Putnam patriot., 1916-06-30
CHAPTER IN.
How a Journey Ended at Hope.

How a Journey Ended at Hope.
 uT Nas owing to typographical con
 dltions that Cortez had been estab 1 lisAed as the point of entry to the
 interior os Alaska. It was because # them that she had grown and flour ished. With her sawmills. her ginmiIIs, aer docks and her dives. But at the 5ime when this story opens Alaska had developed to a point where an over and outlet by winter and Il eireuitous ulet by way of Boring sea and the rocked Yukon i'll summer Were no longer sufficient. There was need of q permanent route by means of which men and freight might come and go through all the year The famous North Pass and Yukon railway. far to the eastward afforded transportation to Dawson City and the Canadian ter ritory and had proved itself such a financial success that builders began to look for harbor more to the west ward, from which they could tap the great heart of Alaska. Thus it was that COrtez awoke one morning to find herself selected as the terminus of a new line. Other railway propositions followed, fiimsy promotion schemes for the most part, but among them two that had more than paper and ''hot air behind them. One of these was backed by the copper trust, which had made heavy mining investments 200 miles inland, the other by Curtis Cor don, a promoter, who claimed New York as his birthplace and the world as his residence,
 Gordon had been one of the first To- caters in the Kyak coal fields. and he had also purchased a copper prospect a few miles down the bay from CorteZ where he had started town which he called Hope. There were some who shook their heads and smiled know ingly when they spoke of that pros peet. but no one denied that il was fast assuming the outward semblanee of a mine under Gordon's direction. He had erected a fine substantial wharf together with buildings, bunk houses cottages and a spacious residence for himself. and daily the piles of debris beneath the tunnel entries to his work ings grew. He paid high wages. he spent money lavishly, and he had a magnificent and compelling way with him that dazzled and delighted the good people of Cortez. When he be- gan work on a railroad which was de signed to reach far into the interior his action was taken as proof positive of his financial standing, and his crit ics were put down as pessimists who had some personal grudge against him.
 It was up to the raw, new village of Hope, with its odor of fresh cut fir and undried paint, that the freight steamer. with Natalie Gerard and the Irish prince" aboard, came gingerly one evenin.
 Even before the ship had tied up he had identified the tall impressive man on the dock as the genius and founder of Hope and the dark haired, well formed woman beside him as Natalies mother It was not until they were close at hand that the daughter made her presence &nOwn; then, unable to restrain herself longer. she shrieked her greeting down over the rail- Mrs. Gerard started. then stared upward as if at an apparition. She stretched out a groping hand to Gordon. who stood as if frozen in his tracks.
 O'Neil remained in the background, like an uncomfortable bridegroom, con scious meanwhile of the searching and hostile regard of Curtis Gordon. But at last his protegee managed to gasp out in a more or less coherent man ner the main facts of the shipwreck and her rescue, whereupon Gordon's attitude abruptly altered
 My Godr7 he ejaculated. You were not on the NebraskaT
 "Yes, yes. yesw cried Natalie. "The nfeboats went of and Left ne all alone in the dsrk-with the ship sinking' Mr. o'Neil saved me. He took me up and jumped just as the ship saEk, and we were all night in the freezing WI ter. We nearly died, didn't wei He
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