Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: BETTY STOOD AT THE WINDOW IN THE FULL LIGHT OF THE STREET-LAMP] THE SPIDER’S WEB BY REGINALD WRIGHT KAUFFMAN Author of "The House of Bondage," etc., etc. Illustrated by JEAN PALEOLOGUE NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1913 COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY _All Rights Reserved_ Published October, 1913 To EVERETT HARRÉ _Gratefully_ That’s the shout, the shout we shall utter When, with rifles and spades, We stand, with the old Red Flag aflutter On the barricades! —FRANCIS ADAMS. Thou orb of many orbs! Thou seething principle! Thou well-kept, latent germ! Thou center! Around the idea of thee the strange sad war revolving, With all its angry and vehement play of causes, (With yet unknown results to come, for thrice a thousand years).... —WHITMAN. While three men hold together, The kingdoms are less by three. —SWINBURNE. *LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS* "Betty," he said, "do you understand what your father is asking me to do?" . . . (Outside cover) (missing from book) Betty stood at the window in the full light of the street-lamp . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ He found it necessary to be emphatic The mob was using the coal from the dismantled wagon *EXPLANATION* In order to warn off trespassers, I have begun my novel with four chapters that an expert bookmaker—indeed, my own book-maker—has pronounced dull: I knew that only those to whom the book belonged would persevere. By the same token, being aware that the story which is prefaced by an apology is ended with suspicion, I preface this story with an apology: I want to apologize to my friends for using them and to my enemies for not giving them what they have expected; I want to create in the minds of the former the suspicion that I am darker than I have been painted, and in the minds of the latter the suspicion that I am not a whited sepulcher but a blackened altar. In 1909 I projected, vaguely it is true, a cycle of four novels, each to be independent of the others in plot and character, but all carrying forward a definite view of life. As, however, the announcement of a cycle is the surest means of alienating readers, not to mention publishers, I held my tongue about the general plan and concerned myself, in public, only with its separate parts. These were "The House of Bondage," "The Sentence of Silence," "Running Sands" and "The Spider’s Web."