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Show ' pf Mf?Mi-Uiand Romance . Robert WSorvif n-'i Service J k - "v--!.'o. CHAPTER VIII "lou'd better quit," said the Frod- I it was the evening of my mishap, i jD(j be bad arrived unexpectedly rom town. "It just its in with my plans. I'm getting Jim to come in, too, I've realized on that stuff I bought, made over three thousand clear profit, . and with it I've made a dicker for a property on the beach above Bonanza, Gold hill they call it. I've a notion it's all right. Anyway, we'll tunnel in and see. You and Jim will have a quarter share each for your work, while I'll have an extra quarter for the capital I've put in. Is it a go?" I said it was. Next day found us all three surveying survey-ing our claim. The first thing to do ivas to build a cabin. Right away we began to level off the ground. Tho work was pleasant, and conducted in such friendship that the time passed most happily. Indeed, my only worry was about Berna. I schooled myself into the belief that she was all right. but, thank God, every moment was f bringing her nearer to me. We had hauled the logs for the cabin, and the foundation was laid. Every day saw our future home near- J er completion. . ' i One evening I spied the saturnine Rihwood climbing down the hill to : our tent. He hailed me: "Say, we want a night watchman i up at the claim to go on four hours i a night at a dollar an hour. You see, there's been a lot of sluice-box rob- beries lately, and we're scared for our clean-up. There's four hours every ev-ery night the piuce is deserted, and Hoofman proposed we should get you to keep watch." ward like u deer7 Rigid and" loft ran his pursuers, mistaking each other for the robber in the semi-gloom, yelling frantically, mad with the excitement ex-citement of a man-hunt. And in the midst of it all I lay in a pool of mud and water, with a sprained wrist and a bite on my leg. "Why didn't you hold him?" shouted shout-ed Ribwood. "I couldn't," I answered. "I saved your cleanup, and he got some of the lead. Besides, I know who he is. Pat Doogan." "You don't say. Well, I'm darned. We'll get him. I'll go into town first thing in the morning and get out a warrant for him." lie went, but the next evening back he returned, looking very surly ami disgruntled. "Well, what about the warrant?" said Iloofniaii. "Didn't get it," snapped Ribwood. "Look- here, Hoofman, I met Loeasto. I'.lack Jack says Pat was cached away, dead to all the world, in the backroom of the Omega saloon all night. There's two loafers and tho barkeeper to- back him up. What can we do in the face of that? Say, young feller, I guess you mistook your man." "I guess I did not," I protested stoutly. . They both looked at me for a moment mo-ment and shrugged their shoulders. Time went on and the cabin was quietly nearing completion. The roof of poles was in place. It only remained re-mained to cover it with moss and I tha wed-out earth to make it our future fu-ture home. tons; she served those swine. She heard t!:eir loose talk, their careless oaths. She knew everything. Oh. it was pitiful ; it sickened me to the soul. I sat down and buried my face in my hands. "Order, please." I knew that sweet voice. It thrilled me, and I looked up suddenly. There was Berna standing before me. She gave a quick start, then recovered recov-ered herself. A look of delight came into her eyes, eager, vivid delight. "Oh, I am so glad to see you again." "Berna," I said, "what are you doing do-ing with that paint on your face?" "Ob, I'm sorry." She was rubbing distressfully at a dab of rouge on her cheek. "I knew you would be cross, but I had to ; they made me. It's just a little pink all the women do it. It makes me look happier, and it doesn't hurt me any." "Berna," boomed the rough, contumacious con-tumacious voice of Madam, "attend to the customers." "All right," I said ; "get me anything. any-thing. I just wanted to see you." She hurried away. Presently she came hurrying round, bringing me some food. "When can I see you, girl?" I asked. "Tonight. See me home. I'm off at midnight." "All right. I'll be waiting." I wandered up and down the now familiar street, but the keen edge of my Impression hod been blunted. I no longer took the same Interest In its sights. More populous it was, noisier, livelier than ever. Success was in the air. Men were drunk with it; carried off their feet, delirious. Money I it had lost its value. Every one you met was "lousy" with it ; threw it away with both hands, and fast as they emptied one r)ocket it filled up the others. At midnight, at the door of the Paragon, Par-agon, I was waiting in a fever of impatience im-patience when Berna came out She showed a vast joy at seeing me. "Tell me what you've been doing, dear everything. Have you made a stake? So many have. I have prayed you would, too. Then we'll go away somewhere and forget all this. Won't we, honey?" She nestled up to me. She seemed to have lost much of her shyness. I don't know why, but I preferred my timid, shrinking Berna. "It will take a whole lot to make me forget this," I said grimly. "Yes, I know. Isn't it frightful? . Somehow I don't seem to mind so much now. I'm getting used to It, I suppose. It's wonderful how we get accustomed to things, isn't it?" "Yes," I answered bitterly. "You know, I've had several offers of marriage, too, really, really good ones from wealthy claim-owners." "Yes," still more bitterly. "Yes, young man ; so you want to make a strike and take me away. Oh, how I plan and plan for us two. I don't care, my dearest, if you haven't got a cent in the world, I'm yours, always al-ways yours." "That's all right, Berna," I said. "I'm going to make good. I've just lost a fifty-thousand dollar claim, hut there's more coming up, By the first of June next I'll come to you with a bank account ac-count of six figures. You'll see, my little girl. I'm going to make this thing stick." "You foolish boy," she said; "It doesn't matter if you come to me a beggar in rags. Come to me anyway. Come, and do not fail." She was extraordinarily affectionate, affection-ate, full of unexpected little ways of endearment, and clung to me when we parted, making me promise to return very soon. Every look, every word, every act of her expressed a bright, fine, radiant love. I was satisfied, yet unsatisfied, and once again I entreated her. "Berna, are you sure, quite sure, you're all right in that place among all that fully and drunkenness ami vice? Let me take you away, dear." "Oh, no," she said very tenderly; "I'm all right. I would tell you nt once, my boy, if I had any fear. Good-by, darling." "Good-by, beloved." I went away treading on sunshine, trembling with Joy, thrilled with love for her, blessing her anew. Yet still the rouge stuck In my crop as if it were the symbol of some insidious in-sidious decadence. (To Be Continued) i I We Had Now Been Going Sixteen Hours, and Still Our Leader Kept On. tio.u to, and put in your stakes. Maybe May-be you'll stake a million-dollar claim, maybe a blank. Mining's all a gamble. gam-ble. But go ahead, boys. I wish you luck." So we strung out, and, coming in rotation, ro-tation, Jim and I staked seven and eight below discovery. Then 1 threw myself down on a bit of moss, and, covering my head with my coat to ward off the mosquitoes ; in a few minutes I was dead to the world. I was awakened by the Trodigal. "Rouse up," he was saying; "you've slept right round the clock. We've got to got back to town and record those claims. Jim's gone three hours ago." I was sleep-stupid, sore, stiff In every ev-ery joint. Racking pains made me groan at every movement, and the chill night air had brought on twinges of rheumatism, but we started off. It was about nine in the morning when we got to the gold office. There 'was quite a number ahead of me, and ,1 knew I was in for a long wait. I will never forget it. For three days, with the exception of two brief sleep-spells, sleep-spells, I had been in a fierce helter-skelter helter-skelter of excitement, and I had eaten no very satisfying food. As I stood In that sullen crowd I swayed with weariness, weari-ness, and my legs were doubling under un-der me. I staggered forward and straightened up suddenly. I was near the wicket. Only two were ahead of me. A clerk was recording their claims. One had thirty-four above, the other fifty-two below. The clerk looked flustered, fatigued. It was my turn. "I want to record eight below on Ophir," I said. "What name?" he asked. I gave it. He turned up his book. "Eight below, you say. Why, that's already recorded." "Can't be," I retorted. "I just got down from there yesterday after planting plant-ing my stakes." "Can't help it. It's recorded by some one else, recorded early yesterday." "Look here," I exclaimed; "what kind of a game are you putting up on me? I tell you I was the first on the ground. I alone staked the claim." "That's strange," he said. "There :must be some mistake. Anyway, you'll have to move on and let the others get up to the wicket. You're blocking the way. All I can do is to look into the matter for you, and I've got no time now. Come back tomorrow. Next, please." . The next man pushed me aside, and there 1 stood, gaping and gasping. A man in the waiting line looked at me pityingly. "It's no use, young fellow; you'd better make up your mind to lose that claim. They'll llim-flam you out of it somehow. They've sent some one out now to stake over you. If you kick, they'll say you didn't stake proper. Them government officials is the crookedest bunch that ever made fuel for hell-fire. I was stunned with disappointment. "What you want," he continued, '"Is to get a puil with some of the officials. Get a stand-in, young fellow." "Well," I said, "I'm not going to be cheated out of my claim. If I've got to move heaven and earth " "You'll do nothing of the kind. 11 you get sassy there's the police to put the lid on you. You can talk till you're purple round the gills. It won't cut no figure. They've got us fill cinched: We've Just got to take our medicine. It's no use goln' round bellyaching. You'd belter go away and sit down." And I did. I had to sec Berna nt once. Already I had paid a visit to the rarngon 'restaurant, that new and glittering place of resort run by the -..Winkle-steins, but she was not on duty. In the evening I returned. I took a seat in one of the curtained boxes. The place was brilliantly lit up. many-mirrored many-mirrored and flashily ornate in gilt and while. In the box before mo a white-haired lawyer was entertaining a lady of easy virtue; in the box behind, be-hind, ' a larrikin quartette from the Pavilion theater was holding high revelrv. There was no tii'srr.kmg th-character th-character of the place. Tn the near! of (he city's tenderloin it was a haunt of human riff-raff, a palace of gilt and guilt. And it was In this place i.ern.i worked,. She. wajted. on tLiSe "li. "Yes," I said ; "I'll run up every evening if the others don't object." They did not ; so the next night, and for about a dozen after that, I spent the darkest hours watching on the claim where previously I had worked. It was the dimmest and most uncertain un-certain hour of the four, and I was sitting nt my post of guard. As the night was chilly I had brought along an old gray blanket, similar in color to the mouud of the pay-dirt. There had been quite a cavity dug in the dump during the day, and into this I crawled and wrapped, myself in my blanket. From my position I could see the string of boxes containing the riffles. By my side lay a loaded shotgun. shot-gun. "If the swine comes," Ribwood had said, "let him have a clean-up of lead instead of gold." Lying there, I got to thinking of the robberies. They were remarkable. remark-able. All had been done by an ex-Pert. ex-Pert. Each time the robber had cleaned up from two to three thousand thou-sand dollars, and all within the past month. There was some mysterious mustercTool; in our midst, one who "Pcrated swiftly and surely, and left absolutely no clew of his identity. 1 1 was quiet for a while, watching dreamily the dark shadows of the dusk. Hist I What was that? Surely the bashes were moving over there by the hillside. I strained my eyes. I was fight : they were. I watched and waited. A man was Parting the bushes. Cautiously, crawling like a snake, he worked his lvy to the sluice-boxes. None but a keen watcher could have seen him. AK'iiu mid again he paused, peered iii-omul, listened intently. Very carefully, care-fully, with my eyes fixed on him, I l'ed the gUn to my shoulder. I had ) "mi covered. 1 baited. Somehow I was loath to l,'"1"- My nerves were a-quiver. "'"of. more proof, 1 said. 1 saw him woi-kini; busily, ying flat alongside "e boxes. How crafty, bow skillful f Vvl,s! "e W1IS disconnecting the '"xes. lie would let the water run I 0 Ule ground; then, there in the ex-; ex-; :'.'SOfl ri(ls, would be his harvest. j 1 01,1(1 1 shoot . . . now . . ! now. i ii?.''n' "ie '"'dnight hush, my gun i '"-ed forth, with one scream the vl'jl? tnmhled down, carrying along " ,n" the disconnected box. The d'l " rusled over the ground in n Y"- I '"ust capture him. There .. "' 'n Unit pouring stream. . . . N''w I bad his,,. plj "'I" ,orrent of icy water I grap-win, grap-win, my man. Over and over lnl0l- He tried to gouge me lie smill, hut oh, how strong! He fr'(l (l"n his face. Fiercely I ., "lp'l It up to (he light. Heavens! . 1 the Worm. flutci6 a Uy of sl""l"'ise, and iny for n, 7 "",st l,iive weakened. Mend """1,pllt he Silve n violent S,f ,n' n (':l'-liko twist, and tore him nil i-Ce' J!pn "'ere running in from ."onions. E,'s:',,''h him !' I cried. "Yonder he UlJJig Ijttjjiian was, shooting for i More and more my dream hours were jealously consecrated to Berna. How ineffably sweet were they. How full of delicious imaginings! How pregnant of high hope ! O, I was born to love, I think, and I never loved but one. This story of my life is the story of Berna. It is a thing of words and words and words, yet every word is Berna, Berna. Feel the heartache behind it all. Read between the lines, Berna, Berna. The Prodigal was always "snooping" "snoop-ing" around and gleaning information from most mysterious sources. One evening he came to us. "Boys, get ready, quick. There's a rumor of a stampede for a new creek, Ophir creek they call it, away on the other side of the divide somewhere. A prospector went down ten feet and got fifty-cent dirt. We've got to get in on this. There's a mob coming from Dawson, but we'll get there before be-fore the rush." Quickly we got together blankets and a little grub, and, keeping out of sight, we crawled up the hill under cover of the brush. Soon we came to a place from which, we could command com-mand a full view of the valley. Here we lay down, awaiting developments. On the far slope of Eldorado, I saw a hawk soar upward. Surely1 a man was moving amid the brush, two men. a dozen men, moving in single file very stealthily. I pointed them out. "it's the stampede," whispered .Tim. "We've got to get on to the trail of that crowd. Travel like blazes. We can cut them off at the head of the valley." "Throw away your blankets, boys," said the Prodigal. "Just keep a little lit-tle grub. We must connect with that bunch if we break our necks." It was hours after when we overtook over-took them, about a dozen men, nil In the maddest hurry, and casting behind them glances of furtive apprehension. The leader was going like one possessed. pos-sessed. We blundered on behind In the same mad, heart-breaking hurry, mile after mile, hour after hour, content con-tent to follow the man of iron who was guiding us to the virgin treasure. treas-ure. We had been pounding along all night, up hill and down dale. The sun rose, It was morning. Still we kept up our fierce gait. Would our leader never coma to. hia destination? By what roundabout route was he guiding us? We panted as we pelted on, parched and weary, faint and footsore. foot-sore. But still our leader kept on. Suddenly the Prodigal said to me: "Say, you boys will have to go on without me. I'm all in." He dropped In a limp heap on the ground and instantly fell asleep. Several Sev-eral of the others had dropped out. too. They fell asleep where they gave up, utterly exhausted. We had now been going sixteen hours, and still our leader kept on. It was about four in the afternoon when we reached tho creek. Up it our leader plunged, till he came to a place where a rude shaft had been dug. We gathered around him. "Here it is. boys." be said. "Here's my discovery stake. Now you fellows go up or down, anywhere you've a no- |