Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-09-19
CHAPTER !.

- LENISTER gazed out over
the harbor agleam with the
7 1 lights of anchored ships,
~ 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,
land 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. 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. its villain
Gus fumes promptly averting any
danger of the airs too tonic quality.
"Gad. what smudge!" shifted the
younger man. you ought to be in
quarantine"
I'D ruther smell like man than
talk like n kid. You desecrate the
hour OF meditation with rhapsodies on
nature when your aesthetics amt
honed up to the beauties of good to-
bncco."
The other laughed initiating his deep
chest. In the gloom he stretched his
muscles restlessly, as though an e1-
cess Of vlgor filled him.
They were lounging upon the dock.
while before them lay the Santa
Maria ready for her midnight sailing
Behind slept Unalaska. quaint ar
tique and Russian, resting amid the
fogs of Berng sea. Where week
before mild eyed natives had dried
their cod among the old bronze can
non now Il frenzied horde of gold
seekers paused in their rush to the
new FL Dorado. They had come like
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 tho 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 fali be-
fore, when a plague had grlpped the
land, but what of thati Gold giittered
| 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.
Away from the cities | turn savage.
| feel the old primitive passions, the
fret for lighting
"Mebbe you'll have a chance"
GLOW so;'
"Well, It's this way. l 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 'tiphorn the
boys were going to lynch for claim
jumping?"
Identical Remember me tellin' you
about n good turn | done him once
down Guadalupe way?"
"Greaser shooting scrape, wasn't itf''
yep. Well, noticed first off that
he's gettin' fat-high Twin fat, too, all
in one spot. like he was playin both
ends agn the center. Also he wore
drmon's ut to handle with Ice tongs,
Says |. lookin' at his side elevation
what's accented your middle syllable
so strong, MexicoT
Prosperity, politics an the Wal
ilorf- Astorier.' says he. IT seems Mex
hadn't forgot old days. He claws me
into a corner an says. Bill, I'm goip'
TO pay you back for that Moraez deal.
1T amt comm to me- says l.
"That's bygone.
"Listen here says he, an, seem he
was in earnest. let him run on.
"IIow much do you value that claim
O. yourn at?'
LIZARD tellin',' says l. If she holds
out like she run last fall, thered ought
to be a million clear In her
"'IIow 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
Don't never leave 'em get grip on i
or you're down an out
"IIe was so plumb in earnest i
scared me up. cause Mexico amt
gabby man.
"What do you meanT says I.
"I can't tell you nothin' more. In
putin string on my own neck sayin
this much. You're square man, Bill
an I'm gambler. but you saved IN,
life oncet, an wouldn't steer 20,
wrong For Gods sake don't let ZEN
jump your ground. that's all
"Let who jump It? Congress ha
give us Judges an courts an mar
sbals'- bec.ins-