The daily sentinel., 1910-04-08
ON 4 CAPITAL
OF TWO CENTS,
q, LOUISE 8. CUMMINGS.

Sam CaIkins was strapped. There I
was no doubt whatever about his =
financial condition. IL was cents IN
hand-lIterally in hand, for he was
looking at the copper coins iugubrious-
ly, remembering at the same time that
there WAS not even crust of 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 be didn't
belong anywhere. Sam was miner
and had worked in many mines. Hel
had been caught in a labor storm with
the result of loss of employment His
savings were all gone, there was nc
prospect of work where he was, and
be had no means of taking himself
and his family anywhere else. 7
Two men were sitting At the other
end of the porch talking together ex'
citedly. though in Il low tone Calkins
heard the word strike aud. suppos- |
ing 1t referred 10 labor matters In
which he was intereafeo. he pricked W,
his ears anG soon discovered that theS,
referred to strike of payips ore
some. mine the nome of whieS
did. not mentioD. One Of ~ .neS e,.
a package trpm his po~ ,sn - 80
per vas a piece II newsnonsrNand
unVolling it, - ,ve, bic onnn,n nion
,pNs y. ore. Calkins caught the
i SUN < hundred to the ton" This
hn.
W assayed TO produce this amount ,,,
Of ton of ore. After passing o ~ ~ -,
pies back and forth fc-,. or'h,,o ,ha,
were rolled again :, ,he h,t y, now:
paper. and thc, man u,rn hoa nroduoat
G. -e them again In his pocket
! ~on after both men arose and went
away.
Calkins would have gone away. too
If he bad had any place to go. But
he hadn't. Being restless, he got ur
:, and walked over to the other end OF
q the porch. In chair in which one
: of the men had been sitting he noticed
3 little dark lump about the size Of a
hickory nut. Taking it up, he looked
at 1t scrutinizingly
II the Constant vein hadn't run
! out" he remarked to himself. I'D
swear the chunk came out of it."
Z 1t was brownish quartz and full
I Of gold. Caikins had worked In the
Constant mine. which had proved In
| constant. While there he had taken
: out just such ore as this. But he had
seen the vein grow narrower and mar.
rover till 1t was nothing more than
J crack. The mine. after a search for
n reopening of the vein. had been nhan-
doned. and Calkins had gone to work
, elsewhere. Personally he believed
that II the vein were followed deep
enough 1t might be found to reopen.
: But the stockholders were discouraged
aud would not stand assessment, Sud
denly 1t occurred to Gaikin~
,a.,.. 'e followed and paying ore
, 'e" struck. Then came the quick
| thought. Can |. with only . cents In
| the world. profit by what suspect if
1t is true?"
He went into the hotel. where n
printed list of quotations of mining
stocks was hanging on the wall. and
, ! j
were sales AT q cents a share. The
stock had recently stood at cents.
Then Calkins walked up The street to
the Office of 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 II or shall /
take IL pSpU hprpy'
I'm your man"
"What'I you giTeT'
Ten per cent of the profit"
Make it 20 and iii out with it,"
"Al right. 20 it is"
Calkins produced his chunk of ore
and told Fisher that IL had come out |
/ of the Constant mlue. Fisher asked |
| how he knew 1t, but Calkins declined |
to satisfy him. He felt sure that If
| his man enew he was guessing the
transaction would end then and there.
Fisher had that morning sold part of
his stock at cents IA share. He sent
in an order to buy it back and 10000
shares more at the market price. He
got 1000 at g. 1000 nj 81 and the bal
ance at figures rising by fractions till
the price paid was Th cents. The
sales We're larger than for many
months. but not considerable.
Calkins wished to ask Fisher for q
little money in advance to buy a sup
per for his family. but dared not lest
he should lead him to suspect that the
whole affair was simply game to
beat him out of paltry sum. So great
was his suspense that he preferred to
keep away from home. He was hang
Ing between heaven and hell.