The Belding banner-news., 1918-06-05


ed by chance to fatten my own bank
roll. didn't care If broke the Free
Gold Mining company and myself like
wise. A dollar doesn't terrify nor yet
fascinate mel hope IL never will. And
while, perhaps, II was not what they
would call good form for me to lose
my temper and go at them with my
fists, was fighting mad when thor
oughly sensed their dirty project. Any
way, II helped bring them to time.
When you take man of that type and
cuff him around with your two hands
he's apt to listen serious to what you
say. And they listened when / told
them Ina dead earnest next day that
Whitley Lewis and his partners must
have what was due them, or I'd wreck
the bunch of them If Ii took ten years
and every dollar had to do it. And
/ could have put them on the tramp,
too-they'd already dipped their fin
| gers In where they couldn't stand iiti-
CATION. I'm sure of that--or they
would never have come through; which
they did.
"But I'm sorry I ever got mixed up
with them. I'm going to sell my stock
and advise Lewis and the others to do
the same while we can get full value
for Ii. Lorimer and that bunch will
manipulate the outfit to death, no mat
ter how the mine produces.
That's all of that. don't care two
whoops about the money. There is
still gold in the Klappan Range and
other corners of the North, whenever
l need IL. But Ii nauseated me. l.
can't stand that cut-throat game. And
Granville, like most other cities of its
kind, lives by and for that sort of
thring. The pressure of modern life
makes ii inevitable. Anyway. town
is no place for me. / can stomach 1T
about so long, and no longer. It's too
cramped, too girded about with petty
larceny conventions. If once you slip
and get down, every one walks on you.
Everything's restricted, priced, tin
kered with. There is no real freedom
of body or spirit. / wouldn't trade u
comfy log cabin In the woods with a
big fireplace and shelf of books for
the finest home on Maple drive-not If
had to stay there and stifie in the
dust and smoke and smells. That
would be sordid and impoverished
existence. 1 cannot live by the dog
eat-dog code that seems to prevail
wherever folk get jammed together in
an unwieldy social mass. / have said
the like to you before.
''By nature and training I'm untitled
to live in these crowded places. l love
you, little person, / don't think you
realize how much, but / can't make
you happy by making myself utterly
miserable. That would only produce
the inevitable reaction. But l still
think you are essentially enough like
me to meet me on common ground.
You loved me and you found content
ment and joy at our little cabin once.
Don't you think 1t might be waiting
there again?
"If you really care, II / and the old
North still mean anything to you,
few days or weeks, or even months of
separation won't matter. An affection
that can't survive six months Is too
fragile to go through life on. / don't
ask you to jump the next train and
follow me. / don't ask you to wire me,
Come back, Bill Though l would
come quick enough IL you called me.
merely want you TO think Ii over So
berly and let your heart decide. You
know where l stand, don't you, Hazel.
dear? / haven't changed--not a bit
I'm the same old Bill. But I'd rather
hit the trail alone than with an un-
willing partner. Don't founder about
In any quicksand of duty. There Is
no Il ought to- between us.
$50 1T is up TO you once more, little |
person. If my way is not your way
will abide by. your decision without
whining. And whenever you want to |
reach me, message to Felix Cour-
voiseur, Fort George, will eventually
find me. I'll fix ii that way.
$50 long, little person. like you a
heap, for all your cantankerous ways.
BILL"
She laid aside the letter, with a
lump in her throat. For brief instant
she was minded to telegraph the word
that would bring him hurrying back.
But-some of the truths he had set
down In cold black and white cut her
deep. OF a surety she had drawn her
weapon on the wrong side In the min
Ing trouble. Overhasty?-yes. And
shamefully disloyaI. Perhaps there was
something in it, after all; that Is to
say, Ii might be they had made mis-
take. She saw plainly enough that
unless she could get back some of the
old enthusiasm for that wilderness life,
unless the fascination of magnificent
distances. of silent, breathless forests.
of contented, quiet days on trail and
stream. could lay fast hold OF her
again, they would only defer the day
Of reckoning, as Bill had said.
No, she would not attempt to cal,
him back. She doubted IL he would
come And Qbp would NOT yo-r<f xvot |