The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-07-08

couldn't sleep and watched you"
"Oh, the cooks word"
"a good woman's word! If she
had only come to me before Nc
Kenzie Joe left, Kenning never
would have gotten his hands on
that property"
Kay Strengthened. White-featured,
her hands half extended as though
they longed to claw the brown eyes
of the woman who accused her,
she stood a moment transfixed with
anger.
"But he's got it," she snapped
at last. "And what are you going
to do about it?"
She whirled. The door slammed.
Jack and Jeanne stood alone in the
deepening night.
"I'm going to find Bruce Ken
ming" he said abruptly. "This time
I'd better see him alone"
She begged him to wait for morn
ing; Jack countered with hastily
framed excuses. At last he was
alone, moving through the shadows
toward Mckenzie Joe's test shaft,
progressing more by instinct than
by direction.
Mentality had concentrated upon
a sequence of events which now
were becoming horribly, truthfully
clear. Mckenzie Joe had been right
after all-from the very beginning!
Now the episode of the sniper
gold was explained and the reason
that he never again had found such
nuggets at Kay's claim. He knew
now that her placer workings had
been worthless and that they had
been sailed with metal from Ken
ning's workings up the creek. 1t
was her alibi, her excuse to thwart
any plea that Jack might make to
give up this quixotic idea, to marry
him now, and forget pride and fool
ish inhibitions. To cover also the
matter of money, explain the pay
ment of workmen-Jack knew now
who had paid them, Bruce Ken
ming. To make Jack believe that
she was a trihe nearer him, and
thus, fevered by her approach,
make him the more insensible to
trickery.
But Mckenzie Joe had labeled the
first nugget sniper gold; which
could not possibly have come from
her claim. The mistake had not
been made again; the gold with
which that gravel had been sailed
thereafter had been the sort of gold
that would come from gravel, moth
ing else.
On went the reconstruction-the
well-planted fable about the English
syndicate, the FEASIBILITY and sense
of honesty established by the fail
ure of the main line of test pits,
the surprise of finding gold where
no one, even Bruce Kenning, had
expected it, thus absolutely pre-
Guiding the possibility of gold-bear-
ing sands in the territory where
Mckenzie Joe had put his faith.
It was easy to reconstruct the
rest of the picture. They had played
on Joe's taciturnity and his dis
like for them. Kenning evidently
knew his breed; quick disgust, the
desire to pull out and go on, once
relations had become intolerable.
So Mckenzie Joe had gone. And
Bruce Kenning had continued, sur
reptitiously, to dig where Mckenzie
Joe had dug; mining and geological
experience had told him that Nc
Kenzie was right. Then, with the
river bed discovered, quantity OF
screened gravel had been taken to
the worthless test pit on the bench
land and dumped there. No Won
der the bottom of the pan, when
Jack had washed that sample, had
been covered with gold. And now
the real discovery was in the hands
of Bruce Kenning. Jack Hammond
had signed it over that afternoon.
He knew that already the transfer
had been recorded.
Suddenly Hammond crouched,
alive to his surroundings. He was
within fifty yards of Mckenzie Joe's
workings. A faint sound, borne by
the brisk wind, carried the rasping
of the old ladder as someone began
an ascent of the shaft. A shadowy,
burdened figure appeared. Ham
mond called Bruce Kenning's name.
With that, the figure reached the sur
face, threw the heavy sack of gravel
from his shoulders, strove to run,
stumbled, then turned, weakly sup
plant.
Don't hurt me-" he begged. "I'm
not Kenning."
Hammond caught him, lifting him
clear of the ground. For an instant,
he held the man shaking in his pow.
erful grasp. Then, with hall
fling, he gave him freedom.
ITO BE CONTINUED