to stand him in good stead in a score of "safe" operations, but, just
now, it was a gaudy new thing, and its beauty almost blinded him. The
same idea had been used by many men before him, but Wix did not know
this, and he created it anew.

"Sam," he said to the cigar-store man next morning, "I want you to
invest in The La Salle Grain and Stock Brokerage Company."

"Not any," declared Sam. "You have two hundred of my money now."

"Not the entire roll," denied Wix. "I only got twelve and one-half per
cent."

"If you'd take twelve and a half per cent. eight times you'd have it
all," retorted Sam. "That's why I quit. I stood to lose two hundred
dollars on a seven-point drop, or win a hundred and seventy-five on an
eight-point raise. When I finally figured out that I had the tweezers
into my hair going and coming, I didn't wish any more."

"But suppose I'd offer you a chance to stand on the other side of the
counter and take part of the change?"

"I'd let you stand right here and talk a while. What's the matter?"

"Haven't capital enough," explained Wix. "I think I refused to take a
trade of yours one time, just because I had to play safe. I had to be
in position to pay off all my losses or quit business."

"How much are you increasing?" asked Glidden, interested.

"A twenty-five-thousand-dollar stock company: two hundred and fifty
shares at a hundred dollars each."

"I might take a share or two," said Sam.

"You'll take twenty," declared Wix, quite sure of himself. "I want
four incorporators besides myself, and I want you to be one of them."

"Is that getting me the stock any cheaper?"

"Fifty per cent.; two thousand dollars' worth for a thousand. After we
five incorporators are in we'll raise the price to par and not sell a
share for a cent less."

"How much do you get out of this?" Sam asked, with a leer of
understanding.

"Ten per cent. for selling the stock, and have the new company buy
over the present one for ten thousand dollars' worth of shares."

[Illustration: "Sam," he said, "I want you to invest"]

"I thought so," said Glidden with a grin. "Fixtures, established
business and good will, I suppose."

Wix chuckled.

"You put it in the loveliest words," he admitted.

"You're a bright young man," said Glidden admiringly. "You'd better
pay for those fixtures and put in the whole business at five hundred."

"What do you suppose I'm enlarging the thing for, except to increase
my income?" Wix d