The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-07-24

'y(Il'2!E|'
"Whdt did you sag that mans name tsS'
he asked.
tell her? No; she wouldn't, couldn't
know; that was so long ago and for
gotten.
''And your father? Go on; l am in
terested."
HE might have hal the things. the
money, to have put me in your friend
Bertie's position if luck had been his
way and if he hadn't been cheated"-
81 never can think of you as man
like BERTHE" Miss Wolverton said de-
csively, with that calm confidence in
, her eyes. The eyes may have been
rather more expressive because this
was the last day of all and he would
(, slip out of her life so soon. She was
1 fair to look upon, clever, accomplished,
charming. This fence of the sexes
/ was her delight. She could no more
avoid it than she could breathing. Our
unsorhisticated young man failed to
| understand her. Later common sense
was to reach out from the grim, matter
! of fact depths of his nature and grasp
/ his sentimentality until it hurt him.
'Oh, it's little story of what might
have been years ago in Red Nugget
gulch, California. My father was out
there after gold. like the rest and he
fell in with man with whom he made
partnership in a general store. Some
times in exchange for goods they took
claims. At first they made lot of
money, and then they lost nearly every
penny in trying to develop claim that
failed. Well. each blamed the other,
and they decided to separate. They
could decide on no other way than to
cut the cards. So they sat down one
day and cut. and some things fell to
my father and some to his partner.
And the papers We're drawn up and the
division made. A week after that a
claim which had gone to my fathers
partner began to develop. 1t proved a
find. My fathers partner made the
beginning of a great fortune that
way
"Well?" said the girl.
"Now, the shanty that served for the
store had fallen to my father, not the
stock, which went to pay the firms
debts. Three weeks after this my ia
Their sat talking with mining expert.
who spoke of the big find on my ia
theirs former partners lucky claim,
and he stated boastfully, to show his
value as an expert probably. that he
had told my fathers partner-we will
call him Smith-that the claim was eX-
tremely valuable. This set my father
to thinking Smith believed the claim
to be valuable But my father could
but acknowledge that the man had Civ.
!, en- him a chance, even if he had dishon
estly hidden his notion of the claim
That day my father happened in the
abandoned store On the table were
they had been left the day of the divi
sion. They had cut in the bare inner
room. which hadn't been disturbed
since. My father picked up these in
struments of his bad luck, and he saw
that the pack Smith had used had beer
marked"
"How awful" the listener said "Ant
you might have had money if it hadn'
BEEN
IF it hadn't been for Smiths dis
honesty. yes Miss Wolverton. But t,
return to the story. My father went t,
Smith. whom he accused. but Smitl
looked him in the face and laughed
You are crazy, man. And you haven
any proof Who'd believe your"
WAS that the end of it?" the cir
asked gently.
"No; not the end of it. My fathe
could prove nothing indeed. His affair
went from bad to worse. He left Cali
fornia penniless. Later in the east h.
accumulated the little money he wa
able to leave me. But it was always
hard struggle for him and my mother
who died shortly after was born"
"And Smith? That's not the name'
1T Melville hestated.
l. mo: that's not the name. It's wei
known name. but we will let it remain
e Smith. Everything Smith touched be
e came money He was accused of dis
l. honesty many times in the course o
il his career but nothing ever was prov
a en-. He succeeded and is today one O
l. the powerful! men of the country"
g. They We're silent, the girl grave.
le "And that's the reason you think yo
are not in the class of BERTHE Townle,
!" WE'LL don't want you to be in tina
m class
"If you would care that much" sal
III he half lightly. half earnestly.
,e sob, l like you" she said cheerily. a