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He said nobody was as sorry as he was when he found the goods concealed in his barn had been stolen, and that if he had known it before the thieves took them away he should have informed the authorities; and then he went on to tell me how he got so poor and so hard up by giving his whole time to digging and hauling gravel for Spotkirk, and neglecting his little farm, that he did not know what was going to become of him and his family if he couldn't make better terms with Spotkirk for the future, and he asked me very earnestly to help him in this business if I could.
"I kept quiet for a minute or two, and then I said: "'Mr. Spotkirk, this is an important business. I can't touch it under a hundred dollars. He looked hard at me, and then he said: "'Do it right, and a hundred dollars is yours. "After that I went to see Timothy Barker, and had a talk with him. Timothy was boiling over, and considered himself the worst-cheated man in the world.
I went to Spotkirk and I talked to him, and I let him see that if Timothy Barker showed up the Boilene business, as he threatened to do, it would be a bad day for the Spotkirk family.
"'But he knows you are making a lot of money, said I, 'and it will be a hard job to talk him over. Mr. Spotkirk, it's worth every cent of fifty dollars. "'Now look here, said he; 'if you get Barker to sign a paper that will suit me, I'll give you fifty dollars. I'd rather do that than have him bring a suit.
He has gone wild about it, and actually wants ten per cent., and threatens to sue me if I don't give it to him. "'Are you obliged to have gravel? Wouldn't something else do for your purpose? "'There's nothing as cheap, said Spotkirk. 'You see I have to have lots and lots of it. Every day I fill a great tank with the gravel and let water onto it.
This soaks through the gravel, and comes out a little pipe in the bottom of the tank of a beautiful yellow color; sometimes it is too dark, and then I have to thin it with more water. "'Then you bottle it, I said. "'Yes, said Spotkirk; 'then there is all the expense and labour of bottling it. "'Then you put nothing more into it, said I.
Spotkirk, said I, 'it will not be easy to convince Timothy Barker that one-eighth of one per cent. is enough for him. I suppose he hauls his gravel to your factory? "'Hauling's got nothing to do with it, said he; 'gravel is only ten cents a load anywhere, and if I choose I could put my factory right in the middle of a gravel pit. Timothy Barker has nothing to complain of.
"'What more goes into it before it's corked, said Spotkirk, 'is my business. That's my secret, and nobody's been able to find it out. People have had Boilene analyzed by chemists, but they can't find out the hidden secret of its virtue. There's one thing that everybody who has used it does know, and that is that it is a sure cure for boils.
"I knew a man by the name of Spotkirk, who had invented a liniment for the cure of boils. He made a great success with his liniment, which he called Boilene, and at the time I speak of he was a very rich man. "One day Spotkirk came to me and told me he wanted me to do a piece of business for him, for which he would pay me twenty-five dollars.
He had only lately found out how Spotkirk made his Boilene, and what a big sale he had for it, and he was determined to have more of the profits. "'Just look at it! he shouted; 'when Spotkirk has washed out my gravel it's worth more than it was before, and he sells it for twenty-five cents a load to put on gentlemen's places. Even out of that he makes a hundred and fifty per cent. profit.
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