Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-05-08

a pause, "you-ah-well, frankly, have reason to believe that you have good deal of influence with your hus- band in business matters, Mrs. Wag- staff."
 "Well, don't know; perhaps have. WhyT
 "Well-ah-you see," he began rath- CT lamely. "The fact is-I hope you'll regard this as strictly confidential, Mrs. Wagstaff. I wouldn't want Bill to think I, or any of us. was trying to bring pressure on him. But the fact is, Bills got a mistaken impression about the way we're conducting the financial end of this mining proposi-l tion. You understand? Very able man, your husband, but headstrong asI the deuce. I'm afraid-to speak frank ly-hell create lot of unpleasant-l ness. Might disrupt the company, in fact, if he sticks to the position heI took this morning. Thought I'd run in and talk 1t over with him. Fellows generally in a good humor, you know when he's lunched comfortably at home."
 "rm quite in the dark" Hazel con- fessed. Bill seemed trife put out about something. He didn't say what 1t was about"
 "Shall explain?" MT. Brooks sug-S gested. "You'd understand-and you might be able to help. don't as rule believe in bringing business into the home, but this bothers me. I hate to see a good thing go wrong" Explain, by all means," Hazel promptly replied. If I can help, I'll be glad to-"
 'Thank you" MT. Brooks polished his glasses industriously for second and replaced them with painstaking exactitude. "Now-ah-this Is the sit- uation: When the company was formed, five of us including your hus- band, took up enough stock to finance the preliminary work of the undertake ing. The remaining stock, seventy-f1ve thousand dollars in amount, was left in the treasury, to be held or put onI the market as the situation warranted. With the first cleanup, Bill forward- ed facts and figures to show that wei had property far beyond our great est expectations. And, of course, vel saw at once that the thing was ridicu-l lOusly undercapitalized.
 "So we held a meeting and author-I ized the secretary to sell stock. Nat-i urally, your husband wasn't cognizantl of this move. for the simple reasonl that there was no way of reaching him-and his interests were thorough ly protected. anyway. The stock wasI listed on Change. A good bit was dis- posed of privately. We now have al large fund in the treasury. It's al cinch. We've got the property, and it's rich enough to pay dividends on million. The decision of the stock-' holders Is unanimously for enlarge ment of the capital stock. You under stand? You follow mel"
 Certainly" Hazel answered. "But what is the difficulty. Bill?"
 "Bill is opposed to the whole plan," hs said, puxsing up his lips with evi- dent disapproval of Bill Wagstaf and all his works. "He seems to feel 1T | we should not have taken this ste. He declares that no more stock must | be sold; that there must be no enlarge ment of capital. In fact, that wo| | must peg along in the little one-horsa way we started. And that would be- a shame. We could make the Free Gold Mining company the biggest thing on the map, and put ourselves on Easy street."
 He spread his hands in a gesture of real regret.
 "Blll's a fine fellow" he said, "and one of my best friends. But he's a hard man to do business with. He takes a very peculiar view of the mat ter. I'm afraid he'll queer the com- pany if he stirs up trouble over this. That's why hope you'll use whatever influence you have, to induce him to withdraw his opposition"
 "But," Hazel murmured, in some per plexity, "from what little know of corporations, I don't see how he can set up any difficulty. How can he stop you from taking any line of action whatever"
 "Oh, not that at all," Brooks hastily assured. "Of course, we can outvota him, and put it through. But we want him with us, don't you see7 We've . high opinion of his ability. He's the sort of man who gets results; prac- tical, you know; knows mining to T. Only he shies at our financial method. And if he began any foolish litigation, or silly rumors got started about trouble among the company officers, it's