XX. The Parting of the Ways 287 XXI. A Plea for Justice 303 BOOK III--THE FLOWER I. The Devil Smiles 315 II. Beside Beautiful Waters 321 III. The Tempter's Voice 333 IV. The Mockery of the Sun 348 V. A Trump Card 353 VI. Through Purple Curtains 366 VII. The Land of the Sky 374 VIII. The White Messenger 392 IX. The Eyes of Pity 402 X. An Epilogue 407 ILLUSTRATIONS "He turned and saw Nan" _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "'I was seeing a vision, little pal'" 104 "He hurled him down the steps" 180 "'I must save her. I must be cunning'" 284 "Nan looked at him in despair" 386 THE ROOT OF EVIL LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY _SCENE: New York and the Mountains of North Carolina_ _TIME: 1898 to 1907_ JAMES STUART, a young Southerner in New York. NAN PRIMROSE, his fiancee. MRS. PRIMROSE, her mother. JOHN C. CALHOUN BIVENS, a millionaire. DR. HENRY WOODMAN, who loves his neighbour. HARRIET, his daughter. HIS MAJESTY, the King of America. THE ROOT OF EVIL Book 1--The Seed CHAPTER I A STAR BOARDER At the end of a warm spring day in New York, James Stuart sat in the open window of his room on Washington Square, smiling. With a sense of deep joy he watched the trees shake the raindrops from their new emerald robes, and the flying clouds that flecked the Western sky melt into seas of purple and gold. A huckster turned into Fourth Street, crying: "Straw--berries! Straw--berries!" And the young lawyer laughed lazily. The chatter of the sparrows, the shouts of children in the Square and the huckster's drawling call seemed the subtones of a strangely beautiful oratorio of nature into which every sound of earth had softly melted. Even the roar of the elevated trains on Sixth Avenue and the screech of their wheels as the cars turned the corner of the filthy street in the rear were music. A secret joy filled the world. Nothing could break its spell--not even the devilish incessant rattle of the machine hammers flattening the heads of the rivets on the huge steel warehouse of the American Chemical Company rising across the avenue. The music he heard was from within, and the glory of life was shining from his eyes. Again the huckster's cry rang over the Square: "Straw--berries! Straw--berries!" The dreamer closed his eyes and smiled. A flood of tender memories stole into his heart from the sunlit fields of the South. He had gone hunting wild strawberries with Nan Primrose on the hills at home in North Carolina the day he first knew that he loved her.