"So I'll tell you what we'll do," concluded the old financier after a time. "We'll just let you and Van look around here a little bit and see what more you can learn. You're one of the real directors of International Power to-day, Van. Mr. Rawn is on the minority and the toboggan list, or is going to be there. We'll take the first steps when we see the boys down East. The country's getting right now for a little speculation--things have been dead long enough. There'll be a market. When the market starts, I think you know which way it will go for a certain person I needn't name." IX They rose, stood about loungingly for a time, and at length slowly separated, the older man and the ex-director with the pointed beard falling back of the others for just an instant. "What's the truth about the row, Van?" demanded the old man, laying a large, pudgy hand on the other's shoulder. "I don't know, honestly, what it is. I can tell you this much--your factory is closed. Your superintendent, Halsey, has quit his work and left his old residence. Didn't Rawn tell you _that_?" "No! What's up now--some trouble with a woman? Wasn't he married to Rawn's daughter?" "Yes, and she went to live with Papa. Papa had the coin." "And the superintendent is going the chorus girl route here or in New York?" "No, sir, not in the least,--nothing of the sort. You can't guess where he's gone." The other shook his head. "Well, I'll tell you then, since you are one of the directors of the International and I'm not! He's gone and taken his other pair of pants and his celluloid collar, and moved over to the North Shore! He's living in the same house with Papa J. Rawn right now;--that is to say, he has been for two or three weeks." "Well, what do you know about that, too!" commented his friend. "I don't know much about it. As I told you, there's something in here I don't understand. I can't for the life of me figure out that chap Halsey's motives or his moves. But I don't care about him. It's Rawn I'm after--and I'm going to get him!" CHAPTER VII THEY WHO SOW THE WIND I The information given by the ex-director in regard to the whereabouts of Charles Halsey was substantially, if not circumstantially, correct. He had, indeed, done the most unlikely thing. He had taken up his abode, for the time at least, at the very place to which he might have seemed least apt to return; that is to say, the home of his father-in-law, John Rawn.