Show POOR MAWS mals GOLD cour coartney e ryley cooper 0 courtney Courtn ejr ryley cooper service Servi cp 0 4 0 0 too CHAPTER V continued 10 change your mind when you meet him might as well argue with a tree stump but why bother with him kayl kay hes my partner oh I 1 mean that why not get your advice and know where youre going instead of staggering around blindly it amount to just that in a way it sterns seems guidance would help both of you A geologist could figure where that river ran a thousand years ago hammond spoke slowly maybe an idea kay and you can trust bruce to the limit father did As for the fee ill see that he charge you anything until after everything is over she laughed hed know better id slay him if he put in a bill mckenzie joe would have to stay in the dark hed kick over the traces why tell him anything look here youre digging now at random arent you just about then you just accident ally dig where bruce told you to look an idea tool then why dont you you owe it to yourself and joe too hed benefit as much as you he could think of little except that she was close to him vibrantly warm that her hair brushed his cheek that a soft hand stroked his throat ill have to be terribly quiet about it he said at last maybe be better if sort of pave the way to kenning dont tell him too much just enough so that hell know what im talking about when I 1 see him 1 I will dear said kay joyce softly for a deliciously long time she remained close to him then slowly she drew away at last to become solitary somehow lonely as she looked out over the valley jack daack Is came after a long time ive a disappointment then with jerky abruptness we cant be married but kay please dont ask me a lot of silly billy questions about not loving you the girl said crisply 1 I cant stand it instantly he was beside her what are you trying to say nothing of consequence im just terribly unhappy jack but why you say youre crazy about me you know I 1 worship you come over you kay he begged that night in seattle I cant you understand mother and I 1 are broke positively flat brokel 1 I know that timmy had a loose tongue last night father left hardly enough for the funeral the girl went on bitterly he even dragged poor bruce down in the wreck almost ruined him bruce has been a saint hes kept mother and me alive but just the same the fact remains were broke flat broke penniless penni lessl well what of it jack demanded impatiently ive got money she whirled facing him and am I 1 to go through life calling myself a gold digger to but youre not absolutely silly Is it she asked 1 I was the snooty bankers daughter I 1 have anything to do with you then suddenly I 1 any money and youve got a lot so I 1 marry you the answer to that the answer is that ill marry you any time you say the wrong answer were both hot and crazy just the touch of your hand makes me want to drag you away into some eskimo igloo and never come out but that will have to pass if we are to be happy well have to go through a lot quarrel adjust ourselves to each other suppose it work out why wont it suppose you get the idea that I 1 was desperate and grabbed you because you had money you know id never do that what they all say jack why weve got to wait 11 he caught her eagerly tight to him then this a turndown turn down of course coarse not silly she answered in a smothered voice weve simply got to wait wai to all how long her lips wore were close to his until I 1 make some money out of that placer oh its a subterfuge J know but at least ill bring you comet something aing besides myself something ive earned but you cant work that claim with your own hands you said get me some men that takes money ive got a little A few hundred dollars that will be enough bruce gives mother a little to live on because of father but suppose you dont hit ita i tia she raised her head chin high in the moonlight ive got to hit it I 1 cant have you until I 1 do it will be my dowry 00 jack hammond went down the hill that night with the feeling of having kissed the lips of nobility A modest man it had been inevitable that he should have faced moments of doubt doub all that now was dispelled A few nights later as mckenzie joe scraped the sandy mud off his boots and prepared to start for geannes Je annes store and a new tin of tobacco jack Harri hamond ond came 0 out ut of the semidarkness semi darkness of the cabin and leaned against the doorway listen joe he began ive been thinking about something yeh the old prospector tossed aside the mud smeared stick and stood waiting weve been looking for that old river bed in pretty haphazard fashion have we asked joe well we we dig a hole here and a hole there just stabbing blind in the dark ive been thinking that we ought to map out a campaign suppose we swing away over to the right almost to 1 1 4 x an V 1 I I 1 ap we come to any decision the end of our holdings on that number 5 lease and start putting down a series of test pits then if those dont work out we can start slowly across across the valley the coldly appraising look in mckenzie joes eyes halted him what crooked mining shark has been telling you the wrong prong place to dig he asked bluffly and walked on toward jeanne towers cabin CHAPTER VI all in less than two weeks the little settlement of sapphire lake had become a village and was was robustly looking forward to the day when it would be a town timmy moons airplane had caused it not that he any longer held the monopoly two days after his first trip into wrangell another gypsy had flown in from the alaskan coast and begun a canvass of the town for business then a third had found his way up from vancouver for days timmy moon had been chartered by around the world annie feverish for artisans wood workers glaziers and their supplies P lies olsons discovery of gold had done great things for the morale of the camp other placer miners who had been content with mere panning now were building rockers or going in for greater sluicing operations the whole psychology of the camp had changed while hardware and furnishing stores in wrangell sold out their supplies and the hurrying airplanes roared onward to juneau and sitka there to load up from new sources and rush back to the mining camp yeh said mckenzie joe as he watched a ship drop to the lake and taxi to a landing in a hurry they could go for months without glass in their windows but now got to have it by the next plane the trouble with a new gold diggins nobody wants to let it stay the way you found it then suddenly he asked hammond you going to work with me today on that upper shall shaft or are you still sticking to loon creek hammond began to file the ragged edge of a long handled shovel dont you think rog its up to us to get as much gold out of that creek placer as we can well have to be hiring men soon the older man shot him a quick glance the fourth or fifth time youve brought that up he said well asked hammond we talk it over the other night we come to any decision cislon do 11 1 I did el d that make two of us A certain asperity had grown up between the two looking back hammond felt that mckenzie joes nature had become steadily sourer ever since the first arrival of timmy moons airplane and its passengers jack had resented that a as though it were an implied insult to the girl he loved look here joe weve rot got to get our money out of this discovery we cant stay here forever seems to me mckenzie Mc Kenzia joe said as he looked out over the valley when we found this place we both figured it was where we were going to settle down that we had a life job were not going to have a years job if we dont find that older bedrock that loon creek placer wont be enough for us its enough for me right now the older man said 1 I aint ever seen that much money before hammond bent over the shovel blade our ideas are different there you mean youve let somebody change tern cm for you 10 hammond threw down the shovel it clattered on the wooden floor im getting tired of that if youve got anything to say about kay joyce come out and say it the other man glanced at him over his shoulder did I 1 mention any names he be asked quietly and moved away toward the upper diggings a new test shaft somewhat distant from camp and rather deep in the forest by which they sought the bedrock hammond did not follow instead with the shovel over his shoulder he headed for tho the placer workings along the creek it was a rejuvenated e bated camp through which he moved A roar sounded from the lake and timmy moons airplane took off for wrangell from far away came the sound of hammers over at around the world annies on the alaskan side a tiny town had begun there she called it whoopee As hammond Hamn nond walked on lie he passed a squat squaw gleaming in a new shawl 0 of f wildly checkered design an importation by air then he became aware t that hat someone was calling him it was jeanne towers waving excitedly from the doo doorway of her cabin store ive almost sold out she exclaimed as he approached im going to send in another order tomorrow larry baine hes he one with the all metal JunR junkers ers is going to bring me back a whole list of stuff from Four cross the way a business grows hammond bantered two hundred dollars for a claim doubled all in a couple of weeks jeanne jeann e laughed tipping h her e r homemade home made gold scales with a toying finger well nearly doubled I 1 hope I 1 do it a again ain 1 and a dozen times after that then ill know where to borrow it the gold mining business plays out 1 he went on then at last to reach loon creek kay was not yet there it was still breakfast time in most of the camp but bruce kenning was moving along the stream toward one of his claims a quarter mile beyond A few hundred yards up the stream where the rawboned raw boned olson scooped the earth by great shovel fuls into his sluice was mrs joyce hammond saw her there often now and then he had found olson sitting on the veranda of the joyce cottage talking of wanderings in many lands in his search for gold while mrs joyce gave far more than her usual monosyllabic rejoinders rejo inders there was something about the man which seemed to fascinate her suddenly he ceased his musings bruce kenning had come beside him hows the work going with mckenzie joe he asked quietly hammond shrugged his shoulders 1 I been able to get anywhere he still wants to put down one hole at a time and give the rest of his life to it kenning frowned you cant have that im convinced that the old river bed lies over toward the british columbia hills he chuckled 1 I wish it were the other way around all m my Y claims are in the other direction hammond grinned well you cant say I 1 tell you oh youre talking about that stuff I 1 bought from jeanne towers ive added to that a great deal on the chance that somebody around here would wa want nt it but looking the other way just as well im obligated to turn over some worthless claims to on an english syndicate beyond me something I 1 took over out of what was left when joyce died I 1 guess the house is crooked they say frankly they probably wont develop the property they just want something cheap in a live mining camp A stock selling scheme probably 1 I much doubt of it be glad to have the thing over so would lot I 1 hammond felt he could share kennings repugnance he was fired these days with the thought of new gold clean money the eagerness had been mounting ever since that night when kay had told him her decision to get gold for kay his hands clawed for gold his mind was centered upon little else how deep do you think well have to go to reach liat bat old bedrock A lot deeper than yo avd id imagine ninety to a hundred and twenty feet from my study of the strata I 1 cant see any other answer TO BE CONTINUED |