A Deal in Mines and Morals

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9, 3 March 1906, Page 10

A Deal in Mines and Morals

By

Edward W. Townsend

BEING already ero«, it annoyed Mortimore Collins the more to know that he was followed, lie turned on the man and exclaimed, “Why are you following me?” The man first looked surprised, then smiled as one who would indulge another’s ill-temper, and replied: “Sir, T was about to ask why you were preceding me. But I refrain because yon lost your position in the assay office of the Knickerbocker Reduction Company today, and that has caused a state of mind the judicious sympathise, not quarrel, -with.” Collins stared at the stranger, snr.ill, slight, elderly, but alert and well-poised, before he. asked- in surprise: “Jlow did you know that the company closed its assay office to-day, and that that throws me out of employment just as I——. Well, how do you know anything about me?” “Yon show surprise. Why? You lost your place: that’s *a fact.' That a fact should come to my knowledge is less ■strange than it should not, since I deal in facts. Now the lines of anger fade from your brow and your looks improve. 1, too, am a person of presentable looks, so let us w walk on together and discuss—facts.” “At least you are a merry person,” said Collins, noting the smile with which the man had made this speech, “and though I am not likely io be one, 1 am glad enough to see one.” The man was more, than prosentably dressed, rather fashionably; spoke, in his quaint precision, with th* accent of an educated person—though plainly not a New Yorker—and had a manner not only well-bred, but peculiarly adapted to win confidence. They strolled on, Mortimore waiting for the other to explain. “Of course, it is not a commonplace of life that a stranger, met on th<r street? by elyanee, should know more about iis than our dress and expression tell to the casual observer. To be done with fancies: I learned of the loss of your position in a matter-of-fact way. L came to New York to transact some mining business .” He had dropped his voice, hesitated, amt now was silent for a few steps, lie resumed v.ilh cautious tone: “Mr Collins, you’ve been in thg''assaying business long enough to know that, it sometimes requires secrecy. For instance, when you were entrusted with those samples of rebellious ore shipped here from Panimint, California, you were especially cautioned to “Oh. J say!” interrupted Collins, laughing but bewildered. “Tell me who you are, how you know about me and that Panimint ore, and we can go on from there more comfort ably.” The nun laughed softly, and looked fit Mortimore admiringly. “You are the right sort,’’ he said. “No .mysteries with strangers. My card. sir. Now for a frank story, lor that is the only kind J like to tell or want to hear. A month or two ago, I went over io Panimint to study their process for roasting rebellious ore. There I met your smile anticipates tin* name your classmate in the Cohimbi'a School of .Mines, Frank ’Hosmer. I had already planned this trip to New York, and asked Hosmer to reeommend a careful and trustworthy man to do some work for me. lie told me to. go to the Knickerbocker people and stipulate that you should do (he work. This morning I went there, ami in the outer office noticed some confusion. As 1 waited for a messenger to take my card to the ma wager, a young

lady passed me, going out. She was in tears.” ’ ? “Poor Gertrude!” murmured Collins. The stranger leaned forward to catch the name, and then resumed: “The manager informed me that the New York office had been closed by tlie directors, and (hat you, for whofn I inquired, hud gone to the works, in New Jersey with your books and papers, and would no longer be employed unless the directors rescinded their action.” “They are pig-headed dolts!” Mortimore remarked, with ardour. “The manager intimated some such fact- I’m fond of facts. I asked your address, called at your home, missed you und wailed in the neighbourhood to see you.” “And did Frank Hosmer give yon such a good description of me that you were able to tell me at sight?” Collins asked, amused and curious. “J should bo less a man of the world than T am if I could not tell one who had just met such a reverse as has been yours, and who must now wait for a huppy day he thought this morning was near at baud.” This with gentle sentiment, but watching Collins closely. Mortimore Hushed, and said, laughing: “You’re a queer lot, whoever you are. What do you know of a happy day postponed?”

“1 will not answer you,” the stranger replied, with his winning smile, “because one dislikes hearing of secret inquiries concerning oneself. 1 hud to know something of your personal affairs, and as what 1 know satisfies me, be content. ButTto business. Dinner is business: will you dine with me where we may talk in comfort? Say at my lio tel ?” .He mentioned a hotel which assured a good dinner, ami Mortimore, who already felt his blues shading off in this cheery-company, 'accepted the invitation — for Frank HiJsmer’s sake. They were soon seated at a dinner which the host ■ordered with a nice discrimination as to what the markets of New York afford for the fortunate. “A’v name, as my card informs you. is John Clmnenls,” Collins’ host said, when the dinner had proceeded to its more subslantiul dishes. “1 call myself a, miner, though it might be well here to rail my.-elf a capitalist. That, is no matter but this Burgundy is excellent. I like the plain old word ‘miner,’ and shall hold to it all my days, even it affairs should keep me here, far from my . beloved mines. Your smlie. asks wiiy 1 have sought you. Tlr.it is well: I want to give yon ‘ profitable employment at once. I will see that you receive some samples of orc which wa want assayed for gold and silver, and shall ask for your opinion as an expert as to the best process for the ore’s reduction. Are you at liberty to underbake the. work?” “It belongs to my profession, and C am—out of a job,” Mortimore responded. John CJcmments was a picture of a satisfied man as be sat at dinner. He smiled richly, and spoke with the easy, redundant use of words which never accompanies a spirit vexed or body troubled. Mortimore lead had but small experience with men. ami he felt his thanks due to Hosmer for directing such an agreeable, person his way. even though the acquaintance should not prolit him materially. Then he thought of Gertrude, and hoped that there would be more than a. spiritual lien Hit in it. “You have an office—laboratory—• ■where one could work quietly, undisturbed? Free from curious observers? There may lie some peculiarity about the work not. umlerstanded of the general. You follow me?” “I can work in the Columbia laboratory, where I studied. J’ll not be bothered there.” “Excellent! .The professors, instructors, demonstrators, pupils, what not, will assume that in your leisure you are conducting experiments in whivli

they are not concerned. Excellent! And this brandy! Yon do riot rare for it? 1 suppose that in fashionable circles the glass of good cognac lias become neglected. But we old miners bring back to civilisation fond memories of luxuries of youth, arid long for them. Now I tire you. To-morrow you will make your arrangements’ with alma mater,

and 1 will consult’my principals, and in the evening we meet—here. ' Happy thought! Why not give me the pleasure of meeting, with a aaiilc on her face, the young lady I saw to-day with tears in her eyes? Indulge an old miner.” Mortimore laughed as ho thought how Gertrude would enjoy the experience, and lie accepted the invitation for both.

“.Must you go? Wait: a trifle on account of your fee as an expert.” He took a 50dol bill from a pocketbook which bulged with the like, and gave it to Mortimore, saying, “To-morrow evening at 7.30.”

Next day. John Clemments called at the office of lawyers Bloom and Blow, agents of a syndicate considering the purchase of the Spanish Bayonet mine, and waiting on tile report of Mr. Bloom, who bad visited the mine with Mr. Clemments. The latter asked if the samples of ore had been delivered from the express-office. They had. “What assayer will you send them to?” Clemment.s asked. "To Mortimore Collins,” declared. Bloom, determinedly. “You said yoib’cl be satisfied with him. and lie’s all right; good family, and all that, I’ve learned.”

There was a touch of disappointment in Cleimnents’ voice as he said: “Would it not be better to go to some established ofliee rather than give the work to Collins, now that his ofliee is closed?”

“I don’t suppose Collins has given up his profession, even if his employer has gone out of business,” Bloom ssjicl, - 1

“Understand mo, Air. Bloom; I am making no objection—particularly—to Collins. I only prefer an established office. Still, if you insist, I will look him up to-day and let you know where to send the samples.” When Cleminonts left the ofliee, Bloom turned to Blow and winked as he said:; “I take no chances. That fellow happened to mention on onr way from Arizona that Collins was the best assayer Columbia ever turned out, and I made a memorandum of the name. Did you. hear him try to switch me oil to somebody else? I took all the ore samples myself, put them, in gunny-sacks, boxed them up. and screwed clown the lid. Nobody is going to fool me in this deal! ”

Clemments, having accomplished his purpose, whieh was to make sure that Bloom would employ Collins, met the young assayer at dinner in happy mood. His greeting of Gertrude was courtly, and in her honour he composed a dinner whieh caused even the maitre d'hotel to remark that a man who knew how to cline was in the restaurant at hist. When Cleimnents learned that Gertrude, although she had bee.’i but a bookkeeperin the Knickerbocker Company's office, knew enough alsmt Mortiinore's work to help him, and was going to do so in the new work, he was moved. Ho ordered more champagne, declared that tliera were phases of civilisation more cherished than even a good dinner in his lonely heart, and smiled so meaningly at the young couple that Gertrude blushed. She was uncommonly pretty when she blushed, and at all other times, which fact Clemments noted with approving smiles for Mortimore. At times, when he looked at Gertrude, a wonted craftiness in his eyes left them, and in its place came a grave reminiscent tenderness whieh would vanish with a sign. When he had finished bis second bottle, Clemments took from his pocket a long paper, and said: “Miss Croft, 1 am a lonely old miner; a wifeless, ehildle.-s, homeless wanderer. There was once a lovely woman^ — But ho; not at the festive board}p Accept

this,* and he put into her hand-5 a certificate' for one thousand shares ot the capital stock of the Spanish Bayonet Gold Mining Company of Arizona. Gertrude hesitated. "Take it, child,” ('lemments said, his voice trembling. “Take it, for if Mortimore finds that the ore assays well, somebody I know will have an income to satisfy easily the most exacting woman in the matter of—let us say—in the matter of a trousseau.” Gertrude's hands closed nervously, and the certificate was in one of them. “That’s right, child,”-her host said, encouragingly. He signalled the waiter that the bottle was empty. “And, friend Mortimore, if I may so call you. the labourer is worthy of his hire.” lie handed a certificate for the same number of shares to Collins, who received it with a smile not of gratitude; and as Clemments turned to see that the fresh bottle was opened. Mortimore winked to Gertrude and made signs with his lips throwing doubts on the value of the gift, lint she eagerly folded her certificate and crushed it into her reticule. ‘•’Children.” remarked Clcmments. after finding that the wine was cooled to liis exacting demands, “1 am gratified to bring the Hush of thanks to the desert where none bloomed—l mean to say, that I shall sell to the syndicate but a control of the mine— fifty-one thousand out of one hundred thousand shares. You oblige me by accepting two thousand shares, leaving me yet. with more than would satisfy visions of the vain. What, then, to a lonely old miner? Must you go? To-morrow the samples will be delivered to you, Mortimore. Be. discreet, be cautious,'be—be scientific. So long!” “A curious chap, but too clever to give away certificates worth anything.”. Mortiniore remarked to his companion, as they left the restaurant-

“I think he’s a dear!” responded Gertrude. ‘“He would not give me a worthless certificate. How funnily he talks. But sometimes he had such—well, such a good look. ■ I wish he had finished that figure of speech about my cheeks being a bloomless desert.” The next day, there was delivered to Collins a heavy little box, fastened with screws and banded with iron, which ho

opened with difficulty, deciding that Home one had taken great care to keep the contents from designing jiersons. Inside were a number of small ore-sacks, each sealed and labelled. As he handled tic- sacks, his nostrils were assailed by the pungent odour of chlorin. Many minerals have distinctive odours, but none that Mortimore was familiar with had that odor, except salt undergoing certain treatment. "Chlorin, eh?” His nose turned up suspiciously: th.- more so as he recalled, with a cynical smile, the gifts of certificates of stock. For two days, he worked at the college, and the result of his assays showv-d that the samples of ore carried gold in varying values, but none less than many thousands of dollars a ton ; and that the cloth of the sacks was marvellously rich, one stained and pungent scrap bearing gold at the rat.? of some hundreds of thousands of dollars a ton. "Mined. I should think.” Mortimore mentally commented, “from the veritable field of the cloth of gold-” The next day, he told the jan tor to bring him the box the samples had come in. “Perhaps the saw-mills are as auriferous in Arizona as the jute-mills teem to be,” he thought. Two nights he had deelined to dine, with the lonr-ly old miner. Gertrude had received invitations, too, and bunches of violets. On the third day. came a. letter from ( lemments saying that he was eager to learn the results of the assays, but would possess his soul with better patience if his dear young friend Mortimore would accept the enclosed. It was a certificate for five thousand shares of Spanish Bayonet stock. Collins presented it, together with his other certificate, to Gertrude, saying, “Not for its intrinsic value, but as an evidence of my high esteem for the natural marvels of Arizona.” Gertrude ignored the humourous intent of li.?r lover, and carefully folded the papers away with her otWer stock. Then the young assayer examined the box. In each side ho found a small, neatly plugged gimlet-hole They could be seen from the outside only by close inspection, but on the inside of the thick boards the displaced splinters sprung by tie penetrating gim-

let made easily seen scars. Thus the swindling triek was disclosed to the investigator; some one John (lemments? —had bored holes in the box after it had been closed and fastened, inserted a syringe charged with bichloride of gold, and enriched the ore—incidentally mineralising the burlap! Mortiinor disliked to tell Gertrude of the discovery he had made in her absence. She had maintained in the face of his joking that ( lemments was a gentleman, and she gravely believed in the value of her Spanish Bayonet stock. But he must report to Bloom and Blow; for they, not ('lemments, had scut-him the samples. He would go there the next day and make his unpleasant disclosure. At his home that, evening be found a letter from Frank Hosmer which had been addressed to his former office, forwarded to the New Jersey works, and in leisurely manner sent to his home address.

“Dear Mort” —the letter ran —"Some weeks ago a persuasive chap came up here to Panimint and tried to interest some of our people in an Arizona property. He wotdd have succeeded had not one of my assistants recognised him as a clever minc-saller. John ('lemments, as he is called, has, it seems, worked his game for years in the character of an old miner, but he does not know- the difference between an up raise and a chute, or an incline ami a crosscut. A little later we heard that be had some New York parties on the hook, and that a tenderfoot lawyer had come out to make an examination. Ye gods! men with money to invest will hire that kind of greenhorn to investigate while men like you are to la- had. I should have thought little more of it had it not recurred to my mind that good old John ( lemments, while here, took a fatherly interest, in stories of my college career, and hearing that my college chum was with the Knickerbocker Company asked particularly about you, even cherished a remark I made about having just congratulated you on your engagement to my cousin Gertrude—to whom my best regards. As 1 thought it over, I could see no innocent reason for such a man's interest

in your affairs, and so decided to tip you off. But first I sent over to it feljow 1 know at a mine near the Spanish .Bayonet, and told him to forward you a fair lot of samples of the average run of the ore in good John’s mine. It's only a gopher-hole as yet, but my friend writes that it's not a bad-looking pros* peet. By the way. if you do meet Clem* meats, write me what you think of him. He is certainly no common swindler, but probably one of the gentlemangambler characters still sometimes found in the .South-west.” The next morning. Mortimore presented a statement of the assays to Mr. Bloom. The lawyer's eyes first bulged with excitement, then contracted with greed as be gazed at the figures; and after he had pored over them for some minutes, lie looked up at Mortimore and said, hastily: “You recognise only us in this matter? We sent you the sa.ni* ides.” “That is so,” assented the assayer. “You arc not to reveal to any one. especially to John ('lemments, the figures in this report. I must get all of (bat old smoothy’s stock.” he added to himself, but speaking aloud in his excitement. "He doesn’t suspect how rich it is! He’s said to be clever, but I'll show him a trick. And the syndicate, too!” Mortimore was doubly amazed: first by the lawyer's purpose to overreadh both the syndicate and Clemmcnts, but more so that Bloom did not suspect, the (ruth from the absurd figures of the report. He had less heart than a few minutes before to expose Cleinments, for the rascal before him war' so much more repulsive than the rascal he must expose—and Gertrude liked' ( lemments! But it had to be done, and he told Bloom the story of the trick revealed by the box. Before he had half finished the tale, the few lines of avarice in Bloom’s face had twisted into' snarls of boisterous rage. He was in the height of an outburst against Clemments' perfidy, when that lonely old miner walked into the room. Biootn turned upon him a torrent of denunciation, which Clemmcnts received with calmness; but when the lawyer raged'

of an intention to inform the police, Clemments responded, in the manner of enjoying a joke: “I wasn’t sure you were ready to see me a few minutes ago, so 1 waited outside, where 1 could not help overhearing your plan to do me and your clients out of our rights. If Mr. Collins had been as crooked as you and I, the trick would have been turned. But he was square. Anti I’m g'atl of it, because of something you wouldn’t understand if 1 told you.” “Oh,” sneered Bloom, “1 don’t see anything in this report about fraud. Perhaps (oil ins first meant to aid your swindle, lie was mighty slow about disclosing it.” Possibly Mortimore lacked a measure of spiritual ruggedness, but there was no scant in the measure of his physical courage. At the lawyer’s last word he sprang at him and clutched his throat, crying. "Retract that, or I’ll break your neck!” John Clemments’ right hand rested lightly under the skirt of his coat on something protruding from his hippocket, and his eyes followed with sure, quick dartings the movements of Bloom’s hands, until the lawyer spluttered an apology, and Mortimore left the office. He had walked a little way, excited and disgusted, when Cleminents slipped an arm through his and said: “-My boy, J admire you for several reasons, but I’ll mention only two: you are square and nervy. Now let’s talk.” Mortimore shookhimself free roughly, saying: “I don’t know whether I’m more angry with you for trying to bribe me, or with myself for looking like a man who could lie bribed.” Cleminents was puzzled. “Bribed?” lie exclaimed. “I wanted you interested with me; wanted us to have a community of interest, as they say’ here. If you had reported the assays as silly as they were, without saying anything about the dope, your stock would have been worth a small fortune. But I am glad you were square with yourself. I am. surely.” He was so simple, so wholly goodnatured, that Mortimore’s anger would subside in spite of himself, and give place to curiosity. “If Frank Hosmer told you I was a thorough scientist, and not a laboratory mechanic,” he asked his companion, “how could you suppose I’d not see so stupid a game? Every man who has ever attended a term of lectures in Hie course has heard stories of mine swindles by that bichlorid-of-gold and syringe trick. It's a stock story in the lectnre-rcom.” Cleminents began to laugh softly, but was soon so shaken by mirth that he leaned against a building for support. “Oh,” he gasped, “what a laugh the boys will have on me when they hear of this! You are right; it is an old trick, though I have never tried it before. But that lawyer was so easy, and so crooked, that I chanced it. I didn’t know much about the dope, ’and must ha ve made the solution too strong in gold. And 1 had to work in a hurry one night while I was in the express-car where the box of ore was, talking over things with the express-messenger, an old friend of mine. 1 suppose if I’d used a weaker dope, or less of it, you might have missed the trick, eh?” "And my professional reputation ruined when the fraud was discovered by some one else!” exclaimed Mortimore. “Perhaps not,” commented Clemments, with a sudden grieved look. “The mine may be all right for all I

know. You see, I don’t savvy the first thing about mines, ('arils is iuy game.” Mining’s too stow, amt there's too many ■chances against wiuvjng. But selling salted mines to suckers' is a sure thing, mostly. 1 know so little about mines that I’ve salted good mines and sold ’em to parties who've got rich out of ’em. There was one property 1 passed on to an English syndicate, after salting it, which is now producing a hundred thousand a month, and I cleared but fifty thousand on that turn. Oh, I was swindled in that deal!” "Do you know nothing about the Spanish Bayonet? The ore is pretty good-looking.” “Not a blessed thing! I won it one night at poker from a miner, who traded a Mexican two mules and a silver spur for it. Then I happened to run across this man Bloom, and I saw that he was easy, and let him have it—or tried to.” “I’m not wasting sympathy on Bloom,” said Mortimore. “ What makes me feel small is that you picked me out as one likely to help swindle him.” “1 never took your view of it,” declared Cleminents, earnestly. “ Whether you salt a mine, or sell it natural, you put it up to the buyer as pretty as you can. Eh? That’s what some of these silk-hat promoters are doing, as I look at it, with some high-toned-sounding trusts. Maybe I’m wrong as to them. But I am sorry you feel hurt. I am, surely. I like you; and as for that young lady you are going to marry, why, 1 was. thinking of her as much as of you when I hoped you’d not discover the dope, or overlook it. 1 was saying something the other night, when I’d been drinking a little, about there being a lovely woman who once came into my life. I’m sober now, and I tell you that there was a lovely woman, a good and pure woman, who eared for me. She looked like the lady you are going to marry.” He spoke so gravely that Mortimore could feel no resentment at his mention of Gertrude. “That’s the worst thing about it,” he said. “I must tell Miss Croft. She believes in you.” "But you're not going to tell her,” Cleminents said, confidently. “I must.” “You must not until I say so, I begin to see that it wasn’t right for me to ring you into this without telling you what the game was. Down my way it would be considered a favour to be let in on as good a thing—as Bloom. But you look at this sort of thing differently here —some of you. So I don’t want Miss Croft to know, yet.” Mortimore. changed the subject: “Why don’t you have your mine examined,' and see if you haven't got a property worth developing?” Cleminents was thoughtfully silent before he answered. “ 1 never considered that,” he said. “It would be consoling in my old age to-be in on the game on the square. I'll send for some of Hie rock, and you see what it “Hosmer sent me some,” said Mortimore. _ Cleminents chuckled quietly. So friend Hosmer thought my samples might be a trifle fancy, eh? Well, you assay ’em. and see what kind of a mine we’ve got.” Mortimore did so, and found that Hie Spanish Bayonet mine, as nature had endowed it, contained ore running from ten to twenty dollars a ton in gold. “ Would that pay to work?” asked Clemments, simply. “ Depends on conditions: how accessible by roads, how near rail transportation, where you get fuel and water, and how much it costs to get them, how expensive the milling would be—it nets like free-milling ore—.ami. most of all, how wide your ledge is and if it holds .out as. you go down.” Cleminents listened with increasing w onder at the young expert. “ I never knew there were so many points in the game,” he remarked. “ It’s interesting, too, when you come to hear about it. I don't know about the things you ask, but you go down and look it over. I’ll advance your expenses and fees. If it looks like a good proposition, I’ll make it easy for you to own a half interest.” Mortimore was perplexed with doubts. Could he honourably accept such a commission from such a man? Cleminents awoke to the moral points involved in the young man’s mind and answered them: “You and Miss Croft

dine with me to-night. I’ve an idea there’s an honest streak left in me, and if there is, that young lady will see it. I don’t know that I could be square according to your standards, but if she says I could I’ll gamble she’s right. Since I've seen her, and been reminded of another good woman—one who cared for me when I was younger, and believed in me—l’ve been thinking it would sort of ease my mind to turn square; to give up grafting ways, and do what Miss Gertrude would say was right. Why? Well, I’m not as easy a talker about conscience and such things as about some other things, but I reckon if I deal my cards after this according to what Miss Gertrude would approve, that other woman’s soul, if it’s keeping cases on me, might be comforted to know that at last I’m on the level. You leave this matter of being my partner to Miss Gertrude, after you’ve told her what my little game with Bloom was; but don’t tell her until after dinner. Then if you do go to the mine, we’ll make a business arrangement of it. I’ve enough capital to develop it if you say to go ahead; but if you’re going to keep out of the mining game until you find a partner who never tried to sell a mine for more than it was worth—learn another profession.” They dined together that night, and the Arizonian drank only water. With Gertrude he was skilful: he first fixed her interest by praise of Mortimore, then increased it by the manner and matter of his talk—of the mystery and wild beauty of the deserts and mountains of the far South-west. He made a point of finding her direct gaze and holding it steadily, and she never turned from meeting his eyes without a pleased smile. On their way to her home, Mortimore told Gertrude all that he had learned about John Clemments and of the offer, and asked her, “ What do you think of it?”

“Well, Morty,” she sagely announced, after a considerable pause, “ if half of that man isn’t honest and the other half eager to be, I never saw an honest pair of eyes in my life. Of course it was very wicked in him to try to cheat Mr. Bloom, but he’ll never try to cheat me and as you and I ar. to be one I think you are safe in going to Arizona.” The young lady’s reasoning struck Mortimore as being more feminine than logical—yet it sent him to Arizona. There, as skilfully as he tested the ore they soon began to mill in liberal quantities, he unskilfully tested the character of John Clemments. “You’d be an easy proposition to beat in this game, Mortimore —leaving all the financing to me,” Clemments ■said to him once. “ But this mining deal has sort of dealt me out a new hand in morals. When I see that you’ll accept any statement I make about our returns from the mint for bur shipments of bullion, about our expenses, as io when we’ll pay dividends, and never draw anything for yourself except for expenses, I say to myself: “On the square, John! On the square for the good opinion of the woman who looks like the other.’ But there’s one confession I guess I’d better make, Mortimore: I've been corresponding with Miss Gertrude, and asked her not to tell you about it.” “ You have, eh?” laughed Mortimore. “Then I think it’s about time for me to get back ami get married.” When Mortimore came home to marry Gertrude, he said to her, “ Arizona really isn’t so bad, and we won’t have to live there long, for the mine ■will soon be paying dividends.” “Soon paying them?” asked Gertrude. in amazement. “ Why, Morty, the dividends on our stock which John Clemments has already sent me have easily satisfied a ‘ most exacting woman in tire matter of—let us say— in the matter of a trousseau.’”