The daily Alaskan., 1910-01-13
.ON A CAPITAL
 OF TWO CENTS.
B, LoulsE 8. CUMMINGS.

ly. remembering at the same time that there was not even crust o6 bread In the house for his wife and two little children. He had taken a chair on the porch of the Sandwich hotel because chairs there were free and he didn't belong anywhere. sam was a miner and had worked in many mines. He had been caught in labor storm with the result of loss of employment His savings were all gone, there was no prospect of work where he was, and he had no means of taking himself and his family anywhere else.
 Two men were sitting at the other end of the porch talking together ex- cltedly, though In a low tone, Calkins heard the word strike" and, suppOs- ing 1t referred to labor matters in which he was interested, he pricked up his ears and soon discovered that they referred to a strike of paying ore in some mine the name of which they did not mention. One of the men took a package from his pocket-the wrap per was a piece of newspaper-and, unrolllng it, showed his companion specimens of ore. Calkins caught the words "six hundred to the ton" This told him that the specimens mention ed assayed to produce this amount out of ton of ore. After passing the sam- pIes back and forth for awhile, they were rolled again in the bit of news paper, and the man who had produced them put them again in his pocket Soon after both men arose and went away.
 Calkins would have gone away, too, if be had had any place to so. But he hadn't. Being restless, he got up and walked over 10 the other end of the porch. In a chair in which one of the men had been sitting he noticed a little dark lump about the size of a hickory nut. Taking 1t up, he looked at it scrutinizingly.
 If the Constant vein hadn't run out" he remarked to himself, "Id swear the chunk came out of it."
 It was brownish quartz and full of gold. Calkins had worked in the Constant niue, which had proved in- constant. While there he had taken out just such ore as this. But be had seen the vein grow narrower and mar rover till 1t was nothing more than a crack. The miuc. after search for a reopeniug of the vein, bad been aban- doned. and CaIkins had gone 10 work elsewhere. Personally he believed that if the vein Eere followed deep enough it might be found to reopen. But the stockholders were discouraged and would not stand assessment Sud denly it occurred to CaIEins that the vein had been followed and paying ore again struck. Then came the quick thought, Can l. with only cents in the world, profit by what I suspect if 1t is true?"
 He went into the hotel, where a printed list of quotations Of mining stocks was hanging on the wall, and glanced at sales of Constant. There were sales at 6 cents a share. The stock had recently stood at 4 cents. Then Calkins walked up the street to the office of a man of the name of Fisher whom he knew held some of the shares.
 i've got some information" said the miner. "Do you want 1t or shall take it elsewhereE'
 "Im your man."
 "Whatn you give|
 "Ten per cent of the profit"
 "Make it 20 and Pll out with It."
 All right. 20 it ls."
 Calkins produced his chunk of ore and told Fisher that 1t had come out of the Constant mine. Fisher asked how he knew it, but Calkins declined to satisfy him. He felt sure that if his mau knew he was guessing the transaction would end then and there. Fisher had that morning sold part of his stock at 6 cents a share. He sent in an order to buy 1t back and 10000 shares more at the market price. He got 1000 at 6. 2,OOO at 6la and the bal ance at figures rising by fractions till the price paid was 7la cents. The sales were larger than for many months. but not considerable.
 Calklns wished to ask Fisher for little money in advance to buy a SUD- per for his family. but dared not lest he should lead him to suspect that the whole affair was simply a game to beat him out of a paltry sum. So great was his suspense that be preferred to keep away from home. He was hang ing between heaven and bell.
 The next morning when he turned out of an outhouse where he had slept he spent his 9 cents for a paper. There in big headlines he saw the an- nouncement that the Constant vein had been recovered richer and broader than before. When the Mining EI- change opened the stocl; went up to s a share and stayed there. Before noon Fisher gave his informant a check for S12,OOO.
 FOrfunp had favored the man whose