Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-23
The Weight of Metal
Continued from page
Continued from page 8

| freeze me out I'll go to the man that grub
staked YOU and split. Then you'll get quarter
| share"
You won't have no cause to do anything
| but take the same size share as | get, Red,
| that's if you keep your mouth shut. Now
| let's pack up and pull out" Peter answered
quietly.
Looking up suddenly they packed, he
| saw Meekins transferring something from be-
meath his shirt to his Blankets Hold on,
Redt' he commanded angrily. You amt
| goin to pack that silver out!'
You bet just am! Half of all the silver in
that mine belongs to me. an why can't take
| them pieces," Meekins retorted. 81
Cause first time YOU got drunk you'd
show EN- an blab. Throw EN- in the lake,
| Red
IN see YOU dead first Peter Wright, an
then WON'T" Meekins swore.
red flush of anger suffused the tawny face
| of Wright; the blue eyes turned to steel gray.
| 1t was the first time Red had felt the presence
of passion in his partner, and, facing the tall,
1.-the Peter, close that he felt the others hot
BREATH Red dropped his eyes to the big sinewy
hands, the fingers of which were stretched like
the talons of hawk. An instructive knowledge
flashed through his mind that unless he COM
piled the fingers would be at his throat and he
was afraid
You're carryin' things with a high hand,
Pete; but don't want to have no row" Meek
ms said sulleny. He threw the pieces of silver
far out into the waters OF the lake
Its for your good as much mine, Wright
declared. I'VE can't afford to take no chance"
I Fan of stomach to the edge of starvation,
- the prospectors found their way back to the
land of food. And for months Wright lived a
season of apprehension. In his dreams he saw
men and machinery on the Pink Eye taking out
carloads of silver. each carload in itself for
| tune. Meekins was leech, vampire, bleed
ing him for money; more than once, when un-
der the influence of liquor, threatening to raise
money. on the mine if Peter did not give it to
him.
Some work had been done on the Dufferin
claims and several letters written to Haskell to
keep him quiet. In one of these Peter, as salve
to his conscience, wrote that it would 81 We him
joy to be able to send Haskell check for ten
thousand dollars that if he did strike it rich
at any time he would see that Haskell lost no
money over his mining venture. At this time
Peter really meant it. Daily he was making
mental bargains with Haskell; fguratively
setting aside sum for him when he had cleaned
up over the Pink Eye.
I \ the spring. when the ice of the rivers broke
up with remonstratve cracking like the
fire of musketry, Wright and Meekins went up
the Montreal and staked the mine. Not until
the claim was filled in their Joint names did
Meekins feel safe.
The stalking of the Pink Eye, and the samples
shown, caused stampede to Gowganda. Pros
pectors rushed in, followed by capitalists look
ing for plums with which to float huge COM
panleS.
The Pink Eye sold for million dollars;
two hundred thousand paid down when it was
passed by the buyers engineer. balance to be
paid in instruments.
When Haskell read this item of mining news
it made him gasp; then it made him think and
his thoughts left him suspicious. He had been
| wondering why he could not come face to face
with Wright. And Peters letters had been
sparing of detail in the extreme tryingly apa-
| thetic as to the future development of the
| Dufferin claims And the finding of this rich
mine had come SO quickly after Peter was le-
| gally clear of Haskell.
| Il believe Wright's a crook" he declared
| His lawyer was of the same opinion.
"I'll make him pony up if he's done me-
| Haskell declared.
But making Peter pony up shaped somewhat
| into an impossibility Haskell sought for the
| necessary evidence. His lawyer sent agent
| to bark back over Wright's trail for the last
| several months The agent returned declaring
that all miners were gang like unto the forty
thieves; they were banded together to shield
| each other in their dishonesty.
1T looks like a bad case" the lawyer adj
| vised Wen have to wait till we get some
/ evidence"
That very day Haskell almost had his evil
dence. BY chance he introduced to Red
Meekins in hotel Meekins dis
| tinguished citizen, of the new millionaires,
| a man to introduce other men to. He was also,
| at that moment most certainly under the in