Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-29

from arrest, had shaken hands with Mr.
Compton to satisfy him that they bore him no
i'll will because he had made the very natural
mistake in arresting them, had paid Squire
Talbot his modest fee of five dollars, and
were once more their way.
On the afternoon of the ninth day after
leaving West Point, the city of Cairo was in
sight, and the junction of the yellow waters
OF the Mississippi and the Ohio could be
plainly seen.
The day previous they had been compelled
to haul down the white flag, principally be-
cause there was nothing of consequence on
board to sell; and it was at Cairo that Jim
proposed to dispose of enough of his cargo
to enable him, with what money he had to
take on board fresh supply of goods
1t was dark by the time the River Queen
had been made fast to the levee, so nothing
| could be done that night; but bright and
early the next morning Jim was out attending
to business while True and Bent were looking
at the fiat, low-lying city.
Pete remained on board, calmly Indifferent
to everything He had not been excited
would have been strange if anything in Cairo
had moved him out of his customary tran
guilty.
Jim was not one to waste time when he
had anything to do First of all, he ascer-
tanned the quotations of both the New Or
leans and Cincinnati markets. which was easily
DONE by purchasing a morning newspaper
Then he called upon the leading merchants,
told them what kind of-a cargo he had, and,
to his great delight, was offered the market
prices for his entire load.
Corn, oats and barley were advancing in
value; but Jim wisely concluded that, as he
could realize even a larger profit than he ex
pected, it would be better to close out at once
and count on getting another cargo on the trip
down the Mississippi.
Everything, even to the chickens on the
roof, was sold, and by noon had been de-
hvered, Jim receiving check, payable to
bearer for five hundred and seventy dollars
which he quickly cashed.
1t may be imagined how light Jims heart
was, as he fairly ran down to the River
Queen, to tell True and Bent of his good
fortune, for the boys were on shore when the
cargo had been taken off and knew nothing
about the sale he had effected
He had made marvellous success; but he
did not lose sight of the fact that, in twenty
trips, he might not be as successful. As
usual thing, he would not find SO many peo-
pie needing such large quantities of goods.
Another thing which he called to his mind
was that produce had advanced greatly in
price between the time he bought and the
day of selling, which gave him a profit four
OF five times as large as he could hope to
make under ordinary circumstances.
1t was enough, however, for him to know
| that he had, IN hardly more than three weeks,
made, over and above the first investment,
advanced to him for his mothers use and for
expenses, and also to buy a new stock Of
goods. True and Bent had just come when
he returned.
"Sold everything" said jim, trying to ap-
pear calm and as if such transactions were
everyday occurrences with him. Lets go to
the sitting room and figure it out. | want to
see how much we have made"
"How much you have made" corrected
True. ''Bent and l have got nothing to do
with the store"
But you have worked all the way down,
and it isn't anything more than right that
you should share in the profits.
1T wouldn't be right at all" protested
Bent. eve own share in the boat; that's
all Everything else, is charged to you, and
of course all the profit is yours"
"Of course it is; there can't be any argu-
ment about that. Now tell Us how much
his chair up to the table, SO that he might be
ready to figure the profits of the trip up to
that date.
Jim looked around the room to make sure
hear, and then, pulling roll of bills from
his trousers pocket, where it had been Sc
curely pinned in, he whispered:
81 got five hundred and seventy dollars"
FIVE hundred and seventy" repeated True
and Bent, IN amazement.
Eyes; everything has gone up since we
bought it, and on some of our corn we made
fourteen cents bushel, to say nothing of
the profits We made on the goods given in
exchange"
"Did they pay you this money right down
in CASH.! asked True, who could hardly
credit the fact that Jim had so much, even
though it was there before his eyes.
They gave me check payable to bearer,
and then one of the firm went around to the
bank with me, to make sure that got it."
"But didn't they make any question about
a boy like you having so many goods?" in
quired Bent.
ooh, yes; had to tell them the whole
story of how got my start, and the man who
finally bought everything on board came down
10 have look at the boat, as well as to see
the cargo. | told him that [ wanted to send