The Winslow mail., 1900-08-02
I must tel you something while have time. I"


him by his dying friend, and which he
had not yet examined. He had placed
it in the belt and tossed the latter into
his chest at the time, and huge lump
swelled in his throat now as he lifted
the lid and drew it forth.
Carefully arranged in the various
compartments were bills to the amount
of $1,000, and these he transferred to
his own belt at once. The paper was
evidently torn from a blank book, and
contained these lines in a bold hand:
"Old Partner: If you haven't forgotten
the old days and the bargain we made,
cCme out and share my find with me.
l have struck it rich / have written to
ELL. l have a new chum with me, too.
Come to Dyea and take the old Dalton
trail. No one uses it now. 1t goes just
west of Arkell lake and runs straight for
Fort Selkirk. It's almost dead north by
the compass. About so miles before it
reaches the fort it splits off to the left.
A big white cliff faces the trail. You can
mistake it. The main trail keeps on to
the right. Take the other. 1t only goes
about so miles and leaves you at the en-
tlance of a big gorge. Camp there and
make a big smoke. If you have to bring
anyone to help, be sure of your man. We
have grub enough to last till spring, and
then my partner, Joe TarboX, is coming to
Dyea for supplies. He'll get there in April
or May, l expect. There is gold here by
the ton if we only had water to wash it out
L am sending this from the fort by an In
dian packer. Came here after candles and
flour. Your old friend.
DICK TAYLOR"
Toms heart was beating like trip
hammer as he finished the letter, for he
now realized that the old miners words
were not of light import. The note bore
the imprint of truth in every line, and
for awhile he could scarcely realize
what he had read.
| He had no suspicion that the mate
was at that moment gluing his eye to
a crack in the bulkhead and vainly try
/ ing to get glimpse of the paper of
which he had heard the dying man
speak the night before. In his villain
| Gus heart, he had sworn that Tom Scott
should never grasp the golden treasure,
! but how to prevent him was the ques-
ton. Clearly he must obtain possession
of the precious paper, but how was this
| to be done?
His peephole was too small to enable
him to tell where Tom kept it, but as he
heard the lid of the chest closed he
drew a long breath and muttered:
Its in his donkey! I'll find way to
have peep inside of it before we get to
Frisco. 1t would never do to trouble it
now. He'd suspect me the first thing of
he missed it. L must rig some kind of
derrick on him, that's sure!"
For the next few days he cudgeled
his brains for some safe means of at
tanning his ends, but without success.
Then chance did what he had failed
to do.
Land ho!" was the welcome cry
from aloft one morning just after sun
rise, while the captain and second mate
were asleep, the mate was stumping
the deck and Tom, who had turned
out earlier than usual, was standing on
the topgallant forecastle watching a
school of fish play about the bows. He
ran up the forerigging at once TO eaten
q glimpse of the welcome sight.
"Now's my time," said the mate, un-
der his breath, as Tom went over the
foretop and began to swarm up the
topmast rigging. Hell go clean up to
the man on the gallant yard before he
sees it."