ot, too, if
I can manage it. He disappointed me, but let that pass.'

He was watching the bidding. At a thousand, the market broke: the prices
tumbled swiftly. He waited--and still watched. One competitor dropped
out; then another, and another. He put in a bid or two now. When the
bids had sunk to ten dollars, he added a five; some one raised him a
three; he waited a moment, then flung in a fifty-dollar jump, and the
sack was his--at $1,282. The house broke out in cheers--then stopped;
for he was on his feet, and had lifted his hand. He began to speak.

"I desire to say a word, and ask a favour. I am a speculator in
rarities, and I have dealings with persons interested in numismatics all
over the world. I can make a profit on this purchase, just as it stands;
but there is a way, if I can get your approval, whereby I can make every
one of these leaden twenty-dollar pieces worth its face in gold, and
perhaps more. Grant me that approval, and I will give part of my gains
to your Mr. Richards, whose invulnerable probity you have so justly
and so cordially recognised tonight; his share shall be ten thousand
dollars, and I will hand him the money to-morrow. (Great applause from
the house. But the "invulnerable probity" made the Richardses blush
prettily; however, it went for modesty, and did no harm.) If you will
pass my proposition by a good majority--I would like a two-thirds
vote--I will regard that as the town's consent, and that is all I ask.
Rarities are always helped by any device which will rouse curiosity and
compel remark. Now if I may have your permission to stamp upon the faces
of each of these ostensible coins the names of the eighteen gentlemen
who--"

Nine-tenths of the audience were on their feet in a moment--dog and
all--and the proposition was carried with a whirlwind of approving
applause and laughter.

They sat down, and all the Symbols except "Dr." Clay Harkness got up,
violently protesting against the proposed outrage, and threatening to--

"I beg you not to threaten me," said the stranger calmly. "I know my
legal rights, and am not accustomed to being frightened at bluster."
(Applause.) He sat down. "Dr." Harkness saw an opportunity here. He was
one of the two very rich men of the place, and Pinkerton was the other.
Harkness was proprietor of a mint; that is to say, a popular patent
medicine. He was running for the Legislature on one ticket, and
Pinkerton on the other. It was a close race and a hot