Swirling Waters

Swirling Waters, by Max
Rittenberg

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Title: Swirling Waters
Author: Max Rittenberg
Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18789]
Language: English
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SWIRLING WATERS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE MIND-READER, BEING SOME PAGES FROM THE LIFE OF
DR XAVIER WYCHERLEY, PSYCHOLOGIST AND MENTAL
HEALER.
THE COCKATOO.

SWIRLING WATERS
BY
MAX RITTENBERG
AUTHOR OF "THE MIND-READER," "THE COCKATOO," ETC.
SECOND EDITION
METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON

First Published July 3rd 1913 Second Edition August 1913

TO
MY DEAR MOTHER
WHOSE ADVICE AND CRITICISM HAVE HELPED SO
GREATLY IN MY WORK, AND ESPECIALLY IN THE MAKING
OF THIS BOOK; WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP HAS BEEN A
CONSTANT INSPIRATION TO ME

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE

I. The Whirlpool 1
II. A £5,000,000 Deal 7
III. Shadowed 17
IV. On the Scent of a Mystery 19
V. The First Move in the Game 29
VI. The Beginning of a New Life 42
VII. A Seat by the Arena 50
VIII. Who and where is Rivière? 61
IX. At Monte Carlo 69
X. Larssen turns another Corner 73
XI. A Letter From Rivière 83
XII. The Second Meeting 87
XIII. At the Maison Carrée 100
XIV. By the Druids' Tower 107
XV. Waiting the Verdict 111
XVI. Only Pity! 123
XVII. Rivière is Called Back 127
XVIII. Not Wanted! 138
XIX. A Throne-Room 148
XX. Beaten to Earth 153

XXI. The Bolted Door 171
XXII. The Chameleon Mind 184
XXIII. Larssen's Man Once Again 197
XXIV. Confession 205
XXV. White Lilac 216
XXVI. A Challenge 221
XXVII. Women's Weapons 225
XXVIII. The Counter-Move 235
XXIX. The Parting 247
XXX. Heir to a Throne 254
XXXI. The Reins had Slipped 264
XXXII. The New Scheme 273
XXXIII. Larssen's Appeal 278
XXXIV. On Board the "Starlight" 285
XXXV. Intervention 297
XXXVI. Finality 304
Epilogue 311

SWIRLING WATERS
CHAPTER I

THE WHIRLPOOL
On the crucial night of his career, 14 March, 191-, Clifford Matheson,
financier, was speeding in a taxi-cab to the Gare de Lyon.
He was a clean-limbed man of thirty-seven. There was usually a look of
masterfulness in the firm lines of his face, the straight, direct glance,
the stiff, close-cut moustache. But to-night his eyes were tired, very
tired. He leant back in a corner of the cab with drooping shoulders as
though utterly world-weary.
At the station his wife and father-in-law were looking impatiently for
his arrival. They stood at the door of their wagon-lit in the Côte d'Azur
Rapide, searching the crowded platform for him. It was now ten to
eight, and the express was timed to pull out of the Gare de Lyon at
eight o'clock sharp.
"Late again!" growled Sir Francis Letchmere. "Clifford makes a deuced
casual sort of husband. Bad form, you know!"
Good form and bad form were the foot-rules by which he measured
mankind.
Olive bit her lip. It galled her pride that Clifford should not be early on
the platform to see to her comforts. The attentions of her father and
maid did not satisfy her; she wanted Clifford to be there to fetch and
carry for her.
Pride was the keynote of her character. It was pride and not love that
had decided her, five years before, to marry the financier. She had
admired the way in which he had slashed out for himself his place in
the world of London and Paris finance, from his humble beginning as a
clerk in a Montreal broker's office. It ministered to her pride to be the
wife of a man who had plucked success from the whirlpool of life. As
to the methods by which he had amassed his money, with these she was
not concerned. She knew, of course, that there were many who had
bitter things to say about his methods.

"Probably it's his brother who's delayed him," said Olive, looking for
an explanation which would salve her amour propre. "They both seem
to be crazy over their rubbishy scientific experiments."
"Who's this brother?"
"I know scarcely anything about him. His name's Rivière--he's a
half-brother. He turns up unexpectedly from the wilds of Canada, and
lives like a hermit, so Clifford tells me, in some tumbledown villa
outside Paris."
"What's he like?"
"I've never seen him."
"What's the scientific experiment?"
"Clifford told me something about it, but I forgot. I wasn't interested in
the