The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-11-24
THE FOuNDERING OF THE FOR
 TUNA.

am going to spin you the yarn of the :oundering of the Fortuna exactly as an old lake captain on Huron steamer once spun 1t for me by Great Manitoulin Island. Il is a strange and weird story and fl can't give you the dialect in which ne told It. you must forgive an English tongue its native accent for the sake of the curious Yankee tale that underlies 1t.
 Captain Montague Beresford pierpeint was hardly the sort of man you would nave expected 10 ind behind the counter of a small shan,y bank at Aylmer's Pike, Colorado. There was an engaging Eng lish fraukness, an obvious honesty and refinement of manner about him. which suited very oddly with the rough habits and rolgher western speech of the min ing population in whose midst he lived. And yet, Captain l'ierpoint had succeeded n gaining the confidence and respect of those strange outcasts of civilization by some indescribable charm of address, and some invisible tallsman of quiet sood-telowship. which caused him to be more universally believed il. than any other man whatsoever d, Aylmer's like Indeed, to say SD much Is rather to un- ierratc the uniquenesS of his position :: Tor Il migh, perhaps be ,ruer to say that taptain l'ierpoint was the only man in the place Tn whom any one believed al all Tn my way. He was an honest-spoken, puiet. unobtrusive sort of man, who walked about fearlessly without d revol- yer, and never gambled either Tn mining shares or al poker so that to the simple minded, unsophis,leated rogues and vag- rh de .>f \ very incarnation of incorruptlblc com nereial honor. They would have trusted al their earnings and winnings without, hesitation To Captain rerpoint's bare word; and when they did so they .new tha, Captain p,erpoin, always had the money forthcoming. on demand. without Il moments delay or d single pre- vtncation.
 Captain i.erpoint walked very straight and erect, as becomes man of eonsplc- uous uprightness and there was a cer- tain tinge of military bearing in hls man. ner which seemed al inst sight sufficiently To justify his popular title. But he him. sest made no false pre;cnoes upon that head; he freely acknowledged that he mad acquired the position ot captain. no, m her krltannlc MajeSy's Guards. as the gossip of A, liners like sometimes as. serted, but in the course of his earlier professional engagements as skipper of a Lake Superior grain vessel. Though he hlnted at times that he was by no means distantly connected with the three dis unsuished families whose names he bore. he did not attempt 10 exalt his rank or birth unduly, admitting that he was only Canadian sailor by trade, thrown by a series of singular circumstances into the position of a Colorado banker. The one thing he really understood he would tell his mlnlngyfriends, was the grain trade or the upper lakes for finance he had but single recommendation. and that was that if people trusted him he could neve, deceive them.
 If any man had set up a bank al ,Aylmers Pike with an iron strong room lot of electric bells, and an obtrusivs display ot firearms and weapons, 1t is toierably certaia that that bank would nave been promptly robbed and euttec within its frst week of existence bv oper violence. Five or six of the boys would hove banded themselves together into body of house-breakers, and would have shot down the banker and burst into hi: strong-room, without thought of the cleo tric bells or other feeble resources of civ ilization 10 that end appointed. Bu when quiet. unob,rusive. brave man like Captain Montague Perpon,. settled himself m shanty in their midst. ans won their confidence by his s,rightfor ward honesty, scarcely miner in the To would ever have dreamt of attempting |. rob him. Captain Rerpoint had no come to Aylmer's Pike at first with an, settled idea of making himself the fnan oler of the rough little community: h, intended to dig on his own account. ane the role of the banker was only slowl, thrust upon him by the unanimous voice of the whole diggings. He had begun by lending men money out of his owr pocket-men who were unlucky in thei, claims, men who had lost everything a, monte, men who had come penniless to the Pike. and expected to find silver growing freely and openly on the surface. He had lent to them in friendly way. without interest, and had been forced to accept a small present, in addition to the sum advanced. when the tide began to