Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-08-30


| for anything like reasonable price"
We'll, it hasn't been for sale said |,
duly. but if any one can buy it at a
| fair figure, | suppose | am he. If the
| cash were coming to pay for it,
Maybe here's your chance, said Osh-
llosh, and, taking up letter passed 1t
over to me; then he turned to write,
| digging away with his pen at wonder
full rate on something that was evidently
juicy to him
The letter was from a capitalist who
was at the head of a syndicate that was
offering to buy developed mining prop
erty. 1t was evident that they meant
business and had millions back of them
While | was reading and Oshkosh
was still writing like fury, clerk slipped
in with a basket containing the usual
grist of papers that daily passes through
| bank, all made up ready to sign and
mail. and on the top of the heap was
the Sultan's Draft. / give you my word
of honor, De, | grew sick again at sight
of it.
"The old man finished with a final
| skate across the paper as the clerk passed
out
We'll, James, son, what do you think
| of it" he said, wheeling around to me
Tn sure the Conqueror could be sold
if the price isn't out of sight If you
| can swing that deal, my boy, you can
snap your fingers at the whole pack of
your debts, and the Sultan's Draft, too.
Your commissions on the sale would
| amount to five times the sum of your
present needs. Do you think you can
make il go through in six weeks ? That's
about the limit of time I'm giving to the
return Of this hoax
ooh, my Godl We can't count on
| that i'll such a desperate emergency as
this = I cried, in panic
Keep cool, James Keep cool. Sit
on the safety valve and throw in your
bacon and coal oil. You must beat in
the race with some of your plans, and
this offers another very good opportun-
| ity to win out. Now look here Osh-
kosh continued taking the paper he had
| Just been working over, that draft has
to have something to go with it, and
| this is what ! have made; but if any
| soul on earth can tell what it is, it's more
! than | can do. 1t did not contain a word
to make it ineligible But it was beat
tiful to look at. The pen strokes were
| decorative as Chinese characters, and
| seemingly as precise as German script
Any one might have told me it was San
| scrit, or Runic, or Cuneiform, or Aztec
or Choctaw, and I would have believed
| tor, for that matter, design for an
Oriental rug or an Arabian mural deco
ration; it would have been all the same
TO me. Why De, what was intended to
convey the idea of signature and ended
Do tar+ al, 81,
beat Spinner's and was a master
piece finer than that of the Sultan him
self that they inlay in mothcr-of-pearl on
the tops of tabouretS. Heaven help the
British Museum if it ever meets with
that dummy document of Oshkosh's :;
| savants will waste their lives trying to
decpher it.
"Wel, that worthless thing the old
man fastened with big bank pin to
that worthless draft, and addressed it to
his correspondent here in Chicago.
There you are, James, my boy; bid
it good-by, but be ready to greet it with
| amount on demand when it comes back
| Now go long about your business
Il did go about my business-you can
bank on that. | fairly tore up the earth
to be ready to meet the return of that
draft. Why, / couldn't think of that in
! fernal draft that | didn't imagine the
| banks it went through and the stir it
must have made in some of them Of
the blooming young clerks that handled
| it--and reverently too, good Lord and
OF the old-timers they appealed to, per-
| haps, who were afraid to take it seri-
ously and afraid TO take it as joke.
None OF my schemes positively failed
but they tantalizcd me with numberless
delays that ate into my nerves like lye.
! Still the return of the draft was provi-
dcntially delayed. Then, when each day
dawued with the dread that it would
bring the crack of doom, the consumma-
! ton of the Conqucror mine deal became
assured. The final settlement of the sale
that would give me money to burn ran
neck ard neck with the return of that
! daredevil draft that would bring me
ruin and disgrace.
"At last a bank messenger came down
to the works TO tell me Oshkosh wanted
Ito see me Immediately II was thought
less thing for the old man to do-he
knew my condition-why, | thought OF
suicide as ! went up town!
"Old Oshkosh was waiting for me in
his private Office, looking as usual, faith
erly and kindly serious. But the door
had hardly closed on us when he flew
at me and beat and pounded me on the
back, and shouted an undertone of some
good news into my ear; couldn't make
out what.
Look, look, James, my boyp he
cried, snatchlng up bit of paper. The
Sultan's Draft, the Sultans DraftP
"The engraved voucher swan before
my eyes, but ! giddily saw enough
James Hazleton-ffteen thousand dol
lars-the Sultan's Draft had been paid !"
well, what do you think of that|
marvelcd De Loss.
From that on it seemed that every
thing came my wav," resumed I1azeton.
More than hundred thousand ca,ac
pouring in on me in the next few weeks.