Halsey Co. | Page 6

it?"
"It's yours, every cent of it, and I've got fifteen more bills of that size in
the bank."
The good woman dropped down into a chair and glared at her nephew.
Fred went to her, put his arms about her neck, kissed her and said:

"I've had good luck to-day, aunt. Just read that and you will understand
it all," and he gave her a copy of an afternoon paper in which was the
story of the capture of the forger in Barron's bank.
"And they gave you this money for what you did?" she exclaimed,
when she had finished reading it.
"Yes. They just chipped in and gave me a pile of money. I left all in the
bank but this, which I wanted to give to you. And you can have every
cent of the rest whenever you want it--you and sister."
"Oh, you dear, good boy!" she exclaimed, her eyes filling with tears as
she caught him in her arms. "I knew you would always be good to me."
"You've been a mother to us, aunt, and I'll never go back on my
mother!"
Adah came home from the store tired and hungry. At supper her aunt
told her of Fred's adventure and good fortune. She sprang up and
danced around the room in her joy and then kissed him a half dozen
times.
It did seem like an enormous sum to her a girl of but fourteen summers.
"What are you going to do with it, Fred?" she finally asked.
"Give it to aunt and to use for you and herself."
They all had pleasant dreams that night. Fred dreamed of the big
fortune made in Wall Street; and Adah dreamed that she was no longer
a cash girl in a big store, but wore fine dresses and rode in a carriage.
The next morning, however, Fred ate early and hurried off downtown
to sell papers, and Adah was at the store at her usual hour. Fred
delivered to all his Wall Street patrons and then sold on the street to
passersby all the morning. He was all around the Stock Exchange, for
there he found the most customers. Inside the Stock Exchange he heard
the brokers yelling like so many lunatics. That was so often the case,
however, that he gave it little thought. But soon he saw Bob Newcombe,

Manson's messenger, come out in a great hurry and dart off down the
street.
"Guess Manson is busy inside," he said to himself as he kept his eyes
open for customers.
In a few moments Bob came running back. He ran up against Fred.
"Just go up in the gallery and see how B. & H. is climbing up, Fred," he
said to him.
"How much has it gone up, Bob?" Fred asked him.
"Five points, and that means $100 for us," Bob replied.
"Whew!" and Fred whistled.
Bob dashed into the Exchange by way of the side entrance on New
street and disappeared from view.
"Guess I'll go up in the gallery and look on a while," Fred said to
himself. "Here, Mugsey, you can have my papers," and he turned over
about one dozen papers to an ugly little newsboy whom the others
called Mugsey.
The little fellow was astonished.
"Do yer give 'em ter me, Fred?" he asked before taking them.
"Yes. I'm done for the day."
Fred found quite a crowd of people up in the gallery, and among them a
party of ladies from out of town. They were sightseeing. But there was
nothing new to him up there. He wanted to see Broker Manson and
watch the rise of B. & H. stock. It took him some time to find Manson
in the moving mass of yelling brokers on the floor below. But he finally
found him, and for half an hour never took his eyes off of him. He
heard him offering fifty-three and finally fifty-four for B. & H. It has
thus gone up seven points since the day before.

"Bob was right," he said. "He knew what he was about. B. & H. is
climbing right up to the top. Hanged if I don't put in another hundred!"
and he ran down and out into the street like a young lunatic. In five
minutes he had put up another hundred dollars with Broker Tabor for
Halsey & Company to buy more B. & H. stock on margin. The stock
was bought immediately at 54 1/2-eighteen shares.
That done, Fred returned to the Exchange and watched proceedings
from the gallery. He kept his eyes on Broker Manson. The big broker
was buying the stock at a tremendous rate, all that was offered him.
People were coming and going all the time. Fred finally turned to look
at a young