Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 159: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FIGHTING THE EGG KING. man, tall and broad and rather gray, made room for her beside him. II. ONE month later the old fair building on South Street was the scene of wonder- ful activity. It was a gigantic frame structure which covered one square block of ground. Time had weather-eaten its paint and its ornate embellishments, but its hugeness was still intact, it yet loomed up big and Titanic on a dark night, a pictyre of desolation, a reminder of days when the whole county dispensed with business for the greater part of a week and journeyed here in droves to witness an exhibition which to them was the epitome of expositions. It was ten years since the place had responded to the call of human patronage, and dust and swallows and sparrows, bats, owls, spiders, and pigeons had usurped the interior and by right ‘of con- quest claimed it as their own. But now the great double doors in each of the four streets were standing wide open, teams were driving in and out, a veritable thousand men were scurrying over the place like rats: The interior reverberated with the sound of banging hammer and sledge. Joists came down and new and stronger ones replaced them. Men ran hither and thither with blueprints and folding rules. Superintending the work of construc- tion, consulting with foremen and bosses, was Nathan Karby. He was ubiquitous, now on the inside of the building, now on the out, directing the laying of a rail- road siding to his unloading platfqgrm. His aims seemed to be speed, unity of action, concentration of work to one end in view. A glance told the most casual that his word was law, that neither blueprint nor plan, verbal nor written contract mattered a whit. What he said went. As one day followed another and this army of workmen continued their labor, order began to emanate from the chaos of beams, lumber, stone, brick, tiling. Six preat, long aisles which ran the whole J 50] length of the building paralleled eact other like six great streets of a city These aisles were very wide, and soor they were equipped with counters, bins glass cases, shelves, cupboards, drawers. In his quarters at the Jefferson Hotel Karby had set up an improvised office. and here behind a flat top desk he inter- viewed agents, sellers, farmers, grange officials, salesmen. At the same time he recruited an army of workers whom he sent out through the country, into neigh- boring cities and villages. These agents spread over the land like the tentacles of an octopus, and they went equipped with cash arid bought and bought and bought. Karby was elated. He was purchasing his interest in life. His gray eyes shone. He caught his breath and thrust out his firm jaw and smacked his thin lips when he anticipated the scenes in which he would soon participate. The moneyed men of the community would sweep down on him in droves. The food speculators and manipulators would haunt him like a bad dream. He would welcome these scenes. He could scarcely wait for them to develop. One noon when Karby returned to the Jefferson for luncheon he noticed in the lobby ‘myriads of young girls who were accosting the hotel guests in quest of funds for one of the city hospitals. Karby had read in the daily papers that a cam- paign was being inaugurated to raise a hundred thousand dollars. People were tagged with a yellow check as they re- sponded with contributions. | Karby had escaped the campaigners in the street by reason of the fact that he drove a motor-car and had been off ‘too early in the morning to be approached. But now the minute he stepped into the hotel a most charming young lady picked him out as her victim and came hurrying toward him. Karby paused and found himself look- ing inte the same pair of beautiful eyes that he had looked into that day on the train. As his gaze met hers, Karby saw that comicloool C©