGAN 357 
 
 some little matter of his, and after I'd given it to him, 
 he wanted to know the fee. ' Ten dollars,' I said. He 
 gave me a bill it was in his office, and his secretary 
 was there. I put it in my pocket. Next time I had to 
 buy cigarettes, I hauled out this bill. It was a hundred 
 dollar bill. I went back to Kent. ' That's O. K.,' he 
 said to me. * That's O. K. Call it a retainer you 
 can do more for me, on the side, from time to time.' I 
 needed that money, Bronson. I've got a mother and 
 sister. . . . Like a damned fool, I deposited it. I bank 
 in the Citizens Trust. In the course of six months he 
 paid me eleven hundred dollars. Luke paid me five 
 hundred. I was giving them some advice, of course, but 
 it wasn't worth that. . . . Still, I couldn't see any harm 
 in it." 
 
 "Couldn't you, Eddie?" Egan marvelled at his 
 own forbearance. 
 
 Macklin shook his head. " Then Kent wanted the 
 city to buy the Light and Power Company, and my 
 original opinion was that the city couldn't do it legally. 
 Kent sent for me." He had to clear his throat before 
 he could continue. " Marked bills ... all of 'em. 
 The teller'd made memos of them, and had 'em in an 
 envelope. Damn it, Bronson, everybody knew I never'd 
 charged more'n ten dollars for two minutes' advice when 
 I had a private practice, and a city attorney hasn't any 
 right to take money on the outside anyhow. . . . He 
 sort of had me." 
 
 " You were a fool, Eddie." 
 
 " Am I the only one ? ... So the city bought the 
 Light and Power Company from Kent at double its 
 value, and he gave me a thousand dollars and promised
 
 358 EGAN 
 
 to make me Mayor. Then your father got sick, and 
 that note deal came up. Kent got ready to have the 
 bank jump on the note itself, and pick up some loose 
 change from the Old Man when he had to buy his stock 
 back. Then Kent got the idea that he'd make more 
 money if the Egan Company was out of it entirely. If 
 he had a local monopoly, without even the Egan name 
 in the way. He couldn't figure out how to force a con- 
 solidation without showing his teeth, and he didn't dare 
 to do that. So he told me to advise all my old clients 
 to chip in and buy that stock. And he got a lot of 
 bolshevik talk circulated to keep the price down. The 
 Times helped him out. I kicked like a steer, but he 
 swore that one way or another he'd make up any losses 
 the buyers had to take. He was gunning for the Com- 
 pany only. 
 
 " It happened that Henderson had been over here nos- 
 ing around, and I'd met him, and I knew he was straight 
 as a string, and no friend of Kent's. I tried to play 
 fair. It wasn't safe to write or wire or telephone Hen- 
 derson on any deal to put the skids under Kent and 
 then in pops this fellow Feinberg. I boarded in his 
 house when I was in law school in Cleveland. I knew 
 his cousin did hack work for Henderson, it was his 
 cousin who got me to board with him in the first place ; 
 we were in the same class at law school Feinberg's 
 about the only one that's sticking to me now, so I sent 
 a tip over that way. I wanted Henderson to bid for 
 that stock, and buy it, and spike Kent's game, and pro- 
 tect you fellows. Henderson would have been decent 
 about it, and sold it back to you. And he wouldn't 
 give me away to Kent. He came over, but he wouldn't
 
 EGAN 359 
 
 touch it. Thought it was a skunk trick and thought 
 I was a skunk to suggest it. I was going to charge him 
 a legitimate commission, if he bought and that would 
 have let me square up with the world, and get clear. 
 He thought I was crooked to suggest the commission. 
 Of course I couldn't tell him how / was fixed. . . . Kent 
 gave me some big money to buy stock with myself, so it 
 would look better. We put Garrity in, and let him 
 hang himself. Kent would have had a consolidation out 
 of it, but he was scared of appearances, so we just killed 
 it* I guess Garrity's told you how. The company'll 
 liquidate so that Garrity and Mrs. McCain and the 
 other people'll get their money back. I had to scare 
 'em all so they wouldn't tell they gave us their proxies. 
 Kent wanted it thought they voted themselves. Kent 
 made me hustle along the cancellation of your lease, and 
 get it for him. Kent engineered the whole work. The 
 other directors are just as innocent as you are. They 
 knew Kent was interested, and a clever organizer, so 
 they let him run things. They think it had to happen. 
 It only cost Kent $30,000 all told to wreck your com- 
 pany for you. And then you came home. . . . Bron- 
 son, when I said I wanted to be friends with you,r I 
 meant it. When I said I could help you, I meant it. I 
 was right on the edge of playing the game with you then 
 . . . and you couldn't think of anything but the fight 
 we had fifteen years ago. Well, that's over with. I 
 stuck to Kent a while longer. How the devil could I 
 get away? If I'd come to you then, you wouldn't have 
 believed me under oath. Then you spilled the beans 
 about meeting Henderson on the train, and Kent tum- 
 bled. Kent knows I'm no good to him now. He's
 
 360 EGAN 
 
 through with me. I'm too honest for him. And the 
 crowd's against him now, so they're against me, too. 
 There's nothing ahead here. I've got to get out. I 
 need you to help me. I believe you will, too. I'll 
 show you why." 
 
 He went out of the room a moment, and returned. 
 There was some one with him. It was Mary Kent. 
 
 She came slowly towards Egan, stopped halfway. 
 She was pale and nervous ; it was obviously hard for her 
 to speak. 
 
 " We're going away, Bronson," she said, barely above 
 a whisper. 
 
 Egan looked at her, and looked at Macklin. His 
 reason refused, temporarily, to accept the fact. He 
 had been told that their engagement was broken. And 
 it was contrary to his opinion of Mary that she should 
 cleave to a broken reed like Macklin. Voluntary ad- 
 versity was a sacrifice he had never dreamed her capable 
 of making. The release of his own individuality was his 
 second thought, not his first. 
 
 "You're what?" 
 
 Her lower lip was trembling pitiably. 
 
 " I'm going away with Eddie." 
 
 He could only look at her, mute. Macklin volun- 
 teered an explanation. 
 
 " Her father announced our engagement was broken, 
 but it isn't so. It wasn't any of our doing. It was 
 Mr. Kent's. He made her." 
 
 Something sprang up in Egan's throat, and made it 
 arid. Her father had adopted the mediaeval Florentine 
 procedure of using the stiletto on his friends from be-
 
 EGAN 361 
 
 hind, and the mere circumstance of Mary's relationship 
 to her father was enough to damn her, if it hadn't been 
 that she was turning from him, too. 
 
 " So you're going just the same? " 
 
 She nodded faintly. " Yes, Bronson." She edged 
 towards Macklin, and he put his arm defiantly around 
 her. Egan, watching them, was all at once visited by a 
 new species of commiseration for Mary, and a new sort 
 of pity for Macklin. Their mutual dependence, and 
 their mutual faith at this crisis touched him deeply. 
 Without logic, he knew that he should have to lend them 
 aid. He knew that he should have to believe the nar- 
 rative as Macklin had told it. And he knew that his 
 heart wouldn't permit him to open fire on Mr. Kent 
 while Mary was at home. 
 
 " Have you left your home for good, Mary? " 
 
 Again she nodded. " I had to. It was awful, Bron- 
 son. We're going away and be married. I'm staying 
 here until " 
 
 " Until we decide what to do," said Macklin, his 
 shoulders squared in protection. " I'm hoping you'll 
 help us get off tonight or tomorrow morning." 
 
 Egan reverted to the obvious. " You could take a 
 train, couldn't you ? " 
 
 " No." Macklin shook his head. " That's exactly 
 what we can't do. Not even if you don't try to stop 
 me. They'll be looking for both of us, now." 
 
 " Don't they know where Mary is? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I ... I just went," said Mary, helplessly. " They 
 don't know where I am, but they know I've gone." 
 
 " They know it by now," said Macklin. " And
 
 862 EGAN 
 
 KenfU have people at the station and notify the 
 troQej company to pot the mterurban conductors on 
 guard. There ... there was a pretty hot quarrel be- 
 fore she left, Bronson. About me and us." 
 
 "Oh." Egan began abstractedly to pace up and 
 down the small room. w So you think I ought to help 
 you get away, do you? " 
 
 Macklin denied the obligation. "Far from it. 
 There's plenty of reasons why you shouldn't. That's 
 admitted. FTC said all that already. There isn't any 
 * ought* about it. Only Fve told you the truth. And 
 I thought you're a big enough man. . . ." His voice 
 trailed into silence. 
 
 Egan continued to pace the floor, but his thoughts 
 were vividly disconnected. Presently, while he was yet 
 unprepared to express himself, Mary detached herself 
 from Macklin, and came to meet him. He paused, and 
 gazed down at her, negatively conscious now that the 
 last vestige of his schoolboy emotion for her had left 
 him. He was stiD very fond of her, and very sorry for 
 her, but that was all. He was sorry for her on Mack- 
 lin's account as well as on his own. He would do what- 
 ever he could to help her. But to help MackKn? Even 
 if the pairing of these two meant a permanent reprieve 
 for himself? 
 
 ** Bronson ! " she said. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " I don't deserve it, Bronson any of it." 
 
 "* What don't you deserve, Mary? " 
 
 " What yon think about me, and what Father thinks 
 and and everything." Tears filled her eyes. "I 
 can't help it and everybody's so unfair to Eddie.
 
 EGAN 363 
 
 We'd better just go away. Nobody wants us around 
 here. Won't you please help us? Doesn't our old 
 friendship mean anything? Can't we count on you 
 now the only time we've ever had to count on you? 
 Because there's nobody else but you " 
 
 As she put out her hand to touch his arm, Egan 
 stepped back to the window. ** Wait a minute," he 
 said. 
 
 When he turned, they were just as he had left them; 
 Mary, pathetic by the centre table, Eddie stolid at the 
 mantel. " When could you be ready tomorrow morn- 
 ing? " he demanded. " Six o'clock? " 
 
 A spot of colour appeared in Mary's cheeks. Mack- 
 lin, on the contrary, grew white. " Yes,** he said. 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Be at the field by six o'clock," said Egan. " You 
 can have the ' Honeymoon Express ' from here to Boyd 
 Junction. Illinois. That's four hundred miles. With 
 stops for gas, youll get there by noon. That's the 
 best I can do for you. You won't have room for 
 more than three suit-cases. I'd bring something to eat, 
 too. Your pilot won't ask any questions, and you don't 
 have to pay any attention to him. I don't know when 
 you can catch a train from the Junction to St. Louis, 
 but you can find out, and the pilot'U arrange so that 
 you don't have to wait too long there. His name'll be 
 Utley. U-t-1-e-y. Will that do ? It isn't much of any 
 risk. It's all I can think of." He tried to ease the 
 tension. " Mary always said she wanted one flight just 
 for the experience." 
 
 Bronson!" said Macklin, hushed. "That's ex- 
 actly what we'd hoped you'd do."
 
 364 EGAN 
 
 Egan reached for his hat. " I won't see you again, 
 then. Everything will be ready for you. Just go out 
 to the field and say you're the passengers that I ar- 
 ranged for." He offered his hand to Mary. " Good- 
 bye, and good luck." 
 
 She looked inquiringly back at Macklin. " Go 
 ahead," he said. 
 
 So that it came to pass precisely as Egan had prom- 
 ised more than six months ago. He hadn't laid a finger 
 on Mary Kent until she took the initiative herself. But 
 he hadn't imagined, then, that he should be quite so im- 
 passive when she kissed him. 
 
 Macklin ushered him to the outer door. " I knovf it 
 isn't for me that you're doing this," he said, awk- 
 wardly. " Well I don't believe I'll ever want to see 
 Plainfield again, but if I can ever do anything for you. 
 . . . It's sort of ticklish business, of course with 
 Mary's father but if it's a case of devil take the hind- 
 most One last word. I didn't spike your guns for 
 the Fair last fall. That is, not willingly. Kent was 
 organizing Air Traffic, and made me. Do you think I 
 won't come back to get a crack at him ? Try me 
 that's all. . . . Won't you shake hands ? " 
 
 With hardly noticeable hesitation, Egan did. 
 
 On Tuesday afternoon, he had a wire from them at 
 Boyd Junction, and he was doubly relieved; once be- 
 cause they were safe, once because they were gone. But 
 his relief was instantaneously removed from him when, 
 shortly before the closing hour, Stanley Adams came in 
 to his office very quietly, and closed the door. 
 
 " We're out of luck, Bronson," he said. " I came
 
 EGAN 365 
 
 over to tell you that the Cleveland express was wrecked 
 in an open-switch accident at half past three." 
 
 Egan's brain leaped at the conclusion. " Garrity? " 
 
 " Killed," said Adams. " And there goes our star 
 witness, and most of our case against Kent." 
 
 His expression was so extraordinary that Egan held 
 back some of his dismay. There was an unbelieving 
 sort of ecstasy behind Adams' seriousness a dazed 
 recognition of something almost too good to be true. 
 Of a surety, this mood had nothing to do with Garrity, 
 and the case against Kent. " Uncle Stanley ! What's 
 the . . . say it, man, say it ! " 
 
 Adams was blinking rapidly. 
 
 " There was a theatrical troupe on the same train, 
 Bronson . . ." He came close to Egan, and gripped 
 him by the shoulder. " It's a funny thing, boy . . . 
 it's funny as hell. . . . You know, I almost wish I 
 could go to her funeral but I just can't! " 
 
 Egan caught his breath. " Why why, Uncle 
 Stanley ! I'm hanged if I don't believe I know exactly 
 how you feel ! "
 
 XXIX 
 
 THERE was a solemn week during which Egan 
 immured himself within the solitude of his own 
 reflections. Every instinct impelled him to 
 hurry to Dayton, but he relentlessly submerged them 
 in cold restraint. He thought it would hardly be de- 
 cent of him. It would be too precipitous too patent. 
 And besides, he owed something to the memory of the 
 girl who had taught him, by her very constancy to 
 Macklin, how much he had yet to learn about women, 
 and about himself. So that he struggled to give value 
 for value to the company which employed him, while, as 
 a matter of fact, he was worth, during that week, 
 hardly the rental of the space he occupied. But it was 
 a tribute to his altered self that he recognized it. 
 
 Adams, who was floating through his days with the 
 face of a reprieved convict and the title of advertising 
 manager, wouldn't permit him to lose sight of his less 
 tender opportunity. 
 
 " The Judge says that without Garrity we probably 
 can't even get Kent indicted," he protested. " Gar- 
 rity's gone for good, but if Eddie won't come back of 
 his own accord, we could have him extradited like roll- 
 ing off a log. Conspiracy? When he was city coun- 
 sel? We'd have Kent breaking rock on the streets un- 
 til his ransom does the general coffers fill. Sure 
 Eddie'd get his, too. What do we care what happens 
 to Eddie?" 
 
 " I care a good deal," said Egan soberly. 
 
 366
 
 EGAN 367 
 
 " Not that I think he was anything more than a cats- 
 paw, but " 
 
 " But I don't care to press it, Uncle Stanley." 
 
 Adams looked wise. " Still, you know if you help 
 conceal a conspiracy " 
 
 " I'm the only one that's hurt, Uncle Stanley. The 
 other people are going to get their money back. And 
 the question of the Light and Power Company isn't 
 for us to handle it's up to the city." 
 
 Adams was disconsolate. "And let Kent go?" he 
 mourned. " Let him keep on swaggering around town 
 as though he owned the mortgage on it? " 
 
 " He won't be happy about it," said Egan grimly. 
 " He'll know / know. The Judge is going to tell him." 
 
 Indeed, towards the end of the week, Mr. Kent, who 
 had ill-advisedly put his faith in sheer luck, and de- 
 pended on it for immunity, knew all about it. The 
 Honourable George Perkins waited ceremoniously upon 
 him, and Mr. Kent, striving to retain his military bear- 
 ing, and his attitude of command, found that he was in 
 process of being dominated by a carelessly-dressed old 
 man who had nothing but the consciousness of justice 
 back of him. 
 
 " I think," said the Honourable George, not the least 
 unbending, " you know what I've come for." 
 
 Mr. Kent, behind the rampart of his mahogany desk, 
 affected genial innocence. 
 
 "How should I?" 
 
 The Honourable George could put lightning into his 
 eyes when he had the inclination, and he had it now. 
 " It's about the example your young friend Macklin 
 has set you."
 
 868 EGAN 
 
 " Example? " Kent scowled. " That's a matter we 
 won't talk about, Mr. Perkins." It was common, and 
 more or less sympathetic, gossip, that the flight of his 
 daughter had very nearly broken the Colonel's heart. 
 But Perkins, pitying the man in his capacity of par- 
 ent, had little compassion for him as a mere integer 
 of the community. In fact, it was nothing but the 
 Judge's conception of his duty as a lawyer which re- 
 stricted him to the carrying out of his client's wishes. 
 Even now, he was almost inclined to fall back upon his 
 rights as the executor of Old Man Egan's estate, and 
 leave mercy for other people to practise. 
 
 " I'm afraid we'll have to talk about it," said the 
 Honourable George, lowering his tremendous lashes. 
 " You see, I'm representing quite a lot of different peo- 
 ple. I'm the executor of Old Man Egan's estate, and 
 I'm Bronson Egan's attorney. I'm Mrs. McCain's at- 
 torney in fact. I'm retained for Mrs. Garrity 
 Big Bill's widow. I'm representing Little . . . er, 
 John C. Jones, also an Egan stockholder. I'm rep- 
 resenting the combined interests of Henry C. Penny- 
 packer and seven other small stockholders who also 
 bought stock through Macklin from the Citizens Trust. 
 I'm representing, locally, Mr. Darragh de Lancey of 
 the Industrial Furlough Section, in Washington. I'm 
 representing, by an arrangement made yesterday eve- 
 ning, Mr. Martin Henderson. Is that enough? " 
 
 " I congratulate you," said Kent dryly. " Your 
 practice seems to be improving." Nevertheless, the 
 mention of Garrity's name made him restive. He had 
 been hoping against hope. " What do you seem to 
 want from me? "
 
 EGAN 369 
 
 The Judge made a last attempt to spare him the bald 
 recital. 
 
 " Do you need to ask? " 
 
 " I have asked." 
 
 The Honourable George drew a long breath. " I 
 hoped you'd see for yourself. . . . Well, I guess you've 
 made enough money to last you awhile. If I was in 
 your place, mind you, this is man to man, just this 
 part right in here if I was in your place, I'd go 
 South or somewhere for the rest of the winter, anyway, 
 and look around from there, and see if I couldn't find 
 a nice spot to think of settling in." 
 
 Kent grew suddenly crimson. " Do you realize what 
 you're saying? " He brought out a cigarette case, and 
 abruptly returned it to his pocket. 
 
 " I ought to. I'm a lawyer, and I thought it over 
 considerable long enough." His manner altered 
 slightly. " Kent, I'm only making a suggestion to 
 you. This is man to man. You've been a King-pin 
 here" 
 
 " I am yet." 
 
 The Honourable George disputed it with a backhand 
 gesture. 
 
 " I won't argue that with you. . . . I'm still speak- 
 ing as man to man. My unprofessional advice to you 
 is to be as calm as you can about it, make what ex- 
 planations you think are necessary, and shut up shop." 
 
 Kent lighted a match on the underside of his desk, 
 and absently blew it out. 
 
 " Shut up ? " 
 
 " Retire," said Perkins. 
 
 The capitalist toyed with the burnt match. " I'm
 
 370 EGAN 
 
 glad your advice is free, Perkins. I'd hate to have to 
 pay anything for that sort of advice." 
 
 " I've already said that that advice was as man to 
 man. Personally, it's immaterial to me. Now, on the 
 other side . . . I'm speaking as an attorney, now; I'm 
 authorized to bring action against you, in the name 
 of Bronson Egan, and several minor stockholders in 
 The Egan Company, for " 
 
 Kent was crouched in his chair as though to spring 
 at him. 
 
 "For what?" 
 
 " For staying in Plainfield after the first day of next 
 month," said Perkins, mildly. 
 
 The capitalist relaxed, and put the utmost *)f scorn 
 into his voice. 
 
 "Oh! A little stuffed club? You've forgotten 
 yourself for once, Perkins. You certainly put your 
 foot in the bucket that time. In law, there's a name 
 for that." 
 
 " You're mistaken. And I'm not making any threats. 
 The action'll be brought ant/w&j. But if you're out 
 of the state by the first of the month, I'm afraid you 
 can't be brought back. That shows it ain't a criminal 
 case if you didn't know it, Kent. And I'm instructed 
 not to get an order to serve you by publication. I'm 
 to serve you in person, or not at all." 
 
 Kent broke the match between his fingers. " What's 
 the amount of the claim? " 
 
 " The total is seven hundred thousand dollars." 
 
 " That's ridiculous on the face of it ! If a reason- 
 able compromise " 
 
 " / can't think of any compromise that would sound
 
 EGAN 371 
 
 reasonable to Bronson Egan. Can you? I tell you, 
 those stockholders are mighty generous about it. And 
 if it wasn't for Bronson's feeling about prosecuting 
 Mary Kent's father and you can take it from me, 
 that's all that stands between you and serious trou- 
 ble " 
 
 The capitalist's face was suddenly distorted. " You 
 wouldn't even expect to win your suit, and you know 
 it." 
 
 " I can't agree with you . . . juries these days aren't 
 capitalistic. And The Egan Company was on war con- 
 tracts. And you'd subsidized the Times when they 
 printed a good deal about The Egan Company. And 
 you can guess, if you want to, what sort of other case 
 might take a start out of this action. And Eddie'll 
 come back if he's wanted. I tell you, Bronson's giv- 
 ing you a chance you don't deserve. So are the other 
 folks. It's not to save you ; it's to save the reputation 
 of the dozen or more industries you're concerned in. 
 It's to keep Plainfield from a stench that would carry 
 from here to the Atlantic seaboard. It's public-spirit ; 
 that's what / call it. You call it anything you want 
 to. And by the Lord Harry ! I wish you'd stand and 
 fight ! " His voice dropped to a mere whisper. " I'd 
 love to try that case myself," he said. 
 
 Kent folded his arms to keep his hands out of sight, 
 and gazed out of the window. Until today, he had 
 cherished a faint belief that money could buy almost 
 anything. 
 
 " What assurance would there be that your clients 
 would relinquish their claims ? " 
 
 " All I can give you, legally and my word, morally.
 
 372 EGAN 
 
 That is, they won't exactly relinquish 'em, but as I said, 
 I'm instructed not to serve you by " 
 
 "And publicity? If I should decide to take a 
 vacation ? " 
 
 The Judge was watching him narrowly. 
 
 " There'll be none. That is, unless . . . oh, Mr. 
 Henderson particularly asked me to say that all the 
 stock of the corporation that bought the Times is 
 owned, itself, by a New Jersey corporation and he 
 owns all but two shares of stock in that." 
 
 Kent turned his head slowly. " That's very . . . 
 interesting. Am I to take his word, too? You're not 
 offering a lot of security, Perkins . . ." 
 
 The Judge flared up instantly. " You can count on 
 more fairness than you ever gave Bronson, anyway. 
 Man, can't you see when you're in luck? I'll guarantee 
 the Times will print whatever notice of your retirement 
 you care to write." As Kent's eyes flickered, the old 
 lawyer added : " Henderson owns the Herald, too. . . ." 
 
 The capitalist turned again, his hands clasped be- 
 hind his head, to stare out of the window. Perkins 
 waited patiently. 
 
 " So you think I'd better retire, do you? " 
 
 " It seems to me sort of diplomatic." 
 
 " Diplomatic . . . yes," Kent smiled elusively. 
 " But you'd lose a thundering good fee, then, wouldn't 
 you? " 
 
 " That doesn't interest me in the slightest." 
 
 " No, I don't suppose it does." 
 
 The Judge ignored the sneer. " Henderson's willing 
 to pay you the market valuation on everything you own
 
 EGAN 373 
 
 here, from the Citizens Trust to Air Traffic. Espe- 
 cially those two." 
 
 Kent's forehead gathered a suspicious wrinkle or 
 two. 
 
 " Oh ! That kind of retirement. You might almost 
 say a freeze-out, mightn't you? " 
 
 " At a good profit to you," nodded the Judge. 
 " Market values." 
 
 Kent's smile was funereal. " I'll think it over." 
 
 " You have." 
 
 " I don't quite get that? " 
 
 The Judge articulated very clearly. " I say, you 
 have thought it over. All you need to. It's time for 
 action." 
 
 " You certainly don't expect me to make a snap de- 
 cision " 
 
 " Unfortunately, I do. Before I leave the office." 
 
 " You expect too much." 
 
 " But the forms for the last edition of the Times 
 close in an hour. I have with me a little article " 
 He produced it carefully " all set up, and ready to 
 release. You'll observe it's just a preliminary an- 
 nouncement " 
 
 Kent read it avidly, and seemed relieved. 
 
 " I see. . . . And if you shouldn't have cause to run 
 this, I suppose you'd run something a little . . . what 
 shall I say . . . rough? " 
 
 " I'm not in Mr. Henderson's confidence to that ex- 
 tent. But there's nothing rough about this. Just says 
 that you and Luke have made plans to turn over your 
 holdings to "
 
 374 EGAN 
 
 " Yes, I read it ... oh, Lulce? " 
 
 " I thought you'd rather take it up with him than 
 have me do it, wouldn't you ? " 
 
 " W-e-e-1 And we're to have until the first of the 
 month, are we? " 
 
 " It depends entirely on how much you're willing 
 to spend on your defence after that. . . . By the way, 
 Bronson wants it specifically understood that this 
 doesn't affect Henry Luke. It's only his father." 
 
 Kent, who had dreamed of power far beyond the 
 confines of this single city, exhaled softly. He knew 
 Perkins, he knew Henderson and he knew Egan. He 
 had unlimited confidence in the power of the dollar, but 
 he appreciated that the Henderson faction could af- 
 ford to hazard three to his one. And he knew that he 
 could never expect to live down the revelations. On 
 the other hand, there was his distinction intact, and 
 his fortune unimpaired, if he merely drifted out of 
 Plainfield on the tide of discovery. He stared out of 
 the window until even the Honourable George's patience 
 was taxed. 
 
 Then he dropped his arms, and swung towards his 
 desk, and re-read, twice, the typewritten pages which 
 Perkins had put before him. Conservative, laudatory 
 within the obvious facts, accurate as to names and 
 dates. . . . 
 
 Without glancing at the Honourable George, the 
 capitalist flipped the typescript across the desk. He 
 looked very worn and tired. 
 
 " Run it," he said. " I'll see Luke myself."
 
 XXX 
 
 EGAN went over to Dayton on the slowest snail 
 of a train which ever crawled at fifty miles an 
 hour all the way ; and a thousand times en route 
 he told himself that if the airplane had any human 
 value, it should be used exclusively by young men hurry- 
 ing to a rendezvous. The only relief he had was from 
 the perusal of a letter, written twenty words to the 
 page, which he read every ten miles. 
 
 " Dear Mr. Egan : 
 
 " I arived here Thursday, and I am writeing to tell 
 you how perfectly sweet Ferncliff is. I think it is the 
 loveliest place. Nothing can ever erase from me the 
 thought of how perfectly fine you and Judge Perkins 
 are and mother to let me come here. My greatest 
 wish is to do well in everything and I am in love with 
 everything already. I think it is the loveliest place. 
 My room mate is the sweetest thing. Please accept 
 my most sincere thanks. I think you were perfectly 
 fine and Judge Perkins and mother to send me. 
 " Cordially and sincerely yours, 
 
 " MTLLICENT McCAiN." 
 
 It was half -past five when he arrived; far too late 
 to call at Henderson's office, and infinitely too early to 
 call at Henderson's house. That is, without first tele- 
 phoning. . . . After striking a balance of the desir- 
 abilities, he telephoned the house, and not the office. 
 
 Martha's voice was rich with welcome, but it also 
 375
 
 376 EGAN 
 
 held a precipitate of reserve which disturbed him. She 
 invited him to come up for dinner, and to come at once, 
 and her invitation included the statement that this was 
 a simple matter of course; but that underlying note 
 of insecurity, with its almost indistinguishable hint of 
 complications, caused him to linger for a moment out- 
 side the telephone booth, even after he had promised 
 to come with all possible speed. He had reached that 
 stage of a lover's mentality at which all things become 
 automatic contradictions. He fancied that even her 
 invitation was meant to be declined. He imagined that 
 she said she wanted to see him only in order to tell 
 him that she didn't want to see him. 
 
 An avalanche of vague potentialities fell upon him. 
 Having arrived here for a set purpose, he wondered if 
 he ought to carry it out. He wondered if he were 
 too early ; he wondered if he were too late. He finally 
 hurried to a taxicab with all the apprehensions of one 
 beset by ambiguity. He counted the street-crossings, 
 and cursed the traffic rules which limited the speed of 
 taxicabs to something less than the speed of pro j ectiles. 
 Leaving the chauffeur tipless and profane, he bolted up 
 the steps. There he debated again whether he ought 
 to tempt Fate or not. He rang and fidgeted. Waited, 
 questioning whether to ring again, or to fidget a little 
 longer. . . . 
 
 Martha, highly flushed and very lovely, opened the 
 door to him. " Come in, come in," she said. 
 
 Egan still fidgeted. " If it isn't perfectly convenient 
 for you I couldn't quite make out " 
 
 " Of course it is," she assured him. " But maybe it 
 won't be so convenient for you " She drew him
 
 EGAN 377 
 
 through the doorway; compelled him to doff his coat. 
 From hanging it in the little closet under the stairs, 
 he turned to behold her enveloped in the big kitchen 
 apron she had dropped behind a hall-chair when she 
 let him in. " The cook's left and the waitress has the 
 influenza and the maid's out," she explained. " I'm 
 doing the best I can, but " 
 
 Egan was flooded with masculine compassion for a 
 woman compelled to do a woman's work. 
 
 " Why, you poor child ! You won't want me " 
 
 She waved him gaily towards the kitchen. 
 
 " I can stand it if you and Father can. He's due 
 any minute. Come on out and help." Obediently he 
 followed her. " The roast's in the oven, and the des- 
 sert's ice-cream, and I've made the salad, and I was 
 just going to start the soup . . . it's canned . . . oh, 
 I know! You can set the table, if you want to. Do 
 you know how? " 
 
 " I don't want to," said Egan, stubbornly. " I 
 didn't come all the way over here from Plainfield to 
 rattle china in the dining-room when you're broiling 
 out in the kitchen all alone." 
 
 " It's very safe," said Martha. She laughed under 
 her breath. " I'm not afraid to be alone. I could call 
 to you if I needed anything." 
 
 He couldn't exclude the tremor from his voice. 
 
 " That's j ust the trouble. I'm afraid you might not 
 call." 
 
 " Well suppose we both set the table, then ? " 
 
 " Now that," said Egan, " is more like a business 
 arrangement." 
 
 Accordingly, they went about it, and from that very
 
 378 EGAN 
 
 moment, a sudden cloud of excessive courtesy settled 
 over them. Both were acutely sensitive to the unnat- 
 uralness of it, but it overpowered them. 
 
 " Is this the way you like the carving things ? " 
 
 " That's exactly the way, thank you. . . . Oh, Mr. 
 Egan, would you rather have coffee here, or in front of 
 the fire, afterwards? " 
 
 Egan gave the momentous subject the benefit of seri- 
 ous thought. 
 
 " Here, I think. It's less work for you, isn't it ? 
 Only why so much formality ? " 
 
 " Did I call you ... oh ! I'm sorry. I meant 
 * Bronson.' We'll have it by the fire, then. I'm sure 
 we'll all like it better." 
 
 " It's all right as long as you feel guilty enough to 
 blush about it. About being so formal." 
 
 She faced him indignantly. 
 
 " I'm not blushing ! I've been standing over a hot 
 stove. Out in the kitchen it's a hundred and ninety " 
 
 " If ... if it makes you look as lovely as that, I 
 ... I wish. . . . Shall I put on these big goblets ? " 
 
 Her words were carefully measured, but she was los- 
 ing poise with every syllable. 
 
 " If you will, please. Now we're all done but the sil- 
 ver. . . . We'd better hurry; Father'll be home any 
 minute now, and . . . I'll get the knives, if you'll . . . 
 all right, you get the knives, then." 
 
 Among the miscellany of the dinner service their 
 hands touched. Both of them started. " You seem 
 predestined to do housework over here," she said. 
 " The only other time you came "
 
 EGAN 379 
 
 " I wondered why you didn't go out to a hotel to- 
 night." 
 
 " Father has to spend so much of his life in hotels. 
 This'll be the biggest kind of a lark to him. And I 
 like to do it, really." 
 
 " You wouldn't if you had to." 
 
 She didn't look at him. 
 
 " I'm not sure that I wouldn't." 
 
 " I am." Egan stood above her, and Martha, the 
 self-controlled and ever so efficient, had a moment of 
 great inefficiency. " But you won't have to ever." 
 
 Sureness was eluding him, but admirably he coun- 
 terfeited it. " Put those things down," he said. 
 
 "W-why?" Nevertheless, she obeyed. She put 
 them down half way, and dropped them the rest of the 
 way. 
 
 Egan took her hands, both of them. " I can't wait 
 a second longer . . . dear," he said, unsteadily. " You 
 know don't you ? " 
 
 Sureness was absolutely gone from him, he hadn't a 
 word more to say. There was too much to express. 
 He hoped she understood. For the very life of him, 
 there wasn't another word to say. Not until she had 
 given him some sign, some intimation. . . . Standing 
 there, he had a blinding vision of the years of vanity 
 which had preceded this moment, the years of proud 
 aggression. Success had come to him, self-esteem of 
 the durable sort had come to him only when he had 
 learned the humility she had tried to teach him. Such 
 as he was, he was of her own making. And as a lover 
 he was masterful without, but very humble within.
 
 380 EGAN 
 
 Slowly she lifted her head. Those lovely eyes of 
 hers had infinite tenderness in them, infinite timidity. 
 She lowered them for an instant to the little gold pin 
 in his knitted tie, and raised them bravely to meet his 
 own. 
 
 " Don't you? " she whispered. 
 
 THE END
 
 AL 
 
 A 000129550 o