The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-10-25

thing. She drifted in and out when
ever she pleased. What she did was
to substitute ore containing genu-
inc silver for the stuff Tim had
taken from her mine. Same size
and about the same shape. After
ten days, and of course having no
suspicious VIII tever - I hadn't
either, if it comes to thati don't
lose sight of that! it never oc-
Cured to him they were not the
same. 1t sounds screwy but any
mining engineer will tell you how
easily it could be done if the whole
thing seemed open and above
board. Being in a mining country,
you see, and assaying ore being all
in the days work, we weren't look
ing for any funny business.
Where did she get the other
specimens-the ones with silver in
'em?"
"She had an accomplish" was
the grim answer. Guy named
Latshaw. Owned a mine that
petered out, and had kept some Of
the ore he'd taken from it. Any
how the whole proposition looked
SO good that Tim and I took all our
money and bought up as much
land as we could; not only surface
rights, you know, but the whole
business"
"And then"
at was Latshaw's land, of
course; only we'd never heard of
Latshaw. 1t wasn't a swindle on
large scale; / mean-we didn't
form a company on our own and
sell shares - anything like that.
Latshaw merely unloaded lot of
land he didn't want at a price that
netted him enough to make it
worth Iris while to play Tim for a
sucker"
'But-but-I don't see why that
should have floored Tim so COM
pletely! Even if his bank account
was wiped out, it was only money
his money"
"And mine," he reminded her.
quite bit of mine, as it hap
pened. My own fault, of course, but
Tim took it hard because he
thought he should have locked up
the ore or made another series
of tests, or something. Also, there
was Iris. He thought she was
heavens gift to him, d'you see?
And the publicity. The papers got
hold of it, and it made quite an
interesting story: lovely adven-
turesS, trusting expert, clever SUBJ
Stitution of ore-you'd have to live
in these parts to understand what
thrilling reading it was"
'Tim Cracked up
WHAT became of-of Iris?"
w did a fade-out, of course; as
soon as the land was bought and
the deeds recorded. Oh, yes, and
she left note for Tim, too. She
couldn't resist telling him how
she'd worked the deal. Now you
have the whole story"
mot quite, Think" said Buff.
What happened them"
Nothing. Tim slogged away as
usual. Business dropped off, of
&C urse, and that didn't add to his
hilarity. Everything gore at one
reI swl . his bank ACCENT and
thing of his professional pitestige.
Not all of it, as matter oXfact,
though he thinks so. I wanteh to
move on where we wouldn' ten-
counter knowing grins wherever
we went; or at the very least, I
wanted old Tim to take a vacation
somewhere until the whole thing
blew over. He wouldn't. He swore
he'd stick it out right there; build
up his reputation again"
He wouldn't" the girl said.
'He darn near did. People knew
him-trusted him. The trick didn't
do us as much damage as you
might think. But Tim cracked up
after a while and the doctors or
dered him away. He wouldn't 90;
not, at least, until he'd measured
his length couple of times in the
laboratory, and smashed lot of
test tubes. Even then / had to talk
| to him like Dutch uncle; tell him
it wasn't fair to me for him to keep
on in the condition he was. over
did it, of course; made him afraid
he'd make some goSh-awful mis-
take.
Il saw the advertisement of this
place in Denver paper, and per-
suaded him to take month off out
here. had nice picture of Tim
loating In the sunshine, going for
long healthful tramps, swapping
yarns with AtkinS-and coming
back in October fit as a fiddle. IF
you"
IF l hadn't come along, it might
have turned out that way. Is that
what you're thinking? AS it was,
he hurt his ankle, driving over our
road after dark. and got into
worse condition than he'd been be-
fore"
Don't you believe iti You've
done him worlds of good. I'll bet
these Hunts have helped even
more. ] could wish for Tins sake
that long succession of tenants
would arrive, one after another, to
distract his mind. AS it is, he's al
most well again. Westland says he's
improved a lot. Of course he's still
remorseful about my money, and
he's still upset over Iris poor
old Tint
Hes never messed around
much with girls, you see. His father
died when he was kid and Tim
supported his mother; put him
self through college besides. That
didn't leave time for anything else.
His mother was a lovely person
and Tim sort of founded his ideas
of womanhood on her. And Iris,
plague take her, was pretty swell
to look at; appealing, too She had
Tim eating out of her hand almost
from the first. Personaliy." CON-