The Prescott daily news., 1918-04-16


 wouldn't understand If you lived n thousand years. We'll. set your mind at rest. I'll take you out. Ye gods and little fishes but I have sure been fool"
 He sat down on the edge of the table, and Hazel blinked at him, half scared. and full of wonder. She had grown so used to seeing him calm, imperturb- able, smiling cheerfully no matter what break amazed her. She could only sit and look at him.
 He got out his cigarette materials. But his fingers trembled. spilling the tobacco. And when he tore the paper in his efforts to roll 1t, he dashed pa per and all into the fireplace with something that sounded like an oath, and walked out of the house. Nor did he return till the sun was well down toward the tree-rimmed horizon. When he came back he brought in an arm full of wood and kindling, and began to build fire. Hazel came out of her room. Bill greeted her serenely.
 "Well little person." he said, "I hope you'll perk up now"
 "I'll try" she returned. Are you really going to take me out"
 Bill paused with a match blazing in his fingers.
 "I'm not in the habit of saying things don't mean" he answered dryly. "We'll start in the morning." The dark closed in on them, and they cooked and ate supper in silence. Bill remained thoughtful and abstract ed. Then from some place among his books he unearthed map, and, spread ing 1t on the table. studied 1t while. After that he dragged in his kyaks from outside, and busted himself pack ing them with supplies for journey tea and coffee and flour and such things done up in small canvas sacks.
 And when these preparations were complete he get sheet of paper and 6 pencil and fell to copying something from the map. He was still at that. sketching and marking. when Hazel went to bed.
 By all the signs and tokens, Roaring Bill Wagstaff slept none that night. Hazel herself tossed wakefully. and during her wakeful moments she could hear him stir in the outer room. And 6 full hour before daylight he called her to breakfast.
 ''This time last ,pring." Bill said to her. q was piking away north of those mountains, bound for the head of the Mans to prospect for gold" They were camped in a notch on the tiptop of long divide. thousand feet above the general level. A wide valley rolled below, and from the height they overlooked two great. sinuous lakes and multitude of smaller ones.
 i've beer wondering" Hazel said. ''This country somehow seems differ ent. You're not going back to Cariboo Meadows, are you?"
 Bill bestowed a look of surprise on her.
 "I should say not '" he drawled. Not that it would make any difference to me. But I'm very sure you don't want to turn up there In my company"
 That's true" she observed. But all the clothes and all the money I have in the world are there"
 Don't let money worry you." he said briefly. "I have got plenty to see you through. And you can easily buy clothes"
 They were now ten days on the road. Steadily they climbed. reaching up through gloomy canyons where foam ing cataracts spilled themselves over sheer walls of granite, where the diin and narrow pack trail was crossed and recrossed with the footprints of bear and dee. and the snowy-coated noun tain goat.
 Roarin Bill lighted his evening Ire at last at the apex of the pass. He had travelled long after sundown. seeking a camp ground where his horses could graze. The fire lit up huge frs, and high above the fir tops the sky was studded with stars, brilliant in the thin atmosphere. They ate. and. being weary. lay down to sleep. At sunrise Hazel sat up and looked about her in silent wondering appreciation. All the world spread east and west below.
 She adjusted the binoculars and peered westward from the great height where the camp sat. Distantly, and far below, the green of the forest broke down to hazy line of steel-blue that ran in turn to huge fog bank. snow- white in the rising sun.
 There's lake, she said.
 NO. Salt water-a long arm of the