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Show COVfiTULY RYLEY COOPER iCOPYRIGHT-COURTNEY RYLEY COOPER W.N.U. S ERVICE eyes. "She'd never have anything to do with me." "I don't quite understand." "Her father was the big banker. My father was a switchman, out of work most of the time. My mother took in washing." Barstow looked out the rain-splashed rain-splashed window. "Oh, yes, I remember. The newspaper news-paper mentioned that of course it was romanticized. The poor boy went away, worked his way through college, looked for gold, found it, came back to Seattle, and accidentally met the girl he had loved for years " "Only it wasn't accidental," supplied sup-plied Hammond. "A friend took me out there Timmy Moon, he's an aviator. Not working at it just now, I understand; something wrong with his plane. But no matter; we'd met up and of course you know, home for the first time after all those years I asked him whatever what-ever became of Kay Joyce." There was a moment's pause. Hammond rubbed at his hot face. Then he looked up, a queer, burning light in his dark eyes. "You know, Bar-stow, Bar-stow, it was the funniest feeling to ride up to that old house in an automobile au-tomobile and get out and walk right through the gate." "Where you had played as children." chil-dren." "Played nothing; that old granite block of a father never would let me inside the yard. You couldn't blame the kid for snouting me with him telling her not to associate asso-ciate with ragtags." "I suppose not," said the attorney, attor-ney, staring at his law books. "It was funny in a way. Timmy had called up the hcuse, but he hadn't said whom he was bringing out. Kay didn't recognize me for a minute; I'd have known her anywhere." any-where." "Naturally." "Well, for awhile I wished I hadn't come. You see, I'd always dreamed of that house as the grand- sleep, felt for the first time a tn,t responsibility for it. Perhaps thai was why Around the World Annie snapped her greeting so crustily the next morning. "Well, Prospector; sore because you ain't got the whole North tc yourself?" Jack halted in his progress through the jammed waiting room of the railroad station. The triweekly tri-weekly train was just backing in from the coach yards, with extra chair and baggage cars. Hammond waved to the woman, and with a laugh, edged toward her. It was not an easy journey; his pack sack, topped by an eiderdown sleeping bag, bumped and swayed awkwardly awk-wardly with contact against the milling throng. Every one carried pack sacks, one arm carelessly under un-der a shoulder strap; even Around the World Annie had one. "What was that remark?" Hammond Ham-mond joked, when he reached her. "What's been eatin' you?" asked Annie. "You look like somebody's stepped on your chin." The man spread his shoulders. "Just thinking," he said. Again he looked out over the mob; people crammed in tight groups, or milling mill-ing excitedly, or merely sitting, like so many homeless souls, on piles of duffle. "Look at 'em all of 'em going go-ing to make a million." "Well, if they think so, what's the difference?" asked Annie. "They'll be happy until they find out it ain't so." Late that afternoon, Jack Hammond Ham-mond got tired of being jammed against the knob of a vestibule door. The cars had become cold now; pipes clanked only faintly with the application of steam. The train was high on the pass over the Coastal range; snow had appeared, at first only a wet sprinkling on the rain-glazed rain-glazed side hills, gradually to become be-come more stable. Now the world was one of filigreed silver; spruce and pine and Douglas fir all shielded with filmy white. He moved forward through the train, taking exercise in merely forcing his way through the crowds which jammed the aisles. At last he tired and prepared to turn back, only halting to see that Around the World Annie sat in a seat toward the front of the car, her head bobbing bob-bing energetically as she talked to someone beside her. It was a young woman Jack noticed little more. Finally Around the World Annie straightened, rose and moved away. Someone else dropped quickly into the seat. Hammond moved into the next coach, found a resting place. Night came, with frost-caked windows win-dows and the whine of wind. Snow was now heaped deep beside the right of way. The massed humanity of the train became more and more dormant, suddenly to sweep from its torpidity into excited activity. They were at Fourcross. From outside came almost carnival-like sounds. Dogs barked. Children Chil-dren shouted. A raucous voice reared itself above the other noises: "Aw-right, folks. Get a good night's sleep. Warm bed and a hot tent for the night, one dollar." "Where are those beds?" asked Hammond, as he dropped from the train. "Right over there " the spieler pointed to a line of men moving from the baggage car toward the dull, kerosene glow of a row of tents which spotted the darkness some hundred yards away through the snow. "Right over there, Pard-ner! Pard-ner! Have 'em set up in no time. Good warm bed, folks. Only a dollar!" dol-lar!" "Save me one," Hammond commanded com-manded and turned to raise his pack sack. He halted, hand extended. ex-tended. In the tangle of activity, he saw Around the World Annie gesticulating gestic-ulating with some fervor as she again talked to her companion of the afternoon. She was not recognizable recog-nizable in the shadows; nevertheless, neverthe-less, there was something about her which held the man's attention. She stood at one side, ankle deep in snow, her coat pulled tight about her slight form lack of bulk in her clothing made her seem almost frail beside the thickly clothed, wool-swathed wool-swathed persons about her. Annie waved a hand. "Hey," she called to one of her newly outfitted brood. "Bring me that pack sack!" The girl lifted her pack sack and with lolling steps, came forward. Around the World Annie bent resolutely, reso-lutely, failed, loosened her waist with a pawing motion of her hands, tried again and made it. She jerked loose the straps. "Here," she said. "Take these woolies. And this shirt." (TO BE CONTINUED) "I judge from the newspaper accounts ac-counts that you got along famously." famous-ly." Hammond Stared. "Where in the world did they get all that stud?" he asked, then was silent. His brai had spun for a moment, suddenly to halt, highlighted high-lighted upon one particular recollection. recol-lection. It was the Crystal Castle in Seattle, with persons crowding around Jack's table. He could see Kay's outstretched hands as her fingers toyed with scattered, pebble-like pebble-like nuggets, where he again had tossed them from the heavy moose-hide moose-hide pouch to the tablecloth. Persons Per-sons were asking questions, all sorts of questions; now Hammond remembered re-membered a young man with a newspaper stuffed in one pocket, who queried him with particularity. "We did the town," he said. "I guess some newspaper man must have barged into our party." "Evidently. He got the story about as you've told it. Even to the farewells down at the dock." The telephone rang. Barstow turned to answer it. Jack did not notice. He was back in Seattle, with the big red sun coloring the waters of the Sound, with the whistle of the S. S. Aleutian sounding its warning for all passengers ashore. And he stood at the foot of the gangplank, with Kay close to him, telling him that she wasn't afraid of life in a new, raw mining camp. Then there was Timmy Moon, rubbing rub-bing at his pudgy face and rattling on about how they'd all be up as soon as good weather came and he could get his airplane fixed. And Mrs. Joyce, the mother, thin, angular, angu-lar, amusingly acidulous, poking a dead cigarette out of its long, green holder only that she might insert and light a fresh one. The receiver clicked on the hook. Barstow turned back to his client. "So they're all alone now, just the girl and her mother." "Yes, except for an old friend of the family. Oh, I shouldn't say he was old in years a little more than my age. A geologist; the old man was interested in a lot of mining down in South American countries. This Bruce Kenning used to look after a lot of stuff down there for him." "Not a rival?" asked Barstow, with a thin smile. Hammond laughed. "My best friend. He reminded Kay that she had talked more about that boy who used to live down by the alley than any other person she'd ever known," Hammond chuckled. "If it hadn't been for his help, I might not have had the courage cour-age to say a lot of the things I did." "An old friend and plenty of liquor liq-uor certainly do help." The attorney shuffled a few loose papers. "A man can't ask any more than that." "Not if he's been in the bush so long that he's grown moss. God, I was fed up with the North! But I'm itching to get back now. That's why Joe wanted me to see you. To check up on all our claims." The attorney swiveled about to his filing case and brought forth a fat envelope, scattering the contents on the desk. "Let's see " he mused. "Three regular creek placer claims apiece on Loon creek, 200 by 100 feet off Moose river. Correct?" "That's right. How about the half-mile half-mile government lease at the headwaters head-waters of the Loon?" "Everything's paid up and granted." grant-ed." "And those other five leases?" Barstow counted the papers. "Five. That's right. What'd you two take up those for?" he asked. "That's 400 acres of land that isn't even near water." "Have you got the government receipt for the lease?" insisted Hammond. Barstow tossed it over. The prospector pros-pector looked at it and handed it back. "If Joe and I make anything out of this find that's probably where we'll do it." "I thought the stuff was all in the Loon creek sands." "That's an old country," answered an-swered Hammond. "Loon creek has wandered all over the map. We've got a young bed-rock not over a couple of hundred years old. If we get into big money, we've got to find the old bed of the Big Moose the real one where nuggets were piled up for a thousand years or more." Barstow nodded. "Well, you've got the country checkerboarded; no reason why you shouldn't have luck. Going out in the morning?" Hammond laughed. "Who isn't?" Business was over. They talked for awhile, of the developing rush into the new gold regions, the weird hopes and dreams which every fortune for-tune seeker would carry into the North, few of which would be realized. real-ized. At last Hammond rose to leave. The day passed; jammed in the crowds at the various hardware stores, Jack bought gold pans, picks, Hammer, saw and nails, and a dozen other forms of supplies. Night was broken by the barking of soft-muscled Prince Rupert dogs, being be-ing led to che station many of them to their ultimate slaughter. Trucks whined up and down the abrupt hill; slow-moving horses and trucking truck-ing drays furnished an obbligato to the rumble of motors. A new community, in its every phase, good, bad, upright, low, was forming for life in a far-away, unknown nnd. He and Joe had created it: now Jack Hammond, as he tried to it ii SYxorsis Sor'. Jack Hammond, gold prospector, re-a'jrns re-a'jrns to Prince Rupert after a spree Seattle and learns that a gold rush 0. i starting as a result of some care-jKjliss care-jKjliss remarks he had dropped at a party oncerning a gold discovery. He finds de pat his partner. McKenzie Joe Britten, jgj ,,as gone on north to protect their claims. 1 , csicged, Hammond decides to tell the :ould-be prospectors how to reach the ew gold fields. Around the World Annie, '6 ( frontier dance hall proprietor, has ,j- 'ssembled a troupe of girls and is bent i (n starting a dance hall at the new ' tiamp. Jack tells her to pass the word . long that he is going to leave the next ij lorning. He muses about Kay Joyce, ,ie girl In Seattle whom he loves and r6I, whom he confided the secret of his old strike. Going to his lawyer's of- ce he passes a young girl on the stairs. CHAPTER II n -2- Once in his lawyer's office, Ham-By Ham-By lond's manner became something ,en8;ke that of a wayward boy, re-lm re-lm .irned from truancy. " "Hello, Barstow," he said, as cas-ally cas-ally as possible, and eased into a eff lair. The attorney looked up. He tew..as a man of middle age, with 3j . Cindly eyes, which, this morning, yemed strangely troubled. ma"Oh, it's you, Jack," came quiet- "Sit a minute, will you?" one-'- "No hurry." Hammond picked up of Copy of the Prince Rupert paper ea id tossed it aside. It was not the fulj iition he sought. The attorney tgjjuffled a mass of legal documents jj j-to a container envelope, lutes "Well?" he asked quietly almost lhappily. Se'rnHammond eyed him. Barstow was ually good for a joke. "Stomach out of order?" i ii "No." He shrugged his shoulders. iLl "Sore at me?" lDn("For letting this thing get out?" le attorney smiled, s li"That's between you and McKen-A McKen-A F(! Joe." "Oh, Joe's taking it all right. A "tie caustic, but " A K"Joe's natural state." Pj"Yes." Hammond laughed. There is an awkward silence. The at-;t at-;t Gf'-ney wiped his glasses, then sat 5 limping the edge of a sheet of le-$lr le-$lr paper. -'Not quite myself this morning," apologized. Then, abruptly, "I'm 1(j jj,t much good at telling people an(i j.ngs that hurt." t cam'Bad news?" f, 'Nothing that concerns Joe or 'Ood-U- Some one who was in here ' ' it before you came. I had to be :tty frank and the truth in this se is fairly rotten." "That's always tough " jOl'Yes, to cut the foundations out i fm uncier somebody destroy illu-RCKtis, illu-RCKtis, paint things exactly as they psDo?:. Especially with a woman." 'greeBS.(A young woman, wasn't she? "JJUther good - looking poorly 'ssed?" ,'Oh, you saw her?" .'We passed on the stairs. She AdVe'ke(i pretty well cut up. Client :uslSyours?.. but UWel- the attorney hesitated. ut tot exactly sort of a volunteer :nt that is " With an effort, he umed an attitude of brusque in- l fl-st. "What are you in here about I y jearly in the morning?" S a i'-Joe left a note for me. Gone L 'a'dSln guess yu know that. He's ermovM'clinS light, without many sup-Y., sup-Y., i'fvs. Afraid somebody will jump f)T?J': claims. Wants me to follow as Presofn as I can with a couple of dog .asbH:tTis and a complete outfit. That mctioni'spaper stuff " ,K barstow smiled, i tht bo'Gct it all out of your system and flon there in Seattle, did you, ammond stirred uneasily. 'Well, that depends on how you IZiJ&i at it. Personally, I feel great WFST iut il' 5ut someone eIse might -t think I had been on an ordi-dellgt ordi-dellgt drunk." .sufflfrhe newspapers gave you quite loom fay." 3athi I've been hearing about that S?ir since 1 Ianded. It's rotten in S Lay if I started a lot of tender-T1 tender-T1 into that district." .5 'Dh," Barstow, elbows on his V v stcepled his fingers, "I don't j k it's done so much damage, began the rush a little earlier 'ifUould hnve come anyway. What wjpened in Seattle?" met a girl I was in love with." 3ne of those first-sight affairs?" Crii0'" IIamrnond Put out his hand, tpng it a few feet above the floor. ' e been crazy about her since I iOjO that high. Kay Joyce. Her gir used to be president of the "PfrUodj'.Uchee Bank and Trust. He about a year aS- We UGcd to iWo.0Vdown lhe street from each other. W .rtier, at an angle I lived by the '"'jjii'hildhood playmates?" tSui''0-" A serious expression had OSSll6 into the voung prospector's ill 8 fllllP "I Suppose Not," Said the Attorney. At-torney. est place in the world one of those old-time building-block places, with turrets and a slate roof " "I know the kind." "And Kay was a bit distant at first; you know, hard to pick up the thread after all these years. Then, just for fun, Timmy pretended to have forgotten his handkerchief. So he reached for mine. I had a moose-hide moose-hide bag full of nuggets in that pocket " "You'd fixed it up that way." "Of course. So, out came the nuggets with the handkerchief and spilled all over the floor. You should have seen us!" Again he rubbed feverishly at his face. "Everybody "Ev-erybody down on the floor, helping pick up those nuggets." Barstow eyed him, a gentle appraisal. ap-praisal. "That helped considerably, didn't it, Jack?" "Oh, yes. Naturally, it led to questions and something I could talk about. Kay and I got along simply great after I'd found my tongue. Queer, iin't it, how a person per-son will have an idea all his life, that if he could just be free to talk to a certain person, all her false ideas of him would fade away? You know. Everything divided us when we were kids; social position, money, and i.il that. We didn't even go to the same school. Eut I never wanted anybody but her I've never thought about anybody but her. And I knew that if I could just get together to-gether with her, without that old chisel-face of a father around " |
