The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-12-01
Douglas Trails a Gambler
epyRloHr ,ssa NEA sERWeE. Me

| 1t out, went back to the cotfee shop the next day, though, and ex- plained that was looking for my uncle, John Douglas"
 And I thought your uncle was my father. I saw a chance to To- cate him, at last, through you, possibly to hurt him. by hurting you. But I never could have, honey" Her smile revealed the love that had grown out of her hate.
 Ara and John could find no trace of any John Douglas in Salt Lake City. Then one day, when they had almost given up hope, John found picture of Arnold Benthorne in the rotogravure section of New York newspaper. Benthorne and his wife had been guests at a costume ball, and the financier had gone dressed as a miner.
 "Benthorne made only few mis- takes" Douglas said, but that was one--a fatal one :" Dawson gave no indication that he had noticed the word "fatal"--as the young man continued: had one picture of the man I was trailing, an old, faded print. But 1t showed the man with beard. Benthorne's picture was astonishingly similar Then Ara had one of the pictures of her father copied and we sketched a beard on his face. The result was so perfect we were convinced that Benthorne was our man.
 "You would have thought that dressing as a msner for a costume party was the last thing that Ben thorne would ever have done. I guess he was so confident that the past could never bother him, but he overplayed his hand Perhaps I'd better explain" he added, not ing Dawson's ulspoken questions.
 "The real John Douglas was Big Red, my uncle, as I've already told you. He was a proSpector in the Yukon, went to Alaska in the first gold rush. For years he grubbed along, making little strike, always looking for that one great mine. Then he disappeared Into the un- mapped interior.
 For years no one heard of him. The family. my father and the others, lost track of him, believed him dead. That opinion would have remained unchanged If l had not got job with the Great North. ern Mining Company, after grad- uatng from college.
 Tn going over some data for a survey, found that John Doug las had sold a rich claim to the company in Seattle in 1918, long after my uncle had disappeared. l told my father about 1t and he sent me to Alaska to check on the sale. It took me over a year to search out old miners who had known Big Red personally, and to check 20- year-old records.
 T had one piece of real luck. The old editor of one of the Juneau papers had photograph of my uncle, taken just after he had filed on the claim which the Great Northern later bought. Pictured with Big Red was gambler, a bearded fellow named Benson.
 1T never liked this fellow, Ben son. the old editor told me. Red and I were good friends and I told him that Benson was a crook. But Red seemed to like him. After Red went back to his claim, this Ben- son fellow disappeared
 T reported the whole thing to my father and we agreed that Ben son probably either won or stole uncle's claim. If uncle had sold his claim in Seattle, in 1916, as the rec- ords showed, he fevcr would have gone back to Alaska without seeing his family"
 From there the trail grew faint A single. slim clew. was a brief letter. addressed to John Doug- las. Salt Lake City" in the com pany files. That was the last com munication the company had with Douglas, subsequent efforts to lo- cate him having failed.
 On that vague lead. young John Douglas had come to Salt Lake, found Ara. After they discovered