"'I shall have to dispense with your services unless I can get additional capital to enlarge my business.'
"Presently he made me a proposal.
"'If you will lend me three thousand dollars,' he said, 'and allow me to use it in my business, I will pay you six per cent. interest, and advance your wages to twelve dollars a week.'
"I thought over this proposal and determined to accept it. Eben Jackson was very plausible and smooth-spoken, and I saw no reason to doubt him. I transferred my small capital to him. He increased his stock, but only by five hundred dollars' worth, as I afterwards ascertained, and I continued to work for him. For a month he paid me twelve dollars per week, then he reduced me to ten, on the plea that business was poor, afterwards to eight, and finally he allowed me only my board. I became indignant and demanded my money back, but he absolutely refused to repay it. I consulted a lawyer, but found upon inquiry that he had made over all his property to his wife. I saw that nothing was to be expected, and a month since I left Rochester and came to Chicago, in the hope of finding employment here."
CHAPTER XXIX. THE ST. JAMES HOTEL, IN DENVER.
"What has been your success here, Mr. Plympton?" inquired Rupert.
"No better than in Rochester. Why is it that no one is willing to employ an old man? I am in good bodily health, and I can do as good work as I ever could, but no one will have me."