Show ov cie ANN t 4 0 X I 1 THE STORY SO FAR WILY way to the now new cot on their diggings in colo gold tod lanwood seventies rob early aly the th oln rodo and lla his ollon gilson oaR easterner terner ert buck lla nayden it ft veteran partner tile the told hold UP of 0 a witness lyes miner iner tile hie roin from which coach tam box la 8 tolen stolen before the tha press fire are aca beaded red oft off among blin dItO mra con victims ure tire holdup hold up tilt pe and mrs Ilar ve pi ano lance to open a estt intends to who ho cottonwood allion meets in handy alandy editor on nit his way carcus courier 0 to o tart start tile pc in town Ill moli and nii rivIne arriving Ar together purchase it harden atoned lyn lunching lynching ching casini A ahr threatened e ing by the bravery of 0 averted 1 ig mcgrath WWII town tu marshal arshat chris becomes disgusted 9 ted with will gilson digging what with tin un gold labor and small email rewards tiding ding sudden of md ind so BO the croly old cirne partner ut of shorty buck is not altogether Kether discon allson talus a to him cn erting on th the courier and arranwen job to sell lell hi alii share in the claflin cliv liri to shorty ills hl with airs deane riven As aa tin the courier brows in power rt civic spirit li Is wakened awakened I 1 ln a crime wave which the marchal tenia seeing to I 1 overlook ver look molly lla in iaia new newspaper r demands demanda a clunn clean ol nt denne in a nu ni allson risen ME brets to airs corlous section ecklon of tile the camp in ili love edth her and knowing ilig abe ho has it a husband liua hand noting thit slie she seems beems upset about noine to corri comfort fort war lir CHAPTER VIII continued 10 but bat as tile hamin cring of mood blood igat fist my brain died out ns the red ml cle areil troi iy 1117 ay eyes I 1 milked that constance had pot returned iny illy ills his that tier her onus arms clung to me ine not tit in tul n elu embrace brace but ns as though sliu she had grasped at me lue for sup support fur for safety fety then her hands fell from roin my iny neck hepa hegan gently to push puah me way we stood facing each other oilier again that lilack black mood lay on her face IS she 1 0 swayed grasped at her saddle clorn forward tills this time in ili feiar the he might full falit site she was trembling so lutone butone hand lifted itself for nn in ILI bitant and warned me inc back now tier lier trembling increased to a illg which shook lier her whole body broke ter ler speech into queer fragments as ua she ibe said sald robert why did you why did we do this you know why I 1 bald because I 1 love yil yia I 1 yest said constance and repeated it as though the alie words were a poem you love tile me I 1 and you too I 1 I 1 said you too I 1 R she e started to answer and with another snotha husli of blood against the bust base of my iny brain I 1 anticipated her word but slie she did not speak arid and suddenly lier her trembling stopped it if I 1 did she said what good would it do what could come pt of itt 10 I 1 saw what slie she meant and tire the ob acle between us which only just now lad had appeared so feathery light be dilme a stone wall 1 I have done this thial I 1 she went wen t OW on every moment becoming more the mistress of herself have let you do it you have stopped met me I 1 fe replied PlIed 1 I stop myself such things are always in the wom ins ans hands almost acost was she again tale uie constance I 1 knew I 1 had rent for RD in instant the veil over tier her soul now ifould I 1 could feel its edges drawing together again she turned to where tit two horses un perceiving witnesses of this crisis in III human affairs were grazing through their bits on the edge edg of the stream you better kiteli the them lyl she said then come back here and talk if you wish to talk this oyer over tiny any further the simple act of catching tile the I 1 horses tossing lossing the bridles over their heads steadied me also I 1 turned bath bak she had seated herself on u broken pillar of the castle rocki rock and her eyes regarded we me steadily as I 1 ad need till hobert Robert she began dont you think you had better go away from cari camp lp I 1 asked from tile me see me no more you III 1 be safest so Sli safest fest front from what from yourself and mel me I 1 what Is tile the danger in you ul robert lobert a man Is always in danger W hen lie loves it a married woman 1 I un less 1185 here tier her voice grew sharp for sn instant unless this la Is only n flirtation if with you unless you tire that kind ind of a 11 man 11 1 I 1 tell you vou 1 I said bald how ch ahk a flirtation dont you think ive fought it dont you know ehlt at I 1 did what I 1 did just now beime because my guard was down and you touched nie 1111 and I 1 was carried beyond myself 1 I know all ail that she said lm im l trying tr to be very honest new and it ant honest in me robert to say pay I 1 t your 0 ur honor im certain of that joure not ot liet well our friend bar ton on for example ile he ag was f familiar amill tir I 1 asked my ands ids clenching oh h somewhat but dont let that flint trouble ible you with you its different don it I 1 ayou you think better leave roe me to cr r your own owl good con brunce la Is it absolutely hopeless e mr absolutely she said datil finally firmly aut ut anil yn il in trouble awant I 1 want to hp P it if theres one chance in alftin a hun creot ur to help you I 1 want that c than I 1 can cail riny anything thing else that ave ve ta 11 WIL lk i said vv J t she rested tier her elbow on it her ter knee drop dropped pei birr 11 chill into tilt hur palm palin and lil tit it the sareum aln itin Nt I lobert bert site finally if I 1 loi let antl nu ittia in III my illy liap tiu you yon think son chii KO go oil oi us iti buforo just col coming lillig to i t ilk to ino 1110 now nos 1111 in inn until liel 1 yo go Uvil if tillit is nil boll will give me ine 1 I 1111 ahne V ito iii chalep i 1 I enn KV iid ii iiii dpn tn I 1 wit buin 1 11 uni nou tint ion nn hl to lie ie limbed limned lied nut tit will you lie ho burned viat tint I 1 it II filing 1111 N it dwhit dot t matter 1 I nl ivady brud burned COlls it tull tell III aiu III yourself tillit living up ti if tile condl she ln willied vo no suddenly with ollo ol of liol light 4 hi she ti if ilni allf ground n ini ill kalns ilow wiiilie voll fixing the relm for silv As I 1 turned tUrl to to tilrow throw tho fall ir i r 11 glicr wad I 1 saw slit aln lind SWUM ded from a 1 insley dile rok into tilt in ade saddle licia we wil un it ii dilg slit sho linked lot lint tit nt IN inn hill tit lit tier her lial blinds ld 1 I 3 clivy ills 1 ed UK tilt nans I 1 to 1 d matter of af it 11 little lot about it 11 11 II c v I 1 mild it isil it rt bevily silly if bilut flow ahlie IL Io zoild ild nt it ille ni shook elior awad no d 0 o on oll etli alth it I 1 want to I ille bitch akine liine ii try to forget till idt ui ili play ilay it imp hill illi the touch of till nn sit ahlie gathered tile beltri mid tier brown in own ling illig up lip site broko hint into 11 trot into a loin once slit she looked hack back saw me staring after her tier liend juicily to face lie road then she appeared round the hill the hie efte of marcus ilandus Uni idys on the political incompetence of cottonwood Cotton was blurred nit and ol ob soured for both the camp and nit me ine by another event which seemed temporarily pora porn rily much more important in fit the chegne cli eine of fate iavan I 1 ans wakened next morning by prolonged kilo knocking eking at lily door find liy tilt the protesting grunts of marcus handy As I 1 struggled out of sleep I 1 saw marcus sitting up lip in bell bed in ills his white andred and red nightshirt holding his 45 crill calibre bre sidearm at ready then from outside a voice spoke and marcus as tie lie grasped the meaning of the words laid down lih ills revolver with another grunt pulled the clothes up tip over ills bla eara cars and fell once more asleep does bob gilson live hero here all right light buck buck blayden wants to seo see you out to tits his claim right away says its important Import antl 1 came a heavy voice front from without I 1 hurled myself out of bed anglet tinting accident and calamity dressed hurried to the livery stable for tuy roy horse and through a clear inspiriting june air rode up the busy creek toward the rocky curve which I 1 seemed to have abandoned such eternities ago busy all the way with speculation as usual in such circumstances I 1 reviewed every possibility except the true tion was waa trouble break breaking ing between buck back and shorty I 1 wondered as I 1 rodo rode toward the claim even had there been a tragedy and whatever happened I 1 must get through this thing quickly for I 1 did not want to miss a single one of those noon breakfasts tit at mrs barnabas barnabys Barn abys which were midday dinner for the rest but noon breakfast for me and where dally I 1 met constance deane this was the claim a at t the curve 0 of the creek but what had happened to the cabin its thatched and root roof lay on the bank braced up six feet high on posts from beneath ltv it protruded various familiar objects of human use such as our dutch oven even my old set of red blankets where the cabin itself had stood were only chips piles of sawdust strips of bark a moor floor tile the hillside across I 1 was hailed from the creek I 1 looked up and was aware in the landscape A of a new object timbered hole gaped at tile me black and brutal mouthed beside it lay a fresh new dump so small that even een my inexpert eye could see how shallow as yet was the tunnel which fed it front from that orifice cl buck had find em emerged ervol taking oft off lila ills hat flat to extinguish a toward me ine miners lamp was walking not with ills custor customary nary even stride but rapidly jerkily I 1 dismounted started toward him hill lie ho waved we me I 1 saw that back As ile he approached ills his eye all with some soine unnatural excitement kid all got to see you alone looked roun round d alone I 1 lie shot out lie ile shack its ills eye rea rested led on that r ridiculous tilts this ile he of thatching a and not poles into on tits his heels lie ile squatted drew tile nie before I 1 he ie scrutinized ull all approaches burst out ive kid dont it beat the dutch struck it iest ruck fruck it richt rich I 1 you have I 1 asked ask ed inconsequently and me have 1 have shorty ili I sure as rich as buck pau paused sed as though enough to express wild to flad a simile the tha situation rich as h 11 he concluded thoughts and emotions from in rny whirl of out brought trot not all all g generous nerous I 1 another triviality gold ool quartz I 1 ankud dejac I 1 grandma gold old quartz your golds a sucker proposition buck elated Is the only ive got no I 1 what silver carbona carbonates test I 1 POO poor r mans ore talking arable arabic been might have lie d dramatic ratna tic mean t for or nil all I 1 g r by will irwin copyright by will irwin irwi so service rv too ill it in tint tonii iut huck was running on oil YOU vou calill scoop tier out with it poun three aln to hundred to tit the ton she widens us she goes iti in that stuff we vo hated so like alzen chilt youve culled called it shorty seen it buirk here fumbled through th alu of 0 ills ov overalls produced it 11 creased paper I leres where you nine collie if in lie said it was a mining clit lill filled out in ili iny illy indino le anti ns ag yet I 1 fill unregistered il aint ikino our claim huck hastened hust ened to explain its tile next and ami waved nil an excited hand toward the sIde 1181 olios les biti it juni nied with you crilla losel lose your play Is to kit git tilts tills regi quick kutck before tilt rush starts illde boyll boyl yet I 1 lingered lynst bcd to extract the details two years before lic forc shorty ns buck expressed it gilld beela shoved out of mexico with a n college bretl mill expert tx port bucks phrase again lie he hild hern beell looking for gold arid and down in III they had found tile the iiii iia lives washing riot not gold hut but 11 brittle haild it was tend lend carbonates bearing sliver silver the expert informed shorty further they had tunneled into the lie adjoining hill lind hall found the parent hotly boily some of tills this ore assayed better than throe hundred dollars a ton 7 there coming along the pavement toward me MB was marshal mcgrath so much they extracted from the cholo workmen then the mex boss came back ile he looked at things differently that night hf tried to murder the two americans americana and falling fall ng raised the against them they barely got out to el paso with their lives and shorty had bad not worked a day on our claim before he recognized that brittle sand which had so hampered our gold washing as aa the some same ore it was lead carbonates and the sample assayed three hundred dollars a ton in silver alone how shorty overcame the innate conservatism of buck did not at this moment come out I 1 imagine that when buck raked over those little pellets of pure stiver silver which the blowpipe had from this inert sand hla his single minded belief in gold collapsed at any rate he was waa by now so thoroughly converted as to forget that he ever held any other faith of course the sand in our stream was but a trifling overflow from some main bad body r of ore ore where did it if lie shorty working mer merely on a hazy resemblance between the lay of this athla land ano that in the mexican diggings sort of suspected said buck the hillside across the creek he selected I 1 know now the spot which of all locations on that hillside would woula have been the last choice to an expert mining engineer but there la Is more luck in stiver silver mining than tiny any expert will admit and the kind of man that shorty was always played the garie game of life 1110 in tile the spirit of one who shakes dice for the drinks the crafts shorty ca I 1 half suspected at the time had not parted with tile the last of tits his resources when he produced that hundred dollar hill bill from the back of tits his watch they bought the alie necessary tools explosives rind ami apparatus in cottonwood hired for assistant a swede who not only knew nothing about minerals hut but almost alanos t nothing about the Eri english glish language mining timbers being expensive md and slow ot of delivery they had cast their last coin into the pot and torn down the cabin for f oi the purpose their debris on W arrude sled and n of poles in a fortnight they had driven their tunnel twenty feet from tile the prism and had streak of carbonates it come to to a widened to a veltia to a pocket I 1 to heaven knew what bucks conscience and kindness were troubled because I 1 11 who shared the discovery of that curious band had find no longer any stake in the game gain e and shorty refused to maintaining with gi give ve me a share justice that daft t hundreds of others mus must t and failed to that sand have seen identa identify been it that tf if anyone yone should be favored in tilts this transaction it wits was lie he she Y so go yesterday before they visited cottonwood to get final results buck had stalled but for me a claim 11 1 1 next to tite ho twin property of tit the e partnership find drawn up lip the necessary 9 papers tind but for Shor shortys tys insistence sIs si stence terice on oil their agreement of secrecy would have broken the news to tile 1110 there and then tile tho samples front from the tunnel assayed three hundred dot dollars it ton ind and upward tile the farther you went the he richer it got in up ap preaching major brown tho the cottonwood lissauer ays lis uyer sayer buck find maintained tho the lct loii that lie came from over the tit range hut but in browns browna porter and man ilian of fill all work who was not in tile the ollace when he delivered the samples buck recognized an all individual that lind formerly |