Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-11-06
Q 3URNlNG
sS9DAYLIGHT
By JACKLONDON
AutAo, of"7Ae Cal of the Wsa,"
White Fang, Martin
Eden" etc.
Illustrations BY Dearborn Melvill
Il sgx asnsssa =
SHAPTER x.

iWoJo ~ WAS uOt OH SAfidoiC ASpueo
ton. Men were afraid of him. He be.
came known as fighter, a fend,
tiger. His play was ripping and
smashing one, and no one knew where
or how his next blow would fall. The
element of surprise was large. He
baked on the unexpected, and, fresh
from the wild North. his mind not op-
Grating in stereotyped channels, he
was able in unusual degree to devise
new tricks and stratagems. And once
he won the advantage, he pressed it
remorselessly. AS relentless as a
Red Indian" was said of him, and it
was said truly.
He was a free lance, and had
no friendly business associations.
Such alliances as were formed
from time to time We're purely af-
fairs of expediency, and he regarded
his allies as men who would give him
the double-cross or ruin him if a
profitable chance presented. In spite
OF this point of view, he was faithful
to his allies. But he was faithful just
as long as they were and no longer.
The treason had to come from them,
and then it was Ware Daylight.
The business men and financiers of
the Pacific coast never forgot the les
son of Charles Klinkner and the Cali.
fornia & Altamont Trust Company.
Klinkner was the president. In part
nership with Daylight, the pair raided
the San Jose Interurban. The power
full Lake Power & Electric Lighting
corporation came to the rescue, and
Klinkner, seeing what he thought was
the opportunity, went over to the en-
envy in the thick of the pitched battle.
Daylight lost three millions before he
was done with it, and before he was
done with it he saw the California &
Altamont Trust Company hopelessly
wrecked. and Charles Klinkner sui
side in felon's CELL
So it was that Daylight became
successful financier. He did not go
in for swindling the workers. Not
only did he not have the heart for it,
but it did not strike him as a sporting
proposition. The workers were so
easy, SO stupid. 1t was more like
slaughtering fat, hard-reared pleas
ants on the English preserves he had
read about. The sport, to him, was
in waylaying the successful robbers
and taking their spoils from them.
The grim Yukon life had failed to
make Daylight hard. 1t required civ
ilization to produce this result. In
the fierce, savage game he now play
ed. his habitual geniality imper.
ceptibly slipped away from him, as old
his lazy Western drawl
He. still had "reminiscences of genial.
ity, but they were largely periodical
and forced. and they were usually due
to the cocktails he took prior to meal
time. In the North he had drunk
deeply and at irregular intervals; but
now his drinking became systematic
and disciplined. 1t was an unconscious
development. but it was based upon
physical and mental conditions. The
cocktails served as an inhibition.
Without reasoning or thinking about
it, the strain of the office, which was
essentially due to the daring and au-
dacity Of his ventures, required check
or cessation; and he found, through
the weeks and months, that the cock
tails supplied this very thing. They
constituted a stone wall. He never
drank during the morning, nor in Of
flee hours: but the instant he left the
Office he proceeded to rear this wall
of alcoholic inhibition athwart his
consciousness. The Office became i'm
mediately closed affair. It ceased
to exist. In the afternoon. after lunch.
it lived again for one or two hours,
when. leaving it, he rebuilt the wall OF
inhibition. OF course. there were ex.
ceptions to this; and, such was the rig
or of his discipline, that if he had a
dinner or conference before him in
which, in a business way. he encoun,
tered enemies or allies and planned or
prosecuted campaigns, he abstained
from drinking. But the instant the
business was settled. his everlasting
call went out for Martini. and for a
double-Martini at that, in a long glass
SO as not to excite comment.
Into Daylight's life came Dede Ma
son. She came rather imperceptibly.
He had accepted her impersonally
along with the Office furnishing, the
Office boy, Morrison, the chief, conf
dental, and only clerk, and all the
rest OF the accessories of super
mans gambling place Of business. Had
he been asked any time during the first
months she was in his employ. he
would have been unable to tell the
color OF her eyes. From the fact that
she was a demi-blonde. there resid-
ed dimly in his subcousciousnes a
conception that she was brunette.
Likewise he had an idea that she was
not thin, while there was an absence
in his mind OF any idea that she was
fat. And how she dressed he had no
loea ar all lie mad no trained eye in
snch matters, nor was he interested.
He took it for granted, in the lack of
any impression to the contrary that