St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-12-03

| stead, | made him proposition; Of
| fered to undertake the drainage job
at my own costs. If I should succeed,
he was to deed me fourth interest in
| the property. If I didn't succeed, it
was to cost him nothing-sort Of
contingent fee, as lawyer would say"
| laughed. "You made an offer like
that to stranger? and on a mine that
you had never SEEM"
| He grinned good-naturedly and got
back at me, quick.
"All business Is taking Of chances.
AS the matter stood at that stage of
the game, I had everything to gain and
nothing to lose, and the only chance
was taking was in the bet on my own
ability as an engineer. The old man
was queer old codger in some re-
spects; as secretive and cautious as
an old fox. For example: he had care
fully clipped the name of the mine
from the blue-prints and other papers,
and in all our talk he never once let
that name slip. and never even men,
toned the name Of the district in
which the mine was located. But In
spite Of all this caution he drew up
sort of option agreement with me.
1--WE found lawyer and had the
agreement drawn up in legal form.
each Of us was to put up q thousand
! dollars to make the agreement bind
ing. If either of us should wish to
withdraw within that time, he was at
liberty to do so by FORGETTING his ante
of thousand dollars to the other. If
neither of us withdrew by or before
the end Of the year, was to be at lib
erty to go ahead with my drainage
project, and the agreement bound the
owner to turn over a One-fourth inter-
est in the property to me upon the
completion of the job and the unwater-
ing Of the mine.
"At the moment was under engage
ment to go to Peru for Chicago syn
dictate, and I expected to be out of the
United States for at least six months,
and maybe longer. AS it turned out,
the South American job was lot big
l.
that. reason the time limit Of year
expired a week ago, on the day that
landed in New York. Yesterday I
called upon the Omaha banker, and he
gave me the cheering information that
my old man was dead-had died just
a few days earlier
"Still, I don't see how you have lost
out" put in.
wait; here comes the funny part
of it. Mr.. Banker tells me solemnly
that I am remembered in my old gen.
tleman's disposition Of some cash lega-
cies made just before his death, and
Tn to have the thousand dollars which
/ he put up as forfeit. 1 took the prize
down and spent some Of it within the
next few minutes wiring the old mans
home lawyer, whose name and address
the banker had given me. [ briefed
the situation for the lawyer, said | was
ready to fulfill my part of the con-
tract, and asked him to wire me the
name and location of the mine. You'd
never guess in thousand years the
| kind of an answer got"
shook my head.
mo; probably not What was it?"
ut was a bolt from the blue, all
right. Mr. Home Lawyer wired that
his client had never owned share Of
mining stock in his life, that there was
nothing in his papers or records bear
ing upon the subject Of my telegram,
1 ho ci+ mr.
crazy. OF course, he didn't put it just
that way in his reply, but that is what
he meant"
SLOW do you sort it out?" inquired.
'The lawyers telegram? put it up
that my cautious secretive old gentle
his mining investments; kept them in
separate pocket, so to speak. Quite
possibly he didn't have any other ex-
cepting the one I've been telling you
about, and the one he regarded as q
dead cock in the pit. That would ex-
| think?'
The story had left me bit logged
| as to the present state and standing
of the thing, and I said so.
"Well, it stacks up about this way"
said BroWn-beard '"There is per-
fectly good mine somewhere west OF
us that is worth anywhere from q
quarter to half million, and at the
present moment 1t is kicking around
without an owner. So far as can see,
I'm the only man on top Of earth who
has a claim on any part Of it. And I
have no more idea than the man in the
moon where it is at No; I'm afraid
my handsome fortune is a lost dog, so
far as I'm concerned
His mention of lost dog hit me
right in the center of the solar plexus
and laughed like q fool.
"What struck your funny-bone?' he
demanded, sort of obviously, | fancied.
Nothing" l gurgled; nothing
worth mentioning only Tn hunting
for lost dog, too
But I didn't tell him any more. After
we'd smoked a while longer, and
Brown-beard had apologized for max
ing me listen to his rather longish tale
Of woe, we took the porter's hint that
he'd like to have the smoking room for
his nightly shoe-shine. and turned In.
CHAPTER Ill.
Waits and Strays.