Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1912-09-12

heads and laughed as they mentioned
women. And they we're right. He had
always been afraid of them from the
time, himself lad Of seventeen, when
Queen Anne, of Juneau, made open
and ridiculous love to him. For that
matter, he never had known women.
Born in mining-camp where they
were rare and mysterious, having no
sisters, his mother dying while he was
an infant, he had never been In con-
tact with them.
But 1t was left to the Virgin to give
him his final fright. She was found
one morning dead in her cabin. A
shot through the head had done 1t.
and she had left no message, no ex-
PLANTATION. Then came the talk Some
wit, voicing public opinion. called 1t
case of too much Daylight. She had
killed herself because Of him. Every
body knew this, and said so. The cor
respondents wrote 1t up, and once
more Burning Daylight, King OF the
Klondike, was sensationally featured
in the Sunday supplements OF the
United States. The Virgin had
Strengthened up, so the feature-stories
ran, and correctly 30. Never had she
entered q Dawson City dance.hall.
When she first. arrived from Circle
City, she had earned her living by
washing clothes. Next. she hah bought
sewing-machine and made mems
drill parkas. fur caps, and moosehide
mittens. Then she had gone ab a clerk
into the First Yukon Bank. tAll this,
and more, was known and tod, though
one and all were agreed that Day
light, while the cause, had been the
innocent cause Of her untimeiy end
And the worst OF 1t was that Day
light knew It was true. Always would
he remember that last night he had
seen her. He had thought nothing OF
II at the time; but, looking back, he
was haunted by every little thing that
had happened, In the light Of the
tragic event, he could understand
everything-her quietness, that calm
gertrude as II all vexing questions OF
living had been smoothed out and
were gone, and that certain ethereal
sweetness about all that she had said
and done that had been almost mater
nal. He remembered the way she had
looked at him, how she had laughed
when he narrated Mickey Dolan's mis-
take In stalking the fraction on Shook
UNI Gulch. Her laughter had been
lightly joyous. while at the same tipie
II had lacked its old-time ROBUSTNESS.
Not that she had been grave or sub,
dued. On the contrary. she had been
so patiently content, SO filed witt
peace. She had fooled him, fool that
he was. He had even thought that
night that her feeling for him, had
passed, and he had taken delight In
the thought. and caught visions of the
satisfying future friendship that would
be theirs with this perturbing love
out OF the way.
And then. when he stood at the
door. cap in hand, and said good night.
1t had struck him at the time as
funny and embarrassing thing. her
bending over his hand and kissing 1t.
He had felt like fool, but be shivered
now when he looked back on 1t and
felt again the touch OF her lips on his
hand. She was saying good-by, an
eternal good-by, and ne had never
guessed. At that very moment, and
for all the moments OF the evening.
coolly and deliberately, as he well
knew her way, she had been resolved
to die. II he had only known I'll I'm
touched by the contagious malady
himself nevertheless he would have
married her II h had had the slight.
est inkling OF what she contemplated.
And yet he knew. furthermore, that
hers was a certain stiff-kneed pride
that would not have permitted her to
accept marriage as an act of philan-
thropy. There had really been no saw
ing her. afer all. The love-disease
had fastened upon her. and she had
been doomed from the first to perish
Of II.
Six thousand spent the winter OF
1897 In Dawson, work on the creeks
went on apace, while beyond the pass
es 1t was reported that one hundred
thousand more were waiting for the
spring. Late one brief afternoon, Day.
light, on the benches between French
Hill and Shookum Hill, caught Wild
er vision Of things. Beneath him iay
the richest part Of Eldorado Creek,
while up and down Bonanza he could
see for miles. II was a scene OF a
vast devastation. The hills, to their
tops. had been shorn OF trees, and
their naked sides showed signs OF gor.
Ing and perforating that even the
mantle Of snow could not hide. Be.
meath him. in every direction, were
the cabins OF men. But not many
men were visible. A blanket OF smoke
flled the valleys and turned the gray
day to melancholy twilight. Smoke
arose from thousand holes IN the
snow, where, deep down on bedrock
In the frozen muck and gravel. men
crept and scratched and dug. and ever
built more fires to break the grip OF
the frost.
Organization was what was needed
he decided; and his quick imagination
sketched Eldorado Greek. from mouth
to source. and from mountain top to
mountain top. in the hands OF one ca,
pable management. Even steam.thaw
ing. as yet untried. but bound to come
he saw would be makeshift. What
should be done was to hydraulic the
valley sides and benches, and then, on
the creek bottom. to use gold-dredgea
There was TIE very chance for another
big killing. He had wondered just
what was precisely the reason for the
0uggenhammers and the big English
concerns sending In their high.salarieC
experts, That was their scheme. Tha
was why they had approached him fol
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