The Newark journal. (Newark, Ark.) 1901-1959, 1905-01-20


refs career. It was guide, counselor
and friend for him and formed the
basis OF his rule of conduct.
Never since he could remember had
he wavered between the Known and
the Unknown Luck was the single
known factor in his equation and he
yielded himself blindly into the hands
of fate, always expecting good fortune
yet always prepared for the worst
The feud between Murgatroyd and
himself was bitter and OF long stand
ing; and Darrell, while caring nothing
for bridges in front, was careful to
burn those behind. An enemy in the
rear is a foe in ambush and it was we'll
that this Murgatroyd affair should be
settled once for all
Thus Darrell reasoned After study
ing the aspect of his bright particular
star he took team and blackboard, one
fine morning, and travelled o1lt of
Anaconda by the Blackfoot trail.
Anaconda knew little of the astute,
gentlemanly and we'll dressed young
man He had been in town over night
and had essayed a game in the
"ColoneIs Own causing ripple of
excitement by showing a discard of
two aces and drawing a pair of knaves
that filled his hand and won him
the table stakes.
Its foolish to tempt fate In that
way, said a veteran blackleg who
stood near watching the play
I'VE make our own fate, my friend"
replied Darrell in the easy, well bred
way that was always his lit is not
fate that makes or mars us. Be true
ulent and apprehensive and destiny
turns and rends you; lay hold of it
with your bare hands and you make
it your slave. Fortune crawls at the
feet of daring man but hates and
spurns a coward"
The habitues of the "Colonel's Own"
listened wonderingly. Such philosophy
was over the heads of most of them.
but the veteran blackleg was i'm
pressed.
II have heed of but one man." said
he who invariably discards aces when
he gets pair That man is Nate OAR
rel Of San Francisco"
The veteran might have added that
the play was known as barrels dis
carl" and that the man who had
originated ii had quit college to fol-
low the cards and prove his startling
theories philosopher of the devils
picture books. counting ruin over the
green cloth that he might work out a
hypothesis of doubtful value
Darrell had no intention OF revealing
himself. lie was tarrying at Anaconda
enroute to Sandy Bar and when his
eccentric orbit crossed Murgatroyd's
he wished it to be sudden and un-
expected
1t CHANGED, nevertheless. that OAR
rel had overplayed his hand. That
night the veteran gambler dispatched
n mounted man to Sandy Bar with
notice to his friend Murgatroyd that
Nate Darrell was in Anaconda and pos
sibly would continue on to the mining
camp.
When Darrell drew In his team OF
bronehos at the Half Way House,
the hour was high noon. The team
was given into the hands Of the hos
tier and Darrell went into the house for
his dinner.
This battling place was midway be-
tween Anaconda and Sandy Bar East
and wes' trails also crossed at this
point leading to mining regions farther
back in the hills.
There was much travel along the
trails and it was common report that
the Half Way House was the biggest
gold mine in those parts. So it hap
pened that the dining room was COM
fortably filed when the Chinese waiter
usherod Darrell TO a vacant chair at
side table
The newcomer was eyed with sus-
picion. In the eyes of the rough and
ready crowd already there he was too
well dressed, TOO pretty" and defied
the laws of convenience by making
distinction in his use of knife and
fork
Then. too, his voice was too soft and
his language too precise. These evil
dences of superiority ranked under the
greasy blue shirts affected by the min
ers and freighters
Before barrels entrance another had
been looked at askance This other
was a white-faced man in corduroys
with "easterner'' and ''tenderfoot'
written large in person and manner.
His reserve was stretched to the
point of timidity and before he had
used plate, knife and fork he had sur
reptitiously wiped them on the edge of