The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1906-09-21

1t was In this mood of citation and
hopefulness that he went TO the Hal
lams' an hour before the supper time
He did not yet know what Hallam and
Temple had been trying to do, and of
course he knew nothing of the success
they had achieved. But in his present
mood he was optimistic enough to hope
for some good result He thought he
might meet Temple at supper If his
work, whatever ii was, had been finish
ed, and when he found that his friend
was neither present nor expected he
satisfied himself with the reflection
that the task Temple had undertaken
was very probably one requiring a
good deal more time than had elapsed
since he began 1t. A little later he got
more definite information.
Temple isn't to be with U.s." he half
said, half asked, after the greetings
were over.
mo" answered Captain VIII. "He
has gone back to the mines. He is rath-
er done up with the work and anxiety
and loss of sleep | tried to make him
take possession of your rooms this aft
ernoOn for a straightaway sleep, but
he thought he'd rather go back to his
wife till the 10th He'll be here, how
ever, In time TO assist at the grand
finale, as the show people call IT,"
I'm afraid | don't understand" said
Duncan, with look of inquiry.
"Why, there's to be a meeting Of the
stockholders of the X National on the
10th, you know"
Il didn't know But what of IT,"
why, only that your friend Temple
wants to be there, when he and l
march into the meeting controlling a
majority interest and elect board of
directors for old Napier Tandy, leav-
ing him completely out of ii. Not a
word about that, however, to anybody
till the time comes. We want to add
to tbs dramatic effect by making the
thing complete surprise"
If Captain Will Hallam had been a
robust boy of ten chewing upon a par
ticularly toothsome morsel he could
not have shown a greater relish for
Wudl WAS III Ills IuOull lutH lt NllNl lOl
these sentences as he uttered them.
But Duncan was still mystified, and
in answer to his questions Captain
Hallam explained.
when you got yourself into trouble
by mOnkeying with the accentuations
of a buzz saw" he said, Il could see
only one way out, and that was to put
you into a position where even the dis
embodied spirit of Calumny itself could
not pretend TO believe old Napier Tan
dy's yarn You know, Tandy is fond
of playing tricks, especially upon me,
and as the president and controlling
spirit Of a rather strong bank he has
been able to give me a good deal of
trouble now and then. A year ago
Stafford and | decided that ii might
some day be handy for us to control
a majority of the stock in Tandy's
bank. There was a good deal of it
lying about loOse-that Is TO say, a
number of people held little blocks of
il, ranging from one share to five. All
of these people were more or less un-
der Tandy's influence, and all of them
were in the habit of giving him proxies
to vote their stock or else themselves
going into the stockholders meeting
and voting as he desired
stafford and | quietly set about buy
ing up this loose stock, through other
people, of course, so that we shouldn't
appear in the matter We had got AZ
Of IL
into trouble with Tandy. 1t occurred
to me that if we could get three or
four more shares and emphasize our
confidence in you by making you pres
ident of Tandy's own bank and turn
ing him out to grass he might see the
point and stop his lies. l flatter my
self that Stafford and are pretty well
known all over the west and among
bankers in the east We are not at all
generally regarded as a pair of subli-
mated idiots, which same we should
certainly be if we deliberately made a
whose integrity was open 10 any pos
sibility Of suspicion. Now, don't be in
a hurry r'-seeing that Duncan was ca
ger to ask questions or to express his
appreciation of Captain Hallam's in
terest in hmself-"dOn't be In a hurry
and don't interrupt. Let me tell you
the whole story. At first | didn't see
any possible way In which to secure
the three shares, without which | could
do nothing. | took pains to have the
stock register of the bank examined.
l found that Tandy himself and the
members of his immediate family own
ed forty eight shares, and that four
more belonged TO Kennedy, the tug
captain whom you discharged after
calling him by picturesque variety Of
pet names. OF course Ii was of no use
to approach Kennedy even through an
outsider. as he is In Tandy's employ
now and very deeply in Tandy's debt.
/ must explain that as Stafford and |
had bought stock through agents of our
own we had kept our hands concealed
by leaving the several shares nominal
ly In the hands of the men we had en-
ployed to buy them and instructing
those men to go on voting the stock
a., xxvo,, rropHv xyfShad This