United States or Samoa ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Stamps had spent a sleepless night. He could not sleep because his last interview with Linthicum had driven him hard, even though he had been able to promise him the required five hundred dollars; he also could not sleep because the air of the city had been full of talk about the promising outlook of the De Willoughby claim. Over the reports he had heard, he had raged almost with tears.
His tone and method were so unsatisfactory and unmoved that remembering Abner Linthicum Stamps became desperate. He clutched Latimer's arm and held it. "It'd be worth money fur him to git safe hold of them letters. Thar was two on 'em. I didn't let on to Tom. I wasn't gwine to let on to him till I found out he'd go in with me.
I can't work on the driblets you've been bringing me and, what's more, I should be a fool to try." "But ye wouldn't give it up!" cried Stamps, in a panic. "Ye couldn't throw me over, Linthicum!" "There's no throwing over about it," Linthicum said. "I shall have to give the thing up if I can't keep it going. Money's got to be used over a claim like this.
He had unexpectedly heard rumours of some valuable evidence which might be gathered in a special quarter at this particular moment, and had set out upon the journey at a few hours' notice. Stamps had passed two days and nights in torment. He had learned from Mr. Linthicum that his claim had reached one of the critical points all claims must pass.
It was issued Dec. 31, 1851, by the Louisville agent of the Mutual Benefit Fire and Life Insurance Company of Louisiana, to T.P. Linthicum of Bairdstown, Ky., insuring for $650 each the lives of Jack, 26 years old and Alexander, 31 years old, for one year, at the rates of 2 and 2-1/2 per cent, respectively, plus one per cent, for permission to employ the slaves on steamboats during the first half of the period.
"Look here, you had better go to some hospital and ask to be taken in. What are you walking about the street for in that fix? You can scarcely breathe." "I'm a-gwine to walk about until Saturday," answered Stamps, with a grin. "I'm lookin' arter my own claim an' Abner Linthicum. Arter Saturday I'll lie up for a spell." "You'd better do it before Saturday," Tom remarked as he left him.
The only danger he recognised was the danger that there might be some failure in his plans that Linthicum might give him up that the parson might back out of his bargain, realising that after all letters unsigned save by a man's Christian name were not substantial evidence.
She was attired in the black calico riding-skirt and sunbonnet which represented the mourning garb of the mountain relict. "I'm a widder," she said to big Tom, in a tone not unresigned. "Ye got yer claim through, but Stamps hadn't no influence, an' he was took off by pneumony. Ketched cold runnin' to Linthicum, I guess. His landlady was a honest enough critter.
Linthicum was not anxious that he should be seen there too frequently. After the payment of the five hundred dollars there would be no more to be wrung from him, and he could be dropped. He could be told that it was useless to push the claim further. Until the five hundred was secured, however, he must be kept busy. Consequently, he went from one man to the other until he could walk no more.
Stamps stood and watched him walk away, and then turned into a drug-store and bought a cheap bottle of cough mixture. He was passing through the early stages of pneumonia, and was almost too weak to walk, but he had gone from place to place that morning like a machine. Linthicum had driven him. So long as he was employed in badgering other men he was not hanging about the agent's office.
Word Of The Day