Evening star., 1915-04-11

ltOuNlH ttii L llSNtI IIltlCH
bamboo myself, and didn't know that
porch screens was a payin' crop. So let
him run on He switched to describin'
how he'd come across man who had
rubber substitute that was goin to put
the trust out of business; some kind of
cornstalk pulp composition that would in
sulate electric wires, make indestructibe
doorknobs and car wheels, and turn few
thousand dollars into millions overnight.
didn't dispute him, not even when he
trots out his third grand scheme, which is
plan for buyin' up the south half of New
Jersey, turnin it into one big wild game
farm, and feedn' the country on grouse
and English pheasants that he says he can
raise to sell cheaper than salt mackerel or
cold storage eggs. What's the use in shat
term lovely dreams like that?
"And all you lack is few hundred
thousand capital, is it?" says |.
"That's the rub says he, "to get the
ready cash to start with. just now I'm
rather tied up,-mining property, timber,
irrigation stock. Nothing can turn over
quick and-wel, you understand.
Don't sound SO distressin', does ito
Only there's sort of hopeless sag to his
SuOulutlS do llt says ~ dllu III tutlIl utlu
eyes kind of cornered, beaten look that
don't exactly jbe with his six-fgure talk
"Come, Herring says |. "Just how
bad are you up against it?'
WHY" says he, liftn' his chin sudden,
"it isn't what you might call "a
Then he breaks off, glances cautious
around the room, and drops into a husky
whisper. "Yes, it is too, McCabe. 1
I'm afraid I'm down and out for good.
You could tell how hard it come for
him to say it; for his under lip wabbles
a bit and his eyes blur up.
Not hat?' says |.
He mods. For the first time in twenty
five years. he goes on. And, say, I'd
forgotten how it felt for Eve had money,
big chunks of it. Ever hear of the Red
Forks smelters? Well you would if you'd
been in the mining game. Anyway, |
started 'em. Perhaps that doesn't mean
much to you, either"
NO." SAYS l. Hard to start, are they,
like one of these tin-can ears on a cold
mornin'?"
at was like this. said Herring: I'D
been running little blacksmith shop on
the Bitter Creek trail shoeing mules, tin
kering freight wagons sharpening pick
points. Three years I'd been at it. living
in lonesome little hole, with no pros
poets of ever doing better. But I'd saved
up fourteen hundred dollars when heard
of that strike up at the Forks. A pros
pcctor rushing back to an assay Office
showed me his sample bag.
so next morning | says to Mrs. Her.
ring. Fannie. haven't we had about
enough of this9' She Just set the coffee
pot on the table, and looked disgusted 1t
had been tough on Fannie, there on the
Creek trail with no other woman nearer
than twenty miles, and the baby cutting
her teeth that summer. Then lets shuttle
for a new deal, says |. I'm with you.
Hemp, says She Two weeks later we
We're headed north with four wagonloads
of stock fora general store, everything
could buy or get trusted for. from canned
beans to cellulod collars, and after a
four-hundred- hike we hit the Forks
among the first hundred.
I'VE opened business in tent while
whipsawed the tmbers for the Emporium
1t was twenty by thirty-four. corrugated
,,,I a..