heart she could not blame him too much. It was
not by wrongdoing that he had wrecked their high hopes, but by signing a
contract long years before without reading what he called the fine
print. He was just a boy, after all, in spite of his boasting and his
vaunted knowledge of the world; and now in his trouble he had come back
to her, to the one person he knew he could trust. She gazed a long time
at the dwindling form till it was lost in the immensity of the plain;
and then she gazed on, for dreams were all she had to comfort her lonely
heart

CHAPTER VIII

THE BABES IN THE WOODS

Ever since David went forth and slew Goliath with his sling, youth has
set its puny lance to strike down giants; and history, making much of
the hotspurs who won, draws a veil over the striplings who were slain.
And yet all who know the stern conditions of life must recognize that
youth is a handicap, and if David had but donned the heavy armor of King
Saul he too would have gone to his death. But instead he stepped forth
untrammeled by its weight, with nothing but a stone and a sling, and
because the scoffing giant refused to raise his shield he was struck
down by the pebble of a child. But giant Judson Eells was in a
baby-killing mood when he invited Wunpost and Wilhelmina to his den; and
when they emerged, after signing articles of incorporation, he licked
his chops and smiled.

It developed at the meeting that the sole function of a stockholder is
to vote for the Directors of the Company; and, having elected Eells and
Lapham and John C. Calhoun Directors, the stockholders' meeting
adjourned. Reconvening immediately as a, Board of Directors, Judson
Eells was elected President, John C. Calhoun, Vice-President and Phillip
F. Lapham Secretary-treasurer--after which an assessment of ten cents a
share was levied upon all the stock. Exit John C. Calhoun and Wilhelmina
Campbell, stripped of their stock and all faith in mankind. For even if
by some miracle they should raise the necessary sum Judson Eells and
Phillip Lapham would immediately vote a second assessment, and so on,
_ad finitum_. Holding a majority of the stock, Eells could control
the Board of Directors, and through it the policies of the company; and
any assessments which he himself might pay would but be transferred from
one pocket to the other. It was as neat a job of baby-killing as Eells
had ever accomplished, and he slew them both with a smile.

They had conspired