Evening star., 1923-09-18

be unless you fellows can produce
| that Brud Hawkins. or bring him
back to life or something.
Browning turned sharply to EouS-
| ton, who, so far as Pete could make
ont, had said little or nothing since
( hM arrival.
up. Ern?" he asked.
xhe lawyer had plainly been asked
+ this. same question many times beg
fore. Judging from the irritable man
| ner in which he snapped out an en-
! ! At this Sharpe gave way to a
Etirade of abuse, Scurstng himself for
tgetting mixed upsin the deal first OF
| tall, then including Browning and De-
mons in his denunciation, and then
Lending by declaring that IL Houston
couldn't figure some way of releas-
/ ing the title to the accursed mine
Ethe whole project, Houston included,
could so to hell
T Browping rose to the occasion, and
as his partner lost control OF himself
Browning now gave the appearance
of complete mastery of the situation.
and rof himself most Of all, as he an
kswered Sharpe: /.
mean that. If this thing blows up
| you know and / know and Houston
and Demons know there's only one
place we can all go. And that place
ART hell, exactly,--its worse. It's
got bars on the doors!" -.
Such a statement. coming as IL did
frsm the leader, caused painful
silence to fall over the entire group.
Browning quietly, tuggedsat his-mus-
| tacl1e as he watched the effect of his
words. Sharpe pouted sullenly, and
ground a cigarette TO powder beneath
the heel of his boot. Houston alone
batted NOT an eye. and gave no sign
of emotion of any Kind 1
"a fine crowd" Pete unused to him
self, as he took in the silent four
from the tail of his eyes.
Peleg Demons, weakest of the lot,
was first to break the silence.
"Is--is-it-so bad as that?" he
faltered,, looking earnestly at Brown
Faoh,- hell. Peieg.- don't come with
that innocent stun now-you know
what you've done to half the hold
( souts7 you've man-handled. How
many are at the bottom of old Dan
Demons WINGED at the words and
paled perceptibiy. as he answered,
"Well-Pm for doing anything to
word" Et.
Sharpe. apparently recovered from
his sudden temper. long enough at
least to find his voice, lit another
cigarette and talked between puffs.
Come, boys, no use talking this
way" he urged in a conciliatory man 4
ner. This thing isn't going TO bust.
None of US needs to worry Ii we stick
we've got to take chances. we've
simply got to. Now tell me again,
Houston, just where do we stand,
and for heavens sake talk. Let's get
this thing straight. once for all:
Where do we stand without this stun
khere"" From the flick os ashes sent
| in the direction of the tunnel, the
here" referred TO the mine.
1--WE have two months to install a
quarter million dollar dredge on our
ton repisS THAT'S thst You u and
your Wall street concern have sold
more than that valuation of stock,
but our. concern has embezzled the
money. and lost 1t to some other
Not that part of it, Ern," Sharpe
interrupted. 81 mean how do we
stand on the contracts and thingsT Z
1t was Sharpe's turn now to join the
Panic c-stricken Demons.
Silent Ern Houston continued: And.
if we don't make good the money to
the stockholders, or build our dredges,
it's Jail for all OF us-maybe more
for some" he added, looking furtive-
ly from Demons to Browning.
No one listening to Houston's talk
could fail to get the full meaning of
his words or to doubt the seasoned
judgment behind them as he con-
1--WE have one chance of getting out
with our skin and with money. That
chance is at the bottom of this tun-
mel If Demons story of a strike is
right, we've got a chance. I'm no
miner and 1 don't know. So far as
the title to this~ property is con-
cerned we don't own it. 1t stands in
| the name of Brud Hawkins We or
dered Hawkins put away and Butler
Garret says Slim Eliot did it," 1t
seemed to Pete that Houston men
toned the, deed with distinct relish.
IF Hawkins is dead, and doesn't
i come to life, I've got the legal end of
| getting the title fixed. If he does
! turn up, well. that's something else
again"
Browning took up the subject where
Houston left it. Now Hawkins never
did know what he has here, that
much is certain, isn't it, Demons2"
he asked.
Demons assured him 1t was. -
Now, that being the case" Brown
ing continued, 81 agree with Sharpe.
Let's bring crew up here and get
at this gold. Let's take a chance on
the legal end-we've got to take a
chance somewhere"
why not make 1t appear that the
stuff is coming from some other mine
we can get hole in the ground
/ somewhere for a dummy" Demons
suggested.
CONTINUED in Tomorrow's Starr
a
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