The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-10-30

he should walk with them ana he had done in fair
seeming but women had remained him a closed
book, and he preferred game of solo or sevenup any
time.
And now known as the King Of the Klondke car
ryng several other royal titles, such EldoradO
King Bonanza King, the Lumber Baron and the
Prince of the stampeders not TO omit the proudest
appellation of all, namely, the Father of the Sour
doughs he afraid OF women than AS
never before they held their arms to him. and
women hocking into the country day by day. 1t
mattered not whether he sat at dinner in the Gold
Commissioners house. called for the drinks in dance
hall or submitted to an interview from the woman
representative Of the New York Blade and all Of
them held out their arms
There was exception, and that Freda, the
girl that danced and TO whom he had given the -four.
She was the only woman In whose company he felt
at ease, for she alone reached out her arms.
And yet 1t from her that he was destined 10 re-
ceve next to his severest fright 1t about the
fall of 1891 He returning from of his dashes.
this time to inspect Henderson, creek that entered
the Yukon just below the Stewart. Winter had come
with a rush, and he fought his way down the
Yukon seventy miles In frail Peterborough in
the midst Of a run of mush ice Hugging the rim ice
that had already sodly formed. he shot across the
ice Spewlng mouth Of the Klondike just in time
lone dancing excitedy on the rim and pointing
into the water. Next he the fur-cad body of a
woman face under sinking in the midst of the driving
muSh ice \ lane opening in the swirl of the current
was matter of seconds TO drive the canoe to the
spot reach the shoulder in the water and draw the
woman gngerly to the canoes side. 1t was Freda
And all might vet have been well with him had she
later when brought back to consciousness blazed
at him with angry blue eyes and demanded why did
you? oh, why did you?"
This worried him. In the nights that followed In
stead of sinking Immediately to sleep his won't
he lay awake visOnng her face and that blue blaze Of
wrath and coming her words over and over. They
rang with sincerity. The reproach was genuine She
had meant just what she said And still be pom
dered
The next time he encountered her she turned
away from him angrily and contemptuously. And yet
again she came TO him to beg his pardon, and she
dropped hint of Il man somewhere some time-she
said not how-who had left her with no desire TO live
Her speech was frank but incOherent. and all he
CLEANED from it was that the event whatever it was
had happened years before Also he CLEANED that she
had loved the man.
That the thing-love 1t caused the trouble
1t was more terrible than frost or famine. Women
were all very well, in themselves good to look upon
ana kaDle, but along came this thing called love, and
they scared to the bone by It, made so irrational
that one could guess what they would do next
This Freda woman a splendid creature, full
bodied beautiful and nobody fool but love had come
along and soured her the world driving her to the
KlOndike and to suicide compellingy that she was
made to hate the man that saved her life.
Well, he had escaped love so far, just as he had
escaped smallpox; yet there it was as contagious as
smallpox and whole lot worse in running its course
1t made men and women do such fearful and
sonable things. 1t was like delrlum tremens, only
worse And If he, Daylight caught it he might have
it as badly any of them. 1t was unacy, stark
lunacy, and contagious top of it all. half dozen
young fellows were crazy over Freda. They all
wanted TO marry her. Yet she, in turn, was crazy
over that some other fellow the other side Of the
world and would have nothing to do with them
But it was left to the Virgin to give him his final
fright She was found morning dead in her
had left no message, no explanation Then came the
talk. Some wit, yoicing public opinion called 1t
case Of too much Daylight She had killed herself
because Of him. Everybody knew this and said so.
The correspondents wrote it up and once more Burn
ing Daylight, King of the Klondike was sensatonaly
featured In tie Sunday supplement of the United
States The Virgin had Strengthened up. the feat
ure stories ran, and correctly Never had she en-
tered Dawson City dance hall. When she first ar
rived from Circle City she had earned her living by
washing clothes Next she had bought sewing ma
chine and made mems drill parkas fur cans and
moosehlde mIttens. Then she had gone as d clerk