The Adair County news., 1921-11-01

the gold to leap out of the mouth.
whats that | hit?' asked Lund.
soft, like rat" He lunged forward,
felt for the poke, and found it, lifted
it, hefted it, his forehead puckered
with deep seams, discovered the open
end, poured out some of the colors on
one palm, and used that for a mortar,
grinding at the grains with his finger
for a pestle, still weighing the stuff
with a slight up-an-down movement of
his hand.
He nodded as he slipped the poke
into side pocket, and the cabin grew
very silent. Lund's face was grimly
terrible. He stepped back across the
companionway.
49," he said, his deep voice muf-
fled by some swift restraint, "you
found it. And yo're going back after
mOre?" His forehead was still creased
with puZzlement. oval, I'm going
with We, eyes or no eyes, an I'll keep
tabs on We, Bill Simms, by day and
night. You can lay to that, you
slimy-hearted Swab!"
His voice had risen again. Rainey
saw the sweat standing out on the
captains forehead as he answered:
''Of course you'll come, Jim. No
need for you to talk this way"
mo need to talk! By the eternal,
what I've got to says bin steamin' in
me for fourteen months o. blackness,
an it's comm out, now it's started!
Who's this man, who was talkin' with
We when I come aboard?"
That's Doctor Carlson. He's to be
surgeon this trip, Jim,'' said Simms
deprecatingly, though he darted a look
at Rainey half suspicious, half resent
full.
Rainey, on the hint, turned toward
the ladder quietly enough, but Lund
had nipped him by the biceps before
Rainey had taken step.
you'll stay right here" said Lund,
while tell you an this Doc Carlson
what kind of a man SimmS is, with
his poke full of gold and me with the
price of my last meal spent two hours
ago. l won't spin out the yarn.
81 rescued an Aleut off a bit of a
berg one time. There warn't much of
him left to rescue. Hands an feet an
nose was frozen so he lost 'em. but the
pore devil was grateful, an he told
me something. Told about an island
| north of Boring strait, west Of Kotze-
bue sound, where there was gold on
the beach richer and thicker than it
ever lay at Nome. l makes for 1t, gifts
close enough for my Aleut to recog-
niZe tit amt an easy place to for
| get for one who has eyeS-an' then
we're blown south, an we git into ice
an trouble. The Aleut dies, an I
lose my ship. But was close enough
| to get the reckOnin' of that island.
FINALLY land at Seattle, broke. I
| meet Up with the man they call Hard
luck Simms. Also they called him
| Honest Simms those days. l like him,
an finally tell him about my island.
/ put up the reCkOnin', an he supplies
| the Karluk, grub, an crew.
''Simms' luck is still ag'in' him. The
Karluk gifts into ice, gifts nipped an
carried north, way north, with wind
an current, frozen tight in a foe. 1t
looks like we've got to winter there.
Mind We, I've given Honest Simms the
reckonin' of the island. We go out
on the ice after bear an we kill a
Kadiak bear. Me-Fll never stand for
the shoOtin' Of another bear if l can
stop it.
I've bin havin' trouble with my
eyes right along. I'm on the foe not
eighty yards from Simms. No, not
sixty! 1t was me killed the bear, an
we're goin' back to the schooner for a
sled. 1 stayed behind to bleed the
brute. All of a sudden, like it always
hits you, snow-blindness gifts me, an
shouts TO Honest Simms.
Along comes a Point Arrow blister
That's a gale that breeds an bursts
Of a second out of nowhere. 1t gath
ers up all the loose snow an ice crys
tails an drives 'em in a whirlwind
You lose yore direction even when yoJ
got eyes. I'm left in 1t by that bilge
blooded skunk, blind on the rockin'
breakin' foe, while he scuds back t.
the schooner with his men. That.
Honest Simms Jim Lund's left be
hind but Honest Simms has the posi-
ton of the island.'
81 didn't hear you call out you wer,
blind, Lund. The wind blew you
words away. l didn't know but wha
you were as right as the rest of us
We found the schooner by sheer Iucl
before We persisted. We looked TO
you-but the fee was broken up. w,
looked"
"Shut up!" beloved Lund. "Yo1
sailed inside of twenty-four hours
Honest Simms. The natives told m,
so later, when l could understand tall
agin. Dye know what saved me? IN
beari I stumbled over the carcas
when was nigh spent. / ripped it u
and clawed some of the warm CUTS
an climbed inside the bloody body ar
stayed there till it got cold ar
clamped down over me. Waitin' 70
you to come an git me. Zones
Simms!
"That bear was bed and board t
me until the natives found it, an m
in it, more dead than alive Neve