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Chapter 2 CLOSING THE DOORS

Word Count: 4241    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

it from the beginning of time. So it was with Shiel Crozier. Does not the name suggest a man lean and flat, sinewy, angular and isolated like a figure in one of El Greco's pi

with eyes changing from a blue-grey to the deepest ultramarine that ever delighted the soul and made the reputation of an Old Master. Even in the prairie town of Askatoon, where every man is so busy that he scarcely knows his own children when he meets them, and almost requires an introduction to his wife when the door closes on them at bedtime, people took a second look at him when he passed. Many who came in much direct contact with him,

. Some of them go to the prairie country to forget they ever lived before, and to begin the world again, having been hurt in life undeservingly;

a man of "horse-sense," no doubt because he was a horse-doctor-"a veterenny surgeon," as his friends called him when they wished to flatter him. Deely supplemented this chaste remark about the broncho with the observation that, "Sa

itty Tynan in his path. Yet he had had trouble. There was hint of it in his occasional profound abstraction; but more than all else in the fact that here he was, a gentleman, having lived his life for over four years past as a sor

chi Deely on the day this tale opens, to John Sibley, the gambling youn

soft, where the music smells-fairly smells like parfumery," responded Sibley. "I'd like to get at the bottom of him. The

s Inniskillen chestnut, and won the gold cup with her afterwards. He just sort of appeared out of the mist of the marnin', there bein' a divil's lot of excursions and conferences and holy gatherin's in Askatoon that time back, ostensible for the business which their names denote, like the Dioceesan Conference and the Pure White Water Society. That was their bluff; but they'd come herealong for one goo

There never was a woman crossing the street on a muddy day that you didn't sprint to get a look at h

worth livin' for, and that'

rs. Deely that

is what he is! And it's how I know that the trouble with James Gathorne Ke

nd what you don't know much about-never having

eem to have a single vice. Haven't we tried him? There was Belle Bingley, all frizzy hair and a kicker; we put her on to him. But he give her ten dollars to buy a hat on condition she behaved like a lady in the future-smilin' at her, the divil! And Belle, wit

. "Drink women-nit! Not for me! I'v

do you call gamblin'? It's the biggest vice ever tuk grip of a man. It

vice too. P'r'aps J. G. Kerr

you it's just as well to look where y' are goin'. Burlingame don't care what he does to get his way in court. What set him against Kerry I ain't sure, but, bedad, I think it's looks. Burlingame goes in for lookin' like a picture in a frame-gold seals hangin' beyant his vestpocket, broad silk

ty of women that watch you go down-town-you got a

h goes against me. I like Mr. J. G. Kerry. I've plenty dealin's with him, naturally, both of us being in the horse business, and I say he's right as a minted dollar as he goes now. Also, and behold, I'd take my oath h

for the Logan kil

me now, if he gives the evidence they say he can give-the prasecution say it

He's got as much fear as a canary has whiskers. He doesn't want to give evidence, he says, but he wants to see the law do its work. Burlingame 'll try to make it out manslaughter; but there's

of horse-thieves, the stranger in a strange lan

is eyes are open all

bley answered reflectively. "It couldn

t the chance, for he's up at the Sovereign Bank now. I seen him leave the Gr

on at the bank

uess. I've seen him

orth Trust C

dd Bradley doesn't knit up with an outsider from the old cou

s his vice, same as mine! P'r'aps that's what ruined him. Cards, specu

t one hour like a mill-pond or a well, and then-swhish,

I'll go wait for him at the bank. I got a fellow-feeling for Mr. Kerry. I'd like to whisper in his ear that he'd better be lookin' sh

arthest corners, and Sibley noted that three men were evidently carefully watching the bank, and that one of the men was Studd Bradley, the so-called boss. The others were local men of some position commercially and financially in the town. Sibley did not give any s

d Bradley lean forward eagerly, then draw back and speak h

est blue that could be imagined-an almost impossible colour, like that of the Mediterranean when it reflects the perfect sapphire of the sky. There was something almost wonderful in their expression. A woman once said as she looked at a pict

e arrangements for a big land-deal in connection with the route of a new railway and a town-site, which would mean more to him than any one could know. If it w

nor real estate, is enough to keep you awake at night. Crozier had been so busy with the delicate and difficult negotiations that he had not deeply concerned himself with the absence of the necessary ten thousand dollars. He thought he could get the money at any time, so good was the proposition; and i

l appear in due time. Sibley's face had always something of that immobility and gravity which Crozier's face had part of the time-paler, less intelligent, with dark line

"glad to see you! Any

here's any doing at all,

d Crozier a little abstractedly, for he wa

y, with an obvious undermeanin

tion. "Being about to burgle the bank,

Kerry. I'm for breaking banks, not b

not talking at haphazard. They had met on the highway, as it were, m

o, and who will see us if we

corps have got their eyes on this stre

me less emotional. "I don't see them any

ice. They had you under observat

" Crozier remarked dryly, yet suggestively,

at an ace is goin' to do when there's a joker in the pack," remarked Sibley; "but I thought I'd tell you

l-far more than he would. It was not strange that they should watch his invasion of the bank. They knew he wanted money, and a bank was the place to get it

e on," was Sibley's quiet reply

ogan Trial next week. It's pretty well-guessed what you're goin' to say and what you know, and you take it from me, the M'Mahon mob that's behind Logan 'll have it in for you. They're terrors when they get goin', and if your evidence puts one of that lot away, ther'll be trouble for you.

to see me about, wasn't

kind of way, and you don't need to have the same responsibility as the rest. The Law'll get what it wants whether you chip in or not. Let it alone. What's the Law ever done for you that you should run risks for it? It's straight talk, Mr. Kerry. H

ee black, don't play white; if you see a chestnut crumpled up, put your money on the bay even when the chestnut is a favourite. Of

n who hypnotises himself, who "sees things," who dreams as only the gambler and

y, for it seemed to him as though he had found a long-lost brother. No man except

other thoughtfully for

e M'Mahon mob. I don't feel about it as you do. I've got a different feeling, Sibley. I'll play the

e is for the defence, and he's got h

ozier smiled

to do who starts with only his pants and his head on. That's the way you begun here, I guess; and I don't want to see your h

his hand and gripped that of the other, said warmly: "I'm just as much obliged to you as though I took your advi

rmer, and then Crozier turned quickly and entered the doorway of the British Bank, th

dow where Studd Bradley and his friends had been. There was an hotel opposite the British Bank. He entered and waited. Bradley and

His face was set and pale. For an instant he stood as though wonder

He turned round. Bradley, the over-fed, over-confident, over-estimated financi

It's working all right. He's got no chance of raising the cash," he added, as the two p

k at that," John Sibley remarked as he rose fro

it to the man to whom the success of his enterprise meant so much. To crowd

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