"Young Hardy's making his mark down on the island," observed J. Malcolm Weston to his partner that morning when they had received notice of the stock purchase made by Jess, "and if the fellow keeps on as he has started the quarry won't stand us out a penny."

"I doubt if he does," responded Mr. Hill, who, be it said, fulfilled the part of a balance wheel to Weston. "From what you have told me there aren't many on the island who have any spare money."

"Oh, you can't always tell by the clothes such jays wear how much they have hid away in old stockings," responded Weston. "Those mossbacks never spend a cent and once they grasp a dollar it passes out of circulation."

"I am surprised Hardy landed this man Hutton for five hundred," said Hill, "and so early in the game."

"I am also," replied Weston, "and if I felt sure that Hardy could be trusted with our plans, I would tell him what our next move is, but I am not. The trouble with him is, he is too honest, and when we begin to throw out bait in the way of advance dividends, he will suspect our game and I am not sure how he will take it."

"Do not think of that yet," replied Hill, "so long as we keep all the cards in our own hands, we know where the joker is, but never afterward."

"I am a good mind to take a ran down to Rockhaven," continued Weston meditatively, "and get better acquainted with this old duffer Hutton and the rest. Also make some of them a present of a little stock, just to interest them. It's the way to catch mackerel and those few shares will return us good results when we declare a dividend."

"Better not," replied the more cautious of the two, "those old fishermen are not fools, and will conclude that if you are willing to give stock away, it's of no value. When we do pay a dividend this Hutton will not keep it a secret and Hardy can then reap the harvest. Besides, he and his honesty must be considered. It won't do to alarm him. He believes the scheme is legitimate, and as he has a finger in the pie, will work for his own end and sell all the stock he can. What I should advise is that we notify him the price is now two dollars per share and let that leaven work as it will. How much stock have we sold already?"

"About six thousand shares," replied Weston, "counting that bought by Hardy."

"And two per cent on the par value of that," continued Hill, figuring on a slip of paper, "would be twelve hundred dollars. I think one per cent enough as a starter and that we should pay it now."

"No," replied the more liberal Weston, "it's not best to pinch in the matter of chum, as the fishermen say, and do things by halves. If we must bait them now let us bait them well."

And bait them well they did, for the next day's issue of the Market News contained the following:—

"It is with pleasure we announce that the Rockhaven Granite Company has declared a dividend of two per cent on the par value of the stock, payable at the office of Weston & Hill. As we stated a short time ago in these columns, this well-known and reliable firm, whose enterprise is now so agreeably proven, do nothing by halves and are only too glad to distribute all profits as soon as accrued. The stock has already doubled in price and we predict will reach par in the near future."

And when Jess Hutton received by mail a check for one hundred dollars as his share of the dividend upon the par value of five hundred shares and the parson one for ten, Rockhaven began to get excited, and all who had a dollar to invest made haste to call upon Winn. Captain Doty bought one hundred shares, Captain Moore, uncle to David the irrepressible, the same, a few others lesser amounts, and to cap the climax, poor hard-working Mrs. Moore, Winn's landlady, came to him.

"I've got a little money laid away in the savin's bank ashore," she said, "an' it's only drawin' four cents a dollar, which ain't much. If you thinks it's safe mebbe I'd best take some out an' buy some o' this stock. They all tell me it's payin' and like to go up."

And that night, in the seclusion of his own room, as Winn Hardy thought matters over, and realized how this speculative excitement was starting on Rockhaven, just a faint suspicion that the golden apple might be rotten at the core came to him. As was his way when he wanted to think and think hard, he at once betook himself out of sight and sound of even that quiet village, and hied away to the top of Norse Hill. Here he lit a cigar and planted himself beside the strange structure there, the history of which no one knew.

And how solemn and silent the still summer evening seemed, and how like eternity the boundless ocean faintly visible in the starlight. Only its low murmur at the foot of the cliff and just a faint breeze redolent of its salty zest reached him. And of Weston & Hill and this new outcome?

He had worked and talked to this end; he had hoped for it, striving to bring it about, and now that the quarry was each day a busy hive of workers, the third vessel load of quarried stone nearly all on board and ready to ship, the entire island agog over this new industry, and not only willing but anxious to invest their hard-earned savings in Rockhaven stock, and a prosperous outcome to his ambition in sight, Winn hesitated.

And the more he ground the grist of Weston & Hill's scheme in his mind there beside the old stone tower, the less he liked it and the deeper the germ of suspicion took root. And the cause of it all was the two per cent dividend!

Winn Hardy, though a country-born boy and lacking in worldly experience, as well as education, was no fool. He knew that two shiploads of granite, though sold at a fabulous price, would not pay a profit equal to half the cost the quarry had so far been, to say nothing of a dividend, and the only conclusion was not flattering to his firm's honesty. Then one by one, every little detail of the entire affair; every instruction they had given; the stock they had presented to him; the letters they had written; the donation to the parson; Jack Nickerson's innuendoes; and now this unreasonable payment of dividends which he knew were not earned,—all passed in review. Honest himself, he was slow to suspect dishonesty in others, but the longer and more carefully he weighed these facts in his mind the plainer he saw the word "fraud" written on each one of them.

And he had put every dollar of the few he had saved into this stock and borrowed some besides! And worse than that; this honest old fellow Jess, out of good will to him had put five hundred in and persuaded others to invest also!

Suspicion is like sailing in a fog; we cannot tell where clear air ends and fog begins, only the first we know the air seems damp and chill, the sun obscured and danger near. And so with Winn, there on Rockhaven, with his vocation and paths in life all mapped out, these people looking toward him as a benefactor and ready to trust him with their money and the sun of success shining! And all at once the air seemed chill with the fog of deceit and fraud, and he knew not where he was. To refuse those who would buy more stock, he dare not, since it would awaken suspicion; to accept it was as bad, for it compromised him the deeper. For a long hour he tried to think a way for himself out of this fog, and the more he thought the more positive his suspicion grew, and then he returned to his abode. And there in Rock Lane and as if to increase his burden of responsibility, was Mona sitting in the porch of her humble home alone.

"Why, little girl," he said softly, pausing at the gate, "are you not abed and asleep?"

And Mona, unconscious of how or in what way it would strike him, and in the utter innocence of her heart, came quickly out to where he was standing.

"I was lonesome," she said simply, "and waiting for you to come back. I saw you go up the hill and wondered what for." And Winn, despondent and worried as he was, and looking down into the sweet face and earnest eyes upraised to him, felt their tender sympathy wondrously sweet.

"I went up there to think," he said, "and to be alone. It is a way I have when business troubles me." And bidding her "good night" he left her.