The San Francisco call., 1910-10-30

the sporting editor, who was some-
what deaf, kept repeating: What
what? 1 said nigger?-Oh, yes--it d
draw-if he'd fight the niggerl''
The great machine stopped with sur
prising suddenness and some one swung
the door. Arnold and Sylvia and three
OF the men were on the sidewalk before
the entrance of a cafe-the front of a
building set everywhere in colored
glass, wondrously intricate figures
aglow from the lights within. The
mountain girl had never seen anything
so beautiful.
Though the motorcar dashed off, the
three men continued to wrangle, Ar
mold putting in a word here and there
and then he said: Billy, let me have
twenty and one of the group, without
disseminating shis argument, or even
looking at the money, made the loan.
Arnold stood balancing the coin, vel
low in the light, on his thumbnail;
then, glancing about at the girl on his
arm, he laughed: kid, let's go eat"
Sylvia nodded. still in daze.
As they were leaving, the bronzed
young man said coolly: We'll. fifty
thousand then-there's the biggest
purse ever hung up--ffty thousand at
Goldfeld on Labor day."
The rotund sporting editor was sorib-
bling on a telegram form; the third
man nodded: Yes, we'll fight the coon
on toothpick for thati'
And suddenly they all separated, the
editor rushing down Market street. the
man from Goldfield entering the motor
car, which had made pirouette to the
curb, the woman leaning to him with
a smile, and the prize fight manager
walking past Arnold and Sylvia into
the cafe
Arnold spoke quietly from the vesti-
bule: Billy, does it go?"
The stranger nodded and passed in.
Sylvia, clinging to her lovers arm,
could look through the glass doors at
an amazing place. Never had she seen
so many lights, so many tables, flow
ers in exquisite vases, so many beauti-
full women all in a fairyland of color, of
grace and of music. She could see no
end to the room, the palms beyond
arching over mystic, translucent Wis
tas, an illimitable splendor. Why was
1t all? For what were these mapVels
gathered, this cave, Of the genii
stretching under the gray earth?
Without. the rain was falling. The
girl shook her lovers arm. His eyes
were vague and wide.
Jack" she whispered, isn't 1t won
derful-all wonderful"
Yes-yes,' he answered absently
fifty thousand for the fight in the des-
ert-great God. what men, what plung
ers! Fifty thousand from little min
ing camp That was Tex McLane, and
he's getting a hundred thousand dol
lars month out of little shanty not
so big as this cigar stand up in Nevada
"a gambling room.
"A gambler--and / rode with him.
He did not see her horror; he was
dreaming. He could see it ALL the
great arena under the desert sun. the
sweating bodies fighting on the plat
form. All the west would be there,
from camp and trail, from the secret
places and the arc lighted cities, gath
cred, mute, tense--a huge place of men
open to the sky.
And suddenly she seemed to see it, to
awaken, to know him, to encompass all
the flare of this life into which he had
brought her. In the city the beast
lurked. the serpent glided. the savage
pursued;i it was primal world glut-
ting its greed and passions rs did the
cave men in fen and jungle; only over
Its brutishness was the glamour of
mirrored lights. gi1ded panels, black
garbed servitors, pleading violins, silks,
meats, the odor of flowers and per-
fumes, the soft skin of women,
with wine fragrances on their
lips, Laughing under the night
the towns hard wantonness, its reck-
less lubricity-no. there was nothing