pamphlet. A
careful reading will convince you that we are organised for legitimate
business and development, rather than for speculation. From personal
knowledge, I am able to vouch for all the representations made by the
Company. There are a half hundred Tigmore County men already in the
Company'--which will, of course, be the fact when the letter is sent,"
explained Madeira. "'If you are not already one of them, I should like
for you to be. I think you know my record in this part of the country,
as well as the record of the enterprises for which I have stood sponsor,
and I am confident that when you begin to feel interested in the mining
developments through this section, you will investigate the Canaan
Company before investing with the other companies that are sure to
spring up like mushrooms in our track.' ... And then, this: 'The chief
working properties of the Canaan Company, the Tigmores, can without
doubt be made to pay from one hundred to five hundred per cent, on any
investment within the first year. The Canaan Company will not have to
depend upon shallow sheets of mineral against dead rock, as do many of
the speculative enterprises of the mining section. The Canaan Company
will not cut blind. It knows its field, it knows its chances, it knows
its future'--and so on, and so on--how do you think it goes, boys?"

They thought it went rapidly, and they said so with loud endorsement.

"Well, I decided I'd get the thing moving here at home first,"
elaborated Madeira; "when all's said and done, a fellow likes to see his
own place and people profit by what's going on. I'm going to send that
letter out first to the Tigmore County people, and then move out in
wider circles later. Shouldn't you think that was the way to work it
out?"

Yes, they thought that was the way. Indeed, the way seemed such a good
one, and the work was evidently to be so carefully, so conscientiously
performed that, to Steering, as he had listened, the crying shame of it
all had been not that it wasn't true,--it might be true, there was no
telling,--but that Madeira, its promoter, didn't care a rap whether it
was true or not. Or, after all, was he, Steering, wrong about that? Had
Madeira changed about? Been himself convinced that the actual prospects
were so good that it was senseless not to depend upon them, without any
of the wings that his fancy might give them? Had the thing become with
Madeira, during these more recent days, something larg