



Produced by Charles Franks, Charles Aldarondo and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.









[Illustration: "HIS FEEBLE GLANCE TOOK IN HER FACE WITH LIFELESS
INTEREST"]

Jane Cable

By George Barr McCutcheon






CONTENTS

  I When Jane Goes Driving
  II The Cables
  III James Bansemer
  IV The Foundling
  V The Bansemer Crash
  VI In Sight of the Fangs
  VII Mrs. Cable Entertains
  VIII The Telegram
  IX The Proposal
  X The Four Initials
  XI An Evening with Droom
  XII James Bansemer Calls
  XIII Jane Sees with New Eyes
  XIV The Canker
  XV The Tragedy of the Sea Wall
  XVI Hours of Terror
  XVII David Cable's Debts
  XVIII The Visit of Harbert
  XIX The Crash
  XX Father and Son
  XXI In the Philippines
  XXII The Chase of Pilar
  XXIII The Fight in the Convent
  XXIV Teresa Velasquez
  XXV The Beautiful Nurse
  XXVI The Separation of Hearts
  XXVII "If They Don't Kill You"
  XXVIII Homeward Bound
  XXIX The Wreckage
  XXX The Drink of Gall
  XXXI The Transforming of Droom
  XXXII Elias Droom's Dinner Party
  XXXIII Droom Triumphs over Death
  XXXIV To-morrow






CHAPTER I

WHEN JANE GOES DRIVING


It was a bright, clear afternoon in the late fall that pretty Miss
Cable drove up in her trap and waited at the curb for her father to
come forth from his office in one of Chicago's tallest buildings.
The crisp, caressing wind that came up the street from the lake put
the pink into her smooth cheeks, but it did not disturb the brown
hair that crowned her head. Well-groomed and graceful, she sat
straight and sure upon the box, her gloved hand grasping the yellow
reins firmly and confidently. Miss Cable looked neither to right
nor to left, but at the tips of her thoroughbred's ears. Slender
and tall and very aristocratic she appeared, her profile alone
visible to the passers-by.

After a very few moments, waiting in her trap, the smart young
woman became impatient. A severe, little pucker settled upon her
brow, and not once, but many times her eyes turned to the broad
entrance across the sidewalk. She had telephoned to her father
earlier in the afternoon; and he had promised faithfully to be
ready at four o'clock for a spin up the drive behind Spartan. At
three minutes past four the pucker made its first appearance; and
now, several minutes later, it was quite distressing. Never before
had he kept her waiting like this. She was conscious of the fact
that at least a hundred men had stared at her in the longest ten
minutes she had ever known. From the bottom of a very hot heart
she was beginning to resent this scrutiny, when a tall young fellow
swung around a near-by corner, and came up with a smile so full of
delight, that the dainty pucker left her brow, as the shadow flees
from the sunshine. His hat was off and poised gallantly above his
head, his right hand reaching up to clasp the warm, little tan one
outstretched to meet it.

"I knew it was you long before I saw you," said he warmly.

"Truly? How interesting!" she responded, with equal warmth.
"Something psychic in the atmosphere today?"

"Oh, no," he said, reluctantly releasing her hand. "I can't see
through these huge buildings, you know---it's impossible to look
over their tops--I simply knew you were here, that's all."

"You're romantic, even though you are a bit silly," she cried gaily.
"Pray, how could you know?"

"Simplest thing in the world. Rigby told me he had seen you, and
that you seemed to be in a great rage. He dared me to venture into
your presence, and--that's why I'm here."

"What a hopelessly, commonplace explanation! Why did you not leave
me to think that there was really something psychic about it? Logic
is so discouraging to one's conceit. I'm in a very disagreeable
humour to-day," she said, in fine despair.

"I don't believe it," he disputed graciously.

"But I am," she insisted, smiling brightly. His heart was leaping
high--so high, that it filled his eyes. "Everything has gone wrong
with me to-day. It's pretty trying to have to wait in front of a
big office building for fifteen minutes. Every instant, I expect
a policeman to come up and order me to move on. Don't they arrest
people for blocking the street?"

"Yes, and put them in awful, rat-swarming dungeons over in Dearborn