Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-31

Z,
paws no more than thousand dollars? That
is something, isn't it?'
"Good grill calculated Hardpan. "You're
my sort! | hadn't thought nothin' about a
thousand bucks. I've been thinkin' all the
time in tens of thousands, you see. Got out
of the habit of reckonin' in small change
Yes, you're right. We'll make this here
Mister Man pay somethin for this ground,
even if it amt worth a cuss to us!'
CHAPTER XII.
IN the following day they were at break
- fast, Frenchy quiet as usual, Bill Ridley
sullen and looking only at his plate, and the
partners discussing a trip over to Ritters,
when they were saluted from the doorway,
and there stood Holloway, with his theodo-
lite over his shoulder, while behind him
stood two men with targets
@Might | speak to you and Hardpan a
moment, Jimo he asked with his usual di
rect manner.
"Sure you can" said Hardpan, rising
from the table 1--WE was Just on the last
cleanup Of grub, anyhow
Outside the door Holloway led them away
from the messhouse short distance, and
then said, at seems to me that whenever /
come to you men am under some obligation
not to talk. But I've come to ask permission
to run lines over this ground of yours. All |
can tell you is this: That my employer is of
different kind than Harjes, and that if he
decides that he can use this land of yours
you'll get a fair deal.
"What do you advise, .Jack?' asked Jim
well 60 by what you say. You've been
too good friend not to tell US.
"NIe? Give the permission, by all means.
l urge it on you. 1t doesn't cost you any
thing at all, and it might be worth while.
That is something that no one can tell as
yet"
aThen go to it, say. How about you,
Pardner?" Jim asked Hardpan.
"Why, to be sure was the old miners
assent.
"Then there's no use in wasting any time,
Holloway said and at once led his men out
and away from the camp, selecting his view
point.
Ritter had the lumber they needed, and
thrifty old German that he was, proceeded
to make profit on each piece of it; but the
partners, to whom credit was an important
asset, did not demur. They selected their
blanks, RATED them across the lake, and
worked them into sluice boxes and rifles in
the following three days, watching, in the
meantime, the recession of the lake. Each
day they went down to the waters edge
and tried to reach the bedrock; only to
find that it was much deeper than they
naQ expected, que probably, DIS IIdlu
sagely remarked, to the general sloughing in
of the valley since the early miners had
abandoned it. In one place they found
shallow spot where the water did not seep
back in. and they were neither elated nor
disappointed at the showing of twenty cents
a pan which they found. That was good
pay; but it would require large field of that
value to reimburse them for all the time
and money they had gambled on the long
tunnel.
Each day, as regularly as if she was en-
ploved at the mine, Eve Waters came over
with her CHEEKY "Hello!' and her question
as our lake getting any lower, and when do
we begin to get out gold?" Moreover each
day she took time to talk to Holloway about
his work. 1t was as if she had constituted
herself a general overseer of everything.
lin, having no excuse to visit her at Rit-
ters in the evenings, resolutely adhered to
his first decision, made on that night of spir-
itual turmoil when he saw the futility of his
hoping to marry her; but he was learning
the lesson that love cannot be strangled, no
matter how hopeless its pursuit.
He felt that he had aged perceptibly.
Some of the spring of life had gone from him.
CINCE the day of his last clash with Rid
- ley he had regretted that moment of
tenpOriZinp He was becoming convinced