The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-05-24

mously strong, thought, and they terminated in a pair of sinewy hands. He was lingering lump of quartz, at which he peered through a Tense stuck in his eye.
 Good morning, Furie,' I said, at length.
 His ancient head flashed up and put his age at eighty. The small, red-rimmed eyes, China-blue in color, were set in dirty wedge of face. The glass in his eye, held monocle fashion, was eight-sided.
 "He-he-hel" the old man cack- led. 50 ye ain't cold hawg yet, huh?"
 q don't know that it isn't your fault I'm not I observed.
 "Huh!" he shrilled, shaking his shaggy head at me "Hain't I bust in the door and put yer head on piller and gived ye a guzzle O water?"
 Very kind of you" admitted, but I was thinking you tried your hardest to put bullet an inch from my head up at the Two Brothers. "Theres too many comes anosin' round these parts now days!" he screamed. That thar mine ain't none O yer business, nor nob'dy else's!"
 I managed to get to my knees and, by degrees, to my feet. Drop ping onto the bed, fixed stern eye on the crafty face in front of me.
 "See here, Furie, you called on Nathan Hyde Friday morning. Just where did you find the pistol you sold him?'
 He began to interlace his bony fingers. "Hain't I said I ain't tellin' nothin'?"
 I leaned nearer, pointed my fin ger at him. You also called on Andrew Ogden. You took him a specimen of gold quartz. Where did you get it?"
 T ain't tellin'l" he yelped
 Well, it doesn't matter" said softly. You got it from new vein in the Two Brothers.
 He leaped to his feet, speeches. and foaming, his walnut shell of a face as yellow as saffron. Culver ing, he shook his bony fists in my face, his eyes bloodshot.
 "Tis my gold, this" he screamed, prancing up and down, eyepiece rattling on it's wire. "Haint I tramped Skull and Skeleton 50 years alookin' for it? Hain't I thirsted an starved? Hain't I burn ed and sweated and freezed? But I found itl An nobody's agoin' to to take it away from mel"
 Quite mad on the subject of gold, he raved on in this vein.
 Would Andry Ogden have know ed it war there if I hadn't told him, I ask ye? But I'm squar' shootin', is. Andry,' sez I, the claim is yourn but the findins mine, so I'll split ye fifty-fifty.' 'Ye will not!' he yells at me. How dare you trespass on my property! I'll have the roof O the jail over yer crack -brained head'!"
 I thought it time to stop him, "Furie! What else did you say to Andrew Ogden?"
 T ain't telin'!"
 Leaning nearer, I said gravely, Andrew Ogden is dead"
 "Huh-what? Dead!" he shrilled. "Dead!"
 He was stabbed to death in his library after you left him Friday night"
 Stabbed! Whut! Huh! Andry Ogden! Who did it?"
 I looked at him accusingly. "The police will be askin you that ques- tion before long"
 "'Tis a lie!" he screamed. T left him alive!"
 Hmm! Well, maybe it is. You can prove it?"
 Prove it!" he mumbled. Prove it! How's an old geezer like me to prove anything?" Then shrewd- ly, How'll they prove it agin me when I didn't do it?"
 Maybe they won't if you tell everything you know"
 He opened his mouth, then shut it .stubbornly.
 I let the point rest. "Ogden's son Jerry was here. Did you see him?"
 "Uh-huh. The girl, too"
 Do you know why Andrew Ogden didn't want the Two Brothers open ed?"
 "He-he-he!" he cackled. "Ye ain't been in the mine, eh?"
 No. Why?'
 "Nothin'. He-he-he! Jes' nothin'!"
 You said you were guarding the mine because people were hanging around it." I went on. What did those people look like?"
 Dunno. Both was tall. One of 'en ran to meat"