Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/45

 of his dilapidated client. He began to wonder whether the man was a swindler of some sort, but for the life of him he could not see how Garner was to make any money out of the deal Stranleigh had put through in his own name. Enlightenment came to him one morning at breakfast, when he opened the Paris New York Herald. The headlines were sufficient, and ran as follows:—

GREATEST COUP OF MODERN TIMES.

BANNERDALE HAS NEVER BEEN IN VIENNA AT ALL, AND THE REPORTERS HAVE BESIEGED AN EMPTY HOUSE. LORD STRANLEIGH, ENGLAND'S MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, COMES TO BAD-NAUHEIM IN HIS SPECIAL CAR TO MEET BANNERDALE, WHO IS IN DISGUISE. STRANLEIGH WILLING TO BACK BANNERDALE WITH A HUNDRED MILLION POUNDS IN HARD CASH IF NECESSARY.

"Panic and ruin among the anti-Bannerdales . . . Great South-Western Short Line stock jumps thirty-three points . . . Cable kept red-hot offering Bannerdale unlimited capital, but he isn't taking any . . . Believed in Wall Street that his illness was a bluff . . . Wall Street says cardiac trouble impossible, because Bannerdale has no heart."