The Minions of Midas
Jack London
Wade Atsheler is dead--dead by his own hand. To say that this was entirely unexpected by
the small coterie which knew him, would be to say an untruth; and yet never once had we,
his intimates, ever canvassed the idea. Rather had we been prepared for it in some
incomprehensible subconscious way. Before the perpetration of the deed, its possibility is
remotest from our thoughts; but when we did know that he was dead, it seemed, somehow,
that we had understood and looked forward to it all the time. This, by retrospective analysis,
we could easily explain by the fact of his great trouble. I use "great trouble" advisedly.
Young, handsome, with an assured position as the right-hand man of Eben Hale, the great
street-railway magnate, there could be no reason for him to complain of fortune's favors.
Yet we had watched his smooth brow furrow and corrugate as under some carking care or
devouring sorrow. We had watched his thick, black hair thin and silver as green grain under
brazen skies and parching drought. Who can forget, in the midst of the hilarious scenes he
toward the last sought with greater and greater avidity--who can forget, I say, the deep
abstractions and black moods into which he fell? At such times, when the fun rippled and
soared from height to height, suddenly, without rhyme or reason, his eyes would turn
lacklustre, his brows knit, as with clenched hands and face overshot with spasms of mental
pain he wrestled on the edge of the abyss with some unknown danger.
He never spoke of his trouble, nor were we indiscreet enough to ask. But it was just as well;
for had we, and had he spoken, our help and strength could have availed nothing. When
Eben Hale died, whose confidential secretary he was--nay, well-nigh adopted son and full
business partner--he no longer came among us. Not, as I now know, that our company was
distasteful to him, but because his trouble had so grown that he could not respond to our
happiness nor find surcease with us. Why this should be so we could not at the time
understand, for when Eben Hale's will was probated, the world learned that he was sole heir
to his employer's many millions, and it was expressly stipulated that this great inheritance
was given to him without qualification, hitch, or hindrance in the exercise thereof. Not a
share of stock, not a penny of cash, was bequeathed to the dead man's relatives. As for his
direct family, one astounding clause expressly stated that Wade Atsheler was to dispense to
Eben Hale's wife and sons and daughters whatever moneys his judgement dictated, at
whatever times he deemed advisable. Had there been any scandal in the dead man's family,
or had his sons been wild or undutiful, then there might have been a glimmering of reason
in this most unusual action; but Eben Hale's domestic happiness had been proverbial in the
community, and one would have to travel far and wide to discover a cleaner, saner,
wholesomer progeny of sons and daughters. While his wife--well, by those who knew her
best she was endearingly termed "The Mother of the Gracchi." Needless to state, this
inexplicable will was a nine day's wonder; but the expectant public was disappointed in that
no contest was made.
It was only the other day that Eben Hale was laid away in his stately marble mausoleum.
And now Wade Atsheler is dead. The news was printed in this morning's paper. I have just
received through the mail a Ietter from him, posted, evidently, but a short hour before he
hurled himself into eternity. This letter, which lies before me, is a narrative in his own
handwriting, linking together numerous newspaper clippings and facsimiles of letters. The