Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1911)

92 THE MOVING PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE not long in arriving. A few minutes later the door burst open, and Burke and Wilson fairly stampeded into the room. In an instant they were grasping him eagerly by the hand and plying him with a hundred questions. "Yes, boys," said Blake happily, after he had told them of his good fortune, "I — we, are starting in business together. No young blood for me. I want blood that is tried and true. A quarter of a century of work with you is all the recommendation that you need with me. You get your old salaries and an interest in the profits. Do you accept?" The fervor of their answers silenced their new employer for an instant while he conquered his emotion. Then he lifted his hand and said: "There is one thing more, boys, that I have to ask of you. Will you swear with me, if we succeed — and we will succeed — to help me every day, every hour, every minute, to put that young ingrate, Jack Norton, out of business ?" "We certainly will/' chorused Burke and Wilson. Three fists were shaken in emphatic unison in the direction of Jack Norton's office across the street. Five years later and James Blake was rich. The old customers of John Norton & Co., accustomed to deal with the conservative senior, had found little to their liking in the erratic, speculating ways of the younger man. One by one the accounts had come over to Blake's firm, which was administered with the same sound conservatism that had distinguished John Norton & Co. in years gone by. The interest in the profits that Blake had given to Burke and Wilson amounted to a substantial sum, and Blake had the affectionate regard of every one of his employees. Jack Norton, on the other hand, had speculated wildly in the market. His business was not one of deliberate counsels, but of snap decisions, and these had been proven wrong in an appalling number of cases. Percy and Harold were threatening to leave, and Claude no longer treated him with what he considered befitting deference. It was with a light heart that Blake put on his hat each afternoon, bade his office force a cheerful good-night, and strode vigorously back to his new and handsome home. It was a merry wife, and daughter, too, who welcomed him affectionately each night at the gate. Nora was a young lady now, and had fulfilled her early promise of beauty to such an extent that it fairly bewildered her own father. He was wont to stand and contemplate her with flattering appreciation, when she started in her evening wraps for a theatre party or ball. It is no wonder, therefore, that at one of these latter festivities Jack Norton was completely captivated at the very first sight of her. As she entered the ball room she seemed radiant with the moonlight from which she had just emerged, and for the first time in weeks Jack's face lit up with a smile. Jack smiling was very different from Jack despondent; and a far more attractive personality. Before she realized it Nora had smiled brightly in return. It did not take the enterprising Jack long to induce his enchantress to murmur the necessary formal introduction, and a moment later they were whirling in the mazes of a dreamy waltz. He hardly caught her name — if he did it made no impression, and Jack soon found that his heart was beating so fast that he must either have a rest in a quiet corner or succumb then and there to heart failure. He expounded this theory to the laughing Nora, and she daringly accepted his invitation to accompany him to a quiet nook in the conservatory. But Nora was far too attractive not to have had some experience in keeping too ardent young men in their proper place. In the conservatory she proved so elusive, and yet so bewitching, so tantalizing and yet so sweet, that dashing Jack Norton scarcely knew how he happened to find himself on his knees pouring out the wealth of his love. When an eloquent young man is in deadly earnest he is hard for a young