When Benjamin Self and his stout, hearty wife Viola arrived in Val D'Or, Quebec, eleven years ago, they had $4 in cash and $267 worth of hardware. When the Selfs retired last week and headed for a U.S. vacation (the World Series, Ben's birthplace at Claremore, Okla., the Mardi Gras at New Orleans, then the warm sun of Florida and Cuba), they had $20,000 cashthe price they got for their hardware store$100,000 in Val D'Or real estate, and an estimated 100,000 shares of 32¢-a-share stock in a promising but yet-to-be-developed gold mine.
No gold miners themselves, the Selfs had cashed...