The House of Mammon by Fred M. White

Beaumont pushed his way along, still muttering discontentedly to himself. Despite his cheap egotism and vaporing conceit, he was conscious he had suffered humiliation at the hands of his elderly foe. The ease of defeat was rank in his nostrils, and the loss of the prospective money was by no means his only regret. To get the better of others by mean and shady ways afforded him more satisfaction than the most remunerative but honest transactions would have done. He felt very bitter against Givanni just then, and thought of the dreadful revenge he would take, knowing full well that that revenge was remoter than ever.

He came at length to his destination--the house which Mascani had entered an hour before. He let himself in with a latch-key, and Givanni followed so closely that he nearly stumbled against two men standing in the shadow of some cedars on the lawn. It was a very near thing, and the wily Italian pulled himself up only just in time.