The Prescott daily news., 1918-04-23

By the way" he continued, after a pause, "you-ah-well frankly. have reason to believe that you have good deal of influence with your bus- band in business matters, Mrs Wag- staff."
 "Well, I don't know; perhaps have. WhyT
 ."Well-ah-you see," he began rath- CT lamely "The fact is-I hope yUu'n regard this as strictly confidential, Mrs. Wagstaff. I wouldn't want BiR 10 think I, or any of us, was trying to bring pressure on him. But the fact is Bills got a mistaken impressiorg about the way we're conducting ths- financial end of this mining proposi- tion. You understand? Very able man, your husband, but headstrong as the deuce. I'm .tfraid-to speak frank ly-hell create a lot of unpleasant ness. Might disrupt the company, in fact, if he sticks to the position he took this morning. Thought I'd run in and talk 1t over with him. Fellows generally in good humor you know. when he's lunched comfortably at home."
 I'm quite in the dark" Hazel con- fessed. Bill seemed a trif1e put oua about something. He didn't say what 1t was about"
 Shall l explain?" MT. Brooks sng~ gested. You'd understand-and yon4 might be able to help. don't as ruls | believe in bringing business into thsr home, but this bothers me. hate fe.- see good thing go wrong" Explain, by all means," HazeR' promptly replied. "If l can heip Hi | be glad to-"
 "Thank you" Mir. Brooks polished his glasses industriously for 6 second and replaced them with painstaking: eXactitude. "Now-ah-this is the sSz-- uation: When the company wass formed, five of us, including your hns- band, took up enough stock to finance the preliminary work of the un6ertak- ing. The remaining stock, seventy-fiva thousand dollars in amount, was Iefs in the treasury, to be held or put on the market as the situation warranted With the first cleanup, Bill forward ed facts and figures to show that w~> had property far beyond our grees% est expectations. And of course, wa saw at once that the thing was rb6iicu- lously undercapitalized.
 "So we held a meeting and author ized the secretary to sell stock Nat urally, your husband wasn't eognfzantf of this move. for the simple reason. that there was no way of reaching him-and his interests were thorough ly protected. anyway. The stock was listed on Change. A good bit was dis posed of privately. We now acye Ea large fund in the treasury. It1s az cinch. We've got the property, and it's rich enough to pay dividends oza. million. The decision of the sfock-- holders is unanimously for eDiRrge-- ment of the capital stock. You under stand? You follow me?'
 Certainly" Hazel answered. 'Bue what is the difficulty. Bill?"
 Bill is opposed to the whole paan, he said, puEsing up his lips with svf~ dent disapproval of Bill Wagstaff anCs all his works. "He seems to feel thar
 
 He declares that no more stock musS be sold; that there must be no enlarge ment of capital. In fact, that wsA must peg along in the little one-horSss way we started. And that wO1i& b@s shame. We could make the Fre9 Gold Mining company the biggess thing on the map. and put ourselves on Easy street"
 He spread his hands in gesture ess real regret.
 "Bill's fine fellow" he said. ~anG one of my best friends. But he's s hard man to do business with Hs takes a very peculiar view of the mat ter. I'm afraid he'll queer the cozar pany if he stirs up trouble over tffiss- That's why hope you'll use whateyss' influence you have, to induce him ewS withdraw his opposition"
 But" Hazel murmured, in some pefs- plexity, from what little know cas corporations, I don't see how he ean setf up any difficulty. How can he secSs you from taking any line of aGssa&E whateverT
 "Oh, not that at all," Brooks hastily assured. "Of course, we can outvofR him, and put 1t through. But we warft him with us, don't you see? We've G high opinion of his ability. He's thse sort of man who gets resultss psas- tical, you know; knows mining to a .Ks Only he shies at our financial methc<a And if he began any foolish htigattogs or silly rumors got started aAcai1 trouble among the company officers. ixds