The San Francisco call., 1905-04-30
MRZflZE
.ALK.


part to the siren cities But now
they have little material wealth to
give. Stern nurses, hard stepmothers,
preachers of self-abnegat ton, speaking
only of what the soul must find within
itself. And so the MAN who had been
the lusty, selfish conqueror found
himself only the relic of a vanished
company. He prospected laboriously.
occasionally finding Il few small pieces
in a creVice that had escaped the
sharp eyes of the belated China
men, but usually only the richer for
some meager colors after the day's
work. These he would sell at store
a few miles up the railroad. The store
at Gold Run was much nearer. but he
never went there because he found
that il was kept by one Gilbert, and
his name Mas Brand.
Week after week went by and Brand
could only make enough to keep body
and soul together. In the fierce storms
of hard winter ne was often obliged
to stay indoors for days at time.
covering over his fire and eking out
his tiny store of provisions. IL Feb
ruary the snow came-the wet, swiftly
disappearing snow of the foothills, and
the torrent tumbied down its bed
louder than he had ever heard it, with
roar that MAS Iutl of hoarse, furious
voices and cri-s OF contempt for the
fool who had dreamed il would still
bring him gold. Worse than hunger
and poverty WAS tha loneliness that
gnawed at Brands heart. From ais
window watch d the gray squirrels
gambol in the gre [ oak. chasing one
another through the branches. An
old white horse. with al its ribs show
ing, cropped the g ass among the
melting late hes of snow around the
house. BY and ~ il was Joined by
another. as miserable LOOKING as it
self, but Brand did I-oi pity it any
longer. for il had companion.
He was filled with a longing to look
upon the oue man who was TO him the
sole link with The past. II last he de-
termined TO so to Gilbert's store, half
desiring. hair dreading that Gilbert
should know him again. 1t was dusk
when he reached Gold Run and the
presenie of half u dozen section hands,
who had come in TO make their even
ing purchases. afforded him the op-
portunity to shrink into corner and
look at his cd partner. He hadn't
altered much He should have known
him anywhere, moving in his precise
fashion; replying without animation to
the questions of his customers. At last
the men cleared out together, and he
lit his small reading lamp, which
served him to make his nightly prepa-
waiting figure by the stove. Brand
pulled his hat over his eyes and went
toward him, asking him in a low voice
to weigh the gold dust which he held
out TO him in q small glass bottle.
Tired after the days work, Gilbert
poured il into his apothecarys scale
with the merest glance at the stranger,
whom he supposed to be one of those
wastrels who dignity idleness with the
word prospecting" This indifference
cut Brand 10 the quick. He pushed
his hat from his forehead and heard
his own voice fill the store as though
it belonged TO some one else.
Gilbert. don't you know me?"
And Gilbert, 10 his triumph, did
know him. He tremblingly raised the
lamp and they gazed at one another
the one with the pleading of the re-
jected. starving dog, the other off his
guard in his intense surprise. But in
a moment Gilbert turned his back,
putting down the lamp and nodding
toward the scale.
Its worth So" he said IN cold,
even tones, and without waiting, ac-
cording to custom, to know what goods
he would take in exchange, he pushed
the money across the counter with a
gesture of dismissal.
Brand stumbled out blindly and sat
down in the shadow of a box car. Gil
pert laQ not IOTBOlleil. ne feiHclH-
bered only too well. as though forty
years ago were yesterday. Brand re-
allied for the first time that he had
hated him because he had taken
Juanita. and he still hated. Crouch
ing behind the car. he watched him
come quietly out, lock his door and
go home toward the house with the
lighted windows. Brand felt a sense
of injustice. His heart cried out to
his old partner, who went by as calm
~ as though all capacity for emotion
were dead in him, Don't you remem-
Der her eyes2 Don't you remember ?"
For those eyes seemed to justify
everything. Once looked into they
enthralled and possessed with their
strange magic. He recalled how on
the night Gilbert had told him he was
going to marry the niece of Martinez
he had seemed TO see them pleading
for forgiveness. saying that she would
never have consented but for a mis-
understanding. and he had felt her
futter like a frightened bird in
room of open windows. And if he had
been first 10 soothe those futterings
and cage her masterfully, was that his
fault2 He hadn't been able to help
T..o or,f4 a.,I