The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 63: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THANKS TO THE B. R. T. perity! He summed it all unconsciously in: ; ‘Jimmy, I was born lucky!” ‘“] know you were,” said Dr. Jim. ‘““T was born lucky, boy, but this night —this night!” cried Dr. Whinnys; and then, with a swirl, the feet came down and his glowing blue eyes, fastened on Dr. Jim. ‘Say! d’ye know what I’ve done to-night, kid?” ce No.” “Tve made a million dollars!” Dr. Whinnys announced. “You did what?” On the level, Jim!” said Poldhane Whinnys, and some awe came into the eyes. ‘“ I had better than a hundred thou- sand laid away—some of it came in little stock fliers and some was earned honestly, but I had it! And I spent it to-night— and I’ve made a million dollars, just as sure as the sun’s going to rise in another hour!” zi ie Batwa “Listen!” commanded Dr. Bowen’s friend. ‘‘ Last summer, I took the whole family and shipped the big car to Port- land—Oregon, of course—and from there we jogged on down the coast for a couple of months. The madam—you didn’t meet her, did your She’s the greatest girl that ever walked, believe me!—the madam wanted to put in some time with her sister in San Francisco; and her brother-in-law wanted to look at some land he’d bought during a brain-storm, so we started off to- gether through Nevada. Well, the land was on the bum, Jim, but I—1ittle me, all alone!—I fell head over heels over the greatest little vest-pocket silver mine in the world!” Quite in the old way, his enthusiastic flush was rising and fading as he talked. ‘Well, this mine, Jimmy, belonged to an eccentric old customer by name of Throckton, and he’d been sitting on it for twenty years, wondering whether to sell it or raise more money and work it prop- erly. He wasn’t ready to sell it then; he thought maybe he’d be willing to take a hundred thousand flat for it when he came 53 East, about this time. He’s got a daugh- ter, a senior in college up-State, and he comes on with her each year. “Well, boy, I talked it over with Throckton, and that was the best I could get out of him. He’s a human schedule, Throckton; he can tell you where he was on Thursday, June to, forty years ago— and he can tell you where he’ll be at five in the afternoon next Easter. The upshot of the thing was that he said he’d be over in the Hotel Astor at nine o’clock to-night, and he wouldn’t sell the mine to anybody - before, but that if I walked in and handed | him the cash then, most likely he’d decide to sell. We shook hands on it—that was an; : Dr. Whinnys, oozing joy, blew a long cloud of smoke at the ceiling. ‘So I walked in at ten minutes of nine and sat in the lobby, and on the stroke of the hour in walked Throckton, Jim— two guys with him trying to pay more money for the same thing. One of ’em, named Tyne—” ‘* What?” burst from Dr. Bowen. ‘One of ’em named Tyne—am I going too fast for you?—was out there last sum- mer about the time I made the dicker, and he was on hand to-night waving the whole United States Treasury in front of the old man and trying to buy the claim. It seems that he and a bloated bondholder named Fenner, who lives up-town some- where, pooled their spare change with still another potential criminal whose name I don’t know, but who lived down on the heights before he started for a tour of South America, and they figured on snatching the thing away from me. ‘Why, ‘they even lured the old man away from me for a few minutes, and it was nearly one before I found him again. But it was all right, Jim; the old man’s word is a government bond. He let ’em talk and then he came back and sold to me, with never a smile or a sigh.” ‘* Polly—” Dr. Bowen began. ‘Say, you never saw anything so funny as that man Tyne’s face when he saw me!” Dr. Whinnys bubbled on. ‘“ He EOPMIC LOOKS, Eom)