The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-08-10
CHAPTER i

- LENISTER gazed out over
the harbor agleam with the
lights of anchored ships,
- then up at the crenelated
mountains, black against the sky. He
drank the cool air burdened with it's
taints of the sea. while the blood of
his boyhood leaped within him.
"Oh, it's fine-ine," he murmured,
sand this is my country-my country,
after all, Dex. It's in my veins, this
hunger for the north. l grow. I ex-
pand."
Careful you don't bust" warned
Dextry. 1--WE seen men get plumb
drunk on mountain air. Don't expand
too strong In one spot" He went
back abruptly to his pipe. it's villain
Gus fumes promptly averting any
danger Of the airs too tonic quality.
Cad, what a smudge!" shifted the
younger man. "You ought to be in
quarantine"
I'D ruther smell like man than
talk Ike a kid. You deseerate the
hour of meditation with rhapsodies on
nature when your aesthetics amt
honed up to the beauties of good to-
bacco"
The other laughed, initiating his deep
chest In the gloom he stretched his
muscles restlessly, as though an ex-
cess of vigor filed him.
They were lounging upon the dock,
while before them lay the Santa
Maria ready for her midnight sailing.
Behind slept Unalaska, quaint, an
tlQue and Russian, resting amid the
fogs of Bering sea. Where a week
before mild eyed natives had dried
their cod among the old bronze can
non now a frenZied horde of gold
seekers paused in their rush to the
new Ell Dorado They had come like
a locust cloud, thousands strong, set
Ting on the edge of the Smoky sea,
waiting the going of the ice that
barred them from their golden fleece
from Nome the new, where men
found fortune in a night.
The messy hills back Of the village
were rfdged with graves of those who
had died on the out trip the fall be-
FORE when a plague had gripped the
land, but what of that? Gold glittered
In the sands, so said the survivors.
Therefore men came in armies. Glen
lister and Dextry had left Nome the
autumn previous, the young man raw
ing with fever. Now they returned to
their own land.
This air whets every animal instinct
in me" Glenister broke out again.
I
l feel the old primitive passions, the
fret for fighting"
"Mebbe you'll have a chance"
"How 500"
"Well, it's this way. I met Mexico
Mullins this mornin' You mind old
Mexico. don't you-the Teller that re-
located Discovery claim on Anvil
creek last summer
You don't mean that 'tinhorn' the
boys were going to lynch for claim
Jumping"
Identical! Remember me tellin' you
about a good turn I done him once
down Guadalupe way?"
'Greaser shooting scrape, wasn't itY'
Yep. Well, | noticed first off that
he's gettin' fat-high livin' fat too, all
in one spot. like he was playin' both
ends agin the center Also he wore
dfmon's fit to handle with ice tongs.
Says /. lookin' at his side elevation.
What's accented your middle syllable
so strong. MeXicof
Prosperity. politics an the Wal
dorf-Astorier.' says he. 1t seems Mex
hadn't forgot old days. He claws me
into a corner an says. 'Bnl. I'm goin'
to pay you back for that Moralez deal
1T amt comm to me-, says 1.
That's a bygone.'
Listen here says he. an, SEEM he
was in earnest. let him run on.
How much do you value that claim
o yourn at?'
Hard tellin'.' says /. If she holds
out like she run last fall. there'd ought
20 be a million clear in her
How much II you clean up this
summer
bout four hundred thousand, with
luck
"'Bill,' says he. there's hell a-pop-
pin. an you've got to watch that
ground like you'd watch rattlesnake.