Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-07


Lord lets one man live just to show others
what real honesty is. Jimmy is one of EN-.
And SO, as | say, I've watched him SO long,
and know him SO well. that | sort of read his
mind He don't have to tell me things.
Words couldn't do it. | know
He paused for a moment, as if wondering
whether he dared, and eyed her shrewdly
with his panied old eyes, in which was a
world of appeal. She looked at him startled,
amazed, and won by this new, old man she
had known for months yet whose barred soul
she had never seen. A strange reverence for
him crept into her mind until all his queer
garb and roughness were obliterated. She
found herself standing with parted lips,
leaning forward expectant, and waiting for
his next words.
"Miss Eve" he said softly, you'll forgive
an old Teller like me for talkin' so much
but love him! I've been thinkin' over him
and worrvin' over what allied him for long
time however since you came here. He
amt out for gold. It's cheap stuff, after all.
I'm sure l know why he wanted it. 1t was
for you, Girl-he wanted it to give you!
That's Gods truth! And now that he amt
to be bad hurt if YOU don't tell him that he
must brace up. Maybe you don't love him.
You're not of his kind. You've got every
thing; but l don't see how you could help
it, because he's SO fine. Anyhow, you could
do this for me-do just what I'm dom down
below there, salt pan or two to make him
feel better, then go away from here SOS he
can forget little of it, and begin over again,
and have time to get his second wind.
She put out her hands and caught one of
his weatherbeaten, toil-worn old fists in
hers, and squeezed it firmly. She tried to
speak. He surnised sadly that she could do
1,o1x~ H.
And then, slipping rapidly through the
shade of the trees to the trail, she turned
into it and was gone as if she had worked
an unprecedented damage that was irrepa
rable.
CHAPTER XIV.
TT was as if Eve Waters had taken the old
miners word as law; save that she had
not the will or the courage to assist him in
tempering the blow to Jim King. In week
the recession of the lake was as nearly COM
plete as the springs in it would permit, and
in that week the ganut had been run, from
constant hope to doubt, from doubt to de
pressed foreboding, and then to certainty.
The men of the early sos had been spared
that blow. They had scattered out to other
fields, firm in the belief that, could they have
but worked the ground under the lake. For
tunes favor rested in their hands. They had
died telling other prospectors of the pot of
gold that no man could get.
On the day after his talk with her the old
miner had watched the trail furtively, ex-
pectantly. all day long; but she had not APP
peared, and when he went to bed that night
his homely prayer uttered in silence to the
rafters and the darkness, had said, "Lord,
for goodness sake don't let her get sore at
me! All | want is for her to help me out
little bit because know you re SO busy that
you amt got time to devote to Jimmy and
an old sinner like me. I'm dom the best
can to make it easy like but it's hard work.
On the next day she appeared; but no one
had chance to talk to her very much. She
seemed sedate and thoughtful, and avoided
Jim as if he was afflicted with plague. On
the fourth day she did not come. On the
fifth day she appeared for a little while, and
left with the engineer, who came down to the
lines of sluice boxes that would never be
used, and to rockers that splashed and
washed to and fro, testing the little potholes
that carried gold.
"Well, Jim said Holloway, as the young
miner Strengthened himself and came to
meet them, I'm under obligations for the
use of your drawing board, your room, and
your courtesy. My work is finished
He exhibited roll of drawings that Jim
had not the heart to inspect beyond the