The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-02-11


chandise out to open store In Sleepy
Cat.
Selwood, answering laconically a
rapid flow of questions, was glad to
be ready to drive on. He gathered
his reins to step into the blackboard.
AS he lifted his foot, with one hand
on the dash and the other on the seat
to do so, his eyes fell on FLYERS first
wagon, standing twenty yards away
The canvas opening at the hind end
was parted and to his great surprise
he saw that at the moment 1t framed
the face of girl of eighteen or twen-
ty years. She did not see Selwood
and he stood motionless, staring at
the unexpected sight.
She was bareheaded, with her hair
parted In the middle and drawn
plainly over her temples. On her neck
simple kerchief rested loosely above
simple dress. Women-folk were
not uncommon in emigrant trains; in
deed, they were the rule. Yet Selwood
paused as If petrified at the ordinary
sight. Unluckily for him, his horses,
less interested in the situation,
champed at their bits and tried to
start. More even than the clear pro-
file had promised was revealed In the
full face; 1t was mere girlhood-sim-
plicity and frank innocence-but it
made Selwood catch his breath.
When her eyes fell on Selwood she
fho
parted canvas flap softly closed. Sell
wood stepped gingerly up into the
blackboard and settled himself in his
seat. The impatient horses leaped
ahead. He did not attempt to look
back.
Selwood reached Sleepy Cat late
that night. His tired team headed
without guiding hand for the Russell
and Wentworth horse barn.
Selwood threw his reins to a wait
ing hostler. He got stiffly down after
his long ride, tipped up the lazy-back
seat, took out and stuffed into side
pocket Of his coat the good-luck
girls shoe, and walked forward. AS
he passed the open door of the Office
he saw the barn boss, McAlpin, in con-
fab with a little woman sitting in the
chair at the desk. Near them, listen
ing, stood an overgrown boy of TWEEN
ty. The woman was talking earnestly
and rapidly. Selwood was hungry,
dust-covered, and tired, and without
speaking to McAlpin he passed out
through the gangway doors and start
ed for his room at Doctor Carpy's
hotel.
McAlpin in the barn office stood pro-
foundry attentive to the story of the
little woman sitting at the desk, with
a handkerchief, much knotted, in her
hands and with great trouble ex-
pressed In her tear-stained eyes.
The barn boss was plainly interest
ed in the tale the strange woman was
pouring into his ear. OF the men that
profess they have no time to listen
to other peoples troubles, James Nc
Alpin never was one. He had almost
a morbid flair for other peoples trou-
bles; and the worse they were the
more he-I ought not to say enjoyed
them-but the more closely they held
him. He had come from far across
the sea and crossed forbidding deserts
to reach the Great American West,
penniless but thrifty, and fortified
with the resolve to weep with the
weepers and rejoice with the glad. AS
a Scotsman, nature had fitted him for
the difficult role of being all things
to all men, and as he listened in the
stuffy, strong-smelling, eluttered-up
little Office Of the big division barn of
the Russell and Wentworth Freighting
company-the first barn, by the way,
ever built in Sleepy Cat-as he looked
from the little wisp Of woman, weep
ing and pouring out her woes before
him, to the husky, overgrown twenty
year-old son at her side-sheepish
now and hangdog in looks-McAlpin
felt that in GOODNESS and confidence
in himself he was pretty nearly master
of the situation; and he looked his
part.
whats that, Mrs. McCracken?" he
demanded, suddenly cycling the
woman, and throwing more emphasis
into the words as he repeated the
sharp question purely for effect.
whats that you say? Moses was
gambling? Why, no! 1 couldn't say
the boy was gambling when he lost
that money. If it's gambling, two men
have got to have a chance-don't you
know that, Mrs. McCracken?" Nc
Alpin spoke fast, because Mrs. Nc
Cracker herself had hardly checked
her own sorrowful tale in the inter-
val; she was, in fact, though weighing
under ninety pounds, the first woman
he had ever met that could talk faster
than he could. "'That boy didn't have
a chance" insisted McAlpin, "he was
just plain robbed-that's what I call
it, robbed. Was the six hundred all
the money you had, Mrs. McCracken?"
Every cent In the world" wept the
woman, land Moses knew better than
to go near gambling house"
As distributing point for wide
spread mountain territory, Sleepy Cat
even at this time boosted trading and
supply houses out of all proportion In
size and Importance to its population,
and these stores, with frontier disre-
gard Of fire hazard, were housed
mostly in one long block. In that
block could be found the widely
known establishment of John Cole
the tall, spare brother of the town
blacksmith; the long, rambling store
of Alexis Roubidoux, the French trad
er, with nearly all the business of the
Gunlock and the Falling Wall reser-