Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-07-21
"Religion is a thing never bother

| SOOQ udu. Dali Was LIS ndnS Ills
name was Bill Brown. Come from
Kentucky. He was drunk when he
died But he was good man"
There was a vessel in the stream
yesterday" the weather man ven
tured, that was four months out
from Santiago with ten inches Of
barnacles and the master dead in the
cabin. The biscuits was full of
| weevils."
81 see Whitehall for sale for $25
this morning" said the door-opener,
with his head cooked to one side,
listening with his entire body.
It was indeed hard and gritty
game; game of dismal emptiness,
CHASTITY pretense, and hooking un-
| reality-the poisonous thin vapor that
swims over the crater's rim before
the volcano belches up it's world-de-
stroying fire. Longwood figured that
if a man should happen to get him
self killed in such place and in
such company it would be the equiv
alent Of wandering away unseen to
the heart Of the Sahara desert.
But a knock at the door steadied
them.
"There he is now!" exclaimed the
door-opener, and he let in an indi-
vidual in loosely fitting storm coat
"a man of a social species different
from that of the men who were sit
| ting here. He had about him a way
that Longwood recognized as that of
the business man in transaction
with laborers; pragmatic, self-com-
posed air, that said as plain as words,
81 am over here on my side of the
fence, and you are over there on
yours" He Winked hard as his eyes
we're assailed by the tobacco smoke,
and he coughed I. little, stepping
gently into the room. He took up the
sixth and vacant chair by the back
and placed it before him as If he
were about to deliver lecture; and
his eyes having become adjusted to
the fog of the smoke, he deliberate
ly looked at each of the five men in
turn, trying, it would seem, to recall
whether he had ever seen them be-
fore.
They we're staring at him as if
their eyes would fall out of their
heads, so still that you would hardly
believe they were breathing.
st come" he said, ''by agreement
with your principals to close up lit
tie profit-sharing investment that was
embarked upon a few months ago,
and l am pleased to see that your
principals have been as true to their
word thus far as | have been to mine.
F.! The agreement-and l take you all as
+; witnesses of what | am going to say
! provided that after our last business
meeting previously to the last invest
! ment, we would never again seek to
see one another on the forfeit of our
! lives. The profits are to be divided
+; equally, share and share alike, and
take it that the men here present are
/; all duly qualified and authorized to
| act as agents with full power?"
They fidgeted in their seats and
grunted their replies in the affirma-
tive.
81 have the profits here under my
coat" he went on, "but it will be nee
essary first-as a mere formality, you
understand, a meaningless formality
to ascertain whether you have all
been supplied with the password
agreed upon. I will ask that each of
| you withdraw with me "or moment
in order to get this little matter off
our hands"
The door-opener was nearest to
him, and when the two removed
themselves a few feet from the circle
and put their heads together, Long
wood felt his life slipping away from
him, although it was a blessing that
neither of them had the voice of a
baby, and that Longwood had all his
life been fortunate for his over-acute
sense of hearing. He could make
out in the challenge of the stranger
the single word, Sign" and in the
response of the door-op ener the two
words task" and "job;" and it oc-
Cured to him then that the caprice
Of the hideous hazard was playing
directly into his hands.
Could this be the challenge and the
|
walrus man to pilot him into this
black diverticulum of danger? A
challenge and response that had
been thrust upon him by accident for
better or worse?
Did you sign with the Tropic Dawn?
Why do you ask? Have you got a
job?
He would try the issue in any event,
while commencing his soul to it's
| maker. Try it he did and make good.
But the game was not yet begun.
81 will state it right and fair" con-
| tinued the stranger, resuming his
| lectoria1 attitude at the back of the
chair. Fright and fair. We are to
| place the profits on the table and
count them out, share aid share alike,
in five shares, and no man is to lay
his hands on any part Of them until
| they are all counted and divided so
| that each can see that no man is get
ting more than his share and no man