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[ALL RIQHTS RESERVED.] "A…

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[ALL RIQHTS RESERVED.] "A CONQUEST OF FORTUNE," By GEORGE GRIFFITH. I 0 BEGIN THE STORY HERE. I JHAPTER 1,- The 0tor.v opens with the romantic return to Dudley from America aJter twelve yeara' absence of Mr. Bryan Endicot. who. a? bo~. left school and W&Qt, away after his father's tragic death. His father was an ironmaster supposed to be wealthy, but all young Endicot received from Lucas Starkey, a, lawyer, was £ 100, amd he came home to find the latter In possession of the works. During his stay in America Endicot gained wealth ajid fame Frank Tynan, an inventor. When he rea?had home he was invited by Mr. lIe$th, an old friend, who wa< a.lso I an ironmaster, to join his firm in order Z", avoid opposition, but Endicot said he vu I determined to regain the works once held by his father. I CHAPTER II.—Bryan, after leaving Mr. Heatboote, wandered to a. spot where years before he used to meet Vivien Lenox, his little sweetheart, daughter of the classical master at King Edward's 8chool, and to taM surprise discovered a letter in the tree which they had used for depositing mes- sages to each other. It was from Vivien, and was evidently written in the long ago, :be, expressed surprise that he had not I-lix upon her. Later he learned that Mr. wpox waa dead from the shock of receiving a fortune, and that Vivian had left, a.nd W88 supposed to have married. CHAPTER Ul. I MIL STARKEY'S COMFIDBNCE3. I Bryan glanced at a large clock face in a I' jeweller a window, and saw that it was half- i X)ast twelve. YM. I will go on to Starkey's." be repeated, "I expect the man is ad methodical as ever. Be used to stick to his desk until two, except «hen he had to be in court. I have often beard dad say that he would break his rule for nothing but a chance to do somebody an SI tarn." He paused at the bank and looked up at the first floor window. Yes, Starkey's name was still there, minus one or two letters, and Bryan entered the building at a side door and cirmbed the creaking stairs. Bryan entered the clerk's office and was taoed by a shabby old man with a snub nose and watery eyes. There was a fringe of rusty hair about his temples, another of straggling Crey round his chin. He looked mean, and ho seemed to kn(lv it. Is Jlr. Starker in?" Bryan asked. "Yes. sir, but h'a is engaged. I am sorry to JB& answered the clerk sadly. I can wait," said Bryan. going towards a eka-ir that had not been dusted for a month. "Allow me." exclaimed the clerk. apolo- getically. wiping the seat with the tail of his greasy frockcoat. "But I don't think it is urach-xtse waiting, sir." 1 don't hear voices in Mr. Starkey's office," Bryan said. "No, no," stammered the clerk. "The fact ta. sir, the governor is-ahem-very busy with an important document that has to be sub- mitted to counsel to-day, and has given me strict instructions that he is not to be dis- turbed. At that moment the inner door opened and Itr. Starkey himself stood on the threshold. He waa a small man with a large head and aggressive side-whiskers. He had a strong face and. small keen grey eyes that twinkled suspiciously under heavy black brows. As far as Bryan remembered, he had not changed a hair since he parted from him at Liverpool twelve years before. "Whom have you here, Lowe?" the lawyer fteked, frowning fiercely at the clerk. I-I don't know. sir—I "I have only just come in. Mr. Starkey," Bryan interrupted. "Can you spare me a few minutes?" The lawyer's face changed as if by magic, and he advanced with his right hand out- stretched. "How d'ye do, Endicot. What a monster you have grown. I knew you the instant you opened your mouth. You've got a touch of the Yankee accent right enough. Come into my offtce." He turned to the astonished clerk and said. "I am in to no one, Lowe." Bryan followed him into the inner room, and they stared at each other for a full half- minute without speaking. "This is going to be a pretty rough hand- ful," thought the lawyer. "As big a sconndrel as ever," was Bryan's teental comment. "Endicot, I can't expresa my delight at seeing you." said Mr. Starkey. Then he added a little reproachfully. "But why on earth have you never written to me?" "Nothing to write about," Bryan answered carelessly. "J thought it better to present myself in person at the proper time." "Quixotic fellow," laughed the lawyer. "I will be franK with you, Endicot. I knew that you were in Dudley, and I ex ;,t, ted this visit., I happened .t< £ look at. a,Liverpool paper, and saw a passenger-list with your name in it. I then consulted the registers r of each of the decent hoteli-and here you are. Needless to say, I un delighted. Have a drop of whisky and soda. I'm afraid I can t offer you a cocktail. Of course, you will lunch with me unless you have m-ide other arrangements." "I ha-e not," replied Bryan: "but I have promised to dine with Mr. Heathcote this evening, aoii until then I am just renewing oid acquaintanceship with persons and places." Exactly, then yon shall go home with me. I There will be just. our two selve,,z. for I am a bachelor still. He showed his big yellow teeth, and added with an air of regret. "I am sorry that Heathcote and I are rather at I loggerheads iust now. Fe i". unhappil". a rather vindictive He looked up at the I curling rings of smoke from his cigar and contracted his lips. "Yes, he has never forgiren, me for going I into the same business—I mean the ironworks which I bought from your poor father." "Oh. Yes-vvell. I have come to England to relieve you of them," said Bryant abruptly. "Of course, you remember your promise?" "Every word of it, Endicot, and I shall be glad to be quit of a bad bargain. I took ever the works at a cost of twenty thousand pounds, because I was obliged to. What they Mr. Starkey gawped, and dropped back into his chair. have cost me since I dare hardly guess at, now," he replied, shaking his head. "The I machinery was out of date, and mismanage- ment was writ large everywhere But we can't do better than a fair valuation ny experts, and if you can put up the money the place is yours." "The money Is perfectly safe," smiled I Bryan. "You have—pardon the question—-er— nnancial assistance at command?" "No." "But, my dear sir." said Mr. Starkey, lean- ing forward in his chair, with his hands n the arms and looking straight into Bryan's 1 steady eyes. "I need hardly tell you that in a very considerable transaction such as the one you suggest financial assistance would. I presume.. in your case, be-or-well-what I call an essential preliminary to the opening of negotiation?" "But I don't want any," said Bryan quietly, but with a significant snap of his eyelids. A.h Mr. Lucas Starkey could not think qf any- thing else to say just at the moment. "Yes," continued Bryan. after a. sip at his whisky and soda. The fact is I propose to be my own financier." "Bless my soul. you don't say so," exclaimed the lawyer, with a visible start. Then you must have been pretty lucky out yonder." "Pretty well. I suppose I could realise about half a million if I wanted to." "Dollars?" "No. pounds," replied Bryan, rising from his chair. "You have been frank with me, Mr. Starkey, and I will be frank with you. Allow me to introduce you to a new acquaintance— Frank Tynan." Mr. Starkey gasped, and he dropped back in his chair. "What Frank TynAn, the treat engineer and .inyen?pr! You nd he are the same? Allow me to congratulate you, my dear sir. Eov modestly you take it! Why. my dear r gir. you are rich and famous at thirty. The world is at your feet. T see—T see. You want to buy back the old place on purely sentimental grounds." He shrugged his shoulders. "And yet you are rich enough to settle down as an English coantry gentleman. That, my dear Endicot, has always been my highest ambition." He rose a.nd opened a steel safe let into the waii. and took out a private ledger. He made a few rapid mental calculations, and then put it back. "Ah. yes-hd were you saying? Your life's work h»s only just begun. Young- rich. and all the world before you. A favourite of the gods if ever there was one. Ah, well, the eld story—the race to the swift and the battle to the strong." There was an apologetic tap on the door. and in the obedience to a harsh "Well?" the sad-faced clerk appeared and informed Mr. Starkey that his carriage was waiting. Within a few. minutes they were being driven rapidly in the direction of Stour-- bridge. a town some five or six miles from Dudley. I have bought a little place out here." the lawyer explained. 'Dudley has not improved I since your time, my dear Endicot, and when the wind sets the wrong way we get the' smoka and sulphur fumes from Tipton until sometimes it is almost difficult to breathe. Now. I will tell you," he continued, with an apparent burst of confidence, "that I have decided upon my future course of life I have made iriends among the country people, and I I may say—quite between ourselves, you understand—formed a certain connection which may possibly result in-er-a matri- monial alliance. I am not such a very old man yet you know, Endicot, only about the prime of life as age goes nowadays." he continued, with a deprecatory motion of his right hand. "anS when I am assured of a certain amount of county support which this alliance will give me, I shall stand for Parlia- ment for this division of Worcestershire. I need not tell you that many of the most distinguished men in the House have been and are lawyers-and for me, my profession, as a profession, has ceased to have any intereat whatever." Bryan listened, but his thoughts were far away. He wondered vaguely if Starkey had been misjudged. Was Mr. Heathcote pre- judiced against him as a rival in trade? Mr. Starkey had started as a solicitor twenty years before in a very small way, and his business, to all outward appearances, had not flourished to any very great extent. And yet. if he was not merely boasting, he must be a wealthy man. "You are very quiet, my dear Eadicot," he said, after a lengthy pause. "Am I? You will get used to that, air, I am not a talkative man at any time, and now I am suffering from a sort of bewilder- ment. One minute I am trying to realise the fact that I am really at home, and the next T am wondering if I have ever been away. Twelve years don't seem to have made any change in the people or their surroundings. The policeman on yonder corner used to stand on the same spot and in the self-same i attitude when I was a boy." (TO BE CONTINUED ON MONDAY.)

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