, 1922-09-21
Continued from last week.

" Gfeat ram, Il00 weather Tor
i sluicing. See those two dogs?" said
Coleman, after he had lit his pipe.
They've given me more trouble
than a sheep tick. they've got the
mango. I'm going to try some sheep
dip when I get to town, and IL that
doesn't cure them I'll send them over
the cyanide route" \.
'What'th thyanide?" inquired
Luke. showing great interest.
Deadly poison, easy death, no
suffering. Great stuff" answered
Coleman.
''What'th the thsruff?" again asked
Luke.
Cyanide Of Potassium" repeated
Coleman, laying stress on each word.
"Fortissimo on the flute, sliv-
ers! This amt any dirge. Get your
notes out without a strangulation
and a slur. Staccato-now, again.
corrected the leader of the band.
Every musician in the country had
been rounded up to practice for the
celebration. of the first child born
on Seward Peninsular. Luke had
practiced in the band every day for
a week. Two days before the cele-
bration the leader asked him to show
hlo OhlOu CdIus Uut LuAo WAS not h
member OF a union and, therefore,
was not permitted to play.
Disconsolate, he walked down the
beach three miles to Nome river.
which he found teeming with tom
cod. He hired a boa and sweated it,
full Of fish. by pole and line to
Nome, believing the populace would
pay q high price for them. Upon his
arrival, he learned that run Of fish
had been equally as heavy in Boring
Sea as in Nome river and that every
breaker landed tons Of fish in the
backwards of the residents OF Nome.
There 1t goes again! Gueth my
i1ck'th getting WORTH" soliloQuized
Luke mou.nfully.
The thought OF self-destructicn
had ciouded his brain many Hw q
since Bucks death, and the o. '
time he felt like staying with life {.
game was when he met q fellow man
equally detected. Even the flute
failed to be the anodyne for his
disappotntments.
His incursion into Alaska had not
e so much for q chance of pick
Ing up q fortune as 1t had been for
q change Of scene and luck, but 1t
seemed to Luke that the implacable
gods of luck numerically guided
him into grooves Numerically op-
DoStte to success.
Jack Coleman handed Luke his
union card and told him that he was
to play in the band that had been
hired to serenade the Mayor, who
was one OF the richest mining men in
town.
The band was playing its second
piece when the Mayor, with . glow
Of benevolence beaming upon his
face. stood before them. He thanked
the musicians and e%xpatiated on the
faet that It woaM be the first child
born under the American flag Al far
north as sixty-four degrees.
And" continued the mayor. OF
it's . boy I'll fill all your instru-
ments with gold"
Luke Eaxed at his short, weed-like
instrument and then looked at Jack
Coleman with his trombone.
"anpposin' it's a gir1!" shouted
the base drum rlsyer.
.''Weli, Welt" answered the Mayor,
''but it's going to be q boy. Though,
II by any chance the stranger Is a
girl iii fill your Instruments with
champagne"
Luke again sized up his flute and
then looked at the men with the big
a~nstrun1ents and muttered: There 1t
goeth again. It Amt no Unite any
how. l amt lucky and I know it,"
Luke Mclean, or slim Slivers,'
was known all over the country as
being in harder luck than any man
who ever anne to the camp. When
mon who we're prospecting on a
creek saw Luke coming they would
abandon the property, with the super.