Nogales international., 1936-11-21
First Instalment


est and the prettiest girl In Dover,
Michigan. She drove sleek, fat
little pony hitched to marvellous
wicker dogcart, the envy of every
child in town, and to Jimmy Row
an she represented all that was both
desirable and unattainable.
By the time he was fifteen he
was hopelessly in love with her and
he carved hearts and arrows on all
the trees in his yard and initiated
them with interlocking RS and is.
He wrote her passionate misspelled
love notes and in words of fire he
told her of his undying devotion.
He never sent the notes, of course,
and his declarations were only Whis-
pered to the empty air, for he still
remained "the Rowan kid; his
people were desperately poor and he
was cursed with a sensitive pride.
Jim was surprised one day to hear
that Mr.. Hiram Morris had gone
out of business" and was leaving
for the West What that meant the
boy did not know, but he under
stood that the Morris fortune was
not what it had been. Rose and
her mother remained in Dover
They lived on much as usual and
they referred vaguely to those large
interests which kept Mr.. Morris
away from home. But the pony
and dogcart were gone and so were
the housekeeping bays. 1t was while
Jim was working his way through
college that they quietly moved
away The Morris house sold for
barely enough to pay the mortgage
Some people endure poverty
cheerfully, others with a grim stole
ism: the majority of people who are
born poor accept it with a fatalistic
resignation and never look forward
to anything else.
Jim Rowan was unlike any of
these He loathed poverty; it was
uncomfortable. 1t had kept him from
knowing Rose Morris. He swore
he would make himself rich for her
sake In time this became a fixed
idea with him and he quit college
and went to work, savagely. 1t took
him quite while, however, to real
ize that riches are not come by in
a hurry and that he was getting no.
where
He had lost track of the Morrises
eompletely-there was no use of
keeping in touch with them-but he
still had his day-dreams, he still
thought of himself as Roses prince
who sooner or later would search
her out and seat her upon throne
Depression seized him occasionally
when he saw how hopeless was the
task he had set for himself.
At such times he grew desperate
and he told himself that no price
was too great to pay for success
he longed for some opportunity OF
becoming suddenly rich and vowed
that he would sell his soul for such
a chance.
The chance came finally, or it
seemed to come, with the news OF
the K1ondike discovery. Jim joined
the first rush to the Yukon and he
arrived in Dawson City with the
firm determination to make a for
tune somehow, anyhow. Here again
however, he learned that money was
not to be had for the asking.
Placer mining was a hazardous
undertaking, with the odds a thou
sand to one against success. Educa-
ton counted for little in a country
where men were judged on a pick
andshovel basis and paid for the
actual work they did. Jim saw that
here was not the place in which to
earn fortune; here was nothing
but speculation, chance, a gamble
either with men or with nature
In order to beat the game one
had to risk all, then double his win
nings and risk them again and
again To gamble here was not a
sin, it was the daily practice OF
everybody. Men gambled with
death when they hit the trail; they
gambled again when they staked
their labor and their time against
Natures bedrock secrets, only they
took longer chances than when they
heaped their chips on the roulette
table or dropped their "pokes" on
the high card. There was this diff
ference, too; Nature seldom played
fairly, whereas there were many
square gambling houses in Dawson.
Jim Rowan fitted himself to his
new surroundings and adapted him
self to a new code of morals. He
played as other men played, except
in one respect; he never played for
the excitement or for the fun of it,
he played only to win. He played
for Rose Morris. He tried specula-
ting in claims, but he was unlucky:
his only winnings came from the
manipulating of Dawson City real
estate or at cards, and the time
when he found himself the owner
of huge Front Street saloon and
gambling house, together with a
nickname of the Alaskan flavor.
Perhaps a score of people knew
him as James Rowan, but to the
thousands that went in and out of
his place he was "The Michigan
Kid" That was the way he even
signed his checks, for the name had
brought him luck, and superstiti-
ously he clung to it.
Life flowed at a furious pace in