The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1907-11-08


~ then up at the crenelated
mountains, black against the sky. He
drank the cool air burdened with its
taints of the sea, while the blood of
his boyhood leaped within him.
"Oh, it's fne-fine," he murmured,
"and this Is my country-my country,
after all, DeX. It's in my veins, this
hunger for the north. l grow. l ex-
pand."
Careful you don't bust" warned
Dextry. "I've seen men get plumb
drunk on mountain air. Don't expand
too strong in one spot" He went
back abruptly to his pipe, its villain
GUS fumes promptly averting any
danger of the airs too tonic quality.
"Gad, what a smudge" shifted the
younger man. "You ought to be in
quarantine"
I'D ruther smell like a man than
talk like q kid. You desecrate the
hour Of meditation with rhapsodies on
nature when your aesthetics amt
honed up to the beauties of good to-
bacco."
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
tique and Russian, resting amid the
Nf n
before mild eyed natives had dried
their cod among the old bronze can
non now q frenzied horde of gold
seekers paused in their rush to the
new Ell Dorado. They had come like
q 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 rdged 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.
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.
away from the cities / turn savage.
feel the old primitive passions, the
fret for fighting"
"Mebbe you'll have q chance"
slow so?"
"Well, it's this way. 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 tellln' you
about good turn / done him once
down Guadalupe way?"
"Greaser shooting scrape. want it?''
yep. Well, noticed first off that
he's gettin' fat-high livin' fat too, all
in one spot, like he was playin' both
ends agln 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, MexicoY
Prosperity, politics an the Wal
sorf-Astorler,' says he. 1t seems Mex
hadn't forgot old days. He claws me
into a corner an says, Bill, I'm goin'
to pay you back for that Moralez DEAL
eft amt comm to me- says I.
That's bygone.' tsrl
Listen here says he, an, SEEM he
was in earnest, let him run on.
How much do you value that claim
o. youn at.'
Hard tellin',' says 1. If she holds
out like she run last fall, there'd ought
to be a million clear in her.
How much III you clean up this
summer
"''Bouf or hundred thousand, with
luck
"Bill,' M, he, there's he'll a-pop-
PIN. an yaAVe got to watch that
ground Ike ysu'd watch rationale.