Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-10-16
THE RAEBURN LUCK
BY ISABEL FROST.

Nick Raeburn had come out TO Ne
vada before the Goldfield rush. All
through that period of excitement
when fortunes were made and lost
overnight, Nick went along his leisure
| ~ way, driving the stage to the Ma.
monk mines over from Rayolite, the
little makeshift railroad station below
the big Rayolite construction plant
And the days when he had work to do
his son drove the stage.
Little Nick, they called him, al.
though he was foot taller than big
Nick, his father. Overgrown and easy
mannered, he was the butt of all the
newcomers to the mines.
'But, Lord Harry, you can't rattle
him." Nick would say happily. "He
was born in the sunshine, that boy.
Prettiest mother you ever saw-used
to run the pancake counter at Daniels
cafe down at Chaffee Junction. Don't
you know, where that is? Up in the
Panhandle. She ran away when Nick
was about two and half, and got q d.
yorce in Reno. / never blamed her a
mite. I used to drink like a fish those
days and never earned a whole weeks
pay in my life"
When the last strike happened up at
the Mahonk the news of it reached the
| outer world and the rush began about
a week later. 1t was up in the noun
tains, following the bed of the old
Ramazan river, and folk had a hard
| time getting to it. Nick knew the best
way up and made trips steadily. One
| morning as he took the blankets off the
| bay mares woman came toward him
| from the little hotel that was part of
the mushroom growth of RayOlite. She
was about thfrty-tive, but slender and
as pretty as a girl, and trim as a clip
| per in her dark-blue suit and white felt
| hat
us this the stage to the Mahonk
| m1neST she asked. Nick turned his
head to answer in his usual way, fore
seeing prospective traveller, when he
| recognized her. Yet over him her gaze
| swept without a CLEAN of memory.
There was nothing about old Nick
| shrunken, stoop-shouldered, weather.
beaten, with his face twisted habitual-
| ly into one-sided grin-to bring back
| any recollection Of the early romance
| that had happened in Daniels cafe,
| Chaffee Junction. Nick answered with
some inward embarrassment. Fan had
| suffered too little from times rayages
for him to affect unconcern. Yet all
the way up to the mines she hardly
looked at him, and he watched her
leave the stage with surging emotions.
"See that woman in blue that came
up with your" asked Dabney when he
sauntered out of the hotel after Nick
had eaten. "She's representing the
Munson-Lane interests, they say. Nice,
quiet little party with more nerve and
punch up her sleeve than any man
here. I heard the fellow saying she
was always sent on ahead to scout a
bit and find out how things were going
before they sent on any buyers. She's
been asking what properties hereaboutt
have been undeveloped."
Nick nodded. He had a bunch of
worthless claims Up on the side of old
RamaZan mountain that had cost him
assessment work each year and hung
around his neck like milestone. They
lay just beyond the river bed drift Of
ore.
Before he left town for the trip
back: Dabney told him the woman in
the blue suit was asking now, he said,
where the man was who owned the ten
claims called the Lucky Lou group.
'Tell her he's gone out Of town, but
given you orders to dicker on terms"
replied Nick gravely. "And If you can
sell at a good figure and keep my name
out of 1t, why there's a nice slice to
you, Dabney."
The deal went through the next
morning, and while the papers were
being signed over at the record Office
the stage coach lay half way down the
side of sRamazan mountain with its
driver buried under the debris. Little
Nick tack the new ataga In few days
while they tried 10 patch up what was
left of the old man at the hospital in
Harden City.
He was standing at the horses
heads when Fan came along. All at
once she stopped dead short, staring
at the boy who held the mares heads.
She gave him one startled look and
held out her hand before she thought
twice, speaking only his name.
'Nick! You big, long-legged, blessed
boy. Don't look scared at me, Nick.
I'm only your silly old mother. Where's
the old MANI"
Nick told her, with the latest report
that old Nick had only crushed a few
ribs and sprained his arm.
That's the Raeburn luck" she
sighed happily. "He could have the
whole mountain tumble on him and |
come up smiling. Nick, dear, you |
know those claims of your fathers
that I just took over from that fellow |
Dabney? They're worth about two /
hundred thousand dollars at rough |
estimate. I'll just keep them in the |
family now, and wen try and make a
millionaire out of the old fellow, you /
and l together. He's running on the
level nov, isn't hep
Nick grinned and assured her he
"sure was
Fan sighed happily and pushed in a
couple of shell hairpins.
HE won't find me much changed,
she said. take me down to him,
Nick"
Copyright, 1917, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate) :