The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-19

man, to offer the daughter of my faith
er's old friend, himself almost a father
to me?"
He paused to look affectionately tow
ard the fur enveloped Santa Claus who
stepped forward impulsively with ex-
tended hands. Gus grasped them with
an earnest pressure, and continued:
You have all been kind. I want to
tell you how much I thank you for
offers of assistance, of a home and all,
but somehow the old Winslow indie
pendence is in my bones and I must
carve my own future as my father did
before me. In spite of your remon-
strances 1 shall start tomorrow to look
up the mining claims in the Inyo
County mountains, the only property
1 can now call my own"
He stopped and appeared to swallow
something, then went on:
THE journey is dangerous and 1 had
made up my mind to go without speak
ing to Vivian of my love for her, but,
| friends, my will was weaker than my
love and 1 couldn't. I told it in a let
ter. I explained my financial condi-
ton; my unsettled future: the dangers
Of this undertaking and the uncertain
| ty Of success. I asked her to study her
heart and whatever the result to con-
vey it to me through the Christmas
| tree"
What did she say, Uncle Gus?" came
in chorus of excited childish voices,
as dolls, wagons and books lay I'M
needed on the floor.
She said-well, she said in substance
that you children needed another un-
Gle to help keep you in order"
A shout of laughter assembled from
/ = !, 49,
congratulations Gus slipped from the
hall and thence out to the rustic seat
under the tree. He bore a f1eecy wrap
on his arm and murmured, as he wound
it around the sunny head of the blush
ing girl:
Sweetheart, you must be doubly
careful Of yourself now for my sake"
And he told her the old, old, sweet
story.
1t was hard trip; a dangerous trip:
and, many said, foolhardy trip. But
Winslow was smarting under the lash
of circumstances, yet goaded by that
lash into a gallop after fortune.
In the early Californian days his
father had been that rare thing, for
tunate prospector. He had discovered
rich lodges in the Panamint Mountains
at a time when it was almost certain
death to venture into that uncanny re-
gion. The ore was rebellious, freight
ing facilities exceedingly limited and
expensive, and so he had left the
claims and turned his attention to
other sections with instant and phe-
nomenal success. But he had always
retained his properties in the strange
mountains of Inyo County, declaring
ing investments.
1t was toward these mines that the
son was now tending, through a coun-
try of which he knew nothing. With
him was a man tough of fiber, rough
of speech, but kind of heart; man
who was at home among the sand ana
sagebrush of the desert. There was
one thing, however, which he dstested,
and that was a coyote.
I'D ruther take a mad rattler into
my buzzum than to fall helpless on the
desert when Their want nobody
around but one of them thievin' onery
kiyotes. I'd be a burned sight safer,
we hear me-"
One trip across the desert is like an
other. There is the same weary plod-
| ding along the gray, seemingly end
/ less ribbon of road; the same fiat, mo-
! notonous, sinister area stretching out
/ on either side until it reaches the sun
burned, discouraged-looking mountains
that rise bleak, gaunt and scanned from
the dry plain
Time passed slowly. Winslow found
the claims without much trouble and
undertook to work them. He met with
the same difficulties which had discour-
aged his father; besides, he knew moth
ing of mining. After weeks of non
success he gave up the struggle and
resolved to go back and accept the
clarlxship which Mr.. Guthrie had offer
ed him, but his heart sank as ne
thought of the years that must elapse
before he could provide such a home
for Vivian as he desired that his wire
should have.
In the hot, trying hours Of the re-
turn trip his heart was consumed with
rerret. the belief in waiting fortune
which had helped him over the hard-
ships and physical discomforts OF -.
+ba tourney to the mine was no y SfSs
longer with him, and In us ~': ~
nIoce the knowledge of his dis
annointment was constantly
| present. uo,+ rwsE
hearted. Perhaps his en- = $srsEy
Movers depression had some sSsssse$.s ~ Is
thing to do with it; at all Z@ss
events he was silent, almost
taciturn. for hours at time. WIN
slow was in no hurry to reach nome;
his thoughts wandered back to ms
fathers early days, and by ana py
nictures of the wealth gained by the
prospector began to dance before him.
little by little they strengthened the
chain of fascination, until he declared
his intention of following in the Ioot-
steps of his parent.
Dan objected; he pointed out the
dangers, the privations, the faint nope
of success; but Gus, now fully under
the spell, waved aside all arguments
| and asked Dan to &C
company him, a plan q
| which the sturdy guide MN. x
! fatty refused to consent TsWYYi
| to. & SR
So they parted, Dan taking %gsSsA
the blackboard, horses, NINA
| enough grub horse feed and NM
water to enable him to reach the