t of this the secluded girl heard not a word. The only
change the events of the evening made in the quiet routine of her life
was that all the best young men in the town became frequent callers upon
her, and that thereafter she was sure to receive more than one
invitation to every concert, dance, or other entertainment, as soon as
its occurrence was announced.

But enough of the gossip reached Guilford Duncan's ears to induce angry
resentment and self-assertion on his part.

"I told you how it would be, Duncan," said Mrs. Will Hallam to him not
long afterwards. "But I'm glad you did it. It was the manly, as well as
the kindly thing to do."

"Thank you," the young man answered. "I mean to do more of the same
sort."

He did not explain. Mrs. Hallam was in need of no explanation.

XVI

A NEW ENEMY

It was about this time that Guilford Duncan managed to make a new enemy,
and one more powerful to work him harm, upon occasion, than all the rest
whom he had offended.

Napoleon Tandy, president of the X National Bank,--whose name had been
first popularly shortened to "Nap Tandy" and afterwards extended again
into "Napper Tandy,"--was the only man in Cairo who had enough of
financial strength or of creative business capacity to be reckoned a
rival of Captain Will Hallam, or his competitor in commercial
enterprises.

He had several times tried conclusions with Hallam in such affairs, but
always with results distinctly unsatisfactory to himself. Or, as Hallam
one day explained to Duncan, "He has got a good deal of education at my
hands, and he has paid his tuition fees."

Tandy was not yet past middle age, but he was always called "Old Napper
Tandy," chiefly because of certain objectionable traits of character
that he possessed. He was reputed to be the "meanest man in Southern
Illinois." He was certainly the hardest in driving a bargain, the most
merciless in its enforcement. He was cordially hated and very greatly
feared. Cold, self-possessed, shrewd, and utterly selfish, his attitude
toward his fellow men, and toward himself, was altogether different from
that of his greater competitor, Hallam. He felt none of Hallam's
"sporting interest," as Duncan called it, in playing the game of
commerce and finance. He was quick to see opportunities, and somewhat
bold in seizing upon them, but no thought of popular or public benefit
to accrue from his enterprises ever found lodgment in his mind. He had
put a large sum