The Irish standard., 1920-05-08

bright young newspaper crowd to fer
ret out the facts. You're too modest
that's what's the matter with youl"
As Hilliard smiled in depreca-
t1on Angela, Growing triumphantly.
matched for the papers.
"Where is tt2" she cried. "Where
ohl" And relapsed into beatiflc
calm. devourtng the none too conserva-
dve paragraphs with all her might.
The cold-typed repetition of the WELL
known story sobered her considerably;
still, 1t was for billiards. and her IA
Tiers names that she gloated; and as
Tor the panegyric of Morgan, that was
only an added garland to the wreath
which was already his.
"Russian and English syndicate
wasn't tt2" asked Mr.. Cullen.
"Yes," said Hllliard. English and
Russian"
Mechanically, he began to rchearse
the technical subtleties which he
hadn't expected to find use for within
q brace Of fortntghts 1t was well,
however, to be prepared; and the time
to plant the seed Of desire is when the
prospect is willing.
"Mighty interesting game-mining,"
said Cullen. Lets wander down by
the fountain; shall we? . don't
know why 1t is. but it sort Of fas-
cinates me-guess it does everybody.
More romance in 1t than most lines"
Here Angela looked up sharply, and
gurgled with wicked satisfaction, and
sent lifted eyebrow signal across to
billiard.
EYES," said Hilliard, "but there's
more tragedy. too. suppose that's
the law of compensation getting to
work. Big profits call for big risks"
This was for sand in Cullen's eyes;
and it had Its effect.
"Oh. but the ratios the same in al
most any business, Mr.. Hilliard, isn't
It? It's about the same theory. Saw
ings banks pay three to four per cent,
but they never made q man rich yet.
But copper hast"
"1'll have to admit" said Hilliard
lightly, "that the odds are on the side
Of the experts. But as for the ro-
nance" He smiled at Angela and
wondered If he dared begin so soon to
build up the framework Of his mission.
"I've been telling Angela that it's
mostly hard work. Once In while
you do run into something lurid, Of
course-romantic, If you want to call
It so. remember one bit out of my
own experience" Angela had dropped
the papers, and was listening as close
ly as her father. "a few years ago
some friends of mine bought up an old
abandoned property out in the Butte
region: bought 1t for song, and it
was very quiet peaceful little song
at that, because metals had been dull,
and to continue the metaphor-my
friends weren't in particularly good
voice just then. But after they'd TAX
en- title, they realized that they'd only
sung the first verse Of the song, and
there were lot more verses and a
pretty strenuous chorus. There was
a shaft to be unwatered and lot Of
timber-work to be done; they were in
for big expense, and their credit had
tucks in it, and the outlook wasn't any
too rosy. But thirty yards from the
main workings there was fairish
sort of tunnel, with the start Of
winze-that's blind shaft running
down obliquely from horizontal tun-
nel-and 1t pointed straight toward
the main shaft, and it occurred to
them that they could continue that
winze another few feet, strike their
main shaft about the hundred and
fifty foot level, and save lot Of labor
and expense that way by getting
clean approach to the shaft instead
Of taking q lot Of bother with 1t in its
decrepit condition. Well, they began
to go down that wlnze, and inside Of
ten feet they strucl' a brand new and
unsuspected vein-there hadn't been
any outcrop showing; 1t was sheer.
unadulterated luck. Then they had
credit-they certainly didl To make
q long story short, they pawned their
futures, and begged and borrowed ev-
cry penny they could lay their hands
ON, and they developed that property
to the last cent, and when they had
perhaps two hundred thousand or so
tons Of four per cent copper in sight,
and there were indicated ore reserves
Of another half million tons, they
sold that property to group Of New
Yorkers for an utterly phenomenal
price, without ever having 80 much
40 touched the original shaft for which
they'd bought the property"
"Ouchl" said Cullen, and Good
nessl" said Angela.
"And," said billiard, smiling remi-
niscently, III the original owners had
pushed that Wine for q couple of days
more than they did. or II my friends
hadn't decided to 90 at the problem
In exactly that way well, ~ say,
what's one mans romance IL another
mans tragedy. Ny friends got their
investment back in something less than
four months, and after that 1t was VEL
vet. And the selling price was In the
neighborhood Of two hundred times