The Nevada County picayune., 1911-07-21
"Religion is thing I never bother

good man. Bill was ms name. HIS 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."
 'T see a 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 a hard and gritty game; a game of dismal emptiness, ghastly pretense. and mocking 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 man should happen to get him. self killed in such a place and in such a 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 a loosely fitting storm coat a man of 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 a transaction with laborers; g pragmatic, self-com- posed air, that said as plain as words, "I am ov~r here on my side of the fence, and you are over there on yours" He winked hard as his eyes were assailed by the tobacco smoke, and he coughed {. little, stepping gently into the room. He took up the sixth and vacant chair by the back and placed 1t before him as if he were about to deliver q 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 were staring at him as if heads. so still that you would hardly believe they were breathing.
 T 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 I am pleased to see that your principals have been as true to their word thus far as l have been to mine. The agreement-and l take you all as witnesses of what 1 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 hdgeted in their seats and grunted their replies in the affirma- tive.
 T have the profits here under my coat" he went on, but it will be nec- essary first-as a mere formality, you understand, 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 a 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 1t 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 "ask" and 'job;" and 1t 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 nimble password that had caused the walrus man to pilot him into this black diverticulum of danger? A challenge and response that had been thrust upon hin. 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 commenting his soul to its maker. Try it he did and make good But the game was not yet begun.
 q will state 1t right and fair" con. tinued the stranger. resuming his lectorial attitude at the back of the chair. Right and fair. We are to place the profits on the table and 4 l. Il