Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1910 — A Flyer in Daisy [ARTICLE]

A Flyer in Daisy

“Whereupon you flung Billy out of the room?" There was a hint of anger in Daisy Winter's dreamy, blue eyes, a flash that made John Winters think of her mother. "Figuratively.” <i “What right had you?” she asked, passionately, “What right? You can say nothing against him except that he is poor as you once were yourself. Poverty is no crime. Besides, Billy expects to make no end of money out of that new brokerage oflfce he has opened. He has saved enough in the three years since they lost their money to buy his seat on the exchange—a thousand dollars—and to' Btart in business with. He Intends to make people open their eyes. He told me so last night.” “Intends! Hump! There Is a place paved with good intentions—do you know that, young woman?” thundered Daißy’B father. At this astounding profanity the tears welled up in Daisy’s eyes. Seeing which, John Winters cleared his throat J “Brace up," he said. , “Brace up! And if you must marry, marry some man who can take care of you.” His daughter looked at him out of scornful, hostile eyes. “I shall never marry anyone hut Billy,'’ she said decisively, and there was a little click in her voice. “When William VanAlen comes to me and shows me $15,000 in the bank to his credit you shall marry him and not one Instant before," were the words which closed the conversation and stretched Daisy in full length disoonsolance upon the couch. When the pqter door closed behind her father, however, she sat up and wiped the tears self-pityingly from her eyes and went to the telephone to confide the result of this conference to Billy. Billy wag hanging over the rail of the stock exchange shouting at the top of his lusty young voice when he saw the crimson light glowing in back of his telephone number. “At 30!” he shouted as he vaulted into the -booth. He took down the receiver. “Billy!” came a tremulous voice over the telephone, a voice in which Billy could hear the tears. “Yes, dear?” he questioned, anxiously. Outside the booth, pandemonium went on. Inside there was the cooing of two turtle doves. “He said—Oh, Billy!—that you had to have $15,000 in the bank before we could get married. He was perfectly awful!” The words were punctuated with sobs that tore at the youngster’s heart. “Don’t you worry, Daisy. I’ll get it, then,” he said with the optimism of youth. “I'll come up this evening and tell you how I come out today. I’m awfully muddled—fellows always are the first day—but I think I’ll make some money. I’ve taken a little flyer in Daisy—oh, a stock, you know—and the name ought to be good luck, even If it wasn’t booked for a rise. I must hang up now. I’ll tell you all about it tonight" “All right Goodby, Billy.” There was still the little catch in the voice that went to Billy’s heart “Goodby, sweetheart.” Billy hung up the phone and vaulted back Into -the arena of trade. He llsten«d a moment, his eyes bulging with excitement. ‘At 33,” he shouted. They were still bidding on Daisy. Not a share of stock was offered at his bid. A half hour before, he had bought a great deal of Daisy for a dollar a share. It had gone up 33 cents. Billy wondered what the “dope” was on the stock. So did every other broker on the floor. “At 34!” he screamed, his enthusiasm rising as he saw the stock becoming tight. Again there was no response to his bid and the hammer came down with a click. The stock bounded up four points in five minutes. Others started buying. The broker who was selling for John Winters bounded into a telephone booth. There he learned that his client had left the office for the day. Well, he had his orders—he handed Billy several bunches of stock between 35 and 45. Billy got the last stock he bought at 50 just as the exchange closed. His stock averaged him a dollar and twenty-five cents a share. He was a little afraid to take that at 60, but he reasoned that a stock that was held so tightly must go up in the morning, and he would get out from under at a few cejats profit per share, perhaps, before he had to pay for his stock at two o’clock. If It should go down over night he had enough money in the bank to pay for his stock and hold it although It would cripple him pretty badly. “You bought a lot of Daisy," some one said at his elbow. “Twenty thousand shares.” The voice was curious. Billy wheeled, suddenly startled. “Nonsense!” he said sharply. The broker who had addressed him smiled slightly. He knew to a share exactly how much of Daisy Van Alen bought. From that moment Bllly*s mantle of arrogance dropped from him. A half hdur later when he left the stock exchange there was dejection written in every line of his form. He kept looking at a slip of paper in his Ivas covered With figures. "Twenty-five thousand dollars,” he

By Leona Anstine Sutter

groaned. "Good Lord, if It should g<r down In the morning!” He might have felt less dejected if he cduld have seen John Winters opening a telegram at that moment In hi* hotel in Baltimore. That clever financier looked thoroughly annoyed. He, walked into a telephone booth and called up the broker who had his order to sell Daisy short. An animated, conversation ensued in which the broker’s voice came over the phone postulatlngly: “But you said, sir, to- give them a* much Daisy as they would ta£e. When, that young Van Alen began bidding ft looked like pie for you-to me and E sold. What on earth is the matter?*" John Winters gave a snort. “How much Daisy did that young donkey. Van Alen, buy?" he asked. “As near as I could find out her bought about twenty thousand shares. There were thirty thousand share* dealt in on the exchange and he got about two-thirds of it” John Winters whistled. Then h« hung up the receiver. There was a grim smile on his face as he walked! out of the booth. “That’s a pretty smart young man of yours, after all,” he said to Daisy at the dihner table. "He found out, some way, ahead of any of the rest of us that Daisy had struck a big body of ore and bought up twenty thousand shares or more of the stock, although he had to send It to a dollar and a half to do It It will go to two dollars* perhaps three, in the morning, and he will make a nice thing. I cannot see how he got the dope. Daisy's eyes were shining. “Ob, I always knew that Billy was the smartest thing!” she declared. The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. Daisy was too excited to talk, her father too annoyed. Dinner had been delayed and they bad Just risen from the table when Billy came up the walk, moving wearily. “I congratulate you, sir,” John Winters said when Billy bad been led to a seat on the divan by the delighted Daisy. “I don’t know where the devil you got your dope on the stock you bought today, but you can ask your own price in the morning. I’m short twenty thousand shares and 1 was supposed to have the first information that came from the mine. The last I heard it was looking punk. 1 want to say to you, young man, that if you keep up your present luck you’ll own this city before you are through.” Billy was staring at his host in stupefaction. There Was an idiotic smile on his face. John. Winters did not notice it “How many shares did you buy?” bo demanded, and Daisy leaned forward. "Twenty thousand shares, I believe, sir,” Billy replied with that same idiotic, uncomprehending smile. “What did it average you?" Billy knew that from agonized figuring. “A dollar twenty-five a share,** he answered. “Good for you,” John Winters exclaimed. “The strike is so rich that you can get your own price in the morning, or I’ll give you two dollars a share for all you have tonight. But tell me how you got your information, you sly dog.” For a moment Billy was silent, getting himself together. Then a cherubic, elusive smile replaced the one of sheer idiocy.—“if you don’t mind, sir, I think I would rather not divulge that, at present.” “As you please, young man,” John Winters said, with grudging admiration In his voice. Daisy had been busy doing a calculation in arithmetic. At last the line* between her brows dissolved. “Billy,” she said, “if you get two dollars a share for your Daisy you wilt have that fifteen thousand dollars you need." A blush suffused her face, making ft radiant. “I shall have seventeen thousand, six hundred dollars, to be exact,” he said, wltn conscious pride. “I bad twenty-Bix hundred to begin with.” With an ecstatic little cry Daisy threw herself in his arms. “And I will keep my word,” John Winters said from the door. “Why, you can buy and sell me in a year, young man.” A, half hour later Daisy wriggled from Billy’s ardent clasp to ask, curiously: “William Van Alen, where did you find out about that strike? Tell me this instant.* “Promise you’ll never tell?" be demanded. Daisy promised solemnly. “Well, then, I didn’t find out at all. I bought Daisy because I thought there would be luck for me in the name. I was green and didn’t know the vernacular of the exchange very well, and they handed me thousands when I thought I was buying hundreds. I thought I had bought * two hundred shares and I bad bought twenty. You see, if you say at so mueh and do not specify the amount they hand it to you In thousand share blocks.” A peal of silvery laughter rang out. “And up there at the mine they weut and struck a sweet body of ore to help you out,” she said. Billy caught her In his arms agate. “Yes, sweetheart,” he said, “but suppose they hadn’t and the stock had gone down?” Daisy considered a moment “We’ll 1 1 never In this world tell father,” tb* | said, with conviction. “It would tea I terrible to spoil his good opinion.” *