The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-10-25
SECTION FOUR.

,~OItrCNE Ia PcARLE crushed mis- way through
the snow. sobbing, straining, cursing his luck,
Alaska, Nome. the cards man who had
-lelt his knife. The hot blood was freezing on his
hands. and the scene yet bright in his eyes-the
clutching the table and sinking slowly to the floor,
the rolling counters and the scattered deck; the
shver throughout the room. and the pause the game
keepers longer calling and the the chips
dying away; the startled faces the infinite silence Of
the instant and then the great blood-roar and the
tide of vengeance which Tapped his heels and turned
An helrs broke loose" he sneered turning aside
in the darkness and heading for the beach. Lights
dance hail let slip their denzens upon
claInor Of men and bowling of dogs his ears
and QuiCkencd his feet He and
sounds grew dim and the pursuit disspated itself in
VAN rage and almless cropping. But fitting shadow
chung TO him. Head thrust over shoulder he caught
glmpses of it. now taking vague shape on an open
eXpanee Of snow. merging into the deeper shad-
oWs Il some darkened cabin beach-isted craft
Fortune La Peare like a mailman weakly.
with the hint Of tears that comes of extaIstion and
plunged deeper into the maze of heaped ice tents
and prospect poles. He stumbled over taut hawsers
and piles of old dunnage trpped crazy guy ropes
and insanely planted pegs and fell again and again
upon ifozen dumps and mounds Of boarded drftwoOd.
At times, when he deemed ne had drawn clear. his
head dizzy with the painful pounding Of his heart
and the suffocatins intake of his breath sackened
down and ever the shadow lcaped of the gloom
and forced him on in heart breaking flight.
A swift intuition flashed uLon him. leaving in its
trail the cold chill OF superstition The persistence of
the shadow he invested with his gamblers symbol
ism Silent neXorabe, not to be shaken off, he took
- rs the tate which waited at the last turn when
chips were cashed in and gains and losses counted up
lS moments When the intelligence flung from it time
and space 20 rise naked through eternity and read
1hc facts Of life from the open chance That
IulS was such a moment he had no doubt aud when
nc turned inland and sped across the snow-covered
- biEa.tI ueHli'eIes7 ana Drew IN closer Op-
pressed with his own impotence he halted the middle
OF the white waste and whired about His right
slipped from its mitten. revolver at level gIis
tened in the pale light of the stars.
Don't shoot I haven't a gun
The shadow had assumed tangible shape. and at
the sound of its human voice a trepdation affected
stricken with the quaIms Of sudden relief.
Perhaps things fell out differently because Uri
Bran had gun that night when he sat on the hard
benches of the ii Dorado and saw murder done To
mat fact also might be attributed the trip Long
Trail which ne took subsequently with most unlike
ly comrade But be il it may. he repeated second
tne e, Don shoot. can't you see haven't gum
Urri Bran SHRUGGED his shouI5ers TT io,,t MT
Ter much. anyhow. I want you to with me-"
TO my shack over ON the edge of the camp,
But Fortune La Pearle drove the heel Of his moe
casin into the and atesed by his various deties
TO the madness Uri Bran. VINO are. You? he pc
rorated, and what T. that 7 should put my neck
into the rope at your bddins?"
II am Uri Bran the other said simply and my
shack is there the edge the camp. 7 don't
know who you are, but you've thrust the from a
irving man $ body-theres the blood red your
sleeve and, like second Cain, the of all man
kind against you and there is place you may lay
your head Now. 7 have snack
For the love of your mother, hold your say. man."
p thousand men to lay by The heels looking high
thd low. what DO want with your shack /
70 get out Of here-away. away away Cursed swine,
I've half mind to back and run amucI and settle
Tor few of them, the pigs! One gorgeous glorious
nsht and end the whole damn business It's a skin
game, that's what life is I'm sick of it,
He stopped appalled,, crushed by his great desoIa-
ton. and Uri Bran seized the moment. He was not
given to speech. this man. and that which followed
was the longest in his life long aftervard
in another place
That's why T told you about my shack can
stow YOU there they'll find ,,uu. and I've got
grub in plenty tlsewisc you can't get away. No
dogs. nothing. the closed ST. Michael the near
est post. runners TO carry the before YOU the
same the portage to Anvik-nOt a chance in the