Martinsburg W Va evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1913-1920, 1918-01-24
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cleverly at the right tifae. And your
ready acceptance of II angered me be-
yond bounds. You were prejudiced.
1t stirred me TO a perfect fury TO think
you couldn't be absolutely loyal to
your pal. When you took that position
simply couldnN attempt explana-
tions. DO you think I'd ever have TAX
en- the other fellows side against you,
right orswrong9
anyway, here 1t Is: You got the
essentials, up to a certain point, from
Brooks. But he didn't tell It aIl-~his
kind never does not by a long shot,
They, the four OF them, II seems, held
a meeting us soon as shipped out
that gold and put through that stock
selling s,heme. That was legitimate.
! couldn't restrain them from that, be-
Ing hopeless minority of one. Their
chief object, however, was to let two
or three friends In on the ground floor
of good thing; also, they wanted
each good bundle OF that stock while
Ii was cheap---fguring that with tho
prospects l had opened up It would
sell high. So they had It on the mar
ket, and In addition had everything
framed up to reorganIze with q cnri-
talization of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. This all cut and
dried before ! got there. Now, nsl X
originally stood. the FIVE Of us would
each have made Il small fortune on
these klappan claims. They're good
But with a quarter Of d million In out
standing stock--well, 1t would be all
right for the fellow with big block.
I Eut you can see where would get
oil with five-thousnnd-dollar Inter-
est. To be sure, certnin proportion
Of the money derived from the sale Of
this stock should be mine. But II goes
into the treasury, and they had II ar
ranged TO keep Ii In the treasury, as q
fund for operations, With them doing
the operating They had already indi-
Gated their bent by voting nn annual
stipend of ten thousand and six thou
sand dollars to Lorimcr and Brooks
as president and secretary respective
~. Me, they proposed to quiet with
managers wage Of a mere FIVE thou
sand n year--after | got on the ground
ana began to get my back up.
"But they capped the climax with
what must cold-bloodedly character
lie as the baldest attempt ut dirty
fraud ever encountered. And they
had the gall to try and make me q
party to 1t. TO make this clear you
tl,at .v tx..1,
the company and acting as the COM
pany's agent, grubstaked Whitley Lewis
and four others to 80 In and stake
those claims. was empowered to
arrange with these Ave men TINT II the
claims made a decent showing each
should receive Ave thousand dollars In
stock for assigning their claims to the
company, and should have employment
1t top wages while the claims We're
operated.
'"rhey surely earned 1t. You know
what the North is In the dead of win
ter. They bucked their way through
Il he'll Of frost and snow fHdsstnked
the claims. If ever men were entitled
to what was due them, they were.
has bargain, even though they were
taking out weekly as much gold as
they were to get for their full share.
They'd given their word, and they
Syerc white men. They took me for q
white man also. They took my word
that they would get what was coming
10 them, and gave me In the compnny's
name clear title to every claim. put
those titles on record In Hnzelton, and
came home.
"Lorimer and Brooks deliberately
proposed to withhold that stock, to de-,
fraud these men. to steaI--oh, j can't
| find words strong enough. Brooks
sirId to me, with grin: The prop.
| elty's in the compnny's name--let the
roughnecks sweat while. They've
got no comeback, anyway
"That was when smashed him. DO
you blame met I'd taken over those
IL MMzz