The Coolidge examiner., 1931-10-23
CHAPTER IX-Continued

one by one, and then in groups
and then in crowds, the neighbors
and townspeople began to come in
he Wyatts, Louie Hefner, Cass
Peery, Mott Bixler, Ike Hawes.
Graf Gotch, Doc Nesbitt-the local
politicians, the storekeepers, their
wives. They came out of curiosity,
though they felt proper resentment
toward this stranger-this battling
creature who had ridden carelessly
away, leaving his wife and chill
dren To fend for themselves, and
now had ridden as casually back
again. But at sight of Yancey
Cravat in his Rough Rider uni
form of khaki, q. S. V. on the col
lar, they were shared again in
the mesh of his enchantment. The
Rough Riders. Remember the
Maine, to hi with Spain There'll
Be a Hot Time in the Old Town
Tonight. He became q figure SYM
bolic of the war, of the Oklahoma
country, of the territory, of the
Southwest - impetuous, romantic,
adventuring. The renegade was a
hero; the outcast had returned a
conqueror.
Alaska. Oklahoma had not been so
busy with its own growing pains
that it had failed to hear of Alas
ka and the gold rush. alaska! Go
on, you wasn't never in Alaska !!
Heard you'd turned Injun. Heard
you was buried up in Boot hill
along of the Doolins."
He got out the little leather
sack. While they gathered round
him he poured out before their
glistening eyes the shining yellow
heap of that treasure with which
the whole history of the South
west was intertwined. Gold. The
hills and the plains had been
honeyeombed for it; men had hun
gered and fought and parched for
it; had died for it; had been killed
for it; had sacrificed honor, home,
happiness in the hope of finding it.
And here was the precious yellow
stuff from far-off Alaska, trickling
through Yancey Cravat's slim
white fingers.
'D-n it all, Yancey, some folks
has all the luck"
Luck! Call it luck do you, Mott.
to be frozen, starved, lost. snow
blinded! One whole winter shut up
alone in q one-roOm cabin with the
snow piled to the roof-top and no
living soul to talk to for months.
Luck to have your pardner that
you trusted cheat you out of your
claim and rob you of your gold in
the bargain! All but this handful.
l was going to see Sabra covered
in gold like an Aztec princess"
The eyes of listening Usage
swung to the prim blue serge fig
ure of the cheated Aztec princess,
encountered the level gaze, the un-
smiling lips; swung back again.
hastily to the dashing, the martial
figure of the lately despised wan
derer.
A tale of another world; story
of a land so remote from the bril-
liant scarlet and orange of the
UuIuluS COulHN est COuulIy that
the very sound of the words he
used in describing it fell with a
strange cadence on the ears of the
eager listeners. Yukon. Chilkoot
Pass. Skagway. KuskOkwim. Klon-
dixie. Moose. Caribou. Huskies
Sledges Nome. Sitka. Billiards
Snow blindness. Frozen fingers
Pemmican. Cold. Cold. Cold. Gold
Gold Gold. To the fascinated fig
ures crowded into the stuffy rooms
of this little frame house squat.
ting on the sun-baked Oklahoma
prairie he brought, by the magic
of his voice and his eloquence, the
relentless movement of the gla-
cierS, the black menace of icy riv.
ers, the waste plains of binding
treacherous snow. Two years OF
this, he said; and looked ruefully
down at the stump that had beer
bis famous trigger finger.
They. too. looked. Two years