Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

“WHEN A> MAN'S BROKE, “JT guess he had better be warned,” thought Steve Brown, looking back to where their cigars glowed in the dark. CHAPTER VI. THE RIOT. Fethe human race had been abl to stand up under a few more years of the World War, the one-horse plant of the Boulton Smelting and Refining Company would likely have grown into a two-horse one and become a credit to the town. To-day, how- ever, with half the mines in the district closed, it was too big for the work it had to do, and not very big at that. It fooled along at half capacity and enabled its de- spairing founder, Samuel Schwartz, to hold the record as the thinnest man in town. _ Mr. Schwartz was nervous this morning. He did not care to talk with the two young men who demanded his attention. . He said he had a date at the bank. But Stephen Brown and Dick Lambert were not to be denied. They trotted beside him as he went to his appointment. When informed by him that to extract a troy ounce of platinum from a ton of gangue was a somewhat more arduous feat than to squeeze a gallon of gore out of a turnip, they showed him Daniel Frazer’s assay fig- ures. Thereupon he calmed down. ’ “ So that’s what the old codger was doing in my muffle room last winter, eh? I sup posed it was gold he was monkeying with.” Still, Mr. Schwartz added, a new process would have to be schemed out, and new equipment installed, before his plant could handle such ore. Sperrylite was a rare and difficult mineral. Furthermore, he couldn’t afford to bother with small quantities. A process had already been invented, Steve replied. And by December 1 they could lay down eight hundred and sixty- four tons of ore in the smelter yard, every ton worth one hundred dollars at current prices, less the cost of mining, hauling and smelting. Schwartz smiled in spite of his evident state.of nerves and worry. ‘‘ You couldn’t make it eight hundred and ‘sixty-five tons, could you?” | * 4 - Ke > - _ fa “ | “= ‘Pe RS cme OR Ree Sl 5 FE age a ee SE See cee a, “By straining the <a we might. ee Watch us try.” The smelter man took Frazer’s report and = at £ some ore samples into the bank with him, = ‘See me this afternoon,” he said. He did not feel obliged to tell them that by afternoon his plant might be closed. His creditors had called a meeting at the bank this morning to consider his sad case. A boy driving past in a livery rig hailed: “Hoy! Steve Brown, they’s a bunch of guys waiting for you down at the barn.” “Tt pays to advertise,” observed Dick Lambert, and let his enterprising friend continue down the street alone. crossed the way to the Red Star Garage, where he spied Town Marshal Hummel, the Boulton policeman, splendid in brass buttons and a nickel-plated star. Present- ly Dick and the town marshal were convers- __ ie ing earnestly, ‘‘ Mind you,” said Dick, ‘‘ I don’t know that they will spring a parade or a demon- se stration; but you never can tell. There’s _ riots all ‘over.” : : “Let them try anything in this town,” replied Hummel, expanding with impor- tance. ‘ Let them try—that’s all. Steve Brown’s in it, you think?” “Well, there’s forty or fifty of ’em at Zeke Pelham’s barn right now, and they’re all asking for him,” said Dick significantly. Sensitive was the town marshal. While his nose had healed since Steve Brown punched it, his self-esteem was still very sore, Had not Judge Cooley reprimanded _ i him for blackjacking old drunken Abe ; Whittlesey, and discharged Steve Brown without a fine or even a call-down? Spurred by Dick Lambert’s hint that a — = labor disturbance was brewing, Marshak Hummel marched straight to the town hall. There, to his disgust, he learned that Mayor Doc Hamilton was out of town this day. ‘“ Where’d he go?” he demanded. “Over to South Cafion, over to Daniel Frazer’s place,” replied the town clerk. “A good thing we all ain’t mayors, with days off whenever we like, and the times so lawless,” declared the marshal. The burden of public office rested heavily upon him as he took a walk down Arapahoe ~ Street and a cautious look around the corner He himself COmicbooks.