The Irish standard., 1920-05-29

You. anyway, in the last couple Of min
utes3 You've lost all your pep. You
look as though you've seen ghost"
"Maybe have" said Hilliard. with
a short laugh.
"Well?"
Hilliard regarded him with an odd
fntermingling of respect and alarm.
The respect was a holdover from the
past-from the early impression he
had formed from Harmon's resplend-
ent offices in New York, and Harmon's
contempt for money. He had consid-
cred his employer, at worst, a weak
principled vendor of legitimate securi-
ties.
"Mr. Harmon" Hilliard said re-
luctantly, "I'm in mighty awkward
position. We can't afford to
let anything spoil this campaign, can
we?"
"Not If we can very we'll help It.
What's bothering you?"
"For over ten weeks now, I've been
building up reputation-you know
what I've been doing; you know how
much depends on it. Your name hasn't
been mentioned once; I've been selling
this thing on my own personality
holding myself out as the principal.
Well, the man who called me outside
Just now-and he's one of the solid
banking crowd up here-he spoke Of
you as though he knew you. In fact
to be perfectly frank-he called me
out there to ask me about you. Now,
/ don't know what dealings you've
ever had with him. or with anyone else
is anything between you and Syracuse,
or any of it's fairly big men, perhaps
1t would be better if knew it, You
see, this thing Tmselling is so darned
personal"
"Who was he?" Harmon's voice
raspcd.
"Embrce-of the Trust and Deposit
company"
"Oh, yes" Harmon smoked reflec-
lively eyes. we know each other.
w mt uli liz llttNC W soy
"It wasn't so much what he said as
the way he said it. suppose you've
had some disagreement with these peo-
ple?'
"Some disagreement" admitted Har-
man, grinning. "rhese upstate farm
ers and l love each other like couple
of strange bulldogs. Still"
"If 1T isn't Objectionable to you"
said Hilliard, hesitating, "Td rather
like to know bit about 1t, Mr.. Har-
mon. The subject might come up
later. It's almost sure to, now that
Embree's seen you and spoken to me
about you. And If you've had any
quarrel with this crowd, even If 1t
wasn't your fault, and If it came out
that I'm working for you, and there
was any talk about it, you can see
how I'd have to be on the defensive.
So If you could just give me a
faint idea"
"Plain English is lot better than a
faint idea," said Harmon carelessly.
II floated some steel bonds up here
once. Prettiest bonds you ever saw in
your life, too"
"Oh! And they didn't turn out
well?"
"Not exactly. The company was too
and no lode."
For moment. billiard thought that
he hadn't heard Alright.
"What was that you said?" he man.
aged.
Harmon reiterated It.
"Too much Silverbow. Only they
pumped the water out Of it sooner
than we will. That was five years
ago"
At first, Hilliard was untouched by
the shock; the force of it seemed to
pass over him entirely; then all at
once, as he was caught by the drift of
it, his hands began to tremble violent
ly; and his palms were clammy with
sweat. His stomach seemed to drop
out Of him, and he was nauseated by
the tremendous purport Of his employ
er's cynicism.
"Mr. Harmon" he painted, under
his breath. "Mr. Harmon!"
The New Yorker looked at him in
genuine surprise.
"What's the matter, Hilliard? You
look sick! Or d-n it, man,
If that's another one of your bluffs,
you're wasting your time. You haven't
worked up such holy disposition you
believe in this mine, have you?" He
moved unensily. II wish you'd wipe
that pious expression off your face-or
is It glued on?"~
billiards voice shook uncontrolla-
bly,.
"This this mine!" he STAN.
mered. "You told me"
"Tll stand by everything I've ever
told you, Hilliard. I'll prove it. It's
an area of mineralized schist with dis.
seminated copper values. And we've
got over a hundred acres of it. And
part of the shaft, too!' He laughed
noiselessly. "Of course, altogether