strenuous career than you ever dreamed of in all your pampered existence. His life has been real, Monty Brewster, and yours is only an imitation." 

 It struck him hard, but it left him gentle. 

 "Babs," he said, softly, "I can't take that from you. You don't really mean it, do you? Am I as bad as that?" 

 It was a moment for dominance, and he missed it. His gentleness left her cold. 

 "Monty," she exclaimed irritably, "you are terribly exasperating. Do make up your mind that you and your million are not the only things in the world." 

 His blood was up now, but it flung him away from her. 

 "Some day, perhaps, you'll find out that there is not much besides. I am just a little too big, for one thing, to be played with and thrown aside. I won't stand it." 

 He left the house with his head high in the air, angry red in his cheeks, and a feeling in his heart that she was the most unreasonable of women. Barbara, in the meantime, cried herself to sleep, vowing she would never love Monty Brewster again as long as she lived. 

 A sharp cutting wind was blowing in Monty's face as he left the house. He was thoroughly wretched. 

 "Throw up your hands!" came hoarsely from somewhere, and there was no tenderness in the tones. For an instant Monty was dazed and bewildered, but in the next he saw two shadowy figures walking beside him. "Stop where you are, young fellow," was the next command, and he stopped short. He was in a mood to fight, but the sight of a revolver made him think again. Monty was not a coward, neither was he a fool. He was quick to see that a struggle would be madness. 

 "What do you want?" he demanded as coolly as his nerves would permit. 

 "Put up your hands quick!" and he hastily obeyed the injunction. 

 "Not a sound out of you or you get it good and proper. You know what we want. Get to work, Bill; I'll watch his hands." 

 "Help yourselves, boys. I'm not fool enough to scrap about it. Don't hit me or shoot, that's all. Be quick about it, because I'll take cold if my overcoat is open long. How's business been to-night?" Brewster was to all intents and purposes the calmest man in New York. 

 "Fierce!" 

 Prev. P 49/156 next