The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-11-06
CHAPTER XIV.

3 no blaze of glory did Burning Daylight descend
3 upon San Francisco. Not only had he been forgot
: ten, but the KlondIke along with him. The world
& was interested in other things and the Alaskan
adventure. like the Spanish War, was an old
story. Many things had happened since then Ex-
citing things were happening every day. and the
sensation space of newspapers limited. The eff
feet of being ignored, however. an exhilaratiou
Big he had been in the Arctic game ii
merely showed how much bigger was this new game,
when a worth eleven millions and with his
tory such as his passed unnoticed.
He settled down in the st. Francis Hotel. was in
terviewed by the reporters on the hotel run and
received brief paragraphs notice for twenty-four
hours. He grinned to himself and began to look
around and get acquainted with the new order of
beings and things. He very awkward and very
sefpossessed. In addition the stifening afforded
his backbone by the conscious ownership Of eleven
millions, he possessed enormous gertrude Moth
ing abashed him, he appalled, by the dis
play and culture and power around him. 1t was
another kind Of wilderness that was ALL and 1t was
for him TO learn the ways of it, the signs and trails
and water holes, where good hunting lay and The
bad stretches OF field and food to be avoided
As usual, he fought shy of the women He was still
too badly scared 10 come to close quarters with the
dazzling and Respondent creatures his own millions
made accessible. They looked and Ionged. but he So
concealed his tmldity that he had all the seeming Of
moving boldly among them. Nor was it his wealth
alone that attracted them. He was too much a man
and too much an unusual type OF man. Young vet
barely thirtysix, eminently handsome magnifcently
strong, almost bursting with splendid virility his
free trail stride learned on payemens and his
black eyes limiting of spaces and unwearied with
the close peGnectiye of the city dweller drew MANY
a curious and hayward feminine glance He saw
grinned knowingly to himself and faced them as so
many dangers with cool demeanor that was a far
greater personal achievement than had they been
famine, frost food.
He had come down to the States to play the mans
game. not the woman's game, and the men be had
not yet learned. They struck him as soft-soft
physically yet he OWNED them hard IN their deal.
hgS' but hard under exterior of supple softness
II struck him that there something catIike about
them he met them in the clubs and wondered
how real was the good fellowship they displayed
and bow quickly they would unsheath their claws
and gouge and rend That's the proposition" be
repeated TO himself. What will they-an do when
the play is close and down to brass tacks?" He felt
unwarrantably suspicious Of them. They're sure
slick, was his secret Judgment and from bits OF Cos
SIP dropped now and again he felt his Judgment well
OutuesseI' Oh the other hand, they radated an at
nosphere or manliness and the fair play that goes
with manlineSs. They might gouge and rend in A
hght-Which was no more than natural-but he felt
somehow, that they would gouge and rend according
TO rule. This was the impression he got of them-a
generalization tempered by knowledge that there wa
bound to be certain percentage of scoundrels among
them
Several months passed In San Francisco during
which time he studied the and It's rules and IRE
pared himself to take a hand. He even took private
instruction IN English and succeeded In elimnatinc
his worst faults, though in moments Of excitement he