Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1916)

108 Friday, the ziness swept over him. He caught his father's arm. "Dad, I've got to quit. I'll go mad if I stay. It — it may be a false report, after all. Put a limit on the sale." Out on the street, he drank in a deep breath of the open air — sweet to him as the wind above a clover field after that inferno he had left. A taxi pulled up at the curb, and the chauffeur looked inquiringly at him. He got in and gave his office address. The dizzy feeling was leaving him, but the realization of the doom spelled by the cablegram benumbed him. At the door of his private office, he stood for a moment. Beulah was in there — Beulah, whose lovely face had been forgotten in the surges of the maelstrom on the floor of the Exchange, Beulah who must go with the crash of his fortunes. Her voice came to him, low-pitched. She had a visitor — no, it was a telephone communication. Faintly the words reached him, then clearer and clearer they seemed to ring on his brain with the sound of trumpets : "So, dad, you see, I had to change the cablegram. If he had known that war was ended " Bob shook himself. This was some madness of his brain. But the girl's soft voice went on: "It means ruin for us, dad. I've been trying to get you — trying frantically— Bob pushed open the door. The girl turned her head. "Good-by," she whispered, and hung up the receiver. "I heard you," he said. He was calm — unnaturally calm. "You did not send me the cablegram you received — or you altered it. What was the exact message, please?" "It said, 'War to continue/ " she answered mechanically. His eyes held her. She could have given him no other answer but the truth. He wrote hurriedly, called a messenger, and dispatched him to the Change. Thirteenth Five minutes before the close of business in the human maelstrom, the message arrived. It produced a new riotIn five minutes Salanico jumped fifty points. In five minutes those who had bought made millions ; those who had sold short — and among them were Stevens and Judge Sands — went down to despair, broken men When the door closed on the messenger, and Bob and the girl were left alone in the room, Beulah bent her head on her arms and sobbed. Bob came close to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Tell me why you did this thing — tried to ruin me." Brokenly she told him she was the daughter of Judge Sands; told him of the enmity between Brownley, senior, and her father; told how the old judge had been impoverished and ready to take his own life; how she had forced him to live by presenting to him the possibility of revenge ; and how finally she had wormed her way into the confidences of the elder Brownley, and. learning his secrets, had set out to bring his fortune tumbling about his ears. It was a heartbreaking story ; but, instead of enraging the man who listened, he tightened his clasp about the girl, and there was a mist in his eyes as he spoke : "Beulah, I understand. I would have done the same thing myself." She looked up at him through her tears. "Bob, you don't mean you can forgive me?" /'Not only forgive, little girl, but love if vou will let me. Is there a chance for me? Will you be my wife?" She lifted her lips to his. "Bobby, boy, I had to fight my love for you all the time I was planning dad's revenge and your ruin." Brownley and his right-hand man. Wilder, were closeted with their asso