gns to a fellow in a second-story window and writes something down on
a pad. I asked a man that was taking me around--they treated me right
in that town--what in the world was going on, and he told me they'd
made a trade in stock. The first fellow says:

"'Sell five hundred shares of So-and-So at seventy-nine!' and the
second man raises his right hand like an Indian how-sign and there's a
twenty thousand-dollar trade pulled off. They both write it down on a
slip of paper and the man in the window does the telephoning. Say, I'm
going back there when I got a stake, and try my hand at that game."

An expression of pain, as of some evil memory, passed swiftly over Mary
Fortune's face and she turned from gazing at the mountains to give him
a warning shake of the head.

"Don't you do it!" she said; but when he asked her why not she shut her
lips and looked far away.

"You must've got bit some time," he suggested cheerfully, but she
refused for the moment to be drawn out.

"Perhaps," she replied, "but if that's the case my advice is all the
more sound."

"No, but I'm on the inside," he went on impressively. "I know some of
those big ones personally. That makes the difference; those fellows
don't lose, they skim the cream off of everything. Say, I ought to
know--didn't I go in there lone-handed and fight it out with a king of
finance? That's the man we're in with--I can't tell you his name,
now--he's the one that owns the forty-nine per cent. They're crazy
about copper or he'd never have looked at me--there's some big market
fight coming on. And didn't he curse and squirm and holler, trying to
make me give up my control? He told me in years he had never gone into
anything unless he got more than half _for a gift_! But I told him
'no,' I'd been euchered out of one mine; and after his expert had
reported on the property he came through and gave me my way. And after
that! Say, there was nothing too good for me. He agreed to spend
several million dollars to pay for his share of the mine and then he
gave me that roll of bills to bind the bargain we'd made. By George, I
felt good, to go there with two thousand dollars and come back with a
big roll of yellowbacks; but before I went away he introduced me to a
friend and told him how to show me the sights.

"This friend was a broker, by the name of Buckbee, and believe me, he's
on the inside. He took me around and showed me the Stock Exchange and
put me wise to