The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-04-01
CHAPTER ICOntinued

SAEAA A-SOhtAhuCu
,
"Wen, Annie!" he exclaimed.
''How are your"
About the same as the last time
I saw you-when we made the rush
together into Rouyn, in Quebec"
That's right. Glad to see you
again, Annie"
Thanks. That goes double, Pros
pector"
Silence followed. For an instant
Jack Hammond felt annoyed at this
interruption. Then he dismissed
her; it was only Around the World
Annie, who had made every Ca
madam gold rush of the last twenty
years. Around the World Annie,
with her lore of frontier knowledge,
her inevitable thickness of paint
and mascara and garish clothes,
her log cabin at the edge of camp
with its dance hall, illicit drinks,
its screaming phonograph-
Living here, are you, Annie?"
Hammond asked at last. Around
the World Annie Strengthened. An
effulgent woman, with what might
be called an old-fashioned figure,
she groomed a loose fold of dress,
and raised a acknowledgement hand
to restrain wiSp of bleached hair,
whiting with the dampness of the in
cessant rain. Then, with jerk Of
her head, she indicated a group of
dance haii girls who stood in a near
by doorway, as though they had
been herded, all of them over
dressed.
Listen, Prospector. she asked,
would be chaperoning that gang
of girls if was living here in Prince
Rupert?"
"But where are you headed for?"
She grinned, the wrinkles there
from creating deep creases in her
face enamel.
"I'm going where you're going,
Sweetheart"
Hammond sighed.
81 suppose you were on this morn
ing's boat too"
Got on at Vancouver.
Hammond pursed his lips. He
was becoming more philosophical.
81 guess 1 missed a lot on that
boat"
"Oh, you'll catch up with it ALL"
She leaned closer. "Just tell me
this much. You're going on, on to-
morrow mornings train, aren't
your"
For the first time that morning,
Jack Hammond truly smiled.
eyes, Annie" he said. "You
might as well pass the word along.
I guess the secrets out"
You're right it's out!" agreed
Annie. She patted him on the Shout
der. "Weu, I'll be seeing you"
Then with a grandiloquent wave,
she summoned her followers from
the doorway.
Hammond walked on, to the sting
of fine rain against his face. The
smile had vanished; gloominess had
taken its place. Everything had
looked so different down there in
Seattle, with Kay in his arms, and
the secret that he had promised his
partner to treasure flooding over
iquor-loosened lips.
Kay-the thought of her electri-
fed him. His brain suddenly SHIN
mered with a thousand disconnected
but glorious memories; blurs and
figures from which only one
emerged clearly. It was that of
Kay Joyce, golden-haired Kay, with
her blue eyes hypnotizing him, her
soft body against his as they
danced, or floating far away as all
the world became vague and
dreamlike. Kay tight in his arms
until he could see only the curve of
her forehead and the uplift of her
eyelashes. Or leaning on her ell
bows beside him, her hands crossed
under her chin, her tantalizing lips
curved in challenging smile. Then
the soft touch of her thigh against
his as the music started anew and
they rose to the call of the dance
floor.
He stumbled and brought himself
up short, suddenly realizing that Sc
attic was far away. This was Prince
Rupert, bleak in the grip of a Win
ter rain, yet burning with the gold
foyer.
A girl was coming down the
steps; she had a hand to her throat,
clutching it as if seeking, by muscu-
lar power, to overcome desire to
sob. Her face was bloodless; for
an instant she looked at him, with
hazel eyes in which burned the fe-
yer of desperation. Then bravely
she Strengthened, and while he fiat
tened himself against the SCARED,
plaster wall of the staircase, went
onward. In the glimpse of passing,
Hammond could not help noticing
the spasmodic jerk of her other
wise fine lips, the tenseness of her,
the expression of gauntness with
which she faced the drizzly square
of outside light. A moment more
and she was gone.