Category: Novels
IT was a nasty night, with a drizzling rain nearly as thick as a fog--a rain which obscured the signals and left the rails so slippery that a quick stop was almost impossible--yet just the sort of night to make a quick stop imperative if disaster were to be averted.
IT was a nasty night, with a drizzling rain nearly as thick as a fog--a rain which obscured the signals and left the rails so slippery that a quick stop was almost impossible--y...
2. CHAPTER II--PROMOTIONIN the train despatcher’s office at Warmington, one hundred and twenty miles to the east of Hitchen’s Siding, the force was hard at work under the electric light. Philip Manson,...
3. CHAPTER III---WAYLAYING A MAGNATE“I was just going up to see you, Mr. Manson. I want you to do me a favour. I’m off to New York, and I’d like a letter of introduction to Mr. Rockervelt.”
4. CHAPTER IV--A CONSPIRACYTHE greatest blessing that Providence can bestow upon a young man is self-knowledge. Success comes to those who know their own powers while it is yet day. To learn for the first...
5. CHAPTER V--A FAVOURITE OF FORTUNEDUGALD STEELE cordially hated his neighbours, and evinced little hesitation in telling them so, whenever opportunity offered. He lived apparently in the depths of extreme povert...
6. CHAPTER VI--“THERE’S NOTHING HALF SO SWEET IN LIFEJOHN STEELE now entered upon a period of his life which was most interesting and enjoyable. The numerous petty and annoying incidents which had heretofore been the cause of fric...
7. CHAPTER VII--THE FIRST CAST OF THE DICENEXT morning John Steele was startled to receive a rather peremptory message from Colonel Beck requesting him to call at once at his residence. The young man instantly obeyed, a...
8. CHAPTER VIII--AN IMPENDING CHANGETO borrow money at any time is difficult; to borrow during a panic is impossible. John Steele spent the first half of the second day of the crisis in attempting the impossible....
9. CHAPTER IX--LOVE’S SPECTREJOHN STEELE sat at one of the little round tables in the Café Germania, where a customer may have brown Munich beer in a big stone mug with a white metal lid. The _café_ was ver...
10. CHAPTER X--BUYING A RAILWAYTHE station-master said nonchalantly that he had nothing to do with it, and from out the telegraph office he brought a stout wooden chair which he set down in the dark strip of...
11. CHAPTER XI--THE TERROR OF WHEATROCKERVELT settled with John Steele by drawing his cheque for three hundred and ninety-eight thousand six hundred dollars, and it was the circumvented Blair himself who carried...
12. CHAPTER XII--THE EMBODIMENT OF MAMMONTHERE now projects across these pages the sinister shadow of a man. He was one seldom seen except by his immediate business associates, and yet seldom has a newspaper been issue...
13. CHAPTER XIII.--PERSONALLY CONDUCTED BY A GIRLSUGAR is a fattening product, and the Consolidated Beet Sugar Company waxed fat and prospered. Its shares stood high on the Stock Exchange, and the members of the syndicate to w...
14. CHAPTER XIV--AN IMPORTANT CHAMPAGNE LUNCH.WHEN John Steele stepped down from the sleeping-car in the early morning at Pickaxe Gulch, he found Alice Fuller the sole occupant of the platform. She welcomed him with the cor...
15. CHAPTER XV--AN ATTEMPT AT AN ARMISTICE.JOHN STEELE’S friends were amazed to find him back in town almost within a week after he had left with such lavish preparations for a long stay in the wilderness. It was difficu...
16. CHAPTER XVI--THE RICHEST WOMAN IN THE WORLDTHE clearing in the primeval forest had been only partial, for several tall trees were left standing here and there, grouped around a log-house. The house itself, to a casual ob...
17. CHAPTER XVII--TO THE SOUND OF THE SILVER CHIMEA GREAT deal of nonsense has been written about the inartistic qualities of the modern man’s evening clothes. The truth is that no other costume so befits a stalwart, good-looki...