“You needn’t let it out if you don’t want to. But there’s a little
inside guessing in these parts and when you hear a man let drop anything
about the ‘Two Bright Eyes,’ it’s reckoned he has had a hunch of some
kind.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that mine!”
The man grinned.
“That’s right--keep it sly! But see here, pard, I’m going to test you
out a little on this thing. I’ve got a few thousand shares of the old
stock. Took it over in a poker game a long time ago--we gamble mining
stocks out this way when we’re busted. I’m busted now--and they won’t
take mining stock at the roulette wheel. I’ll sell you five hundred
shares of ‘Bright Eyes’ at fifty cents a share.”
He peered anxiously into my face as he made the offer. He was plainly
trying to get a hint from my expression, but he didn’t, of course. I
knew nothing about mining stock.
‘I don’t want it.”.
“Twenty-five cents a share, then. I want to chase the wheel.”
“You’re on a wrong lead, my friend.”
Just then a man bumped against me as if by accident and promptly
apologized. It was the stage-driver.
The owner of the stock scowled and backed into the crowd in the office.
“I was trying to jolt a little hoss sense into you,” explained the
driver. “Why didn’t you buy that stock? I passed the hunch to you
to-day.”
“I haven’t any money for wildcatting in gold-mines,” I said.
The man came close to me and spoke low.
“Don’t you remember what I said?”
“Yes, but grabbing gold-mine stock from the first comer--say, my friend,
do I look as green as that?”
“Hish! Don’t rear up, sir! Please don’t! But I know that fellow who
just tried to sell. He’s fresh in from the hills. He doesn’t know what’s
going on--and only a few do know. But I carry men on my stage who talk
and don’t know I’m overhearing. I say no more! But I hope you’ll take
the hint. If I could rake and scrape another dollar I’d buy that stock
myself. That fellow has some kind of a hunch--but he has been too far
away in the hills to know anything special. I guess he just smells it in
the air. There isn’t much stock in ‘Bright Eyes’ left loose these days.
I have smelt around; I know! That tells a long story, sir. If that
fellow hadn’t been off in the hills they’d have got his away from him!”
He was urgent and appealing. I couldn’t understand this special interest
in me and I told him so plainly.
“I don’t exactly know, either,” he said, unabashed. “I’m thinking it
over and I’ll tell you when I get it thought out. Maybe it’s your style.
I have always hoped to be able to wear a suit of clothes like that.”
He surveyed me with candid admiration.
My tartness didn’t bother him a bit. He beamed on me--and plainly had
taken a few drinks. I asked the driver to tell me how I could reach the
mayor’s store. My friend offered to conduct me. I had resolved to throw
up my Breed City earthworks!
“When I take a liking to a gent I don’t do nothing by halves,” declared
my guide when we were on our way. “You come unwrapped enough to-day so
that I could see that you’ve got real whalebone in your stock and silk
in your snapper--and that’s the kind of a whip for my hand! You come
along with me and I’ll introduce you to the mayor. Him and me are chums.
He ain’t none of your stuck-up dudes. I’ll tell him you’re a special
friend of mine. There’s nothing like getting in right.”
He left me in the back office of a dry-goods store, sitting knees to
knees in the tiny room with a fat and placid man who smiled amiably and
seemed to be impressed by my dress and demeanor.
He launched out at me in a way that was surely astonishing.
“You are the kind we like to see coming into our new and growing city.
We are anxious for a touch of the dignity and refinement of the East
here in our midst. We hope we can offer you inducements which will wean
you from that East which, though its traditions are glorious and its
civilization is sublime, is nevertheless a bit--I may say, without
offense, I trust--effete” By the way in which Mayor David Ware smacked
his lips over that sentence I was pretty sure that he was quoting from
his inaugural address.
“I’m very glad to have you feel that way toward me, coming here a
stranger, Mr. Mayor.”
“But strangers are certified to a man of insight by the masonry of
breeding.”
I thanked him again and proceeded to a matter of business connected with
my earthworks.
I told him of the plans of one Dragg, as I had gleaned them from
accidental association with that individual. I said that Dragg had now
attached to himself two blacklegs and undoubtedly would soon arrive in
Breed City for the purpose of taking advantage of technicalities in the
land law, jumping claims, holding up enterprises, giving Breed City a
black eye outside as a municipality where titles were not assured.
“I am not a spy, a tattletale, or a meddler,” I said. “But this matter
was forced on my attention when I was on my way here, and I did not want
to see a hustling mayor and city set back by the schemes of blacklegs.
I had heard of your city and of you, and I said to myself, ‘If warning
will enable such a city to head off a plot and put the plotters where
they belong I’ll hurry to headquarters with my information.’ Those men
are now in Royal City and are on their way here.”
The mayor’s mild eyes bulged and his face showed his dismay.
“It’s plain you are a friend who wouldn’t take advantage of our
situation, sir. That’s shown because you are not trying to operate on
the tip this crook gave you. So I’m going to be frank with you, as a
friend. We were so anxious to get things moving here that we took a lot
for granted in the matter of land titles Those men can make trouble--or
at least they could have made trouble if we had not been warned in
season by you. You will find that this city can be grateful, Mr. Mann.”