Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-08-28

drank the cool air burdened with Its
taints of the sea, while the blood Of
his boyhood leaped within him.
ooh, It's fne-fne," he murmured,
''and 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. "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.
Cad, what smudge!" shifted the
younger man. ''Yos ought to be in
Quarantine.v
2 I'D ruther smell like man than
talk like kid. You desecrate 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 We're 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
fogs Of Boring sea. Where week
before mild eyed natives had dried
their cod among the old bronze can
non now frenzied horde of gold
seekers paused in their rush to the
new Ell Dorado. They had come like
locust cloud, thousands strong, set
fling 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 night.
The messy hills back of the village
were ridged with graves of those who
had died on the out trip the fall be-
fore, when 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
IA me-" Glenister broke out again.
Away from the cities I turn savage.
/ feel the old primitive passions, the
fret for fighting"
+ "Aebbe you'll have chance"
4 "How 500"
'sWell, 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 tellin' you
about q good turn done him once
down Guadalupe way?"
'Greaser shooting scrape, wasn't it?"
: "Yep. Well, noticed first off that
he's gettin' fat-high Twin fat, too, all
in one spot, like he was playin' both
ends agin the center. Also he wore
di'mon's fit to handle with ice tongs.
"Says l, lookin' at his side elevation,
whats accented your middle syllable
SO strong. MexicoY
Prosperity, politics an the Wal
dorf- Astorier,' says he. It seems Mex
hadn't forgot old days. He claws me
into corner an says, Bill, I'm goin'
to pay you back for that Moralez deal
''It amt comm to me- says I.
ss'That's 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 I. IF she holds
out like she run last fall, there'd ought
to be million clear in her.
"sHow much III 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.
Don't never leave 'em get grip on 1t
or you're down an out
''He was so plumb in earnest 1t
scared me up, cause Mexico amt
gabby man.
"'What do you mean? says 1.
81 can't tell you nothin' more. I'm
putin string on my own neck sayin'
this much. You're a square man. Bill,
an I'm q gambler. but you saved my