Against the Tide

Although noon was close at hand, the morning was deeply gloomy and ominous. Thunder clouds of late summer brooded over the Ohio, and rain, already sweeping across the wide cresc...

Upon the issue of this meeting in the library of Fortescue Deming there directly depended larger things than any of the men present might guess. "Food Products," otherwise the D...

This man, to whose lips a smile came so rarely, had of a sudden become a boy again, laughing from morning to night, adoring his bride with a strangely fearful veneration yet par...

There are two dreams which every developed and normal woman cherishes. One, of wee hands at her breast. The other, that she may some day have either the building, or the complet...

Consolidated Securities occupied the three top floors of a building in the late thirties, but was cramped for room. Already Armstrong was planning the lease of an entire buildin...

Dorothy went to the city on a Tuesday, in order to inspect some furniture that was being done over to suit her scheme of things, and also in order to do some early Christmas sho...

That same morning, he learned something that staggered him, frightened him, yet filled him with a great veneration and joy. When he looked across the breakfast-table at Dorothy,...

Christmas in Evansville to some degree reflected the warm holiday celebration of the South, which is not individual but general in scope, not personal but social; making up in i...

Jimmy Wren refused to utter a word until behind closed doors. Armstrong led him upstairs to the library, while Dorothy, discovering that Wren had eaten nothing since the previou...

Mrs. Bird Fowler's apartment reflected, in a high degree, the personality and beauty of its occupant. The large living room was chastely but exquisitely furnished in suspiciousl...

Armstrong should have reached New York at nine o'clock on the Wednesday following Christmas, but his train was forty minutes late. Dorothy had remained in Evansville, to come Ea...

Armstrong went to his hotel room and dropped into a chair. He felt the need of being alone. He was glad that Dorothy was in Evansville, ignorant of all this disaster. He wanted...

Late in the afternoon of this same fateful Wednesday, Armstrong sat across the desk from that hard-jawed, hard-eyed old man, head of the Dorns Detective Agency, and told his story.

Within four days, the Armstrong Company was established in new offices directly across the street from the stronghold of Consolidated Securities. The separation was not accompli...

Dorothy's parents remained only a few days at Aircastle Point, as their visit was no more than a stop-off en route to Europe. While it was not in the nature of things that they...

Armstrong was healthily busy, up to his ears in work; with each day the fight proved more drawn-out. The campaign against Findlater and Macgowan swept along steadily. The financ...

Armstrong entered his own office a little after nine in the morning, crushing a newspaper in his hand; what he had read there had rendered him livid with helpless anger. He foun...

Dorothy had greatly desired to accompany Armstrong to Wilmington; for, though she said nothing of it to him, a premonition of evil was strong upon her. But nature denied the wis...

From the moment when Lawrence Macgowan, as secretary of Consolidated Securities, called the annual meeting to order, a sense of impending drama filled the auditorium. The Gayety...

"The difference between you and Macgowan," said Robert Dorns, "is that he's got the law on his side--and you're on the side of the law. It ain't much difference at first sight,...

Wearily, he discarded his things and turned to the living room, where he glimpsed the figure of Dorothy. Why she had not come to meet him, he did not know or care. He thought on...

Upon the Saturday after the triumphal return from Wilmington, Lawrence Macgowan sat in the office that had once belonged to Armstrong. A thin, malicious smile drew at his lips a...

Jimmy Wren was aware only of the troubled fact, and not of the details that lay behind Dorothy's desertion. Armstrong had closed Aircastle Point the day after she left, and was...

Late in the afternoon of that same Saturday that saw Armstrong's departure for Indianapolis, the same Saturday that saw Findlater placed completely in the power of Lawrence Macg...

Jimmy Wren made his train without difficulty that evening. He spent half an hour in the diner and then made his way forward to the club car, anticipating a smoke and an hour of...

Tom Windsor reached Indianapolis on Sunday, spent a few hours with his family, and the same evening boarded a train for Evansville. It was the same train from which Armstrong an...

Upon Monday morning Armstrong and Dorns ascertained very speedily that Tom Windsor was still out of the city. His office reported that he had come and gone, and was expected bac...

The brokerage firm of Williams & Slosson had not yet arrived at the point of throwing away money on externals. The offices consisted of a reception room and outer office, and tw...

Slosson stared at the men facing him. Dorns he did not know; the sight of Windsor and Armstrong here together brought an angry glint into his eyes. One of those eyes was very di...

Wednesday night in New York--a warm, sweet night of April. The windows of Mrs. Fowler's apartment were open to the touch of melting spring that drifted in from Central Park, jus...

The old-fashioned Deming mansion in Evansville, so often a witness to scenes of gayety or sorrow or boredom, was to-day shrouded in a singular and terrible air of hushed expecta...