The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-02-21
CHAPTER III.
The Crevasse.

For an hour before the Hannah
reached Katma Miss O'NeiIl was busy
getting her little brood ready. Her
heart was as tender as q Madonna to
these lambs so i'll fitted to face a frigid
waste. Their mother had been good
woman. She could tell that. But she
mad no way of knowing what kind of
man their father might be- When they
said their shifting good-bys at Katma
she was suspiciously bright and
merry. Soon the children were laugh
ing again with her
One glance at their father, who in
trOduced himself to Miss O'NeilI as
John Hustled, relieved her mind great
ly. His spontaneous delight at seeing
them again and his choking gratitude
to her for having looked after them
were evidence enough that this kind
eyed man meant to be both father and
mother TO his recovered little folks
Her temporary family stood on the
end of the wharf and called good-bys
to the girl. When they turned away
she went directly to her room.
Elliot was passing forward when
Miss O'Neill opened her stateroom
door to go in. The eyes of the young
woman were blinded with tears and
she was biting her lip to keep back
the emotion that welled up. He knew
she was very fond of the motherIess
children, but he guessed at an addi-
! iOnal reason for her sobs She, too.
was as untaught as a child in the life
of this frontier land. Whatever she
found here-how much of hardship or
happiness or grief or woe-she knew
that she had left behind forever the
safe harborage of quiet waters in
which her life craft had always floated.
1t came on to rain in the afternoon.
Heavy clouds swept across from the
mountains, and the sodden sky opened
like a sluice-box The Kusiak contin-
gent. driven indoors, resorted TO
bridge. Miss O'NeiII read. Gordon Ell
lott wrote letters, dawdled over mag
azines, and lounged alternately in the
| ladies' parlor and the smoking room.
where Macdonald. Strong, a hardware
merchant from Fairbanks, and a pair
of sOur-dOugh miners had settled them
selves to a poker game that was to
last all night and well into the next
day.
| Of the two bridge tables all the
players were Old-timers except Mrs
! Mallory. She had come in over the
ice for the first time last winter. The
other women felt that she was a bird
/ of passage, that the frozen Arctic
/ could be no more than a within to her
They deferred little to her because
she knew the great world-New York,
/ Vienna, London. Paris. Great names
fell from her lips casually and care
iessly. She was full of spicy little
anecdotes about German royalty and
the British aristocracy. 1t was no won
der. Gordon Elliot thought, that she
had rather stunned the little social sci
of KuSiak.
Through Northrup and TreIaWneV 3
new slant on Macdonald was given ia
| Gordon. He had fallen into easual
talk with them after dinner on the
fore deck. To his surprise the young
man discovered that they bore him nc
| grudge at all for his interference the
night before.
But we amt through with Colby
Macdonald yet TreIawney explained
| Mind, don't say we're going to gel
| him. Nothing like that. Here's the
point. We stand for Labor. He stands
for Capital. See? Things amt what
they used to be in Alaska. and it's be
cause Of Colby Macdonald and his
friends. They're grabbers - that:
what they are. They want the whole