Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

ot es ocd Daniel Frazer had said enough to give them an idea of the lease that Steve Brown had taken and the operation that he contem- plated. Mules were involved, and certain carts, and a smelter in Boulton. “Sam Schwartz’s smelter?’’ queried the doctor. ‘‘ Schwartz is to be closed up. His creditors meet at the bank to-morrow. It means that young Brown will have to ship his ore to Denver.” “ He can’t afford to ship his stuff an inch beyond Boulton,” Lutwell declared. ‘I’ve done some figuring. He may go in the hole, as it is. Probably will. Probably «won’t be able to scare up enough credit to get started. Absurd idea, doing without capital. Might as well do without his head.” The speaker puffed out his cheeks indig- nantly. “ Driving into town this evening I asked him if he wouldn’t take us in as silent part- ners and let us put up the money. What did he do? Pointed his whip at a sign on a dirty little factory. Sign said, ‘No Help Wanted.’ 9 “In brief,’ said the physician, “ you would like to capitalize their scheme for them without their knowledge.” That was it, the good Samaritans agreed. That was what they were getting at. And since the closing of the local smelter would be an obstacle in the Frazers’ way, what could be done to keep the plant going? What was needed? Cheerfully Dr. Hamilton undertook to take them to see Banker Benjy Dawes. _“ We stay in the dark till the grand finale at the end of the season/’ Lutwell warned. “ Then we breeze in like a couple of fairy godmothers and knock that old ramrod of a professor man off his pins with a scuttle of coals of fire. He called me a land variety of Captain Kidd, remember.” Next morning the good Samaritans re- sumed their interrupted journey to Nevada, where they had properties to inspect. At the same hour Dr. Hamilton was high on the Boulton Plateau, speeding his pair of brisk bays toward the Frazer place. The city men had told him something that inter- ested his medical mind far more than their account of the platinum lede, They had <a ‘oe = wo wha aw eS - ——_ > mie ~ eI _* A ~~ < ; ES nO Se we ig Ser ee oes ey < —— ae ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, said that Daniel Frazer had come back to himself, Returning from South Cafon, the doctor had a strange story to confide to Banker Dawes. : ‘ Frazer is a different man; you’d hardly know him,” he reported. “ Although I take no stock in new-fangled therapies and opa- thies and isms, I’m obliged to believe the change in him came as those New Yorkers told us it did. They stung him hard where he lives—in his sense of honor. And some- how it brought him to.” “Did you let him know what they ae, done for him?” asked the banker, “No, I didn’t. working on him. You ought to hear him discuss them and all their breed. Whoosh!” As the days went on the mayor watched with interest the progress of the Frazer venture and listened to the many rumors afloat regarding it. One report had the Lutwell Syndicate trying to buy the smelter as a move to bring Steve Brown to time. Somewhere a distorted fragment of the truth had leaked out. Dr. Hamilton smiled at this yarn and held his peace. But he did not smile when he heard that Stephen Brown was closeted with three new strangers at the Palace Hotel. He went thither and had a talk with Lon Madigan, the hotel keeper, then sought and found Benjy Dawes at the banker’s home. “The thing Lutwell was afraid of is about to happen,” said he. Wheeling and his crowd are at the Palace. Young Brown has been with them all af- ternoon. He’s to drive them up to Frazer’s to-morrow.” “Those cutthroats!” cried the banker, They'll steal Frazer to death.” “More than that, they will capture the mine from Lutwell. I regard Lutwell as a client of ours.” “We want him interested in the Boulton district, certainly. We must protect him, What have you heard?” ‘‘ Wheeling has had scouts reconnoitering Frazer’s lode. They went up disguised as laborers looking for jobs. They came down yesterday. Wheeling heard their reports, then sent for Steve Brown,” CORMICLOOO The treatment is still ** "Tudor . (E@) arene $e ae — = =" ss —e = : “ ¥ ——- we ae ESS