big bond sale involved. I heard you were in town, Simon, and I
thought I'd look you up."

"Glad you did. But, by the way, I don't suppose you have anything in the
line of investment that you would care to recommend to my friend, Mr.
Hamilton, here? You've heard about him, I think."

"Is this the young man who has so much money?" asked the colonel, with a
start of seeming surprise.

"Well, I don't know that it's such an awful pile," said Dick with a
laugh, for he disliked having his wealth talked about by strangers.

"I've read lots about you," went on Colonel Dendon. "No, I'm afraid I
haven't anything that you would care for. I only deal in big sums."

"Well, Dick can command large sums," put in Guy, with an uneasy laugh.

"I don't suppose you would care to take a hundred thousand dollars worth
of mining securities of a gilt-edge kind?" asked the colonel, looking at
Dick.

"No, I'm hardly up to that yet. I intend to do some investing sooner or
later; but I'm going to begin small. A hundred thousand is a little too
large for me just yet."

"I was afraid so," replied Colonel Dendon, with a queer smile. "Well, I
must be going. I'm a very busy man."

He turned as if about to leave the room, and then he suddenly seemed to
remember something.

"Now I think of it, I have a few securities that I might let your friend
have as a favor to you," he said, addressing Simon. "They are mining
stocks. I took them from a man who failed, and I know they are valuable.
They are worth to-day half as much again as I paid for them. But, as a
favor to Mr. Hamilton, I'd let him have them at a small advance over
what I paid. I have to do business on business principles," he added,
with an air meant to be very important.

"Here's your chance, Dick," whispered Guy. "This man is a big stock
operator. You can almost double your money and make up all you spent on
this trip."

Dick was doing some rapid thinking. The loss of the money he had
invested in the land was something of a disappointment to him. Then,
too, he felt under the necessity of making some kind of a paying
investment. He had a vision of Uncle Ezra and the house at Dankville,
and the memory of that gloomy place made him wish to comply as soon as
possible with the terms of his mother's will.

"I don't mind investing some money, say five hundred or a thousand
dollars, in good mining stocks--if you are sure they are good," he said,
turning to Colonel Dendon.

"Good! My de