Show STUDENT LIEE miner's humble cabim Silhouetted in the purity of winter snow was the dim hazv outline of a It surprospector's windlass mounted a deep cavernous shaft and rested on a dump of heavy wash gravel Twisting the long clicking handle of that primitive wheel of fortune was a man We say — a man — for they aren’t alJack Murane joined ways that heavy stampede He staked the claim himself which in the parlance of the northern “Sourdough” was known as (number) one below discovery Dome (creek)” The hot fever of excitement calmed after a few days In an after-whil- e the stakers who had secured good locations lost faith in the value of the creek as a future producer and one by one their outfits were seen passing down the trail And the day was not long in coining when Murane was the last man left To him the “crick” looked a winner from the turn loose To sink a hole to bedrock with every facility that the prospector can boast is a job that makes even the most daring frown Without sufficient reason to persuade and to interest others without funds to further procure more than the bare sustenances of life how much shall we admire and appreciate him who through force of circumstance has the dauntless courage and unshaken fortitude to begin the great work friendless and alone? And the picture in the smoke did not change For months did he up-to-da- te 199 toil at that windlass — that prospect hole — suffering almost every privation that human being is heir to Bedrock was deeper than he had ever supposed but he stayed with the claim and worked like a man What he knew as the days dragged on was the descension of a ninety-foo- t ladder the filling of bucket the climb back the hoist out the dump the dream of pay and the future of a girl His grub was getting short but he couldn’t give up — every day brought him four inches deeper closer to bed rock He worked on rations but one day the flour was gone The last pound of rice was boiled and then the coffee had to follow suit But he was so sanguine so sure that bedrock would be uncovered soon It was with the fondest aspiration ever appreciated in his lifetime that he sat that night breathed for success and looked into the flame Tomorrow the last of the pork and beans — the Alaskan staff of life — would be gone The morning found him again on the windlass — miles and miles from any congenial living being Jack did not have even a dog The Northern lights flamed coldly in their grandeur and a lone wolf howled from an eminence but he saw not neither did he hear This day finally passed and there wa still another to come — but there He would was nothing to eat work that day however hungry Bedrock would be struck — then future happy days ! All intense longings would be realized in their |