The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-14
coovr;uht. 1913, by Doubleday, Page & Go.

TalDot owned options, equities, proper ties, shares in all the varied and nu- merous activities of the new city, but each and every one of them he held subject to payments which at the pres ent time he could by no possibility make. Mortgages and loans had suck ed every immediately productive dol lar, and those dollars that remained were locked tight away from their owner, until such time as he might gain possession of a golden key. This did not worry him.
 "Thcy are properties that are bound to rise in value,' he told us. "In fact, they are going up every minute we sit here talking. They are futures."
 Among other pieces; Talbot had been able to buy the lot on the Plaza where now the Ward block was going up. He paid percentage down and gave a mortgage for the rest. Now all the money he could sqeeze from all his other interests he was putting into the structure. That is why I rather fam cifully alluded to the Ward block as the flower of all Talbot's activities.
 Building is the one thing you have to pay cash for throughout" said -.l- bot<regretfnlly. Labor and materials demand gold. But see my way clear, and first class, well appointed busi- ness block in this town right now is worth more than the United States mint. That's cash coming in for you regularly every month. It will pay from the start four or five times the amount necessary to keep everything else afloat. Jim Beckett has taken the eqtire lower floor at thirty thousand. The offices upstairs will pay from a thousand a month up, and they are every one rented in advance. Once we get our rents coming in the strain is relieved. can begin to take up my mortgages and loans, and once that Is begun we are on the road to Million aireville."
 Once more het recapituiated his af- fairs-the land on the Plaza, two hun dred thoussnd; the building, eighty thousand; the Harbor View lands, any thing they might rise to, but nearly quarter million new; ten thousand par value of the wharf stock already pay ing dividends; real estate here and there, and everywhere in the path of the city's growth; shares in a new ho- tel that must.soon touch par; the plank road-as we 1otted down the figures and the magic total grew such trih1ng little affairs as gold mines dropped quite below the horizon. We stared at Talbot, fascinated.
 And then for the first time we learn ed that the S5,0o0 we had sent down from Hengman's Gulch and the sum left from the robbery we're not slum- bering in some bankers safe, but had been sent dancing with the other dol lars at Talbot's command.
 'T didn't know just what you fel- lows tntendad,' said he, "but we were partners up there at the mines, and l concluded 1t would be all right. You didn't mean"-
 "Sure notr' broke in Johnny hearti- ly. You're welcome to mine."
 Same here," agreed Tank and l.
 And then Talbot let us! see that he considered IFS ts that extent partners in the business.
 q have the date it arrived" he told Us, "and know just how much actual capital had myself at that time, so I'm computing your shares in the ven- flre on that basis. It comes to about one-tenth apiece for Tank and Johnny. Frank and have an agreement d. ready" Johnny stared at the paper on which the totals had been penciled. Mot any!' he protested vehemently. ''It isn't fair! You've made this thing by sheer genius, and it isn't fair. for me to take tenth of it on the strength Of a measly little consignment of dust. You give me your note for thousand dollars, or whatever the sum is, at in | terest, if you want to, and that's all that is coming to nc"
 'I feel the same" said Yank. Boys" argued Talbot earnestly, '.that doesn't go. That five thousand saved me. 1t came at time when I had to have money or go down. I had been to every bank, to every firm, to every man in town, and couldn't t raise 10 cents more. If you refuse this thing you will be doing something that
 "Oh, hush up, Tal!' broke in Johnny
 grufay. "If that's how you feer-. l Tt is"
 "It is now" said Johnny firmly,
 "10:30 a. m.. but I'm going to have !, bubbles. If you fellows don't want
 me all drunk~and dressed up you've got to help me drink them''