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Show 5 V SL COURTNEY I K S RYdEY ? 0 COOPER pYTi"GHCOUR.TNtY RLEYCOOPE R. W.N.U. SERVICE bunting, topped by a blue-and-white tricorn, trimmed with a red cockade, cock-ade, was vociferously greeting all comers. "Liberty frightening th' worl'!" she shouted. "'Ray for Whoopee!" "Whoopee yourself!" shouted a miner. "Took the words out of my mouth," answered Annie, with a merry little grin. "Whoopee for you. Whoopee for me. Whoopee for Alaska!" Alas-ka!" After a time they went inside. An orchestra began to play, violin, clarinets, clar-inets, trombone, cornet and accordion, accor-dion, imported by air from Juneau. Ju-neau. As if from nowhere, girls appeared, slinking smilingly toward the incoming miners. One of them, Florine, arms half extended, as if for dancing, placed herself directly in the path of McKenzie Joe. He did not evade her. He did not brush her aside. He merely put out a hand and with a mournful, shelving motion, moved her out of his way. Straight, onward he went, to the bar, and while' Jack strove vainly to restrain him, ordered Scotch. Then, disdaining the whisky glass, he raised the bottle a crock, in Canadian parlance in a big hand. For a long moment he eyed it. His beaverlike eyes circled under heavy brows. Then he raised the big bottle to his lips and allowed it to gurgle until Jack gasped, from the mere agony of watching. CHAPTER Vin An hour later, Jack Hammond searched the crowded dance hall in vain. All in a moment, he had lost McKenzie Joe, and this was a bad time to lose him. Evidences of McKenzie's activities, activi-ties, however, were glaringly present. pres-ent. A window stood gaping at the graying dusk; darkness did not come now until after midnight. A bottle had broken the pane and Joe had thrown it, as a grand finale for the fireworks exhibit. There also were broken chairs, crushed to bits by McKenzie's tremendously strong hands, to the cheers of the mob. Joe had not joined in the enthusiasm enthusi-asm even that of Around the World Annie, who was charging 100 per cent profit on all breakage. True, he had lost some of his funereal air and his lips bore a hint of a smile, like a polar bear. That is, the smile had been there when Jack last had, seen him, with his hat on sideways, his electric ened. Slightly drunk, he stood sweating at the board, his left hand incessantly riffling the pile of chips before him, his right stabbing outward, out-ward, to place his bets, a four-way wager here, a straight bet there, a hedge on the Double O. A look of surprise came into Hammond's eyes as he neared the man; there was terrific, concentration about him, an air of obliviousness to everything ev-erything save the lay-down board and the dizzy spin of the multicolored multi-colored wheel. Jack was tempted to ask him if he had seen McKenzie Joe. But the very detachment of the man, the look of exquisite agony with which he watched the trepidation of the little ivory ball, clicking against the interstices, bounding out, hesitating, hesi-tating, then rolling on again before be-fore it should finally sink into its final socket, withheld him. He turned away, while from behind him the call of the croupier blended with the queer, racking voice of Kenning, proclaiming his joy as he clawed for his chips. Jack went on, at last to corner the wandering Florine. "Listen!" he commanded. "Have you seen that partner of mine?" "Baby," she exclaimed. "I ain't stolen him." "I didn't say you stole him. I asked if you'd seen him. You helped him out with some liquor, didn't you?" "Only five crocks," said Florine innocently. "Only five!" asked Jack, with his hand to his forehead. "Which way did he go?" Florine pointed to the entire North. Hammond hurried out the door, mumbling to himself: 1 "No need trying to find him. He's caching it somewhere for later. And he always remembers where he puts it." After a time, he returned to the pavilion. There was nothing to do but wait and watch. The dance hall had become steamy, the clatter from the bar louder, the music of the orchestra more raucous. Jack Hammond wandered ceaselessly, watching every entrance. An hour passed. Then the younger partner shot forward. McKenzie Joe had appeared in a doorway, his hat crosswise on his head, his sleeves rolled back, and his electric blue suit grimy from contact with the forest. Jack knew the story, a wandering course to some point, deep in the bush, where McKenzie Joe had buried that liquor again Jack reminded' himself that no matter mat-ter how much more liquid might flow down this beaverlike man's throat, Joe would be able to go to that supply like a hound dog to a flock of quail. Nevertheless, Jack went forward in a desperate attempt at-tempt at a ruse. "Well, Joe," he announced with simulated gusto, "I've been waiting wait-ing for you. Where have you been?" . McKenzie Joe looked at him with mackerel eyes. "Go lay an egg," he said succinctly, suc-cinctly, but still with that inscrutable inscruta-ble smile. There was no thickness to the voice, no sliminess to the tongue only a suggestion of monotonous mo-notonous indifference. Then, disregarding dis-regarding his partner entirely, he attempted to walk through him to the next room. Jack stepped aside. At this point in Joe's progress of inebriation, it was best to humor him. Hammond even allowed him to plod to the bar, where methodically he ordered drinks for the house. Solemnly, but still with that polar-bear polar-bear smile, McKenzie Joe watched his guests imbibe. Then he signaled sig-naled the bartender to let the glasses remain on the bar, while, to the whooping encouragement of his , - if' -M CHAPTER VII Continued jjj 10 j "If Jack Hammond had any sense " A "Do you have any particular color col-or you'd like for this suit?" Jeanne broke in. f. "Well, I guess not. I'm kind of partial to blue. Not that dead blue, !ji you know. Something kind of live- " She laughed. "You can see elcc-,5.: elcc-,5.: trie blue a long ways." at! "That's my color. I want 'em to hi know I'm coming. And get me a se'-couple of shirts. White, I guess. af.hnd a tie with some red in it not all red. I'm going over to Around ! 'the World Annie's on the Fourth se-'of July-" s j! "Wearing red, white and blue," 0 ('chuckled Jeanne. "Might as well be neighborly," f -be grunted and started away. Jack Hammond was at home ,r when he arrived, with a poster he jy lad ripped from a cabin wall. "Have you seen it?" he asked. McKenzie Joe nodded. Qf "I've ordered a new suit for it." ofil. Jack stared. "Are you going jS.ver?" The older man pretended a casual Slr'iir. He reached for his shovel and . rjick, preparatory to moving up the u.rail toward the test shaft. " "Yeh, I figured I might drop in ind slap a few drinks under my elt." 33 Jack Hammond's jaw fell. "You're not going to do that, oe?" His tone bore the portent of spending calamity. McKenzie ; houldered his pick and shovel. v' "What's wrong about that? You 1 i 'ent down to Seattle and got drunk, I fjidn't you?" I "But-" j "I figure if one partner's got a ght to get drunk, the other one's '-, Dt the same privilege." H$"Yes, I guess you have, Joe." 'Hammond's features were clouded. 4j ae elder man started away, then ' $ lused. 1 "Say, I seen you on the upper it yesterday afternoon with a cou-e cou-e of men. What were you doing?" It was the last question Jack de- S jired to answer. "Oh, just looking around." "In other words, figuring out a ace to test that wild-eyed theory yours, that the Big Moose swung 'er toward the B. C. hills. That I '" 'Well since you put it that ay." "And you didn't take me into your 0sinfidence." in '-;"I've tried to talk to you about it bdrc dozen times," the younger man rTHCid desperately. jirVAnd I've tried to talk you out iealsd it. But there's somebody else, ronger'n I am." Jack caught the meaning. :oSanl"See here," he argued. "I'm not RIP eying to stop you from working asco-'e way you see fit. Why shouldn't condite rule work both ways? I'm pay-ertbei8 pay-ertbei8 tne buIs on this experiment of Ine. No matter whose idea is HaCht' we l1 Share and share alike-" . a'"Uh - humph." McKenzie Joe Oo-ffl.f'Hed his tongue and stared far up Solib-e valley. "I knew another fel- Nke you once, Jack. He got an J that he had to go after things a grand scale. First thing he ft, flow all his money was gone. And - had to sell out." "That's idiotic." tx "s's your idea," said Joe blunt- , Hammond's eyes snapped. 4 ryu're only saying that because Vu ve got a prejudice against any-C- ng that's modern or sensible. All -u want to do is waste everybody's staggering around blindfold- leatedly he swung down the step fin and headed for the village, r nti&i ie Joe stared after him, a WW t unkindly "ght in his troubled ;0 Ba1 w 1 know I'm goin' over to ;400 'Pce and get drunk," he mused Ct,'or that matter, Hammond knew Ii ' and the knowledge helped ana ls,dol.;lbly to CQol his anger as Conrf'' P,U'1Ci0d along the trail toward at P'ac" claims. Getting drunk, , McKcnzie Joe, was like a I Eue 0 locusts or a spring Hood. TAH ;110lhing disastrous always hap-3TU$.'lef hap-3TU$.'lef At last. Jack turned from Jt ," and we"t into Jeanne's sre for a tin of tobacco. -TjOU look worried," she said. ;;$'). am- Joe has announced that viiu'ng to get drunk Thui'sday iulyU'" she Pushed, "he'll have Zsch f comPany-" Jeanne was 2 n more buoyant these days. m e had not come again to RS Jr- I" fact, Kenning had told (nat the man had purchased :iEdoiiK severa' newly imported ca-"'"frU'un ca-"'"frU'un gone down the lake, pros-. pros-. s) tnS Enough that he had de- parted. Jeanne went on. "You won't have to call out the reserves when Joe gets going?" Jack remained serious. "It's really pretty terrible, Jeanne. Cracked heads and all that." "But you're going to be with him to see that he doesn't get hurt." "I can't leave him something always happens when I do." Jeanne smiled. "Maybe he'll fool you this time and be good." "Here's hoping." Jack felt better bet-ter now. Strangely, he always felt better after he had talked to Jeanne Towers. Yet he did not realize how often he needlessly dropped by this store to buy tobacco when he had planty, matches when his pockets were full, socks he did not intend to use. A week before, she had insisted on paying the partners part-ners for the original supplies which they had furnished her, only to go deeper in debt. It had been a secret loan from Jack Hammond for $3,000, to be rushed out by airplane air-plane the next day and sent by express ex-press to The Pas. At least, the monetary weight of her past was off her conscience. Now she came forward, wistfully eager. "Gee, it's good to see you smile again," she said. Then hesitantly, "You've helped me so much. I'd give anything if I could " There she halted and turned away. Jack's eyes followed her gaze, to sight the trim form of the approaching Kay Joyce. "Oh, there you are," the Seattle girl exclaimed, with her usual easy command of spontaneity. "I've been looking for you." Jack Hammond felt again the queer emotions which flooded him whenever these women met. As though he should explain Jeanne, extol her good qualities. It made him angry with himself; Jeanne needed no extolling and Kay had never made an outright move of enmity. "I was just on the way down to the creek," Jack said. "I heard some shouting." "Yes, Olson's made another strike." "Olson again?" Hammond turned to Jeanne. "Better put in a new order." or-der." Then to Kay: "Olson practically prac-tically buys out the store after every ev-ery new strike." Kay covered her rejoinder with a disarming smile. "I must learn how to handle these rich miners. You'll teach me some time, Miss Towers?" Jack Hammond, gasped. For Jeanne replied, with the same smiling smil-ing pleasantry. I "Yes, we must exchange recipes." reci-pes." "Oh, gorgeous," Kay Joyce was equally unctuous. Then, "Jack, can you walk down to the creek with me?" Once away from the cabin: "You've simply got to help me out with .this man Olson." "With Olson? I thought he was after your mother." "She's after him, you mean. It's sickening. Now I've been rung into it. He wants to give a big dinner to celebrate this strike." "Well?" "I simply can't sit through a party par-ty like that. You've got to get me out of it tell him that we're going for an airplane ride, anything. It's to be Fourth of July night." "What time?" "Seven o'clock?" "Thanks for that! I was afraid it would be later. I've got to be away by ten. I've promised to be with McKenzie Joe. It's something I can't break. I simply can't. You'll let me go by ten?" It was with a bit of pique that she said good-by to him the night of Olson's party. Hammond almost ran from the cottage to his cabin. Joe already was dressing, a funereal funere-al procedure. He pawed at the buttoning of his collar, stretching his neck dolefully doleful-ly as he strove to accustom it to its confines. He peered into the crinkly mirror and tied his blue tie with its red polka dots for a third and a fourth time. He took his old hat to the door and brushed it meticulously; he had forgotten to order a new one. He rubbed another an-other dose of bear grease on his boots. He put on his electric blue coat, and gave a hitch to his electric elec-tric blue trousers with their un-presscd un-presscd box wrinkles at the knees. Then he walked dolefully to the door. "Ready?" he asked Jack. There was quite a crowd in front of the dance hall when they arrived in Whoopee. At intervals a bomb hurtled from a mortar into the air and exploded with a detonation which threw itself from mountain peak to mountain peak in seemingly seeming-ly ceaseless echoes. Around the World Annie, resplendent resplen-dent in a dress of star-spangled "But There's Somebody Else, Stronger'n I Am." blue suit badly disheveled, and his course in life a vague, wandering one, in which he sometimes walked flat into a wall without realizing it until he bumped his nose. Then, solemnly, he would turn, blankly survey his surroundings, and begin be-gin another aimless excursion. It had been during one of these sorties that Jack had lost his partner. part-ner. One moment Joe had been steering straight for the middle of the dance floor, only suddenly to disappear dis-appear as a surging mass of leg-flinging leg-flinging miners and their girls cut him off from the pursuing Hammond. Ham-mond. By the time JacS had fought his way through the tangled mob, McKenzie Joe was gone. Now the younger partner sought him in vain, at last going to the gambling hall. Here the crowd was even thicker. Throngs were jammed around the rails of the crap games; the clatter of the dice was continuous with the drone of the keeper. Spaced at intervals were the intent in-tent intricacies of faro, each game with its dealer, laconically finger- watchers, he smashed them, one after another, upon the floor, bowing bow-ing meanwhile to the applause. Jack's heart went steadily down-.ward. down-.ward. The next step would be for McKenzie Joe to pick a fight. It never failed. The noise caused celebrants to assemble from every part of the rambling structure; it even halted the play in the gaming rooms, the players crowding in the doorway. It was just as they began to flood through that McKenzie Joe turned from the bar and his smile vanished. van-ished. A queer gleam came into his hitherto vacant eyes. His fingers widened until they were muscular half arcs. His tremendous shoulders shoul-ders hunched and his round, beaverlike bea-verlike head shot forward. Jack had been cut off by the sudden insurge of the gaming room crowd. Desperately he attempted to break through. "Joe!" he shouted. "Joe! Watch yourself!" But McKenzie pretended not to hear. The crowd fell back, suddenly sud-denly silent, leaving in their wake a solitarv man. hypnotized by fear, his hands gesturing futilely, a set, terror-stricken smile on his gray lips. It was Bruce Kenning. "Well, Joe," he said jerkily, "having "hav-ing a good time, eh, Joe " "Let- me through here!" Hammond Ham-mond shouted. "You fools let me through! Somebody stop McKenzie. Do you want a man killed?" I (TO DE COSTIM I.D) ing the cards from their wooden box, its frozen faced lookout, high on his long-legged stool, his green eye shade and his dead cigar each drooping at a similar angle, its never restful case-keeper, with his counting board, recording the cards as they came forth. Here too was the glitter of the "big wheels." glaring with a maze of electric lamps, charged by the pride of Around the World Annie's establishment a gasoline motor light plant, which had formed an entire load for Timmy Moon's plane. The stud games also were busy, slot machines, the blackjack games and the enthralling click of the ivory ball as it rounded the roulette wheel. Hammond turned in that direction. He had sighted Bruce Kenning. He was coatless, his collar loos- |