The Project Gutenberg EBook of Friday, the Thirteenth, by Thomas W. Lawson

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Title: Friday, the Thirteenth

Author: Thomas W. Lawson

Release Date: May 14, 2004 [EBook #12345]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "I saw there something missing from her great blue eyes.
I looked; gasped"]

Friday, the Thirteenth

A Novel by

Thomas W. Lawson

Frontispiece in colour by Sigismond de Ivanowski

1907

Copyright, 1906, 1907.
Copyright, 1907.
Published, February, 1907

To Her

I Dedicate This Book

All That Is Good In This Little Waif, Which Is Very
Dear To Me, I Know A Just God Will Place To
Her Credit. All That Is Mean And Low And
Human Could Never Have Been Birthed
Had She Been Nigh To Guide An
Ever Wayward Pen.

_The Author._

_The Nest, Dreamwold,
August, 1906._

Friday, the Thirteenth

Chapter I.

"Friday, the 13th; I thought as much. If Bob has started, there will be
hell, but I will see what I can do."

The sound of my voice, as I dropped the receiver, seemed to part the mists
of five years and usher me into the world of Then as though it had never
passed on.

I had been sitting in my office, letting the tape slide through my fingers
while its every yard spelled "panic" in a constantly rising voice, when
they told me that Brownley on the floor of the Exchange wanted me at the
'phone, and "quick." Brownley was our junior partner and floor man. He
talked with a rush. Stock Exchange floor men in panics never let their
speech hobble.

"Mr. Randolph, it's sizzling over here, and it's getting hotter every
second. It's Bob--that is evident to all. If he keeps up this pace for
twenty minutes longer, the sulphur will overflow 'the Street' and get
into the banks and into the country, and no man can tell how much
territory will be burned over by to-morrow. The boys have begged me to ask
you to throw yourself into the breach and stay him. They agree you are the
only hope now."

"Are you sure, Fred, that this is Bob's work?" I asked. "Have you seen
him?"

"Ye