Brackett.

"I say, Ben, if you had a little cash, here's an opportunity to make
your fortune rise," he remarked; "I've just given George a tip and he's
going in."

"You'd better keep out of it, Ben," said George, wheeling round suddenly
after he had nodded and turned away. "It's copper, and you know if
there's a thing on earth that can begin to monkey when you don't expect
it to, it's the copper trade."

"Bonanza copper mining stock is selling at zero again," commented Sam
imperturbably, "and if it doesn't go up like a shot, then I'm a deader."

Whether his future was to be that of a deader or not concerned me
little; but while I stood there on the crowded pavement, with my eyes on
the sky, I had a sudden sensation, as if the burden of debt--which was
the burden, not of thought, but of metal--had been removed from my
shoulders. My first fortune had been made in copper,--why not repeat it?
That one minute's sense of release, of freedom, had gone like wine to my
head. I saw stretching away from me the dull years I must spend in
chains, but I saw, also, in the blessed vision which Sam Brackett had
called up, the single means of escape.

"What does the General think of it, George?" I enquired.

"He's putting in money, I believe, moderately as usual," replied George,
with a worried look on his face; "but I tell you frankly, Ben, whether
it's a good thing or not, if that's Miss Mitty's legacy, you oughtn't to
speculate with it. Sally might need it."

"Sally needs a thousand times more," I returned, not without irritation,
"and I shall get it for her in the way I can." Then I held out my hand.
"You're a first-rate chap, George," I added, "but just think what it
would mean to Sally if I could get out of debt at a jump."

"I dare say," he responded, "but I'm not sure that putting your last ten
thousand dollars in the Bonanza copper mining stock is a rational way of
doing it."

"Such things aren't done in a rational way. The secret of successful
speculating is to be willing to dare everything for something. Sam's got
faith in the Bonanza, and he knows a hundred times as much about it as
you or I."

"If it doesn't rise," said Sam emphatically, "then I'm a deader."

I still saw the dull years stretching ahead, and I still felt the
tangible weight on my shoulders of the two hundred thousand dollars I
owed. The old prostrate instinct of the speculator, which is but the
gambler's instinct in better clothes, lifted its he