



Produced by Annie McGuire








[Illustration: Book Cover]




[Illustration: "ARE YOU AFRAID OF YOURSELF?"
_Frontispiece. Page 233_.]




JOHN MARSH'S MILLIONS

A NOVEL

By
CHARLES KLEIN
AND
ARTHUR HORNBLOW

Authors of the Novel "The Lion and the Mouse,"
"The Third Degree," etc.

[Illustration]

ILLUSTRATIONS BY
SAMUEL CAHAN

       *       *       *       *       *

G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK


COPYRIGHT 1910, BY
G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
      I                                                                7
     II                                                               23
    III                                                               36
     IV                                                               50
      V                                                               63
     VI                                                               80
    VII                                                               95
   VIII                                                              112
     IX                                                              130
      X                                                              148
     XI                                                              161
    XII                                                              179
   XIII                                                              198
    XIV                                                              214
     XV                                                              229
    XVI                                                              252
   XVII                                                              268
  XVIII                                                              286
    XIX                                                              306
     XX                                                              328




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE
  "Are you afraid of yourself?" Frontispiece                         233
  "That's not John Marsh's will"                                      78
  The agonized scream of a mother robbed of her young                175
  Paula left the asylum office accompanied by the nurse              300




CHAPTER I.


When John Marsh, the steel man, died, there was considerable stir in the
inner circles of New York society. And no wonder. The wealthy
ironmaster's unexpected demise certainly created a most awkward
situation. It meant nothing less than the social rehabilitation of a
certain individual who, up to this time, had been openly snubbed, not to
say deliberately "cut" by everybody in town. In other words, Society was
compelled, figuratively speaking, to go through the humiliating and
distasteful performance of eating crow. Circumstances alter cases. While
the smart set was fully justified in making a brave show of virtuous
indignation when one of its members so far forgot himself as to get
kicked out of his club, it was only natural that the offending
gentleman's peccadilloes were to be regarded in a more indulgent light
when he suddenly fell heir to one of the biggest fortunes in the
country.

It was too bad about "Jimmy" Marsh. His reputation was unsavory and he
deserved all of it. Total lack of moral principle combined with an
indolent, shiftless disposition had given him a distorted outlook on
things. All his life he had been good for nothing, and at the age of
forty he found himself a nuisance to himself and everybody else. Yet he
was not without a natural cunning which sometimes passed for smartness,
but he often overreached himself and committed blunders of which a
clever man would never be guilty. To put it plainly, Jimmy was crooked.
Fond of a style of living which he was not able to afford and desperate
for funds with which to gratify his expensive tastes, he had foolishly
attempted to cheat at cards. His notions of honor and common decency had
always been nebulous, and when one night, in a friendly game, he
clumsily tried to deal himself an ace from the bottom of the deck, not
even the fact that he was the brother and sole heir of one of the
richest men in the United States could save him from ignominious
expulsion.

The affair made a great noise at the time, and the newspapers were full
of its scandalous details. But the public soon forgets, and as to the
newspapers--they found other victims. Besides, Jimmy's prospects were
too bright to permit of him being dropped from sight altogether. It was
not forgotten that one day he would step into his brother's shoes and
then Society, willy nilly, would have to do homage to his money.

This rich brother, by the way, was largely responsible for Jimmy's
undoing. They were both--he and John--the sons of poor English people
who immigrated to America five years after John's birth. The father was
a journeyman baker and started a small business in Pittsburg. Two
cousins of the same name, William and Henry, haberdashers by trade, had
likewise settled and prospered in New Jersey. Fifteen years later the
mother died in giving birth to another son. The elder boy, a taciturn,
hard-working lad with a taste for figures, had found employment in the
steel industry, then in its infancy, but growing with giant strides. As
he acquired experience, his position was improved until, before long, he
was known as one of the most expert steel workers in the iron