The Prescott daily news., 1918-04-23


 did return, at nine or whereabouts in the evening, he clamped cigar be- tween his teeth, and fell to work cov- ering sheet of paper with intermin- able rows of figures.
 What Is all the clerical work about?" she inquired. Reckoning your assets and liabillties?"
 Bill smiled and pushed aside the paper.
 I'm going to promote mining con- pany," he told her, quite casually. "It has been put up to me as a business proposition-and I've got to the stage where l have to do something, or I'll sure have the Willies."
 She overlooked the latter statement; 1t conveyed no special significance at the tune. But his first statement opened up possibilities such as of late she had sincerely hoped would come to pass, and she was all interest.
 Promote a mining company7" she repeated. That sounds extremely ousinesslike. How-when-where
 'Now-here in Granville" he re- piled. You see," he continued. warm Ing up bit to the subject, "when I was prospecting that creek where we made the cleanup last summer, I ran across well-defined quartz lead. packed out few samples in my pockets. and happened to show them as well as one or two of the mug gets to some of these fellows at the cluD a while back. Lorimer took piece of the quartz and had 1t assayed. It looms up as something pretty big. So he and Brooks and a couple of other fellows want me to go ahead ana organize and locate a group of claims in there. Twenty or thirty thousand dollars capital might make em all rich. Of course, the placer end Of 1t will be the big thing while the lode Is being developed. Getting the start is easy. These fellows I've talked to are dead anxious to get in."
 "But"-her knowledge of business methods suggested difficulty-"you can't sell stock in business that has no real foundation-yet. Don't you have to locate those claims first?"
 Wise old head; you have the idea, all right" He smiled. But this is not stock-jobbing proposition. wouldn't be In on 1t If 1t were, believe me. It's to be a corporation, where not to exceed six men will own all the stock that's issued. And so far as the claims are concerned, I've got Whitey Lewis located in Fort George, and I've been burning the wires and spending bundle of real money get ting him grub-staked. He has got four men besides himself all ready to hit the trail as soon as 1 give the word."
 You won't have to go?" she put in quickly.
 "No," he murmured. Tt isn't neces- sary at this particular stage Of the game. But I wouldn't mind popping whip over a good string of dogs, just the same."
 "B-r-r-r!" she shivered involuntar- fly. -Four hundred miles across that deep snow, through that steady, flesh- soaring cold. I don't envy them the Journey"
 She came over and stood by him, playfully rumpling his brown hair with her fingers.
 "I'm glad you've found something to loose that pent-up energy of yours on, Billy-boy," she said You'll make q success of 1t, l know. l don't see why you shouldn't make success of any kind of business. But I didn't think you'd ever tackle business. You have such peculiar views about busi- ness and business practice"
 "I despise the ordinary business ethic," he returned sharply. But l can exploit the resources of nature. And that is my plan. If we make money 1t won't be filched by com plex process from the other fellows pockets; it won't be wealth created by shearing lambs in the market, by sweatshop labor, or adulterated food, or exorbitant rental of filthy dealing with. I'm not overly anxious to get into 1t with them. But 1t promises action of some sort-and l have to do something till spring"
 In the spring That brief phrase set Hazel to sober thinking. With April or May Bill would spread his wings for the North. There would be no more staying him than the flight of the wild goose to the reedy nesting grounds could be stayed. Well, sum- mer in the North would not be so bad, she reflected But she hated to think of the isolation. It grieved her to contemplate exchanging her beautiful ly furnished apartment for a log cabin in the woods.