THE 
 
 CAVE MAN 
 
 JOHN CORE IN

 
 The CAVE MAN
 
 JUDITH.
 
 The CAVE MAN 
 
 By 
 
 John Corbin 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1907
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY 
 THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 Published April, 1907
 
 IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 OF A DEBT TO HIM AND TO 
 
 "THE MINORITY "
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Judith (Frontispiece) 
 
 "A young girl had peered at him from a passing 
 
 automobile " 1 6 
 
 "A solitary man sat, vague image of desolation " . 152 
 "They had turned and were walking away" . . 212
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HERE he is, Mr. Onderdonk!" said 
 the younger Miss Sears. " Your 
 cousin! Oh, do go out and get 
 him ! " She sat in a window seat in 
 Holworthy Hall, clasping her knees in her hands, 
 and looking out upon the Class-Day crowd in 
 what Harvard men call the Yard. " I know I 
 shall love him again ! " 
 
 "Again?" asked Onderdonk. "Wistar!" 
 His glance followed hers. 
 
 Wistar was just below them, standing in a group 
 of graduates of ten years past who were greeting 
 one another with old friendship, now and then 
 shouting the number of their year to summon 
 others of the class. He was tall, and, as it seemed 
 to the young people, overserious; though when he 
 gripped the hand or put an arm upon the shoulder 
 of an old classmate in the throng his face lighted 
 pleasantly. 
 
 Onderdonk turned upon her an inquiring glance. 
 
 " I could do it in a minute," she said. " I did 
 
 love him once, years and years ago, when I was 
 
 i
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 in short skirts and sandals. He was my sister's; 
 but she wouldn't have him. I was jealous and 
 furious with her, too, for sending him away. Do 
 get him ! " 
 
 Instead of obeying her, he gathered the unac- 
 customed folds of his graduating gown about him 
 and sat down where he could look her full in the 
 face. 
 
 " He's six feet tall," she pleaded,'" and he has 
 the loveliest gray eyes ! " 
 
 Onderdonk laughed at her, as she had meant 
 him to; but for the first time in his life he won- 
 dered what his own eyes were like, and felt the 
 lack of an inch. " I asked him here, and he knows 
 the room. I can't grab him like an ol' clo'es 
 puller in." 
 
 " If you can't tell people what to do " with a 
 glance at the crimson tassel of the mortar board 
 on his knee " what's the use of being the Class- 
 Day Marshal?" 
 
 By virtue of his office, Onderdonk was respon- 
 sible for the orderly conduct of the day's exercises, 
 the contentment of some hundreds of classmates 
 who were fellow-hosts with him, and the happi- 
 ness of the thousands of their guests. But he sat 
 unmoved, lost in the intimacy of teasing. 
 
 " Besides," she pursued, " he's your cousin. If 
 I were marshal, that's the very best thing I'd do 
 marshal my relatives." 
 
 2
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ' You have some particular reason for wanting 
 Wistar. I'll get him if you'll tell me what it is." 
 
 " I told you." 
 
 " You can do that better if you don't see him." 
 
 " My, what a jealousness ! " She laughed at 
 him in turn, as he in turn had intended. " But 
 I have a reason, and I'll tell you if you promise 
 to help me." She leaned toward him with an air 
 of confidence. " You have met Mr. Penrhyn," 
 she said with a side slant of her head toward a 
 table in the far corner where her elder sister was 
 serving tea to two men. " What do you think 
 of him?" 
 
 " A good chap, I should say." As he spoke, 
 Penrhyn laughed heartily at something Miss Sears 
 had said. " I like his laugh." She was silent, 
 however, and Onderdonk added : " Of course I've 
 only just met him." , 
 
 " Do you know why he brought father, Judith 
 and me up here from New York? " 
 
 " Out of kindness to me." 
 
 She nodded a " thank you." " In the first 
 place, on business the combination in motor 
 cars, you know. Mr. Wistar has refused to go 
 into it, and he wants to get at him through you." 
 She paused, conscience-stricken. " Am I very bad 
 to tell you? I'm not supposed to know anything 
 about it. And you are a stranger almost." 
 
 " Such thanks for the ' almost ' ! " His man-
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ner had been half satirical, half caressing, but now 
 of a sudden it took a serious turn. " That's what 
 Wistar meant ! " he said, taking a letter from his 
 pocket. " Only a few hours ago I got this, telling 
 me he'd be here on business ! " 
 
 Onderdonk had inherited an interest in the es- 
 tablishment of which his cousin was the head. 
 Some months before, he knew, Mr. Sears and 
 Mr. Penrhyn had attempted to consolidate the in- 
 dustry; but Wistar, who was perhaps the ablest 
 and most successful manufacturer in the field, was 
 also a stanch opponent of modern business con- 
 solidations, and had refused to join. Without 
 him, Onderdonk had supposed, the attempt had 
 been abandoned. " Isn't that like him? " he con- 
 cluded. " He'd clean forgotten that he'd prom- 
 ised to be here for Class Day! " 
 
 " All I'm interested in," she said, " is that Mr. 
 Penrhyn is so much with my sister. Oh," she 
 broke off, " I know you're laughing at me ! But 
 other girls have their mother to manage, and she's 
 all I've ever had! " She did not, however, lose 
 sight of her purpose. " You know we're poor, 
 don't you ? " 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 ' We're very poor. Once, you know, we 
 weren't poor. But father has an eye for what they 
 call gilt-edge investments." 
 
 He smiled tentatively. 
 4
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " You mustn't laugh at him," she protested, 
 looking about at her father's refined and sensi- 
 tive face. Onderdonk was humbly silent, and she 
 ran on: " He really has had splendid ideas! Only 
 things are so contrary the moment father has 
 proved how they ought to happen, and financed 
 a company, they up and do just the opposite." 
 
 He was soberly attentive now, and the result 
 was that the lights danced in her eyes. 
 
 ' You see what a powerful financier he is. By 
 a single investment he has always been able to 
 shift the course of progress." 
 
 He laughed, and then she became serious again. 
 
 " I'm horrid to talk about him so. Judith 
 would die and go to the poorhouse before she'd 
 let him suspect she had lost faith in him. And 
 now it's this promotion of Mr. Penrhyn's." 
 
 "You don't believe in it?" His tone ap- 
 proved her disbelief. The paternal business, 
 which had begun with the manufacture of bicycles, 
 had suffered from one of the earliest excesses of 
 trust-manipulation. 
 
 " If it turns out like the rest but that's not 
 what bothers me. Mr. Penrhyn manages to see 
 so much of my sister that everybody is saying 
 they're engaged." 
 
 " And my cousin? " 
 
 "What is it you call it in football? Breaking 
 up the interference?" 
 
 5
 
 THE C A V E MAN 
 
 He looked about with interest. Penrhyn's eyes 
 were alert with intelligence; but his light-brown 
 hair waved almost trivially upon his forehead, and 
 there was a dimple, in fact a cleft in his chin. 
 
 " For such a long time now Judith hasn't gone 
 out at all. At first it didn't matter, for people 
 came to us. But they would fall in love with her. 
 And when they have got through proposing they 
 don't come any more. Now, sometimes, I think 
 she is lonesome. Mr. Penrhyn is the only one 
 who never gets discouraged. You can't lose him \ 
 And then he's so interested in father perhaps 
 you don't know how things like that make you 
 fond of people? Boyser that's our maid says 
 Judith is just the kind to go over the whole wood- 
 pile and pick out a crooked stick at last. Some- 
 times I think she must have forgotten what a 
 really nice fellow is like. Your cousin is a nice 
 fellow?" 
 
 "Now I can tell you the truth. He's more 
 than a nice fellow." He paused an artist in 
 search of the one and only word. " He's the real 
 thing! " he said. " Is it a bargain about break- 
 ing up the interference? " 
 
 ' Yes, and a secret! " There was still enough 
 of the small girl in her to find joy in sworn con- 
 fidences. She reached out her hand, and they 
 gripped like black conspirators. The afternoon 
 sun, as it struck down through the little antique 
 
 6
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 panes of spun glass, showed the coursing of blood 
 beneath the firm, satin surface of her cheeks. He 
 blushed like a boy, the strong, rich color glowing 
 deep beneath a surface of tan. 
 
 The third marshal burst in on them and seized 
 Onderdonk by the shoulder. " Hang it, Donky! " 
 he said. " We've waited for you half an hour. 
 You're holding up the whole shooting match ! " 
 Becoming aware of the other occupants of the 
 room he hesitated, but ended by haling Onder- 
 donk out through the door. The third marshal 
 made up in zeal what his office lacked in distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Little Miss Sears laughed to herself, and said 
 " Donky! " Then she repeated the word, as if 
 its sound were a pastoral symphony, a midsum- 
 mer night's dream of thistles and he-haws. But 
 the face she turned toward the window was se- 
 rious enough, and when she saw Onderdonk break 
 loose from his sergeant long enough to pass a 
 word to Wistar she gripped her own right wrist 
 and shook her hand to him the black hand of 
 conspiracy. 
 
 What Onderdonk had said was that his party 
 names unnamed had asked to have Wistar 
 presented, and that as his seat at the Stadium 
 was next theirs, he'd better wander upward in 
 a hurry, if he didn't want to stand on exhibition 
 as a social quitter. 
 
 7
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The younger Miss Sears met Wistar on the 
 landing, and greeted him most cordially, if briefly. 
 As she led him in to Judith, she put a wrap on 
 his arm and warned him that her sister was in 
 danger of her life from catching cold. Then she 
 attached herself to Penrhyn and her father. " You 
 have both of you neglected me shamefully," she 
 said, and led them down the winding staircase into 
 the college yard. As she hurried them along the 
 pavement outside she noted with inward triumph 
 that Judith and Wistar were not following.
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ISS SEARS looked at Wistar with in- 
 terest, as if to recall a fading mem- 
 ory. She remembered him as a very 
 earnest young man and she had been 
 at the age when one does not value earnestness in 
 young men. Now, though he seemed almost as 
 young as ever, he impressed her as even more 
 earnest; but to her surprise she became gradually 
 aware that his was a face of some distinction. In 
 brow, cheek bone and chin there was enough 
 prominence to suggest native, almost primitive, 
 strength. The lips were firmly modeled, and the 
 dark-gray eyes were deep and grave. 
 
 " Miss Sears ! " he had said, as his fingers 
 touched hers at the meeting. And then, even after 
 the others had gone, he said no more. 
 
 " May told you it was I ! " Mistress of her- 
 self though she was, his silence put her ill at ease. 
 And then, as he still did not speak, " You remem- 
 ber me?" she added, with a step toward the 
 door.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He stood motionless. " Remember you I Have 
 you forgotten ! " 
 
 " Oh, a girl knows ! After much less than 
 How many? Almost ten years! they are usu- 
 ally married, and fathers of large and prosperous 
 families. They are caught on the rebound, as 
 Meredith puts it by some much nicer person ! " 
 
 "They?" he questioned. "It is a charming 
 vista you open up with that simple pronoun. Are 
 there so many of them? And are they all as 
 Meredith might say bounders?" 
 
 " I'm very fond of them. I resent your tone 
 of superiority! " 
 
 " Then consider me a bounder like the rest, 
 and be fond of me ! " 
 
 The portentousness of his manner had van- 
 ished. In each of his lean cheeks, she observed, 
 was a mobile hollow, which contrasted curi- 
 ously with the intentness of the face as a whole, 
 and which, as he smiled to her, cast the aura of 
 cheerfulness upon his lips, of sweetness into his 
 eyes. 
 
 She laughed, triumphant. 
 
 " A pretty speech ! " she said. " From you 
 who have neglected me for years ! " 
 
 "Neglected you?" 
 
 ' You gave up polo I used to love to see you 
 play polo. And they say you never dine out any 
 more ! " 
 
 10
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 As a young graduate, Wistar had gone in for 
 the brilliant life of New York with a vigor and 
 success characteristic of whatever he did. But his 
 purpose had been simply to be thrown with her; 
 and when she was lost to him, all that was left 
 in life, he felt, was to crush out the memory of 
 her with work. 
 
 " It's my business," he said " the machine 
 shops and garages. I haven't time for anything 
 else." 
 
 " Do you mean that literally?" 
 
 " Sometimes I get to the club for dinner. Of- 
 tener, I have it brought in where I'm working." 
 
 She looked at him, incredulous, horror-struck. 
 " Dinner in a stuffy, noisy machine shop, in an 
 ill-smelling garage! How can a real man live 
 like that? It is the life of a cave man! " 
 
 "A cave man? Yes, perhaps! And you 
 you also disappeared. I used to love to see you 
 in kid and satin, with one of those osprey spray 
 things up on top. If you'll tell me why you dis- 
 appeared, I'll tell you why I am a cave man." 
 
 ' To ride always on borrowed mounts, to be 
 always the guest, never the host it wasn't pleas- 
 ant. And you ? " 
 
 " At about that time I began to find my cave 
 less lonesome than the gay world." The smile 
 flickered out of his cheeks, giving way to the ha- 
 bitual sadness. Then, as if commanding a lighter 
 
 ii
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 mood, he added: " It seems I'm the only one of 
 them all I beg pardon of all of us \ who's 
 the least bit constant." 
 
 " We've never met a score of times ! " 
 
 " It was only eleven." 
 
 " A wonderful memory! And yet only eleven 
 times! I feel more than ever that you've neg- 
 lected me." 
 
 " You forget how often I you know ! made 
 my little petition ! Five times not counting 
 twice when you managed to sidetrack me." 
 
 " Five times in eleven meetings ! " she laughed. 
 " It sounds delightful ! Why did you stop ? " 
 
 The smile had been coming and going as he 
 spoke, like heat lightning in an overcast sky. 
 Now again his face became dark. " I used to 
 bore you," he said. 
 
 " No, not just bore me. You used to frighten 
 me." 
 
 He echoed the word in surprise. 
 ' You're rather abrupt and masterful, aren't 
 you? It's a way with cave men. That was 
 lucky for me! If you'd been as you are to-day, 
 no girl as young as I was then could have resisted 
 you!" 
 
 He paused to consider what she might mean. 
 " I understand," he said at last, " and I thank 
 
 you." 
 
 What do you understand? 
 
 12
 
 He paused a moment and then said simply, 
 11 Penrhyn." 
 
 His laconic directness startled her: she recalled 
 that it had always done so. " You've heard that? 
 You, the cave man?" 
 
 " To be accurate, I saw it in the paper." 
 
 Quickly recovering herself, she answered with 
 noncommittal lightness: "When you wish to be 
 accurate you consult the newspapers?" 
 
 " For ten years I've read the dreary social col- 
 umn for that one item. Whenever such a thing 
 is true, won't you write me just a little note ? Im- 
 agine what it is for a man to read his own death 
 notice and in the marriage column ! " 
 
 She seemed as if about to answer, but did not. 
 
 They had been standing by a window through 
 which came the sound of seniors cheering things 
 in general about the old class tree. Now the 
 procession started round the Yard on the way 
 to the Stadium, and Onderdonk solemnly led a 
 cheer for each of the college buildings as they 
 passed. 
 
 " Come ! " she said. " We're supposed to get 
 there before them." 
 
 As they stepped out on the rough granite steps, 
 the column paused in front of Holworthy and 
 raised a lusty yell. It was a severely simple 
 building, that looked all of its two hundred years. 
 
 If this cheering had been a part of the day's 
 
 13
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 exercises in Wistar's time he had forgotten it. 
 " Nobody told me they would do that! " he said, 
 with a shrug of half-humorous complaint. 
 
 "You find it absurd?" 
 
 " I once heard a ticket chopper in the Subway 
 call a gang of undergraduates ' rah-rah boys.' ' 
 
 "Aren't you cynical? I find rah-rah boys 
 charming." 
 
 ' You quoted Meredith just now. Do you re- 
 member his description of a party of English folk 
 going into conventional raptures over the sunset? 
 He questioned what the sensations of the sun 
 might be, contemplating the party of English 
 folk. Very much the same, I suppose, as those 
 of Holworthy Hall on being cheered by the 
 seniors. It makes me feel very old. Perhaps I 
 oughtn't to have come." 
 
 " Then why did you? " 
 
 ' The reason is personal." But, as the reply 
 sounded more forbidding than he intended, he 
 added: " Personal to you." 
 
 If he had expected thus to dismiss the subject 
 he had miscalculated. " I don't see how that can 
 be," she said, " since you had to be dragged in 
 to see me." 
 
 " I hadn't meant to come at all." 
 
 " Not come to your cousin's Class Day? " 
 
 " I had forgotten it." 
 
 She eyed him with suspicion.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " I've had long practise in forgetting. Cave 
 men, you know, are brave about mastodons and 
 hairy mammoths, but they have a primeval terror 
 of this sort of thing." 
 
 He looked about the yard, which was alive 
 with bevies of women, mostly very young and in 
 the gayest of summer frocks. 
 
 " But your cousin is first marshal! " Her sus- 
 picion changed to reprobation. 
 
 Sheepishly, he hung his head; but the hollows 
 in his lean cheeks beamed shamelessly. ' That's 
 why it was so very clever of me to be able to 
 forget it." 
 
 " Yet you came? " 
 
 " As I said, the reason is personal." Even yet, 
 in his simplicity, he relied on the fact to dismiss 
 the subject. 
 
 " Perhaps that ought to lessen my curiosity. 
 But it doesn't." 
 
 Still he hesitated. The business that had 
 brought him from New York was, in a sense, per- 
 sonal to her. Her father and Mr. Penrhyn had 
 of late given evidence that they were in earnest 
 in their effort to combine the makers of motor 
 cars evidence so unmistakable that a number of 
 manufacturers who, like himself, were opposed 
 to the project, had formed a counter combination 
 and asked him to take control of it. Before con- 
 senting, he had felt obliged to consult his cousin. 
 
 15
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 But this was not what he now referred to. As he 
 had stood waiting in Boston for the trolley out to 
 Cambridge, a young girl had peered at him from 
 a passing automobile, and he had recognized Miss 
 Sears's sister, May, whom he had last seen bare- 
 legged, and with childish yellow curls bobbing on 
 her shoulders. Two of the party in the car were 
 the hostile promoters. The fourth was veiled; 
 but in every outline he had recognized Miss Sears. 
 At the thought that she had passed so close to 
 him he had felt a strange delight in his heart, like 
 that which falls upon the ear at the unexpected 
 murmur of silken garments. Then came a little 
 shock of pain. For the first time he realized that 
 this woman whom he had loved and lost was near- 
 ing thirty. Even to the rarest womanly character, 
 he felt, the passing of youth was a tragedy. He 
 had tasted deep and bitter waters of life. Had 
 she done so, too? When his car came, it bore on 
 the dashboard a legend that jogged remembrance 
 Harvard Class Day. For years she had been 
 to him a mere memory, unchanged as it was beau- 
 tiful. Now, in the gay throngs, he might see her 
 unseen, and read in her face the record of that 
 deeper inward being, which is the recompense 
 life brings to the few for the gladness it takes 
 from all. 
 
 " I promise not to be embarrassed," Miss Sears 
 presently prompted him. 
 
 16
 
 cc A young girl had peered at him from a passing automobile.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " I wanted to see what the years have done to 
 you." He turned his eyes full upon her. Her 
 abundant hair, which was light brown with broad 
 flames of gold where the sun struck upon it, framed 
 a delicate, clear-cut face, vigorous as ever, and 
 with the dewy freshness and flush radiance of a 
 flower. 
 
 She met his glance quite frankly, and without 
 resentment. " Go on ! " she said. 
 
 ; ' There is really no change. Your color is even 
 more vivid than it used to be." 
 
 "Stupid!" she exclaimed. "I'm blushing!" 
 
 He kept his eye upon her, and saw her color 
 deepen. 
 
 " Are you trying to cheer me," she asked, " as 
 the rah-rah boys cheer the ancient college build- 
 ings?" 
 
 He shook his head. " I don't find what I 
 hoped." 
 
 "And that is ?" 
 
 " To every face, sooner or later, the years bring 
 one or two changes the change which destroys 
 youthful beauty, or that which leads it forward 
 to the beauty of maturity and age." 
 
 She gave an actual, physical start. " And which 
 have I?" 
 
 " Neither, as yet. Ten years have left you 
 where you were." 
 
 She laughed outright, and exclaimed a little 
 17
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 harshly: "You tell me that I look eighteen, but 
 it is as if you said that I am remarkably well pre- 
 served! " She hurried along the brick walk that 
 skirts the yard, toward the straggling rear of the 
 procession on its way to the Stadium, and he fol- 
 lowed in silence. 
 
 As long as he had remembered her in the glam- 
 our of his distant memories, he had not really be- 
 lieved that she could have any genuine feeling for 
 a man like Penrhyn. But with this intrusion of 
 what seemed a touch of the commonplace came 
 also a doubt and a fear. There are avenues of 
 the mind along which the most dignified are open 
 to jealousy. 
 
 They were walking now along the rods of broad 
 canvas spread out to protect white slippers and 
 skirts from the summer dust. As they crossed 
 the bridge over the Charles, Judith spoke of the 
 association of the place, familiar to the long 
 friendship of Longfellow and Lowell. " Smooth 
 as our Charles," she quoted. 
 
 His answer harked back to their previous con- 
 versation. " I am sorry you took what I said as 
 you did." 
 
 " It was unfair. I had promised." 
 
 " Not so unfair to me as to yourself to your 
 old self, as I once knew you ! I spoke of things 
 as they are to those who look upon life simply. 
 Your answer was as conventional as the women 
 
 18
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of the stage, or the comic papers. What has hap- 
 pened to change you? There was a time when 
 you would not have spoken so." 
 
 " There was a time when I was too young to 
 fear ' what the years might bring.' ' 
 
 " I had hoped you would always be too young 
 for that. Only those who are already old fear 
 to lose the semblance of youth." 
 
 She looked at him, her color mounting again, 
 but not from embarrassment. " There was a time 
 when you would not have been positively, inten- 
 tionally rude ! " 
 
 He met her glance, accusing and masterful. 
 " I spoke honestly. Not to do so is the only thing 
 I count rude." 
 
 Her eyes flashed into his. " I am afraid to 
 grow old ! " she said. " Or rather, as you so 
 accurately put it, I am afraid to seem to grow old. 
 But not for the reason you imagine! You speak 
 of ' things as they are.' How do you presume to 
 know what they are?" 
 
 It was' the first time he had ever seen her angry, 
 and, by some occult working of his nature, the 
 sight filled him for the first time with a sense of 
 power. " All that I said, I know," he answered. 
 "If there is anything else ?" 
 
 "There is my father! " She told him of his 
 repeated failures, and his dogged efforts to re- 
 trieve them. As she spoke, her voice softened, 
 
 19
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 and with little unconscious touches she revealed 
 a wealth of filial loyalty and affection. 
 
 Wistar did not at first catch her drift; but he 
 was none the less interested. He had himself 
 been a devoted son. 
 
 " Time and again I have begged him to give 
 up affairs. The last time things went wrong, a 
 year ago, almost nothing was left but what was 
 mine the house we live in, and ever so little be- 
 sides. It made him wretchedly unhappy. I was 
 worried, and must have looked ill. Somehow he 
 came to believe that I was old. I am, you know 
 you are right! He thought I was worried for 
 myself: with his old-fashioned ideas about girls, 
 he never understands why I haven't married." 
 She stopped as if to consider what she had said, 
 what she might say. 
 
 The jealousy of which Wistar was only half 
 conscious was yet strong enough to quicken every 
 faculty. Why had she not married? And how 
 was the fact that she had not related to this af- 
 fair with Penrhyn? A year ago, he remembered, 
 Sears had shot himself through the shoulder. 
 There had been talk of attempted suicide; but the 
 fact that his daughter was with him at the time, 
 and that the ball, as it seemed, had not been di- 
 rected toward a vital part, was taken as proof that 
 the shot was accidental. Wistar wondered whether 
 things had happened just as the world believed. 
 
 20
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Some weak men take their lives from disappointed 
 ambition. More, and more generous, men reach 
 the final despair through failure in the cause of 
 those they love. 
 
 " He promised to retire then," Judith contin- 
 ued in a lighter tone, " but presently he went in 
 for this new idea, which he thinks the best of all." 
 
 " And you gave what you have to help 
 him?" 
 
 ' That was easily done. What I find hard is 
 to keep up his courage through it all to make 
 him not be afraid of failure. As long as he be- 
 lieves I'm not faded and ugly that some one may 
 yet be induced to marry me! he thinks I'm pro- 
 vided for. Oh, / know the things that keep your 
 skin fresh and soft! / wear a motor veil! I'm 
 careful in the matter of beauty sleep ! After this 
 venture, if it succeeds, the lines may sink in as they 
 please or as you wish! " 
 
 Again came the thought of Penrhyn. " And 
 if it fails?" 
 
 " It won't fail. But if it does, there's still 
 rouge, and then enamel! You don't think father 
 would know the difference? " 
 
 " He would," said Wistar, again accusing, 
 " for the difference would be in you." 
 
 Her resentment rose again, though this time 
 veiled in mockery. "You serious man!" she 
 laughed. "You are shocked! Don't forget 
 
 21
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 that there are those of us for whom to grow old 
 gracefully and at leisure is a luxury unattainable. 
 When you see painted women at the theater, re- 
 member that ! " 
 
 "Stop please!" 
 
 " Or, at the worst, there is still the alternative 
 of marriage! " 
 
 The thrust was no doubt unintentional. But 
 none the less it went home. 
 
 22
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 HE solid cement arches of the Stadium 
 loomed before them, vast as those of 
 the Coliseum, with the grain of the 
 rough board matrices still evident in 
 the gray-white surface. Mounting one of the 
 many staircases within the soaring gloom, they 
 emerged again into the gay sunlight, and found 
 their party seated in the front row. May so man- 
 aged that she and Penrhyn sat on one side of 
 Sears, with Judith and Wistar on the other. Then 
 she quite shamelessly devoted herself to her fa- 
 ther, leaving Penrhyn alone in the midst of the 
 college world to which he was a stranger. 
 
 The huge structure, built like a letter U about 
 the football field and running track, was far too 
 large for even that considerable gathering. The 
 curved end of it, as it happened, had lately been 
 used for the production of a Greek tragedy in 
 the manner of the Theater of Dionysus, and the 
 fagade of the Palace of Agamemnon was still 
 standing in all the rich brilliancy of Attic color. 
 The Class-Day guests filled every seat to the 
 
 23
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 lofty skyline, and the predominance of young girls 
 in summer costume gave the effect of a gigantic 
 bed of white tulips scattered with variegated 
 color. 
 
 Already the seniors had taken their place in the 
 center of what in classic phrase would be called 
 the orchestra; and the graduates were filing in in 
 the order of their classes, and squatting on the 
 ground in a circle about them. Prominent among 
 these were the classes that had come back for 
 their reunions of three years, ten years, fifteen 
 years, twenty-five years, and even fifty years after 
 graduation. As the youthful triennials entered 
 with measured tread they all at once lifted their 
 hats to the ladies, swept them grandly to the left, 
 to the right, then upward and down to the ground 
 with a magnificent bow. There was a ripple of 
 subdued laughter at the intentional absurdity of 
 it, and then the classes already sitting rose and 
 welcomed the newcomers with a cheer. 
 
 In the section in which Onderdonk's party sat 
 there was an unusual number of men, and they 
 overheard some one behind them exclaim: "We 
 ought to return the compliment. There's Jimmy 
 Wistar. It's up to him to lead! " After a mo- 
 ment a voice with a trace of excited brogue 
 shouted, " James, old man ! Raise a racket, can't 
 you?" 
 
 Wistar was on his feet in an instant. " Pe- 
 24
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 dey ! " he cried. His long arm reached over two 
 rows, and he grasped the fist of the stocky Irish- 
 man, who was seated with a party of homely, if 
 rather showily dressed, women folk. When Wis- 
 tar sat down he was beaming with good-fellowship. 
 " That's the finest lad in the world," he said, " and 
 the best quarterback! " 
 
 " Then why is it up to you to lead the cheer- 
 ing?" asked Judith quizzically. The incident, 
 trifling as it was, reminded her of a fact which 
 Wistar's modesty always made her forget that 
 he was a man of some distinction; and his recent 
 remarks to her had, among other things, quick- 
 ened her interest in him. 
 
 " It isn't up to me. It's up to Pedey Ryan. 
 He's the man that scored the touchdown in the 
 first game we had won from Yale in fifteen years, 
 and by a plan he got out of his own head, too ! " 
 
 Judith asked for particulars. 
 
 " He showed me how to make a hole for him, 
 and when the time came he shot through it like 
 a bullet and over the goal line." 
 
 " But it was you who made the hole? " 
 
 '' The regular guard was laid up. I was never 
 a real football man. Besides, Pedey served 
 through the Cuban war a Rough Rider. And 
 since then he's been mixed up in all sorts of South 
 American revolutions a general and a states- 
 man!" 
 
 3 25
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The decennials came around the corner of the 
 Palace of Agamemnon, and cries for " Jimmy 
 Wistar " rose from several sides. 
 ' Yet they all seem to know you? " 
 ' They only think they do. No one who knows 
 me ever calls me Jimmy. I'm a very serious per- 
 son. They always call me James me and the 
 footman." 
 
 As the decennials saluted the ladies, the cry, 
 'Jimmy Wistar, give them a cheer! " was taken 
 up by several men in chorus. Wistar turned again 
 upon Ryan. " You lead, Pedey," he commanded. 
 " They all know you ! " Then he said to Judith : 
 " I haven't been back in ten years since I grad- 
 uated." 
 
 Ryan got up and spoke rebukingly. 
 
 Wistar's reply was to march up the aisle and 
 pull him out to the front row. " Now do your 
 duty ! " he said. 
 
 But the little man gripped the big one around 
 the body in an arm of steel, and while he called 
 for a cheer held him standing. 
 
 The leader of the decennials Wistar's class 
 recognized them as he passed, and called on his 
 classmates for a cheer for Wistar and Ryan. 
 " You fellows know why! " he added. 
 
 Wistar shrank into his seat. 
 
 " Ye're right to be ashamed of yerself ! " Ryan 
 cried, relapsing further into the bogs of his 
 
 26
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 brogue. " You who for ten long years have niver 
 lifted your v'ice for the dear old plass! " Then 
 his eye fell upon Penrhyn, and a thing happened 
 which, though Wistar was now scarcely aware of 
 it, he remembered by and by with the utmost vivid- 
 ness. Ryan offered Penrhyn his hand in the man- 
 ner of an old friend, and was met with a look of 
 studied distance and indifference. 
 
 Wistar perforce led the cheering alone. He 
 soon caught the spirit of the moment. When two 
 old boys of the class of fifty years gone by passed 
 them, erect and conscious, he called for three times 
 nine, and after he had led the long cheer, eager 
 and enthusiastic, yet precise in the count, he was 
 hoarse. 
 
 "Who's the rah-rah boy now?" Judith de- 
 manded. Her eyes were shining, but her voice 
 still had a trace of acid. 
 
 "You are right!" said Wistar huskily. "I 
 haven't had so much fun since " 
 
 "Since when?" 
 
 " For ten years." 
 
 " Since you were here before," she said. 
 
 This time Wistar did not need to be told that 
 she was blushing. 
 
 In a moment, however, she rallied. u I won- 
 der," she said demurely, " when it is a man who 
 has missed ' the beauty of maturity and age,' 
 whether there isn't some paint or enamel of the 
 
 27
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 spirit that will keep him from appearing stupidly 
 cynical." 
 
 " I shall have need to put it on, in the spirit, 
 when you put it on the flesh." 
 
 The ivy orator spoke his piece, and among 
 other pleasantries, apologized for the recent pres- 
 ence of such a matron as Mrs. Agamemnon in 
 such a place as Cambridge. There were songs 
 from the Glee Club, and finally Onderdonk got 
 up and called for cheers for the four leading var- 
 sity teams. When he came to the eleven, he gave 
 way to the second marshal; and what was really 
 an act of modesty reminded everybody that in 
 this very field he had shown himself one of the 
 pluckiest and most brilliant halfbacks of the year. 
 Then he called for a cheer for the nine, taking 
 pains to describe it as The Baseball Team. This 
 almost broke the jaws that shouted it; and when 
 the eminent and long-practiced leader of the 
 graduates got up to repeat the cheer in order, 
 he said, " Three times three for the Nine.' 1 ' 1 In 
 the cheer that followed the word came out sharp 
 and strong and there was a burst of laughter 
 from the undergraduates at the expense of the 
 eminent graduate. " Nine " meant the fresh- 
 man class of '09. When the laughter subsided, 
 the leader of the freshmen got up, and with elab- 
 orate mockery led a return cheer for the grad- 
 uates. 
 
 28
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 All of a sudden the air lighted up with showers 
 of Japanese paper confetti and serpentine stream- 
 ers. The wind was softly blowing, and as it ed- 
 died about the scenic palace and into the vast 
 semicircle of the Stadium it sent the brilliant mis- 
 siles swirling and floating on high. It was as if 
 a summer breeze had run riot in the rainbow, and 
 was scattering its shimmer of fragments in sport. 
 Even the two oldest graduates tossed up radiant 
 handfuls amid aged smiles. The more recent 
 graduates bombarded the ladies with tubes of con- 
 fetti and wads of streamers caught up from the 
 ground. A carnival of indiscriminate gallantry 
 sprang up or rather, of discriminate gallantry, 
 for one pelted one's neighbor for the best and 
 most sufficient reason that one liked the looks of 
 her. 
 
 A few of the young women in the front seats 
 became special targets for the surging mob below. 
 Judith defended herself, laughing. But May, 
 reckless of all consequences to her clothes, seized 
 the paper and hurled it back with the result 
 that her hat was soon awry and her hair pow- 
 dered with variegated spangles and stars. The 
 wads of brilliant paper, Wistar noted, gathered 
 at the feet of the two women of his party in 
 drifts and mounds. And in spite of Judith's 
 added touch of dignity her share in the boister- 
 ous tribute was no less than May's. His heart 
 
 29
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 warmed with pride. But he did not reflect that 
 if she had proved as he hoped it might not have 
 been so. 
 
 As Onderdonk passed along, leading the seniors, 
 his office protected him from the rustling bom- 
 bardment; but when he came opposite May, that 
 irrepressible young lady gathered up the debris 
 at her feet in armfuls, and ran along the half- 
 emptied stand, bubbling with laughter, and 
 launching the missiles upon the marshal's head of 
 resolute, if unaccustomed, dignity. When she 
 had exhausted her armory, she sank breathless 
 upon a seat. 
 
 Judith bent Over May to straighten her hat, 
 and Penrhyn made occasion to pick the confetti 
 out of her hair and brush it with his handkerchief 
 from her ears. Wistar stood by and carefully 
 collected the bits of paper as Penrhyn let them 
 fall. With eyes dancing, cheeks crimsoned with 
 excitement, and the sun illuminating her masses 
 of yellow hair, May was certainly the sort of 
 young creature that boys of all ages delight to 
 meddle with. 
 
 When Penrhyn had ended his self-appointed 
 task he saw what Wistar had been doing. 
 "What's that for?" he said. 
 
 It was the first time he had found occasion to 
 speak to Wistar, and his voice had an instinctive 
 tone of hostility. 
 
 30
 
 THE C A V E MAN 
 
 " She was so pretty in all this, I was hoping 
 she'd let me put some of it back." 
 
 " I too," said Judith. 
 
 Penrhyn's manner changed, and he shrugged 
 good-naturedly. " What you say in this section 
 goes ! " he laughed to Wistar. 
 
 Judith cast a few flakes into the golden hair, 
 and Wistar, shoulder touching shoulder with her, 
 placed a red star in one ear, a white star in the 
 other. Clumsy as he was, he found it necessary 
 to take her soft, firm chin and each pink lobe in 
 his fingers. May shrugged prettily at his touch, 
 like a wild-wood creature, and half raised her 
 hand. Wistar caught it, and kissed it lightly. 
 
 "Have I been bad?" he asked of Judith, as 
 they walked on in the wake of the departing 
 crowds. 
 
 Her answer was to show him a handful of 
 tangled streamers and stars. " I am saving them 
 up for May to remember this by. It's her first 
 Class Day, and you know she never has had her 
 share of fun, poor baby. I hadn't an idea you 
 understood such things." 
 
 " I haven't for ten years," he said. Then he 
 added equivocally, watching the faint flush come 
 as he did so : " since I was up here last ! " 
 
 He had understood. Penrhyn had not. Hu- 
 man hope has often clung to slenderer straws.
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 T was not until evening that Wistar 
 found himself again alone with Ju- 
 dith, for Penrhyn was expert in all 
 the minor arts of address. Even 
 then, though he did not know it, he once more 
 owed his fortune to the younger Miss Sears. They 
 were wandering on the outskirts of the throng 
 that had gathered around the Glee-Club platform 
 in the Yard. All about them was the low, happy 
 babble of the crowds, which blended pleasantly 
 with the singing, sentimental and gay. 
 
 " About your father's venture with Pen- 
 rhyn," he said abruptly; "you know I've refused 
 to join in it? " 
 
 "You don't believe in it?" 
 "Do you?" 
 
 She hesitated, then said quite simply: "When 
 I found how eager Mr. Penrhyn was, I urged 
 father to go in with him." 
 He was silent. 
 
 She looked up at him with an expression at once 
 subtle and frank. " You may say it," she said. 
 
 32
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The evanescent smile came into the hollows be- 
 yond the corners of his mouth. 
 
 " I find I don't have to." 
 
 " We've played the game of truth once al- 
 ready," she said, with quiet humor. " You would 
 rather have me say it ! " 
 
 He smiled ruefully. ' Very much." 
 
 " Well, then : Mr. Penrhyn has already shown 
 himself one of the boldest and cleverest of the 
 younger men on Wall Street. The fact that 
 he has taken up with father's idea is evidence 
 that it is a good one. But that's not what you 
 wouldn't say! It is known that he has ideas 
 how shall I express it? ideas above Wall 
 Street." 
 
 " Above Wall Street geographically." 
 
 "You are abominably precise! " She laughed 
 a little dubiously. " Personally, father and I both 
 like Mr. Penrhyn." 
 
 She had told him everything except what he 
 most wanted to hear. How much did she " like " 
 this man? " If I were omniscient," he said, " I 
 couldn't have been half as explicit or anywhere 
 near as unfathomable." 
 
 "Don't you see?" she said, and her master- 
 hood of the noncommittal mounted higher. " In 
 either case it would be wrong to let him go on 
 for any but the most practical reasons the most 
 unpersonal ! " 
 
 33
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Again he was silent. From the point of view 
 of the manufacturer, combination might bring 
 stability and increased earnings; but, as far as he 
 could see, there was no such prospect of profit 
 as would attract the practical financier. It was 
 true that if a monopoly could be gained on any 
 essential part of the raw material of the motor 
 car, such as rubber for the tires, the opportuni- 
 ties for a trust would be magnificent; but he could 
 not see that such a monopoly was possible. Until 
 to-day he had thought of the project as one of 
 the palpably impracticable devices of Wall Street 
 an exuberance of wild-cat finance on the back 
 fence. But in view of what Judith had said 
 and of what she had left unsaid Penrhyn's per- 
 sistence in it took new meaning. The greatest 
 of financiers to the outward view mere captains 
 of industry whose profession it is to command 
 profit and defeat loss have been notoriously 
 swayed by private loves and hates, even petty 
 rivalries and unreasoning jealousies. Wistar had 
 no cause to think Penrhyn above the common lot. 
 If his project succeeded Penrhyn would have re- 
 stored Judith and her father to the world of luxury 
 and distinction in which they once had been leaders. 
 If it failed they would be ruined, and Penrhyn 
 would have a strong hold on her through her 
 father's necessities, which were hers. Heads I 
 win, tails you lose was the game he was playing. 
 
 34
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 And he had asked Wistar to make himself an ally 
 in that game. 
 
 " You will have to say it now," she prompted. 
 
 " Your reasoning is perfect except in the case 
 of a man who chose' to befriend you for motives 
 he didn't wish to own." 
 
 She reddened. ' To buy my regard? Can you 
 imagine such an insult? With a right-minded 
 girl, can you imagine any course less likely to 
 succeed ! " 
 
 The success of such an attempt, Wistar saw, 
 would depend upon keeping the motive dark, 
 but already he had an uncomfortable sense of 
 implying evil of his rival. " Of course," he 
 said, with as much conviction as he could com- 
 mand, " Mr. Penrhyn believes in what he pro- 
 poses." 
 
 " I know that he does." 
 
 The sun had not yet set, but already twilight 
 was gathering among the dense green elm-tree 
 tops that roofed the yard. Beneath the branches, 
 Japanese lanterns began to float and shine, like 
 bubbles that had risen to the surface of a caldron 
 of seething gayety. 
 
 "And you, Mr. Wistar! Do you think the 
 venture bad? " 
 
 " It might work out very profitably if it 
 weren't for us fellows who are against it." 
 
 ' Then the fact that you are against it ? " 
 
 35
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He explained that he had had experience of the 
 trusts and felt very strongly against them. 
 
 She admitted the danger, but protested that, 
 under honest management, it need not be consid- 
 ered. And then she outlined the advantage of 
 consolidation, urging, and with arguments of 
 weight, that within clearly definable limits, the 
 control of prices, the manipulation of markets, 
 even speculative investments buying on margin, 
 selling short, and all the devices of Wall Street 
 were elements of health and power. There was 
 knowledge of the world and of affairs in what 
 she said. And she spoke simply, with ever-pres- 
 ent lightness and charm. It was a phase of her 
 mind which he had not encountered in the old 
 days which had probably not existed. 
 
 He recalled the saying that no woman is worth 
 talking to until she is thirty, or worth looking at 
 after it. She lacked only two or three years of 
 the mark; and yet, vitally interested as he was in 
 what she was saying, he found himself, from time 
 to time, forgetting it in the sheer joy of gazing 
 into her face as she spoke. In the corner of her 
 eyes little radiant lines appeared and vanished; 
 beyond the corners of her mouth the soft, firm, 
 deep-tinted cheeks crinkled when she smiled. It 
 had always been so, he now recalled, though it 
 was a trait which had vanished from his idealized 
 memory of her. And the lines, far from sug- 
 
 36
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 gesting a wrinkle, were as always part and parcel 
 of her own rare youth and charm. 
 
 She was quick to see that his attention wan- 
 dered though not the reason for this; and as 
 quickly she broke into a lighter vein. " Do you 
 know, with all one hears about trust-busters, you 
 are the only one I have ever met? Are you such 
 a conservative? But I had forgotten! Cave men 
 usually are conservatives, aren't they? No doubt, 
 when our ancestors of the early bronze age began 
 to chop wood and build houses In the fertile val- 
 leys, cave men up on the rugged hills called them 
 immoral, and made war on them with paleolithic 
 clubs. But mind you, the bronze age won ! " 
 
 Wistar did not answer. 
 
 " Then you really mean to fight us? " 
 
 " I'm afraid so. It was to persuade my cousin 
 to do so that I came. What you have told me 
 it has made me unhappy, very! All my life the 
 only thing I ever really cared for was to be of 
 service to you. And there has been only one lit- 
 tle thing I have ever been able to do a little 
 thing to you, though not to me." 
 
 She gave him an inquiring glance. 
 
 " So little that you don't even know what it 
 was!" 
 
 " I should like to know." 
 
 " It was what you call neglecting you. It took 
 courage, that, for you are the only one I have 
 
 37
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ever had to admit as master. But now, I'm 
 afraid, I shan't even be able to neglect you I 
 shall be obliged to wage warfare on you and those 
 you hold most dear a very hard and bitter, per- 
 haps fatal warfare! And if this last hope of your 
 father's comes to nothing He broke off, 
 thinking of what only to-day she had said of his 
 latest failure, and then: "Can't you dissuade 
 him?" 
 
 " I'm afraid not. He is Very obstinate. And 
 you?" 
 
 "On that subject I'm obstinate, too!" 
 Wistar had spoken boldly enough; but into his 
 heart, so long heavy and dead, there had lately 
 crept a hope which he struggled in vain to banish. 
 To be at an equal advantage with Penrhyn, he 
 had only to see the new order as she had so clearly 
 sketched it. And might she not be right? The 
 nickname she had shot at him was a strange one; 
 but somehow he felt it had stuck in the target. 
 Only this morning he had dwelt on the rugged 
 hills out of touch with the young life about 
 him; and it had taken half an hour with her to 
 make him cheer like a Comanche. For ten years 
 he had lived in an ideal of her, and she had shat- 
 tered it at a blow, giving him the infinitely finer 
 and sweeter reality. Had not his scruples against 
 what her father proposed been as dry as his distaste 
 for the boisterous ways of the undergraduate, as 
 
 38
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 sentimental as his notion of what she should have 
 been? Had not his long years of labor, his self- 
 tormenting and futile efforts to forget her, made 
 him less than a man of the human world? He 
 would have found it easier to convince himself if 
 he had not been sensible of the most human desire 
 to do so. Then came temptation. If he should 
 go back on his principles after all, they were only 
 his principles and, like his rival, lapse from stern 
 rectitude in dealing with her? He reddened at 
 the thought, and at the leap his heart gave in 
 answer to it. But it came to him again and again. 
 
 By this time the movement of the crowd about 
 the Glee-Club stand had carried them toward its 
 vortex, and Wistar became suddenly aware that 
 it was crushing Judith close to his side so close 
 that he felt every motion of her slow, deep breath- 
 ing. Again his pulse leaped. Then it seemed to 
 stand still. In all the long years he had never 
 realized until that instant how vast, how untrav- 
 ersable, were the distances that separated her 
 heart from his. Yet still he felt her deep, uncon- 
 scious breathing. 
 
 With sudden strength, almost violence, he 
 forced their way out of the crowd. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" she exclaimed, "I did want to 
 hear the rest of the song. Do you know it? " 
 
 He had not heard the song. 
 
 " It went something like this: 
 39
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 "How well I remember the days of Sixty-one, 
 
 When the cannon balls were flying by the peck ! 
 Along came a cannon ball, a-whizzin' through the air, 
 And hit Bill Jones on the neck. 
 
 Now what did happen to Bill? " 
 
 He groped for a while in the memories of his 
 undergraduate days, and repeated: 
 
 "Then up jumped Bill ; and says he : ' My neck is tough ; 
 
 They're a-tryin' fer to kill me, but they can't! ' 
 Those good old days, beneath the stars and stripes, 
 When we fit for General Grant! " 
 
 As they walked on in silence, she was smiling 
 at the inconsequent gayety of the glee. But his 
 arteries, where she had brushed against him, were 
 running liquid fire. He fixed his eyes on the af- 
 terlight of the sunset, which shone between the 
 ancient college buildings. It was as if the west- 
 ern heavens were ground full of powdered gold. 
 
 "Well?" she inquired. 
 
 " I was thinking of the dust that makes the sky 
 so bright. You know it is dust, don't you? 
 dust from the roads and the dry hilltops; pol- 
 len, too, perhaps, from the fading flowers. Some 
 time, in the many, many centuries to come, these 
 bodies that now are you and I may meet and 
 mingle, way up there." 
 
 She paused, considering. " It sounds delight- 
 40
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ful and, unlike most delightful things, quite 
 proper." 
 
 " I shall regard it as an engagement ! When 
 I am beaten up from the road by hoofs and 
 wheels, I shall rise and find up there the dust of 
 a rose." 
 
 They walked on in silence. He was wrestling 
 now with his matter-of-fact business problem. 
 
 When at last she spoke long after he had for- 
 gotten what they had been saying her voice 
 had again a trace of acid, though a faint one. 
 " Do you suppose your dust will find that mine 
 has at last achieved the beauty of maturity and 
 age?" 
 
 Toward midnight, when the gayeties of the day 
 were over, Wistar went with his cousin to the 
 rooms in the Yard. A new hope was dawning. 
 The all-important decision did not rest wholly 
 with him. Onderdonk, it seemed, had more than 
 a passing acquaintance with the younger Miss 
 Sears she was the one girl he had invited to 
 Class Day. Wistar might be stern with himself, 
 but surely he need not seek to control his cousin's 
 conscience. If only Billy were strongly enough on 
 the other side . . . ? With him, however, hon- 
 esty was all but an instinct. He began to urge 
 his cause conscientiously upon his cousin, indeed 
 with vigor and conviction. 
 4 41
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The young man listened for a moment, and 
 then took from his desk a post-card on the back 
 of which was written in his own hand: "Your 
 
 final mark in Economics 90 is " Below, in 
 
 the blue pencil of the reader of examination books, 
 was a large B. " That's the course in trade com- 
 binations," Billy explained. " I wrote a special 
 report on the case against the trusts." 
 
 J9, Wistar remembered, was not easy to get, 
 even for plodding students; and he knew that 
 Billy, immersed in the enjoyment of college life 
 and his responsibility with the eleven, had got 
 his degree, as the undergraduates phrase it, on his 
 shape. 
 
 " You a grind ! " said Wistar. 
 
 " I was interested in that course. Sooner or 
 later, I felt sure, you would be up against the 
 proposition. So I found out all about it read 
 about a ton of newspapers and periodicals." 
 
 The reply, so different from what Wistar had 
 yes! hoped brought him to a sudden stand- 
 still. In Billy this pride of knowledge and aca- 
 demic certainty of opinion was irresistibly droll. 
 But the issue was dark enough. " You know that 
 Mr. Penrhyn is in with Mr. Sears, and that he is 
 a powerful man in Wall Street? " 
 
 " Still, if it is up to us, we can put him out of 
 business? " 
 
 " I feel sure that we can. But you realize what 
 42
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 the fight may mean to your guest, Miss Sears 
 to her father? " He spoke of their poverty, of 
 the old man's desperation, of Judith's loyal sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 Billy listened patiently. " I know all that," he 
 said. " But do you think the right sort of a girl 
 would want a fellow to do things for her that 
 he thought wrong?" 
 
 Wistar could have laughed outright in satiric 
 bitterness. He, the mature, the serious man, 
 was learning wisdom and honor from this babe 
 and suckling in the school of life. " You have 
 become a moralist," he said, " as well as a 
 scholar? " 
 
 Billy had all the undergraduate's horror of 
 being caught in a pose. " I laugh at your jokes," 
 he said. Then regaining courage, he added, " You 
 haven't got cold feet yourself, have you?" He 
 lighted a pipe, defiantly, and sat in the window 
 seat. 
 
 " Do you insist on fighting Sears and Penrhyn 
 to the finish whether it is their finish or ours? " 
 
 " That's it." 
 
 " And I may go ahead at once to organize the 
 opposition? " 
 
 ' The sooner the quicker." 
 
 ' Then I open up on them to-morrow." 
 
 Filling one of Billy's many briars, Wistar 
 lighted it, and with the first puff laid a hand on 
 
 43
 
 his cousin's shoulder. " You're all right, Bill," 
 he said. 
 
 Out in the yard the gay lanterns one by one 
 had flickered out. The college janitor was lift- 
 ing them down from among the trees with a long 
 pole. Overhead a full moon was shining through 
 the soft June night. 
 
 Wistar puffed vigorously at his pipe, somber 
 and abstracted. 
 
 ' That's a corking fine moon," said Billy, " the 
 kind of moon I hoped we'd have for Class Day. 
 I don't think I ever saw a finer." 
 
 ; ' The moon is according to specifications," 
 Wistar answered, in a tone which struck the young 
 man as unduly businesslike. 
 
 44
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HEN Wistar awoke, as his train was 
 crossing the Harlem, a radical change 
 had come over his outlook upon life. 
 The love that had been a dream, 
 idealized in the perspective of years, had become 
 present and actual. Now for the first time he 
 was a factor in Judith's happiness, a factor of 
 vital moment. Out in the darkness, beyond the 
 threshold of his conscious self, there was a faint 
 new star that danced with hope. Yet his reason 
 and his sense of the facts of life told him that a 
 sorrow awaited him of a kind he had never before 
 imagined. 
 
 There was one creature in the world whom he 
 loved, and day in and day out he would be obliged 
 to bend his energies to bring her and those she 
 loved most dearly to ruin a ruin in which mate- 
 rial poverty was so much the least of evils. When- 
 ever the thought recurred to him it filled him 
 with an actual, sickening anguish. As his train 
 glided in among the hideous roofs and chimneys 
 of Manhattan, it seemed that the city was at once 
 
 45
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 the cause of his sorrow and its embodiment. 
 Often before his heart had felt cramped in the 
 contemplation of its sordid and truculent money- 
 greed. Now he could have cursed it with a proph- 
 et's vindictive wrath. 
 
 At his office he had scarcely scanned the accu- 
 mulation of mail when he received a call from 
 an auditor appointed by the projectors of the 
 association of independents to determine and 
 report the resources of each of the firms. If it 
 was important to the trust to secure Wistar, to 
 the anti-trust it was the vital consideration. Some 
 of the association were small makers whom Pen- 
 rhyn had not thought it worth while to enlist. 
 But not a few of them had voluntarily held aloof 
 from him; and as the auditor now made evident, 
 powerful reinforcements were at hand. No less 
 than five of the very firms that had hitherto been 
 provisionally pledged to Sears and Penrhyn had 
 agreed to join the independents on condition that 
 Wistar also join them. 
 
 Wistar had never had any real doubt as to the 
 outcome of the fight; but now he was manifestly 
 master of the situation. He at once gave the 
 auditor access to his books. The act was an 
 habitual and almost mechanical response to his 
 sense of duty. But in his heart he felt that he was 
 signing the death warrant of all he held most 
 dear. And so he took up his old life again the 
 
 46
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 dingy, plodding, intense life which to Judith had 
 seemed that of a cave man. 
 
 A few days later, several of the evening papers 
 gave prominence to a rumor from Paris the 
 dispatches called it " persistent " according to 
 which the great manufacturers of the Continent, 
 under the lead of one of them who had steadily 
 of late increased his control over the industry, 
 were forming a combination not dissimilar to the 
 one Sears and Penrhyn were promoting. Two 
 of the papers printed editorial articles which took 
 a gloomy view of the motor industry in America. 
 Its chief obstacle, they said, was the popularity 
 of foreign cars. If the great European makers 
 combined to reduce the cost of manufacture, elim- 
 inate rival advertising, commissions, and other 
 wastes of competition, American firms would find 
 it very much harder to make head against them. 
 More than ever it was necessary for them to 
 combine. 
 
 One of the papers pointed out that the new de- 
 velopments abroad would make the opposition 
 to the American trust at home doubly dangerous. 
 On the following Sunday it printed a special arti- 
 cle about Wistar, illustrated with a portrait of his 
 father, already marked by a senatorial beard as of 
 a past generation, a photograph of himself as a 
 member of the 'varsity eleven, and recent snap- 
 shots of him coming out of his garage and enter- 
 
 47
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ing his club. The article characterized him as an 
 academic conservative who held the future of the 
 American automobile in his hand. 
 
 Midsummer is the time of rumors, and only a 
 few days later came a report that an attempt was 
 on foot to monopolize the output of crude rubber, 
 both in Africa and South America. A trade jour- 
 nal with an imagination remarked that the project 
 presented no greater difficulty than other trusts 
 had conquered, and that if it could be brought off 
 the command of the manufacture of tires would 
 make the rubber monopoly the natural ally of a 
 monopoly in motor cars. 
 
 To Wistar the idea was a palpable mare's nest. 
 And he had as little fear of any combination of 
 the makers of motor cars in Europe, for he knew 
 none better the difficulties which, there as 
 here, stood in the way of such a project. But he 
 saw very clearly that the tactical effect of the 
 rumors would be to strengthen him in the posi- 
 tion in which fate had placed him. Beset by ene- 
 mies at home and abroad, even Mr. Sears might 
 lose faith in the feasibility of his undertaking. 
 Wistar's impulse was to go to the old man frankly 
 and urge reason against his rashness. But this, 
 he saw, would only be to weaken his own position, 
 and so tend to defeat his ends. His wiser course 
 was to proceed with all possible boldness, counting 
 upon the ultimate stress of circumstances to force 
 
 48
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Sears and Penrhyn to make the advances. Yet 
 as time wore on, they gave no sign of weakening, 
 but instead pushed forward steadily and boldly. 
 Wistar fell prey to increasing anxiety. 
 
 Meantime a new factor was added to the per- 
 sonal issue. The Searses were spending the sum- 
 mer in town, and Billy was living up to his phi- 
 losophy of the situation by seeing not a little of 
 them. Wistar was convinced that the young man 
 had very much more than a passing interest in 
 May. Before pledging the firm beyond recall, he 
 wished to make sure that his cousin was not 
 repenting his decision, and appointed a conference 
 with him in the office of the garage. 
 
 July had found Billy hard at work in town, 
 grimy-handed and clad in oil-smeared overalls. 
 It was his own idea that he should learn the busi- 
 ness from the bottom up ; and Wistar had advised 
 him to begin in the repair shop of the garage 
 rather than in the factory, as a young doctor takes 
 a hospital position to study all diseases in all sorts 
 and conditions of men before attempting a gen- 
 eral practice. It was not an easy step down he 
 had had to take from his self-imposed researches 
 into the case against the trusts to sorting a heap 
 of miscellaneous parts, from first marshal of a 
 graduating class to the helper of a common ma- 
 chinist; but he took it all with a happy combina- 
 tion of dignity and sense of humor. 
 
 49
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 There was a change, however, which he did 
 not find so easy. The garage was crowded with 
 the cars of business men who used them nightly 
 to recuperate from the heat and strife of the day, 
 and the repair shop was working overtime. 
 " Giant of the gridiron " though Billy was, ac- 
 cording to the newspapers, twelve hours of man- 
 ual labor daily gave his sinews and bones an ex- 
 perience they had not been trained to bear. As 
 the hand of the clock in the machine room ap- 
 proached the hour of the conference, he was 
 thinking less of the business crisis than of the 
 chance it gave him to knock off work in the scorch- 
 ing, deafening loft, for half an hour in the ease 
 of the private office. 
 
 " Mr. Wistar asked me to report to him at 
 four," Billy said to the foreman, raising his voice 
 to drown the shrieking of machinery. 
 
 ; ' Tuckered? " shouted that worthy with a grin. 
 He relished hugely the idea of being boss to one 
 of the firm. 
 
 "Yes," said Billy, "but 'this is on the level." 
 
 " Ye can go," said the foreman. 
 
 As Billy passed out from the odor of gasoline, 
 and the jurisdiction of the huge " No Smoking " 
 signs, he took out his neglected pipe; and as he 
 stretched his aching frame in a leather easy chair 
 he blew out the first delicious puff. The awn- 
 ings were down, and the windows closed to keep 
 
 50
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 out the hot afternoon air of midsummer. The 
 room was dark except for an occasional shaft of 
 sunlight that darted through the chinks about the 
 awnings; and by contrast with the machine room, 
 it was deliciously cool. The blue-gray clouds of 
 smoke, as they spread along the planes of sun- 
 light, were slabs of liquid marble, and Billy 
 watched them with a sense of positive luxury. 
 Wistar had not yet come, but he was far from 
 repining. 
 
 A report like a pistol shot fell upon Billy's ear 
 from down the block, and then another and an- 
 other. He started, but lay back in his chair with 
 a smile. An ill-adjusted motor was pounding 
 toward him, unburned gasoline from which was 
 blowing up at intervals in the muffler. For a 
 moment the fusillade ceased, and then there 
 was a nearer report like that of a cannon, followed 
 by a feminine cry of alarm. Billy jumped to 
 his feet, but the sudden pain in his relaxing 
 muscles checked him. Nobody who had been 
 really hurt, he reflected, could make a noise like 
 that. 
 
 " Hello, my man! " some one called out, half 
 good-naturedly and half in patronage. " Smok- 
 ing in the private office? That means the boss 
 isn't here. When'll he be in? " 
 
 "Oh, Penrhyn!" Billy answered, without, 
 however, stirring from his chair. " Due now."
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Onderdonk ! " said Penrhyn, eying the over- 
 alls. " I didn't know you for the glad rags." 
 His manner became suddenly jovial, and he of- 
 fered to shake hands; but Billy withheld his soiled 
 palm. With a friendly air of burlesque Penrhyn 
 took him by the sleeve and shook his arm. 
 
 There was a breeziness in the man's manner 
 and a frankness in his big laugh to which most 
 men responded instinctively. " Something up with 
 that motor combination?" Billy asked. 
 
 " You want to talk about it? " 
 
 " No. Thought you did." 
 
 " We gave you a chance to come in on the 
 ground floor. What more do you want? What 
 I'm after is a mechanic. My bubble has bust." 
 
 Billy laughed, concealing his disappointment. 
 ' That your machine? One of your French 
 scorchers? The Yellow Peril, or The Purple As- 
 sassin? " 
 
 " Neither," answered Penrhyn. " It's Irving- 
 dale Smith's new model. Your friend Miss Sears 
 calls it the Petted Polecat. We had just started 
 for a little burst of speed up the Boulevard, when 
 suddenly we stopped with a burst of something 
 else. Sounded like the gasoline tank." 
 
 Billy grinned. Irvingdale Smith was one of 
 the manufacturers, a rival of Wistar's, on whose 
 plant the promoters held an option. Proceeding 
 on the theory that the automobile of the future 
 
 52
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 would be within the means of the man in the 
 street, he had put a gaudy, four-cylinder affair on 
 the market for eight hundred dollars. If he had 
 counted on impressing Wistar, he was disap- 
 pointed. Never had a car better answered to 
 Simeon Ford's description of a Louis Quinze body 
 with a tomato-cans engine. 
 
 "Your T. C. model?" Billy suggested. 
 
 Penrhyn caught the allusion. " Name it and 
 you can have it," he laughed, with inexpugnable 
 joviality. " But somehow or other, we've got to 
 get on. I've asked Miss Sears and her father to 
 dine at Bardine's. And Bardine, like Sheridan, 
 is twenty miles away." 
 
 "Which Miss Sears?" Billy asked, striding 
 toward the door, forgetful now of his stiffening 
 muscles. 
 
 Penrhyn laid hold of the straps of his overalls. 
 " I'll tell you," he said, " when you've put a- man 
 on the job! " 
 
 Billy bethought himself, and pressed a bell. 
 There was a man who might serve the turn one 
 Andrews, an expert machinist, who had taken to 
 drink and had been reduced to the position of 
 man-of-all-jobs. 
 
 Penrhyn's alert and gray-green eyes took An- 
 drews in at a glance a pallid wastrel, whose red 
 side whiskers and scraggy imperial only empha- 
 sized the twitching, hunted look of a degenerate 
 
 53
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 face, and whose eye was already beginning to 
 swim with the day's potations. 
 
 " Both of the Misses Sears are out here," Pen- 
 rhyn said to Billy as they went into the street. 
 
 May met Billy with a cordiality that ended in 
 blackening her glove upon his palm before either 
 of them was aware of it. When he blundered an 
 apology, she laughed, and made a pretext of her 
 soiled fingers to lend a hand now and again in 
 the work of putting in a new muffler. She had 
 spent much time with Billy in his car, and knew 
 more about a motor than either of the men whose 
 aim it was to gain control of all motors. 
 
 The garage was crowded with automobiles and 
 mechanicians, so they had to work by the curb in 
 the shadow of the buildings, while a knot of idlers 
 gathered about, who divided their time between 
 admiring the gaudy motor car and advising the 
 motorists to get a horse. 
 
 54
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 S Wistar's purring motor glided up the 
 gangway into the garage, he passed 
 Judith and Penrhyn, standing at the 
 door. The glare of the sun, through 
 an atmosphere that vibrated with the heat of a 
 long day, had reduced the asphalt to rubber; and 
 the passers-by in the street walked as if their feet 
 were weighted with ball and chain; but Judith 
 looked breezy and fresh, as some women have 
 the genius of doing, even in midsummer and 
 in the city. The sight of her there on his own 
 threshold awakened a new melody in his heart. 
 And then came an afterthought more deeply 
 stirring than the first. Was it possible that the 
 presence of the party would lead to overtures of 
 peace? 
 
 When he alighted this hope was dispelled. 
 Penrhyn was eagerly discussing the chance of 
 getting away, and was clearly less interested in 
 Wistar than in Andrews and the muffler. Judith, 
 however, mingled with the more selfish considera- 
 tion a sympathetic curiosity as to the machinist. 
 
 55
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 This enabled Wistar to lead up to the business 
 issue as if by chance. Andrews, he explained, was 
 a chronically lame duck, who had disappointed 
 every hope of reformation. He had given him 
 work in the factory, but had long suspected him 
 of copying the patterns of improvements he was 
 making and selling them to a rival manufacturer 
 in the West, so that every time he brought out a 
 new model this rival was in the field with one 
 like it. 
 
 "You mean Irvingdale Smith?" Penrhyn in- 
 terjected. 
 
 " I don't accuse anyone," Wistar said. 
 
 But the case was common knowledge. Smith 
 was, in fact, the leader in the recent development 
 of unwholesome competition theft, price-cutting 
 and flimsy workmanship which constituted the 
 most valid argument for consolidation. 
 
 Wistar went on with his story. Finally he had 
 caught Andrews in the draughting room, too much 
 interested in the plans of one of his inventions. 
 Then he had put him in the garage, where there 
 was less temptation, and the man had promptly 
 taken to drink. 
 
 " And by the way," Wistar concluded, " Smith 
 is getting cold feet about that combination of 
 yours. He's in town, and making overtures to 
 join us fellows." 
 
 '' We have an option on his plant," Penrhyn ob- 
 
 56
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 served quite casually. " But if you want him you 
 can have him." 
 
 "Not I! I've had enough of him! " 
 
 They were all silent, and again Wistar inwardly 
 lamented the failure of his hope. 
 
 Judith broke the silence to revert to Andrews. 
 
 "A universal genius!" Wistar said. ; ' When 
 he's sober he's anything from a bookkeeper to a 
 machinist. When he's drunk he goes in for safe- 
 blowing and religion." 
 
 Penrhyn was a bit of a mimic, and as he spoke 
 he gave a spirited parody of the warring phases 
 of Andrews's character. " Safe-blowing! " he ex- 
 claimed, stroking his chin. " Hence the dashing 
 red imperial! Religion! Hence the ministerial 
 sideburns ! " 
 
 "Fire and brimstone," laughed Wistar; "if 
 you call that religion." 
 
 A satirical smile flashed across Penrhyn's face. 
 " Isn't that religion enough for sideburns?" 
 
 " How does such a man get religion? " Judith 
 asked, incredulous. 
 
 " He got his in Sing Sing. When he was re- 
 leased he went to preaching eternal damnation in 
 Madison Square. Unfortunately, he took so 
 much money Sundays that he was drunk most of 
 the week. Yet he seemed to want to pull to- 
 gether, so I gave him a chance." 
 
 " I don't see how such a man can be sincere," 
 5 57
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 said Judith, whose knowledge of the depths of 
 human impulse was ill proportioned to her sym- 
 pathies. 
 
 " Nowadays," Wistar suggested, " nobody is 
 insincere only politely cynical." 
 
 " That's it ! " laughed Penrhyn, " politely cyn- 
 ical to preach hell in Madison Square, and raise 
 it in the Tenderloin ! " 
 
 Judith's eyes danced into Penrhyn's with appre- 
 ciative laughter; but in a moment she turned them, 
 again sympathetic, upon Wistar. " Does he really 
 try? " she asked. 
 
 '* They are born degenerates," said Penrhyn, 
 " and they will die degenerates. As one of them 
 once remarked, they can resist anything except 
 temptation! " 
 
 Penrhyn's assurance of virtue jarred upon Wis- 
 tar. " I imagine," he said, " that many of us 
 would prove weaker than we think if we had the 
 temptations of such men." 
 
 The brief colloquy, while it confirmed his dis- 
 like of Penrhyn, gave him his first impression of 
 the charm he might have for such a girl as Ju- 
 dith. Upon her inborn refinement and inbred 
 reserve his alert, decisive mentality, fresh animal 
 spirits and gift of hearty laughter made an im- 
 pression of almost prismatic brilliance. 
 
 The thought recalled him to the issue that lay 
 nearest his heart. Why should he not make use 
 
 58
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of the present occasion to speak of things as they 
 were to Judith? As the work on the muffler 
 dragged on, he suggested that she come in and sit 
 down in the office. Penrhyn started to follow; 
 but Wistar pointed out that he had better keep 
 an eye on Andrews, and his tone had a touch of 
 authority that made Penrhyn obey, though not 
 without a mute demurrer. 
 
 59
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ISTAR seated Judith in the big chair, 
 and, gathering the electric fans, turned 
 them so that they wafted convergent 
 breezes on her. 
 She relaxed gratefully, but protested that he 
 should have some of the fans for himself, he 
 looked so tired and hot. 
 
 " That is just why I'm turning them all on you. 
 You are so fresh and cool that by and by the 
 whole place will be swept by ocean breezes." 
 She nodded a gracious " Thank you." 
 " Besides," he added, " I'm going to tell you 
 something that I hope will not make you more 
 comfortable." Wistar outlined the situation 
 briefly but forcibly. " The money your father is 
 using is yours," he concluded. " I tell you this 
 so that you may, if you will, bend your influence to 
 make him reconsider this project in time." 
 
 She shook her head. " Father is as confident 
 on his side as you are on yours." 
 
 " But not with the same reason I think I can 
 convince you." 
 
 60
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " The question is whether I could convince 
 him! Mother died, you know, when May was 
 born, and all his lonely life since he has been 
 wrapped up in his dreams of power. I am all 
 he has' to take her place. Don't you see? I have 
 to stand by him. And this particular venture 
 it's his ewe lamb ! " 
 
 " A ewe lamb on Wall Street? Just what will 
 happen to you if it is sheared?" 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders. " For myself 
 what do girls do when they are poor? " 
 
 " Some get work, and some get married." 
 
 ' You see how easy it is ! It sounds like a 
 nursery rhyme ! It's for father I'm worried. All 
 his life and all his fortune! he has spent try- 
 ing to show obstinate people how to make 
 money." She broke off and looked up at him 
 with a little grimace. " And you never will see 
 it!" 
 
 Wistar shook his head. " There's one thing 
 more obstinate than people facts! Here is a 
 fact that is likely to prove very obstinate ! " He 
 took from his pocket a package of papers mat- 
 ters about which he had come to consult Billy. 
 One set of papers, he explained, related to a new 
 device for transmitting the power to the axles, an 
 invention which, if successful, would be revolu- 
 tionary. The gasoline motor had been brought 
 to a truly marvelous perfection, and there was no 
 
 61
 
 THE CAVE M A N 
 
 patent on it, anyway; but present methods of gear 
 transmission were crude, almost incredibly crude, 
 involving a great waste of power, trouble in shift- 
 ing speeds, and a brutal strain on a delicately ad- 
 justed mechanism. A patentable device that was 
 economical of power and easily and accurately 
 controlled would be, in effect, a monopoly far 
 more perfect than any trade consolidation could 
 secure. If controlled by anyone outside the pro- 
 posed trust, it would be an almost fatal obstacle 
 to it. 
 
 He offered to explain the records of his tests 
 of the gear. 
 
 " I'm afraid I shouldn't understand." 
 
 " Nor your father, nor Mr. Penrhyn," he said. 
 " But before you commit yourself finally to the 
 promotion, I beg you to send an expert to inquire 
 into this gear of Minot's." 
 
 " Minot?" she asked with deepened interest 
 "Mr. Franklin Minot? He was father's first 
 partner in promoting, more than twenty years 
 ago." Then she added with a sad little shake of 
 her head: " Both of them have seen so many fail- 
 ures since 1 " 
 
 Wistar looked at her with keen curiosity. 
 
 ' You know him ? He has all the earmarks of the 
 
 traditional genius. I've seen dozens like him. 
 
 But he's the only one who is the real thing. Why 
 
 has he failed?" 
 
 62
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Father is a bit of a genius too," she objected, 
 with a moue of amiable protest. Then she said 
 sadly: " Failures, I imagine, are very much alike; 
 it is only success that brings out a man's distinc- 
 tion. They are both terribly set in their ways! 
 Mr. Minot has thrown away chance after chance. 
 He always demands practical control of his in- 
 ventions, and people who have money won't listen 
 to that." 
 
 Wistar smiled. The hard fate of inventors, 
 of which the public hears so much, is generally 
 the result of underestimating the value of efficient 
 business sense, and exaggerating the value of 
 an idea. " He still insists on it. He can't get 
 together enough money to build and test his own 
 model not even to get out a patent, a hundred 
 dollars ! Before he would place the matter in my 
 hands he made me promise to guard his secret as 
 my own. But he asks me to form a company to 
 back him, and then give him the control of the 
 whole concern! Even at that, he says, I shall 
 make more than I have a right to. Yet every few 
 days he drops in to see if there's any chance he 
 seems to know by instinct when I'm here and 
 he looks so starved it's all I can do to keep from 
 offering him the price of a dinner." 
 
 Minot had married a young girl, Judith re- 
 lated a friend of her mother's, who had been 
 bred to every luxury. Mrs. Sears had kept track 
 
 63
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of them until she died, and then Judith, mere girl 
 though she was, had taken them as a sort of legacy 
 in charity. She had seen them go down and 
 down, from their own world to a flat in Harlem, 
 and then to a boarding house on the fringe of 
 respectability. At present they were living in 
 rooms far over on the East Side, and Mrs. Minot 
 was taking in sewing to keep their child from ac- 
 tual hunger. 
 
 " And now, after all," Judith pleaded, " if 
 they can be made rich again, brought back to 
 health and comfort, to the life they were born 
 to, you won't let his obstinacy keep you from help- 
 ing him? " 
 
 Wistar was quick to see an advantage. He 
 looked steadily into her troubled eyes. 
 
 " Even if his gear puts into my hands a fatal 
 weapon against your father? " 
 
 In her interest in her old friends Judith had 
 forgotten her own anxiety. Now, when it was 
 recalled to her thus abruptly, her face clouded. 
 " If his success stands in the way of father's," 
 she asked, almost pathetically sincere, " would 
 you think me wrong if I grudged it to him? " 
 
 Wistar's heart was no less torn than hers, and 
 the fact brought all his tenderness to the surface. 
 He turned away from her in an effort of self- 
 control. 
 
 As he did so the door opened and Minot came
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 in. " I just happened by," he said, as he had so 
 often said before. " And I thought I'd drop in, 
 to see if there was any news." 
 
 His grizzled hair and famished face struck on 
 Wistar's sympathies as they had never done; and 
 his clothes, worn to a thread, but scrupulously 
 brushed, even pressed, spoke eloquently of the 
 traditions of the gentleman. Again Wistar saw 
 an advantage, and leaving Judith in her big chair 
 by the window, went to the door and took Minot's 
 hand. " There is news," he said, " and good 
 news." 
 
 A tremor passed through Minot's wasted 
 frame, but his eyes glowed. " You believe in it! " 
 
 " I'm ready to form a company for you. If 
 the thing pans out as I expect, I shall want your 
 concern to work in combination with ours here." 
 It was not necessary to explain the trust situation, 
 for by this time the papers were full of it. 
 
 Minot leaned against Wistar's desk, and a 
 shadow passed across his wan face. ' You're not 
 making a fool of me ! " he said, almost fiercely. 
 
 " The fellow who invented this," Wistar re- 
 assured him " it would take a sharper man than 
 I to make a fool of him." He put his hand on 
 the shrunken shoulder. 
 
 Minot looked up quickly with a touch of long- 
 accustomed suspicion. " But you won't give me 
 what I demand the control of the company ! If 
 
 65
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 you meant to you would be too shrewd to say 
 all this!" 
 
 " What you ask," said Wistar, " is all against 
 
 the general practice. But Mr. Onderdonk and I 
 
 when we've got a good thing, and a good man, 
 
 we deal above board. And in this case we can't 
 
 afford not to ! " 
 
 Minot sank into the chair and buried his face 
 in his hands. " It is I who am making a fool of 
 myself ! I hope you'll forgive my suspicion. The 
 fact is, I'm not quite myself to-day. My wife is 
 ill, and I've been so so worried that I forgot 
 to get luncheon." 
 
 Wistar understood what Minot only half ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 " In that case," he said, " we'll wait till to-mor- 
 row to talk particulars. But if you don't mind 
 I'll write you a check, just to show that we mean 
 business. By the way, you know Miss Sears, don't 
 you?" 
 
 Minot, eager and intent, had not noticed her 
 in the darkened room. Now he rose and went 
 to her with a touch of old-fashioned courtesy. 
 " Bless you, Judith! " he said. " You will be as 
 glad as anybody to hear of our good fortune." 
 
 When he took the check from Wistar and 
 glanced at it, he smiled, and passed his hand 
 across his forehead. The sum ran into five figures. 
 " I feel as if I were dreaming," he said. " For 
 
 66
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 twenty years I've dreamed of just such a time as 
 this! " In an instant his happiness vanished. He 
 hesitated, and then said quite frankly: " For to- 
 night could you give me something in currency? 
 It's too late to deposit this; and you know I told 
 you my wife " 
 
 Wistar took up the telephone from his desk 
 and spoke to the cashier. 
 
 When Minot went out, Judith came to Wistar 
 and laid a hand lightly upon his shoulder. " It 
 is good of you ! Think of them all of them 
 health, happiness, after a living death of twenty 
 years ! " 
 
 Pity is said to be a very poor relation of love; 
 but the emotion of that moment and the affection- 
 ate touch of her hand stirred a passion before 
 which Wistar trembled. He took the hand from 
 his shoulder. " You mustn't be that way with 
 me! I can't stand it! " But he held the soft, 
 firm fingers until she withdrew them. 
 
 On his way out of the garage Minot stopped 
 in again at the office. " You remember, it isn't 
 patented?" he said. "You are sure no one has 
 been able to take the idea and get in ahead of 
 us?" 
 
 " Quite sure," said Wistar. " But I advise you 
 to get out your papers at once." 
 
 u No danger now ! " Minot laughed. Already 
 he seemed to have grown young and strong. 
 
 67
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 When he had gone Judith sank back in her 
 chair. "If there must be sorrow," she said, 
 " how merciful to have done with it before you 
 are old!" 
 
 The words recalled Wistar to the affair that 
 concerned them more nearly. But there was no 
 time for sympathy now. He took another paper 
 from the package a list of the manufacturers 
 who were pledged to stand with him, with the 
 auditor's statement of the resources of each and 
 the total sales of the previous year. The coali- 
 tion represented a capital of over forty millions, 
 and an annual sale of almost fifteen thousand 
 cars. " I doubt if your people can show greater 
 strength," Wistar said. ' There is every chance 
 that we shall stand against you. If we do you 
 realize what it will mean ! " 
 
 " What will it mean? " Judith asked, half dis- 
 mayed and half defiant. 
 
 " That we shall have to bring you in your 
 youth, and your father in his age, to what Minot 
 has suffered these twenty years! You know what 
 that will cost us Minot and Billy and me." 
 
 'You would do that?" she asked. Close be- 
 neath her ease and gayety, which was that of the 
 world she was born to beneath even her super- 
 ficial friendliness for Wistar there lay always 
 an instinctive antagonism, a primordial resent- 
 ment against this man. Now it rose to the sur- 
 
 68
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 face in an accent almost of scorn. " You could 
 do that! " she exclaimed. 
 
 Wistar hesitated a moment. " I can," he said, 
 "if I must!" 
 
 Judith laughed, but not with her natural gayety. 
 " You have the conservatism of the cave man," 
 she said, " and also the cave man's club! " 
 
 She rose as she spoke, and together they set 
 out to rejoin her party; but on the gangway they 
 were met by Penrhyn and Mr. Sears. 
 
 69
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 F Penrhyn had feltWistar's gentle snub- 
 bing, there was no trace of it in his 
 manner. " Sorry to intrude," he said; 
 " but your man Andrews has dis- 
 charged us for inefficiency. Says what we don't 
 know about automobiles would float a trust on 
 Wall Street. Rather shrewd, that! We mean 
 it shall." 
 
 " It is, in fact, about business that we want to 
 speak to you," said Mr. Sears. " Now, when we 
 are oh the verge of harsh and destructive meas- 
 ures, chance has thrown us together. May we 
 not use the opportunity for an informal talk?" 
 
 The words lifted a weight from Wistar's heart. 
 Here, at last, was the evidence he had been wait- 
 ing for that his enemies were weakening. He led 
 them back into the office. 
 
 His instinct was for the jugular vein. Penrhyn 
 represented the money power of the promoters, and 
 he turned to him with resolution. 
 
 But the young man spoke before him. " When 
 you refused to come in with us," he said, with an 
 air of friendliness which his words belied, " you 
 
 70
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 said I remember the phrase exactly that you 
 were ' determined to remain your own master.' 
 Master of what, may I ask? We offer you power 
 which is literally beyond the imagination to con- 
 ceive. The wealth of Monte Cristo ! The other 
 day I reckoned it up. I myself, and a score of 
 others, have more money. Among the great men 
 of Wall Street and you might, if you chose, be- 
 come one of them Monte Cristo would not be 
 one-two-six." 
 
 Judith may have felt that Penrhyn's appeal was 
 not likely to impress Wistar. " Poor Monte 
 Cristo ! " she said. " Think of him. A sort of 
 Three-Card Monte ! " 
 
 " Just about that ! In this age the supreme 
 power is industrial. Make our concern what it 
 should be, and the men who control it will be 
 factors in world politics ! " 
 
 Wistar knew that Penrhyn was a rising power 
 in the Street, but he had had no idea that his for- 
 tune was so much above the common lot. He 
 was less impressed, however, than he would have 
 been if his own resources were not also vastly 
 beyond the general estimate of them. Far from 
 being disconcerted, he fell into Judith's vein. " I 
 can already see you," he said, " shooting hand- 
 raised pheasant at Sandringham with the good 
 King Edward, and dining imperially on the proud 
 ship Hohenzollern"
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The young financier turned upon him with a 
 quick touch of rancor. " What are your ambi- 
 tions?" 
 
 " Very humble, I'm afraid to be independent, 
 and to make good machines. I am a manufac- 
 turer." 
 
 " But the combination could make more ma- 
 chines," Penrhyn shot back at him, " and sell 
 them at a lower price ! What would you be then ? 
 No longer James Wistar, leader of a great industry, 
 but one of the unfit who has fallen in the strife of 
 progress ! Whether we wished it or not, in the end 
 we should have to make a meal of you ! " 
 
 " Then the question reduces itself to this," 
 Wistar answered very quietly, " which dog shall 
 eat dog." 
 
 " The only way to find out is to try." 
 
 " There is, I hope, another way." Wistar took 
 up from his desk the papers relating to Minot's 
 gear and briefly explained the device. 
 
 Penrhyn became suddenly interested. " How 
 do you know it will work? " 
 
 Wistar turned to the records of his own tests 
 in the factory, explaining that they were far be- 
 yond anything he had dreamed of as possible. 
 
 Penrhyn reached for the papers and began to 
 glance through them. 
 
 Wistar took them from him quietly but firmly. 
 
 " I have given my word," he said, " that these 
 72
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 shall not pass my hand. If there is anything you 
 want to know I will tell you." 
 
 "Not patented?" Penrhyn inquired. "Is the 
 idea patentable? " 
 
 Wistar did not answer. 
 
 " I thought you meant me to see it," Penrhyn 
 protested. " I only want to know if it will work." 
 
 "I have gone into it gone in rather deeply! 
 The time is coming, and coming soon, when no car 
 will be a first-class car without the Minot gear. 
 And we control it! You realize, I hope, that if it 
 came to a fight between us, a thing like that would 
 turn the scales." 
 
 " Oh, I see ! " laughed Penrhyn. " Just a lit- 
 tle bluff to scare us off, eh? " 
 
 " Stanley ! " Judith cried. " Believe me I 
 know! Mr. Wistar is only telling us the truth! " 
 
 " I have a special reason for not wanting to 
 fight you," Wistar said. 
 
 " There are many good reasons," Penrhyn 
 answered. 
 
 Wistar flushed, and his voice rose. " The 
 best! " he said. " But not fear! " In a moment 
 he controlled himself. " They are private rea- 
 sons. You underestimate the fight you are run- 
 ning into! Why not arbitrate the matter let 
 the facts arbitrate for us? " 
 
 Alluding to their recent conversation about Irv- 
 ingdale Smith, he explained that a number of 
 6 73
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 prominent firms were shifting allegiance to the 
 anti-syndicate. He took up the list of allies from 
 the desk. " The matter has been placed in my 
 hands, and nothing would please us all more than 
 to adjust it without conflict. I will show you this 
 list if you will show us similarly attested data. 
 If it appears that you have the upper hand, we 
 will give in. If it appears that we have, you will 
 know better than to fight us. And I know that 
 we have the upper hand." 
 
 He turned away as he spoke, and saw Andrews 
 standing by the door, as if waiting to speak. 
 
 " If I am to put in that muffler," said Andrews, 
 " I need a helper. Mr. Onderdonk and the lady 
 got tired." 
 
 Wistar nodded, and the man went out, some- 
 what reluctantly, as it seemed. 
 
 When Wistar turned again to Sears and Pen- 
 rhyn he saw that they had been in hasty argument. 
 To his surprise, Penrhyn had the attitude of per- 
 suasion. 
 
 " I await your answer," said Wistar. 
 
 " My dear sir," Sears protested. " There are 
 cases in which, in spite of the best intentions, ar- 
 bitration is not possible. No man can judge be- 
 tween us on paper! Even if your side appeared 
 stronger, believing in our cause as we do, we 
 should fight for it though that you would appear 
 stronger I don't for a moment believe." 
 
 74
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Why not put it to the test, then? " 
 
 " Because what we want is not your unwilling 
 acquiescence, but your positive and practical aid. 
 We know that you need us, but we are equally 
 certain that we need you your experience, your 
 skill, the excellence of your car, your known in- 
 tegrity." 
 
 " But since I refuse that, the issue is between 
 your strength and mine." 
 
 " What I mean," said Sears, again expand- 
 ing in imagination, " is that this idea of ours, the 
 idea of industrial consolidation, is bigger than you 
 or I bigger than all of us together. Our strength 
 lies not in power of the kind you speak of, but in the 
 fact that we are fighting on the side of progress." 
 'You refuse my proposition?" 
 
 Penrhyn showed hesitation, and Wistar drew 
 a moment's hope from the fact; but Sears was 
 resolute. " We do," he said decisively. Pen- 
 rhyn nodded acquiescence. 
 
 The conference of which Wistar had hoped so 
 much was over. " You have made the fight," he 
 said grimly. " But I promise you I will make the 
 fighting." 
 
 " Don't dismiss the matter so," Mr. Sears 
 pleaded. 
 
 " How else can we dismiss it? " 
 'There is so much to say! It's too late for 
 our ride now. Can't you dine with us?" 
 
 75
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " My dear sir," Wistar protested, " the result 
 could only be what it always has been! " 
 
 " At least you might come," urged Judith. 
 " Perhaps, after all, if we eat enough of one an- 
 other's dinners, we shan't want to eat one an- 
 other." 
 
 Wistar went to his desk, where she was sitting. 
 " If you wish it," he said. 
 
 "Ring for a messenger!" she commanded. 
 "And may I have paper and an envelope?" 
 
 Wistar seldom used this desk, his main office 
 being in the factory, and it was kept in scrupu- 
 lous order. " My stenographer puts everything 
 under lock and key to save Andrews from temp- 
 tation, he says." Unlocking a drawer he gave her 
 the stationery, and having pulled the messenger 
 call, collected the papers he had been showing and 
 put them in the safe. 
 
 " What do you think can have become of 
 May?" Judith suddenly cried. She asked Pen- 
 rhyn to stay and give her note to the messenger, 
 and then, " Come ! " she said to Wistar, as she 
 started forth, " Help me find her ! " 
 
 76
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ISTAR had no sooner gone than a 
 change came over Penrhyn's manner. 
 " You put up a strong bluff," he said 
 to Mr. Sears, " but I'm afraid you 
 overdid it! " 
 
 " I said what I believed," the old gentleman 
 answered with dignity. ' The logic of events re- 
 quires him to join us. In the end he will have to 
 recognize it." 
 
 "He join us? Not he! Didn't you see? 
 He's fairly eaten up with confidence and conceit. 
 As matters stand, we've simply got to know how 
 strong he is and if you'd given the least hint of 
 weakening he'd have shown us! " 
 
 " I think you've misread his character. He 
 talks big; but you know the old saying ' barking 
 dogs don't bite.' " 
 
 " That saying has been revised. You know 
 that barking dogs don't bite, and I know that 
 barking dogs don't bite; but that dog Wistar, does 
 he know that barking dogs don't bite? " 
 
 Sears was clearly pained by Penrhyn's failing 
 
 77
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 courage, but still far from disheartened. " At the 
 worst," he said firmly, " if he fights us and I 
 still think he won't fight in the long run we can 
 stand him off." 
 
 "Think? The long run? Thinking and the 
 long run have no charm for the underwriter! To 
 back this scheme as it stands I should have to 
 stake my heart's blood. I've simply got to know 
 how much of a fight he can put up. And that 
 list would have told us." 
 
 " Surely, you exaggerate ! We shall have to 
 go in heavily, no doubt ; but what is that compared 
 with I use your own words the wealth of 
 Monte Cristo ! " 
 
 Penrhyn laughed outright. " 7 the wealth 
 of Monte Cristo ! You are as innocent as our 
 friend Wistar. That was the merest bluff ! / not 
 feel the loss of a few millions! You're right! 1 
 shouldn't feel it. I should be dead." 
 
 ' You descend to such tricks? " 
 
 " I don't know what you call tricks. This 
 game we're playing is not bridge. It is business. 
 We've got to face things as they are. How do 
 you suppose I happened to get this last chance at 
 Wistar? That explosion of mine an accident? 
 My dear sir, I planned the whole thing." 
 
 ' That, I suppose," said Mr. Sears, smiling 
 without humor, " is one of your jokes." 
 
 " Not my jol^e ! I learned the trick from a man 
 78
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 who uses it to bash farm dogs as they run barking 
 beneath the back wheels. He warned me that if 
 I put enough gas into the muffler it would blow 
 out the head. So I did; and I calculated so neat- 
 ly that the shebang went off on Wistar's front 
 stoop! " 
 
 " I am surprised," said Sears. 
 
 " Do you think I want to get up a syndicate to 
 buy a Kilkenny catfight, and at the finish have the 
 end of one tail for our money? What I want to 
 buy is a trust. Do you realize what he says 
 and the beggar seemed to be telling the truth 
 that our own people are going back on us? One 
 glance at that list would have shown whether we 
 stand to pick up a few cold millions or drop 
 them." He turned, as he finished, with a little 
 gesture of disgust, and his eye fell upon Andrews, 
 again standing at the door, mute and watchful. 
 In the heat of his disappointment he had not heard 
 the door open or had it been opened stealthily? 
 " Hello ! " he snapped. " Where did you come 
 from ! " 
 
 'The muffler is in," said Andrews; then he 
 added, with a look of cunning : " Couldn't help 
 overhearing, Mr. Penrhyn." 
 
 " The devil you couldn't! " 
 ' You want to know just who his pals are. I 
 keep my eyes open. Perhaps I could put you 
 wise, you and Mr. Sears." 
 
 79
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " You are both watchful and generous. But 
 we can do our own guessing easier." 
 
 " We can't listen to this sort of thing," Sears 
 exclaimed. " If the motor is mended we must 
 find May and Judith." As he spoke he went out 
 past Andrews. 
 
 Penrhyn started to follow, but paused, remem- 
 bering Judith's letter, which he held in his hand. 
 
 " 'Tain't guessing I refer to," whispered An- 
 drews. " Where is the list old Wistar spoke of? " 
 
 "Where do you suppose?" Penrhyn was a 
 student of human nature, he told himself, and 
 here was an interesting specimen to amuse him 
 while he waited. " Locked up in the safe, of 
 course." 
 
 ''That little bit of antique furniture! Johnny- 
 on-the-Spot could get into it in five minutes! " 
 
 " You want me to take up with safe-cracking, 
 you jail bird!" The angry light in Penrhyn's 
 eyes subsided, however, almost as quickly as it had 
 come. 
 
 " Hold on, now ! " Andrews retorted, his face 
 clouding. " Them ain't the words ! All you got 
 to do is to put up a round thousand, and charge 
 it to promotion expenses. Many's the gentleman 
 done that before." 
 
 He came closer, and Penrhyn started aside to 
 avoid his whisky breath. 
 
 As he did so the door opened, and Irvingdale 
 80
 
 Smith came in a cheery-eyed, black-mustached 
 personality, who had the virtue of appearing the 
 unrepentant pirate that he was. The three looked 
 at one another with about equal surprise and sus- 
 picion. 
 
 "How are you?" said Penrhyn nonchalantly. 
 " My muffler-head just blew out, there in the 
 street, and Wistar has been kind enough to lend 
 me a man to put it in." His tone implied that 
 it would not be as easy for Smith to explain his 
 presence in this particular place. 
 
 Smith was not, however, put out. " Is Mr. 
 Wistar in?" he asked of Andrews. "I came 
 to see him on business." 
 
 " He's been and gone," Andrews answered 
 without hesitation. His voice clearly intimated 
 that Smith had better go too. 
 
 "Very well," said Smith, "I'll call again." 
 And nodding to Penrhyn he went out. 
 
 "He came to see you!" Penrhyn said, con- 
 fronting Andrews. "More crooked business?" 
 
 " See me here ? Not on your life ! " 
 
 Penrhyn saw the force of this. 
 
 " What he's after," Andrews went on, giving 
 voice to Penrhyn's own conclusion, " is to get him- 
 self with the rest of your backsliders on that there 
 list! When do you want it?" 
 
 " Not at all ! " said Penrhyn. But his tone was 
 not remarkable for conviction. At this further 
 
 81
 
 THE CAVE M A N 
 
 evidence that his allies were coolly deserting him, 
 he stood a while in silence. 
 
 "Not at all?" Andrews echoed significantly. 
 " Suppose I was to go and tell old man Wistar 
 what I just overhearn that you've got cold 
 feet: so cold they're frozen? Sure you don't 
 want that list?" 
 
 " I don't," Penrhyn corrected himself, " unless 
 you can give it to me to-night." 
 
 "To-night? How early?" 
 
 " Before seven-thirty, in my rooms." 
 
 Andrews's face fell. " That means crack the 
 safe after Wistar goes, and before the garage 
 closes ! " His hand trembled and a look of fear 
 came into his eyes. " It's State's prison, and 
 worse than the last bit. I can't do it! " 
 
 " All right," said Penrhyn, in a tone of re- 
 lief. The project was all in the way of business, 
 and very important business, but habit and fear 
 both struggled against this new temptation. He 
 added, however: " since you've dropped your 
 nerve." 
 
 " I could do it for two thousand. It's a mat- 
 ter of millions to you, Monte Cristo." 
 
 At this sally, Penrhyn laughed with hearty ap- 
 preciation, and in a moment his scruples lifted. 
 The peculiarities of certain phases of American 
 business are closely allied to the national sense of 
 humor. 
 
 82
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Andrews felt something of this and it gave him 
 confidence. " Just what is it you want, and how 
 shall I pick it out when I get inside? " 
 
 Penrhyn briefly described the paper. " And 
 hold on!" he added. "While you're about it, 
 if I give you two thousand, I want the patterns 
 and records of a new gear-shifting device; that's 
 right in your line, isn't it? " 
 
 ' You mean to crib the Invention ? Ain't it 
 patented?" 
 
 " Sure," said Penrhyn; " but I want to see it." 
 
 Every attraction has its corresponding repul- 
 sion and the forces that made these two men allies 
 made them also mutually suspicious. 
 
 "If you find anything else in the safe that's in. 
 your line," Penrhyn added, " take it, for all of 
 me." 
 
 " Say, you're a slick one! " Andrews exclaimed. 
 " What you want is to throw Wistar off your 
 track and make the circumstantial evidence point 
 at me ! But I know a thing or two when I can 
 remember both of them! Write me down on 
 paper just what it is you want." 
 
 "Why so? " said Penrhyn significantly. "Can't 
 you remember both of them? " 
 
 " I shall have other things on my mind! When 
 you're working on the keen jump, with State's 
 prison round the corner, every second counts. 
 There's heaps o' papers in that safe, and all on 
 
 83
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 'em got names. S'pose I get confused? You write 
 down what you want, and I'll get it." 
 
 Penrhyn eyed him with suspicion. Yet he knew 
 that drink, although it steadies the nerves, is apt 
 to let slip the more delicate cogs of the memory. 
 The stipulation, he concluded, was not unreason- 
 able. There was no paper on the desk, and he 
 searched his pockets in vain. His eyes fell on 
 Judith's hand bag, which she had left on the blot- 
 ting pad. The only paper in it was a pack of 
 calling cards, Judith's and her father's. 
 
 " One of them cards will do," Andrews sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " Isn't there any scrap of paper? The margin 
 of a newspaper? " 
 
 " Come to think of it," said Andrews, his look 
 of cunning deepening, " I'd rather have the card. 
 Much more official like." 
 
 " Blackmail? You couldn't convict us on that, 
 even if we refused to give up." 
 
 " But I'd make a hell of a lot of talk! After 
 seeing the papers, suppose you said I'd made a 
 mistake? refused me the money? Where'd I 
 be then? If you put it in black and white on 
 this card, you wouldn't dare do me dirt. That's 
 all I'm after!" Andrews selected one of Mr. 
 Sears's cards and gave it to Penrhyn, with a pen 
 dipped in ink. " No ticket, no soup! See? " 
 
 " My dear sir," Penrhyn said, with a smile of 
 84
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 frank admiration, " in slickness I yield you the 
 bun! With that evidence, you could hold me up 
 for the loveliest blackmail! Write it yourself! " 
 He took up the card, and with a few sharp strokes 
 of the pen scratched out the name and address. 
 Then he dictated, and after a moment's reluctance 
 Andrews wrote. " Remember," Penrhyn con- 
 cluded, "before seven-thirty, by messenger! Un- 
 til then, cut out the drink! If you forget my ad- 
 dress, look in the telephone book. Call yourself 
 at midnight and I'll give you the swag. Now it's 
 up to us to separate." He handed him Judith's 
 letter. " Wait for the boy outside," he com- 
 manded. 
 
 "Hadn't you best take the lady her bag?" 
 Andrews suggested. 
 
 Penrhyn picked it up, and then put it down 
 again. " That," he said, " is a matter that had 
 best be left to right itself." 
 
 As Andrews stood in the garage entrance wait- 
 ing for Judith's messenger, a slow smile spread 
 upon his face. " You're pretty slick, Penrhyn," 
 he said to himself. " But not quite slick enough ! 
 It's a business a gentleman ain't got no right to mix 
 up with. Two thousand down, and then if the 
 cat jumps my way the loveliest blackmail ! "
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 T was a strange sensation that Wistar 
 had as Judith walked with him 
 through the garage. Here she had 
 walked a thousand times before, a 
 memory and a dream, yet scarcely less real to his 
 consciousness. It was to forget her, or at least 
 to subdue the thought of her, that he had labored 
 as he had, day and night, workdays and holidays; 
 but his one inspiration had been this fiction of his 
 own mind, that she knew of his sober ambitions 
 and shared them. And now, as she walked beside 
 him in the flesh, with the dusk of summer in her 
 fresh cheeks and its breezes in her abundant 
 hair, she was alien to all her memory had in- 
 spired, as it was alien to her. He felt as if in 
 a waking dream, in which truth struggles with 
 the vision for mastery. 
 
 " You say we are wrong," she said. " But fa- 
 ther smile at him as we must, what he says has 
 the ring of truth. 7 believe he is right ! " 
 
 He fixed her with his look. " You believe he 
 is right, but I know ! It is my business to know 1 
 
 86
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 And from to-day the question must be not of right, 
 but of might! " 
 
 She met his glance resolutely. " Let it be a 
 question of might. Your business! In your life 
 of the cave man, you have slipped behind the 
 march of progress in the great world outside. All 
 about us it is plain to those who will see that the 
 future of industry is in consolidation. Against the 
 great course of progress you a,re powerless." 
 
 He smiled sadly. "Theoretically perhaps! 
 Practically here and now I am master. You 
 have it in your power to save him from worse 
 than ruin. Whatever it costs, in order to be true 
 to yourself, and to him, you must save him! " 
 
 Now as always, his dominance roused her antag- 
 onism. " Must ! " she exclaimed. " By what com- 
 pulsion? What right have you to command me? " 
 
 " Because I love you." 
 
 "Love! You, who would sacrifice us all!" 
 
 At the onset of a nature as positive as his own, 
 Wistar's courage expanded. Ten years ago the 
 issue between them had been personal, and he had 
 gone down to a speedy defeat. Now, he felt, 
 they, were two pawns in the vaster game of fate, 
 an inevitable conflict, of which the end was in 
 other hands than theirs. " Because I love you," 
 he said, "would you have me do wrong? " 
 
 " For a mere opinion, would you ruin every- 
 thing? It is grotesque, inconceivable! " 
 
 87
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " If only I might do as you wish! It is my fate 
 to fight against you. And to do that, I am giving 
 up the one right in life that I prize! " 
 
 " What right? " she demanded. 
 
 " The right to serve you. If I could be to you 
 what Penrhyn is, if I could do for you what he 
 offers " He broke off to check his passion. " I 
 might not win you," he concluded, " but he would 
 not!" 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 " Because I am the better man 1 " 
 
 " On that subject also," she said, " you are the 
 authority." But it was easier to be satirical of his 
 pride than to ignore his earnestness and convic- 
 tion. As they walked on, searching the garage 
 from floor to floor, it was she who broke the si- 
 lence. "Where do you suppose May is? You 
 don't imagine she can have gone out to walk with 
 Billy in his overalls? " 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " Is there any place," she suggested, her eyes 
 smiling, " where they could be alone? " 
 
 He caught her meaning. ' The paint room I 
 The paint room, ho ! " And he led her to it. 
 
 Before they entered Judith knocked with an 
 elaborate little flourish of her fist, at which they 
 both laughed. After a brief pause, Wistar opened 
 the door. 
 
 Billy and May were in a far, dark corner, be-
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 side a limousine, the door of which was left open. 
 Guilt was in the conscious attitudes of both. " I 
 was showing Miss Sears the patent sprinkler," 
 Billy said with the excuse of self-accusation. 
 
 May turned her back. 
 
 "The patent sprinkler?" asked Judith. 
 "What is that?" At the sight of May's back, 
 she put her hand upon her lips. One shoulder of 
 the waist bore the imprint of four grimy fingers. 
 
 " It's a fire extinguisher the insurance company 
 made us put in here on account of the turpentine 
 and varnish,'.' Billy explained elaborately, point- 
 ing upward. The ceiling was studded with per- 
 forated disks of metal like the nozzle of a garden 
 hose. " The least little rise in the temperature, 
 and the whole place is doused." 
 
 By this time Sears and Penrhyn had joined 
 them. " It is not," said Penrhyn, " what I call 
 a successful invention." 
 
 " Have you tried it? " Billy asked. 
 'The least little rise of temperature?" Pen- 
 rhyn asked. " Then how have you two escaped a 
 ducking? " 
 
 Billy saw his handiwork. " Get out! " he said 
 in a fierce aside to Wistar. " Shut up, can't 
 you?" Then he delivered a kick on his cousin's 
 heels. 
 
 " Cheer up, man," said Wistar; " what are you 
 kicking about? You're engaged!" 
 7 89
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Billy's face lighted with sudden inspiration. 
 " Yes, of course," he said. " We're engaged! " 
 
 May threw herself into Judith's arms for a 
 brief moment, and then started back with flaming 
 cheeks. "Now what are you all laughing at?" 
 she cried. "Of course we're engaged!" The 
 righteousness of her anger quelled them all. But, 
 like another lady, she protested too much. " In 
 order to be engaged it isn't necessary, is it, to say 
 a whole lot of things? " 
 
 " I was just going to say it," Billy explained, 
 confused with anger, " when Wistar came in 
 and " His rage and embarrassment choked 
 him. He went protectingly to May. 
 
 " And checked the flow of the automatic fire 
 extinguisher," Penrhyn concluded. 
 
 " Stanley ! " Judith cried, as vehemently as she 
 could for laughing. "You are intolerable!" 
 She reached out her arms about the two un- 
 fortunates, and gathered them in one vast em- 
 brace of sisterly tenderness, while the others 
 stood by, a little ashamed, perhaps, of their 
 laughter. 
 
 Presently Judith turned to her father. " Have 
 you a hanky, Daddy? I've left mine somewhere 
 in my bag." Her cheeks were streaming with 
 happy tears. 
 
 " Shall I get the bag? " asked Penrhyn. " Did 
 you leave it out in the car?" 
 
 90
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " There, or in the office," said Judith, between 
 sobs and smiles of tenderness. 
 
 Penrhyn vanished. 
 
 When he returned the others were in the mood 
 of reverent sympathy. But he -was in high spirits. 
 "The car is mended! " he cried. To Judith he 
 added: "Are you fond of walking?" 
 
 "Yes, and what then? " 
 
 " Then perhaps you will let me take you home 
 in that automobile."
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 HEN the messenger had come and 
 gone, Andrews felt a subtle but pow- 
 erful influence steal through his fibers. 
 His nerves responded to the call of 
 perilous adventure with the ecstasy of the dipso- 
 maniac at the first gulp of spirits, or of the tor- 
 tured opium fiend again inhaling the pipe. He 
 stood more erect, and the twitching muscles of 
 his face became quiet. The calm of a great ex- 
 altation rested on his body, and his mind worked 
 with redoubled acuteness and precision. He 
 strode up the gangway with elastic tread, laugh- 
 ing inwardly to think that with one stroke more 
 he would be free of daily labor, for to him that 
 afternoon's work meant riches and ease otlum 
 cum dig., as he phrased it. 
 
 When Penrhyn's car glided away from the 
 curb, Billy hurried to the wash room. It was 
 already past six o'clock, and Andrews knocked off 
 work too, taking pains to leave the garage at the 
 same time as Billy, and giving him a distant and 
 courteous good night. He was clever at establish- 
 
 92
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ing an alibi. When he reached his lodgings by 
 the river, he rejoiced to meet his landlady, who 
 was, in her own descriptive phrase, rushing the 
 growler, as she did nightly at this her supper 
 hour. One more link in the alibi, Andrews ob- 
 served with inward satisfaction. 
 
 On entering his room, the first object to catch 
 hJs eye was a large Bible on the bureau. He 
 paused at sight of it, and then with an angry im- 
 pulse, threw it upon the floor and kicked it be- 
 neath the bottom drawer. Opening the drawer, 
 he took from among his winter underclothes the 
 few tools of the modern cracksman. Then he 
 reached above the door and took down a flat key 
 the key of Wistar's office. 
 
 When he reached the sidewalk, he waited until 
 the landlady returned with her foaming pitcher 
 of beer. 
 
 " Afther supper," he said with his most ingra- 
 tiating brogue, " I'll give mesilf the plisure of 
 smoking a pipe wid" ye, Mrs. Madigan, if ye don't 
 moind." 
 
 " Come and smoke two," she said. 
 
 Now came the more ticklish business. He went 
 to the saloon and calling for a stiff drink of 
 whisky managed to engage the busy barkeeper in 
 conversation. He made a humorous pretense that 
 he was falling off the water wagon, and referred 
 to a not unfamiliar story from the old country, 
 
 93
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of the Irishman in a similar plight whom the 
 priest had threatened, if he ever drank again, that 
 he would turn him into a rat. ' When ye see 
 me little ears crop out, and me tail begin to 
 sprout," pleaded Andrews with mock terror, 
 " for the love of Mike, man, kill the cat! " The 
 barkeeper laughed heartily it was his business 
 to. Then Andrews went to the plentifully stocked 
 free-lunch counter, and after mingling for a mo- 
 ment with the familiar crowd about it, slunk out 
 by the side entrance, unnoticed. 
 
 He hastily made his way back to the garage 
 through the most crowded streets, peering into 
 the shop windows as he passed, so as to avert his 
 face. Everything depended on his approaching 
 and entering the garage unseen. The hour was 
 in his favor, being that at which most of the hands 
 were at supper. He let himself into the office un- 
 observed. 
 
 Shades and awnings were down, and the twi- 
 light without penetrated feebly. But he had no 
 need of light. He replaced certain bulbs on the 
 electric fixture with plugs attached to two sets of 
 wires. The end of one of these sets he connected 
 with the lock of the safe. On the end of the other 
 was a carbon style with a wooden handle. When 
 he touched the style to the safe, it became incan- 
 descent, like the carbon of an arc light, rapidly 
 heating the metal. A common crockery plate, 
 
 94
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 through a hole in the center of which the style 
 was thrust, protected his hand from the heat of 
 the molten iron, and a pair of black goggles 
 shaded his eyes from the glare. 
 
 Once, as he worked, he heard the steps of some 
 one walking up the gangway outside, and his 
 hand trembled, rattling the plate on its style. 
 Again, there was the sound of a motor, turning 
 into the garage at high speed. His stomach 
 seemed to fall within him, and for a moment he 
 felt sick. But there was no time to investigate 
 every stirring of a mouse. Such turns were the 
 incidents of his vocation. 
 
 Presently, the metal surrounding the style was 
 white-hot and plastic; and though it was an inch 
 thick and more, he bored a hole through without 
 difficulty. With dexterous speed and precision he 
 made a semicircle of such punctures about the 
 lock, the whole region of metal becoming malle- 
 able. The door of the safe swung open. 
 
 The nervous tension under which he had 
 worked now mounted to a sense of triumph. 
 There was a messenger office on his way home; 
 and he calculated that, in ten minutes more, he 
 would be smoking with Mrs. Madigan. Between 
 then and the hour of calling on Penrhyn to claim 
 his reward, he reflected, there would be time to 
 blow himself to a restaurant dinner. He took the 
 card out of his pocket, and prepared to read it 
 
 95
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 by the light of an electric pocket lamp. But he 
 stopped short, for at that moment he heard the 
 office door open. 
 
 A scattering chill spread down his spine, but his 
 nerves, weak to apprehension, responded firmly 
 to the call of active danger. He grasped his re- 
 volver and glanced fiercely toward the entrance. 
 There were more sounds, as of some one coming 
 in; but to his amazement he could see nothing. 
 To all intents and purposes, he was blindfolded. 
 He tore the black spectacles from his eyes. Still 
 he was in darkness. With an access of terror, 
 he realized that his vision had not yet recovered 
 from the dazzling glare in which he had been 
 working. His one thought was to cry " Hands 
 up ! " but his voice was choked by the primeval 
 terror of midnight. With a sudden click, a light 
 in the electrolier flared out, and then, though daz- 
 zled, he saw the white front of an evening shirt. 
 Wistar was standing by the door. 
 
 "Oh, Andrews!" Wistar said quietly, in a 
 matter-of-fact tone. " Is there anything I can do 
 for you ? " 
 
 Was it possible Wistar did not suspect? For 
 a moment Andrews debated the chances of escape. 
 
 But the moment was too much. With a sud- 
 den leap, Wistar was upon him, gripping his re- 
 volver hand and swinging him about face. In 
 another instant his two arms were pinioned be- 
 
 96
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 hind, the revolver was wrenched from one fist 
 and the card forced from the other. Then he was 
 released. Turning, he found that Wistar was 
 scanning the card. 
 
 "'(i) Gear-shifting devices,'' Wistar coolly 
 read. " ' Drawings, descriptions and records of 
 tests. (2) Automobile makers list of figures!' 
 To whom are these things of interest? " He was 
 still quite calm, but there was a sterner ring in 
 his voice. 
 
 Andrews was silent. 
 
 "To our guests of this afternoon? I noticed 
 you were interested in our conversation. That, 
 you know, was why I came back." 
 
 " I done it for myself," said Andrews. 
 
 Wistar went to the safe and took out the two 
 papers. 
 
 " This, perhaps," he said, indicating the pack- 
 age of Minot's designs. "But not this!" he 
 added, showing the list of his allies. " One of 
 our guests bribed you ? Which one ? " 
 
 Andrews was mute. 
 
 "It was Penrhyn!" 
 
 Still the man made no answer. 
 
 "You forget?" Wistar observed. "No mat- 
 ter." Then he pressed a bell. 
 
 As he did so, Andrews's resolution gave way 
 in a fit of hysterical tears. " Don't call the cop- 
 per!" he implored. "I didn't steal nothing! 
 
 97
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 You still got it all! But they would give me 
 twenty years all the same. Think of it, sir you 
 who have always known liberty and ease! 
 Twenty years of livin' death! I'd be sixty when 
 I got out, if I lived an old man out of work! 
 Only don't call the cop, and I will tell you any- 
 thing!" 
 
 Wistar reflected a moment. " If you said it 
 was Mr. Sears," he said, " I should know you 
 lied." 
 
 Andrews threw himself upon the desk and 
 sobbed hysterically. 
 
 " Quit that! " Wistar thundered. " I promise 
 I won't jug you ! " 
 
 The suddenness with which Andrews recovered 
 his self-possession was instructive. 
 
 " I know who wants this," Wistar deliberated, 
 with quiet irony. " As for the invention, I'm 
 sorry to say I can't give it to them. It's not mine. 
 And in the list here there are some matters that 
 are confidential." He opened his pocketknife 
 and cut the five names of the deserting allies of 
 the trust. " But the rest you are at liberty to 
 send." 
 
 All Wistar's efforts at persuasion, all his threats, 
 had gone wrong; but chance had now put it in 
 his power to give his enemies the most absolute 
 and convincing evidence of the fight he stood 
 ready to make. He unlocked a drawer in the 
 
 98
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 desk and took out an envelope. " Here ! Write 
 the address on this." 
 
 "What address?" asked Andrews. 
 
 " Can't you remember yet? " Wistar remarked 
 with dry unconcern. 
 
 A workman entered, and Wistar bade him ring 
 for a messenger. 
 
 Then he turned to Andrews. " Remember 
 your promise! It's not too late yet to jug you. 
 Besides, if you don't send it, you lose all they 
 have promised you. Nothing worse could hap- 
 pen, even if I read what you write. And I give 
 you my word of honor I won't read it." 
 
 Andrews looked at him, questioning, incredu- 
 lous. 
 
 " You don't understand why I do this ? " Wis- 
 tar pursued, half in satire, half in earnest. " I 
 don't want to do you out of the swag! I am very 
 much afraid you'll need it. I've given you your 
 last chance. I ought to have known long ago 
 that there's no use trying to help you." 
 
 Andrews addressed the envelope and, turning 
 the writing down, began to fold the paper. 
 
 " By the way," Wistar interrupted, " you had 
 better let me add a word or two ! " He took the 
 paper and wrote: " Minot's drawings would be of 
 no use to you. The invention is to be patented 
 at once and a strong company formed to exploit 
 it. The names of your deserting allies you will 
 
 99
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 know very soon, if you fight us, and very well." 
 Then he returned the paper to Andrews, who in- 
 closed it and addressed the envelope. 
 
 " Dimmick," Wistar said to the workman, 
 " Andrews is discharged. He's a bad lot, as you 
 see, and I'm done with him." 
 
 Andrews was breathing more freely now. " I 
 am a bad lot, you're right," he said. ' You've 
 been good to me. But it's no use. Give me some 
 real brainy work, and I'm Johnny-on-the-Spot. 
 But day-labor it bores me. I can stand anything 
 better than ong-we" 
 
 When the messenger entered, Wistar prepaid 
 the charge. Andrews gave him the letter and 
 started to follow him out. 
 
 " One moment," said Wistar; " you have quite 
 forgotten who bribed you ? " 
 
 " I didn't say nobody bribed me." 
 
 "It was Mr. Penrhyn!" 
 
 " No, sir," Andrews answered with all the ap- 
 pearance of truth. " I give you my word of 
 honor it wasn't him." Then he went out with 
 Dimmick. 
 
 When Wistar was alone he looked at the marks 
 of the pen on the card where the name and ad- 
 dress had been. The " Mr." was legible, and 
 the tops of the capitals still indicated the begin- 
 ning of given name and surname. With this data, 
 it was the work of a moment to calculate that the 
 
 100
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 given name was too long for " Stanley " and the 
 surname too short for " Penrhyn." He tried 
 " Livingston Sears," and it seemed to fit. Again 
 and again he made the calculation with the same 
 result. "Bribe giver? Thief!" He said the 
 words to himself, after the manner of lonesome 
 men. " It isn't possible! Her father! " 
 
 He sat a long time in silence, and the more 
 he thought the more his suspicion preyed upon 
 him. Slowly his anger rose, and with it his con- 
 victions. His instinct had been right from the 
 first. With such men he could make no alliance. 
 
 Presently he remembered that he had promised 
 to dine with Mr. Sears. If his suspicions were 
 just, that was not possible. Yet he was too right- 
 minded and too fair to assume the guilt of any 
 man until it was proved, and least of all of Ju- 
 dith's father. He resolved to go to Sears at once, 
 and lay the whole matter frankly before him. But 
 he had no hopes of the outcome. "War!" he 
 said. " Whatever the cost, the end can only be 
 war!" 
 
 What the cost would be Wistar was only too 
 painfully aware. At best he pictured Judith fad- 
 ing into middle life as a governess or a paid com- 
 panion. At the worst but his mind refused to 
 picture what her life would be with Penrhyn. 
 
 101
 
 o 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 N leaving the garage Judith asked 
 her father to take the front seat with 
 Penrhyn, and prepared to sit behind 
 with May. 
 
 " But you are riding with mel " Penrhyn pro- 
 tested, drawing her aside. 
 
 "Surely you understand!" she expostulated. 
 " Think of poor May what a drop from the 
 paint room, if she has nobody even to hold her 
 hand!" 
 
 Penrhyn's answer was to make a face, at which 
 Judith laughed good-naturedly, stepping into the 
 tonneau. Then he took his place at the wheel 
 beside Mr. Sears, and set out to make the circuit 
 of the Park before starting home. 
 
 " Oh, Judy! " May whispered. " If you could 
 only do it too ! It's such fun ! " 
 
 "A matchmaker already!" Judith laughed. 
 "Who shall it be?" 
 
 ' You know who ! He's so tall and straight. 
 And his eyes if he looked at me only once as 
 he looks at you always, he could spread me on his 
 toast for breakfast, I'd be that melted! " 
 
 102
 
 " Horrors ! That too, already ? You are in- 
 satiable ! " 
 
 " Hold on, there," Penrhyn cried, looking 
 around at Judith with a grimace. " That's not 
 playing the game ! " 
 
 May made a face in response which he did not 
 see, and it was perhaps as well. 
 
 Penrhyn had scarcely turned his back on them 
 again when a vigorous knock developed in the 
 motor. 
 
 May leaned forward and warned him of this, 
 as she had done, in fact, once before that after- 
 noon. Since Billy had been home from college, 
 she had developed the ear of an expert. " If 
 you don't retard the spark," she said, " you'll 
 blow us up all over again ! " 
 
 Penrhyn answered that the trouble was with 
 the carburetor, which was running too thin a mix- 
 ture. His explanation was cut short by a report 
 in the muffler. He brought the car to a stand in 
 front of another of the many garages of upper 
 Broadway; and, saying that it needed a thorough 
 overhauling, asked Mr. Sears to take May home 
 on a trolley the telltale imprint on the girl's 
 shoulder was hidden beneath her automobile 
 cloak. 
 
 Judith was too good a sportsman to leave Pen- 
 rhyn to go home alone, a fact which had no doubt 
 entered into his calculation. 
 
 103
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 As the trolley bowled away from them, he pro- 
 fessed to have thought of something, and, making 
 a few passes beneath the bonnet, he mounted and 
 tried the car. It went as well as ever though 
 that is not saying much. And so it happened that 
 they two alone bumbled into the Park and made 
 the circuit toward the Fifth Avenue gate. Ju- 
 dith was too independent and too sure of herself 
 to pay much heed to matters of form; and, as 
 Penrhyn urged, the one great joy of midsummer 
 in Manhattan was that conventionalities relax. 
 
 The most resolute maiden can never be quite 
 insensible to the idea of marriage, and Judith was 
 far from this. That she had remained single was 
 as little the result of preference as it was of any 
 lack of opportunity. Her skirts had scarcely 
 come down to her boottops when grown men be- 
 gan to fall at her feet; and there had never been 
 a time when fuzzy-faced boys had not lavished 
 on her the ecstasies of juvenile adoration. The 
 atmosphere of devotion, which is usually the rar- 
 est, as it is the most powerful and the finest ex- 
 perience of a woman's life, had become a habit, 
 and a bad habit as she clearly saw in its penalty. 
 For she was scarcely out of her teens when the 
 insistent wooing of the elementary male struck 
 across her broadest sense of humor, reminding 
 her of the watery croaking of the bullfrog for his 
 mate; and the self-centered passion of the soul 
 
 104
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 hunter recalled the story of Narcissus infatuated 
 with his own image which thereafter became to 
 her not a classic legend but a satire on young 
 men with pointed beards. Kind and considerate 
 she always remained, but her deepest and most 
 personal feelings were cased in the comedian's ar- 
 mor of laughter, which is so often the defense of 
 a nature ill at ease in the world. By degrees the 
 appeal of passion had come to amuse her less than 
 it roused her to revolt. She was herself: why 
 should anyone presume to share her life, either 
 as her slave or as her master? Yet she knew that 
 this love of personal independence was the in- 
 stinct of spinsterhood, and she watched it increase 
 upon her with a very real concern as the golden 
 decade of the twenties advanced year by year. It 
 was in fact the tragedy of her life if her life 
 can be said to have had a tragedy; for she recog- 
 nized more and more clearly that her one great 
 chance of happiness lay in love and marriage, and 
 more and more she felt that her existence was 
 empty and profitless. The extremity of her devo,- 
 tion to her father, as she herself was half aware, 
 was the result of an instinct to be of supreme value 
 to somebody. 
 
 With regard to Penrhyn she had always a half- 
 conscious misgiving. There was a trace of cyni- 
 cism in his wit, a brittleness in his good humor, 
 that gave her at times the effect of a lack of breed- 
 8 105
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ing, even of moral tone. But for the most part 
 she laid the blame upon herself: it was her foible 
 to be captious with men. She owed him consider- 
 ation, moreover, for her father's sake. 
 
 The Park was deserted at this hour, and when 
 they reached the vine-covered crags that over- 
 hung the road at the northern end of it Penrhyn 
 drew up in their refreshing shadows. A great 
 ledge reached out above their heads, breathing 
 earthy sweetness from its mantle of English ivy. 
 
 "What a sportsman you are! " he exclaimed, 
 "what a comrade!" He turned in his seat and 
 faced her. 
 
 At this moment, as Judith recognized, his 
 glance was more personal than she had ever known 
 it, and more earnest. She shrugged her shoulders, 
 and drew back in her seat. 
 
 " You know what the matter is," he said in- 
 tensely, almost fiercely. " You must know ! " 
 
 " I am sorry ! I hoped it might be different 
 with you. But it's always this way! " 
 
 " Always ! You mean that I'm like everybody 
 else?" 
 
 " In one respect, yes ! Meeting, liking, com- 
 rades a charming comedy. Every friend a dif- 
 ferent friend, and a delightful friend. You, 
 Stanley, are very different, and very delightful. 
 But then comes the catastrophe that makes all men 
 alike ! " She broke off, and presently added with 
 
 106
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 a sad little smile : " Every time I am deserted I 
 am lonesomer and more forlorn ! " 
 
 " Lonesome ! You can't be more so than I have 
 been, day in and day out, by your very side ! You 
 will never know what that has cost me!" He 
 turned his eyes full upon her, and she met them 
 with a quick, courageous glance as if to discover 
 the passion she dreaded to find in him. But now, 
 as always, he exerted his self-control. " You say 
 you are lonesome. You are young now, and will 
 be for many years. But you will never be less 
 alone! And I / am lonesome! most of all 
 when I am with you, pretending that I don't love 
 you! I can't stand it always." He looked at her 
 resolutely. ' This is our last day together un- 
 less you make it the first together] Think! " 
 
 " Haven't I thought? But the escape! Marry? 
 Marry a man ! " 
 
 " Marry me! " he flashed, with his amiable air 
 of grotesque. Then he added with a burlesque 
 as of selling stocks: " I advise it." 
 
 " A husband is a husband! If you don't have 
 one, I know you are damned. But you are damned 
 even worse if you do ! " 
 
 " Yet you have always liked to be with men ! 
 Why have you never married? " 
 
 Judith reflected a while. " Sooner or later, 
 even those I liked most the way they looked at 
 me was horridl You know what I mean?" 
 
 107
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 "Of course the brutes ! " 
 
 She paused, not quite satisfied. Then she said 
 with the frankness that was so much a part of 
 her: "It may be my fault, too. The one way 
 not to get burned is always to be playing with fire. 
 May's life has been so different from mine and 
 now look at the blessed dear! " 
 
 ' The only trouble with you is that the man 
 doesn't live who is worthy of you." 
 
 " No, no! " she protested. " It is not that! " 
 
 He looked at her intently. " Have you never 
 been in love? " 
 
 " Once, when I was eight years old, with my 
 music teacher. He was an Italian, with black, 
 dreamy eyes. For him, I would have done any- 
 thing! He fell in love with my mother's maid. 
 I was jealous so jealous that it made me posi- 
 tively ill. But he married her! " She laughed 
 and then continued, quite seriously, " It was years 
 before I got over that. Even now the mood of 
 it comes back to me." 
 
 " Yet marriage is the common lot ! All our 
 ancestors have gone in for it! Happiness lies in 
 the normal. Isn't it less important whom you 
 marry than to be married granted a few essen- 
 tials congeniality, and all that." 
 
 Judith shivered. " But those solemn, those 
 awful words in the prayer book! " 
 
 " We'll leave out the * obey.' " 
 108
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 She shook her head. " I could promise to 
 obey. The will is its own master. But to prom- 
 ise to love, to honor a man a husband for- 
 ever!" She broke off with whimsical scorn. 
 " I should hate him in three weeks, and de- 
 spise myself! And then, there is always the 
 chance " 
 
 "What chance?" 
 
 " I have noticed that marriage is often a prison 
 cell that makes the guilty wretch look through the 
 bars upon the world outside even if it is for the 
 first time as beautiful! " 
 
 " You never cared for anyone more than for 
 me!" 
 
 " To go in to dinner with, you are the most 
 charming man in the world. But to come down 
 to breakfast " She shrugged one shoulder very 
 expressively. 
 
 " We'll dine three times a day ! " 
 
 " Do you call that the normal ! It sounds to 
 me like indigestion." 
 
 " Yet if you . . . came behind the bars . . . 
 who is there outside to fear? " 
 
 She shook her head, and for a moment they 
 were silent. 
 
 All around them was midsummer verdure, fresh 
 and abundant, through which, far ahead, there 
 was a glimpse of the city, bathed in the glow of 
 the early evening sky. She had almost forgotten 
 
 109
 
 THE CAVE M A N 
 
 Penrhyn in the beauty of it when he turned upon 
 her with the air of confronting her. 
 
 "You mean Wistar! " 
 
 Again she shrugged her shoulder. " Among 
 the others perhaps! " 
 
 He flushed with anger, and took from his 
 pocket an evening paper, which he had bought on 
 the sidewalk the world was always with him 
 and turned to a report, apparently more authen- 
 tic than those that had preceded it, of the com- 
 bination of foreign manufacturers. " If this is 
 true, they've stolen a march on us and all on 
 account of James Wistar & Co. ! For the sake 
 of an obstinate idea, a blind prejudice, he is ready 
 to wreck everything. Do you remember the last 
 time one of your father's promotions failed? 
 Except for your presence of mind, the ball would 
 have struck not his shoulder but his heart! Wis- 
 tar is forcing him to the wall. I am working to 
 save him. Whenever you see his poor, lame arm, 
 remember that! " 
 
 She met his plea bravely and not without re- 
 sentment. " The moment you lose faith," she 
 said, " you are to say so! " 
 
 " Of course ! " 
 
 " As for my future if the worst comes to the 
 worst, I can work! " Already, as she now told 
 him, she had had the offer of a position as manag- 
 ing saleswoman in a new and fashionable bureau 
 
 no
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of home supplies. The salary would be small, 
 but enough to live on- even to provide for her 
 father; and she looked forward to a life of self- 
 supporting usefulness as far better than her ex- 
 istence of the past few years. 
 
 " Of course ! Why, of course," he repeated, 
 this time with a more accurate note of conviction. 
 
 " As for Mr. Wistar," she went on, with her 
 instinctive honesty, " he is not quite as bad as you 
 say. He would give anything in the world not to 
 oppose us except his opinions." 
 
 " Are you afraid," he demanded, " to leave 
 Wistar outside the bars? " 
 
 "Afraid!" she repeated with sudden anima- 
 tion. " No ! Of all the men I have ever known, 
 he is the most horridl " 
 
 "The blackguard!" 
 
 ' That is," she added in a voice that was un- 
 wontedly impersonal, " of all the nice men." 
 
 He was silent a long time. " I'm trying 
 to think it out," he presently said. " You're not 
 unmarried from choice?" 
 
 " That's what makes it so hopeless. The girls 
 who glory most to be old maids are the first to 
 what do they call it? make their catches?" 
 
 " Pity the case of poor Judith! She was loved 
 by twenty and married none : and in the end the 
 gray-headed seamstress who never had a lover 
 was no worse an old maid than she! " 
 
 in
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 "The gray hairs!" she laughed, "I've had 
 them since I was eighteen. I can pluck them out! 
 But the old-maid ways I watch them growing 
 one by one. You can't pluck them out ! They are 
 a part of you ! " 
 
 " Then let me love you ! " he cried, almost for- 
 getting himself in a moment of passion. But he 
 went on, with a quick touch of grotesque : " It's 
 got to be somebody ! " Then he added with ap- 
 pealing, childlike persuasiveness: "Let's be com- 
 rades bachelor comrades! " 
 
 " But still there would be the bars ! " 
 
 " In another year you will be thirty ! " 
 
 " Two years, almost you are very unkind ! 
 But then you don't need to tell me ! I shall be 
 a real old maid." 
 
 " You promise, when you are that, to to be 
 comrades? That is the best part of being mar- 
 ried. That is what marriage comes to, in the end, 
 if it is happy in spite of all the romance of be- 
 lieving otherwise. Why not begin with reason 
 and sense? " 
 
 She was silent. Overhead a large gray squirrel, 
 that would leap upon anyone's forearm for a pea- 
 nut in the Mall, dashed out upon the crag and 
 chattered at them with ecstatic resentment against 
 this invasion of his wilding citadel. But it would 
 have taken some one much more deeply versed 
 than Judith in the wisdom of the heart to spell the 
 
 112
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 present warning for her implied in his diminutive 
 rage. 
 
 " It sounds sensible," she said. 
 
 "Then promise!" He reached forth both 
 hands. 
 
 She drew back at first, and then took one of 
 them in a feminine version of a masculine hand- 
 shake which was about as near the real thing 
 as if she had thrown a stone. " Comrades! " she 
 said. " When I am a real old maid! " 
 
 Penrhyn's face lighted, but his discretion was 
 admirable, and he said no more. 
 
 There was a gas light just in front of them that 
 burned with a dense, white flame. The lamp- 
 lighter came up with his ladder and snorting hand- 
 lamp and lighted it, eying them furtively. 
 
 Penrhyn cranked the engine and sped away 
 down the hill. 
 
 Judith looked back at the wooded nook they 
 were leaving. " It is such a beautiful world," 
 she said sadly.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ENRHYN lived in the Benedick, on 
 the west side of Washington Square 
 and so near the Searses, across the cor- 
 ner of the square, that the front win- 
 dows commanded a view of one another. He had 
 moved here when he first met Judith, accepting 
 the name of the house, so satirical in its applica- 
 tion to the abode of resolute bachelors, as augury 
 of a better fate for himself. It was late when he 
 drew up before the white marble portal of Ju- 
 dith's house, but he made an excuse of the near- 
 ness of his quarters and entered with her. They 
 went upstairs to the library, and he took a place 
 near the window, where he could watch for the 
 arrival of the messenger from Andrews. 
 
 The old mansion had a charm for Penrhyn 
 which was not altogether to be explained by the 
 fact that it was associated with the woman he 
 loved. It had been furnished, it is true, in the 
 sixth decade of the past century, in the height of 
 the era of black walnut and haircloth, when Ju- 
 dith's father and mother had begun life as young 
 married folk; and the prevailing mid-Victorian 
 
 114
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 spirit had not been changed at first, after Mrs. 
 Sears's death, for sentimental reasons, as Penrhyn 
 had somehow come to understand, and afterwards 
 for reasons of economy as well. The general 
 effect was not as ugly, however, as might have 
 been expected. The ill repute of black walnut is 
 largely due to the elaborate tastelessness of the 
 forms into which it was so often wrought: in it- 
 self it is one of the most beautiful woods. The 
 furniture of the Sears mansion was in the sim- 
 plest and most substantial mode of the time, and 
 Judith had had the good sense not to offend its 
 somber dignity by mingling with it anything sug- 
 gestive of the lighter and more elegant modern 
 modes. Numerous old engravings and mezzo- 
 tints, together with excellent copies in oil of Ital- 
 ian Masters fashionable half a century ago, lent 
 a very real beauty to the walls. And old tapes- 
 tries and rugs, the first expressions of Judith's 
 good taste, harmoniously intensified the effect of 
 color. An abundance of books, bound in dull 
 reds and browns, gave an impression of intimate 
 liveability. The dimensions of the rooms them- 
 selves were ample testimony of the good taste 
 of the beginning of the past century, and the im- 
 pressive classical moldings and old mahogany doors 
 were of a beauty that our builders have never 
 since approached. 
 
 The two were scarcely seated when Mr. Sears
 
 THE CAVE M A N 
 
 came into the room, already dressed for dinner, 
 except that his jacket hung loosely from one 
 shoulder. He was evidently in low spirits; but he 
 greeted them with his accustomed courtesy, and 
 proffered the loose lapel to Judith. " Your par- 
 don," he said to Penrhyn. " My game shoulder 1 
 Judith always helps me." 
 
 "Blue imps again, sweetheart?" she said, giv- 
 ing a final feminine tug at his tie. " I'm off to 
 dress, but I'll be back in a little jiffy! " As she 
 went out she turned and cautioned Penrhyn not 
 to be late himself. 
 
 When she had gone, Sears held up a paper 
 which he carried in his hand. " Do you know 
 how this was sent to me?" he asked "the list 
 of Wistar's allies, their resources and their year's 
 output?" 
 
 "Andrews!" Penrhyn exclaimed in anger. 
 " The scoundrel! The idiot! I told him to send 
 it to me I " 
 
 ' You ! " said Sears in a low voice, horror and 
 reprobation spreading upon his face. 
 
 For a moment Penrhyn was embarrassed. In 
 the old man's own house the atmosphere of gen- 
 erations of cultivation it was not so easy to disre- 
 gard his dignity. " I never agreed to it," he pro- 
 tested. "Andrews went ahead and did it." He 
 offered to take the paper, nevertheless. But Sears 
 withheld it. 
 
 116
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 There was a knock at the door and a middle- 
 aged serving woman came in. " A party to see 
 you, sir," she said to Sears. " Not very respect- 
 able. A little in the drink, sir, if you'll pardon 
 me." 
 
 - *> .. 
 
 "With red side whiskers?" Penrhyn asked 
 quickly. " Pack him off at once ! " 
 
 As he spoke, however, those same whiskers ap- 
 peared at the door, framing a pasty face and 
 faded blue eyes that were swimming in alcoholic 
 felicity. " Not quite so soon, Penrhyn," An- 
 drews chipped in jauntily. Seeing that Sears held 
 the paper, however, his manner changed. " Oh, 
 my missive has reached you?" he said. "Then 
 I'm off ! Only wanted to make sure. Remember, 
 midnight ! Ow revolver! " He bowed with an 
 elaborate courtesy an inebriate reflection from 
 his environment. 
 
 Penrhyn strode toward the door and caught 
 him by the collar. " I told you to cut out the 
 drink! " he cried; " and I told you to send that 
 matter to me ! " 
 
 Andrews hesitated a moment, and then said 
 nonchalantly: "I was interrupted." 
 
 " Interrupted! What do you mean? " 
 
 " Old Wistar come back." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 "He cut out them slips with his pocketknife; 
 but he left the figures and told me to send 'em to 
 
 117
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 anyone I wanted. This here he added out of his 
 head." Andrews took one corner of the paper, 
 and focusing his blissful eyes on it began to read 
 Wistar's note with stumbling care. 
 
 "You made out you were doing it for us?" 
 Penrhyn interrupted angrily. 
 
 "Made out? Made out nothing! He tried 
 to make me own it was you bribed me. I gave 
 him a steer. He don't know I sent it to your old 
 pal here." 
 
 " Silence ! " Sears exclaimed in dignified anger. 
 " Leave my house." 
 
 Neither of the others heeded him. 
 
 ; ' That's a likely story," said Penrhyn. 
 
 " Likely or not, it's true. Try him and see. 
 If he knows, then you don't have to pay me. 
 That's all." 
 
 ' You could have told him you were doing it 
 on your own for Irvingdale Smith as you have 
 done before! " 
 
 " It's lucky for you I didn't ! You'd never V 
 seed this ! And it's lucky for me ! Where'd my 
 graft been, heigh?" At this thought, Andrews's 
 loose features became set and his eyes focused. 
 " Look a' here, Penrhyn," he said ominously, 
 " you want them facts, and I want the twenty cen- 
 turies. You got the facts, you and your pardner. 
 I want the money. And there's something more: 
 when Wistar found me crackin' his safe he gave 
 
 118
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 me the sack. I lost my job along o' you, and I 
 want damages. Three-fifty a day, six days a 
 week! See?" 
 
 " Rubbish ! " said Penrhyn contemptuously. 
 " You get what I promised. That's enough." 
 
 " Not on your tintype ! I like this here trust 
 o' yourn, and if Wistar goes pals with you I'm 
 going to put my two thou. into it. Meantime I 
 got to live." 
 
 Sears had been speechless, revolted and horror- 
 struck. " This is no place for such bickering," 
 he at last found voice to say. " I shall not soil 
 my house nor my hands with such dealings ! " 
 The other two were silent, and he concluded with 
 less vehemence: "And Wistar may be here any 
 moment ! " 
 
 " He's comin' too, is he? " Andrews put in with 
 cool significance. ;t If you don't promise the swag 
 I'll stop him on your doorsteps and tell him who 
 done him ! That'll spoil your dinner party ! " 
 Both men were silent, and Andrews continued, his 
 voice becoming unctuously sentimental: "He's 
 been good to me! He could 'a' let me in for 
 twenty years in stir, but instead o' that he put me 
 to the good. My two thousand, see! And my 
 salary 1 " 
 
 '' Wistar knows that some of us received this! " 
 Sears said dully. " We can't explain that ! " 
 
 Penrhyn was thoughtful. Unless he could find 
 119
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 some way of throwing Wistar off the track, he 
 knew very well that the last hope was gone of ever 
 winning him over. 
 
 Andrews had been thinking too. " Old Wistar 
 made a little mistake," he said with oily cunning. 
 " You jes' lissen here ! You remember Irving- 
 dale Smith did come to see Wistar! Wistar don't 
 know that, but he knows Smith is gettin' cold 
 feet, and wants to give you folks the skiddoo. 
 But Wistar won't have him being bigoted, and 
 not able to forget bygones. That's straight goods, 
 every word. Savvy? All you'se got to lie about 
 is that T done the job for Smith as usual." 
 
 Penrhyn nodded. He needed a scapegoat 
 needed it badly. And chance had given him the 
 best. The chief thing now was to get Andrews 
 out of the house and away without Wistar's 
 seeing him. The hall room next the library 
 was Mr. Sears's study, and Penrhyn led the man 
 into it, advising Mr. Sears to let him out through 
 the hall as soon as Wistar was safely in the 
 library. 
 
 When the two were alone, however, Sears said 
 firmly: "You understand that I wash my hands 
 of all this? It is theft! It is treachery! " 
 
 " That's what they call it when you fail. When 
 you succeed and we're going to succeed you're 
 the Napoleon of Wall Street ! " He reached for 
 the paper. 
 
 120
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Sears withheld it. 
 
 " Permit me to remind you," Penrhyn urged, 
 " this was sent for me. The thing has been done. 
 I'm in for it. If I'm killed, I'll not be killed for 
 a lamb. With one glance I can tell where we 
 stand." He caught the paper, and took it with 
 gentle force. " Strong ! " he exclaimed, when he 
 had glanced down the list. " Fight him I There's 
 nothing in that for the underwriter! Only more 
 work for the undertaker!" He sat down in a 
 chair and pondered. 
 
 Sears sat down too, the image of despair, and 
 buried his face in his hands. 
 
 In a moment Penrhyn leaped to his feet. " An- 
 drews is right! If Wistar doesn't know we've 
 got the list, he hasn't an atom of proof! In five 
 minutes I can snow him down snow him un- 
 der! " 
 
 Mr. Sears did not raise his head. " You have 
 ruined everything," he said. " Once for all, I 
 refuse to be a party to your schemes! " 
 
 " At least you will let me get Andrews out of 
 here past Wistar! You can't want to compro- 
 mise me and yourself ! " 
 
 " Compromise me, sir! I have kept my hands 
 clean. I cannot be compromised ! " His indig- 
 nation shaded into despair, and he added, " All 
 dealings are at an end between us." 
 
 Penrhyn's mood mounted. "Wait and see!" 
 9 121
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 he exclaimed. " This blunder has thrown the 
 whole game into our hands! " 
 
 Judith came in, putting the last touches on the 
 lace of her gown. " Stanley! " she cried in sur- 
 prise. "Here yet? You must hurry!" 
 
 As Penrhyn was leaving he caught Mr. Sears's 
 eye, and then, with a sidelong tilt of his head, 
 glanced toward the study door. 
 
 122
 
 j 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 UDITH knew only too well the mood 
 in which she found her father. 
 
 He had begun life as a rich young 
 man with family, cultivation and a 
 host of friends. If his lot had been cast in the 
 present generation he would have been a working 
 sociologist, a reform politician, or a patron of the 
 arts. But in the generation of the Civil War the 
 uses of a leisure class were little valued. It was 
 business or nothing. For many years he had been 
 able to form companies and exploit his ideas; and 
 though he had always ended in failure, he had, as 
 promoter and manager of successive enterprises, 
 received no small sums in bonuses and salary. But 
 he had never undergone any real business train- 
 ing, and he had not a sufficiently strong sense 
 of the facts of life to save him from his imagina- 
 tion. The outskirts of Wall Street are full of 
 such men, and those of them are happiest who 
 come to the end of their tether while they are 
 young enough to learn. In his case, the time when 
 his friends came to distrust him arrived tardily, 
 
 123
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Then, already in middle life, ensued a period 
 when, in his search for capital, he approached 
 distant acquaintances, even strangers. To a man 
 of his aristocratic breeding, the ordeal was pain- 
 ful; but he never flinched. Finally, however, the 
 time had come when he was limited to his own 
 means, and risked the last of it. 
 
 To Judith had fallen the duty of encouraging 
 and sustaining him through the later and more 
 painful stages of his descent. What she had suf- 
 fered with him from the rebuffs of ill-bred 
 strangers only the gentle feminine heart can know. 
 But from childhood she had stood by him, and 
 she had never found a better means of coping 
 with his despondency than her girlish heart had 
 taught her. So now she put her hand on his head, 
 caressed it, and bade him go with her to the big 
 chair in the den. 
 
 He mechanically obeyed until she had laid her 
 hand on the door knob. Then he started, and led 
 her back to a black walnut chair by the library 
 table. 
 
 " This ugly old chair isn't half so snug and 
 comfy!" she protested. But it was no time to 
 oppose him. She sat on one knee, threw her arms 
 about his shoulders and laid her soft, bright cheek 
 against his blanching temples. " Is he sad be- 
 cause people are stupid?" she said, unconsciously 
 falling into the language of her. childhood. " We 
 
 124
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 shall forget them, and then they will be the losers ! 
 We still have us \ " 
 
 " Forget! " he lamented. " Poverty never for- 
 gets. When the horses went, I promised that 
 should be the last sacrifice. But now we've 
 failed again, and it's this house your house! 
 They will foreclose, and we shall be evicted like 
 Irish peasants ! Think of it ! This ugly old fur- 
 niture which we love how hideous it will look 
 when it is put up here at public auction, when 
 it is dumped out on the sidewalk for all the world 
 to see! " 
 
 "But we haven't failed yet I We can make 
 Mr. Wistar see how wrong he is. I feel that 
 we can! Then we shall have new and beautiful 
 furniture, the horses back everything!" 
 
 He shook his head. "Too late! It's all 
 spoiled. At last I am done for! The world used 
 to seem full of opportunity. Everything turns out 
 the same. Hope and despair over and over! 
 When I was young when we fellows fresh from 
 college started in Wall Street together, it was to 
 me they looked to do the great things. I had 
 the ideas. I had the money. One by one they 
 have passed me by. Myrick owns the Wana- 
 wackson. Ponter is the Clothiers' Bank. Hor- 
 ting is everything! When he is abroad the comic 
 papers cartoon him as the Yankee Peril. He is 
 received in every court of Europe like royalty! 
 
 125
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 At the club they all try to be just the good old 
 chaps they always were. But they are so care- 
 ful not to hurt my feelings it amounts to an 
 insult!" 
 
 It was true, every word of it, and it fell upon 
 Judith's heart like a blight. But still she labored 
 with him. "You've always been honest!" she 
 urged. " That's more than most of them can 
 say!" 
 
 He raised his eyes with a harassed look, and 
 glanced toward the study door. 
 
 She took his forehead in her palms and kissed 
 it. Then she attempted to kiss his mild, tired 
 eyes. He shook his head, and put her gently 
 away always since childhood he had done so. 
 ' You will never let me kiss your eyes," she com- 
 plained. "And they are such dear, tender eyes! 
 I know I could make you happy if I could kiss 
 them once only once! " 
 
 He was silent a long time. " I will tell you, 
 dearest. Your mother . . . she used to do that! 
 And she could cheer me that way when everything 
 else failed. The last time she kissed me so do 
 you remember it? it was the night before May 
 was born the last evening of all! " 
 
 Judith hid her face on his shoulder. 
 
 " Of course you didn't know it, but she was al- 
 ways afraid you children would come between us 
 jealous of you, she used to call it! That is the 
 
 126
 
 T H E CAVE MAN 
 
 way she was! And that is why I have never let 
 you. ... It is the last thing she still owns upon 
 earth!" 
 
 Judith forced down the catch in her throat and 
 smiled through her tears. " No ! Not the last ! " 
 she cried. " She still has us ! And we must be 
 cheerful as she would make us, if she were here I 
 This venture I still hope! but if it fails " 
 She paused, reflecting. The idea of her working 
 had always filled her father with an old-fashioned 
 horror, but it was all the more necessary that he 
 should become accustomed to it. "If it fails," 
 she concluded, plucking up resolution, " you know, 
 they want me at the Home Stores. I can still 
 work!" 
 
 He rose from the chair in agitation. " Sell- 
 ing soups and poultices from the kitchen! Serv- 
 ing your old friends my old friends with after- 
 noon tea ! For five generations our family has 
 been what it has been! There is little enough 
 left in America of the old, the true gentility! But 
 we have done our best to stand for our traditions ! 
 The Home Stores! What do you know of that 
 sort of thing? They only want you for your 
 name to serve as a vulgar advertisement ! I can't 
 stand it to have it said that I brought our ideals 
 to penury! " 
 
 It was the side of her father's nature with which 
 she had least sympathy. "Ideals, Daddy!" she 
 
 127
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 cried. " My ideals are of service and usefulness! 
 Rich or poor, I believe in work! Work for the 
 world, and, if you can't do that, all the more work 
 for your own self-respect! The only disgrace I 
 feel is poverty genteel poverty in idleness ! It 
 is so easy to do what one must with a wee bit 
 of sense and good humor! " She took him by 
 the arm and forced him gently back into the 
 chair. "Oh, Daddy! If you could ever un- 
 derstand me ! Mother she would have under- 
 stood! And she would have let me bring you 
 peace! " Judith leaned over to kiss his eyes; but 
 he bowed his head, so she kissed the brows above 
 them. 
 
 " With you a shopgirl a waitress and I a 
 homeless bankrupt I can't sink down to the 
 grave like that ! " 
 
 There was something ominous to Judith in the 
 set, tense quiet of his voice. With a quick, reso- 
 lute movement she opened the drawer of the table 
 beside her and took out his revolver. " Father! 
 I want you to promise me " 
 
 " Promise what? " he asked. 
 
 She paused. There are certain words that will 
 not be spoken, though all her instincts told her 
 that she must deal with him roundly. " Why do 
 you keep this? " she asked. "A burglar couldn't 
 get in here! There's much more danger in my 
 room. I'm going to take it there." 
 
 128
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He met her eyes with forbidding pride. " I 
 can still do the family burglar hunting," he said, 
 and taking the revolver he put it back in the 
 drawer. " Penrhyn," he reassured her, " has not 
 yet lost hope. He is able and full of resources." 
 But there was something in the way he spoke that 
 intensified Judith's anxiety. 
 
 Boyser knocked and, entering, announced Wis- 
 tar. 
 
 Sears started. " I have a few things to do," 
 he said, and went into the study. 
 
 When Wistar came in Judith started involun- 
 tarily, his look was so gloomy and perplexed. 
 She offered her hand, and he hesitated before he 
 took it. 
 
 " May I speak for a moment to your father? " 
 he said. 
 
 " Surely! " she answered. But when she went 
 to the study door she found to her surprise 
 that it was locked. She shook the knob gently 
 and paused. " He said he had some things to 
 attend to. Of course he'll be out in a moment! " 
 As she spoke, however, she drew open the table 
 drawer, and made sure that the revolver was 
 there. 
 
 " How do you interpret the laws of hospital- 
 ity? " Wistar demanded. 
 
 " Such a serious question ! What does it 
 mean? " 
 
 129
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " If a man has reason to think another his 
 enemy, is he right to become his guest? " 
 
 " I try to believe in people until I know they 
 are bad! Surely why do you ask?" 
 
 " Because I love you ! " He spoke with a ve- 
 hemence that shook his frame, though his voice 
 was low and, except for the deep vibrance of emo- 
 tion, under full control. " I want to help you. 
 This war they are forcing me into God knows 
 I am trying to avoid it! But they are making 
 that impossible ! " 
 
 The hall door opened, and May entered with 
 Billy. "What is Andrews doing here?" she 
 asked. " As he passed us on the stairs his breath 
 was like a searchlight! " 
 
 "Andrews! " Wistar cried out. " Here! " 
 
 No one answered, and the talk turned with a 
 somewhat enforced lightness upon the young 
 people. By and by Penrhyn came in, and finding 
 that Mr. Sears was in the study, went in, the door 
 being now unlocked. Presently the two came out 
 together. 
 
 " Mr. Sears," Wistar demanded, " may I have 
 a moment's talk with you? " The discovery that 
 Andrews had been there before him had removed 
 his last doubt. To accept Sears's hospitality 
 seemed now quite impossible, and he resolved to 
 end the negotiation by confronting him with the 
 full evidence of his guilt. 
 
 130
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Business before dinner? " Penrhyn asked, 
 somewhat in the manner in which a governess cries 
 " manners " to naughty children. 
 
 "If you please!" 
 
 " If it's going to be unpleasant," Judith put 
 in, "mayn't we wait? At least we can dine as 
 friends." Wistar hesitated. Pie was in a delicate 
 position, but he felt that it would be kinder to 
 do what he had to do without risk of exposing 
 the old man to those he loved. " If you command 
 it ! " he said at last. 
 
 " I do! " Judith answered firmly. 
 
 Boyser announced that dinner was served. 
 
 " If your scruples will permit," Judith said 
 lightly. 
 
 " It is on your scruples I am acting! " he an- 
 swered. Then he added, " Let us eat, drink and 
 be merry! " 
 
 " Dear me ! " she exclaimed, as she went out 
 with him, "you frighten me about to-morrow! " 
 
 Sears motioned Penrhyn to follow. 
 
 Penrhyn forcibly detained him. " I have been 
 doing some tall thinking," he said, " and I've de- 
 cided to tell you something that only a crisis like 
 the present could induce me to tell anybody. 
 You think this motor trust is a big thing. It is 
 only a wheel within a wheel! I must speak 
 quickly: mark every word. You remember that 
 rumor of an attempt to monopolize crude rubber?
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 I'm in with the people who are making it. It is 
 only as their agent that I am dealing with you 
 and Wistar. For two years we've had a man in 
 South America getting concessions leading revo- 
 lutions where he can't buy them, and financing the 
 government against insurgents where he can. Al- 
 ready we hold grants that cover the richest rub- 
 ber country on this continent. To-day we are at 
 work in Belgium for control of the Congo, and 
 our agents report the best of progress. Before 
 the year is over we shall control three-quarters of 
 the rubber supply of the world." 
 
 Sears was still under sway of his repugnance 
 to what Penrhyn had done. " All that has noth- 
 ing to do with me," he said. 
 
 " Nothing to do with you ? As long as every 
 Tom, Dick and Harry can make a motor car and 
 sell it, what sort of a monopoly do you expect 
 to gain? " 
 
 " No monopoly, but a trust may be profitable 
 without it." 
 
 " Profitable ! Perhaps if dollars in driblets 
 mean profit. What we want is the wealth that 
 is power. Rubber means tires, and no tires no 
 bubble wagons! Where's your imagination? 
 Working together, we can make old John D. 
 look like thirty cents." 
 
 The old man's eyes dilated. 
 
 "Ah, now your imagination is getting busy! " 
 132
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Imagination was, in fact, Sears's long suit, and, 
 as Penrhyn had foreseen, it was working, and 
 working overtime. 
 
 " But the law? " Sears objected. 
 
 " What has our fool law to do with the Am- 
 azon, the Orinoco and the Congo? A corpora- 
 tion formed in London can give your New Jersey 
 trumperies cards and spades." 
 
 The old man was silent, but his eyes continued 
 to dilate. 
 
 " Come, they'll miss us downstairs," said Pen- 
 rhyn, and he led the way. 
 
 133
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 N spite of the excess of men in the 
 party, May insisted on sitting between 
 Judith and Billy, and she so managed 
 that Wistar sat on Judith's other side. 
 Penrhyn welcomed the arrangement, for it 
 brought him next Sears with Billy beyond, and he 
 took the occasion to allude lightly to the fact 
 that the two young people were members of fac- 
 tions at deadly enmity called them Romeo and 
 Juliet, and said he saw their finish in a tomb. It 
 was only a step from this to banter about trusts 
 and trust-busting; and presently the discussion be- 
 came serious, though not too concrete or personal 
 . for table talk. Wistar observed, none the less, 
 that Billy was developing a new hospitality toward 
 the ideas of the promoters. When his young 
 cousin asked him for his opinions, he smiled 
 gravely and referred him to a scholastic essay on 
 The Case Against the Trusts. 
 
 Wistar observed also that several times during 
 the dinner Penrhyn engaged Mr. Sears in whis- 
 pered conversation, and that what he said brought 
 
 134
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 a look of distress. At the sight of it he dreaded, 
 as he had never dreaded anything before, the time 
 when he should be forced to confront the old man 
 with the evidence of so ignoble a crime. 
 
 When Judith rose to leave, at the advent of 
 coffee and cigars, May was in a flood of garrulous 
 plans for her wedding though she was not to 
 be married until she was out of school, almost two 
 years hence. Judith was to be maid of honor, 
 she was saying, and Wistar, Billy's best man. 
 
 At the door Judith turned back. " Maya ! " 
 she cried, laughing. 
 
 May paused for a moment, looked up, quite 
 mystified. 
 
 " Engagements only last till tobacco do us 
 part!" 
 
 May's mystification gave way to a blush, which 
 was greeted with sympathetic laughter. As she 
 followed Judith to the drawing room, Billy went 
 with her to the door, and Wistar went with him, 
 glad of any pleasantry that would defer the un- 
 welcome crisis. 
 
 " And now," said Penrhyn, when he and Sears 
 were alone, " now for a hell of a long put ! " No 
 one was better aware than himself that he had 
 foozled what he intended as a drive upon the 
 green. 
 
 " It is no use," Sears lamented. " You have 
 spoiled everything." 
 
 135
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " You know the alternative : unless I hole out 
 now we're two down and one to play." 
 
 " Our game, as you call it, is already up. After 
 what you have done to-day no man of honor 
 could go with you." 
 
 " I tell you I never asked him to to do what 
 he did. And you don't have to go with me. All 
 you have to do is to sit tight! Everything is 
 playing into our hands. Billy is engaged to May 
 and I've just discovered that Wistar is over heels 
 with Judith! Let him make a row, charge us 
 with treason, stratagems and spoils ! The angrier, 
 the more violent he is, the more he will disgust 
 Onderdonk and humiliate himself! I will make 
 him apologize abjectly for every word against us. 
 And in the end I will force him to eat out of our 
 hands! Think, man, think of the stake! " 
 
 Sears still shook his head, but his eyes, as Pen- 
 rhyn was quick to detect, were opened wide, as if 
 to a vision. 
 
 When Wistar and Billy returned, Penrhyn was 
 sipping his coffee, his elbows upon the table. 
 '' Well, fellows," he said with familiar good 
 nature, " this afternoon as it happened, while we 
 were proposing one alliance with Mr. Sears, On- 
 derdonk was obliged to be absent concluding 
 another and, it must be confessed, more important 
 alliance ! Now we should like to ask what he 
 thinks of this minor proposition." 
 
 136
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " I must say I'm inclined to change my mind," 
 Billy said, somewhat sheepishly. " This doesn't 
 seem like the old-fashioned octopus not the bill- 
 poster kind Barnum used to make ! It looks like 
 velvet, but it wears better." 
 
 " One minute! " interrupted Wistar. " I have 
 to discuss with the promoters one or two facts of 
 a private nature." He asked Onderdonk if he 
 would mind leaving them for a moment. 
 
 " What concerns the rest of us," Penrhyn 
 quickly interposed, " concerns Onderdonk! " 
 
 " In such a matter," Mr. Sears said, " I should 
 be glad to trust Mr. Wistar's judgment." 
 
 " Of course I shan't stay! " said Billy. 
 
 Wistar followed him to the drawing-room door, 
 his hand on his cousin's shoulder, with friendly 
 words of apology. 
 
 The two were no sooner out of the room than 
 Penrhyn turned sharply upon Sears. " You have 
 thrown away the chance I've been playing for all 
 evening! Unless we make a monkey of Wistar 
 before Billy, what's the use of making him a 
 monkey? " 
 
 " I couldn't face him," Sears answered sadly. 
 " My own son, almost ! " 
 
 When Wistar returned he remained standing 
 
 by the door. " As you know," he said, his voice 
 
 quiet but intense, " I stayed beneath this roof only 
 
 to avoid making a scene. I have questions to ask 
 
 10 137
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 so ugly I propose to adjourn to neutral ground 
 a club, or, better, a hotel! " 
 
 Penrhyn glanced at Sears. " This, I take it, is 
 purely a business dinner as if we were at a hotel? " 
 
 Wistar was surprised at Penrhyn's self-posses- 
 sion, for by this time he must have learned of the 
 fate of Andrews's attempt. He was even more 
 surprised to find that Sears so easily acquiesced. 
 Was it possible, after all, that there was a mistake 
 somewhere? " I have very strong evidence," he 
 said, " that the promoters of your combination 
 have resorted to unfair means bribery of one of 
 my men, and theft of my papers." 
 
 Penrhyn lifted his eyebrows. " That is an ugly 
 charge. You have full proof of it? " 
 
 " If I had I shouldn't be here." 
 
 Penrhyn became grave and at the same time 
 vehement. " Am I to understand that you have 
 brought this charge on a mere suspicion?" 
 
 "I make no charge. I state facts! I found 
 Andrews breaking my safe to steal information 
 vital to you in the fight with which you threaten 
 me." 
 
 " And you conclude that we bribed him to do 
 it?" 
 
 "I am forced to that conclusion!" 
 
 Penrhyn rose to his feet, still grave, almost 
 magisterial, but with a ring of righteous contempt 
 in his voice. " You have broken my old friend's 
 
 138
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 bread, and eaten his salt, and you use the occa- 
 sion to urge against him or is it against his 
 guest? the most shameful charge, utterly with- 
 out evidence! Which of us do you suspect? " 
 
 Wistar flushed at the injustice of the accusation, 
 but that was a minor matter. He took the card 
 from his pocket, and gave it to Mr. Sears. " As 
 far as I can judge from what remains of the 
 name, this is your card. And look at the back 
 of it." 
 
 Penrhyn's face fell. A cog had slipped in the 
 mechanism of his plan here was an eventuality 
 which in the rush of events he had not foreseen as 
 possible. Wistar noted the change, and a sardonic 
 gleam came into his eyes. But in a moment the 
 man took courage, picked up the card and exam- 
 ined it with an air of thoughtful impartiality. 
 Then his face beamed. " You are as wrong in 
 your facts," he exclaimed venomously, " as you are 
 caddish and treacherous in acting on them." He 
 rose as he spoke and quickly left the room. 
 
 Wistar's glance followed him with amazement 
 and swelling anger; and when Penrhyn returned 
 he met him at the door. But Penrhyn passed him 
 and coolly resumed his seat at the far side of the 
 table, facing Wistar, where he stood. 
 
 ' When I got here," Wistar said calmly, but 
 with intense latent passion, " Andrews was clos- 
 eted with Mr. Sears." 
 
 139
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Sears was speechless. Penrhyn was scarcely less 
 taken aback. Another cog had slipped this time 
 a dangerous one. His confidence was on the verge 
 of collapse. 
 
 Wistar noted their consternation. But his 
 more -generous regard for the old man had now 
 melted in rage at the young man's insolence. He 
 strode forward to the table and confronted Pen- 
 rhyn. " Tell me now," he cried, " who is the 
 traitor and the cad ! " 
 
 As he spoke he heard the door open behind 
 him, but his blood was boiling in his temples, and 
 he heeded nothing but the man into whose eyes 
 he was glaring. 
 
 Penrhyn meanwhile had again gained command 
 of himself, and indeed a renewal of confidence. 
 His manner became softer and more diplomatic. 
 " I repeat," he said, " that you have insulted 
 your host." 
 
 The veins in Wistar's temples began to swell, 
 and the color of blood suffused his vision. " It 
 is I who have been insulted," he said, his low voice 
 swelling until it filled the room. " The promoter 
 of this combination came to my office as my friend, 
 to ask a service and used the occasion to commit 
 bribery and theft! He has plotted with the thief 
 even while I was under his roof. No deeper in- 
 sult is possible, no baser breach of hospitality ! " 
 
 Penrhyn leaped to his feet. " Silence, you 
 140
 
 blackguard ! " he exclaimed. " Look who is pres- 
 ent! " 
 
 Wistar turned and saw Judith standing on the 
 threshold, white and quivering. For a moment he 
 was dumfounded. Then he said : " May I beg 
 you to leave us?" He added with an outburst 
 of abhorrence : " The blackguard is the man who 
 brought you to witness such a scene! " 
 
 " I will stay," she said firmly. " What does, 
 it all mean? " She went to her father where he 
 was still sitting at the foot of the table, and put 
 her palms on the white, silken hair of his tem- 
 ples. She was dignified and proudly calm; and, 
 as Wistar recognized with a pang of admira- 
 tion that even his rage could not down, she 
 was superbly beautiful, and supremely appealing. 
 For beneath her exterior of self-control she was 
 swayed by the primal instinct of protecting 
 love. 
 
 Penrhyn did not fail to note his advantage. 
 "Well?" he said. 
 
 Controlling himself, Wistar showed Judith the 
 card, and told how he had come by it. 
 
 " It was on account of that," Penrhyn cut in, 
 " that I asked you in here. When you went out 
 of the office, as I remember, you left your hand 
 bag on the desk. Your card was in it? " 
 
 Judith inclined her head. 
 
 " And what does that explain? " Wistar asked. 
 141
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " As I remember when Miss Sears wrote her 
 note this afternoon, there was no paper in the 
 desk." 
 
 " There was none. But what has that to do 
 with Mr. Sears's card?" 
 
 " I don't admit that it is Mr. Sears's card. But 
 suppose it is. Girls usually carry their men folks' 
 pasteboards. It's a useful way they have of mak- 
 ing our calls for us." 
 
 Wistar saw the force of the explanation, and 
 also its weakness. ' Then who am I to suppose 
 gave the bribe? You yourself were alone with 
 Andrews and you show a most thorough knowl- 
 edge of all the circumstances ! " 
 
 " Miss Sears will remember," Penrhyn said, 
 calmly turning to Judith, " that on a certain sen- 
 timental occasion in the paint room she missed her 
 handkerchief, and sent me for her bag." Then 
 he faced Wistar. " I am not insensible of your 
 insult; but we will proceed to matters that are 
 important." 
 
 " I beg that you will. You have still to explain 
 who bribed Andrews ! " 
 
 " That does not concern Mr. Sears," Penrhyn 
 retorted boldly. " But if I may be allowed a sug- 
 gestion, we were not your only visitors. You re- 
 member your friend, Smith? He is in town, you 
 say, and has business with you? " 
 
 Wistar nodded to both questions. 
 142
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " This matter that Andrews was stealing has 
 Smith any motives for desiring it? " 
 
 u The same motives that you have," Wistar 
 acknowledged. " But there is not the same evi- 
 dence against him." 
 
 " Still, he has already had dealings with An- 
 drews of precisely the same nature." 
 
 " I am inclined to think so." 
 
 " His full name is " 
 
 " Irvingdale Smith." 
 
 " And if we argue that this is his card? " 
 
 Wistar looked at the card. " I couldn't dis- 
 prove it, and I don't need to ! " Then he paused. 
 Strong as was the evidence that he had blundered, 
 he would gladly have rested under the weight of 
 it rather than continue in his defense. But the 
 matter at stake was greater than any personal con- 
 sideration. " All that," he said slowly, " does 
 not explain why, when I arrived here this even- 
 ing, Andrews was under this roof." 
 
 There was an ominous pause, in which Judith 
 let her hands fall from her father's temples, and 
 looked into Penrhyn's face with sudden anxiety. 
 
 " Neither can / explain it," Penrhyn said, with 
 his air of frankness. " All I know is what Mr. 
 Sears tells me. When he came home this after- 
 noon there was a pile of letters on the hall table 
 the accumulated mail of the day; and when he 
 had dressed he went to his den to attend to them.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Before he had opened them Andrews called, and 
 said that he had sent a message by mistake. He 
 identified it as his own by the handwriting of the 
 address. Mind, I only state the facts. I can't 
 understand how Andrews could have made such 
 a blunder." Penrhyn had spoken in the manner 
 of a judge who impartially weighs evidence. But 
 he concluded with incisive sarcasm : " Can you 
 understand? " 
 
 " I told him to send it to whoever he wished, 
 and promised not to look at the address." 
 
 " You will pardon me if I say that that is the 
 most extraordinary proceeding to me incompre- 
 hensible. No doubt you have your reasons. But 
 might not Andrews have mistrusted you, and sent 
 the letter to a false address, hoping to recover 
 it as he did recover it? If you ask me, I say 
 that at this moment it is in the hands of Irving- 
 dale Smith. What do you think? " 
 
 Wistar looked to Mr. Sears. The old man's 
 face was tense and set, but void of any decipher- 
 able expression. Wistar was dazed, almost giddy; 
 but little by little the conviction forced itself upon 
 him that he had blundered, blundered egregiously. 
 " What you say is possible," he admitted. " No 
 doubt I am wrong." 
 
 Penrhyn's voice changed to one of regret, even 
 sorrow. " You caught at the first suspicion to in- 
 sult my old colleague your host!" Wistar rc- 
 
 144
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 mained humbly silent, and Penrhyn turned to Ju- 
 dith. " Mr. Wistar has questioned my conduct 
 in inflicting this painful scene upon you. I feel 
 that he was right. I also, perhaps, have played 
 the blackguard. But in my first horror at what 
 he charged, I felt that the matter had to be dis- 
 proved once for all, and to that purpose your evi- 
 dence was essential. Yet I now see that, knowing 
 you as I do, and your father, I should have ig- 
 nored the charge." 
 
 Wistar was still looking at Sears. " What can 
 I say, sir," he pleaded, " what can I ever do " 
 
 Sears shook his head. 
 
 Wistar turned to Judith. " Can you ever for- 
 give me? I beg I beg " 
 
 " I have nothing to forgive you," Judith an- 
 swered in a dry voice. 
 
 " Then you understand " With the hope of 
 her forgiveness his voice choked. 
 
 " I understand this that it is / who am to 
 blame, that it is / who have to beg your pardon! " 
 
 She seemed about to say more, but paused and 
 left the room. 
 
 Wistar bowed his head, crushed as he was be- 
 wildered. 
 
 145
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 HEN Judith had gone Sears broke his 
 long silence. " I understand your mo- 
 tives," he said to Wistar, " and I 
 thank you for coming to me openly, 
 at once." He seemed about to say more, but Pen- 
 rhyn interrupted him. 
 
 " If Mr. Wistar is willing to get down to busi- 
 ness," he said, " we will call Onderdonk." 
 
 " I thank you, sir! " Wistar exclaimed to Sears. 
 Then he added: " I will get Onderdonk." 
 
 When he was gone, Sears turned upon Pen- 
 rhyn. "You have been intolerable!" he ex- 
 claimed. " I had resolved to tell him everything 
 as it happened, as far as it concerned me. But 
 you prevented put a lie in my mouth, and 
 gagged me ! " 
 
 " Lucky I did ! That was the narrowest squeak 
 I ever had, or wish to have ! Twice I thought 
 he had us! How the devil did he get wind of 
 Andrews here? " 
 
 Boyser came in with a tray of decanters, si- 
 phons and glasses. 
 
 146
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 "Which will you have?" Penrhyn broke off, 
 indicating the Scotch and the rye, " Blond or 
 Brunette?" The old man shook his head, and 
 Penrhyn drew a long glass of Scotch, listening 
 in delight to the clink of the huge lump of ice 
 as it swirled in the gaseous maelstrom. 
 
 When Wistar and Onderdonk came back they 
 proposed that, as it was already late, the party 
 had best meet again on Monday. Penrhyn very 
 reasonably suggested, however, that they ought 
 to outline the proposition to Billy so that he could 
 consider it in the meantime. The combination 
 was to be strictly legal, he said both he and Mr. 
 Sears pledged themselves to that. Wistar was to 
 be chief stockholder and chairman of the execu- 
 tive committee a position which would give him 
 the practical management of the whole. As 
 long as he wished they would use all their in- 
 fluence to keep him in power. Penrhyn's man- 
 ner was now that of easy and confiding friendship. 
 " In short," he concluded to Wistar, " the com- 
 bination will be you ! as honest as you are 
 honest." 
 
 " The case is not quite as simple as that," Wis- 
 tar said to Billy. " You remember Minot's trans- 
 mission gear I told you about? This afternoon I 
 agreed to form a company for him and put him 
 at the head. He is as much against the trusts 
 as I, and I doubt if he will come in. If he does, 
 
 147
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 he will insist on having a place on the executive 
 committee." 
 
 " You don't expect to have all your friends, and 
 only your friends?" Penrhyn objected. 
 
 " Precisely ! And that is why I am telling Billy 
 that the case is more difficult than you say. I 
 know Minot, and I know the value of that in- 
 vention of his. It will make him one of the 
 strongest men in the industry, and he is well aware 
 of the fact. If he came in, I doubt if he would 
 consent to be a mere executive. He would prob- 
 ably want the job you offer me." Wistar smiled, 
 but with an earnestness that made what he said 
 more impressive. " I speak of this only to show 
 the kind of problem that is always confronting 
 a corporation." 
 
 Bidding Mr. Sears good night, he went out, 
 and Billy followed. At the drawing-room door 
 he hesitated, but he passed on into the street with- 
 out bidding Judith good-by. 
 
 When he had gone Sears dropped his head in 
 his hands, again a prey to despair. " We have 
 lost him," he said. 
 
 " Not yet! " said Penrhyn. " I have one more 
 crack at him Monday !'" 
 
 " Are you willing to take in Minot? " 
 
 " Not in a thousand years ! Wistar and Billy 
 will be hard enough to manage. With a majority 
 of trust-busters on that committee, where should 
 
 148
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 we be when it came to joining hands with the rub- 
 ber people? Cheer up, man! You look as if you 
 had lost your last dollar! " 
 
 " I have lied lied to my guest and to my 
 daughter! " 
 
 " A mere matter of business ! One stroke more, 
 and we've pulled off the biggest combination in 
 the history of Wall Street! " 
 
 " But that stroke! He is too clear-headed, too 
 resolute." 
 
 "Nonsense! Don't you see? He's in love 
 with Judith, and he has insulted you! He's a 
 ringed bull. We can lead him where we want by 
 the nose! And once we've got him inside we 
 have him where we want him." 
 
 Sears turned away in disgust. " If you could 
 do what you say, I should refuse to profit by such 
 baseness! " 
 
 Penrhyn's tone became suddenly persuasive. 
 " Think what's at stake ! This afternoon we were 
 in danger of that foreign combination. Win over 
 Wistar, and we have it in our power to make the 
 American automobile the best in the world, to 
 force it upon the markets of France and Italy 
 themselves, to make our combination one of the 
 bulwarks of national prosperity. That is your 
 dream! Together we shall realize it. Wistar 
 has a soul too small for ideas like that! " 
 
 Sears was silent. 
 
 149
 
 THE CAVE M-AN 
 
 Penrhyn looked at his watch. It was almost 
 midnight, and he remembered his appointment 
 with Andrews. " I must be off ! " he said. At 
 the door he turned. " From to-night Judith is 
 rich again, and you take your proper place in the 
 world of finance ! " 
 
 150
 
 F 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ROM girlhood the white hair and in- 
 creasing dependence of age had ap- 
 pealed to Judith's tenderest reverence, 
 even though the object of it was a 
 beggar on the street. And now the affections 
 which many women pour into the channels of 
 wifehood and motherhood she lavished upon her 
 aging father. There was nothing, she felt, which 
 he must resent as deeply as this insult to what he 
 would have called his honor as a gentleman. That 
 Wistar stood ready to thwart the last ambition 
 of his life she must, in the end, have forgiven; 
 but that he should preface his attack by so crude 
 and gross an affront was not to be endured least 
 of all from a man who professed ardent and faith- 
 ful love. 
 
 Her own pride, she felt, was even more deeply 
 concerned. As she reviewed their conversation 
 of the afternoon she realized what she had not 
 realized before that she had taken advantage of 
 the moment when he was pleading his love for 
 her to urge him against his conscience in her fa-
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ther's behalf. She had meant what she said on 
 quitting the dining room that she owed him an 
 apology. But it was an apology of humbled 
 pride, not of understanding. 
 
 When her father came to her in the library to 
 bid her good night, she said nothing, but took his 
 thin frame in her strong arms. 
 
 For a moment he suffered her embrace, then 
 put her gently aside. " You don't know," he said. 
 " You can't know, sweetheart." He bowed his 
 head and left her. 
 
 She went to the window and threw aside the 
 curtains. The night was clear and soft, and a 
 full moon rode above the trees in the square. She 
 put out the lamp and leaned her head against one 
 of the little rectangular panes of ancient glass. 
 Mechanically her eyes took in what they saw a 
 clear white arc lamp that threw out the trees about 
 it into prominence and cast dense shadows over 
 a bench beneath, upon which a solitary man sat, 
 vague image of desolation. Familiar as she was 
 with the sight of the houseless dregs of humanity 
 that haunt the square, it always brought a pang of 
 almost sisterly pity. And there was something in 
 her own sorrow, and her impending fate which 
 after all was not dissimilar to theirs that now 
 brought a particular pang. 
 
 The door opened behind her. Quickly drying 
 her eyes, she turned and descried May in her 
 
 152
 
 " A solitary man sat, vague image of desolation."
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 nightgown, peering into the room. " The bride 
 all in white! " she laughed, with half-hysterical 
 tenderness. It was the first time the sisters had 
 been alone together since the betrothal, and in a 
 moment they were in each other's arms. " Are 
 you very happy? " Judith asked, with a sympathy 
 that was only the deeper because it had an under- 
 tone of sadness. 
 
 "Happy?" May cried. "So happy I can't 
 sleep ! I can't lie down. I want to run, to cry 
 out to be mad with joy!" She paused in the 
 full flood of her exuberance to remember her sis- 
 ter. "You are sad, Judy dear. Why is it? I 
 know ! You are lonesome ! I'm not going to 
 leave you never! It won't mean that you and 
 I belong a bit less to each other! I made Billy 
 promise that! We shall be with you every mo- 
 ment two of us instead of one! " 
 
 Judith knew that her sister believed what she 
 said with all the trusting ardor of inexperience 
 in life. For the world she would not undeceive 
 her. Yet all the more the knowledge of what the 
 future held for them both intensified her own 
 desolation. Their poverty, which little by little 
 had separated her from her old friends, had 
 brought her very near to May. And now that 
 May was to be both happy and rich . . . 
 
 They heard the doorbell ring, and by and by 
 Mrs. Boyser brought in a card. It was Wistar's. 
 
 11 153
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Say that we have gone to bed," said Judith. 
 
 "No, Boyser! Tell him we're up and will see 
 him! " As May said this she put a firm hand 
 over Judith's lips. 
 
 Boyser was not unused to the wilfulness of the 
 younger sister, and she acted with the long-accus- 
 tomed license of a faithful servant. " I'll give 
 ye wan minute to skiddaddle ! " she said as she de- 
 parted. 
 
 " If you could care for him ! " May exclaimed. 
 " Ah, why is anyone so stupid as not to be in 
 love!" 
 
 " You shouldn't have ! " Judith protested. " He 
 was dreadful this evening! " 
 
 " I know ! Billy and I quarrel and make up. 
 It only means that you are in love!" She fled 
 like a phantom through a private passage that led 
 into the back room. " Come ! Sleep in my room 
 to-night," she called back from the threshold, 
 " and tell me all about it! " 
 
 When Wistar came in Judith was lighting the 
 lamp. 
 
 He strode quickly to her and took the match 
 from her hand. " I couldn't look at you bear 
 to have you look at me ! Only let me say my 
 blunder this evening . . . my violent temper 
 . . . believe me ! I am suffering for it ! Can 
 you ever forgive me? " 
 
 Though she could see him only in dim outline, 
 154
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 she recognized that it was he who had been sit- 
 ting out there in the square. But for his deso- 
 lation, now so near and so appealing, she had no 
 trace of pity. 
 
 " To forgive," she said coldly " it is the easi- 
 est of all the virtues ! " 
 
 " You mean that you can't forget that to for- 
 get would not be a virtue ! " 
 
 " What you have done what you have said! 
 since it was all a mistake, yes, I could forgive it, 
 and forget it! Old as my father is, and weak 
 such words may offend him, but they can't harm 
 him ! The only wrong was to yourself." 
 
 ' Yes yes ! It was that I came to tell you ! 
 I don't hope to forgive myself! " 
 
 "Nor I, myself!" 
 
 He shook his head. " I don't know what you 
 mean! " 
 
 ' This afternoon, your friendship " 
 
 " Friendship ! " he protested, with fine scorn. 
 
 " Call it love, then ! Whatever it is, I went to 
 you, there in your own place, pleaded with you 
 in our behalf, tried to make use of of what you 
 feel for me in a matter of money! " 
 
 Again he shook his head. " I don't know what 
 you mean ! " 
 
 " By doing that I who don't love you, can't 
 ever love you I gave you the right to think as 
 you thought of us, to say what you said. Bribery 
 
 155
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 and theft, treacherous hospitality in the way 
 you charged, we are guiltless; but in another way, 
 and more deeply disgraceful, / am guilty of them 
 all!" 
 
 " It is not true ! I have blundered wronged 
 you ! But I honor you love you ! and I always 
 must ! Most of all for the loyalty to your father, 
 which made you feel what you did, for your frank 
 trust in speaking of it to me! What I threatened 
 this afternoon defeat to your father, poverty to 
 you instead, I shall bring him success, and to you 
 the life of use and beauty you were born to." 
 
 " You must not do that ! " 
 
 "It is my right the one right on earth I 
 prize! " 
 
 The words brought to Judith an echo of what 
 he had said in the afternoon that he grudged 
 this right to Penrhyn. " I forbid you ! " she ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 " Not for your sake, but for my own ! What 
 I did this evening I see it all now ! I've thought 
 it all out, on the bench there in the square. I sup- 
 posed my motives were the best. But from the 
 start I have been obstinate jealous! I thought 
 very ill of Penrhyn. The idea of what he is to 
 you . . . He is as honorable as any man." 
 
 " You may be sure he is ! " she said coldly. 
 
 " Then it is my privilege a privilege with- 
 out regret to work with him for you ! " 
 
 156
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " I forbid you to do anything for me ! " 
 
 " But for myself with my own I can do what 
 I will!" 
 
 "If you do, it is the end of everything between 
 us friendship, acquaintance even." 
 
 " Let it be the end ! That is best, when to see 
 you can only mean torture! I can leave you! 
 Once before, in this very room, I left you ! And 
 I lived out my life without you could have lived 
 it till the end. My fate is happier to-day." He 
 stood erect with the consciousness of power 
 power to sway her life. " In the years to come 
 when you think of me, if you ever do, don't think 
 of me as working in the old shop, grimy and dull 
 as the cave man you called me, for a good you 
 never dreamed of. I shall be out in the world 
 your world ! shoulder to shoulder with your 
 father, with Penrhyn! When power comes to 
 your father, and happiness to you it will be I 
 who have brought it ! " 
 
 ' You would force the gift on me ! " she cried, 
 her old antagonism mounting. " None the less 
 it would be a gift! You would make me feel that 
 I had bartered my soul ! " 
 
 " I shall claim no reward. This good-by is for- 
 ever! But all my life I shall be happier, because 
 I shall be nearer to you yes, nearer and dearer! " 
 He paused a moment, and then reached forth his 
 hand to bid her good night. 
 
 157
 
 f 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 She shrank against the curtain, near which she 
 had been standing, and instinctively drew her hand 
 behind her back. 
 
 "You won't say good-by?" he asked very 
 sadly. " You despise me still hate me, per- 
 haps?" 
 
 She did not answer. After a pause she shook 
 her head. 
 
 " You are not afraid of me afraid because I 
 love you? " 
 
 This was no man of the common sort, swayed 
 by the selfishness of passion. But all the more 
 his love offended her, roused in her an instinctive 
 repulsion the primeval spirit of revolt, which 
 was also the spirit of fear. " No ! " she said, 
 with such calmness as she could command. " I 
 am not afraid of you ! What should I feel for 
 a man like you? Yes! You are right! I hate 
 you!" 
 
 "You might have spared me that word! I've 
 no luck! The things I don't care for never 
 cared for all come to me wealth, power, all 
 that ! They find me, and they leave me the cave 
 man." He paused, and was a long time silent. 
 
 Judith stood dazed in the sway of emotions she 
 had never known before. Through her mood 
 echoed the sound of his voice, humble and proud, 
 impassioned and reverent, pleading and command- 
 ing. Her face was averted, but she felt the light 
 
 158
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of his eyes upon her, encompassing her like an 
 aura in the darkened room. 
 
 " Till to-day," he pleaded, " I had my dream 
 of you. One shaft of sunlight shone into my 
 dismal life! But since you . . . since you hate 
 me, everything is dark in the cave." His head 
 drooped dejectedly, and slowly he turned to go. 
 But the mood lasted only a moment. " No I Not 
 all!" he said proudly. "You hate me. I shall 
 not get used to that! But it is still in my power 
 no one can take it from me ! to live for you 
 yes, and to make you happy! " 
 
 He left her so quietly that she scarcely heard 
 his tread. But presently the door closed beneath; 
 and when, in obedience to an impulse the memory 
 of which later brought the blood to her cheeks, 
 she looked out at the window, she saw him walk 
 out of the gate and up the street, resolute and 
 erect. 
 
 159
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 S Wistar turned into Fifth Avenue, 
 now deserted and silent beneath its 
 gleaming rows of twin arc lights, he 
 heard footsteps behind him. Glancing 
 mechanically about, he saw Andrews issuing from 
 one of the paths that lead diagonally across the 
 eastern end of the square. He turned away 
 with mingled pity and contempt. Presently he 
 realized that the sound of footsteps had ceased. 
 Turning again, he saw a shadowy form skulk into 
 the mews that back the row of mansions on the 
 square. At this evidence of shame in a man natu- 
 rally shameless he felt a moment's surprise, and 
 then, immersed in other thoughts, forgot the in- 
 cident. 
 
 As he let himself into his rooms he pressed an 
 electric button near the door, in obedience to a 
 habit of long standing. In a far corner a .globe 
 of favrile glass poured forth a flood of opalescent 
 golden light. Beneath it, standing on a pedestal 
 of marble, was the replica of a renaissance sculp- 
 ture a young and beautiful woman, a Madonna 
 
 1 60
 
 THE C A V E MAN 
 
 perhaps, the simple, serene features of which bore 
 an expression that might have reminded one of 
 Judith in her gentler moments. In front of it 
 stood a carved mediaeval priedieu. In the first 
 sorrow of ten years ago he had flung himself 
 prostrate here and poured out his heart in prayer, 
 as if to the one creature who would understand. 
 And ever since the sight of the little altar, with 
 its statue and its lamp, had touched his heart to 
 a certain piety. But to-night, as he saw it all, he 
 felt as if a stranger, and with a quick, instinctive 
 movement he switched on the other lights. 
 
 The whole apartment breathed an atmosphere 
 of rich and somber beauty which had been no less 
 a part of his life than his noisy and ill-smelling 
 shops. Here was all the home he had. Men 
 who are denied the warmth and loveliness of the 
 normal human affections are apt to make good 
 their loss, as well as they may, with the warmth 
 and loveliness of inanimate objects if objects 
 may be called inanimate which supremely stir the 
 eye and the mind. Dull crimson rugs glowed 
 upon the floor, and the walls were hung with an- 
 tique velvet, through the worn, red nap of which 
 shone the fire of a web of gold. On all sides were 
 low shelves filled with books, good books and rare 
 books, variously bound in the soberer shades of 
 Morocco and illumined with exquisite tooling. 
 
 On one wall was a large French landscape, with 
 161
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 a round of young girls and their lovers dancing in 
 the twilight of a forest glade, while over all shone 
 a far, deep evening sky in which the fading blue 
 of daylight mingled with the faint gold radiance 
 of stars. On another wall was a Flemish portrait 
 of a young man whose vivid cheeks and deli- 
 cately curved, vital lips were dominated by eyes 
 in which lurked the sadness of the ages. The 
 lists of the works of two of the world's masters 
 have each, among the names of famous collectors, 
 an entry which reads: " In the possession of James 
 Wistar, Esq., New York," but Wistar's feeling 
 for these paintings was very different from that 
 of the connoisseur though just what it was he 
 himself would probably not have been able to tell. 
 Lonesome though his life was, the room had wel- 
 comed him from his workaday existence with 
 something like the embrace of comradeship and 
 tried affection. 
 
 Now it all seemed to him the mere shadow of 
 a dream that was dead, and deserved to be dead. 
 Turning his back upon it, he threw open the win- 
 dow and looked out upon the roofs of the city 
 the gray, disordered world of human fact. He 
 had thought that his life was devoted to her mem- 
 ory and what had she cared! He had plotted 
 so deeply and so persistently to save her from 
 what? From his own obstinacy! And finally he 
 had gone to her father to deal with him in the 
 
 162
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 utmost tenderness and reverence and had ended 
 by wronging him brutally. He had constituted 
 himself guardian of a noble and generous ideal, 
 and had made himself a blundering victim of 
 jealousy. 
 
 From the hurried and jumbled events of the 
 day one figure stood out clear and unmistakable 
 the figure of Judith, not like this marble, pas- 
 sive and cold, but erect and defiant, supporting 
 with her long, firm fingers the white head upon 
 which he was heaping insult. Wistar had a strong 
 sense of the essential humor of life, and now, at 
 the thought of the discrepancy between the world 
 of his imagination and the world as he had awak- 
 ened to find it, he burst into a peal of robust, if 
 bitter, laughter. " I tried to make her a Fra An- 
 gelico angel in a nightgown," he said, " and she 
 is a woman of blood and fire. She has a brain in 
 her bonnet, by God, a body beneath her frock; 
 and I'll make her respect me as a man." 
 
 With rising courage, he thought the whole 
 thing out to the finish. The finish was Mrs. Stan- 
 ley Penrhyn, a leader in New York society, the 
 mother of many children, each of whom had a 
 dimple in his chin and alert, blue eyes. " A good 
 finish, too," he concluded. " Penrhyn is a damn 
 fine fellow. He's no moon calf. He knows what 
 he wants, and he goes and gets it ! " 
 
 Presently he became aware that in the back- 
 163
 
 THE CAVE M-AN 
 
 ground of this idyl was the figure of an aging 
 bachelor with hungry eyes and hair grizzling at 
 the temples, over whose lean knees the five chil- 
 dren delighted to clamber. But he caught himself 
 up short in this old trick of sentimentalizing, and 
 remembered that he had bound himself not to see 
 Judith. "As for me," he said, "Hell! 7'11 
 marry the typewriter." He burst into another 
 peal of laughter, and with it his fit of profanity 
 ended. Going to the bedroom, he began to un- 
 dress, throwing his clothes about in his manner 
 of the unlicked college cub, which had been 
 cramped by no home influence. The Goody, as 
 he called the chambermaid, in his undergraduate 
 parlance, adored him, and made a joy of what 
 others would have balked. Lighting a long drop 
 pipe, he stretched himself out on the bed. Cool- 
 ing breezes from down the bay fluttered the loose, 
 white stuff of his pajamas. " She thinks I'm a 
 stick-in-the-mud and a ruffian," he said out loud. 
 " I'm not as bad as that; and even if I don't see 
 her, I'll make her believe it." He puffed a while 
 in silence. The longer he thought of Judith in 
 this new mood the less he felt that he knew her. 
 Hazily he began to wish that he might see her 
 now and then just to make her acquaintance. By 
 and by the pipe fell from his lips, and he was 
 asleep. 
 
 164
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 HE meeting of the promoters was held 
 early Monday afternoon in Penrhyn's 
 offices in Wall Street. As Wistar 
 entered he caught the pungent odor of 
 sealing wax, and the whole place breathed the air 
 of official formality. The clerk by the door was 
 receipting for a fat package of registered letters, 
 and he made Wistar wait till he had finished, 
 and gravely passed the time of day with the ex- 
 press messenger. Then he took Wistar's card. 
 When he returned, however, he led him very re- 
 spectfully into an ante-room and left him standing 
 while he carried it to Penrhyn. 
 
 Billy was already there, and when they were 
 alone remarked on the grandeur of their sur- 
 roundings. At intervals in the suite of rooms 
 were huge, green marble columns, apparently 
 monoliths, and topped with gilded Ionic volutes. 
 The partitions and furniture were of mahogany, 
 and the floor was an inch deep in the nap of a 
 green carpet. Wistar was not unused to the sump- 
 tuousness of financial state, but Billy gave a pan- 
 
 165
 
 tomime of being impressed by it, and spoke, with 
 a twinkle in his eye, in an awed whisper. 
 
 Penrhyn left them to cool their heels some time ; 
 and when he came in and led them to a directors' 
 room, his manner, though hospitable, was far re- 
 moved from his customary joviality. Mr. Sears, 
 however, whom they found inside, was manifestly 
 nervous and anxious as to the outcome of the con- 
 ference. Penrhyn seated himself in a huge arm- 
 chair behind a vast mahogany table, leaving the 
 others to sit about the wall. If he had calculated 
 the effect of state, however, he had calculated it 
 shrewdly, for just as Wistar was beginning to sus- 
 pect him of lugs he proceeded to business, and 
 with a simplicity, directness and informality that 
 stood out in bold relief from the atmosphere with 
 which he had surrounded himself. 
 
 " I hope it isn't necessary," he said, addressing 
 Wistar, " to insist that Mr. Sears and I respect 
 your economic scruples against certain forms of 
 trade consolidations." 
 
 '' That is the sine qua non" 
 
 '' We stand ready to back you up in anything 
 reason and your conscience demands. And in view 
 of the magnitude of what we propose, and the 
 complexity of the problem that confronts us, it 
 is idle to deny that success is by no means assured, 
 and especially if we are beset by opposition as 
 intelligent and powerful as you would put up.'* 
 
 166
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Here he paused, and added with a frank laugh : 
 " Yesterday afternoon we thought the jig was up. 
 I'm afraid it is anyway. But whatever happens, 
 I want to say that it's mighty square of you to 
 come down here for a final conference." 
 
 He outlined the scheme with a few telling 
 strokes. It was sane and fair. The capital he 
 placed at a conservative figure, and named a pro- 
 moters' bonus, for himself and Mr. Sears, which 
 was far from large. As leader in the under- 
 writing syndicate, he volunteered to subscribe for 
 a large share of stock at a fair price; and in order 
 to facilitate the general sale to the public he prom- 
 ised not to throw any of his holdings upon the 
 market for two years. In return for these con- 
 siderations, he stipulated that he be assured the 
 office of treasurer. 
 
 This surprised Wistar, but pleased him no less. 
 When promoter and underwriter make a quick 
 profit and clear out it looks bad for the industry, 
 bad for the investing public. Wistar wanted no 
 better guarantee of Penrhyn's belief in the scheme 
 than that he was willing to stick by it for bet- 
 ter or for worse. " I not only promise all 
 that," he said, " but with your permission I insist 
 upon it." 
 
 Penrhyn nodded. " At the request of your 
 former allies, you say, you have made a state- 
 ment of the value of your business. We will give 
 
 167
 
 THE CAVE MA N 
 
 you the full amount in preferred stock, bearing 
 cumulative seven per cent dividends." He then 
 named Wistar's bonus of common stock, and it 
 was liberal. " In order that you may be sure of 
 making that stock as sound as may be, we guar- 
 antee you the presidency and practical control of 
 the combination for two years. We would say 
 longer, only we fear that that would rouse the 
 jealousy of other manufacturers; and as the best 
 practical substitute, Mr. Sears and I stand ready, 
 and hereby promise, to use all our influence to re- 
 elect you as often as you desire." 
 
 Wistar took out a pencil and went through a 
 brief calculation. " The terms," he concluded, 
 " are liberal in the extreme." 
 
 Penrhyn smiled. " I know that, and I should 
 be the last man to offer them if I were not obliged 
 to. I don't suppose you are aware of the fact, but 
 no bluff on earth could have insured such terms 
 as your honest doubts and scruples." 
 
 ' That has occurred to me," Wistar said. 
 " Honesty is the best policy when a man is his 
 own insurance company." 
 
 Penrhyn laughed in a way to make Wistar feel, 
 for the first time in his life, that he was a wit 
 a fact that made him begin to suspect flattery. 
 But in the nick of time Penrhyn went on, naming 
 Sears as vice-president and fixing his salary at a 
 figure which, though not excessive, meant com- 
 
 168
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 fort, even a moderate degree of luxury, to his 
 household. 
 
 Wistar nodded acquiescence. He then stipu- 
 lated that they should do the fair thing by his 
 allies of the antisyndicate. Penrhyn readily 
 agreed. 
 
 All this had passed in less than ten minutes. 
 Then Penrhyn looked at Billy very gravely. 
 ' There is one subject," he said, " upon which 
 every executive committee ought to have the ser- 
 vices of an expert always at hand, and with this 
 in view we hope to prevail upon Mr. Onderdonk 
 to accept a position upon ours." 
 
 Billy blushed, conscious of an ignorance of all 
 things, and asked what the subject was. 
 
 Penrhyn paused portentously, and then said: 
 " Paint rooms." 
 
 The executive committee was to have five mem- 
 bers, and with Billy on it Wistar's position would 
 be greatly strengthened. As long as either Mr. 
 Sears or Penrhyn stood with him, he would con- 
 trol the entire corporation. It increased Wistar's 
 confidence in Penrhyn that he passed over this 
 feature of his plan so lightly. 
 
 When Penrhyn was about to call a stenogra- 
 pher, however, to make a duplicate note of their 
 agreement, Wistar stayed him. " The worst," 
 he said, " is yet to come Minot. His ideas are 
 large, but I think not exorbitant. Certainly they 
 12 169
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 won't grow smaller with success. I propose to 
 ask him to join us at the outset. All the conditions 
 of the game require that a dangerous outsider shall 
 be won over. If he demands a place on the ex- 
 ecutive committee, there is a place left, and I think 
 we ought to give it to him." 
 
 With the air of one willing to be convinced, 
 Penrhyn asked for figures. Wistar named a sum 
 that was large even in comparison with the sums 
 in which they had been dealing. 
 
 " Is his device sufficiently basic to be protected 
 by patent? " 
 
 " Patent law is most uncertain. But if he had 
 our backing no one would dare to make the fight. 
 On the other hand, if we leave Minot on the out- 
 side, we shall be his rivals, and rivalry will increase 
 his obstinacy. That would be most embarrassing 
 for me, for I am interested in both concerns." 
 
 Penrhyn shook his head. " I don't doubt your 
 sincerity, or the justice of the price you name. 
 But in acquiring properties the value of which 
 has already been demonstrated our resources will 
 be sufficiently extended. To buy in Minot in ad- 
 dition would just about wipe out the profits of 
 the promoters, and in fairness to Mr. Sears I 
 don't think we ought to do that to say nothing 
 of myself. There is one other way to increase 
 the capital stock; but that would create financial 
 difficulties, first in placing the stock with the pub- 
 
 170
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 lie, second in paying dividends, and third in ac- 
 cumulating a surplus against possible, even prob- 
 able, hard times." 
 
 The argument was astute and telling, for Wis- 
 tar himself had vigorously urged the necessity of 
 protecting the public of investors against loss, and 
 the industry against being sacrificed to the neces- 
 sity of stock manipulation. That Penrhyn had 
 any ulterior motive for not wanting Minot on the 
 executive committee Wistar did not for a moment 
 suspect his whole plan had seemed liberal and 
 aboveboard; but he protested none the less firmly. 
 
 " Of two evils," Wistar protested, " the one I 
 proposed is the less. To take Minot in now, even 
 at so advanced a figure, would in the end prove 
 an economy." 
 
 " That may be," Penrhyn conceded, " but to do 
 so would look to the financial world very much 
 like speculation. And it might even have a worse 
 appearance, in view of the fact that you are so 
 heavily interested with Minot. Both the under- 
 writers and the investing public would be certain 
 to take a sinister view of it." 
 
 At this Wistar instinctively bridled. But he 
 was learning to fear his instincts; and while he 
 hesitated he who had hitherto always known his 
 own mind and spoken it Penrhyn was forging 
 ahead. 
 
 "What do you think, Mr. Sears?" he said. 
 171
 
 " I would go far to satisfy Mr. Wistar. We 
 owe a great deal to the courtesy with which he 
 has yielded to our representations." 
 
 " But on the abstract merits of the case? " 
 
 " It has the disadvantages you mention." 
 
 Penrhyn turned to Billy. 
 
 "If we are to intrust the management of the 
 whole concern to Wistar," the boy said, " I don't 
 see why we should doubt his judgment now." 
 
 " But the question is financial rather than in- 
 dustrial." 
 
 " Does the financial point fall within my baili- 
 wick? " Billy asked. Then he blushed furiously, 
 remembering what that bailiwick was. 
 
 Penrhyn laughed aloud, though with a trace 
 of harshness which made Wistar feel for the first 
 time that beneath his outward manner was a strain 
 of excitement and suspense. 
 
 There was a pause. Penrhyn looked to Wistar. 
 
 " Billy has hit the nail on the head," Wistar 
 said slowly. " In a corporation such a matter 
 can be decided only by general agreement." 
 
 Again Penrhyn paused. Wistar scrutinized his 
 countenance for any let-down in his formal ease 
 and calm, but it broke into a smile of friendly em- 
 barrassment. " Mr. Sears and I are both against 
 the proposal," he said, " and Onderdonk is on the 
 fence." 
 
 In spite of Penrhyn's fairness perhaps because 
 172
 
 of it, for it was somewhat too genial, too polished 
 Wistar now felt that the man had motives which 
 he kept darkly hidden. They were obviously re- 
 lated to this matter of Minot; but how, he was at 
 a loss to guess. Of his own position, with Billy 
 and Mr. Sears on the executive committee, he felt 
 secure. It was possible that Penrhyn was planning, 
 after he was once inside, to oust him, when the 
 pinch came, from control. But to do that he would 
 have to win over a majority of the board of direct- 
 ors, which would require a majority of the stock- 
 holders. And the power to do this meant the 
 power to oust Minot also and Wistar could not 
 see that he had such power. Yet he doubted. His 
 lifelong habit of independence revolted. His judg- 
 ment was not his own. His conscience was not his 
 own. What was he, the merchant, the trust-buster, 
 doing in this galley of finance? 
 
 He was about to break off the negotiations 
 when he became aware that Mr. Sears was gazing 
 at him, hope and despair battling in his sensitive 
 countenance. He remembered their last meet- 
 ing, and how suspicions a thousand times better 
 grounded had betrayed him; of Judith, and the 
 wrong he had done her; of the resolutions of his 
 awakening. 
 
 " Very well, then," he said. " Leave Minot 
 on the outside. I bow to the will of the ma- 
 jority." 
 
 173
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 HEN the meeting broke up, Billy went 
 conscientiously back to his foreman in 
 the machine room ; but Wistar, for the 
 first time in his life, felt the lack of 
 a definite interest. There were many things to 
 do at the garage, but the place reminded him 
 too painfully of Judith, and the break he had 
 made in the tenor of his existence. His pres- 
 ence was needed at the factory but he had some- 
 how lost interest in it. The new company for 
 Minot had still to be put in shape; but this ap- 
 pealed to him least of all. The work of his life- 
 time, upon which he had spent infinite pains, was, 
 or soon would be, no longer his. He himself was 
 a mere cog in a vast mechanism. He was lone- 
 some in a way in which he had never been lone- 
 some before, and for the first time in his memory 
 he went to his club in the afternoon. 
 
 At the door he met a member who was setting 
 out with much belabeled hand luggage for vaca- 
 tion. He thought forlornly of how long it was 
 since he had had a vacation, and even more for- 
 lornly of how bored he would be if he took one.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Within the club brooded the drowsiness of mid- 
 summer. The main room, looking on Fifth Av- 
 enue, was empty, except for a man who sat in a 
 window sipping a long drink and gazing listlessly 
 into the street where, in the place of the winter's 
 stream of smart carriages and motor cars, there 
 was only an occasional hack, or a rubber-neck 
 wagon with its cargo of sweltering tourists. The 
 liveried servants were idle and bored. 
 
 Wistar sat down by the center table and opened 
 an evening paper. It was the first edition, and 
 was made up of a rehash of the morning's news, 
 eked out with items in small type clipped from 
 exchanges. He took an elevator for the library, 
 but though there were some twenty thousand vol- 
 umes there, he could not find one he cared to read. 
 Even the placards of SILENCE! distributed 
 on the center tables, which had once greeted him 
 like a benediction after a day in his machine shops, 
 seemed an ironic superfluity. He lay back in his 
 chair and gazed up at the vaulted ceiling. It was 
 decorated with a skillful copy of one of the master- 
 pieces of Italian mural painting, but it bored him. 
 Then he went to the barber shop and had his 
 hair cut, and afterwards to the tank for a cool 
 plunge, but it was still three hours to dinner, and 
 six hours to the earliest bedtime. 
 
 His eye fell upon a telephone booth. There 
 were a score of men with whom he had sometimes 
 
 175
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 sat down for dinner, but not one who would fit 
 into his present mood. He took up the telephone 
 book. In all these hundreds of thousands, he 
 asked himself, was there a single human being 
 upon whom he could rely for companionship, to 
 say nothing of sympathy? After serious consid- 
 eration he decided that there was just one. He 
 went inside and, calling up the garage, asked for 
 Billy. Would Billy dine with him? Billy gen- 
 erally dined with the Searses. If Billy were given 
 the rest of the afternoon off, could he manage for 
 this once? If Wistar really wanted him he would 
 try. Wistar remarked that Billy's engagement 
 deserved a little dinner of cousinly congratulation. 
 Billy asked, rather dubiously, if that was what he 
 wanted meaning, if that was all. Wistar pro- 
 tested, and truthfully, that it was not all. He 
 added that he wanted to talk business; but that 
 was a lie; he hated business; he loathed business. 
 Billy said he would do his best. 
 
 An hour later a club servant called him to the 
 telephone. He recognized the voice of May. It 
 was horrid of Mr. Wistar to take Eilly away when 
 they all had so much to celebrate. Wouldn't he 
 come, too, and dine with the family? They would 
 all talk business. Wistar floundered a while, re- 
 membering only too well his covenant with Judith. 
 
 " Is it because it's little sister me that asks you, 
 and not Judith? " May pointedly inquired. 
 
 176
 
 T H E CAVE MAN 
 
 She was more nearly right than she knew, but 
 he protested. His protest was feeble, however. 
 
 " If Judy asks you, then will you come! " May 
 demanded. 
 
 Inwardly ironic, Wistar allowed that in that case 
 he could not reasonably refuse. 
 
 "Then make up your mind to be a victim!" 
 May concluded, and hung up the receiver with a 
 snap. 
 
 Before long, however, Billy telephoned that he 
 would come uptown for dinner; and at the ap- 
 pointed hour he was on hand at the Harvard 
 Club, one of the few clubs in the metropolis in 
 which it is possible to introduce nonmembers 
 for Billy was too recently graduated to have 
 clubs of his own. 
 
 The sight of him filled Wistar with sardonic 
 glee. " I rather hoped," he said, quite shame- 
 lessly, " that I was to be invited down to Wash- 
 ington Square." 
 
 Billy hesitated a moment. " May wanted to 
 ask you, and Mr. Sears. But Judith proposed that 
 the family have their first little celebration alone. 
 It means a whole lot to them, you know." 
 
 Judith's escape had been adroit, but no less 
 delicate and fine. For a moment Wistar's old 
 tenderness revived. With it came a pang in his 
 lungs, or somewhere near them. " Was Penrhyn 
 there? " he asked. 
 
 177
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " He proposed a blow-out uptown here and 
 spoke of asking you, but Judith wouldn't have it, 
 and he made his skidoo, along with me." 
 
 Wistar laughed inwardly. His thrust had been 
 a close one, all unpremeditated as it was; but her 
 parry had been as sportsmanlike as effective. He 
 had never before chaffed her, and he felt a little 
 thrill worth many afternoons of ennui. 
 
 Early in the dinner the waiter brought wine in 
 its bucket of ice. They touched their glasses, and 
 Wistar said a few words that made Billy flush 
 with pleasure, and unsealed the confidences of his 
 bosom. The contrast with his own lonesome state 
 made Wistar's eyes swim with an emotion which 
 he had difficulty in dissembling. No man was 
 farther than he from the weakness of self-pity; 
 but few were more sensitive to the poignant beauty 
 of simple happiness. 
 
 With the second bottle, however, Billy broke 
 the spell. " I must say," he remarked, looking 
 about at the room, " that you bachelors in New 
 York do yourselves particularly well." 
 
 It was, in fact, an apartment of notable beauty, 
 in the manner of a baronial dining hall. The 
 floor, walls and two great fireplaces were of soft, 
 gray Yorkshire stone, and on the high oak wain- 
 scot hung portraits of the dignitaries of the uni- 
 versity, past and present. The lofty ceiling was 
 upheld by oak beams, and from it hung two silver 
 
 178
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 chandeliers of exquisite design the one touch of 
 lightness and grace in all the vast and sober 
 apartment. 
 
 " I don't think this sort of thing ought to be 
 allowed," Billy concluded. " It's a discourager 
 of domesticity." 
 
 Wistar felt the touch of condescending pity. 
 " You are right," he assented. " It is the reason 
 why I have never married. 4 Two souls with but a 
 single thought ' is alliterative; but it's not my idea 
 of the intellectual life. ' Two hearts that beat as 
 one ' suggests an admirable cardiac economy, but 
 a certain meagerness in the life of the emotions. 
 Now you and May, I suppose, are going to live 
 in a flat?" 
 
 " She has already picked it out," Billy con- 
 fessed dubiously. 
 
 " Precisely ! No clubs for you ! Dinner at 
 seven-thirty three hundred and sixty-five days in 
 the year, and even in leap year you have to fol- 
 low the ball, keep your eyes in the boat. Then 
 there are the consequences. Unless I miss my 
 guess, you are destined to be a disciple and pride 
 to the President. When the second child is born, 
 they say, the nose of the first is broken; but the 
 nose of the husband is broken with the first. And 
 do you think that even then you'll be allowed to 
 go to the club? Not on your life! You for the 
 single thought and single heart! As a willing 
 
 179
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 martyr, I admire you. But I commiserate you as 
 a man." 
 
 Billy was silent, and drank two glasses of wine 
 in rapid succession. 
 
 " Some men have the idea that it's a fix they 
 got themselves into, and if they are sportsmen 
 they play the game. But unless I'm mistaken, you 
 never asked anyone to marry you? Still you'll 
 have to play the game. Let us be honest! Isn't 
 it a case for cold feet? " 
 
 Billy became very dignified, but none the less 
 thoughtful. " When I wake up at night, and in 
 the early morning," he admitted, " it sometimes 
 seems like a great responsibility. But after my 
 bath it's all right. No! I don't regret it! " 
 
 Wistar burst into a peal of laughter. 
 " Bravo! " he cried. " The man doesn't live who 
 is a hero before his bath. Billy, you're all 
 right!" 
 
 When Billy realized that he had been horsed, 
 it put him, as he would have expressed it, very 
 much on the peeve. 
 
 " Don't mind me," Wistar made haste to apol- 
 ogize. " The girl I wanted wouldn't have me. 
 Even clubs, and all this sort of thing hasn't 
 quite consoled me. And now that I've told you 
 the story of my life, you deserve another bottle." 
 
 Billy made protest. 
 
 " It won't hurt you," Wistar pleaded. " It's 
 1 80
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of the magic vintage of eighty-nine all joy and 
 no kick." 
 
 Over coffee and cigars Billy gave the effect of 
 rising up in his chair, for the cup of joy soon fills 
 to the brim. The cup of sorrow has no bottom, 
 and Wistar sat back at his ease. 
 
 " Now for a ride ! " he said, when the tray 
 was filled with ashes. 
 
 His car was at the door, and taking the wheel 
 he dismissed the chauffeur. As they swung into 
 Fifth Avenue, only a few stray cabs were at the 
 stands by Delmonico's and Sherry's. The thor- 
 oughfare itself was deserted, except for here and 
 there the caretaker of a mansion closed for the 
 summer, taking the evening in shirt sleeves in the 
 front area. 
 
 Almost before Billy realized it they were in 
 the country, with the smooth white State road 
 stretching in front, and a world of green flashing 
 by them in the brilliant field of the acetylenes. 
 The exhilaration of speed swelled with that of 
 iced wine. When they took the homeward turn, 
 Wistar advanced the throttle. 
 
 "Aren't we going pretty fast?" Billy asked. 
 He had always looked upon his cousin as a bit of 
 a slow coach. Wistar was in fact a model mo- 
 torist; he never exceeded the speed limit except 
 when there was no possible danger to others, or 
 chance of being arrested. 
 
 181
 
 Wistar's answer was to slide the throttle knob 
 still farther in its ratchet. " Now," he said, 
 spitting his words into the hurricane they 
 were cleaving, " now we'll only touch the high 
 places ! " 
 
 Billy grasped the sides of his seat. Was it pos- 
 sible that the self-contained Wistar was losing his 
 head? He thanked his stars that the car held 
 true and firm to the middle of the way and that 
 they were alone in the midnight road. 
 
 ic With just a little more gas," Wistar re- 
 marked very gravely, by and by, " we shan't even 
 touch the high places! From the top of that hill 
 ahead I can do a Santos Dumont and land you, 
 neat and clean, in front of the club. What do 
 you say? " 
 
 Billy's terror mounted, and he felt as if the ca,r 
 were already soaring into the heavens. u For 
 heaven sake ! " he cried, and grasped his cousin's 
 forearm, " I'll get out and walk home. I need 
 the exercise." 
 
 As they bowled up to the top of the hill, 
 Wistar slowed down, and they saw the lights 
 of the city reflected on the sky in front. When 
 Billy realized that they were still on terra 
 firma, he breathed a great sigh and relaxed in 
 his seat. 
 
 It was toward one o'clock when they drew up 
 again at the club, and Wistar's man was waiting 
 
 182
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 to take the car. Inside a light supper was await- 
 ing them, and another bottle in its melting ice. 
 Billy drank gingerly, but Wistar stood by to the 
 finish still lax and grave. 
 
 At one o'clock the lights in the club went out, 
 except those where they were sitting, and the 
 steward respectfully informed Wistar that if he 
 stayed on he would be fined. 
 
 " Fine away," said Wistar. But he emptied 
 the bottle and rose from the table. 
 
 He stopped, however, at the bar and asked the 
 barkeeper for calisaya. " My friend here," he 
 said, " may need it in the morning." He pocketed 
 the package, and linking arms with Billy crossed 
 the street to his apartments. 
 
 Again, in obedience to long habit, he switched 
 on the light in the golden globe above his little 
 altar. But he immediately turned on the other 
 lights. 
 
 Billy blinked. " I like dim religious business," 
 he protested, and turned them off. 
 
 Wistar glowered at the corner, but acquiesced, 
 and with meticulous hospitality, made ready a bed 
 for Billy, even producing slippers and gown for 
 the morning. Then he showed him his little ice 
 chest, and the calisaya and siphons inside. " If 
 you feel thirsty," he said, " call me and we'll have 
 another drink." 
 
 " I've been in several tank dramas," Billy re- 
 183
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 marked in admiration, as he walked out of his 
 trousers, " but this is the most 'stonishing ! You're 
 sober as a magistrate a Monday morning." 
 
 Wistar had indeed been a model of self-control, 
 if not of sobriety; but with this his voice broke 
 loose and rose to a calliope yell. " Me sober! 
 I'm tight as a tire ! " He glared luminously about 
 the room, his glance floating at last to the golden 
 globe. With sudden energy he strode to the cor- 
 ner, and lifted the marble Madonna upon his 
 shoulder. Balancing it there, he swung about 
 with the motion of a shot putter, and with gigantic 
 energy hurled it aloft. It struck the globe squarely, 
 shattered it and exploded the cluster of electric 
 bulbs within. Falling on its former pedestal, it scat- 
 tered in fragments upon the floor, amid a shower 
 of splintered glass and the rattling of windows. 
 
 Billy sat bolt upright in his bed, and peered in 
 amazement out into the blank midnight of the 
 study. 
 
 "Don't be 'larmed!" Wistar reassured him. 
 " Damn things never were any good anyway. 
 Ought to have done that ten years ago! " 
 
 The shock revived Billy's memory. " We 
 haven't said a word 'bout business ! " he protested. 
 " Business dinner. Muss talk business ! " 
 
 " Business! " Wistar cried. " Business you say? 
 I've done the best turn of my life! Yesterday I 
 was trust-buster. Now I'm trusted. That's not 
 
 184
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 just way to language it, but you know what I 
 mean! And I I know what I mean, bet your 
 life. You watch me to-morrow! " 
 
 He went to bed, crooning gladly, " Trust-buster 
 trusted! Trust-buster trusted !" 
 
 13 185
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ISTAR'S position as executive head 
 of the combination made a radical 
 change in his daily life. It was no 
 longer possible to give any consider- 
 able portion of his time to his old business, and his 
 first duty was to appoint a manager in his place. 
 He selected the head of a department, doubled 
 his salary and promised him a block of stock in 
 the combination. The experiment seemed to him 
 hazardous; but it speedily justified itself. Things 
 went on quite as well as before. There is a say- 
 ing that good men are scarce, and it had been a 
 favorite of Wistar's; but he now woke up to the 
 inconsistency of proverbial wisdom, recalling the 
 equally approved adage that no man is indispen- 
 sable. 
 
 The awakening struck harshly across all his old 
 habits of mind; but it had this advantage, that it 
 chimed in with his new mood with regard to Ju- 
 dith. What he had been all these years meant 
 as little to the work as to her. He accepted both 
 conclusions with the sardonic self-satire that was 
 fast becoming habitual. 
 
 186
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He made a special point of visiting personally 
 the many small manufacturers who had not be- 
 longed either to Penrhyn's faction or his own, for 
 it was upon these, he believed, that the chief hard- 
 ship of the new order would fall. He promised 
 himself that he would make a place for every 
 good man he found; and there was more than al- 
 truism in this, for he was well aware that the 
 future of any great combination must be founded 
 upon men of ideas and of individuality of char- 
 acter. 
 
 One of the weaker sisters, as he soon came to 
 call them, was a man of Dutch ancestry, who had 
 fixed upon his model three years before, on embark- 
 ing in the business, and in all the extraordinary 
 development of the motor car had never seen fit 
 to change it. He made a boast of the fact, and 
 seemed actually to regard it as an achievement. 
 What is more, he did a fair business with men of 
 his own stripe. 
 
 Another was an inventive genius who had var- 
 ied the standard type of almost every part, and 
 was the proud possessor of as many patents as 
 there are varieties of pickles and all this before 
 he had put a single model on the market. When 
 Wistar went out with him in his demonstration 
 car, the newly patented ignition gave out on the 
 gangway leading out of the garage; and in the 
 middle of Central Park his carburetor sulked, like 
 
 187
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Achilles in his tent, and refused to be persuaded. 
 Wistar put a few questions as to his financial re- 
 sources, and found that he was in high hopes of 
 finding enough capital in the near future to pay 
 his last year's bills. Then he bade him a good- 
 natured adieu, and took the Fifth Avenue stage 
 with a warm admiration for its simple reliability. 
 
 Still another man was turning out numbers of 
 runabouts which were built, as he frankly ex- 
 plained, on the principle of the one-dollar watch 
 the best thing to be had for the money. Wis- 
 tar pointed out that with such cheap and ill-fin- 
 ished materials there was bound to be an infinite 
 need of repairs. The man smiled cannily and said 
 with pride that the profits of his repair shops more 
 than equaled those of the original sales. 
 
 As the result of a month of hard labor, which 
 included thousands of miles of travel, from old- 
 world Bridgeport to newly arisen San Francisco, 
 Wistar was convinced that nothing is commoner 
 in life than individuality and ideas; but he had 
 not found one man or one idea worth securing for 
 the combination. 
 
 With heightened curiosity he turned his atten- 
 tion to the concerns that had gathered under Pen- 
 rhyn. Many of them, he knew, were strong and 
 able; but about many more he had his suspicions, 
 for his ideas of trust promotions were founded 
 upon the practice of half a dozen years before, 
 
 188
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 when Colonial blacksmith shops and the latest 
 developments of Pittsburg brains were rolled into 
 a conglomerate mass and sold in shares of com- 
 mon and preferred. To his amazement he found 
 scarcely an instance in which, to use the vernacu- 
 lar, Penrhyn had been stung. When he brought 
 his own former allies under scrutiny, he was 
 obliged to admit that, though assembled by a com- 
 mittee of cooperative experts, they contained a 
 considerably larger proportion of dead wood. 
 
 Then Wistar did some hard thinking. The 
 sense of commercial values, he concluded, is a 
 thing quite apart from the technical knowledge of 
 commodities. Penrhyn scarcely knew a clutch 
 from a carburetor, but he knew a good man and 
 a sound plant by telepathy or at best by the 
 same sense that is making the sons of Abraham 
 financiers of everything, though producers of noth- 
 ing. The fact that Penrhyn had let Minot slip 
 through his aptly meshed net Wistar now felt in- 
 clined to put down to the fact that he was only 
 a Yankee. At the end of six months the late 
 trust-buster had gained no little respect for high 
 finance. 
 
 Wistar's next problem, to which in fact he had 
 given a part of his time from the outset, was to 
 build up the various concerns into an organic unit. 
 His plan was to confine each to the production of 
 a distinct type of car, the whole to include every 
 
 189
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 variety for which there was a market. Where 
 several factories had produced each a small num- 
 ber of cars of similar model, one now produced 
 a large number of the same model. A number of 
 factories he shut down at once, transferring the 
 men and managers, as far as possible, to other 
 shops. With regard to Irvingdale Smith, his 
 temptation was to wipe out the nefarious concern. 
 But to his surprise he found that it was well or- 
 ganized and profitable. He ended by making 
 essentially, what it had been superficially, a dupli- 
 cate of his own. The plant operated in a widely 
 different section, and by doing this he gained local 
 good will and a considerable sum in freights. 
 
 Here as elsewhere, as far as practicable, he 
 made each part, from cylinder to screw, of stand- 
 ard size, pattern and finish. The result was a 
 vast convenience to the motoring public in repairs 
 and at the same time a vast advantage in the 
 manufacture. A single shop, giving regular and 
 full employment to expert specialists, was able to 
 do the work that had hitherto been done at irreg- 
 ular intervals by general workmen; and the gain 
 was as great in quality of output as it was in 
 cheapness. 
 
 In facility and economy of sales the result of 
 combination was a notable saving. With fewer 
 models to sell there was need of fewer agencies and 
 agents, fewer advertisements in newspapers and 
 
 190
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 periodicals. The only competition was with sin- 
 gle and unimportant makers, and could be more 
 cheaply and successfully met by maintaining a rep- 
 utation for excellence than by the aid of the elo- 
 quence of the writer of advertisements or the volu- 
 bility of the agent. Before the year had passed 
 Wistar was convinced that with all these savings 
 it would be possible to scale down prices a good 
 thirty per cent and still gain enormous profits; 
 and he made a special point of gathering minute 
 data with a view to recommending this. 
 
 The final advantage of combination, the power 
 to regulate prices, he was slower to realize, for 
 it was closely allied to the abuses he had so long 
 abhorred the extortion of undue profits; yet as 
 time went on he saw it clearly and more clearly. 
 With competition reduced to the minimum, and 
 dealing in large quantities, it was possible to avoid 
 irrational fluctuations both in buying raw mate- 
 rials and selling the finished product. In times 
 of prosperity, he foresaw, it would be less easy 
 for the makers of iron and steel to exact from him 
 unfair terms; and when a business depression cut 
 off the demand for motor cars there was less like- 
 lihood that the market would be ruined by a des- 
 perate cutting of prices. He had accepted the old 
 order of competition as one of the incidents of 
 life as earthquakes, fire and flood are incidents 
 of the general life of man. But he gradually, 
 
 191
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 and in part unconsciously, slipped into Judith's 
 opinion that, economic sincerity being granted, it 
 was as needless as it was wasteful of the blessings 
 of civilization. 
 
 In fact many of the prophecies of the promot- 
 ers, which he had laughed at only a few months 
 ago, now seemed to him possibilities, even proba- 
 bilities. Already he had reduced the cost of man- 
 ufacture of the various parts so low that it was 
 possible to put a skillfully designed and finished 
 one-cylinder car on the market at a price within 
 the means of commuters of average means. In 
 thinking of the model he sometimes called it his 
 Straphangers' Scorcher, and sometimes, in mem- 
 ory of his friend the independent, his One-dollar 
 Wonder. But whatever he called it he saw that 
 it would bring ease and health to thousands. In 
 the end, it might even counteract the present un- 
 wholesome tendency toward the congestion of life 
 in the cities, making the metropolis the arena of 
 mere business, and putting it within the power of 
 the million to live in the country, motoring in 
 and out daily. Thus the classes most bitterly op- 
 posed to trusts might in the end be the chief 
 gainers not in dollars, perhaps, but in whole- 
 some living, which is the end of all wealth. 
 
 He was no less active in behalf of cars of more 
 expensive design. The news of the American 
 combination had hardly been made public when 
 
 192
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 it became known that the leading European manu- 
 facturers were effecting a not dissimilar organiza- 
 tion, and it soon became evident that they were 
 planning to take a stronger hold upon the Ameri- 
 can market. For, backward as we had been in 
 the manufacture of motor cars, our abundant 
 wealth and delight in novelty had made us the 
 chief of the world's consumers of this as of other 
 commodities. As yet they had a vast advantage. 
 The industry had had its origin abroad, and had 
 reached its highest development there. The ablest 
 inventors were on the Continent, and better work- 
 manship was to be had for smaller wages. More- 
 over, the public had long been accustomed to ac- 
 cept the Continental car as best; and though tli? 
 tariff gave an advantage to the home product, the 
 buyers of first-class cars were not inclined to 
 consider a few thousand dollars in the original 
 cost as against possessing the best the market af- 
 forded. The next few years would see a struggle 
 to the death for dominance. Wistar proceeded 
 slowly, but gained point by point. In a very few 
 years, he calculated, it would be possible to equal 
 the best Continental cars in all respects, and to 
 transfer the fight to their home markets. 
 
 And the destiny of the American motor lay in 
 his hands. The idea of power had never appealed 
 to him very strongly; but the possession of it, and 
 most of all his new visions of its' possibilities for 
 
 193
 
 THE C A V E MAN 
 
 good, took firm hold upon his imagination. It 
 seemed to be his fate to be mocked by the very 
 phrases he had scoffed at that day in his garage. 
 He, James Wistar, might yet be a " factor in 
 world politics." He had never regretted the de- 
 struction of his altar to the Judith of his memory, 
 even in the dawn of the morning after, with its 
 combination of sweltering heat and thirst. There 
 were times when he would have been glad of a 
 chance to let the future Mrs. Stanley Penrhyn know 
 that he was a different man from the late James 
 Wistar, and that it was she who had made him so. 
 
 Even while he felt himself rising to his new 
 responsibility, however, he questioned whether it 
 vras right for any private citizen to have as great 
 a fortune as was coming to him, or to play so 
 large a part in the lives of his fellow-countrymen. 
 It was all against his American instinct of equal- 
 ity. And these misgivings were greater because 
 his old distrust of his associates would not down. 
 
 On the very day after he had thrown in his lot 
 with the combination, Irvingdale Smith had called 
 again, and had sounded him as to precisely the mat- 
 ter contained in the stolen list. He appeared, as 
 always, the cheerful pirate he was; but his manner 
 was not that of a man who had gained inside in- 
 formation, and least of all of a man who was 
 dissimulating the fact that he had done so. Inci- 
 dentally he had sent in his card. It was a busi- 
 
 194
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ness card, not a social card, and it differed in size, 
 shape and lettering from the one Wistar had 
 taken from Andrews. The whole case against 
 Irvingdale Smith, to his mind, fell to the ground. 
 
 Wistar's good opinion of Penrhyn, meanwhile, 
 was the result not so much of instinct and judg- 
 ment as of what philosophers call the will to be- 
 lieve. Occupied with the business end of the new 
 corporation he had had little time for the politics 
 that centered in the election of directors, and with 
 Billy and Mr. Sears to back him up he had no fear 
 that; the authority which had been promised him 
 would be called in question. When it was too late 
 to make protest he found that the place on the 
 committee which he would have given to Minot 
 had been given to Irvingdale Smith. Though a 
 stronger man than Wistar had supposed, Smith 
 scarcely deserved so important a post; and in view 
 of their past relations, to give it to him was at 
 best discourteous, especially as the decision had 
 lain easily within Penrhyn's power. As matters 
 stood, Penrhyn and Smith had only to win over 
 Mr. Sears in order to outvote him on any point in- 
 volving his policy as practical manager; and the 
 more powerful he made the combination the 
 greater would be their temptation to bend its 
 power to evil ends. 
 
 Before long his signal vigor and success as 
 manager of the industry, contrasting as it did with 
 
 195
 
 THE CAVE 3M A N 
 
 his former well-known hostility to big trade com- 
 binations, had made him in a manner a public 
 character. One of the daily papers, the attitude 
 of which was that of a satirical^ if good-humored, 
 man of the prosperous world, printed a leading 
 article about him, calling him, by name, the star 
 pupil of the experience school, and displaying his 
 views before and after. This was in the midsum- 
 mer silly season, with a Presidential campaign in 
 the near future in which the trusts were to be a 
 leading issue; and the paper pursued the subject 
 from day to day, humorously exaggerating its im- 
 portance, and luring subscribers to write letters 
 expressing their minds about Wistar, in terms sa- 
 tirically gay. 
 
 The incident did not lessen his sense of the 
 gravity of his predicament; but it nourished his 
 sense of humor with regard to himself, and he 
 came to see that life is a comedy or a tragedy ac- 
 cording as one maintains or loses his good sense 
 and the courage to laugh at fate. 
 
 In the autumn, early in the second year of his 
 control, came an incident which put a new edge 
 upon his doubts. Happening in at the Harvard 
 Club one evening for dinner, he ran upon Pedey 
 Ryan, the old quarterback, Rough Rider and soldier 
 of fortune, whom he had encountered in the Sta- 
 dium, Class Day, and whom he had not thought 
 of since. The little man's face was tanned to 
 
 196
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 leather, his cheeks were sunken, and the gaunt 
 bones beneath were a living picture of an Irish 
 potato famine. He was drinking pony after pony 
 of brandy. The two fell upon each other's necks 
 like long-lost brothers as they would have done 
 if they had met at the age of seventy, on the brink 
 of the grave, though they had not thought of each 
 other since the old gridiron days. 
 
 Ryan, Wistar gathered in the course of friendly 
 questioning, had been in South America. Ever 
 since his Rough Rider days he had had a han- 
 kering for Dago countries. Hence his fever- 
 ridden state; and hence also, Wistar surmised, his 
 thirst. He had been all over the shop up the 
 Amazon to the place where the natives shoot 
 poisoned arrows at you with blow guns, and the 
 vampire is not a metaphor but a bat. He had 
 had dealings with various Dago republics, too. 
 He had led one revolution to a successful issue 
 and crushed another casualties: one Indian 
 killed, three negroes wounded, one Spaniard 
 scared to death, and a bullet through his own 
 Irish neck. What was it all about? Ryan hesi- 
 tated, and then said, " Rubber." Wistar took 
 this as a vernacular rebuke to his friendly curi- 
 osity, and dropped the subject in favor of dinner. 
 
 It was some days before an alternative expla- 
 nation offered itself. Of all the parts of a motor 
 car, the tires are the only one in which it is even 
 
 197
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 faintly possible to secure a monopoly of the raw 
 material, and the tires are as vital a part of the 
 whole as the engine itself. The lands where rub- 
 ber is grown are comparatively few, and are not 
 beyond the resources of modern finance. To bring 
 a new grove to the bearing requires eighteen years. 
 The motor-car industry of the whole world might 
 be at the power of the syndicate that monopolized 
 the existing rubber forests. All that was needful 
 was to negotiate the purchase of lands often 
 merely to gain concessions by squaring republics. 
 Then there flashed upon him the memory of an 
 incident so trivial that, though his eye had regis- 
 tered it with its usual clearness and vividness, it 
 had never before impinged upon his mind. In 
 the Stadium, Class Day, Ryan had nodded to Pen- 
 rhyn and offered a glad hand which had been 
 received furtively and with a trace of hesitation. 
 It was a nebulous hypothesis, but it accounted for 
 all that had hitherto been dark. 
 
 198
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 INOT'S new prosperity had taken the 
 form of a little house off Madison 
 Avenue, which he had converted into 
 a graceful and comfortable English 
 basement. Wistar, who had advised him in this, 
 had early formed the habit of going there for 
 Sunday breakfast. This was ostensibly to talk 
 business the organization and management of 
 the company formed to exploit the new gear; but 
 in reality it was quite as much for the little un- 
 wonted glimpses it gave him of homely comfort 
 and happiness. To the unwilling bachelor there 
 is no time as trying as the day of rest, with its 
 enforced slump from the rush and excitement of 
 the week. Anything was welcome which would 
 make him forget the emptiness and dreariness 
 of his life. And he soon formed a sincere re- 
 gard for the Minots, while their daughter, a 
 child of nine, shamelessly adored him. Be- 
 sides, he sometimes caught a glimpse of Judith 
 there. 
 
 199
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Judith's interest in the family was in fact keen 
 and kindly. Mrs. Minot was a pale, shrinking 
 little woman, the record of whose twenty years of 
 privation was evident in hair prematurely white 
 and an ominous cough. But these, as Judith soon 
 found, were only the outward signs of a deeper and 
 more vital deterioration. In the past she had 
 thought of her friend as a gentlewoman forced 
 by fate into alien surroundings. Now, to her sur- 
 prise, she found her ill at ease in returning to the 
 life to which she had been born. Persistent mis- 
 fortune had left her the victim of superstitious 
 whims. Though she hated the sewing which had 
 once been her bulwark against starvation, Judith 
 found that she worked at it diligently, keeping her 
 finger tips still rough and callous as one knocks 
 wood and cries unberufen to propitiate the imps 
 of malevolent fortune. This amused Judith, 
 even while it touched her; but a subsequent dis- 
 covery shocked and distressed her. To cure the 
 incipient consumption nothing more was needed 
 than a year in the Adirondacks, but to this Mrs. 
 Minot refused to consent not so much, Judith 
 found, from unwillingness to leave her husband 
 and child, as out of an instinctive fear that if she 
 presumed upon their marvelous new prosperity it 
 would take wings. Once she let Judith persuade 
 her to come to dinner, but when she found that 
 there were to be other guests she did not come. 
 
 200
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Her greatest happiness was in helping her old 
 neighbors of the slums, and even this, Judith sus- 
 pected, was more than half a rite of propitiation. 
 
 Despairing of the mother, Judith turned her at- 
 tention to the daughter, Gertrude, a wiry, intense 
 child who had rubbed off something of the man- 
 ner and accent of her former playmates of an East 
 Side public school. To provide her with new com- 
 panions and prepare her for the ampler life that 
 was now possible, Judith proposed to place her in 
 a fashionable school, and to this end it was neces- 
 sary to correct her minor faults of manner, for 
 fear of ridicule from her new schoolmates. But 
 Mrs. Minot would not hear of a governess. Even 
 for her child she feared to claim the luxuries which 
 life denied to so many. 
 
 The experience gave Judith her first real sense 
 of the blight of poverty. She had often felt that 
 the food she ate, the very stuff of the gowns she 
 wore and the paper of the books she read, were 
 won out of the toil of human bodies. But she 
 now realized how much more deeply than this the 
 many pay for the well-being of the few. Time 
 and again she thought with a little shiver what 
 might have come to herself if fate had done her 
 the turn it once so dangerously threatened. Even 
 when women succeeded in business, she realized, 
 they were liable to lose much of their birthright 
 of grace and delicacy. And if she had failed, 
 14 20 1
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 would she not have been cramped in mind and 
 spirit, as in her outward life? 
 
 Such misgivings took an acutely personal turn 
 whenever she came upon Wistar in the little house. 
 His manner was casual almost to the point of in- 
 difference, but she was none the less conscious that 
 it was tinctured with irony. She could not, of 
 course, be aware that the irony was directed 
 mainly against himself, and it provoked her old 
 resentment of him. This was no superficial mood. 
 Her father's prosperity had made her mistress 
 again of her own little fortune, but she refused 
 to indulge herself in the many small luxuries dear 
 to the feminine heart, for they would somehow 
 have seemed to her to have come from Wistar. 
 And the realization that in this she was acting 
 somewhat in the manner of Mrs. Minot did not 
 shake her resolve. 
 
 Wistar's misgivings as to the ultimate wisdom 
 of what he had done had, in fact, been powerfully 
 reenforced by the encounter with Ryan, and now 
 they received a further impulse. Minot's gear 
 had already turned out all that either of them had 
 hoped. The ease and accuracy of its control made 
 it everywhere a convenience, and in the crowded 
 traffic of the city streets almost indispensable. 
 Wistar was eager to secure it for the cars of 
 the combination. Penrhyn, however, remained 
 strangely unconvinced of its value, and as Wistar 
 
 202
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 had predicted, Minot's ideas as to price had grown 
 with success. There seemed likely to be a dead- 
 lock between them, ending in bitter rivalry. To 
 facilitate an agreement, and somewhat also in order 
 to sound the depths of Penrhyn's purposes, Wistar 
 offered to sacrifice all his profits in the Minot com- 
 pany. 
 
 To this Penrhyn at first appeared to consent; 
 but when, as Wistar had foreseen, Minot de- 
 manded a position on the executive committee, 
 and the assurance of being able to carry out his 
 ideas without let or hindrance, Penrhyn would 
 not hear of it; an executive office, he argued, even 
 a directorship, was elective, and could not be 
 promised to any man. When Wistar objected 
 that they themselves controlled sufficient stock to 
 insure Minot his place, Penrhyn rejoined that to 
 admit him they would have to depose a valuable 
 man Irvingdale Smith. Wistar counted on Mr. 
 Sears's good sense to prevail; but when the motion 
 was put formally it was lost. 
 
 Wistar was angry through and through, and no 
 less suspicious than angry. But he controlled him- 
 self to the extent of advising Minot to waive the 
 point. All one Sunday morning he labored in 
 persuasion. The inventor remained obstinate. 
 First and last his answer was the same. Penrhyn 
 and Sears had promised to give Wistar practical 
 control of such matters, and on this, the first im- 
 
 203
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 portant issue, they had overruled him. For Mi- 
 not to trust to their good faith was to put his head 
 in the lion's mouth. In spite of Wistar's growing 
 enthusiasm for the combination, he could not deny 
 the justice of the objection. He ended the con- 
 ference with deep foreboding. 
 
 At the front door he found Gertrude waylaying 
 him. Denied her customary clamber on his knee, 
 she begged him to stay to dinner. " You haven't 
 heard my lesson," she pleaded. " If you'll only 
 stay, I promise to say it poifickly ! " 
 
 " How will you say it? " 
 
 " O Gehrtle, come out on the cuhrb and see the 
 bihrd fly over the chuhrch \ There ! " 
 
 Fie sat down on the bottom stair, hat in hand, 
 and with the able-bodied Gertrude on his knee. 
 " But you say it perfectly" he protested, " not 
 poifickly" 
 
 Gertrude hid her girlish blushes in his lean, 
 tanned cheek and hugged him with all her might. 
 
 His ear was caught by the whisper of silken 
 skirts behind him. 
 
 " I hope I'm not intruding," Judith laughed. 
 She had stopped in to see Mrs. Minot on her way 
 home from church and had counted on getting 
 away without meeting Wistar; but finding that he 
 also had divined the needs of Gertrude and was 
 sharing her labors she was tempted to pause. 
 " You say it pehr-rfectly," she said, mocking the, 
 
 204
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Western r which his long residence in the East 
 had not quite silenced. " Some people say it peh- 
 fectly O Gehtie, come out on the cuhb and see 
 the bihd fly oveh the chuhchl " 
 
 The child eyed the woman with something very 
 like jealousy she had an odd little face, the face 
 of one destined to adore, with high cheek bones, 
 a large, well-formed, sensitive mouth and big 
 brown eyes. "/ say it per-r-r-fectly 1 " she cried. 
 
 Wistar laughed, and, putting her down, went 
 to the door to open it for Judith. 
 
 " Now he'll go and go with you," Gerty pro- 
 tested. " And I was trying so hard to make him 
 stay to dinner ! " 
 
 The remark raised a question which Wistar 
 would have avoided. Gerty had protested too 
 much. " If I may go with you," he felt obliged 
 to say. 
 
 Judith paused, no less constrained. " If you 
 wish," she answered. 
 
 " I think you're horrid, Aunty Judith," the 
 child pouted. " You make everybody love you, 
 and you won't love anybody ! " This was her ver- 
 sion of a scrap of conversation picked up from in- 
 cautious elders. "If you don't intend to love him, 
 you've no business to make him love you ! " 
 
 Judith blushed, and Wistar laughed. " She 
 can't make me love her! " he exclaimed; and tak- 
 ing Gerty in his arms kissed her good-by. 
 
 205
 
 THE CAVE M A N 
 
 " / love you ! Whether you love me or not, 
 I love you ! " 
 
 " And I should adore you, even if you hated 
 me," he answered, as he passed into the street. 
 " What do you think of that? " 
 
 " I couldn't do that ever! " Gerty cried after 
 him. "Only naughty people hatel" And she 
 stood watching Judith with stern disapproval as 
 they walked away. 
 
 206
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 T was the first time Wistar had been 
 alone with Judith since he had thrown 
 in his lot with Sears and Penrhyn, and 
 each was aware that this chance re- 
 mark of the child's had recalled to the other the 
 word with which they had parted. 
 
 She was grave, but a satirical smile lurked in 
 Wistar's cheeks. " I see you realize," he said, 
 " that you are one of the naughty people." 
 
 " Naughty is as naughty does. Have I really 
 been naughty to you?" 
 
 He evaded the answer. " You wouldn't let 
 May have me to dinner." 
 " Did you want to come? " 
 " No. But I wanted you to ask me." 
 " In a woman you would call that feminine in- 
 consistency." 
 
 " Perhaps it would be in a woman. In me it 
 was an altruistic desire to find you not a naughty 
 person." 
 
 " I'm not a naughty person! " she said, more 
 vehemently perhaps than she realized. 
 " But you're very easily teased! " 
 207
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He looked at her with calm impersonality, 
 resolved to know her as she was, divested of all 
 the glamour which his love had cast about her. 
 
 The delicate beauty of her girlhood was fresh 
 as ever, though she must now, he reckoned, be in 
 her thirtieth year. If he had not known he 
 would not have believed that she had much more 
 than turned twenty. Her form was perfect in 
 all the free, soft outlines of womanhood, her tread 
 elastic and sure. Her cheeks were clear and vivid, 
 and the sun smote the brown of her hair into gold. 
 She was gay, friendly, light-hearted. But was 
 she anything more than that? 
 
 " There is this one subject," she said, after a 
 pause, " upon which you will always find me sen- 
 sitive. What you have done as it has turned out 
 do you regret it? Tell me! " 
 
 "Under what compulsion?" he said quizzi- 
 cally. " I did it for myself you forbade me to 
 do it for you 1 " 
 
 " That is quibble. Among many reasons for 
 telling me I will mention one. I am very much 
 in need of a new gown." She held out her arms, 
 as if inviting inspection. 
 
 Her manner was light and irresponsible, but he 
 understood very well what she meant to say 
 that she was as determined as ever not to accept 
 good fortune the source of which was open to 
 question. He had no desire to tell her the sin- 
 
 208
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ister turn affairs had taken; and besides, it suited 
 him to take her whimsical mood quite seriously. 
 The gown, he observed with careful inspection, 
 was of black cloth, and though the nap was thin 
 in places its cut gave distinction to her figure, and 
 its few facings and embroideries of white seemed 
 modish in the extreme. " It appears to me a won- 
 derful fine gown," he said. " I noticed that even 
 before you called my attention to it." 
 
 "But the sleeves!" she cried. "You aban- 
 doned, irreclaimable man, the sleeves ! " 
 
 " Ah, yes, the sleeves ! Sometimes I've noticed 
 they are more like that, and sometimes less." 
 
 " Be serious, and tell me what I want to know ! 
 I shall catch you if you quibble, and despise you ! " 
 
 " Is it very desirable to have the sleeves more 
 so or ought they to be less so? " 
 
 " That has nothing to do with it! " 
 
 " You knew the supreme importance of sleeves 
 that night when you refused, as you said, to ' bar- 
 ter your soul ' for them? " 
 
 " If you really want me to hate you, go on! " 
 His persistent mockery was trying her patience, as 
 indeed it had every right to do. 
 
 " In many ways," he said, choosing his words 
 with care, " things have turned out far better than 
 I ever imagined quite as well as you believed 
 they would. I have to thank you for a great 
 deal." 
 
 209
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 She nodded a little I-told-you-so ! But what she 
 said was: " Is that the whole truth? " 
 
 " Have I taken my Bible oath? " 
 
 " If you respect me, you will tell me." She 
 said this very earnestly. 
 
 " Just now it seems that there may be trouble in 
 store." 
 
 " I should like to know about it. Not for that 
 reason," she added, as if to forestall banter. 
 " For other reasons." 
 
 He briefly outlined the situation, minimizing its 
 gravity, and of course saying nothing about the 
 suspicions that centered in Ryan. 
 
 " But they promised in such matters to follow 
 you," she said with clear comprehension. 
 
 He nodded negligently. 
 
 " That ends my new gown ! " 
 
 " OA, I am sorry 1 " he cried. " Please take 
 my poor little joke as a joke. That is only 
 kind!" 
 
 " But if it came to a matter involving your 
 principles, then there would be serious trouble?" 
 
 He did not answer, and they walked on in si- 
 lence. 
 
 Winter had worn on into spring, and the out- 
 door life of the town was beginning. In Madison 
 Square there were the usual number of curbstone 
 preachers holding forth to knots of park loafers, 
 curious passers-by, and workmen in their Sunday 
 
 210
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 best. As they passed near one of these they heard 
 the word " Trusts," and, glancing aside at the 
 speaker, recognized Andrews, his red whiskers 
 and imperial, and pale, pasty face thrown into 
 relief by a far from customary suit of solemn 
 black. With a touch on Wistar's arm, Judith 
 signaled him to stop. 
 
 The man seemed quite sober, and was speaking 
 with apparent conviction in language unwontedly 
 grammatical. But it was none the less evident 
 that he was enjoying his eloquence to the full, 
 strangely compounded of illiteracy and magnilo- 
 quence. 
 
 As his shallow, excited eyes swept over the 
 faces of his hearers he recognized Wistar, and his 
 face lighted. " I see among ye," he cried, " a 
 man I used to know the most hon'able, the squar- 
 est. He used to be an independent merchant 
 an independent gentleman. But a trust was pro- 
 moted. The octopus reached out its slimy clutches 
 to gather him in." 
 
 Wistar turned in disgust to go, but Judith 
 caught his sleeve. "How exciting!" she ex- 
 claimed. "I do want to hear what he thinks 
 of us!" 
 
 Andrews saw her interest, and expanded with 
 delight. " He made a stand for his independence, 
 for his manhood. But you know the way of the ink- 
 squid! It envelops its victim in a cloud of murk 
 
 211
 
 that blinds him, the effluvera of its own corrupt 
 body! theft, treachery, deceit! Perhaps you say 
 he was a fool that the wise man, when he reco'- 
 nizes the perlution of the ink-squid avoids its life- 
 sucking tentacles! But the ink-squid is cute, it is 
 wary! It casts its blinding cloud about James 
 Wistar before he was on to the game. The dark- 
 ness became a false light. He welcomed his fate. 
 To-day, as he stands among ye, he is no longer a 
 man, though he appears the most upright. His 
 blood has become the blood of the nauserous crea- 
 ture that devoured him, his stren'th, its stren'th! 
 Slowly, but with a certainty truly turble, he is 
 reachin' out to strangle and devour his feller-men, 
 who he once regarded as friends, as brothers. 
 Wealth and power are his'n. Beauty stands by 
 his side, and is proud to stand there! " 
 
 Every eye was now fixed upon the two, and 
 already, with a common impulse, they had turned 
 and were walking away. 
 
 But the words of eloquence followed them. 
 " All the more, I say, he is a plague sore on the 
 body politic ! " 
 
 Before either spoke, they had reached the busi- 
 ness section of lower Fifth Avenue and were walk- 
 ing in its canon-like shadows. Then she said, 
 " Is there one atom of truth in what he charges? 
 Do you feel that you have been in the least false 
 to yourself? " 
 
 212
 
 "They had turned and were walking away.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He thought quickly, and then, ignoring her first 
 question, he said: " For the present, no." 
 
 In front of them the Washington Arch loomed 
 up, bowered in the greening yellows of early fo- 
 liage. Always, since he had known her as a girl, 
 the sight of it had awakened the old melody in 
 his heart all the more poignantly sweet now for 
 the minor cadence into which it had fallen with 
 the lapse of years. He had only to catch a 
 glimpse of it from the elevated, or the platform 
 of a Broadway trolley, to revive the sense of all 
 life had ever promised him. And once more, as 
 he neared it, she was at his side ! 
 
 As they turned into the square disillusion stalked 
 upon him. Two men were approaching in the 
 path that leads across the eastern end, in one of 
 whom they recognized Penrhyn. " Hello ! " said 
 Wistar, welcoming a change in the subject, " he 
 has been downtown at work on Sunday. In New 
 York that is rare proof of diligence ! " 
 
 "Not he!" Judith laughed. "More likely 
 he is just out of bed, and on his way to the club 
 for breakfast! He lives over there in the Bene-* 
 dick." 
 
 Wistar had not known this, and the discovery 
 recalled the night when he had seen Andrews in 
 the selfsame path. Occurring separately, the two 
 incidents of their walk down the avenue might 
 have been forgotten, but coming thus rapidly in 
 
 213
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 succession they took instant meaning. The ha- 
 rangue he had just heard was wild enough for the 
 most part, but certain words reechoed in his mind, 
 and recalled the time when he himself had so un- 
 fortunately used them theft, treachery, deceit. 
 How had Andrews got such an idea, if not by 
 being a factor in the business of that night? And 
 who would have employed him, if not Penrhyn? 
 If there had been treachery then, moreover, might 
 not his present difficulty with Minot have an even 
 more sinister explanation than he suspected? 
 
 As Wistar bowed to Penrhyn in passing a sar- 
 donic smile stole into the corners of his mouth. 
 Then he stared in surprise. In Penrhyn's com- 
 panion he recognized Pedey Ryan, hero of the 
 deadly blow gun and the bloodless revolution, dis- 
 guised in a flowing frock coat and sleek top hat. 
 Between these men there could be only one bond 
 of connection; and, as Pedey bowed in response 
 to Wistar's salute, his expressive face wore, all 
 unconsciously, a look of deprecation, almost of 
 apology. " Rubber " had ceased to be the syn- 
 , onym of curiosity, and become that of vigilance, 
 indeed of fear. It was clear enough, now, why 
 at the outset Penrhyn, instead of clearing out with 
 his promoter's profit, had taken office in the com- 
 bination, why he had so persistently refused to 
 accept Minot as a member of the executive com- 
 mittee. The plot against Wistar had been deeper 
 
 214
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 and more subtle than he had charged, even in the 
 heat of anger the stake immeasurably vaster. 
 And placed as he now was, on the inside and sub- 
 ject to the will of a majority, his power to com- 
 bat it was crippled. 
 
 When they came to her door, Judith asked 
 Wistar in to luncheon. The least she could do, 
 she said, was to offer as much for his company as 
 Gertrude. 
 
 ' Thank you," he said with the negative in- 
 flection. 
 
 " I mean it! " she protested. " If I am willing 
 to be not naughty at least you might let me! " 
 
 The new fear in his mind had deepened his Sab- 
 bath lonesomeness. She at least, if she knew 
 what he knew, would be on his side. And it was 
 so long since he had felt anything like the touch 
 of her beauty, her comradeship ! In his heart he 
 knew that she was all he had ever dreamed her, 
 and more. The old instinct to prostrate himself 
 before her came back on him. Life offered this 
 one moment of happiness, why not seize it? But 
 the temptation was brief. He would not bend 
 again until he stood straight in the eyes of all. 
 ' Thank you," he repeated. 
 
 ' You mean that as a reproach to me ! " she 
 said. 
 
 For the first time in his life he felt that she 
 was seriously striving for his good will. 
 
 215
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " If you don't mean it so," she added, " you 
 will do as I ask." 
 
 He did not misconstrue her motives. The co- 
 quetry of vanity was a thing unknown to her, but 
 she was full of the coquetry of the affections : he 
 had seen her stop on the streets to win the con- 
 fidence of a mongrel who slunk from her. Still 
 he stood firm. " I was thinking of what Andrews 
 said of the darkness in which I labored that 
 night. When it is finally cleared, I shall, if I 
 may, claim acquaintance with you." 
 
 " But in the meantime," she still pleaded, " if 
 I forgive you ? " 
 
 " I must decline," he said, and left her, though 
 not before he had seen her cheeks flush at what, 
 in spite of himself, he had implied. 
 
 216
 
 o 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 F the revelations of that Sunday morn- 
 ing none impressed Wistar more 
 deeply than the fact that he had not 
 known where Penrhyn lived. He 
 knew every turn in the thread of the least impor- 
 tant screw in his machines, but he was ignorant 
 of the most obvious fact with regard to his most 
 powerful associate. In the old days he had some- 
 what proudly said that his business was with men 
 who manufacture motors, not stocks; but he now 
 realized with humility that everything depended 
 on meeting on their own ground the leaders of 
 this once despised industry of finance. 
 
 To inquire into conditions in the rubber coun- 
 try, and even to find out whether the productive 
 forests were in a way to be monopolized, was a 
 work he could and must intrust to subordinates. 
 But he was obliged to proceed in person to get a 
 line on Penrhyn's associates and resources, and 
 especially on his more intimate personal equation 
 his character, his methods, the kind of fight he 
 would make. For as yet the evidence of the man's 
 15 217
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 duplicity was only circumstantial. Wistar's sense 
 of honor, indeed his sense of expediency, forbade 
 him to make any pretense of friendship. But 
 there was a way in which he could meet the man 
 as an enemy, and this was the way most likely to 
 be fruitful. 
 
 The year before, Penrhyn had played on the 
 Willowbrook polo team,- which had won the 
 championship from his own country club. Why 
 shouldn't he make his old place on the team? It 
 is a game that tries men's souls. To get into con- 
 dition he entered the squash-ball tournament of 
 the Racket Club, and was not displeased when, 
 as the tournament progressed, he came face to face 
 with Penrhyn. 
 
 They met in the third round. It was a warm 
 day in early summer, and they played in the light- 
 est costume sleeveless gauze shirts and linen 
 running breeches. As they entered the red-walled 
 court each cast a quick, comprehensive glance at 
 the other. Wistar was long and spare, with 
 straight, powerful legs, wide reach of the sinewy 
 arms, huge, bellowslike thorax and thick muscular 
 torso. His opponent was of smaller stature, well 
 knit, and with knotty muscles, full of spring. 
 
 Penrhyn played a brilliant game, full of diffi- 
 cult and unexpected, apparently miraculous, strokes 
 that brought burst after burst of applause from 
 the gallery. He won the first set easily. But 
 
 218
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 toward the end of the second Wistar's steadiness 
 and endurance began to wear him down. 
 
 " Damn your legs and lungs ! " said Penrhyn 
 with rueful pleasantry. " I'm larding the lean 
 earth. You've got me now where you want me ! " 
 
 " Not if you ring in any more of those mira- 
 cles ! " 
 
 " Miracles ! " Penrhyn cried with frank disgust. 
 ' The man who plays squash has no need of mira- 
 cles ! " As they took their positions for the final 
 game he tapped the floor with his racket. 
 " Here's where friendship ceases ! " he said, 
 laughing. 
 
 To Wistar it seemed rather where friendship 
 began, for it was his nature to think well of the 
 world, and Penrhyn had been a model of modesty 
 in success, of good temper in adversity, and of 
 sportsmanlike earnestness and fairness every- 
 where. Though plainly all in, he played with grit 
 and tenacity; yet even with the match hanging 
 in the balance he twice corrected the decision of 
 the marker, insisting that Wistar take a point 
 where a let had been called. Was it possible that 
 Wistar had been mistaken in his man? The ques- 
 tion cost him four points straight; but he pulled 
 himself together and won the match without diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 Penrhyn shook his hand cordially. " I couldn't 
 have won the semifinals, anyway," he said; 
 
 219
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " and I think you stand to do so." The com- 
 pliment was perhaps excessive, for in his next 
 match Wistar had to meet one of the best players 
 in the club, who, as it turned out, disposed of him 
 in two easy games ; but it was none the less gener- 
 ous and good-natured. 
 
 They bathed in adjoining showers, dressed and 
 dined together, and afterwards, at Penrhyn's in- 
 vitation, went to the theater. It was years since 
 Wistar had spent as pleasant an evening; and 
 after a long and cooling nightcap at the club he 
 half believed that he had done the man injustice. 
 
 Before many weeks Wistar had occasion to 
 alter this judgment. At a meeting of the execu- 
 tive committee Penrhyn proposed to increase the 
 next dividend. 
 
 " That would be a drain on our surplus," Wis- 
 tar objected. His plans for the industry, now 
 dear to his heart, required a large reserve of capi- 
 tal. " My idea is to reduce the dividend. The 
 time is coming when we shall have to stand off 
 those foreign fellows." 
 
 " That's right! " Irvingdale Smith put in cheer- 
 fully. "It is up to you to give them a black eye. 
 But there are other ways to do it." 
 
 " Other ways than by making our cars as good 
 and cheap as theirs? " Wistar pointedly questioned. 
 "What ways?" 
 
 *' We've got a bang-up system of garages,"
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Smith answered with unabated cheerfulness. 
 " From Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, 
 we store and care for a good majority of all our 
 rivals' cars. We waste a lot of time and oppor- 
 tunity in doing it so well." 
 
 Wistar was not unjustifiably proud of these 
 garages, and of the fact that the service in them 
 was as liberal and efficient toward the cars of 
 American independents and foreign makers as 
 toward their own. "Wasted!" he said. "A 
 good part of our earnings we make off the cars 
 of our rivals ! " 
 
 " But suppose we gave our own cars the prefer- 
 ence? Wouldn't the public find that the best of 
 reasons for buying them ? " 
 
 In plain terms this meant that work on the cars 
 of their rivals should be delayed, scamped and 
 overcharged. Nothing so disgusts a motorist with 
 his machine as to have it make long sojourns in 
 the shop, followed by big bills and a speedy re- 
 turn of disaster. " I am as eager as any man to 
 win out in this fight," Wistar answered. " But 
 the only policy that will succeed in the long run is 
 the policy of fairness and liberality. Who will 
 get the black eye, I should like to know, if the 
 public finds us out! " 
 
 "If we can't trust our own managers not to 
 peach on us," said Smith with cool insolence, 
 " there's something rotten in your management." 
 
 221
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " You are aware, I suppose," said Wistar, his 
 voice falling and deepening as his anger rose, 
 " that in spirit what you propose is identical with 
 all that is most noxious in trust management 
 secret rebates, secret price schedules, and all other 
 devices of predatory competition ! " 
 
 " I don't know anything about what you call 
 spirit," Smith retorted. " There is no law that 
 compels us to favor the cars of our rivals, and 
 there is every reason why we should not favor 
 them." 
 
 " Favor them ! Why not put sand in their 
 bearings and soap in their carburetors?" 
 
 " Not a bad idea ! " Smith laughed. Then he 
 added, in the tone of compliment, " You would 
 make an excellent manager if you put your mind 
 to it." 
 
 Wistar smiled grimly. " Excellent or not, I 
 am the manager. And in this matter / decide ! " 
 
 Billy growled approval. 
 
 "I object!" Smith cried, his cheery good 
 humor vanishing. " You are our chairman, not 
 our kindergarten lady. You have no power ex- 
 cept what we delegate to you ! " 
 
 The terms upon which he had entered the com- 
 bination had been different, and it was now that 
 Wistar looked to find the Penrhyn he had known 
 in the squash court. 
 
 " In the matter of the garages," Penrhyn said, 
 222
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 "I guess we'll have to give Wistar his head." And 
 Smith was obliged to acquiesce. Then Penrhyn 
 added : " But it's different with the dividend. 
 That concerns the financial end. I make it a 
 motion." 
 
 As chairman of the committee Wistar was 
 obliged to put the motion, and the votes were 
 three to one. 
 
 It is an approved Machiavellian precept to con- 
 cede what you have to gracefully, so as to make 
 the concession a sugar-coating for the pill of suc- 
 cessful coercion. Wistar perceived that there 
 were two Penrhyns one for polite conversation, 
 and one for things that mattered. 
 
 In announcing the dividend to the public Pen- 
 rhyn resorted to a useful bit of jugglery. He 
 spread the report that Wistar was intending to 
 reduce it, and then sprung the increase as a sur- 
 prise. In the resulting fluctuations in the stock, 
 Wistar had every reason to believe, Penrhyn 
 turned a pretty penny. The incident took added 
 significance when Wistar got his first reports 
 from the rubber country. All signs portended 
 that some one was trying to engross the industry, 
 and, moreover, was straining his resources to 
 do so. 
 
 The polo championship was now well under 
 way, but Wistar saw that there was little to probe 
 in the character of his associate. He was con- 
 
 223
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 vinced, in fact, that with the expiration of his term 
 of office he would have to fight for reelection. 
 There were two ways of fighting. One was to 
 form -a fraction of stockholders to support him 
 and his policy. This was a slow, difficult and deli- 
 cate matter, and one in which he could not go far 
 without publicly accusing his associate. The other 
 way was to increase his holdings of stock. 
 Though chief shareholder, he was far from own- 
 ing a majority. He at once instructed his broker 
 to buy in all he could without running up the price, 
 and furthermore, to negotiate with such of his cus- 
 tomers as might be willing for a consideration to 
 part with their holdings. 
 
 Among these the broker mentioned a pictur- 
 esque and anomalous person with wild eyes and 
 red trimmings to his face who had invested two 
 thousand dollars on margin when the securities 
 were first listed on the Stock Exchange. Wistar 
 named him at once H. Desmond Andrews; and 
 the broker laughed at the memory of the H. Des- 
 mond. 
 
 One by one he was completing the chain of cir- 
 cumstance which bound Penrhyn to this man, con- 
 victing him of gross dishonor. As yet he felt that 
 he was not justified in using his evidence to dis- 
 credit his rival, even privately, among the direct- 
 ors and stockholders. But he left no stone un- 
 turned to complete it, and to this end employed 
 
 224
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 a detective agency to keep close watch on An- 
 drews. 
 
 During the early games of the polo champion- 
 ship, he often saw Judith in the crowds of the 
 clubhouse verandas, and as often he thought, not 
 without satisfaction, that to her eyes at least the 
 evidence already at hand would be sufficient. But 
 could he tell her? Not though the happiness of 
 her life hung in the balance then least of all. 
 Could he even bring her his excuse for the mistake 
 of that fatal night with regard to her father 
 whose duty it had been to tell her? He puzzled 
 his mind for days over this case in casuistry. But 
 in his heart he always knew that he could not be 
 a bearer of tales. And the conviction was grow- 
 ing on him that in spite of all appearances her 
 father had not been guiltless. 
 
 And so it came to the deciding game of the 
 championship series. 
 
 225
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 F Penrhyn had shared Wistar's desire 
 for better acquaintance he could not 
 have done more to satisfy it. Through 
 the earlier periods of the game, he 
 had played second forward for Willowbrook, and 
 with unfailing alertness and dash; but at the open- 
 ing of the final period the score was a tie and he 
 shifted to first forward. This brought him face 
 to face with Wistar, whose steadiness and brain 
 work had made him captain and back of the Cedar- 
 top four. 
 
 The natural inference was that Willowbrook 
 had staked their chances of victory on new tactics; 
 but during the previous interval Wistar had seen 
 Penrhyn ride up to the brilliant crowd beyond the 
 edge board, and speak to a young woman in whom 
 for the first time he recognized Judith. Was it 
 possible that the man had paid him the compli- 
 ment of jealousy? The world of sport has little 
 esteem for what it calls the grand-stand player. 
 Wistar could have wished Judith a thousand miles 
 
 226
 
 THE C A V E MAN 
 
 away, and he cursed the luck that had given him 
 the glimpse of her face, alight with the excitement 
 of the contest, and prettily framed in a billowy boa 
 of white feathers, thrown about her shoulders in 
 defense against the cool wind that was blowing 
 in from the ocean. 
 
 At a crisis like the present, in a game as rapid 
 as polo, anything may happen. The losing team 
 will stop at nothing in the hope of a goal; and 
 both sides, reserving their best ponies for the last, 
 are mounted on the handiest, hardiest, fleetest and 
 most spirited horseflesh, of fourteen hands, that 
 the world affords. And such are the varying for- 
 tunes of the game, that in a few minutes of play 
 goals have been known to come as if from a rapid- 
 fire gun. 
 
 Penrhyn had now mounted a black Algerian 
 barb, Sirocco, trained on Mediterranean polo 
 fields, for which he had paid upward of three 
 thousand dollars. It was a huge pony, that would 
 strain every finger of fourteen hands, and its wide 
 eyes bespoke as much of intelligence as ever gets 
 into an equine skull. It had courage, too, to stand 
 up against the fiercest scrimmage, and its speed in 
 the open was unexcelled. 
 
 Wistar's mount was named Jenny, which name 
 she had brought with the brand on her flank from 
 a Texas range. Jenny was, however, a perfect 
 lady, and in Wistar's fond esteem the best polo 
 
 227
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 pony he had ever owned, or known. True, he 
 had read of better animals, and notably a heroine 
 of fiction who was not only familiar with the tac- 
 tics of team play and kept the score in mind 
 but acted as leader of her quadruped mates, and 
 would probably have advised the famous player 
 and captain who rode her if his understanding 
 had been quite, instead of almost, equine. But 
 Wistar was skeptical. He had himself frequently 
 had occasion in the thick of a rapidly shifting 
 contest to make sure how the score stood by a 
 glance at the dangling tally balls. There were, 
 in fact, only two points on w 7 hich he trusted Jenny 
 implicitly. One was to be fond of sugar, and 
 stand by the man who gave it to her; and the 
 other was to follow the ball. He suspected the 
 tasteful little lady, in fact, of laboring under the 
 illusion that the three-inch sphere of white was 
 an extra delectable lump; but, whatever the pecul- 
 iarities of her horse sense, she scampered after 
 it with the eager endurance of a terrier, and the 
 speed of a greyhound; and that was all he asked 
 of Jenny. 
 
 The only chance of snatching the victory was 
 by the hardest riding and the most accurate team 
 play. But Wistar had even more to contend with 
 than he feared. Penrhyn, again his opposite, was 
 plunging his spurs with every turn deep into 
 Sirocco's velvet flank, already covered with blood, 
 
 228
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 and was charging the heavy animal hither and yon 
 like a madman. The trick of riding* an opponent 
 off, which looks so dangerous from the clubhouse, 
 is in reality the safest of maneuvers. You have 
 only to slip alongside your man, lock the shoulder 
 of your horse forward of his saddle, and you can 
 swerve him as if by a hand on his bridle. But 
 that maneuvre is as difficult as it is safe. Time 
 and again, in the play that followed, Penrhyn 
 came at Wistar full speed at an angle of forty 
 degrees, dashing Sirocco's powerful and pointed 
 shoulder into Jenny's side. Such tactics are cal- 
 culated to throw a fright into any but the steadi- 
 est horse and man; and the only condition of 
 success is that the umpire shall be lax, or not 
 looking. 
 
 " If you do that again," Wistar cried, " I'll 
 demand the penalty of a foul! " 
 
 " Why not take your doll-rags and go home? " 
 Penrhyn asked, sweeping by. " This game is 
 polo!" 
 
 There are football players who regard it as 
 the game to slug an opponent, knee him, or twist 
 his neck, provided the chance of being penalized is 
 less than the chance of putting him out of the 
 game; and players of a similar conviction are not 
 unknown in polo. It is all a question of whether 
 one prefers to live by the traditions of sportsmen 
 or the letter of the rules. 
 
 229
 
 T H P: CAVE MAN 
 
 In another minute, as Jenny bounded after the 
 ball, Penrhyn repeated the assault. The only de- 
 fense against such play is the defense offensive. 
 Reining up at an angle, Wistar broke the shock 
 upon the faithful Jenny by opposing his own lean, 
 pointed knee against Penrhyn's thigh. 
 
 "Ouch!" said Penrhyn; and Sirocco faltered 
 at the unexpected impact. 
 
 Jenny's strong point was quickness and certainty 
 on her feet. She fairly leaped from the collision 
 and dodged across the field after the spherical 
 lump of sugar, overtaking it near the edge board. 
 There was an opening to score, and Wistar seized 
 it. With a clean forward draw he played the 
 ball into position for a try at goal, and Jenny fol- 
 lowed it with hoof beats that sent the turf flying. 
 
 Wistar's comrades did not fail him. One after 
 another they rode off three of the enemy, while 
 he swung at a gallop into position for the stroke. 
 The end of the game was at hand, but it was only 
 a matter of seconds to snatch the victory. 
 
 Penrhyn, disconcerted by the unexpected shock, 
 had wisely refrained from following Wistar's first 
 dash, and now, burying his spur in Sirocco's bleed- 
 ing flank with every stride, he galloped straight 
 down the field at the ball, converging upon Wistar 
 at a broad angle. It was a neck-and-neck race 
 for the victory. Wistar saw him out of the tail 
 of his eye, and Jenny saw him too, for she dug 
 
 230
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 her little hoofs into the turf as she had never dug 
 them before. Twenty-three seconds flat was her 
 mark for the quarter, and she was in the full 
 swing of her best pace. She kept even with the 
 stallion, stride for stride. 
 
 As long as she did so it was, according to the 
 rules of the game, Wistar's ball. To the goal was 
 a drive of seventy yards, but he had done better 
 a score of times; and his nerve was never as steady 
 as when his blood was boiling. And it was boil- 
 ing now, for as Sirocco swept on, closing the angle 
 between them with greyhound strides, he saw the 
 blood flying from the raw spot left by the inces- 
 sant spur. 
 
 Nearer and nearer the two horses swept, until 
 Penrhyn so narrowly threatened a collision that 
 even the other players rose in their stirrups in 
 anxiety. Wistar feared a foul and then dis- 
 missed the fear: his rival's game was to fluster 
 him and frighten Jenny with a threatened tumble. 
 In a stride or two Penrhyn would have to swerve, 
 or foul him openly and flagrantly. The thought 
 steadied him. Jenny could not have this comfort, 
 and already to-day had suffered many a rude shock; 
 but with pluck undaunted she held her course firm 
 and true, and never abated her stride until Wistar 
 threw the lines on her neck. Then, at this signal 
 for the stroke, she slackened into an even, steady 
 gallop. 
 
 231
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 As Wistar raised his stick, he heard Sirocco's 
 hoof beats now at his very side still regular, 
 firm, and quick as ever. His heart leaped, but 
 his shoulder swung true. Then came a blow from 
 the side that lifted Jenny off her feet. In another 
 instant both horses and their riders were hurled 
 together along the turf. 
 
 Penrhyn swung free of the saddle ; but Wistar, 
 who had held his eye throughout steadily fixed 
 upon the ball, felt the hot lathered sides of Jenny 
 rolling over him, and the crushing weight of both 
 horses. 
 
 He was awakened by the first dash of water on 
 his face, and raising his head he saw the ball, 
 lying where it had lain. 
 
 " A duhrty trick, a sthinkin' Irish trick," said 
 Wistar's groom, as he splashed the water. " His 
 horse is the better gintleman." 
 
 The umpire had pressed through the crowd of 
 dismounted players. " Have you anything to 
 say? " Wistar managed to ask. 
 
 " In my official capacity, only that the play was 
 a foul, and that Cedartop has a free try for goal." 
 
 Wistar struggled to his feet, and called for a 
 new mount. There was a knifelike pain inside 
 him, and his head was swimming; but Penrhyn 
 was by, speaking words of plausible apology. He 
 stepped into the saddle, and no one offered to dis- 
 suade him. Then he rode out to the ball, and 
 
 232
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Penrhyn faced him, at the prescribed ten yards. 
 The two looked at each other quite as if nothing 
 had happened. 
 
 Shooting a goal in the heat of play, at the full, 
 easy swing of the gallop and with a clear field 
 in front is one thing, and a sitting shot in the face 
 of four opponents, accurately placed and alert, 
 is quite another. It was for this difference, be- 
 yond question, that Penrhyn had ventured. Only 
 a miracle now could save the game and the cham- 
 pionship. 
 
 The fall had unsteadied Wistar's nerves. He 
 paused before the stroke, and swept his eye slowly 
 about the field. There were people there he had 
 not half realized how many. They seemed 
 strangely hushed. Beyond was a low-lying Eng- 
 lish house, its half-timber sides showing faintly 
 through a mantling growth of ivy, and its roof 
 bowered in elm trees. It looked very peaceful. 
 On the horizon was a flake of quiet blue, where 
 the Atlantic lay serenely, as if in the lap of two 
 sand dunes. Wistar almost forgot the pain that 
 was knifing his vitals. Then he closed his eyes 
 half a moment, and remembered. Once he had 
 faced an unbeaten eleven in blue, when all the 
 fellows looked to him and his comrades . . . He 
 didn't feel the pain at all now. 
 
 Opening his eyes, he gauged the lie of the ball, 
 and the length of his stick. Then he lifted his 
 1C 233
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 arm above his head, and brought it downward, 
 swinging it firm but relaxed upon the pivot of 
 his shoulder. He hit hard and true, and as the 
 sound was heard across the silent field, Penrhyn 
 rose in his stirrup to block the ball. It soared 
 free above his head, flying straight for the goal. 
 Half way in its course it fell upon the turf, 
 bounded once or twice, and then rolled slowly and 
 more slowly. Once again there was the scurrying 
 of ponies, Cedartop galloping to protect the ball 
 in its course, Willowbrook to check it. The ad- 
 vantage of position lay with the defense, and five 
 yards from the fatal line the Willowbrook back 
 overtook the ball and swung his stick for a back 
 hander. 
 
 Thus far the instinct of the game had carried 
 him; but now he paused, with his stick held high 
 in air, and to the amazement of the multitude, 
 rode on, side by side with the ball. At the goal 
 line the white sphere hopped into the air, and 
 then lay still, scarcely a yard beyond. The gen- 
 erosity of the sportsman had risen above the zeal 
 of the partisan. It was as if he had presented to 
 Wistar the victory so fairly won. It was not " the 
 game "; but sportsmanship it was. 
 
 The crowd read his purpose like a flash, and 
 from four sides burst forth an acclaiming shout. 
 
 Wistar's first thought was of Jenny whether 
 she was suffering too, poor lady. He found her 
 
 234
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 by an automobile, companionably nosing a young 
 woman in a white feather boa having evidently 
 led the indulgent groom there for that purpose. 
 Wistar rode up and asked if she was hurt. 
 
 " Sure she's fresh as a daisy. How is it with 
 yourself, sir, may I be asking?" 
 
 " Oh, I do hope you are not injured! " Judith 
 exclaimed. " It was very rough play; but you 
 deserved to win, and we're so glad you did win ! " 
 
 Penrhyn cantered up to them. " My dear man ! 
 My dear man ! " he said. " I did my best to hold 
 the beast, but he was mad with excitement." 
 
 " Howld him ! Look at his flank ! " said 
 Wistar's groom. But he knew his place, and he 
 said it under his breath. 
 
 " You were wrong, Stanley," Judith was say- 
 ing, " very wrong, ever to think of riding so, on 
 such an animal! " 
 
 Jenny was still nosing the white feathers. 
 
 " She thinks they may be sugar," Wistar apol- 
 ogized. " When I changed mounts, I forgot to 
 give her the lump she expected." He reached 
 into his pocket and found nothing but powdered 
 granules. Jenny herself had crushed the last 
 domino. " Poor old girl," he said, stroking her 
 mobile nose, " did we make you spoil your own 
 sugar? Never mind! There's more in the locker." 
 And taking the bridle from the groom he led her 
 away. 
 
 235
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 It was a fortunate pretext, for the knife inside 
 him kept turning, and the white feathers spread 
 before his vision, filling it, from the green of the 
 grass to the blue of the zenith, with what now 
 seemed to him wavering lumps of sugar. 
 
 236
 
 H 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 OW many weeks that pain lasted Wis- 
 tar did not know. Through the long 
 days and longer nights of his fever a 
 single idea haunted him, obsessed him. 
 Sooner or later he would have to lock horns with 
 Penrhyn in a final struggle for control of the com- 
 bination ; and there was more than an even chance, 
 he foreboded, that in that struggle he would be 
 defeated, and Minot and others of his kind ground 
 under foot. In such an event he saw but one re- 
 course, and that the blackest to quit the trust 
 and join the weaker faction in the fight for de- 
 cency and law. That he would be able to wreck 
 the combination he had little doubt. He had 
 made its strength, and better than anyone else 
 he knew its weakness. It was to avoid such a fight 
 that he had entered it, and the result of all he had 
 done would be to aggravate his plight. To 
 plunge Judith's father from hope to despair 
 would have been bad enough; but his heart grew 
 sick at the thought of what it would mean to dash 
 him from success and power to ruin. She had 
 
 237
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 called him the cave man, and accused him of seek- 
 ing to fell them all with his club. As his fever 
 mounted and the pain in his side cut deeper the 
 idea grew on him that he might have to do just 
 this. 
 
 One evening he awoke with a sense of physical 
 relief. The pain was no longer inside. It was 
 outside, in soft linen bandages. He was suffering 
 from a horrible nausea, and his tongue was so 
 thick that he could utter nothing; but little by lit- 
 tle his mind cleared, and he recalled with terror 
 a nightmare under which he had been laboring 
 recalled it with terror and relief, for he now knew 
 that it was only a nightmare. Judith had lain 
 dying in a dingy hall bedroom, her struggle 
 against poverty ended; and as she saw him she 
 looked upon him as the author of her fate, and 
 turned her eyes, pitiful and full of hatred as he 
 had never seen them in life, toward the tawdry 
 wall. A beam of watery sunshine, struggling in, 
 brought the glints to her hair, though palely. 
 Then, of a sudden, he had seen a clot of crim- 
 son, where she had got the wound of which 
 she was dying a blow from the cave man's 
 club. 
 
 He opened his eyes to expel the agonizing 
 vision, and saw by his bedside a woman in 
 striped gown, white apron and cap. Then he un- 
 derstood. It was a long time before he could 
 
 238
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 speak, but at last he asked her thickly: " Did you 
 have to go in far? What did you find? " 
 
 " We went in so far," the nurse said cheerily, 
 " that we saw the tail feathers of your soul." 
 Her theology was orthodox, in spite of a rigidly 
 scientific training. " But we sewed you up tight 
 so there's no chance of its flying away this time." 
 
 Wistar smiled. " What did you find was the 
 matter before you sewed it up? " 
 
 " There was a bow of blue ribbon on it," she 
 said, " and it had come untied." One doesn't al- 
 low a patient's mind to dwell on the details of 
 his malady. 
 
 Wistar was silent a long time and then, " Blue 
 ribbon? " he asked. 
 
 " Baby blue it was a pure soul. We tied it up 
 neatly in a love knot." 
 
 " I should have preferred a square bow," he 
 said. 
 
 " It's a spell we laid with the love knot so 
 now your sweetheart can't lose you." 
 
 He thought of Judith. " I'm afraid," he said 
 sadly, " that the operation will not prove success- 
 ful." 
 
 The nurse did not understand. " In two 
 months," she said, " you will be on your feet 
 again." 
 
 Two months! His old fears swarmed back on 
 him. Glancing about, he recognized Billy and 
 
 239
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Minot on the other side of the bed. " Hello ! " 
 he said. " I must see you fellows on business." 
 At the word they faded into darkness. 
 
 Then the nurse said, " Hush ! Go to sleep ! " 
 and stroked the fine, lank hair on his forehead. 
 He went to sleep, but in his dreams he was fight- 
 ing a fight in which there was a most perplexed 
 mingling of motor cars and ponies. And the prize 
 was a white feather boa. 
 
 240
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 LMOST before he recovered from the 
 nausea of ether Wistar took advan- 
 tage of the telephone by his bedside 
 to get in touch with the affairs of the 
 combination at first surreptitiously, when the 
 nurse for a moment had left him apparently sleep- 
 ing, and then with her enforced consent. It 
 proved as he feared. He called up his agencies 
 one by one, as far as St. Louis and Omahaj and 
 by a few leading questions ascertained that Pen- 
 rhyn and Smith had assumed his office and were 
 already introducing their methods. 
 
 Minot was soon a frequent visitor, and he elic- 
 ited from him similar intelligence. Penrhyn was 
 using the power of the combination to fight the in- 
 dependents with the well-known tactics of preda- 
 tory competition. There was strong evidence that 
 he was even preparing to infringe on Minot's 
 patent, relying on the power of money and the 
 technicalities of the law to protect him. And the 
 ultimate end of it all, as was becoming clearer 
 and clearer in the reports from South America, 
 
 241
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 was to gain a virtual monopoly of the industry 
 throughout the world. 
 
 Before his accident Wistar had had hopes of 
 being able to control the coming election of offi- 
 cers. For weeks he had been quietly increasing 
 his holdings of stock. Now he had a stock ticker 
 installed in his bedroom, and day by day directed 
 his campaign by telephone. He was powerfully 
 aided here by the very seriousness of his illness, 
 for Wall Street in general, and Penrhyn in par- 
 ticular, had grown accustomed to regard him as 
 out of the running. The surgeons, with profes- 
 sional conservatism, had understated the chance 
 of his recovery. 
 
 To make success secure and indubitable, how- 
 ever, he felt that it was necessary to gain strong 
 adherents among the stockholders. And here his 
 illness crippled him far more than it helped him 
 in his operation in the market. One may buy or 
 sell by telephone anything from a paper of pins 
 to a billion-dollar trust; but corporation politics is 
 a matter of personal contact and influence. A few 
 of the stockholders he knew well, and when he 
 called them up they were sympathetic, and agreed 
 to stand by him. But somehow he felt they were 
 influenced less by their reason and personal pref- 
 erence than by consideration for his illness. With 
 a great majority, even of the largest stockholders, 
 he was unacquainted. Time and again he tried 
 
 242
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 to imagine himself urging his cause into a vul- 
 canite receiver, but he only succeeded in appear- 
 ing in his own eyes what is known as a squealer, 
 and perhaps also a prig. Penrhyn had broken a 
 personal pledge; but what was this to the world 
 of finance? Penrhyn was breaking the law in 
 spirit and in letter, but could he convince a 
 stranger of this fact, or of its enormity, in brief 
 and half-audible conversation over the wire? 
 
 As he lay prostrate beneath the pain of the half- 
 healed gash in his side his mind was feverishly 
 active; but there was little or nothing he could 
 do to commend himself as the exponent of a vig- 
 orous and successful administration; and espe- 
 cially as his rivals had, as his friends had some- 
 what darkly intimated, taken advantage of his 
 plight to make their canvass first. Though Pen- 
 rhyn had failed in his primary purpose in their 
 encounter at polo, he had succeeded admirably 
 in this matter, which was of vastly greater mo- 
 ment. 
 
 In this crisis Wistar felt himself forced to meas- 
 ures of desperation. His financial resources, he 
 felt sure, were greater than Penrhyn was aware. 
 Vast as is the publicity which, in this curious 
 American democracy, attaches to wealth, there are 
 many large fortunes which are listed in no almanac, 
 and of which the writer of Sunday-newspaper 
 specials has never heard, though now and again 
 
 243
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 the settlement of an estate or the exigencies of a 
 combat in Wall Street makes them known. Such 
 was the fortune which Wistar had inherited, and 
 which he had vastly increased by able merchan- 
 dizing and wise investment. In behalf of the 
 industry which for two years he had held in his 
 own ten fingers, and which was his one real in- 
 terest in life, he was willing to risk his last dol- 
 lar if need be; but even at that he was finally 
 reduced to an expedient which in the old days he 
 would not have thought possible to him he be- 
 gan making his purchases on margin. When it 
 became necessary to vote the stock he would be 
 about again, and hoped to induce his bankers to 
 complete the purchase for him. 
 
 It was not a new experience. Once a doctrin- 
 ary trust-buster, he had become the heart and soul 
 of a gigantic consolidation; and the result had 
 been to awaken in him large ambitions ambi- 
 tions that differed from those of Penrhyn and 
 Sears only in being patient where theirs were 
 headlong, straightforward where theirs were de- 
 vious, solidly patriotic where theirs were vision- 
 ary or rapacious. Now, laboring in a life-or-death 
 struggle for honor and righteous power, he took 
 up with methods which he had always abhorred 
 as the invention of the stock-speculator and the 
 predatory manipulator of markets. By so doing 
 he multiplied many times his purchasing power, 
 
 244
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 so that he was able to double, perhaps to treble, 
 the holdings of any of his associates. 
 
 It is true that in this he took no great risk. 
 Large as his purchases had been, they had been 
 so skillfully distributed over so many weeks that 
 they had advanced the price of securities by a very 
 few points. If he won there might be a slight 
 reaction; but with the situation in his own hands 
 there would be no permanent loss. If he failed 
 to secure control he would be the first to know it, 
 and so have the drop on the market when it came 
 time to sell. In the matter of mere dollars he was, 
 in fact, virtual master of the situation. He had 
 been accustomed to say that the big men of Wall 
 Street played with marked cards, with loaded 
 dice. Well, that was just what he was doing now. 
 
 If he had any twinges of conscience at back- 
 sliding from his strait-laced ideals they were 
 silenced by the fact that there was only one other 
 course open to him to abandon the combination 
 and range himself against it with Minot and the 
 rest of the independents. That he was unwilling 
 to contemplate, for not to mention the new am- 
 bitions of the past two years, it meant that he must 
 work that very injury to Judith to avoid which he 
 had joined the combination. 
 
 Yet great as was his wealth it became gradually 
 evident that, even at the most liberal estimate of 
 the aid he might command from his friends and 
 
 245
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 his bankers, it was not great enough. The securi- 
 ties of American Motor were valued by the hun- 
 dreds, not tens of millions. Whether by hook or 
 by crook, it was presently manifest that he would 
 not be able to secure enough stock to control the 
 approaching election of officers. 
 
 When the outlook was darkest, however, for- 
 tune placed in his hands an unexpected resource, 
 in fact a trump card. It had taken his detectives 
 only a few days to discover that, while Andrews 
 was living in a manner which for him was posi- 
 tively sumptuous, he had no steady employment 
 and no source of income beyond the meager Sun- 
 day gleanings from his hat, passed in Madison 
 Square. With the first of a new month, however, 
 they saw him make a midnight journey to Pen- 
 rhyn's rooms, which was immediately followed 
 by a period of riotous living. A single occasion 
 of this sort might be a coincidence; but when it 
 was repeated once and again it became evident that 
 the man was living by blackmail. 
 
 The chain of circumstantial evidence was now 
 complete enough to justify the most incisive action. 
 Wistar summoned Minot and dispatched him on 
 an errand of diplomacy to Mr. Sears. 
 
 246
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 O Mr. Sears, Wistar's accident and ill- 
 ness, distressing as it was, had brought 
 a certain sense of relief. Of his per- 
 sonal obligation to the man who had 
 made possible his tardy good fortune he was 
 keenly sensible; but the fact remained that he 
 foresaw an early crisis in which, as a business as- 
 sociate, Wistar would prove difficult. For Sears's 
 ambition as to the future of the combination in 
 motors was bolder than so conservative a man 
 would tolerate. And then there was that vaster 
 vision which Penrhyn had flashed before him, and 
 which in his imagination, so long baffled by the 
 mirage of wealth and power, became a cloud by 
 day and a pillar of fire by night. Obstacles there 
 were when are there not? but Penrhyn was 
 forging ahead. Already he had organized a 
 strong faction among the board of directors and 
 general stockholders to oust Wistar from power. 
 From this faction Sears's sense of honor held 
 him strictly aloof. Yet on abstract principles he 
 was warmly in sympathy with it. Of all the asso- 
 ciates he had ever known, Penrhyn had the larg- 
 
 247
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 est outlook and the liveliest capacity for handling 
 big affairs. The captains who have made Amer- 
 ican industry what it is have not been remarkable 
 for devotion to the cause of social progress or for 
 academic correctness in personal conduct, but they 
 have had an extraordinary faculty of doing things; 
 and as one who himself lacked this faculty Sears 
 had a vigorous appreciation of its utility. 
 
 If Wistar had "succumbed to his misfortune, as 
 Sears had at first believed, the way would have 
 been quite clear; but the news that he had survived 
 was not wholly disconcerting, for when it came 
 to the election of directors and officers there would 
 still be valid reason for his preferring another ex- 
 ecutive, since he must a man with health un- 
 impaired. 
 
 One circumstance, however, lessened his satis- 
 faction: Penrhyn and Smith had seized control 
 of the practical affairs of the combination and 
 had instantly begun to tighten its grip on the 
 industry plunging into precisely those ruthless 
 and illegal methods from which they had prom- 
 ised Wistar to keep it free. To Sears this seemed 
 grossly indecent. From the outset Penrhyn had 
 forced him, though secretly, into devious ways; 
 and now, only a few weeks before the election that 
 would formally put everything on a new basis, he 
 was involving him in a transaction that could 
 scarcely fail to become known. Already, in fact, 
 
 248
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Penrhyn had been obliged to call a meeting of the 
 executive committee to give formal sanction to his 
 assumption of managerial power. It would hardly 
 be possible to keep the true state of affairs from 
 Billy; and that meant that Wistar, weak and ill 
 as he was, would hear of it. 
 
 As a gentleman Sears despised Penrhyn. All 
 his traditions, his very nature, rebelled against 
 thus openly and flagrantly betraying the man who 
 had done so much for them. It had actually 
 made him ill, confining him to the house though 
 here it was helped on by an attack of inherited 
 gout, which with old-fashioned propriety he called 
 rheumatism, and which he had augmented by the 
 more luxurious life of the past two years. In 
 consequence of this illness, Penrhyn had decided 
 that the meeting should be held in his library 
 an arrangement which Mr. Sears found repug- 
 nant, but against which he could hardly protest, 
 since in Wistar's absence he was chairman of the 
 committee. In fact his presence was necessary for 
 a quorum. 
 
 On the morning of the meeting Mrs. Boyser 
 announced that Minot had come to deliver a mes- 
 sage from Wistar. At the sight of his card the 
 old man grew nervous and perplexed. Was it 
 possible that Wistar had already caught wind of 
 what was going on? Almost at the same mo- 
 ment, as it happened, Billy called him up on the 
 17 249
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 telephone and confirmed this foreboding, though 
 in a manner characteristically casual. 
 
 " Wistar wants me to be sure to get there," 
 the young man said. " Have I time?" 
 
 " That depends upon where you are." 
 
 " I'm out shopping with May." 
 
 " But I thought she went to try on her trous- 
 seau! " 
 
 The wedding, long delayed to complete May's 
 schooling, was in fact fixed for the near future. 
 
 " That's right," said Billy. 
 
 "What? With her! " Sears raised one hand 
 in dignified horror. "Yes! You must start at 
 once!" 
 
 Indistinct words came over the wire, of which 
 Sears made out only one blushing. ' Yes," he 
 said in parental accent, "I am blushing! And 
 May should be." 
 
 " I was just telling May / was," explained 
 Billy. "She isn't!" 
 
 " I'm glad you have some modesty between 
 you!" 
 
 " I'm escaping with what I have left. Don't 
 let them get down to business till I come." 
 
 The old man hung up the receiver and raised 
 both hands. He turned to find Minot on the 
 threshold, smiling. ' This new generation," he 
 sighed. " Her mother's daughter." 
 
 " Oh, I don't know! " Minot laughed. " We 
 250
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 were engaged in the crinoline period. Don't you 
 remember? " He reached out his hands as if for 
 an embrace at the distance of a hoopskirt. "If 
 I were younger I might be reconciled to the mod- 
 ern girl!" 
 
 Their manner was that of lifelong friends 
 two gray-haired, boyish cronies; but in an instant 
 it became gravely altered. 
 
 " I came about that committee meeting, too," 
 Minot said. " Somebody got busy as soon as 
 Wistar was done for." 
 
 " Penrhyn and Smith have been managing af- 
 fairs in his place." 
 
 " Precisely ! And already Penrhyn has re- 
 versed Wistar' s whole policy." 
 
 The very keenness with which Sears was sensi- 
 ble of the impropriety of what Penrhyn had done 
 made it impossible to discuss it with an outsider 
 in fact a rival. " I'm sorry," he said, " if Wis- 
 tar has been troubled by any such suspicion." 
 
 " Suspicion ! What Wistar has found out is a 
 certainty ! Exactly what it amounts to, of course 
 he hasn't told me; but there's a nigger in the 
 woodpile, and the nigger is Penrhyn." 
 
 " It's the European combination there was 
 urgent need of meeting their aggressions upon us." 
 
 " It is more than that! Penrhyn is out for the 
 scalps of us independents here. Already he has 
 put the knife to my throat." 
 
 251
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " That isn't possible ! " 
 
 "My dear sir, I'm bleeding already! Among 
 the rest, he has gone about to'steal pardon me if 
 I speak the English language to steal my gear. 
 But I'm not here to tell you my hard-luck story 
 only to warn you that it's up to you to stand by 
 Wistar." 
 
 " Personally, I I " Sears stammered, and 
 was silent. 
 
 " Personally you are a gentleman, my old and 
 tried friend, and pledged in honor to Wistar." 
 Minot spoke gravely and kindly; but as he went 
 on his manner became searching and significant. 
 " In business you are servant of a trust, and a trust 
 must, when the devil drives." 
 
 ''The devil drives!" Sears assented. 
 
 Minot sharpened to the attack. " If you peo- 
 ple break your word to Wistar you must know 
 that he will fight! If he were well his case is 
 a strong one; by stating the facts as they are 
 to the stockholders, he could get enough votes 
 and proxies to stand you off. But he is ill 
 his hands are tied. Unless you tell them the 
 truth no doubt Penrhyn can make them be- 
 lieve what he pleases. Perhaps he has already 
 organized a party? If he's cut in ahead of 
 Wistar " 
 
 " I can scarcely discuss such questions with an 
 outside party." 
 
 252
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " I must say, however, that unless you take 
 Penrhyn in hand you will have to face scandal." 
 
 " Scandal! " the old gentleman echoed. 
 
 " Wistar once accused you of bribery and theft. 
 Now he knows it was Penrhyn." 
 
 Sears started with surprise and alarm. 
 
 " What would it mean to Penrhyn and to you ! 
 if Wistar were to publicly expose that crime? " 
 
 "If he has proof disgrace! Without proof, 
 such a charge would be libel. Did you say he had 
 proof?" 
 
 " I didn't say." Minot laughed dryly. " Here 
 it's you who are the outside party. But this much 
 I can tell you. By driving Wistar to the wall you 
 put him face to face with a dangerous alternative. 
 He wishes you well, and your family; but to 
 him what Penrhyn is doing is a crime. When he 
 believes a thing wrong, he fights it. And he 
 can fight, I tell you ! Two years ago, when Pen- 
 rhyn tricked him into the trust, you imagined you 
 had disarmed him. You gave him the most dan- 
 gerous weapon of all ! Standing as he does now, 
 on the inside and at the head of everything, what 
 he says carries conviction what he does, au- 
 thority. If he fights, he will win. That will mean 
 scandal and ruin to you, and to your daughter 
 poverty." 
 
 Sears gave way to abject terror. " He intends 
 that! " he gasped. 
 
 253
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Not yet ! It was to avoid it that he sent me 
 here." 
 
 Sears lay back in his chair. " How much does 
 Onderdonk know of this?" he asked. 
 
 " Little or nothing. It was to keep him in the 
 dark that Wistar sent me here. You have been 
 allied with Penrhyn throughout bribery, theft, 
 treachery and Billy is engaged to marry your 
 daughter very much engaged, it appears! " 
 
 Wearily Sears rose from his chair. " I'll do all 
 an honest man can," he said, taking Minot's hand. 
 
 They were both silent a moment. 
 
 " In view of Wistar's continued illness," Sears 
 added, " it may be necessary to appoint his suc- 
 cessor as manager." 
 
 " But it is only a matter of weeks until Wistar 
 will be about again ! " 
 
 11 The affairs of the combination are very press- 
 ing.'^ 
 
 Minot looked at him firmly. " That doesn't 
 sound well to me. I'm afraid I can't carry much 
 hope to poor Wistar. Only remember! He is 
 a fighter, and this is a fight he will carry to the 
 finish no matter who or what stands in his way." 
 
 Again they were both silent. Presently Judith 
 came in, and Minot perceived that the interview 
 was at an end. 
 
 254
 
 j 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 UDITH1" Minot exclaimed, his an- 
 cient eye taking in her youth and 
 freshness with delight. " May I still 
 call you Judith?" he added, as she 
 gave him her hand. " This old house, this room, 
 everything takes me back how many? twenty 
 years. I called you Judith then ! " 
 
 " My name is Judith, Uncle F'ank'in," she said, 
 mimicking a child's accent. 
 
 He laughed at the memory she evoked. " Can 
 you bow to me now as you used to bow? " 
 
 She took her skirts in her fingers, and dipped 
 him a girlish courtesy. " I'm seven years old and 
 a half," she lisped, " and I'm never going to be 
 married ! " He laughed, and then she added in 
 her older manner: " You see I haven't been! And 
 I'm an old maid. To-morrow is my birthday 
 thirty!" 
 
 Minot turned slyly to Sears. " Won't any- 
 body have her?" he whispered audibly. 
 
 Banter was a thing beyond the old gentleman's 
 comprehension. " Before we were poor," he said, 
 " a regiment. She sent them all away. Then we 
 
 255
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 never saw anybody. I used to imagine that is, 
 Wistar was one of the regiment." 
 
 " Daddy! " Judith protested. 
 
 Minot nodded to her sympathetically. " Great 
 old joker, Sears," he said. 
 
 Sears smiled an ex post facto smile; it was a 
 new pleasure to be taken as a wit. " Oh, I keep 
 my eyes open!" he said. "After Wistar was 
 thrown in with us again, when he entered the com- 
 bination, he became another man. Instead of 
 burying himself in his work, he dined out, even 
 danced! And the game he played at polo! Ju- 
 dith was always asking news of him. But, some- 
 how or other, he is never able to find an evening 
 to dine with us. You know," he concluded with 
 elephantine levity, " I've suspected a little quar- 
 rel! " It is, in fact, a dangerous thing when a 
 serious man takes himself seriously as a joker. 
 
 " Daddy! " Judith cried in horror. " I'm sure 
 we didn't beg him ! You may remember that the 
 last time he dined here he was none too polite 
 to you ! " She looked about the room as if for 
 a pretext to change the conversation. " Have you 
 noticed the new furniture ? " she said, indicating a 
 colonial set, in fine keeping with the ancient room, 
 which had only that day been installed in place 
 of the black walnut and haircloth of two years 
 ago. " Daddy gave it to me for my birthday! " 
 
 "And your horses? " Minot inquired. " I re- 
 256
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 member you riding in short skirts playing scrub 
 games of little girl polo ! " 
 
 " I wanted her to have her horses back," Sears 
 said, " but it seems she's turned trust-buster." 
 
 " Nonsense, Daddy! I believe in trusts! " 
 
 " Whatever's the reason, she won't tell me. But 
 she won't take a penny of the new money and 
 it's all hers!" 
 
 Judith's glance fell. There was a string and a 
 scrap of paper on the floor, which the workman 
 had left when he unwrapped the furniture. She 
 picked them up and put them in the waste basket. 
 Then she said: " How is Mrs. Minot? The last 
 time I saw her I thought her cough was worse. 
 Can't you get her to the mountains? " 
 
 Minot's face clouded. " I got her to promise, 
 and then things took a bad turn with me, and that 
 frightened her again." Judith looked to her fa- 
 ther in a manner that gave Minot warning. 
 ' Think of that ! " he said, reverting to the lighter 
 tone. " Two women who refuse to spend 
 money ! " 
 
 " But surely, there's no question about your 
 good fortune ! " 
 
 Minot laughed. " Then you are a trust-buster ! 
 I'm one too, but I must say your money is all right 
 as long as you have Wistar in control." 
 
 "As long as we have?" Judith questioned. 
 
 A look of fear came into Sears's face. 
 257
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Minot made haste to change the subject. 
 " Still asking about Wistar! " he teased. 
 
 Judith blushed, but retorted with amiable dig- 
 nity: "What a very bad joke, Uncle Franklin! 
 Why shouldn't he keep control? When he joined 
 us we all promised that he should. Didn't we, 
 Daddy?" 
 
 Sears nodded. At the approach of the delicate 
 topic he had hobbled over to the desk, and was 
 now busied with papers. 
 
 "There is something worse than that!" said 
 Minot, still bent on changing the subject. She 
 had seated herself on the window seat, and he 
 sat down beside her. " Something that has 
 made you think ill of him," he said in a low voice; 
 " and what you think makes a difference ! " 
 
 "He told you that!" 
 
 " Not a word ! After the operation, as he was 
 coming out from under ether, he kept saying it 
 over and over quite unconscious of us his 
 tongue as thick as a drunkard's. At first I didn't 
 make out the words; and then before I realized 
 what they meant I had them by heart. It's none 
 of an old boy's business, but they were such sad, 
 true words. You call him the cave man. What 
 do you mean? " 
 
 'The cave man? I'd forgotten! He buried 
 himself in his dingy and dark old factory, and 
 when we came by and asked him to join our great 
 
 258
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 and glorious combination, he made angry faces 
 at us and reached for his club." 
 
 " But now he's heart and soul of all the great 
 and glorious things you have done. And I guess 
 it's all for you." He paused with sudden realiza- 
 tion. Sears was more nearly right than he had 
 supposed. " That's why you've been so interested 
 in him ! If you only could I " 
 
 She shook her head. " It isn't any use ! Men 
 don't make themselves over not really. Scratch 
 the advanced and progressive Mr. Wistar and 
 you'll find the cave man." 
 
 The old servant announced Penrhyn, and when 
 he entered Minot bowed and went out. 
 
 Sears arose and hobbled after him; but as Judith 
 opened the door for him he paused. " There are 
 my new papers as trustee of your estate," he said. 
 " You have forgotten to sign them, and the old 
 ones run out to-morrow." 
 
 " I was waiting for the notary. And my birth- 
 day has come before I realized birthdays al- 
 ways do! " She opened a drawer, and lifting the 
 revolver now no longer an object of terror to 
 her placed the papers beneath it. 
 
 At the head of the stairs Minot protested 
 against his host's painful courtesy. " Not a step 
 farther! " he said. Then he added: " Remember! 
 It's your own peace of mind that's at stake per- 
 haps your honor! " 
 
 259
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 ENRHYN had had no trouble in put- 
 ting a good face on his encounter with 
 Wistar at polo. Such are the canons 
 of sportsmanship that none of his fel- 
 low-players had contradicted his explanation of 
 it that is, outside of the intimacies of the club- 
 house. Several of the newspaper accounts of the 
 game gave him personally credit for the generosity 
 of allowing Wistar's shot at goal to score. Valuing 
 highly a free and enlightened press, he had al- 
 ways treated the reporters with the utmost consid- 
 ration indeed with his natural manner of com- 
 radely good humor; and he had taken advantage 
 of an interview after the game to let fall a hint 
 to this effect. He could not think, he remarked 
 casually, of profiting by so painful an accident. 
 
 To Judith he said as little as possible, for like 
 all accomplished liars he was sparing of false- 
 hood; but he had not been able to deny himself 
 one embellishment, chastily calculated to give his 
 deed a heroic background. He had long had a 
 slight touch of heart trouble the result of the 
 
 260
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 excitement of Wall Street and too many cigars; 
 and he permitted her to discover a fact which was 
 not a fact that the collision and fall had in- 
 creased it. For the sympathy he thus gained the 
 only cost was that for a time he was obliged to 
 forego the comradely privilege of smoking in her 
 presence. 
 
 Already, however, he had decided to regain 
 this. When Sears and Minot were gone, he took 
 out his cigarette case and lighted a cigarette. 
 
 Judith took it away from him. " Doctor's 
 orders! " she said, and threw it into the fireplace. 
 
 " By the way," he laughed, " that matter of 
 your executor's papers is important. There's 
 likely to be a fight at the next election of di- 
 rectors." 
 
 She looked at him squarely. " That's what 
 Mr. Minot meant! They intend to put Mr. Wis- 
 tar out of office ! " Going to the table she took 
 the papers out of the drawer and glanced through 
 them. "What does it all mean?" 
 
 " Some of the fellows on the board of direct- 
 ors say that just now, with the European folks 
 making trouble, we need a well man, and an ag- 
 gressive one." He sat on* the window seat as he 
 spoke, and stretched out his legs on it. 
 
 " But you and father have promised to stand 
 by him ! You will do so ? " 
 
 "Naturally!" He spoke in a casual tone. 
 261
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He had no fancy for the topic, and taking another 
 cigarette, lighted a match. 
 
 She dropped the papers, and, running across 
 the room to him reached for it. He turned from 
 her, laughing, and with his back hunched up 
 drew a few quick puffs. But she leaned over him, 
 and grasped the fingers that held the cigarette. 
 
 In retaliation he put his hand on her head, and 
 held it so that her hair brushed his cheek. 
 
 "Stanley!" she cried, in instinctive revulsion. 
 " How can you do such a thing? " 
 
 He made a rueful grimace. " You say we are 
 comrades. If you were a real comrade you would 
 have twisted my ear or flattened my nose. But 
 you put on all the airs of the affronted lady." 
 
 She considered a moment, then gave his ear a 
 vigorous tweak. 
 
 " Gee-hosaphat ! " he cried, laughing. " If you 
 would only be this way always ! " he added in a 
 mock serious vein, nursing his ear. " To-night 
 will begin your thirtieth birthday at one hour 
 after midnight." 
 
 " How do you know that? " 
 
 " I made Mrs. Boyser tell me. She said your 
 face was wrinkled like an apple in February, and 
 that you had an Ai pair of lungs." 
 
 ' You have no right to know such things ! " 
 
 " Do you think there's anything about you that 
 I don't want to know?" His face, usually so 
 
 262
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 matter-of-fact, lighted up with an expression that 
 was positively appealing. " I'd give the fingers 
 of my hand to see you as a baby, as a child, as 
 a little girl! Boyser saw it all; but when I tried 
 to make her tell me, she wasn't polite." 
 
 "What did she say?" 
 
 " She said, ' Aw-go-wan ' ! " 
 
 In Judith's own eyes she had been a horrid little 
 girl, spoiled and self-important. But there was 
 something very dear in such interest in her; and as 
 he spoke his glance was unwontedly endearing. 
 
 " You know what you promised," he said, half 
 timidly, half pleading, "your thirtieth birthday! 
 I don't dare think of it. It goes to my head like 
 champagne ! But all day long it has been haunt- 
 ing me, that hope ! It has made Wall Street gay, 
 the very noises of Broadway an intoxication! " 
 
 She did not answer, and he looked out of the 
 window across the square, through the trees of 
 which filtered the busy sounds of the city below. 
 
 " There it is," he pursued, " the heart of the 
 city, of the whole country, throbbing with life! 
 The big office buildings, the harbor, the railways! 
 With you to work for, what couldn't I do! Our 
 motor trust, I can make it the biggest thing in all 
 that world of big things. And that is only the 
 beginning! In the end I shall force my way to 
 the very top see the island down there beneath 
 me, the whole country, stretching to the Golden 
 
 263
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Gate I shall, if I can do it for youl For years 
 you have dropped out of the world the world 
 you were born to lead. Only let me have you 
 together we shall go back into it wealth, posi- 
 tion, everything yours ! " 
 
 Striking in upon the gray monotony of her life, 
 the words shone like fire the sort of fire before 
 which few women of spirit can remain quite cold. 
 Yet she fought for the firm foothold of self-com- 
 mand. " That," she said, " is the kind of con- 
 versation, I was taught, no modest and proper 
 young woman listens to, no modest and proper 
 young man permits himself." 
 
 " Love is never modest, and seldom proper." 
 
 "Stanley!" 
 
 " I know ! Your heart is set against love. That 
 is the modern madness ! " 
 
 She shook her head. " Mad! If I only were 
 I might listen to such conversation. I'm hope- 
 lessly, primitively sane." 
 
 " True love is sane," he said, reflecting, " but 
 it is not primitive. In primitive days, love was a 
 frenzy. The cave man hunted his wife with a 
 club." 
 
 " The cave man? What cave man? " 
 
 " Any old cave man ! You know ! Bearskin 
 pants and frowzy hair lived in a cave. Who'd 
 you think? The strongest cave man clubbed out 
 the brains of his' rivals, and then went for her" 
 
 264
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " Poor cave maiden ! Couldn't she get away? " 
 
 " She tried to. It was her instinct to flee. But 
 it was also her instinct to be caught. He caught 
 her by the hair of her golden head and dragged 
 her to his cave." 
 
 " Horrors ! " 
 
 " There she learned that she adored the man 
 with the strongest club that in her heart she must 
 adore him." 
 
 " Poor thing! " She laughed; but in the laugh 
 was a little shudder. 
 
 " Not poor thing at all ! That's all there ever 
 has been to love primitive love all there ever 
 will be! Girls have ideals of the grand passion. 
 The grand passion is the modern form of the cave 
 man's club the only thing that makes a girl give 
 up a dozen lovers for one man. But you you 
 are too wise, too wary." He was still lounging 
 on the window seat, and she stood beside him, 
 intent on what he was saying. The early autumn 
 sunlight fell full upon her, lending splendor to 
 her simple house gown, and casting an aura upon 
 the luxurious disorder of her hair " So wary," he 
 concluded sadly, "that I have lost all hope of land- 
 ing the club on the hair of your golden head." 
 
 He had spoken half laughingly, half in earnest, 
 but she was quite serious. ' You, Stanley," she 
 said, " are not the cave man." 
 
 He looked at her, questioning. " I don't pre- 
 18 265
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 tend to be. It's a blow to my vanity that I'm 
 not; but I try to be reconciled. I don't think 
 you'd care for the cave man. At eighteen per- 
 haps! But you have grown up, in heart and in 
 mind. And how you have grown up ! Every- 
 thing a man can care for in I don't say in his 
 mate, for I never knew the man who could be that 
 to you ! But a comrade what a comrade ! That 
 was our compact, you remember, two years ago 
 bachelor comrades together! In all these months 
 I have never spoken of it never even hinted! 
 And I scarcely dare to speak of it now! " 
 
 " But the cave man, the one with the bearskin 
 trousers, I mean ! What if some day he should 
 come after me with his club?" 
 
 " Once he might have. But you're no longer 
 the kind he cares for." 
 
 ' That sounds very well, but somehow I don't 
 like the way it feels." She paused, and then said: 
 "About Mr. Wistar?" 
 
 " You're not afraid of him! " 
 
 "Afraid? No! But you haven't explained 
 to me you mean to be fair with him? " 
 
 "Fair? Of course! But he is making it hard." 
 ' Yet we've known all along he's an obstinate 
 conservative." 
 
 " Everything we have worked for is within our 
 grasp, and he is letting it slip through his fingers. 
 The whole board of directors is against him." 
 
 266
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " But you and father- 
 
 " We have given our promise," he said with 
 admirable directness and simplicity. 
 
 She was silent for a long time, as it seemed to 
 Penrhyn. 
 
 "And your promise to me?" he said at last. 
 "Comrades bachelor comrades together?" 
 
 "You mean that literally?" 
 
 He paused just the fraction of a second. Then 
 he spoke with conviction. " That is the only way 
 I could mean it." 
 
 " All my life I have hoped such a thing might 
 happen. But they say and I am beginning to 
 believe them that it is not possible, not in the 
 scheme of nature." 
 
 Penrhyn had once pleaded with her for the nor- 
 mal. But now he said: " It is possible for those 
 who truly love." 
 
 "I am very lonesome!" She spoke as if to 
 herself. " When May is gone I shall be forsaken 
 and forlorn! " Again she was silent. 
 
 He watched her, quiet, intense. 
 
 " You promised me ! " he ventured at last. 
 
 " I shall keep my promise, too," she concluded. 
 
 He leaped from the window seat, caught her 
 two hands and drew her toward him. 
 
 She evaded, and with a quick movement of her 
 hand across his face flattened his nose with her 
 thumb. " Bachelor comrades ! " she said. 
 
 267
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 He was still nursing the cartilage when May 
 and Billy came in. 
 
 "Not late for the committee meeting?" Billy 
 asked. 
 
 " Smith hasn't come yet," Penrhyn answered 
 nasally. 
 
 " We've had the loveliest morning ! " May 
 said. 
 
 " You bad child! " Judith admonished. " You 
 must get on with your trousseau things! You 
 should have gone to Francoise ! " 
 
 May smiled demurely. '' We went." 
 
 " We ! " exclaimed Judith. 
 
 " Billy wouldn't leave me ! Franchise thought 
 it the grandest joke ! She said " May paused 
 in embarrassment. 
 
 " What did she say? " Penrhyn demanded. 
 
 " Help, help 1 " cried Billy. " Won't anybody 
 respect my modesty ! " 
 
 May rose on tiptoe and whispered to Judith. 
 
 " Maya ! " Judith cried. Then she laughed. 
 
 [< The shameless French hussy ! " Penrhyn 
 cried. " Naughty, naughty! Oh, oh! " Then he 
 whispered audibly to Onderdonk. " What did 
 she say! Tell me! " 
 
 Billy turned on his heel. 
 
 " Mr. Irvingdale Smith," announced Boyser, 
 opening the door. 
 
 268
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 N the incidents of two years ago On- 
 derdonk had long felt that there had 
 been an element of which he had been 
 kept in ignorance. But he had learned 
 enough of late from Wistar to know that at the 
 coming election of officers they would have to fight 
 for their power. Even in this matter of the pres- 
 ent policy of the committee, he feared the worst. 
 With Mr. Sears on their side, it was true, the two 
 factions were equally divided, even in Wistar's 
 absence; and it did not seem likely that Penrhyn 
 and Smith would stand by the course they had 
 begun when Wistar was supposed to be dying. 
 But he was by this time well aware of his oppo- 
 nents' skill and boldness. It was necessary to meet 
 them at every point with the utmost resolution. 
 And he had now to take command. 
 
 " It has come to my knowledge," he said, as 
 Mr. Sears took the chair and disposed his game 
 leg beneath the table, " that some one of us has 
 lately been reversing Wistar's policy as general 
 manager." As he said this he looked squarely at 
 Smith, and then at Penrhyn. 
 
 269
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " If Mr. Onderdonk has any charge to make," 
 said Penrhyn, stretching himself in luxurious in- 
 dolence upon the window seat, " may I suggest 
 that it is in order to make it specifically? " 
 
 " Among other things, we have begun a course 
 of predatory competition against Minot." 
 
 " The man has refused a fair offer to sell out 
 to us. May I ask what course Mr. Onderdonk 
 would recommend? " 
 
 " I deny that our offer was fair. His machine 
 is better than our best in its line. It wa's the part 
 of wisdom and honesty to buy it in even at an ad- 
 vanced figure, and abandon Smith's car." 
 
 At this Smith sat up and smiled with piratic 
 benevolence. 
 
 " Begging your pardon ! " Billy concluded. 
 
 "Don't mind me!" Smith vouchsafed with a 
 grin. " I'm not sensitive about the machine I 
 manufacture only the machine I drive ! " 
 
 Billy thought he saw a chance to score. " What 
 make? " he said. 
 
 " A Minot," said Smith with unconcern. " And 
 you?" 
 
 " A Minot, too. You see we are agreed that 
 the car is better." 
 
 "We'll shake on that!" 
 
 With a twinkle he made as if to reach for 
 Billy's hand; but Billy ignored him. "That day 
 Penrhyn blew up near Wistar's garage in one of 
 270
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 my cars," Smith pursued unabashed " if the pa- 
 pers got hold of such an accident it might hurt 
 the trade. Smith blown to glory in a Smith ma- 
 chine ! But are you afraid of your car?" 
 
 " Oh, I don't know! " Billy laughed, his good 
 nature prevailing. " My old car was painted red, 
 and one day while I was shifting gears on a hill, 
 along came a farmer with a bull. The beast 
 dragged the old Reuben at me, and before I could 
 get going on the new speed, slewed me into the 
 ditch. The papers did get hold of that. Such a 
 thing can't happen with Minot's gear. Or if it 
 does, it's a bull on Minot." 
 
 Smith rose solemnly and grasped Billy's hand. 
 
 Billy was not slow to see the purpose of such 
 joviality. " As a fellow-motorist in distress," he 
 said, " I shake your hand. But as regards Minot, 
 I have doubts. I want to know just what you are 
 doing to him." 
 
 " Does that fall within your bailiwick?" Pen- 
 rhyn inquired. 
 
 " It does ! " Billy answered firmly. " As a mem- 
 ber of this committee I am morally responsible for 
 what it does. If you are acting illegally, it is my 
 right my duty to protest. I demand that the 
 whole thing be put .down on the records of our 
 meetings in black and white to be produced, if 
 necessary, in a court of law." 
 
 Penrhyn was startled, but in a moment he said 
 271
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 in his customary tone: " Did Wistar ever say ' by 
 your leave ' to us? " 
 
 " No," said Billy, nonplused for a moment. 
 Then he added quickly: "But Wistar was our 
 authorized manager ! " 
 
 "Precisely!" said Penrhyn. "But he is out 
 of the game, and it was to authorize his successor 
 that this meeting was called. I propose that we 
 do so." 
 
 " I second the motion," said Smith. 
 
 " But that means reversing his whole policy ! 
 And you promised to stand by him ! " 
 
 " As long as he could get about and do business, 
 we stood by him. But now the committee has to 
 proceed without him, according to the best of its 
 comparatively feeble ability." 
 
 Billy jumped to his feet. " This is a matter of 
 vital importance, and you decide it without warn- 
 ing, without discussion. I demand that we wait 
 until Wistar can be with us." 
 
 '* When you've been in business longer," Pen- 
 rhyn said coolly, " you'll know that important 
 matters don't wait." 
 
 " Important matters wait for important men ! 
 You know, better than anyone, why Wistar is not 
 here. You broke the fair rules of the game at the 
 risk of his life, and now you are breaking the law 
 at the risk of his honor, and to the loss of your 
 own!" 
 
 272
 
 Penrhyn turned to Sears. " Mr. Chairman," 
 he said, " a motion has been made and seconded. 
 I call for the question." 
 
 Sears was obviously uncomfortable. " I prom- 
 ised," he said, " to use my influence to wait for 
 Wistar." 
 
 " Pardon me," said Penrhyn, " if I insist on a 
 point of order. As chairman you have no influ- 
 ence. It is your duty to put the question." 
 
 The old gentleman did not answer. 
 
 " I vote yes," said Smith. 
 
 " I vote no ! " cried Billy. 
 
 " I vote yes," said Penrhyn, and looked at the 
 chairman. 
 
 Sears remained silent. 
 
 " The question is carried," Penrhyn concluded. 
 
 Billy strode into the middle of the floor. " Let 
 me warn you ! " he cried. " Wistar is a sick man. 
 He lies on his back, with a gash in his side that 
 throbs at every pulse tortures him if he so much 
 as lifts his head. But he is not dead yet and 
 he's not the dying kind ! When he is well he will 
 be well as ever. And he will fight you know 
 how he fights like a wild-cat " 
 
 " I'm in the wild-cat business myself," said Pen- 
 rhyn with a slow smile. 
 
 " Yes," said Onderdonk, " but the sort of 
 wild-cat that fights in the dark! Wistar fights in 
 the open, and he will drag you there, show you 
 
 273
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 up as you are in the light of Wall Street I You 
 have jumped into his boots. Stay there if you 
 dare! The time will come " Billy was very 
 angry and the words choked in his throat. 
 
 There was a knock without, and Mrs. Boyser 
 came in. 
 
 Penrhyn did not heed, but smiled again at the 
 young man with indulgent cynicism, and said: 
 ' The time has come." 
 
 " Mr. Wistar has come," said Boyser. 
 
 "What!" cried Penrhyn, his self-assurance 
 falling from him like a garment. " You are 
 crazy ! He's flat on his back, half dead ! " 
 
 " Sure, at the sight of him," she answered, " I 
 thought he was all dead. It's his own ghost that 
 he is." 
 
 274
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 HEN Minot returned from his inter- 
 view with Sears his report confirmed 
 Wistar's worst apprehensions. It 
 took no clairvoyance to read in it the 
 vacillation of a soul sorely tried the traditions 
 and habits of a gentleman in unequal combat with 
 inherent weakness and plausible temptation. 
 
 " I'm going to get up and go out," Wistar an- 
 nounced to the nurse. 
 
 There was something in his voice that alarmed 
 her. But she speedily recovered confidence. " Try 
 it," she said. It was a bold course to take, but she 
 knew her man and trusted in his good sense. 
 
 Slowly Wistar rose in bed, his face tortured 
 with pain. 
 
 " Bravo ! " she said, mocking him. " You 
 stand it almost as well as a woman would. But 
 now let's see you walk! " After so long a spell 
 in bed the strongest man is like a baby in its first 
 effort to command its legs. 
 
 Wistar rose to his feet, and, though his head 
 swam, he managed to make his way to where his 
 clothes were laid in the wardrobe. " My dear 
 
 275
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Miss Peters," he said, " for three weeks I have 
 been flicking my muscles, just so I could do this 
 if I had to." 
 
 ' You shan't go ! " she said, now thoroughly 
 alarmed. " One strain on your side and you will 
 tear open the wound ! " 
 
 Wistar had been moving with catlike softness 
 and smoothness. " I know it," he answered. 
 " That's why I'm so careful." 
 
 "You are risking your life! " she cried. And 
 Minot standing by took part with her. 
 
 " The lives of others are at stake," he said to 
 Minot. "Will you kindly tell Mrs. Minot 
 my own condition entitles me to be heard that 
 she is to take care of her health. I guarantee that 
 she is justified that she would not be justified if 
 she didn't!" Then he turned to the nurse. "And 
 it's a matter of more than life, Miss Peters. It 
 is a matter of justice and honor. If you try to 
 force me back I shall resist you know what that 
 may mean! Let me go and I shall see that no 
 harm is done to the wound." 
 
 If Miss Peters had known the crisis as well as 
 she knew the man, she would have sat on his head 
 as it had lain on the pillow. 
 
 When the motor entered Washington Square 
 and glided up to the curb, Judith had been look- 
 ing out at the window, and as Wistar, haggard 
 and spectral, walked cautiously and erect up the 
 
 276
 
 marble steps, supported between Minot and Miss 
 Peters, she hurried to the door. Intuitively she 
 took in the situation. "You mustn't!" she 
 pleaded. " All that we promised you father, 
 Stanley as long as you live, they must keep their 
 word. By risking your life you risk everything! 
 And what can you possibly gain ! " 
 
 His suffering made him benign. " I gain this," 
 he said, " that after to-day there will be no doubt 
 in that matter of sleeves. I love the old ones, but 
 I know they ought to be more so." 
 
 "It's no use," said Minot; and even Miss 
 Peters pleaded that he might do what he had to 
 do as quickly as possible. So they toiled up the 
 stairs within, and presently Wistar stood before 
 his four associates, the anguished pallor of his 
 cheeks standing out from the black neckerchief 
 and fur coat which he had thrown around him. 
 
 " Am I in time? " he asked of Onderdonk. 
 
 " Yes! To be bundled back to bed, where you 
 belong!" 
 
 " Am I in time ! " Wistar demanded sternly. 
 
 " Just in time," said Billy, obeying a sign from 
 Minot and Miss Peters. 
 
 Wistar sank back into an easy chair and looked 
 about him. " What I say must be short. But it 
 will be to the point. Where are we? " 
 
 Minot went out, and with a final word of cau- 
 tion Miss Peters followed. 
 
 277
 
 T H E CAVE MAN 
 
 " Penrhyn owns that he has got out his knife," 
 said Onderdonk, " and he has proposed to make 
 Smith general manager in your place." 
 
 Penrhyn's teeth set. " That motion," he said, 
 " has been carried." 
 
 Onderdonk raised his hand with a significant 
 gesture. " But it has not been declared so by the 
 chairman ! Wistar votes with me against it ! " 
 
 " I do," said Wistar. 
 
 " Now," cried Billy, " the deciding vote rests 
 with Mr. Sears ! " 
 
 Wistar looked to the old man, upon whose rec- 
 titude, he felt, the world was staked. " You will 
 not forget ! " he said, in a voice none the less stern 
 because it was soft and subdued. " Law is law, 
 and honor is honor!" 
 
 Sears was silent. 
 
 Penrhyn cut in with decision. " Because old 
 John Sherman passed a freak bill against trusts, 
 are we to have our hands tied? That law is 
 broken every day, by every big industry in the 
 country. Have you ever heard that any trust 
 manager has been sent to prison? Have any of 
 them been fined more than a shopgirl's carfare? " 
 
 " Will you argue that way," Wistar asked, very 
 quietly, " in the open board of directors before 
 the stockholders in the annual meeting? " 
 
 'Yes! A thousand times! They listen to a 
 trust-buster! You make me laugh. They will 
 
 278
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 turn' you down like that I And they are right. 
 You are hide-bound by narrow, academic scru- 
 ples. We are looking to the future of a great 
 industry." 
 
 Wistar laid his head back on the chair. " Pen- 
 rhyn the philanthropist! " he said. 
 
 " Wistar does not believe in monopolies in 
 trade," Penrhyn shot back at him with mounting 
 rancor, " but he does not scruple to pose as hav- 
 ing a monopoly here of wisdom and virtue." 
 
 Smith ventured an inward chuckle. 
 
 " I have no wish to bust Wistar's virtue trust," 
 Penrhyn pursued, his eyes and his words trained 
 upon Sears, " yet it is something that the gentle- 
 men I represent are meeting a foreign aggression 
 with the vision and the will of statesmen." 
 
 Wistar leaned forward, his eyes like wind-swept 
 coals in his ashen cheeks. He, also, spoke to Mr. 
 Sears. " This is the holiest exhortation to virtue 
 since the oil trade was plundered to establish uni- 
 versities and churches. Has Mr. Penrhyn de- 
 tailed to you what he is doing to the independent 
 manufacturers to Franklin Minot, for exam- 
 ple?" 
 
 Sears shook his head. 
 
 " I tried to make him," said Billy. " He re- 
 fused." 
 
 " Minot came with me," Wistar answered. 
 " Ask him in." 
 
 279
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " I object! " cried Penrhyn. " This is unheard 
 of a low trick to work on our sympathies ! " 
 
 Wistar looked firmly at Sears. " Your decision, 
 Mr. Chairman," he said. 
 
 " Show Minot in," said Sears. 
 
 " I knew you would be with us, sir," said Billy. 
 
 Wistar lay back again in his chair. Even now 
 he shrank from the danger of exposing the old 
 gentleman to Onderdonk, and he rejoiced in this 
 sign that such extreme measures would not be 
 necessary. 
 
 As Minot entered he looked in alarm to Wis- 
 tar. " For God's sake, man, think of yourself," 
 he pleaded. " Already you've been here five min- 
 utes. Let me take you home." 
 
 Onderdonk took the cue, and together they laid 
 hands on Wistar's shoulders. 
 
 For the first time Wistar lost his self-control. 
 "Everybody tries to bully me!" he said, with 
 the grievance, in fact the petulance, of the invalid. 
 " And I am weak I need all the strength I 
 have." 
 
 The two men stood apart from him. 
 
 "Tell Mr. Sears," Wistar said to Minot, 
 " what these men are doing to you." 
 
 " It's the old game. They have forced the 
 makers of wheels and bodies to raise their rates 
 to me twenty per cent. The foundries charge me 
 double for my castings. And I gather that half 
 
 280
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 of what they squeeze out of me they are giving 
 to you people in the way of secret rebates." 
 
 "Is this so?" said Wistar to Penrhyn. "If 
 you deny it, we can prove it against you by our 
 books," 
 
 " I don't deny it," Penrhyn answered sullenly. 
 
 " You and the makers of parts," commented 
 Wistar, " have cut the throat of this man, and to- 
 gether you are drinking his blood ! " 
 
 " Put it that way if it pleases you! " 
 
 "Is that all, Minot?" 
 
 " Not half ! When they failed to force me to 
 sell my invention they lured away my foreman, 
 and have started to steal it from me." 
 
 Penrhyn and Smith were silent. 
 
 " That is impossible," said Mr. Sears. " You 
 are protected by your patent." 
 
 " You are fortunate to be so ignorant of patent 
 law. Men who have had experience of it know 
 that a big concern like yours dares to do anything. 
 My own lawyer advises me not to fight, but to 
 sell out to you if you offer me half a price." 
 
 " I think I can say for my colleagues," said 
 Sears, " that we stand ready to give you a full 
 price. We shall not drive a bargain. What we 
 have at heart is the good of the industry a great 
 American industry." 
 
 ' You say ' sell out.' What you mean is sell 
 out and get out. If I intended to do that do you 
 19 281
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 think I'd have told what I did? My business 
 is my own. I made it, and as long as I live 
 I shall control it! For twenty years I fought 
 against injustice when my family was sick and 
 starving. There is still sickness; and what you 
 threaten may mean starvation. But there's plenty 
 of fight left in me. Give me my right what I 
 asked at the outset and I will work with you 
 and for you. Try to hold me up, and I will 
 sell my life dear, I tell you! An American in- 
 dustry! I am an American merchant. As long 
 as I live I shall be free ! " 
 
 A dead silence followed the outburst. Penrhyn 
 and Smith sat unmoved. Sears fidgeted. 
 
 " This answer is final? " Wistar asked. 
 
 " Final." 
 
 " I'm sorry," Wistar said, " but I would have 
 done the same." 
 
 He bowed and Minot went out. 
 
 " Since you have raised the question of patriot- 
 ism, Mr. Sears," Wistar said slowly, " let me say 
 that it is the one which I myself hold most deeply 
 at heart. Perhaps you have not noticed what is 
 happening in this Hamiltonian republic of ours, 
 this Jeffersonian democracy? The movement is 
 slow, but already it has gained a mighty momen- 
 tum. The spirit of the time is swinging us to 
 two extremes a heartless plutocracy and a rabid 
 proletariat. The factions are violently opposed 
 
 282
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 to each other, but they are more violently opposed 
 to every valuable instinct in American life. If 
 things continue as they are going, one of two ends 
 must come an empire or socialism. The hope 
 for the future of the republic, I believe, rests with 
 men placed as we are placed upon the vigor and 
 the honesty with which we combat the greed of 
 the money power." 
 
 "Rot!" interrupted Penrhyn. "You talk 
 like a Teddyotorial." 
 
 Wistar looked at him quickly, the glow in his 
 eye leaping into flame. " A great American in- 
 dustry ! " he cried, his voice rising to its full 
 power. " You, Stanley Penrhyn, and you, Irving- 
 dale Smith, are slaughtering Minot and his fel- 
 lows because they stand in the way of your private 
 greed!" 
 
 Penrhyn jumped to his feet. ' This is a per- 
 sonal attack ! " he shouted. 
 
 "You have discovered that! " Wistar laughed 
 bitterly. " It is because it is the answer to a 
 personal attack! I hoped I should not have to 
 make it for your sake, Mr. Sears, and for the 
 sake of those who belong to you. But you force 
 me. Before I speak, I give you one more chance 
 to side with me against these men." 
 
 Sears's distress was pitiful to see; but he was 
 silent, and Wistar was obliged to play his trump 
 card. 
 
 283
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " When Penrhyn urged me to join you even 
 then he was planning to wrest my power away 
 from me, to use it for his own evil ends. He 
 tricked me then as he has tried to trick me now." 
 
 " Oh, come on, Wistar! " said Smith with burly 
 expostulation. " You've allowed this thing to get 
 on your nerves. You're not feeling well. Since you 
 must talk, let's talk about something pleasant ! " 
 
 " I call for the question ! " said Penrhyn. 
 
 "It is true I'm not feeling well!" Wistar 
 rose slowly from his chair, swept his antagonists 
 with a glance of fire, and then looked steadily at 
 Sears. As he did so his hand clutched at his 
 groin. " Every beat of my heart stabs me in this 
 half-healed wound! But if my side opened again 
 and let out my entrails, I would proclaim what this 
 man is I " 
 
 "Wow! Wow! Wow !" remarked Penrhyn. 
 And then, with the effect of adorning a phrase, he 
 added: u Yow! Yow! Yow ! " 
 
 ' The theft of my papers from my safe two 
 years ago it was Penrhyn who put Andrews up 
 to it and paid for it." 
 
 Penrhyn's face mantled with rage and hate. 
 "Andrews has peached!" he cried. 
 
 Wistar smiled through his pain. " You yourself 
 have peached, in these very words you speak! 
 Andrews is discreet. He is paid too well. He is 
 kept in cold storage blackmail ! " 
 
 284
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " He calls it my ice-bill," said Penrhyn, recov- 
 ering a cynical composure. " But you can't prove 
 it." 
 
 " I can prove it." Wistar paused and the si- 
 lence of fear fell upon his four associates. It 
 was the critical moment, and he ably took ad- 
 vantage of it. " What is more," he concluded, 
 " I can prove that Mr. Sears was party to that 
 theft." 
 
 Billy stared from Wistar to Sears, from Sears 
 to Penrhyn, and then fixed his eyes on the old 
 gentleman. 
 
 Penrhyn was not to be surprised into a second 
 confession. " It's a lie ! " he shouted. 
 
 But Sears spoke also. " I used all my influence 
 against it," he said. " He wouldn't listen to 
 me." 
 
 ' Yet you knew what he was doing," Wistar in- 
 cisively reminded him. " And you aided him by 
 your silence. You can't deny that! " 
 
 " Neither can you prove it," Penrhyn retorted, 
 " against him or against me! " 
 
 " Andrews invested the money in our stock. 
 Will you be able to explain where he got the 
 money ? " 
 
 Penrhyn was clearly taken aback. " How do 
 you know that?" he cried. 
 
 " From my broker by accident. And the night 
 of the theft I saw Andrews leaving your rooms. 
 
 285
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 To this day he goes to see you regularly to col- 
 lect the money on which he lives." 
 
 Penrhyn was dumb. 
 
 Wistar turned to Mr. Sears. " I call on you 
 to defeat his motion, to stand by me till this man 
 is driven from power. If you don't I shall prove 
 him a thief in the court of common criminals, 
 where he belongs." 
 
 For a moment Penrhyn seemed crushed. But 
 his face cleared and gave evidence of his in- 
 tensely active mind. Finally it broke into a smile 
 of triumph: " Oh, will you do all those things? " 
 he said coolly. " Do you remember who was 
 with me when I met Andrews? It was Mr. Sears. 
 Do you remember to whom Andrews sent the let- 
 ter? To Mr. Sears. Make any charge you 
 choose. In a court of law it is he who will have to 
 answer." 
 
 Mr. Sears rose from his chair, his face one note 
 of abject fear. " I did it under protest," he found 
 words to say. 
 
 ' You dirty blackguard," said Onderdonk, 
 striding toward Penrhyn. " Get out of this house, 
 or I'll kick you out." 
 
 " Stop ! " said Wistar. " There is a motion 
 before the meeting." 
 
 Penrhyn donned an air of magnanimity. "I will 
 do all any man can to take what responsibility 
 belongs to me. But the facts are the facts. It 
 
 286
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 rests with Wistar to say whether Mr. Sears is to 
 be branded as a criminal, his family the family of 
 a criminal." 
 
 It was Wistar's turn to stand silent and amazed. 
 Penrhyn's reasons for sparing the old man, he was 
 inclined to believe, had once been no less than his 
 own. But two years had passed, of the record 
 of which he was ignorant. Very likely the young 
 financier would not be equal to his threat. But 
 abyss after abyss of baseness had yawned before 
 him, and now this, the deepest of all. He did not 
 dare, he had not the strength, to put the threat to 
 the test. 
 
 "You don't answer?" Penrhyn said sardon- 
 ically. " Right enough ! People don't do these 
 things! Meantime, I call for the previous ques- 
 tion." 
 
 The old gentleman's lips parted as if he were 
 about to speak; but no words came. 
 
 " It rests with you, Mr. Chairman ! " Penrhyn 
 prompted him. Then, as Sears sat speechless, he 
 spoke on, his words of sharp threat and com- 
 mand persuasively enveloped in the soft velvet 
 of his tones. " With scruples such as Wistar's, 
 all your life long you have failed in deal after 
 deal risked everything, and lost it. I bring you 
 one last chance the biggest you ever had or 
 any man! You believe with me. Whether you 
 stand by me or not, I shall win. If you value your 
 
 287
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 position as a director, as an officer of the corpora- 
 tion, if you belieye in the future we hope, you will 
 help me down this trust-busting fool here and 
 now." 
 
 Wincing before Penrhyn, Sears turned in agi- 
 tation to Wistar. " Of this crime you speak of," 
 he said, " you know I am innocent. As to the 
 general question of our policy as a consolidation 
 I can only say that I disagree with you." 
 
 "The motion is carried!" Penrhyn cried. 
 "We win!" 
 
 Sears nodded. 
 
 Onderdonk started to his feet in amazement. 
 But Wistar sank faintly into his chair. 
 
 288
 
 F 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 OR the moment Wistar's strength 
 was spent; but he had not fainted 
 he was not the fainting kind. As he 
 lay exhausted in his chair, tortured 
 by the pain in his side, he heard a raucous whisper 
 of Smith's to Penrhyn, the purport of which only 
 gradually dawned upon him. 
 
 "Did you get on to Wistar?" the amiable 
 pirate said. " Half dead as he is, the hair on the 
 back of his neck rose and bristled. When a man 
 has that kind of fight in him thank Heaven 
 we've got the drop on him ! I'm off to get busy 
 you know ! " 
 
 That could only mean one thing. Ignorant of 
 Wistar's slow, steady buying in the past, and con- 
 vinced that he was now intending for the first 
 time to fight them for control, they were thinking 
 to get into the market ahead of him and forestall 
 him. It was the thing Wistar most desired, for 
 it gave him the chance to sell his considerable 
 holdings, get out of the trust with a profit, and 
 range himself with Minot against it to stand 
 once again where he had stood at first, and with 
 no less fighting power. In itself this would be a 
 
 289
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 dangerous blow. If, as Wistar had reason to be- 
 lieve, Penrhyn and Sears had plunged on the 
 speculation in rubber, it was not unlikely to ruin 
 the trust, and both of them with it. 
 
 Then came the friendly voice of Billy. " If 
 it's a question of fight, old man, tell me what to 
 do!" 
 
 In alarm at Wistar's collapse, Sears, mindful 
 of his duty as a host, had gone out to summon the 
 nurse. Penrhyn had followed Smith into the hall. 
 Left alone with Billy, Wistar outlined his plan. 
 " Do you think we can do it? " he asked. 
 
 " If you think we can, I think so, too." 
 
 " I think we can. But are you willing to follow 
 me into the last ditch? Even if it ruins Mr. Sears 
 and that means Miss Sears! Think of it, and 
 then think of it again." 
 
 "Think! I can't think! All I can do is to 
 see red and go blind with rage ! " 
 
 "Then wait till you can think! " 
 
 " In this case, I don't have to. You are a man ! 
 I am your partner, your comrade. Those others 
 God ! I didn't know there were that kind ! Old 
 fellow, I stand with you \ " 
 
 Wistar smiled with slow but deep exaltation. 
 " Thank Heaven ! " he said, " there is still one 
 man in this land." His eyes were closed in pain, 
 but fumbling, he found Billy's hand. " Now be 
 off," he concluded. " Watch the market When 
 
 290
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 they buy, telephone me; I'll give the order to 
 sell. Don't worry about me. I'll rest a bit, and 
 then Minot and Miss Peters will take me home. 
 Call me up here if you have anything to tell' me 
 soon." 
 
 The nurse and Minot had, in fact, already come 
 in, and as Onderdonk went out they supported 
 Wistar to the window seat, laid him out on it, 
 loosened his few garments, and made sure that 
 all was well with his wound. 
 
 As they were finishing Sears came back from the 
 study, now no longer the harassed man of affairs 
 but the dignified and thoughtful friend. He of- 
 fered a room and a bed, and the services of his 
 kitchen. 
 
 By what skill of casuistry he had succeeded in 
 justifying himself to himself Wistar did not pause 
 to consider. " My dear sir," he said, " I am more 
 concerned for you than you could possibly be for 
 me. I beg you to believe me ! This fight you 
 have seen here to-day isn't a circumstance to what 
 you will have to face only an opening skirmish. 
 What I intend, of course I can't tell you." He 
 paused, and Minot discreetly went out. " But I 
 beg you to remember one thing: for two years I 
 have held this combination in the palm of my 
 hand. I made its strength, and I know its weak- 
 ness. In the end, if you keep on with Penrhyn, I 
 shall have to crush you both, blood and bone ! " 
 
 291
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The old man shook his head. " I have made 
 my decision," he answered. 
 
 " But your daughter what would be her de- 
 cision? " 
 
 A look of horror came into the mild, dreamy 
 eyes. " You won't tell Judith ! " he almost 
 gasped; and then he pleaded: " Her love is all I 
 have in the world. She doesn't understand af- 
 fairs. She would despise me ! Surely, you would 
 not turn her against me! " 
 
 Wistar's lips curled in scorn. " Once, though 
 I didn't mean to, I told her the truth. It was not 
 a happy occasion. In the open meeting just now 
 I told that truth again. Much good it has done 
 me ! Carry tales of you to your daughter, who 
 loves you, believes in you ? Thank you, no ! Not 
 though your ruin is her ruin also, your sorrow her 
 sorrow." 
 
 " I thank you," the old gentleman said. 
 
 Judith knocked at the hall door, and looked 
 tentatively in. "Is he all right?" she asked of 
 the nurse, who had taken her station in a far 
 corner. Then, reading the good news in her face, 
 she came up to Wistar. " Thank Heaven you 
 are still alive ! " she said. 
 
 11 1 have nine lives, like a cat. Every one of 
 them is wretched." But as he said this, and 
 looked into her eyes, his face was almost happy. 
 
 She laughed gently. " Eight of them are dead, 
 292
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 poor dears. Won't you let us put the last little 
 life to bed? " She laid a hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " It is so much weller and happier here, with 
 you. I haven't known in years what it is to rest 
 as I am resting now ! Listen ! I can hear the 
 little life purring! " 
 
 She did not answer, and Wistar closed his eyes, 
 blissful for a moment in spite of his grim resolve. 
 
 Miss Peters had already slipped out to give 
 free scope, perhaps, to the charm in the blue love 
 knot on the tail feathers of his soul. 
 
 Judith took her father by the arm and gently 
 led him to the door. Then she came back to Wis- 
 tar, and laid her hand on the hair of his forehead. 
 " Our promise to you we have broken it ! " 
 
 Wistar was silent. With the cool pressure of 
 
 that hand upon him, what use was there for words? 
 
 ' To prevent what we have done," she began, 
 
 and then broke off with a quick question. " What 
 
 have we done? " 
 
 Wistar did not answer. 
 
 ' You have risked your life to-day. And still 
 you must fight? " 
 
 She was not altogether ignorant of affairs, he 
 perceived, in spite of her father's assertion. 
 
 "Shall you be able to win?" she pursued. 
 "Tell me!" 
 
 He opened his eyes with weary disillusion. 
 " Won't you let me forget all that? " he said. 
 
 293
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Going to the table drawer she took out her ex- 
 ecutor's papers, and with them the revolver. 
 " Then my shares if I sign these papers father 
 will use them against you ? Few as they are, in a 
 close fight, they might mean all the difference." 
 
 Clearly, she knew more than a little of affairs. 
 Would it be possible to keep her in the dark about 
 her father? About Penrhyn? 
 
 When she spoke again it was with sudden reso- 
 lution. " Your love for me . . . two years ago 
 I made use of it in a matter of money ! And 
 when you did all that I begged of you, I forbade 
 you the house ! " 
 
 Wistar raised a hand in deprecation. 
 
 She held forth the revolver in the palm of her 
 hand. " My excuse if I have any excuse is 
 this! Father is weak. Oh, I know it! Better 
 than anybody! Another failure I didn't dare 
 risk what it might mean ! But now his honor is at 
 stake his honor and mine! We promised that 
 we should help you to do what you thought right. 
 Tell me ! Is it true that you are forced to fight 
 him?" 
 
 He was silent still; but she took his silence for 
 assent. " From to-day I take command." She 
 showed him the papers, and grasped them to tear 
 them across. 
 
 His heart leaped in response to her honest, loyal 
 courage. " You are a man I " he cried. But he 
 
 294
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 added quickly: " Don't do that! Think what I 
 have to do ! " 
 
 Her hand faltered. "Don't overvalue me!" 
 she said, very gravely. " If the worst comes to the 
 worst, what will it mean? " 
 
 ' What it would have meant two years ago. 
 The loss of everything." 
 
 She had been right. The mother Eve died hard 
 in her. Honest as she was for herself, now as 
 then she resented it in the depths of her heart that 
 this man who loved her could stand thus against 
 her. 
 
 " And still," she said, " you don't hesitate " 
 
 " I foresaw all this from the start," he pleaded. 
 " I have done all a man could do to avoid it. You 
 say I have risked my life to-day. Do you know 
 why? Because it was my last hope of befriending 
 you ! Now " 
 
 She stood upright before him, and the sunlight 
 that streamed through the window smote her abun- 
 dant hair into flakes of gold. " And now? " she 
 prompted him. 
 
 His manner was of a sudden austere, with 
 almost a touch of ferocity. " Now, I must fight, 
 though every blow falls on your golden head." 
 
 ' You are the cave man, violent and merciless ! " 
 Her tone was acccusing; but it was also as if she 
 were searching his heart, and were awed by what 
 she found there. 
 
 295.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 "I am what I am! " 
 
 Still she sought to probe the depths of his im- 
 pulse. ' You would make all my life bare and 
 wretched ruin those I love father who is weak 
 and old, Stanley who is young and strong " 
 
 He raised himself to his elbow. " Penrhyn! " 
 he said with an outburst that was not stayed by his 
 pain. " Penrhyn has made you love him! " 
 
 " I have said I would marry him." 
 ' You marry Penrhyn ! " he repeated with 
 sullen intensity. His heart cried out in warning 
 to her, but he controlled it. He must be silent 
 now doubly silent. Yet if ever he had been merci- 
 less, it was in holding his peace. 
 
 Penrhyn came forward from the study door. 
 How long he had been standing there Wistar did 
 not know. " You spoke so loud," he said, quiet 
 and sardonic, " so loud I overheard your what 
 shall I call them? Congratulations? " 
 
 The telephone rang, and, raising himself pain- 
 fully, Wistar went to the receiver on the table. It 
 was Billy, and he detailed the worst of news. He 
 had gone downtown on a subway express the 
 very train Smith had taken and already there 
 was evidence of heavy buying. " The sooner we 
 begin," said Billy, " the better." 
 
 " Go ahead ! " Wistar answered. " In twenty 
 minutes I shall be in my rooms, and you will hear 
 from me." He hung up the receiver with decision. 
 
 296
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Then he turned to Penrhyn. " You spoke of 
 congratulations. Congratulate me ! To do what I 
 must, I need courage. You have given it to me ! " 
 ' You mean to fight us in the market for con- 
 trol," Penrhyn answered with quiet assurance, " to 
 put me out of office, and Mr. Sears ! " 
 
 It was the idea Wistar most wanted to foster. 
 " I offered you a fight," he answered. " You will 
 get it." 
 
 " But, Stanley ! " Judith cried. " We promised 
 to stand with Mr. Wistar to stand by him! 
 Whatever you do, I shall keep our promise." 
 With a quick movement she tore the papers across, 
 and tore them again. 
 
 Wistar's heart leaped to his throat. In a close 
 fight for control, as she had said, the few hundred 
 shares that made up her little fortune might have 
 turned the scale; but it was a very different fight 
 he had now embarked on. The time was past 
 when they could be of any service to him. But 
 what she had done meant more to him than if 
 she had given him the balance of power. Tears 
 streamed to his eyes, and to hide them he turned 
 without a word and left the room. 
 
 When he had gone, she faced Penrhyn, a ques- 
 tion on her lips. But before she could utter it he 
 said: " I have a lot to tell you; but just now they 
 need me in the Street. Good-by!" And he too 
 left her. 
 
 so 297
 
 W 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 HEN the story of Wistar's manipula- 
 tion of the market in American Motor 
 became history he was given credit for 
 one of the brainiest and most subtle 
 turns in the recent chronicles of the Street. But 
 the fact was that chance, at once the idol and the 
 terror of the speculator, paved the way for him. 
 
 The market, though strong and active on the 
 whole, had been fluctuating in a manner for which 
 the financial writers of the daily press found it im- 
 possible to find an explanation or, rather, to find 
 the same explanation, for they accounted for it 
 on widely different grounds. Then at the very 
 hour in which the executive committee was in 
 stormy session, a rumor became current that the 
 " progressive " faction in the board of directors 
 was about to take command, and by reversing Wis- 
 tar's conservative policy to strengthen the hold of 
 the combination on the industry and increase its 
 earnings. A sharp advance at once took place, 
 both in the volume of trading and in the price of 
 sales; and, lambs being of the nature of sheep, the 
 advance, as frequently happens, attracted the spec- 
 
 298
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 ulative public. No combination of circumstances 
 could have been more fortunate. 
 
 From the outset, though Wistar sold largely, his 
 opponents and the public bought more. The price 
 of the stocks not only held firm, but increased, on 
 the whole, steadily. Penrhyn, meanwhile, with a 
 recent and vivid impression of Wistar's caliber as 
 a fighting man, easily mistook the activity for evi- 
 dence that he was buying. 
 
 The fact remained, however, that as Wistar lay 
 in his bed with the telephone beside him, he man- 
 aged the situation with admirable skill. Almost 
 daily he was beset by the financial reporters with 
 requests for an interview. At first he refused to 
 see them, plausibly alleging his illness. But pres- 
 ently he decided to ask them up and submit to 
 their questions. Bismarck used his reputation for 
 diplomatic mendacity to make truth serve him in 
 lieu of falsehood, blinding the world to what he in- 
 tended by proclaiming it in precise terms. Wis- 
 tar's reputation was for sternly honest, even quix- 
 otic, conservatism, and the speculative world was 
 all the more inclined to rely on it, because it re- 
 garded him as having the dullness as well as the 
 honesty of conservatism. The advantage he took 
 of the reporters was thoroughly Bismarckian. 
 
 Necessary as it was to make Penrhyn believe 
 that he was buying with a view to the control, he 
 feared that if the public became convinced of this 
 
 299
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 it would withdraw from the market, dreading the 
 reaction that follows a factitious upward move- 
 ment. He answered the reporters with the words 
 and the manner of truth. When they asked if 
 there was not a party bent on reversing his policy, 
 he admitted that there was; and when they asked 
 if he were not fighting in the market to defeat it, 
 he answered that he was not that he had tried 
 this and found it impossible. He neglected to say, 
 however, just what he was doing. If the measure 
 of a lie is its effect, then this was a whopper. 
 
 The press credited Wistar with telling the lily- 
 white truth, and gave the impression that he had 
 thrown up the sponge. Financial editors are not 
 always unbiased observers. When a big company 
 is floated, considerable blocks of stock not infre- 
 quently find the way into their possession. Such 
 gifts are managed delicately and diplomatically. 
 No service is ever asked in return, no obligation 
 hinted at. But now the newspaper men, with 
 whom the promoters of American Motor had been 
 liberal, confirmed the antique observation of Caius 
 J. Caesar, the first great American and originator 
 of the double cross at bluff, that people easily be- 
 lieve what they wish to believe. For a long time 
 they kept themselves and their readers firm in the 
 conviction that Wistar had withdrawn from the 
 conflict, and that an era was at hand of increased 
 earnings, and what is even more alluring of in- 
 
 300
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 creased dividends and a consequent rise in the price 
 of the stock. 
 
 Penrhyn, on the other hand, magnanimously 
 gave Wistar credit for an able and useful bluff, 
 and continued to buy. This also was what Wis- 
 tar had counted on. The commonest fallacy in 
 clever men is to read in others their own particular 
 motives and methods. When, weeks afterward, 
 it became known that a plain man's single white lie 
 had served the purpose of two such notable decep- 
 tions, there was admiration and envy in the tem- 
 ples of legitimized thimble-rigging. 
 
 To maintain the attitude of strife, Wistar and 
 Billy had at the outset drawn up a call for proxies 
 a circular letter, which they distributed among 
 the stockholders, large and small. It stated in 
 general but forcible terms the nature of the issue, 
 and solicited all who were honorable and patriotic 
 to delegate to Wistar the power of voting their 
 stock. The two had great joy in concocting this 
 letter, and greater when they received the few an- 
 swers to it. Admiration was expressed for Wis- 
 tar's principles, and sympathy for his prospective 
 defeat. But even of those who took the trouble 
 to write not one in ten declared for his side. 
 
 Billy divided the letters into various piles, 
 which he labeled with the characters of their send- 
 ers. There were orphans acting by advice of at- 
 torney, male orphans, who thus showed that they 
 
 301
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 had reached years of discretion. There were pil- 
 lars of society and pillars of the church. One let- 
 ter from a Fifth Avenue clergyman was so long 
 and so very explanatory that Billy gave it a place 
 by itself and called it Gibraltar, because, in the 
 words of a university wit, it was such a windy 
 bluff. Professional coupon clippers he called white 
 mustachers, and two active directors, friends of 
 theirs, he called white waistcoaters. One of their 
 correspondents was a kid-glove socialist, whose de- 
 termination to stand by " a more vigorous policy " 
 resulted from a conviction that " the aggregation 
 of wealth in big corporations commonly called 
 trusts was the readiest way of demonstrating the 
 fallacy of the prevailing economic conditions and 
 the speediest road to the socialization of industry." 
 
 Miss Peters, meantime, caught their spirit, and 
 developed a lively interest in the ticker, which had 
 been installed on the side of the bed opposite the 
 telephone. Wistar jocularly advised her to try a 
 flyer, boasting shamelessly that he had a sand tell 
 on the cards. 
 
 " Would it be immoral? " she asked. " What 
 would the priest say if I won just enough to buy 
 my fall hat?" 
 
 " It would be no more immoral than hats are 
 inartistic," Wistar assured her. 
 
 She gave him the money, and he placed it for 
 her. When she produced the hat she asked him if 
 
 302
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 he thought it very inartistic. It had a cup where 
 the crown should have been, and the cup was sur- 
 rounded by roses which raked backward and up- 
 ward to a portentous altitude. 
 
 " It looks like a golf hole on a bunker," he said. 
 " By all the canons of art, it is a monstrosity." 
 On a second glance he added, " But it becomes 
 you wonderfully." This was, indeed, true, for as 
 Wistar now philosophized, women have a way 
 of redeeming their offenses against the canons 
 of logic and art, as they do those against the 
 austerer moral code even of shining by means 
 of them. 
 
 The incident reminded him of the old matter of 
 Judith's clothes. Her last chance of rehabilitating 
 them was now gone. The very sum he had di- 
 verted into this roof garden of Miss Peters's was 
 derived, as it were, from her. And when poverty 
 came, he could not help reflecting, it would not 
 lessen her danger from Penrhyn. 
 
 Miss Peters was so pleased with her first opera- 
 tion in what was, in one sense at least, high finance, 
 that she took a second flyer this time to buy seats 
 for the Saturday matinees of Miss Maude 
 Adams's annual revival of " Peter Pan." " That 
 at least is artistic! " she said. 
 
 Reminded of the phrase, Wistar again turned it 
 over in his mind, this time with reference to him- 
 self. As the weeks went by, steadily healing the 
 
 303
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 wound in his side, and as steadily diminishing his 
 holdings and increasing those of his enemies, he 
 felt thoroughly the artist in market manipulation. 
 His little turn in the Street had, in fact, netted him 
 many round millions. And far from feeling im- 
 moral, as he would have judged himself two years 
 ago, he felt only the elation of skill and power. 
 Perhaps women were not the only ones. 
 
 But even luck and skill combined could not 
 maintain the game Wistar was playing forever. 
 There came an end to the resources of the specu- 
 lative public, and with it an end to Penrhyn's delu- 
 sion. Prices tumbled and what is not always the 
 same thing it seemed likely that values had crum- 
 bled. 
 
 By this time Wistar was on his feet again. One 
 evening Billy, who had fallen into the way of 
 dining with him at the club, broached the matter 
 of the wedding. It was to be by moonlight on 
 the lawn of the little cottage up on the hills 
 above the Hudson, which was one of the expres- 
 sions of Mr. Sears's new prosperity; and the re- 
 hearsal, a month in advance, was already at hand. 
 May, whom Billy had told little or nothing of the 
 recent course of affairs for fear that he might have 
 to tell her everything, had insisted that Wistar 
 keep his promise to be best man, and to that pur- 
 pose had postponed the already long-delayed cere- 
 mony until his recovery. 
 
 304
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Wistar reminded Billy of their business pre- 
 dicament. Only a small fraction of their stock 
 remained, and now, if ever, it was necessary to 
 come out and sell in the open to make their final 
 assault upon the stronghold of the enemy. It was 
 the grand finish to which they had been working, 
 but the nearer they were to the victory, the more 
 keenly they felt its penalty to them both. " In- 
 tending what we intend," Wistar asked, " have I 
 the right to enter so intimate a personal relation- 
 ship?" 
 
 Billy thought a while. " It isn't up to us. It's 
 up to them." 
 
 " But Mr. Sears? You know, the last time he 
 failed he tried to kill himself. How is he taking 
 this present run in?" 
 
 Billy became very serious. ' You should have 
 seen his face last night. I never saw but one face 
 like it." 
 
 " Dejected crushed? " 
 
 " Not just that. It reminded me of a man in 
 college named Riggs. He'd been trying for the 
 varsity eleven three years crazy about football 
 from a kid, but not quite good enough. His senior 
 year they gave him his chance end rush. He 
 used to sing and dance all over the dressing rooms. 
 Then a freshman came out played all round him. 
 Riggs went pale, and the lines came about his 
 mouth. His eyes looked sick. But his nerves only 
 
 35
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 stiffened, and he played the game of his life." 
 Billy paused. 
 
 " So that he kept his position? " 
 
 " No. Had to change with the freshman. He 
 broke down went to pieces cried like a bull 
 pup all over the place." Tears came to Billy's 
 eyes at the memory. 
 
 " A friend of yours? " Wistar asked with sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 ' Yes. That is, I was the freshman. Every 
 time I went through him it made me faint and sick. 
 But I had to play the game." 
 
 " I stand with you," said Wistar. " and I'll 
 stand up with you ! " 
 
 306
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 T the end of an hour with May at the 
 dressmaker's, Judith sank upon one of 
 the stiff chairs ranged against the wall. 
 The fatigue of standing and stooping, 
 fitting and refitting, had invaded every fiber from 
 the soles of her feet to her brain, and had ended 
 by bringing upon her a sense of detachment as 
 if her soul were viewing it all, and even herself, 
 from far off in the clear, cold altitudes of inter- 
 stellar space. 
 
 May stood in the center of the room, focus of 
 innumerable mirrors, partly clad in the loose- 
 stitched pieces of what was to be her wedding 
 gown clear, creamy laces that had been her 
 mother's and grandmother's before her, agreeably 
 contrasting with the softly brilliant modernity of 
 radium silk. Around her stood the neatly clad 
 fitters, ripping out basting thread to pin a seam 
 more tightly, smoothing wrinkles in the bodice, 
 draping long folds in the train. Her youthful 
 vitality and animation, subdued to an intense grav- 
 ity by the momentousness of the work in hand, had 
 infused itself into the entire group. These supe- 
 
 307
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 rior young women, whose favorite diversion was to 
 breathe disdain upon the very leaders of the rich 
 and the great, were alive with friendly interest. 
 Even the head of the house had come in from her 
 sanctum to lend a .supervising eye. The little as- 
 sistant, who ran small errands and refilled the pin- 
 cushions hung at the girdles of the fitters, did so 
 as if performing a beautiful rite; for, behold, 
 among a lifetime of maidens arraying themselves 
 to be married, here was a bride ! 
 
 Judith saw it all, and saw even more clearly that 
 she herself was bored. From the point of view 
 of interstellar space, what was life, what was love, 
 what was marriage and, horrid climax of pes- 
 simism, what was a wedding gown ! She was not 
 one of those who take pleasure in looking upon the 
 motley pageant of existence with gelid disdain. 
 Above all in the case of her sister she had meant 
 to be so different ! Deep friends they had always 
 been, and for the past year, almost two years now, 
 the exuberant, unquenchable happiness of the one 
 had made an almost pitiful appeal upon the lone- 
 liness of the other. 
 
 The child had known no mother, and though 
 Judith's own memories of maternal tenderness were 
 far distant, she had caught at every fading inci- 
 dent, warmed it, revivified it, reincarnated it for 
 May the morning kiss, the embrace of good 
 night, little attentions to her clothes and her good 
 
 308
 
 THE C A V E MAN 
 
 looks, walks with her by day and long talks with 
 her at bedtime. She had made them all live for 
 herself with a far more poignant tenderness than 
 she had ever felt in the love of their mother; but 
 she could not see that they were matters of mo- 
 ment to her sister. She even contrived at times 
 to leave May alone in her happiness. Yet, though 
 the thought proved quite obviously right, it was 
 quite as obvious that whatever she did or did not 
 do was of no real consequence. Already the girl 
 lived in a different world from hers the world of 
 sheer, unsentient happiness. 
 
 The work on the gown went busily forward, and 
 with it her discontent. In her efforts to share her 
 father's increasing unhappiness she had been even 
 more deeply chagrined. Her knowledge of busi- 
 ness told her what was, indeed, now obvious to 
 the world that the affairs of the motor combina- 
 tion were in a precarious state, perhaps toppling 
 to a fall. That this meant the loss of their little 
 fortune was the least of her troubles. Always, 
 beneath her deep love for her father, and her re- 
 joicing in the tardy triumph of his ambitions, she 
 knew his weakness, and feared it. And of late 
 the hold she had had on him through their lifelong 
 comradeship had strangely weakened. He no 
 longer admitted her to his confidence, no longer 
 treated her as one who could and would under- 
 stand. 
 
 309
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Who was to blame? Sometimes it seemed to 
 her that it was the man who should have united 
 them more closely the man who had offered as 
 an evidence of his love for her to make himself 
 her comrade. Since the day of the stormy meet- 
 ing in her house, when Penrhyn had said in leav- 
 ing that he would return to tell her everything, 
 he had told her nothing, or next to nothing. She 
 was not by nature suspicious, and least of all in the 
 case of those who were near to her. She had more 
 than her share of the generous womanly instinct to 
 trust them, of the pride that required her to think 
 only the best of them. Yet somewhere something 
 was .wrong. Possibly Stanley's silence was the 
 result of the recent stress of affairs mere procras- 
 tination. More likely it was due to some weakness 
 or error of her father's, from the knowledge of 
 which he thought it his duty to shield her. Neither 
 explanation, however, was particularly flattering, 
 for it was her nature or was it only a foible? 
 to wish to be indispensable to those she loved. 
 Often she had thought to force their confidence, 
 but her dignity could it be a subtle distrust? 
 had always prevented. 
 
 And then there was the thought that she was 
 pledged some day to array herself as May was 
 arraying herself now. That raised her boredom 
 to the point of a rebellion against fate. 
 
 And Wistar? With the return of prosperity she 
 310
 
 had gone out with her father into their old world, 
 and once or twice she had seen him there. Though 
 he had been no more than courteous to her, she had 
 recognized to her surprise, and somewhat to her 
 chagrin, that he was enjoying the world more than 
 she. He had become younger, gayer, more inter- 
 ested, while as for herself was she really growing 
 old? Certainly she was finding less and less of in- 
 terest beyond her own walls. 
 
 When the fitting was ended, there was a vacant 
 hour before taking the train for the country, and 
 Judith suggested that they go to the Home Stores 
 for tea. The position of managing saleswoman 
 was again vacant, and her interest in it had some- 
 how deepened with her present mood. 
 
 It was matinee day, and the room was a babble 
 of girlish enthusiasm. Among all the bright frocks 
 and hats there was only one gray coat, but Judith's 
 eye had no sooner taken in the outlines of the broad 
 back and square shoulders it covered than she saw 
 in her mind's eye, with a little start, almost shock 
 of surprise, a pair of grave eyes and a smile that 
 lurked in the hollows of lean cheeks. Across the 
 table from Wistar was Gerty Minot. Judith took 
 in the situation in a flash. Wistar had at last in- 
 duced Mrs. Minot to go to the mountains, and 
 with characteristic thoughtfulness was making up 
 to the child for the mother's absence, as well as 
 he could, with a matinee and tea.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 The only free table was the one next Wistar's, 
 which had just been vacated, and the attendant led 
 her to it. She felt a moment's repugnance at the 
 enforced encounter, and then a moment of anger 
 with herself for feeling it. Gerty got up, or rather 
 got down, from her chair, with a curious air of 
 being mistress of the situation. She remarked, with 
 a stately little courtesy, that the other table was 
 dreadfully mussy, and invited them to take the 
 vacant seats at Wistar's table. No woman of the 
 world ever met a rival with more polished scorn. 
 Judith spoke a few words to both Gerty and Wis- 
 tar, but ended by sitting at the mussy table. She 
 was aware as she did so of a slight heightening 
 of color, and she found herself wondering if it 
 would not have shown less self-consciousness if she 
 had accepted the child's invitation or was it a 
 challenge ? 
 
 Self-consciousness ! Never in her life before had 
 she felt it. To her mind it was the only disgrace, 
 the one unforgivable sin of ingrowing spinster- 
 hood. Yet all afternoon she had wallowed in it. 
 
 Wistar betrayed no such concern. His manner 
 toward the child was as attentive, and withal as un- 
 affected, as if she had been the mistress of a salon. 
 Judith remembered that at Gerty's age she had 
 shrank from those who treated her as a child, as 
 most people did, and had adored the rare souls 
 who treated her simply as a human being. This 
 
 312
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 she saw she could not help seeing it was what 
 Wistar was doing now. And the result was that 
 Gerty was beautifully at ease childlike as children 
 seldom are. 
 
 After tea, the waitress brought Gerty an ice, and 
 with it three great meringue kisses. Judith made a 
 brave effort to confine her attention to her conver- 
 sation with May. But she sat facing the other 
 table, and Gerty's young voice was as penetrating 
 as it was sweet. 
 
 " You don't like ices? " the child asked, incredu- 
 lous at such a defect in taste. 
 
 Wistar shook his head. 
 
 " Then the kisses are for you," said the child. 
 " Don't eat that," she added, pointing to one of 
 them that had sadly fallen. " They didn't beat 
 it hard enough before baking." 
 
 " Beat it? " said Wistar with mannish igno- 
 rance. " It looks as if the cook had sat on it! " 
 
 Gerty laughed as if this had been the most joy- 
 ous stroke of wit. 
 
 " The other two," Wistar added, " I will give 
 back to you." 
 
 Gerty looked at him out of sphinxlike eyes. 
 " One kiss I will take from you," she said. ' The 
 other I will give you from me." 
 
 Each took his kiss gravely, and gravely ate it. 
 
 Judith looked at the child with frank amaze- 
 ment. Did she mean it as it sounded ? Gerty still 
 21 3*3
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 had the eyes of a sphinx. She looked at Wistar. 
 Did he know that he was being shamelessly flirted 
 with? There was only the faintest glimmer of a 
 smile on his cheeks. Then for the first time Judith 
 noticed that the odd, intense little face that a year 
 ago had seemed preternaturally old, was taking 
 on lines of regularity and well-being, which, with 
 the luster of her big eyes, the keen sensibility of the 
 mouth, and the intelligence of her smile were mak- 
 ing her extraordinarily good to look upon. The 
 most beautiful women, she remembered, have sel- 
 dom been pretty children. 
 
 When Wistar and Gerty got up to go they said 
 a few friendly words. The child, Judith observed, 
 no longer paid her the compliment of even seeming 
 aware of her triumph. 
 
 After they had gone, May was the first to speak. 
 " When Gerty is twenty," she said, " Mr. Wistar 
 will be only a little over forty." 
 
 Judith answered on the instant. " He will be 
 forty-four ! " 
 
 A quizzical look came into May's face. " I 
 don't think that too old." 
 
 " Some men are never too old. What is it they 
 call them cradle snatchers? " 
 
 May broke into a peal of delighted laughter. 
 "Judy I" she cried. "I positively believe you 
 carel" 
 
 Judith laughed, too. " I always care," she said.
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " But especially about Mr. Wistar! " 
 
 " Especially about him. His kind don't happen 
 any more." 
 
 " Nonsense ! You will never let them 1 " 
 
 " None the less, they don't happen. He is the 
 last of the Mohicans. And Gerty \ " 
 
 It was part of a tacit compact that neither spoke 
 of Penrhyn. 
 
 Her principal reason for caring Judith did not 
 mention. Of all the people she had known, men 
 or women, kindred or mere acquaintances, he was 
 the one to whom she had meant most though the 
 one toward whom she had least thought to be of 
 moment. Her cheeks burned as she remembered 
 how she had once tried to make use of his love for 
 her; and she felt a stinging irony in the fact that 
 now, in the end, he was bringing upon her the 
 bitterest defeat of her lifetime. She liked him 
 as little as ever. He still seemed rigid, unsympa- 
 thetic, forbidding. But he was bigger, broader, 
 more human than he had been. Some day he would 
 be a great man in the world of great affairs, and it 
 was she who had started him on the way of growth 
 and power. 
 
 And herself? She saw herself manager of the 
 tea room, where he came for tea on matinee 
 days with Gerty regularly every week she was 
 sure he would do everything regularly ! Under her 
 regime she would see to it that the cook did not sit 
 
 315
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 on the kisses ! The thought recalled his indifference 
 to her, and Gerty's calm superiority. Again the 
 mood of self-consciousness ! Her heart rose as she 
 remembered that there was an alternative that in 
 fact her promise had been given. 
 
 They met Penrhyn at the station, and he took 
 the seat next theirs in the train. He had come 
 out for the summer to a country club near them. 
 Things had been going badly that day in the Street, 
 but at sight of her he shook off care and devoted 
 himself with all his vivacity and humor to her 
 amusement. He understood her, believed in the 
 things she believed in, stood ready to bring her 
 everything in life she really cared for. The day of 
 his great success might be delayed by Wistar's con- 
 servatism; but, being what he was, in the end it 
 must come. As he had said so often, they were 
 made for each other, and the world was made for 
 them both.
 
 F 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 OR two years Andrews had been living 
 in ease and in enjoyment of the varie- 
 gated activities of his unstrung emo- 
 tional nature. But, as the quotations 
 of American Motor fell and tumbled, he saw that 
 the dead line of his margin was increasingly in 
 danger. 
 
 Native shrewdness, eked out by his partial 
 knowledge of the inner workings of the company, 
 was not long in putting him in touch with the situ- 
 ation. His first impulse was to curse Penrhyn for 
 his greed and stupidity in pushing Wistar too far, 
 and he yielded to it eloquently. But before long 
 he turned the torrents of invective upon himself. 
 He was possessor of information fatal to the for- 
 tunes and good name of two men of wealth and 
 position, and he had used it to no better purpose 
 than to gain a monthly stipend and a few thousand 
 dollars, both of which, if the worst came to the 
 worst, were now in danger. Clearly, he had lacked 
 decision and initiative. Now if ever was the time 
 to redeem his blunder. 
 
 Waylaying Penrhyn at his office door he dogged 
 3 1 ?
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 him to his train at the Grand Central. Before he 
 could engage him in conversation, however, the 
 young financier had ensconced himself in one of 
 the Colonial armchairs in the baggage car supplied 
 to card-playing commuters by an indulgent man- 
 agement, and was beginning a game of bridge. 
 
 Penrhyn got off at the station of his country 
 club; but Wistar also, Andrews found, was in the 
 knot of men that alighted from the train. There 
 was something in the man that always brought 
 Andrews as much of shame as he was capable of 
 feeling, and in his brief moment of irresolution 
 Penrhyn chartered the one land-faring hack at the 
 station and drove away up the slope past the club. 
 
 Andrews started after it afoot, and, when he 
 reached the highway that skirts the club grounds, 
 saw the vehicle in the distance turning up a road 
 that led to the heights commanding a view of the 
 majestic Hudson. He followed to the turning, 
 and sat down by the roadside. It is the adage of 
 children of the nursery and of Wall Street that 
 what goes up must come down, and when the land- 
 faring hack came down Andrews gave the driver 
 a quarter with an easy air, and in return learned 
 whither he had driven Penrhyn. 
 
 Half an hour later he labored up a flight of 
 stone steps that led from the road to the grounds 
 of a little summer cottage, which from its lordly 
 altitude commanded the full sweep of the river,
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 thirty miles and more to the Statue of Liberty try- 
 ing hard to enlighten New York. Mounting the 
 ivied veranda, he pressed the button at the door, 
 and, as he waited, turned and encompassed the 
 view with an eloquent sweep of his hand. 
 
 In the ancient serving woman who answered his 
 ring he recognized Mrs. Boyser. " Tell Mr. Pen- 
 rhyn," he said with admirable poise, " that a gen- 
 tleman here wants to see him on business." 
 
 " Begging your pardon," the old woman an- 
 swered with a no less admirable circumspection, 
 " is the gentleman you? " 
 
 Andrews clouded. " I won't stand for none of 
 your guff," he said. 
 
 " No offense intended. May I ask what is your 
 business? " 
 
 " Say it's his ice bill." 
 
 The old woman hesitated, and then went in. 
 Andrews turned, and, his eye lighting on a rustic 
 seat that encircled an old elm in the lawn, he sat 
 on it with a determined air. 
 
 " Damn your impudence! " said Penrhyn, com- 
 ing down the steps with resolute strides. 
 
 He was in dinner dress, and the sight of his 
 broad shirt front awed Andrews for a moment. 
 But it was only for a moment. " Same to you," he 
 vouchsafed without rising. " What I want to 
 know is what's all this monkey tricks in the 
 Street?" 
 
 319
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Penrhyn paused the fraction of a second, and 
 then, " Only a little flurry," he ventured. 
 
 " Flurry? Less than a week ago my shares was 
 worth big dollars. Three days more o' the same 
 and they won't be worth doughnuts." 
 
 " Well, suppose you do get it in the neck? " 
 
 Andrews surveyed him coolly. " No danger 
 to my neck! Two years ago Wistar asked me 
 who bribed me to crack his safe. Suppose I go 
 and tell him, heigh? " 
 
 Penrhyn smiled carelessly. " I wouldn't take 
 the trouble." 
 
 "'Cause why?" 
 
 " He knows." 
 
 Andrews gave a start of surprise, more con- 
 vincing perhaps than if it had been altogether gen- 
 uine. " Wistar is on it was you? " 
 
 Penrhyn's smile broadened, though not with 
 geniality. ' Your blackmailing graft is played 
 out." Then he took on a threatening tone. " If 
 you don't get out of here and stay out, I give you 
 fair warning, it's off the ice wagon for you, and 
 onto the water wagon. Are you on? " 
 
 Andrews relapsed against the tree with thought- 
 ful satisfaction. " Just what I wanted to make 
 sure of what raised such a row." Then he leaned 
 forward, held out his open palm, and with a few 
 telling strokes outlined the course of recent events. 
 
 Penrhyn looked ugly. It was not a pleasant 
 320
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 way to be reminded of his past blunder and his 
 present plight. 
 
 "Who did you say got it in the neck?" An- 
 drews triumphed. " Clever stock juggler, Wistar, 
 spite of all his chesty nonsense about trusts." 
 
 It took only a moment for Penrhyn to regain 
 control of himself. " You're off," he said noncha- 
 lantly, " way, way off! " 
 
 "Am I? Then why is it worth your while to 
 interrupt your supper and pass the time o' day 
 with a poor workingman ? Why is Wistar selling 
 out? 'Cause he's bolting to join Minot and the 
 rest of the independents to smash the trust." As 
 he spoke he watched Penrhyn's face narrowly. 
 " Between Wistar and this here Eu-ro-peen com- 
 bine, they'll sock it to youse, both goin' and corn- 
 in' ! " He took from his pocket the certificate of 
 his stock. " In six weeks this here won't be worth 
 the paper it's printed onto. I'm on way, way 
 on ! I've got the reason why ! " 
 
 Penrhyn answered with jocular indulgence. 
 " Then you know what you could get cold thou- 
 sands for on the Street. All you've got is cold 
 feet. If you're afraid the slump is going any far- 
 ther, I'll advance you a few hundred on your ice 
 bill to tide you over." 
 
 " So, after all, my graft isn't quite played out, 
 heigh?" Andrews laughed. "You want me to 
 wait till you've busted Wistar. And where'll I be 
 
 321
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 if he busts you? Work all the week, and preach- 
 ing in Madison Square to drown the hot coppers 
 in my gullet! 7 guess nit\ I know both o' you, 
 and the man gives me cold feet is Wistar. It's up 
 to you to give me the cold thousands for these here 
 shares." He paused a moment, and then con- 
 cluded with resolution: "Unless you fork over, 
 here and now, I tell what I know to my broker. 
 See?" 
 
 " Believe you a jail bird? " 
 
 Penrhyn's tone was still jocular and indulgent; 
 but the striped suit is not a jest to those who have 
 been inside it. " None o' your insults! " Andrews 
 cried. " Suppose I agree to sell that story to the 
 newspapers? You and the old man traitors and 
 thieves! My broker could go short and make 
 thousands ! Your game and the old man's reputa- 
 tion knocked higher than a kite, heigh?" His 
 resentment spent, he paused, and watched Pen- 
 rhyn's face with intense cunning. ' The mere 
 price o' the shares is a song. Give me five thou- 
 sand dollars for 'em, or I peach to-morrow ! " 
 
 Penrhyn did not speak. 
 
 Andrews saw his opportunity. Thrusting the 
 certificate into his pocket, he strode toward the 
 gate. " Good-by," he said, over his shoulder. " I 
 hate to do you dirt, Penrhyn, but you've had your 
 chanct." 
 
 ' Wait a minute ! " Penrhyn called after him, 
 322
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 alarm overcoming his inward rage. " I haven't 
 the money here. What do you want me to give 
 you? A check?" 
 
 " Why not? You're in the mud as deep as me. 
 Only, not to be promiscuous with my signature, 
 you'll have to cash it for me in the morning, and let 
 me tear it up." 
 
 Glancing about to make sure they were alone, 
 Penrhyn took out a pen and a check book and 
 wrote. 
 
 " That's the ticket for soup ! " Andrews ap- 
 plauded. 
 
 "Wait a minute!" Penrhyn said. "I'm get- 
 ting tired of that little matter of the ice bill." He 
 held out the check to the other's view. " I'll 
 give you another thousand in the morning if 
 you'll sign some little papers that will close the 
 books between us." 
 
 Andrews thought a moment. Now that Wistar 
 had learned the truth his secret was clearly of value 
 only in a crisis like the present. " Sure, Mike! " 
 he concluded. As he pocketed the check he smiled 
 complacently. At the outset he had been amazed 
 at Penrhyn's amateurish neglect in failing to pro- 
 tect himself against blackmail. " The trouble with 
 you, Penrhyn," he said, " is that you haven't quite 
 got your hand in at this sort of thing. What's that 
 the poet says ? * Oh, 'tis a tangled web we weave 
 when first we practice to deceive.' But when we've 
 
 323
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 done it onct or twice, we learn the trick that cuts 
 the ice." 
 
 As Andrews was turning to go, Boyser came 
 out and announced that coffee was served in the 
 library. 
 
 Seeing her, Andrews dug his heel in the turf and 
 swung about. 
 
 " I ain't had my supper yet," he said in a low 
 voice to Penrhyn. " Her nibs here wanted to 
 know just now if I was a gentleman. When this 
 sort of thing passes between gentlemen, they 
 gen'lly wet it, don't they? " 
 
 In another minute the entire party would be sit- 
 ting behind the open windows of the porch, if they 
 were not already there. It was not the time to 
 stand between a dog and his bone, and Penrhyn 
 could not hustle Andrews away without attract- 
 ing notice. " Oh, Boyser," he said, " here's a 
 man who, has brought me a message from town. 
 Give him a bite in the kitchen, and let him 
 out the back gate." He offered her a bill, but 
 she turned her eyes from it, and, coming out on 
 the lawn, led Andrews about the house to the 
 back door. 
 
 " None o' your little nips, Missis," Andrews 
 said, cheerfully. " I hoofed it all the way from 
 the deepoe. What I want is a square five fingers." 
 
 As he disappeared in the shrubbery, Judith came 
 out on the veranda, with a dubious glance at 
 
 324
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Penrhyn: "Andrews!" she said. "Here with 
 you?" 
 
 It was a matter of months since he promised 
 her an account of the situation. From day to day 
 he had intended to make what explanation he could. 
 He had it on the tip of his tongue. But no one 
 was more conscious of its inadequacy than he, and 
 there was something in the clear rectitude of her 
 mind that had kept the words unspoken. Now a 
 thing had happened which put him almost hope- 
 lessly on the defensive. 
 
 " The bad penny," he said. " You know the 
 proverb." 
 
 " ' The proverb is somewhat musty,' ' she 
 quoted, looking him gently in the eyes. ' You 
 have asked me to give up forever the hope of 
 love," she added, laying her two hands on his 
 shoulders. " Be sure what you offer is true com- 
 radeship." 
 
 " As for Andrews, he's been speculating in our 
 stock in a small way, and his margin is in danger. 
 He followed me up here to get a tip." She was 
 silent. " Of course, I couldn't advise him; but he's 
 a poor devil, and I gave him enough money to buy 
 him a meal and a bed till he can get work again." 
 
 Still she was silent, and he felt impelled to go 
 on: 
 
 " As for Wistar, what he wants is you. It was 
 to please you he came in with us, giving up his 
 
 325
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 principles, about which he talked so loudly. And 
 now that has failed, he has made this grand-stand 
 play to save Minot, in the hope of impressing you 
 and discrediting me." 
 
 "That is not like him. Are you quite fair? 
 How can it be right to ruin Mr. Minot in cold 
 blood?" 
 
 " Ah, that's the question I've feared ! The 
 question that I've hesitated, all these weeks, to take 
 up with you ! You know something of evolution 
 in biology. The same laws operate in society and 
 business. Minot is one of the unfit." As they 
 were talking she had passed to a bed of roses that 
 lay along an old stone wall by the roadside, and 
 was now plucking a cluster to carry into the house. 
 " When these first began to bud," he said, " I saw 
 you cutting off the small early buds to make these 
 larger and more beautiful." 
 
 " It's a very pretty simile for a very ugly thing. 
 And Mr. Wistar is he also one of the unfit?" 
 She smiled at him, at once subtly and frankly. 
 
 " When he takes sides with Minot he becomes 
 so ! It lies in our power to develop this industry 
 like the American Beauty rose to meet our for- 
 eign rivals, even to beat them. Progress by the 
 death of the unfit if any man had invented it, it 
 would be called murder and greed! But it was 
 ordained by a power as much greater than our 
 own as it is unknowable. All we can be sure of 
 
 326
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 is that it is the only means by which the wise and 
 strong survive. These are your father's ideas, and 
 I count it an honor to be associated with him in 
 realizing them." 
 
 She glanced at him ruefully and shrugged her 
 shoulders. " But there's always the question 
 just who are the unfit? I don't think you feel as 
 fit as you did a month ago. The old look has come 
 back into father's eyes. For myself, I feel as if 
 I had hung up for weeks like a suit of clothes in 
 a Bowery misfit shop. What does it all mean? " 
 
 Penrhyn's face became hard and set, but when 
 he spoke it was with courage and conviction. " It 
 looks now as if Wistar intended to join Minot in 
 his fight against us. It will be a hard fight and 
 a long one. But we are right and we are stronger. 
 In the end we shall win! " 
 
 " For father's sake, I hope so. But I am sorry, 
 very sorry, that you waited to tell me all this until 
 matters- have come to such a pass." 
 
 She started toward the house with the flowers, 
 and was met at the door by Boyser. 
 
 ' That man, in the kitchen," the old woman 
 said, " he's drinking up the whole bottle and in- 
 sultin' of Mary." 
 
 By this time Penrhyn was not in a pleasant 
 mood. "I'll settle him!" he said, between his 
 teeth, striding toward the back door. 
 
 "Wait, Stanley!" Judith cried after him. 
 327
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Penrhyn stopped short. " Is it quite the place 
 for you? " 
 
 " I am the mistress of the house," she said. " In 
 this matter you might at least consult me." Then, 
 as if to soften the rebuke, she added: " Don't you 
 think it will be easier for me to shame him into 
 behaving? If not, then you can use stronger 
 measures." 
 
 328
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 T was the evening of the wedding re- 
 hearsal; but as Mr. Sears sat in the 
 library sipping his coffee, even the 
 eager and light-hearted May became 
 aware that he was in no cheerful mood. With 
 the imperfect sympathy of girlhood, she tried to 
 gladden him by talking of the event that to her 
 was all-important and all-joyful; but his response, 
 she found, was not all the subject deserved. Even 
 Onderdonk was glum. Slipping her arm into his, 
 she led him out of doors. 
 
 " What is it all about? " she asked. " If I had 
 stayed in there another second I should have been 
 stifled!" 
 
 " A little business worry," he said, fingering his 
 unlighted cigar. 
 
 She looked at him reproachfully. " Remember ! 
 We're to share everything, troubles as well as hap- 
 piness, little and big ! " 
 
 In their long engagement Billy had learned to 
 play a good husbandlike hand at affectionate dis- 
 simulation. " Stocks are down," he said, as if im- 
 parting a secret of state. 
 
 22 329
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " But aren't they always going up and down ? 
 Isn't that what they're made for? " 
 
 " You're right there 1 " said Billy. 
 
 " Well then, you might be just a little cheerful 
 for my wedding rehearsal! " 
 
 He laid an arm about her shoulder. 
 
 She slipped away fro*m him, and, with an en- 
 raptured glance at the heavens, " What a per- 
 fectly lovely night!" she rejoiced. "I do hope 
 our day will be like this ! " 
 
 Beyond the distant Palisades the sun had set in 
 splendor. Upon the verdure-covered crags be- 
 neath the western heavens a crimson mantle had 
 fallen, like the bloom of a damask plum. The 
 broad waters of the river, heaving with long, dead 
 swells from the southeast, reflected and mingled 
 in a web of exquisite variegation, delicate mauve 
 from the sunset and clear green from the sky over- 
 head. The full moon rose in the east over the 
 Pocantico hills, and down from it a pale but in- 
 creasing radiance filtered upon the whole broad 
 landscape. 
 
 " It certainly is a corker ! " said Billy, sitting 
 on the bench beneath the tree. 
 
 May slapped a mosquito on her delicately mod- 
 eled and athletic forearm. 
 
 " Come along," Billy said, starting toward an 
 arbor on a knoll out beyond, " I'll smoke up and 
 drive away the mosquitoes." 
 
 330
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 But May did not go, for just then the silken 
 purr of a motor stole up through the gathering 
 dusk from the sunken road beneath them, and 
 presently Wistar mounted the stone steps. He 
 wore a dinner jacket and straw hat, and held a 
 cream-white motor coat over his arm. 
 
 May blew him a delighted kiss. " Now we're 
 all ready! " she said, and ran into the house. 
 
 "Any news from the Street?" asked Billy. 
 Even when he had left the office to catch an early 
 train everybody was talking Motor, and he had 
 run a gantlet of reporters. 
 
 " The same, only more so. And they're having 
 no end of trouble with that plunge in rubber. It 
 looks now as if it were off." 
 
 According to Wistar's reports from South 
 America, Ryan and his associates were throwing 
 down their hands in disgust. It is one thing to buy 
 a Latin-American republic, and another to make 
 it stay bought. Wistar had done his best to noise 
 abroad the rumor of the proposed monopoly, and 
 the effect was what he had planned. Already in 
 two cases the very men who had profited by the 
 sale of a concession had headed revolutions against 
 their own government for the purpose of captur- 
 ing it and selling the concession again. The great 
 rivers of the rubber countries were bordered with 
 quicksands for the sinking of American millions. 
 
 " If we keep to our plan," Wistar concluded, 
 331
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " we shall have to come out in the open to-morrow 
 and sell to bust them. Are you still game? " 
 
 "Still game. And you?" 
 
 " I should like to put it up to Mr. Sears once 
 more." 
 
 The door opened, and May came out, leading 
 her father by the hand. " Where do you think 
 Judy is?" she cried. "In the kitchen, arguing 
 and persuading with a tipsy tramp. Wait just a 
 minute till I get her! " And she vanished into the 
 house. 
 
 " Can you leave us? " Wistar said in a low voice 
 to Billy. 
 
 Billy started to follow May, but with a glance 
 at his cigar he lighted it, and, thrusting his hands 
 in the pockets of his dinner jacket, turned on his 
 heel toward the arbor. 
 
 The two men faced each other. The lines about 
 the old gentleman's clear-cut and delicate lips were 
 drawn and haggard. The soft wrinkle that once 
 had pleasantly framed his refined and pointed chin 
 had become a furrow, and his mild blue eyes were 
 without expression. 
 
 But it was he who spoke first. " Your promise 
 not to tell Judith," he said, in a dry metallic voice 
 " you have kept it, and I thank you. You have 
 fought hard, but you have fought fair." 
 
 "Did I promise?" Wistar asked. "I'd for- 
 gotten." The fact that Mr. Sears had treasured 
 
 332
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 such a promise would have seemed contemptible if 
 it had not been pitiable. Two years ago he would 
 have known that there was no need of such a 
 pledge. 
 
 " All the more," Sears said, " I thank you for 
 sparing her." 
 
 " Sparing her? " Wistar cried. " Do you real- 
 ize what it is costing her what life will mean to 
 such a woman, married to such a man ! " 
 
 A look of surprise came into the pale old face, 
 and with it a look of terror. " She can't care for 
 him!" 
 
 "She has told me that she does! I have no 
 right to warn her. But you have. More than 
 that, if you will permit me to say so, it is your 
 duty!" 
 
 The old face became tense with pain, but at the 
 same time set with obstinacy. 
 
 For a moment Wistar regarded him with un- 
 mingled scorn. Then he commanded himself, and 
 delivered his ultimatum and Billy's. Another day 
 would see the ruin of all Mr. Sears had hoped for, 
 striven for. 
 
 "Billy would do that!" 
 
 " He insists on it. Once your sole aid was all 
 we needed. I asked you for it, and you refused it. 
 So it has come to this." 
 
 In the pause that followed, May led Judith and 
 Penrhyn out to join them. 
 
 333
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 From time to time Sears had been mechanically 
 brushing the mosquitoes from their attacks on his 
 delicate skin a gesture which to Wistar's mind 
 had lent a not inappropriate touch of triviality to 
 his figure. Now he made an excuse of the pests to 
 go indoors, and with a low spoken word bade Pen- 
 rhyn to follow. Wistar could not help hoping that 
 his words had had weight. 
 
 " Poor father! " said Judith, as she gave Wis- 
 tar her hand. " He got all the people in the coun- 
 try round to combine in a trust against the mosqui- 
 toes. But there's one obstinate farmer won't let 
 us put a drop of kerosene on his marsh. Our 
 neighbors over on the Pocantico hills Standard 
 Oil, you know! they've tried to bully him into 
 selling his land, and he's using the mosquitoes 
 from his marsh to get even. Another of father's 
 poor syndicates bust! " 
 
 They laughed, with what gayety they could 
 command. 
 
 " It's worse than pigs in clover," May com- 
 plained, " to get you all together. Now where's 
 the Bishop to stand ? " She took up a garden rake, 
 and stuck it upright in the bed of roses. " There," 
 she said; "that's the Bishop! " 
 
 " That ! " laughed Wistar. " The good Bishop 
 a rake ! You slander the Subway Tavern ! " Tak- 
 ing his overcoat from the bench, he draped it over 
 the head of the rake, and then paused, a smile 
 
 334
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 beaming in the hollow of his cheek. " Yet we need 
 just a soupcon of the rake ! " He spread the collar 
 so that the teeth were visible. " There ! " he said. 
 " No! Wait! " He picked up a flower pot and 
 perched it on top. " There you have the Bishop to 
 the life ! Now we shall be married ! " 
 
 " First," said Judith, looking mysteriously at a 
 card in her hand, " I think we'd better be in- 
 vited ! The engravers have just sent this back to 
 know if it's all right." 
 
 May looked at the card with a critical eye. " Of 
 course it's all right. I wrote it out myself ! ' The 
 wedding of his daughter, May Honoria Rhine- 
 lander, at Suncliff, Ardsley-on-Hudson ' I think 
 it reads beautifully! " 
 
 Judith looked over her shoulder. " Is it your 
 idea that at a wedding a groom is superfluous? " 
 
 " I clean forgot to put Billy in ! That's why 
 they sent it back! " She took a pencil Wistar of- 
 fered her and scribbled in, " to William Van Rens- 
 selaer Onderdonk." Then she ran up the steps 
 and called, " Come, father ! Come, Mr. Penrhyn ! 
 Everything's ready! " 
 
 " Is everything ready? " asked Wistar. 
 
 "Except the cup, and Boyser is mixing that! " 
 
 " And the music I brought it from town with 
 me ; it will be here in a minute*. And is that every- 
 thing? " 
 
 " Music? How sweet of you! It's more than 
 
 335
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 I dreamed ! You regular lambkin pie ! " She 
 leaped lightly up on her toes and kissed him on the 
 lips. 
 
 With his two hands on her shoulders he held 
 her on tiptoe a moment. " Now I agree with you," 
 he said. " At a wedding a groom is superfluous ! " 
 
 " Billy? Isn't he here? I know Donkey will 
 spoil my wedding ! Where did he go ! " 
 
 " He seems to be aware how superfluous he is," 
 Wistar laughed. " Perhaps you'll find him out in 
 the arbor, smoking! " 
 
 She stood still, half afraid to leave them. " Un- 
 til I come back, don't you dare stir from this 
 spot ! " Then, with her lithe, girlish stride, she 
 fled toward the arbor. 
 
 " We'll call you," Wistar cried after her, 
 " when the music comes! " 
 
 Then he turned to Judith, and in the moment 
 his mask of gay spirits fell from him. 
 
 336
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 UDITH smiled at him a little sadly. 
 " It pleases my lord to be merry ! Very 
 soon, now, they say, you will stand 
 alone again and fighting against us, as 
 you were before we came meddling by. You expect 
 to win? " 
 
 "Unfortunately, I do!" 
 
 "Unfortunately?" 
 
 '' Times have changed and I with them. Oh! 
 I have learned something. The things I have been 
 able to do, and the vastly greater things I have 
 come to hope for they make my old ambitions 
 seem petty enough. I have known the strength 
 and security of well-regulated industry and I have 
 to go back to the old, haphazard conditions. 
 Worse than that, I am driven to violence. Day 
 and night I think of you in poverty ! of myself, 
 when I have brought you there." 
 
 The crimson of the sunset had deepened to pur- 
 ple, and now the twilight was rising from the val- 
 leys like a mist, dim and mysterious, in the increas- 
 ing effulgence of the moon. 
 
 From the road below them came low, guttural 
 
 337
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 voices, and presently the musicians panted up the 
 steps toward them, carrying their instruments be- 
 neath their arms. 
 
 "A lidtle mooseek, poss?" asked the leader, 
 puffing. 
 
 Wistar distrusted German bands. " Yes," he 
 said, " but don't make a racket." 
 
 " Racket! And sooch an effening! " He dis- 
 posed his men at a distance in the shrubbery, and 
 struck up an old, soft evening song so poetically, 
 so exquisitely attuned to the moment that it seemed 
 like the very atmosphere transmuted to sound. 
 
 Judith had passed to the bed of roses, and her 
 long, agile fingers were busy among them. The 
 perfume from them seemed to Wistar the perfect 
 attar of the hour, and of her. 
 
 " What would you think," he said, " if to spare 
 you I were to join them in ruining Minot? " 
 
 She did not cease plying her fingers. ' That 
 you cared for me very much," she said. 
 
 " And now you think ? " 
 
 She glanced up at him archly, yet sadly. " What 
 do you suppose? " 
 
 " I am a man, and I am striking at those you 
 love best at you ! " 
 
 "And I am a woman! If I choose not to say 
 what I think?" 
 
 ' You told me once the cave man, brutal and 
 merciless I " 
 
 338
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 She looked at him, wavering between her old 
 fear and a new audacity. Audacity conquered. 
 She plucked a rose and, standing straight beneath 
 his chin, guided the stem through the loop in his 
 lapel, her draperies brushing his coat. 
 
 Once, in an impulse of generous sympathy for 
 Minot, she had laid her hand on his shoulder, and 
 even then he had put her away from him in fear. 
 Now she was personal, captious, provocative. She 
 stood tiptoe on the brink of his love for her the 
 love that for years had been his whole life and 
 blew a kiss down into the abyss of it. His strong 
 arm trembled to the shoulder, and his knees shook 
 beneath him. His clearer senses, his habitual self- 
 control, melted like frost before fire. In another 
 moment she must have known the fate she was 
 braving. But in a moment her coquetry vanished 
 in an outburst of comradely good will. 
 
 "No! Not brutal, not 'merciless! Poor father 
 I have always loved him above everything else 
 in the world. But to save him by making you 
 false to what you hold right by making you 
 ruin your friend, my friend you have not of- 
 fered to do that for me, and I thank you ! Blow 
 after blow, as it falls, it will be terrible terri- 
 ble to feel your hand in it all ! Yet I shall not 
 blame you ! " She gave him both hands, impul- 
 sively. 
 
 The passion of the blood faded before the 
 339
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 mightier passion of the spirit. He took her hands, 
 and looked down into her eyes, shining with moon- 
 light and with tears. ' You are a woman ! " he 
 said, his voice vibrating like a viol. " Always I 
 shall love you ! For your justice and your honor, 
 for your grace, your beauty, for your loyal heart ! 
 Miserable as I am, more miserable as I shall be, it 
 means much that with every thought, every feel- 
 ing I don't use the word lightly I worship 
 you ! " His voice choked, but he presently man- 
 aged to say: "You forgive me for telling you 
 this? It is our last hour! " 
 
 " If you are so determined to say good-by " 
 
 " Can I bear to see you happy happy with 
 Penrhyn ! " 
 
 " It seems I'm not to be happy ! " 
 
 " Then Heaven help me if my path crosses 
 yours! " 
 
 " What I meant was that since you are de- 
 termined to say good-by you'll have to let go my 
 hands!" 
 
 He looked down at her palms which he held 
 as a child might hold them. Then he blushed like 
 a child, and let them fall. 
 
 " Bugaboo ! " she laughed. " To think I ever 
 was afraid of you! You great big bear! You 
 huge boy ! Hasn't anyone ever called you Jim ? " 
 
 He shook his head. " I once told you I'm a 
 very serious person." 
 
 340
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " If it will make you any less serious, I'll call 
 you Jim." 
 
 "Then it is good-by Judith! " 
 
 Somehow he had got hold of her hands again. 
 Mockingly she lifted their united palms between 
 them, and held them up to his gaze. He loosened 
 his grasp, and her fingers slipped gently out 
 of his. 
 
 She stood a moment, as if not quite knowing 
 what to do with them. Then, with a sudden im- 
 pulse, she caught the tips of his ears and drew 
 down his head until his cheek lay upon hers. 
 
 u Good-by, Jim," she said. Then she laughed 
 and added the rest of the poetical line: " ' Take 
 keer of yourself.' ' What she might mean by this 
 she did not make known, but fled from him, and 
 paused only when she had passed out beyond the 
 musicians toward the arbor. Then "May! 
 May! " she called, and her voice rang clear and 
 gay through the twilight. " Don't you hear? 
 The music! " 
 
 Sears and Penrhyn came out and joined her. 
 
 " They don't hear! " she said, still on the wings 
 of wilding gayety. " Look at them ! Or rather 
 don't look ! " She took first Penrhyn and then 
 Wistar by the shoulder and swung them about. 
 " Daddy! Will you get them? In such cases, I 
 believe, it is always the stern parent who intrudes." 
 
 " Why intrude? " said Wistar. " Isn't that the 
 341
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 most important rehearsal of all? Let them be 
 happy in it music, moonlight, love ! " 
 
 " Right you are ! " said Penrhyn. " Come, 
 everybody; we'll do the rehearsing for them!" 
 He took Judith by the arm. " You are the bride," 
 he said, and led her up to the rakish Bishop. 
 Turning to Wistar: " The best man, I believe," he 
 said. " Mr. Sears, you give Judith away !" Then 
 he bade the musicians play the wedding march. 
 
 The measured strains rose softly on the still 
 air. Penrhyn took his stand beside Wistar, and 
 Judith, taking her father's arm, stepped lightly 
 toward them, mocking the conscious demureness of 
 a bride. Then she joined Penrhyn, and stood with 
 him as if before the altar. 
 
 Wistar fixed his eyes upon Sears, and then on 
 the bridal pair. '' There you see it! " he said, with 
 vehemence suppressed: "the end of your unholy 
 alliance ! She has a sense of honor like a man. 
 You can't make her suffer what she will suffer with 
 that He fell silent; but his fingers, clinched 
 behind his back, contorted with agony. 
 
 " Don't! " pleaded Sears, his face haggard and 
 ashen. 
 
 ' There is one way to prevent it ! " 
 
 The old man shook his head and turned away. 
 
 A ghostlike form sped toward them from the 
 arbor. " Stop, stop ! " May cried. " How horrid 
 of you! This is my wedding! " 
 
 342
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Peals of musical laughter fell upon the spacious 
 evening air, and Penrhyn shouted for a waltz. 
 With the first measure he seized Judith, and to- 
 gether they glided over the even turf. As they 
 passed Wistar she swung free and held out her 
 arms to him. 
 
 He caught her, but, as he did so, he stopped 
 short. 
 
 Over the wall by the roadside Andrews had 
 raised his pale face, spiritual in the moonlight. 
 Even his brick-red side whiskers shone with the 
 mellower hues of stained glass. Slowly and un- 
 steadily he clambered up, until he stood on the 
 wall. With one arm he clutched a maple sapling, 
 and swept the other before him to command si- 
 lence. 
 
 The little party stood dumb. 
 
 " Ladies V genulums," he said in a voice which, 
 though husky with drink, was all the more ghost- 
 like and awful. " I'm not the handwriting on the 
 w T all. I'm a voice up a tree ! You're all weighted 
 in the balances, and all found wanting." 
 
 343
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 T was Penrhyn who first found words. 
 "Down out of that!" he cried, at 
 once alarmed and angry. " Get down, 
 or I'll throw you down ! " He strode 
 toward the wall to make good his threat. 
 
 Wistar caught his wrist in a grip of steel. " You 
 can't bully him," he said. "I know the man! 
 You've got to humor him or he'll be violent." 
 Then : " Come down out of that ! " he commanded. 
 Andrews turned his eyes in hazy recognition: 
 " Old Wistar, is it? I know I'm drunk; but' that 
 don't prevent me seein' a hole through you ! You 
 an honest man ? You make me tired ! You a trust- 
 buster? 'Long came the trust, and gobbled you 
 up like a pop fly at short stop. In two shakes, 
 James Wistar, trust-buster, was the ablest trust- 
 manager in these United States. Then what hap- 
 pened? You want to be the whole shebang ! Pen- 
 rhyn won't let you, so now you're crying baby. 
 Going home to slide on your own cellar door, 
 heigh? Shame on you, Wistar ! " 
 
 Penrhyn, at first relieved, now became jubilant. 
 " Hear, hear! " he cried. 
 
 344
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 Andrews swept the company with a watery eye. 
 
 ' Trusts is all right, genulums ! Us laboring men 
 
 got our trusts that's the unions. Why shouldn't 
 
 youse have yourn? Fair play V no favors, I 
 
 say!" 
 
 " You're quite right," Wistar said, " but that'll 
 be enough from you, Andrews." 
 
 "No! No !" cried Penrhyn. "More! More!" 
 
 Andrews warmed to his audience. " Wistar is 
 a good man," he said. " Trouble with his good- 
 ness is that it's the kind that don't pay. Now 
 there's our neighbor on the other hill there. Wis- 
 tar ought to go to Sunday school to little Johnny 
 Rockefeller. There's the boy that understands 
 the blessings of the trust ! Trust eats up its rivals ? 
 No matter, sezze. 'Mur'can Beauty rose never 
 could 'a' been so big and beautiful if they hadn't 
 cut off the little buds to make the big ones grow 
 bigger." 
 
 At this citation of the author of the elegant 
 simile Judith's eyes opened, and she looked in- 
 quiringly at Penrhyn. 
 
 " See, genulums! Never could 'a' been so beau- 
 tiful, and not half so damn 'Mur'can. 'Mur'can 
 Beauty rose that's the trusts. Little buds that's 
 the independent makers. Snip 'em off ! Snip 'em 
 off!" 
 
 A glance from Judith had taught Penrhyn cau- 
 tion. Andrews knew that Wistar was undeceived; 
 23 345
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 but he could not know that there was another 
 whom it was even more important to keep in the 
 dark. 
 
 " Cut it out ! " Penrhyn cried, again savagely 
 domineering. " Cut it out, I say ! " 
 
 " You can't turn him off," Wistar said. " The 
 quickest way is to let him run down. Highly in- 
 structive, I find him." 
 
 " Wistar ought 'a' gone to Sunday school. 
 Then he would 'a' learned that the man who tries 
 to do good to hisself without doin' the trade as a 
 whole " Andrews broke off in fuddled perplex- 
 ity. " I mean, doin' the trade as a whole 
 good! . . . What was I sayin', genulums? You 
 know what I mean, Penrhyn. You're the man to 
 do the trade, and do it good ! " 
 
 This time Penrhyn strode past Wistar and 
 reached the wall. 
 
 Andrews clasped the tree in both arms. " What 
 you got to say about it, Penrhyn? You're a slick 
 one ! Wanted to get Wistar into the trust. How 
 did you go to work? " 
 
 Penrhyn caught hold of him, but was not able 
 to budge him from the tree. 
 
 Andrews burst into injured tears. " You bribed 
 a poor weak workingman to crack Wistar's safe 
 and steal his papers! Was that right to me, I 
 ask? Make me rob him as was allus my friend! " 
 
 Penrhyn stood back as if struck by a blow. For 
 346
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 a moment there was silence a silence so deep that 
 the chirping of crickets was heard. 
 
 " Is this true? " Judith said, looking from Pen- 
 rhyn to her father, and then to Wistar. The only 
 answer was from the crickets, querulous and ac- 
 cusing. 
 
 Seeing the consternation he had caused, An- 
 drews came to Penrhyn's defense. 
 
 " But / don't blame him ! It's all been for the 
 good of the industry. When hist'ry of aut'mobile 
 is written, it'll be un'versally 'knowl'g't Stanley 
 Penrhyn an' Livingston Sears put the world 
 on wheels!" His ideas scattered; but after a 
 moment's blankness he went on in an explanatory 
 vein: "The old one has the ideas, and looks so 
 tony they think him good as pie, and he smiles in 
 his sleeve while the young un does the crooked 
 business." 
 
 Wistar's voice rose with the tones of authority: 
 "Andrews! " he thundered. " Come down! " 
 
 The man limply obeyed. " I'm comin' ! " he 
 said. " I don't want to be no skeleton at no feast! 
 Here they are, marryin' an' givin' in marriage ! " 
 His eyes fell on the effigy of the Bishop, and he 
 focused them with a quizzical leer, half abashed 
 in fear, half humorous in comprehension, as a wise 
 old crow might regard a straw man. He took an 
 empty sleeve in his hand. " But it's a bad job, 
 your riverence. If you'll pardon a plain man, 
 
 347
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 she's too good for Penrhyn, she is. It should V 
 been the other one ! " He shook his head sol- 
 emnly. " Them two have been friends real 
 friends o' mine ! " By this time Wistar had him 
 by the wrist. Andrews laid his head on his shoul- 
 der and sobbed with emotion uncontrollable. 
 " Only two friends I have in this world are Miss 
 Wears an' Mr. Sister ! " 
 
 " Come ! " said Wistar, " I'll take you to the 
 train." 
 
 " Leave me go home alone ! " Andrews pro- 
 tested. " I'm used to being drunk take care o' 
 myself better drunk 'n' sober. When I'm sober, 
 I allus go an' get drunk." He freed himself, and, 
 commanding the idiosyncrasies of his legs, walked 
 erect and firm toward the gate. Halfway down 
 'the steps he turned. " Good-by, Penrhyn," he 
 said. ' You went to Sunday school ! " 
 
 Wistar, leaning over the wall, saw him walk 
 down the road, still straight and firm. 
 
 The thing which, from all motives, Wistar had 
 so long and so passionately desired to have Judith 
 know was now an open secret. Judith's loyalty to 
 Penrhyn, if she remained loyal, would not be 
 blind. 
 
 A sudden blight had fallen on the company, in 
 which above everything Wistar felt an old man's 
 disgrace before his children, a young woman's dis- 
 illusionment in those she loved. 
 
 348
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 T was Wistar who broke the spell that 
 had fallen on the company. " I be- 
 lieve we owe you a rehearsal," he said 
 to May and Billy. " Shall we begin?" 
 " No, no ! " Sears cried. " Not now ! " 
 Wistar dismissed the musicians, mystified spec- 
 tators of the scene, bidding them keep an eye on 
 Andrews. Boyser came out from the house with 
 the cup she had been mixing, poured out a glass, 
 and offered it to each of the party in turn. One 
 after another they refused it in silence. 
 
 " Is this the truth? " Judith asked Penrhyn. 
 " Yes," he said sullenly. Then he turned to 
 Boyser. " Kindly pack my bag. I'll send for it 
 from the club." He started toward the gate. As 
 he passed Wistar his sullen humor lighted with 
 a flash of anger. " You've got me down here," 
 he said. " But I'm not out not by a long shot. 
 There's many a turn in Wall Street ! " 
 
 " It is, I am aware, a very crooked street I " 
 Wistar turned away. 
 
 Penrhyn raised his chin defiantly. But as he 
 did so his glance met Judith's, and his eyes fell. 
 
 349
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 She gave him her hand. " I'm not angry," she 
 said. " I don't know why, but I am not. I'm 
 very, very sorry for you. What you have threat- 
 ened you won't do it ! You will keep your prom- 
 ise to him our promise ! " 
 
 As Penrhyn gazed at her, and heard the clear, 
 kind cadence of her voice, a look came into his face 
 which Wistar had never seen there before, and in 
 which, in a flash, he read the secret of Judith's 
 regard for the man. " If I promised to keep my 
 word," Penrhyn said, and there was a real con- 
 trition in his voice, " I should not be believed, nor 
 deserve to be. But I will keep your promise." He 
 turned again to Wistar. " I don't ask you to be- 
 lieve even that. I may point out, however, that I 
 have the same reason as always to want to hold 
 you together with the rest of us. Once I thought 
 I was clever enough to get the best of you clever 
 enough, and strong enough, and mean enough. 
 I've done things I never dreamed I could ; but I've 
 reached the limit of my dirty work, and I guess 
 I've reached the limit of my power. If you still 
 wish to honor me as an associate I shall stand with 
 you and by you ! " 
 
 Without waiting for an answer he left them. 
 
 Judith turned an accusing glance upon Sears. 
 
 "Father!" she said, "you have lied to 
 me!" 
 
 When Sears had heard the words in which his 
 350
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 young associate renounced him he had hung his 
 head. Now he lifted a face that was, in fact, too 
 painful to be seen. 
 
 " It was for you, dearie ! to save you from 
 want ! I couldn't believe you cared for him ! " 
 
 "For mel To lie\" 
 
 " Your pardon," said Wistar. " Good night ! " 
 It was clearly not a scene for anyone to witness. 
 And Judith's manner toward Sears, so strangely in 
 contrast with her leniency to Penrhyn, made him 
 sick at heart. " No, no !" Judith cried. "Wait!" 
 She turned to Sears. " What Mr. Wistar has 
 done has been just and right from the start ! Own 
 up, Daddy, dear. It has ! " 
 
 A hunted look came into the gentle, aging 
 eyes. 
 
 " What must he think of us ! What must we 
 think of ourselves ! " 
 
 The old man's hands shook, and he sank upon 
 the bench, abashed, crushed. " I know ! You 
 loathe me ! And I loathe myself ! I wronged him. 
 I ask his pardon. One more dream and it is all 
 over. But before, at the awakening, I still had 
 my honor and your love." 
 
 Tears came into Judith's eyes and into her voice. 
 " Oh, Daddy! How you must have suffered! I 
 do love you shall always love you ! How I love 
 you!" 
 
 May, who had stood amazed but uncomprehen-
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 sive by Onderdonk's side, now knelt and caught 
 the old man in her arms. 
 
 He struggled to his feet, leaned over and kissed 
 her. "Good night, child! Billy is the best fel- 
 low in the world. You will be happy." 
 
 He said no more, and presently Onderdonk led 
 May away. 
 
 " Good night, Judith. Believe me, sweetheart, 
 you will learn to thank God you know what 
 Penrhyn is, though it breaks your heart. That 
 'is my greatest sin, that I ever let you care for 
 him ! " He spoke like one on the verge of the 
 grave. 
 
 " We shall still be happy ! " Judith pleaded. 
 " For you as well as for me, everything is so much 
 better as it is ! " 
 
 " I am an old man. Kiss me good night." 
 
 Impulsively she threw her arms about him. 
 
 He smiled a faint, wan smile. "The eyes!" 
 he said. 
 
 Joy lighted her face. "Bless you, dearest! 
 Now I know I can make you happy ! " She kissed 
 him on the drooping lids. 
 
 ' Your mother she is with us now ! Yes, I 
 shall be happy! " 
 
 In sudden alarm she stood back from him. 
 " Father! What are you thinking of? " 
 
 With an instinctive movement he thrust his 
 hand into the pocket of his dinner jacket. But 
 
 352
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 her hand was as quick. She gripped his wrist and 
 held it firm. 
 
 Wistar clutched the revolver and wrenched it 
 away. 
 
 The old man winced with pain. ' You hurt my 
 shoulder ! " he complained. 
 
 " Your shoulder I " Judith cried. " Again, 
 Daddy, again I " 
 
 He turned upon Wistar. " You have taken 
 everything else," he said. "Give me that! My 
 life is still my own ! " 
 
 " Father! " said Judith tenderly. 
 
 " If a poor cur on the street were sick, sick to 
 death, you would kill him kill him in mercy 1 
 Yet your father you condemn to live to live in 
 poverty, defeat, disgraced in the eyes of those he 
 loves!" 
 
 " Father ! " she repeated, her voice melting 
 with love. 
 
 " You are right, dear," he said. " I must be 
 brave. I will be brave ! " Then he turned from 
 them and went indoors. 
 
 Judith started after, but Wistar caught and 
 held her. " Believe me! " he said. " It is not as 
 it seems ! It was my fault ! If I had known what 
 I know now, it never would have happened. I 
 want you to tell him so, from me tell him that 
 I see my fault, and stand ready to join him under 
 the terms Penrhyn has offered." 
 
 353
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " You can do this without violating your sense 
 of what is right? May I tell him that? Do be 
 quick ! My place is there, with him ! " 
 
 " Once when I promised this it was against my 
 conscience. In the old days I was the cave man, 
 blind to the new ideas. Your father understood 
 them. Little by little I have learned from expe- 
 rience what no argument could convince me of 
 his largeness and his wisdom. What we have ac- 
 complished, his genius foresaw it all ! He may 
 be weak Penrhyn was masterful and played on 
 every foible. But in his mind and his heart he 
 is right! " 
 
 Already she had left him. With a single flash 
 his darkest hour had turned to the most glorious 
 dawn. The suddenness and the vastness of the 
 prospect before him dazed him, even while it filled 
 him with confidence and joy. 
 
 Then, from within the house, a loud cry fell 
 upon his ears, a wail of anguish and horror that 
 stabbed him like a knife in his heart. When it 
 was repeated he had gained the door and was 
 mounting the stairs within. In another second a 
 sight burst upon him which he was destined never 
 to forget. Judith lay prostrate and convulsed upon 
 the form of her father, still writhing in a pool of 
 blood. Through the window the full moon shone, 
 and upon her hair, faintly golden, was a crimson 
 blot. 
 
 354
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 
 ISTAR gathered her in his arms and, 
 heedless of tears and protestations, 
 carried her downstairs and into the 
 open air. When he released her she 
 looked at him once, then shrank away in horror 
 and loathing. The handkerchief with which he 
 had cleansed her hair was still crumpled in his 
 hand. 
 
 " Let me go back to him ! " she commanded 
 harshly. " Never let me see you again! " 
 
 He recoiled, yet still blocked the way. Out of 
 the shadows May hurried toward them, and On- 
 derdonk with her. 
 
 " Father is it father? " she cried. 
 A new horror fell upon Judith. 
 Wistar bowed his head. 
 
 " He is dead? " The young girl scanned each 
 face in turn. 
 
 Judith was mute, and Wistar still bowed his 
 head. 
 
 " Did you say dead? Oh, Billy! " But even 
 as she cried out, her voice was of one who did 
 not understand. "Dead?" she asked blankly. 
 
 355
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " My daddy? " Then she sprang toward the ver- 
 anda. 
 
 It was Judith who caught her. " No, no ! Not 
 yet! It is too terrible !" 
 
 For a moment the sisters stood sobbing in each 
 other's arms. Then May freed herself, and with 
 incoherent cries, turned from Judith and sank 
 upon Onderdonk's shoulder. The young man 
 held her a moment, and presently led her away, 
 dazed and unresisting. 
 
 Judith stood alone. Again she tried to pass 
 Wistar, yet shrank from him as she did so. Again 
 he barred the way. " I can only protect you," he 
 said, " as you protected her." 
 
 "I must go! I can't stay alone alone!" 
 Then again she looked at him, shuddering. 
 " Leave me with him ! " she sobbed. " Let me 
 never see you again ! " 
 
 He desired nothing more than to go; but he 
 stood to his post, and Mrs. Boyser abetted him, 
 bringing rugs and cushions and wraps. She spread 
 them on the grass, and forced Judith to lie down 
 on them. Then she disappeared, and Wistar heard 
 her at the telephone, summoning the needful aid. 
 
 Judith turned her face from him and lay on the 
 ground, outbursts of grief followed by still more 
 agonized moments of grief, silent and restrained. 
 And so a night began, the horror of which left a 
 lifelong mark on all of them. 
 
 356
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 A breeze came, and with it coolness and the 
 freshness of the sea. The moon floated above 
 with a serene, unsentient beauty that fell upon 
 Wistar's heart like a blight. By and by, some- 
 thing bade him look at the window above. All 
 his efforts to resist it failed, and he raised his eyes. 
 The shade had been decently drawn; yet nothing 
 would banish from his mind the vision of what 
 was there, or stay the recurrent waves of horror 
 it brought him. With Judith the silences became 
 longer, but always there followed the convulsion 
 of grief that would not be repressed, yet could find 
 no utterance. 
 
 By and by the man of the law came, made his 
 survey, asked his questions. While he spoke his 
 few words to Judith, Wistar went into the house, 
 and stood where he could still guard the door, un- 
 seeing and unseen. Toward midnight came an- 
 other man, clothed in black, and with a black 
 hand bag containing the tools of his trade the 
 trade which men do not name except in grisly jest. 
 Wistar met him at the gate, and all the way to 
 the house walked between him and where Judith 
 lay, his finger to his lips. She made neither sound 
 nor motion. By and by hours later, it seemed 
 the man came forth again, and Wistar went with 
 him as before. In all the interval Judith had 
 made no sound. But when the man was gone she 
 sobbed aloud, her face to the ground. And Wis- 
 
 357
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 tar knew that, as she had lain there, tense and si- 
 lent, she had seen it all with the eyes of the mind. 
 
 Then came the bitterest hours of his vigil, in 
 which little by little, in the intervals of grief and 
 horror, his heart spoke to him, at first in vague 
 intimations, formless and uncomprehended, and 
 then in self-accusation, definite and overpowering. 
 When he had said to Judith, such a little while 
 ago as time is measured, that he also had been to 
 blame, he had only indulged in the luxury of mag- 
 nanimous self-accusation. He did not, even now, 
 convict himself of any conscious wrong. But 
 there are sins of the mind as there are sins of the 
 heart, and the evil they do is as deep, and often 
 more lasting. 
 
 He had been ignorant of the world about him, 
 of the world of which he was a part; and, when 
 he had been forced to recognize that world, he 
 had still disdained it. At the outset, the situation 
 had lain in his hands. But he had turned his back 
 on those whose outlook was wider than his own, 
 and so the opportunity, which he might have used 
 to such high account, had been diverted by a more 
 skillful hand to evil ends. And so it had come 
 to this a wise and amiable father in the room 
 above, and a daughter here, shielded from the too 
 passionate promptings of filial love by the hand 
 red with destruction. A few hours, and Judith 
 must never see him again. 
 
 358
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 And all the time beneath, beyond, within his 
 pity for her and his own remorse was something 
 vague and uncomprehended, yet insistent and over- 
 powering. It brushed upon his cheek, tingled 
 ecstatically in his fingers, fluttered caressingly 
 about the tips of his ears. It was in the first gray 
 light of dawn that he knew it for what it was. 
 She had held her hands in his with light-hearted 
 endearment; she had put her cheek against his own 
 in mockery; she had flouted him with a soft little 
 tug on his ear. She was a girl who could be 
 comrades with a man, and she had taken him to 
 her frank, brave heart. Never, never could he 
 forget that. And always as he remembered it, he 
 must remember also this ultimate hour. 
 
 He rose to his feet in anguish, and gazed upon 
 her face, turned away from him. She had fallen 
 asleep at last, he saw, every sense extinguished by 
 the excess of what she had endured. In any young 
 face the outline of cheek and chin is a line of 
 beauty, though often void of expression. In hers 
 it had all the softness, all the sweet opulence of 
 full-blooded health, and besides the little, individ- 
 ual crinkle of her eye, at once grave and caressing, 
 the wreathing of her mouth that was mocking and 
 also tender. 
 
 For, as the daylight strengthened, he saw that 
 in her sleep she was smiling. He would not have 
 supposed that there was anything left for him to 
 
 359
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 suffer; but that smile, joyous, serene, beatific, and 
 the thought of what she must wake to, had a pang 
 more poignant still. His knees bent beneath him, 
 and he fell to the ground beside her, his chest 
 heaving uncontrollably, hot tears streaming from 
 his eyes. 
 
 With a little start she awoke. The smile van- 
 ished, and she turned a questioning glance upon 
 him. 
 
 "Is it true?" she asked, in a sudden fear. 
 ' Just now I dreamed that it had all been only 
 a dream ! " For a moment more she looked at 
 him, questioning, unconvinced. Then all the in- 
 timate, varied lines of her face contracted to one 
 note of woe. Again she cried out as she had cried 
 'in the first awful moment of her discovery. 
 
 In obedience to an impulse that was stronger 
 than reverence for her, stronger than remorse, he 
 took her in his arms. 
 
 " You poor child ! " was all he could say, and 
 he said it again and again. 
 
 In a passion of grief and tenderness she threw 
 her arms about him, and strained him to her 
 breast. 
 
 ' Jim, Jim ! " she sobbed, repeating her new 
 name for him over and over. 
 
 She buried her face in his and sobbed afresh. 
 And now, for the first time, the utterance of her 
 grief was full and brought relief. 
 
 360
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 For a moment he endured it. Then, gently, he 
 put her from him. In another instant she must re- 
 member even him. It would have been braver, 
 perhaps, to grant her this moment of solace to the 
 full. But he did not deem it so; and, crushed as 
 he was, there was one depth of injury of which 
 he did not wish her to believe him capable. 
 
 Yet still she clung to his hands. " What is it? " 
 she said, by and by, reading pain in his eyes. 
 
 " You forget what I am. I wouldn't have 
 stayed by you I couldn't except that you 
 needed me ! " 
 
 She remembered now, and the horror of it came 
 back into her eyes. But the measure she took to 
 banish the sight of him was to bury her face 
 again on his shoulder and with a more convul- 
 sive tenderness. " You tried tried in all ways 
 to save him ! Let me love you ! You are all 
 I have ! " 
 
 Again her grief returned upon her, and she 
 shook violently beneath it. But even as she did 
 so she held him closer in her arms. 
 
 By and by she was calmer, and in a brief in- 
 terval of silence they heard the birds singing. The 
 chirrups of daylight in the woodland, even the 
 sweet and penetrating cadence of evensong, are 
 only a tiny rivulet to the floods of melody in which 
 robin and thrush in concert, lark, field sparrow 
 and wren, greet the day reborn. The liquid notes 
 24 361
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 soothed and caressed them; and, little by little, 
 brought the strength of life and its courage. 
 
 She released him, her face brave and composed. 
 " I am ready now," she said. 
 
 He understood and, rising, lifted her to her 
 feet. Supporting each other, they went indoors. 
 The thing that had haunted them both all through 
 the night lay in the bed, still and pale. But the 
 expression of the face was composed, resigned. 
 
 She laid the weight of her arm upon his shoul- 
 der, and he knelt with her, hand in hand, while she 
 uttered a brief prayer, so framed as to include 
 them both in one, a prayer to God and to her 
 father. Then she arose and, for the first time, she 
 kissed him. 
 
 And then, for the first time, he kissed her. 
 
 " We can bear it now," she said " we two, to- 
 gether." 
 
 362
 
 w 
 
 CHAPTER XLII 
 
 ISTAR'S return to affairs was made 
 easier by the feeling that he had a 
 duty of piety toward the thing which 
 Mr. Sears had held so dear. In 
 the eyes of the business world, he found, it had 
 needed only the news of the old man's despair to 
 change an uneasy conjecture into certainty. It was 
 soon the general belief that the successful career 
 of the combination had come to an end. In a sud- 
 den panic, the stock tumbled. 
 
 Wistar came to the rescue with as full a state- 
 ment of the case as the circumstance permitted, 
 and backed up his hopeful augury by buying 
 largely of the floods of stock that poured upon the 
 market. But the memory of his recent operation 
 was too fresh to allow his word, or even what he 
 did, to pass at its face value. It took time and per- 
 sistent and enormous buying to check the panic. 
 
 His former sales of the stock on a rising market 
 had, grotesquely enough, left him many millions 
 the richer, and, at the present low quotations, his 
 holdings swelled until it was now clearly possible 
 for him to buy a majority, or at least enough to 
 
 363
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 make him master of the situation. He was him- 
 self scarcely aware of what this implied when the 
 public awoke to it. 
 
 One day the reporters came to him and plied 
 him with questions as to the events leading up to 
 Mr. Sears's death. He paused a moment before 
 answering, as his custom was, and then another 
 moment, and another. Presently he realized in 
 horror that there was nothing he could say: he 
 saw what he had done as the world was beginning 
 to see it. He had wrecked the company, and out 
 of the wreckage he had built it up again, with him- 
 self in supreme control and possessed of the mil- 
 lions of his enemies and of the speculative public. 
 
 He took the discovery to Judith, fearful of 
 what she might think of him. She said nothing, 
 but burst into laughter the first since she had 
 worn black. 
 
 In the early months of their married life it was 
 a never-failing source of delight to her to call him 
 a company-wrecker, and she learned to make the 
 word a climax to a series of horrid epithets; So 
 she continued to mock and distress him till their 
 son was born. 
 
 Then, when she had found the name for his 
 latest unpremeditated achievement, " Is it true," 
 he pleaded, " that the father of James Wistar, 
 Jr., is a speculator, a market-rigger, a company- 
 wrecker? " 
 
 364
 
 THE CAVE MAN 
 
 " No, Jim," she said, and only those who have 
 the love of useful invective can value her sacrifice, 
 " you are only a poor, but honest, cave man." 
 
 " You can't make me mad with that name," he 
 retorted, " when you are the cave maiden." 
 
 She looked a while into the round, staring eyes 
 of James Wistar, Jr. Then, with an inscrutable, 
 happy smile, she said: "Am I?" 
 
 (i) 
 
 THE END 
 
 365
 
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 the wiles of the fashionable dandy, and his schemes are 
 thwarted. 
 
 "The story is on a high plane; it is a romance which is en- 
 tirely free from the melodramatic quality ; in a word, a novel 
 that will enhance the author's reputation as a writer of fiction 
 of far more than ordinary attainments." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 "He has presented to us the only living beau we have met 
 this many a year; and where so many hundreds have failed, 
 to say this is the highest compliment we can pay his book." 
 
 The Outlook. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 By the Author of "THE SILENCE OF DEAN MAITLAND." 
 
 The Great Refusal. 
 
 By MAXWELL GRAY. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 " The Great Refusal " is the refusal of the son, 
 a man of mind, to continue in the career mapped 
 out for him by the father, a man of money. The 
 whole theme of the novel is whether wealth is to 
 be a means of luxury or a stepping-stone to social 
 service and the alleviation of distress. 
 
 "It is a story full of contrast and color, a brilliant 
 picture." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 "The lesson of the book is unmistakable, the atmos- 
 phere pleasing, the style always graceful and sometimes 
 poetic. There is no lack of varied, effective action, and 
 many of the conversations are noteworthy." Chicago 
 Record-Herald. 
 
 " When Maxwell Gray gave to the world the celebrated 
 novel 'The Silence of Dean Maitland,' critics wondered 
 if such a gifted writer would one day strike a purer, clearer 
 note. She has just done so in issuing 'The Great Re- 
 fusal./ a novel of self-sacrifice. No more uplifting book 
 of its kind has appeared since Besant's 'All Sorts and 
 Conditions of Men ' emphasized the lesson that we do not 
 live only for ourselves and that we can fulfill a high ideal 
 in bettering the condition of our fellow-men." Portland 
 Oregonian. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND CO.MPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 A GREAT FRENCH DETECTIVE'S ADVENTURES* 
 
 The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont. 
 
 By ROBERT BARR, author of "The Midst of 
 Alarms," etc. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 "The most marvellous series of detective adventures 
 written in many a day." St. Louis Republic. 
 
 "Much more ingenious than the Sherlock Holmes 
 tales." New York Sun. 
 
 "Ingenious and amusing." Outlook. 
 
 " Detective adventures and good ones, too, with the 
 addition of an element usually lacking in such stories 
 humor." Kansas City Star. 
 
 "In many respects far superior in ingenuity and vigor 
 to any one of the many adventures of Sherlock Holmes." 
 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
 "Valmont is a detective of an entirely new stripe, for 
 he doesn't pose as omnipotent, and he tells of his failures 
 quite as placidly as of his great triumphs. One gets to like 
 him immensely before the book is half over." 
 
 Cleveland Leader. 
 
 "A delightfully entertaining book, as different from the 
 ordinary, or extraordinary, detective story as possible, and 
 is all the more interesting for that reason." 
 
 Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 "A TALE OF OLD EGYPT AND LITTLE OLD NEW YORK/ 
 
 The False Gods. 
 
 By GEORGE HORACE LORIMER, author of "Let- 
 ters from a Self-made Merchant to His Son." Col- 
 ored Inlay on cover, full-page drawings, head and 
 tail pieces, and many decorations throughout, by 
 J. C. Leyendecker. $1.25. 
 
 The experiences of a " yellow " newspaper reporter 
 who starts out to investigate the workings of a society of 
 Egyptologists and discovers a baffling, bewildering mystery. 
 
 " It has thrills. Every one will enjoy it." 
 
 Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 " The book teems with delightful and subtle humor." 
 
 Oregon Journal, 
 
 "A very ingenious and original tale." 
 
 Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 " A clever extravaganza, pleasantly satirical of romantic 
 fiction and red-eyed journalism." Springfield Republican. 
 
 " Mr. Lorimer is merrily satirical at the expense of the 
 theosophy cult and 'yellow journalism,' especially the 
 latter." Pittsburg Chronicle- Telegraph. 
 
 " There is a remarkable weirdness and mystery in the 
 tale of 'The False Gods,' and it is good for a number of 
 delicious little shivers and thrills." Chicago Daily News. 
 
 D. AP PL ETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 A GREAT ROMANTIC NOVEL. 
 
 The Reckoning. 
 
 By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. Illustrated by 
 Henry Hutt. $1.50. 
 
 "A thrilling and engrossing tale." New York Sun. 
 
 " When we say that the new work is as good as ' Cardigan ' it 
 is hardly necessary to say more." The Dial. 
 
 " Robert Chambers' books recommend themselves. ' The 
 Reckoning' is one of his best and will delight lovers of good 
 novels." Boston Herald. 
 
 " It is an exceedingly fine specimen of its class, worthy of its 
 predecessors and a joy to all who like plenty of swing and spirit." 
 
 London Bookman 
 
 " Robert W. Chambers' stories of the revolutionary period in 
 particular show a care in historic detail that put them in a different 
 class from the rank and file of colonial novels." Book News. 
 
 " A stirring tale well told and absorbing. It is not a book t<? 
 forget easily and it will for many throw new light on a phase of 
 revolutionary history replete with interest and appeal." 
 
 Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 " Chambers' bullets whistle almost audibly in the pages ; when 
 a twig snaps, as twigs do perforce in these chronicles, you can 
 almost feel the presence of the savage buck who snaps it. Then 
 there are situations of force and effect everywhere through the 
 pages, an intensity of action, a certain naturalness of dialogue and 
 ' human nature ' in the incidents. But over all is the glamor of the 
 Chambers fancy, the gauzy woof of an artist's imagination which 
 glories in tints, in poesies, in the little whims of the brush and 
 pencil, so that you have just a pleasant reminder of unreality and 
 a glinapse of the author himself here and there to vary the interest." 
 
 St. Louis Republic. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAC LITY 
 
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