Show N OF ta ya T nd a I 1 by BERTRAND W SINCLAIR copyright little etue brown co CHAPTER continued 15 anyway here it Is you got the essentials up to a certain point from brooks but lie tell it all his kind never does not by a long shot they the four ot of them it seems held a meeting ns as soon as I 1 shipped out that gold and put through that stock selling scheme that was legitimate I 1 restrain them from that being a hopeless minority of one their colef chief object however was to let two or three friends in on the ground floor of a good thing also they wanted each a good bundle of that stock while it was cheap figuring that with the prospects I 1 had opened up it would sell high so they alicy had it on the market and in addition had everything framed up to reorganize with a capitalization of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars tills this all cut and dried before I 1 got there now as it originally stood the five of us would each have made a small fortune on these klapman claims good but with ft quarter of a million in outstanding stock well it would be all right for the fellow wi with th a big block but you can set where I 1 would get oft off with a five thousand dollar interest to be sure a certain proportion of the money derived from the sale of this stock should be mine but it goes into the treasury and they had it arranged to keep it in the treasury as a fund for operations with them doing the operating they had already indicated their bent by voting an annual stipend of ten thousand and six thousand dollars to lorimer and brooks its as president and secretary respectively me lie they proposed to quiet with a managers wage of a mere five thousand a year af after ter I 1 got on the ground and began to get my back up but they capped the abe climax with what I 1 must cold characterize as the baldest baldesi attempt at a dirty fraud I 1 ever encountered and they had the gall to try and make me a party to it to make this clear you must understand that 1 I on behalf of the company and acting as the com agent grubstaked grub staked whitey lewis and tour four others to go in and stake those claims I 1 was empowered to arrange with these five men that if the claims made a decent showing each should receive five thousand dollars in stock for assigning their claims to the company and should have employment at top wages while the claims were operated they surely earned it you know what the north Is in the dead of winter they bucked their way through a hell of frost and snow and staked the claims li if ever men were entitled to what was due them they were and not one of them stuttered over t iv that was when I 1 smashed him ills his bargain even though they were taking out weekly as much gold ns as they were to get for their lull full share given their word and they were white men they took me for a white man also they tool took my word that they would get what was coming to them and gave me in the companas comp anys name clear title to every claim I 1 put those titles on record in hazelton and came home lorimer and brooks deliberately proposed to withhold that stock to defraud these men to steal oh I 1 cant find words strong enough drooks brooks said to me with agrin a grin the prop artys in the companas comp anys name let the roughnecks rough necks sweat a while got no comeback come back anyway that v as whet when I 1 smas smashed bed him do you blame me id taken over those fells felloes claims in good faith could I 1 go back there and f face lice those men and say BOIS the companas comp anys got your claims and they wont pay for them do you th ik tor for a minute id let a bunch of lily fingered cr crooks put anything like that over on simple square dealing i allows who were too honest to protect their own interests from sharp practice A quartette of sott soft bodied mongrels mon grels who sat in upholstered office ri fliers eiers while these others wallow ed through six feet of snow for three weeks living on bacon and beans TO grab a not cot of gold tor for them I 1 it makes mains my fist double up when I 1 thinly denlo it IL and I 1 be put oft off or placated by a chance to fatten my own bank roll I 1 care it if I 1 broke the free gaid mining company and myself likewise A dollar terrify nor yet fascinate me I 1 hope it never will and while perhaps it was not what they would call good form for me to lose my temper and go at them with my fists I 1 was fighting mad when I 1 thoroughly sensed their dirty project anyway it helped bring them to time when you take a man of that type and cuff him around with your two bands lies apt to listen serious to what you say and they listened when I 1 told thorn them in dead earnest next day that whitey lewis len is and his partners must have what was due them or id wreck tile the bunch of them it if it took ten years and every dollar I 1 had to do it and I 1 could have put them on the tramp too already dipped their fingers in where they stand litigation im sure of that or they would never have come through which they did but im sorry I 1 ever got mixed up with them im going to sell my stock and advise lewis and the others to do the same while we can get full value for it lorimer and that bunch will man manipulate the outfit to death no matter how the mine produces all of that I 1 dont care two whoops about the money there is still gold in the KI klappal appan range and other corners of the north whenever I 1 need it but it nauseated me I 1 cant stand that cutthroat cut throat game and granville Granv lUe like most other cities of its kind lives by and for that sort of the pressure of modern life makes it inevitable anyway a town Is no place tor for me I 1 can stomach it about so long and no longer its too cramped too girded about with petty larceny conventions it if once you slip and get down every one walks on you Every things restricted priced tinkered with there Is no real freedom of body or spirit I 1 trade a comfy log cabin in the woods with a big fireplace and a shelf of books tor for the finest home on maple drive not it if I 1 had to stay there and stifle in the dust und and smoke and smells that would be a sordid and impoverished existence I 1 cannot live by the dog eat dog code that seems to prevail wherever folk get jammed together in an unwieldy social mass I 1 have said the like to you before dy by nature and training im unfitted to live in these crowded places I 1 love you little parson person I 1 dont think you yon realize how much but I 1 cant make you happy by making myself utterly miserable that would only produce tile the inevitable reaction but I 1 still think you are essentially enough like me to meet me on common ground you loved me and you found contentment and joy at our little cabin once dont you think it might be waiting there again it if you really care if I 1 and the old north still mean anything to you a few days or weeks or even months of separation wont matter an affection that cant survive six months Is too fragile to go through life on I 1 dont ask you to jump the next nest train and follow me I 1 dont ask you to wire me come back bill though I 1 would come quick enouf enough if you called me I 1 merely want you to think it over soberly and let your heart decide you know where I 1 stand dont you hazel dear I 1 changed not a bit rm im the same old bill but rd id rather hit the trail alone than with an unwilling partner dont flounder about in any quicksand of duty there Is no 1 I ought to between us so it Is up to you once more little person if my way Is not your way I 1 will abide by your decision without whining and whenever you want to reach me a message to fells felix cour cou r voyeur vols eur fort george will eventually find me ill fix it that way so long little person I 1 like you a heaps heap for all your cantankerous ways BILL she laid aside the letter with a lump ump in her throat F for or a brief instant she was minded to telegraph the word that would bring him hurrying back cut sowe some of the truths he had set down in cold black and white cut her deep of a surety she had drawn her weapon on the wrong side ade F in the mining trouble overhasty yes and shamefully disloyal perhaps there was something in it after all that Is to say it might be they had bad made a mistake she saw plainly enough t that hat unless abbe could get back some of the old enthusiasm for that wilderness life unless tile the fascination of magnificent distances ot of silent breathless forests of contented quiet days on trail and stream could luy lay fast hold of her again they would only deter defer the day of reckoning as bill had said no she would not attempt to call him back she doubted if he would come anil and she would riot not go not yet slie she roust must have time to think altogether as the first impression of pills bills letter grew less viv vivid I 1 d to her she considered her grievances more ane an she was minded to act as she had bad set out to do to live her life as seemed best to her rather than pocket her pride and rejoin bill the feminine instinct to compel the man to capiau late asserted itself more and more strongly na 0 0 0 40 0 A month passed during that thirty day pert period od she received a brief note from bill just a tew few lines to say lilt the ranch yesterday little person looks good to me went fishing last night about sundown trout were rising fine nailed a ten woke up this morning at daylight and found a buck deer with two lady friends standing in the middle of the clearing I 1 loafed a few days in fort george sort of thinking I 1 might hear from you am sending this out by jake will start for the knappan about day after tomorrow she had not answered his first letter she had tried to but somehow when she tried to set pen to paper the right words would not come she lacked his facility of expression there was so much slie she wanted to say so little she seemed able to say As the days passed she felt less sure of her ground less sure that she had not sacrificed something precious to a vagary of self an obsession of her own ego arid and slowly but surely she began to view all the activities of her circle with a critical eye certain of her friends had become tentative enemies kitty brooks and the bray womenfolk who were ivere a numerous and influential tribe not only turned silent faces when they met but they made war on her in the pecullar peculiar fashion of women A word here a suggestive phrase there a shrug of the shoulders it all bore fruit other friends conveyed the avid gossip hazel smiled and ignored it but in her own rooms she raged unavailingly her husband had left her there was a roan man in the case they had lost everything the first count was sufficiently maddening because it was a halt half truth and any of it was wag irritating even if few believed since it made a choice morsel to digest in gossipy corners and brought sundry curious stares on nazel hazel at certain times also mr wagstaff Wag stalE had caused the stockholders of free gold a heavy loss which was only offset by the fact that the free gold properties were producing richly none of this was even openly flung at her she gathered it piecemeal and it galled her she could not openly defend either bill or herself against the tha shadowy scandal mongers bongers mon gers slowly it dawned upon her with a bitterness born of her former experience with granville that she had lost something of the standing that certain circles had accorded her as the wife of a successful mining man it made her ponder was bill so far wrong after all in his estimate of them it was a disheartening conclusion she had come of a family that stood well in granville she had bad grown up there it if lifetime friends blew hot and cold like that was the game worth playing in so tar far as she could she gave the lie to some of the petty gossip whereas at first she had bad looked dubiously on spending bills money to maintain the standard of living they had set up she now welcomed that deposit of five thousand dollars as a means to demonstrate on t that hat even in ills his absence he stood behind her financially which she began to perceive counted more than anything else so long as she could dress in the best while chile she he could ride where others walked so long as she betrayed no limitation of resources the doors stood wide not ahat you are but what youve got she he remembered bill saving that was their holiest hollest creed it repelled her and sometimes she was tempted to sit down and pour it all out in a letter to him but she could not quite bring herself to tile the point always behind bill loomed the vast and add dreary northland and she shrank from that on top of this she began to suffer a queer upset of her physical condition all her life she had been splendidly healthy her body a perfect working machine afflicted with no weaknesses now odd spasmodic pains recurred without rhyme or reason in her head her back her limbs striking her with sudden poignancy disappearing as s suddenly she was stretched on the loun lounge ge one afternoon wrestling nervously with a particularly acute attack when vesta lorimer was ushered in youre almost a stranger hazel remarked after the first greetings your outing must haye been pleasant to hold bold you so long it would have held me longer vest returned it if I 1 have to be e in touch with my market I 1 could live quite happily on my island eight months in the year but one cant get people to come several hundred miles to a sitting and I 1 feel inclined boac to acquire a living income while my vonie vogue vo nie lasts youre rather a wilderness lover arent you hazel commented 1 I dont think love it as dearly it if you were burled buried alive ir it that would all depend on the circumstances cum etim stances vesta replied one escapes many disheartening things in a t antry that Is still 9 in n primitive the continual grind of keeping ones onea end up in town gets terribly wearisome rm im always glad to go to the woods and sorry when I 1 have to leave but I 1 suppose its largely in ones point of view they chatted of sundry matters tor for a few minutes by the way la Is there any truth in tile the statement that this free gold row has created trouble between you and your husband vesta asked abruptly 1 I dare say its quite an impertinent question and be well within your rights to tell me its none of my business but I 1 should like to confound some of these petty tattlers battlers tatt lers I 1 been home forty eight hours doi vo youre almost a stranger hazel remarked after the first greetings yet ive ave heard tongues wagging I 1 hoope theres nothing in it I 1 warned mr wagstaff against paul warned him why hazel neglected the question entirely the bluntness of istook her by surprise frank speech was not a characteristic of vesta Lo Lorl mers set the girl shrugged her shoulders he is my brother but that veil my eyes she said coolly paul Is too crooked to lie he straight in bed im glad mr wagstaff Wog staff brought the lot of them up with a round turn which he seems to have done if he had used a club instead of his fists tt it would have been only their deserts I 1 suppose the fuss quite upset you it did hazel admitted grudgingly it did more than upset me 1 I thought as much vesta said slowly it made you inflict an inde served hurt on a man who should have had better treatment at your hands not only because he be loves you but because he Is one of the few men who deserve the best that you or any woman can give v youve said quite enough hazel cried tf if you have any more insults please get rid of them elsewhere I 1 think you are P oh I 1 dont care what you think of me the girl interrupted recklessly if I 1 did I 1 be here id hide behind the conventional rules of the game and let you blunder along but I 1 cant im not gifted with your blind egotism whatever you are that bit bill I 1 of yours loves you and it you car care a anything for him you should be with |