The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 30, 1905, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. ° DFX. with siren now “Pardners,” a highly literary and very human study of a phase of West ern life, is from the pen of Miss Ger lithle to irude Dix of. Weimar, Placer County. "‘,‘,y;‘:;—::l.,‘gg t P?;y.m(!)]::fg Cal. Miss Dix is the author of thc hat the soul n:ust find within two widely read novels of somc years And so the man who had been a%o, “The Image Breakers” and “The the selfish conqueror found Girl ¥rom the Farm.” Although Eng- DN /the relic of a vanished lish by birth, Miss Dix has spent many ¢ ted laboriously ye#rs in a close study <€ California et a e mihing camp life, and her Western China- stories are winning recognition in the cher for American magazine field the dav's _— at a store LL the & The store he because he found me Gilbert, and . < 3 m m the pe ¥ ) 1o ( r re, half that Gilbert as p It was dusk i . - Gold Run and the 1 t sh dozen section hands, g a s » make their even- y & ‘ orded him the op- - » k into a corner and w rtner. He hadn’t should have known ss moving in his precise going replying without animation to tions of his customers, At last cleared out together, and he 11 reading lamp, which to make his nightly prepa- locking up, unaware of the waiting figure by the stove pulled his hat over his e: him, asking him in a low voice eyes to weigh the gold dust which he held r lus out to him in a sm glass bottle. g Tired after the da work, Gilbert = he k v cale poured it into his apothecary’s ith tk glance at the stra indifference He pushed n his forehead and heard his own voice fill the store as though t longed to some one else. 1 t you know me , to his triumph, did He tremblingly raised the hey gazed at one another— h the pleading of the re- ving dog, the other off his i in his intense surprise. But in oment Gilbert turned his back, ng down the lamp and nodding rd the scz he said n cold, out waiting, ac- om, to know what goods ge. he pushed counter with a wort tones, ding to cust would take money ture of dismissal Brand stumbled ou 1dly and sat in the shadow of a4 box car. G had not forgotten. He remem- bered only too well, as though forty years ago were yesterday Brand re- zed for the first time that he had ated him because he had taken nd he still hated. Crouch- the car, he hed him juietly out, lock his door and ome toward the house with the i windows. Brand felt a sense justice. His 'h t cried out to his old partner, who went by as calm- 1l capacity for emotion dead ir 1, “Don’t you remem- ber her eye Don’t you remember?" For those eyes seemed to justify everything. Once looked into -they enthralled and possessed with their strange magic. He recalled how on the night Gilbert had told him he was going to marry the niece of Martinez he had seemed to see them pleading as though flutter like a frighte and cage her masterfully, fault? He hadn’t bee himself in the world! ANNOUNCEMENT, enable h by OIRTRODE Glipert went in, py force of habit for forgiveness, saying that she would changing his coat and shoes and sit- never have consented but for a mis- ting down room of open windows. And if he had order, been first to soothe those flutterings than as that his shattered. it. There had only been Juanita and its frame 090000 IRAND COULD O¥LY SILHZHE ENOY G To AEEP BoadY AXND SOTL TOGEZTHLER: 00000002 50000603000 Each Week for the Best————— For the purpose of encouraging California and Western writers, by offering a consideration for short stories equal to that paid by the best magazines, and for the purpose of bringing young and unknown writers to the front. the Sunday Call announces a weekly fiction con- test in which a cash prize of $50 will be paid each week for the best comfort The flames - nigher. . Gol story submitted. There is no section of America more fertile in ma- the W terial for fiction or more prolific in pens gifted to give spirit to the the ceil m: the hopes uth flickered and brightened in his 3 This cabin just as good t had ever been he forgot the signs of change t had appalled him on his journey from the railroad— the grass grown road; deserted claims and devas- tated homesteads. writing if you cannot afford to have it typewritten. tains were lavish givers; induigent mothers, spolling the children who crowded about their knees to fill material at hand than is California and the West. Therefore the Sun- 5 2 day Call offers $50 for the best story submitted each week by a West- ern writer. Stories of Western life 2nd Western characters will, as a rule, be given the preference, but all strong stories, and especially . ctrong stories by new writers, will receive careful consideration. 2 2 _ Type- ‘ 4 written copy is the easiest to read and will receive the first consider- . < etion from the editor. but do not hesitate to send a story in hand. will Fiity dollars in cash for a story of not less than 2500 words and 3 3 not more than 3500 words is approximately $17 per thousand words, or 1.7 cents per word. The highest price paid by the leading magazines for the work of any but the very best writers is rarely more than two cents a word, more often one cent and a half, and generally one ° . b - : cent. With the majority of magazines the writer, after his story is ac- e tho : cepted, is compelled to wait until the publication of his story before o Each story will be judged strictly upon its literary merit. e is paid, a period of seidom less than six months, an he d usually from : p nine months to a year. The stories accepted in this contest will be ) % £ 4 5 paid for immediately upon publication, z2d will be puhlished on t:a h ; first Sunday following the judeing of the manuscripts. 0000000000000000000000000000000000 Submitted to ‘R him so much as the destruction of a thought of Juanita with the setting happened to Juanita? He trembled ' 5 e menltal picture he }md unconsciously that belonged dml her,lh ARt g 8 - - - at his well spread table. carried with him for many, many nothing, relieved from the necessity of o omely joys and sorrows he was understanding. and he had felt her But he could not eat. His books, his years, Some e after his pnrtner% oL, frge 1o move at will on a trium- filled with poignant anxieties as for that Juanita had been happy to the ed bird in a fyrniture were in their usual perfect disappearance a friend had given him phal progress through the great cities some dear lost child. last. something more intimate news of Brand, who, in the parlance of the world. But the pale, ragged Two weeks later, as Brand sat in The dusk crept on, and the snow treasured surroundings was of those days, had “struck it rich.” ghost, appearing so suddenly out of his cabin mending his shoes. the door which had begun to fall again tapped Had he found the calm He had been more than prosperous the shadows of his store, ble to help portrait of his good wife hurled from and his beautiful wife, whom he this image like the wraith of a ctorm crossed the threshold, shutting it be- two oid men did not heed it. In tha and torn to fragments it adored, was sparkling in silks and shattering the reflected loveliness on bind him, and mechanically rubbing his warm glow of the fire they chatted, would not have shocked nor disturbed jewels. . And so Gilbert had always the quiet bosom of a lake. 0663000000005 9000000000090300000000 0000000000000000000 wanting for as he asked.' After the peaceful years matter. No story will be considered that is less than asoo mor more than sm;orflsifllflt&. The length of the story must be In the selection of stories names will not count. The unknown writer will have the same standing as the popular author. As one of the obiects of the Sunday Call is to develop a of Western writers no stories under noms de plume will be considered. If a story earns publication it will’be well worth the writer's name. Stories not Be 3 An_author may submit as m manuscripts mewfimwflhurfimdmv#mmmmwm »Always inclose return postage. No manuscripts will be returned nkuucompunild'hymnpo‘mt. . Write on one side of paper = name and address legibly on 1 addscss to the %fi EDITOR OF THE CALL. & mat. Brand looked up. unable to move or speak, as he came straight to the fire with the air of an inquisitor. For a moment he stood erect before it in a silence that could be feit. “Why are you here?” he asked, turn= ing suddenly. “I was broke,” answered Brand. “I thought iIf I came back to the moun- tains—" He halted, unwilling to re- count his futile expectations. “But”—returned the other, “I thought —I was told you'd made it.” “So I did.” Brand raised his eyes and dropped them againsbefore the searching ones that looked down at him with, it seemed, a very passion to get at some truth. “But I lost it all on the Comstock in '74.” “In _'74!" repeated Gilbert. He paused as though in search,of some knowledge that he feared, and with averted face, moistened his dry lips. Then he breathed a name, at first timidly and softly, tifen as a stern interrogation. “Juanita > lge died.” said Brand. “She died in '70. Some of the tense look went out of Gllbert's face and he sat down on an empty box near him. He looked at his old partner and h eyes were fot hard any longer—only doubtful and troubled. Brand understood their question. He answereq it. “Oh, no, I'd nothing but luck while she was alive. “But aybe,” said Gilbert, “there ‘was some trouble that kind of worried her? “Trouble!” answered Brand, reassur- ingly, almost gladly, “Juanita didn't know what trouble was. She was as happy as a bird. Only she seemed to fade and wilt—the doctors coudn’t tell why. I'd money to burn then, but money couldn’t save her. There was nothing could.” “Nothing could have saved he: Gil- bert repeated. “Ay! sometimes they will go like that. She was happy, you said?” Brand drew himself up, forgetting his poverty and rags. “I made her happy. She had all the pretty things she liked and baskets of ers all the time. I can see her now—on her couch—buried in flowers—smiling out of them.” Gilbert also saw this picture. * “She was a flower herself,” he sald in tones of rellef. You don’t want no harm to come to a flower. That was why I helped you to get away,” he added as though to himself. Brand did not understand this last remark, but feeling reinstated, he drew a chair to the fire for Gilbert and proudly did the honors of the cabin. “She was a flower.” he echoed as they reseated themselves, “and her eyes"—he spoke earnmestly in a sort of solemn self-justification—"“it's only a few women have eyes like that, and when they have they drive a man mad. He don’t care for nothing else in the world, pard.” “Yes, that's so,” said Gllbert. Ha stooped and threw a log on the fire in his old fashion, and as the sparks flew upward, smiled to himself think- ing of certain events in the history of Juanita’s flight that Brand did not know. “That night when you took her away,” he said, “I was in the garden, almost as near as I am to you now.” “When we went from Martinez's place?” asked BErand with a slow effort of memory. “Yes, I was there. I lay watching a long time in the garden. I didn‘t dare g0 in and speak to her for I couldn’t believe she’d forgotten what she’d promised and I half thought the house was empty. Then you came along the lane at the back with horses. A match flared at one of the windows. It was for you. You came in and went past me through the shrubs. As I looked into the house from the veranda I saw you beoth.” “Yes,” said Brand, and he too re- membered as one remembers a tale that is told. “I had to go in and help her find something she had lost on the stairs. She was always afraid of the dark.” “Ah, poor thing, poor thing!™ said Gilbert, thinking of Juanita in that darkness whence we come and whither we go. “I put out the light when we came back,” said Brand. “I thought I heard something.” “Yes,” returned Gilbétt, “a man 1s a fine mark in a lighted room.,” and he smiled his strange smile again. “And after that,” Brand went om, “a few minutes after—there was a shot —somewhere near the front gate.” “T shot it,” said Gilbert. “T met Mar« tinez there. He had heard you were in town to see Juanita and was mad to get at you. We went round and round in the dark ke two bulls. Then I got hold of his revolver and shot it into the ground. I wanted you to get away.” There was a long silence. “Her eyes made me mad,” sald Brand onca again, and at his partner's nod of complete understanding he vaguely comprehended that Gilbert had known the diviner madness in which the de- sire for the welfare of the beloved is greater than the instinct of possession. ’ Gilbert pondered also. If he went into partnership with Brand again and kept him supplied with tools and provisions so that he could go on prospecting the neighbors would think he had taken leave of his senses. But that wouldn't It was worth so much to him to have the satisfaction of knowing destrayed opened without warning and Gilbert on the panes like soft fingers. But the What had ‘shoes where there should have been with sagely nodding heads, of the days of long ago. The past slipped under their fingers like the frayed string of amn ancient resary made precious by one glistening. jeweled bead, and once or twice they touched the bead again in a sort of sacred community of possession, whis- pering the name “Juanita.” Without.the snow folded its i | : : i RULES. 1 marked in mountains, con- accepted will be returned at once. Those selected cealing the scars one each week. that mar them and the red gashes upon their flanks, till they were vir- ginal and unsullied as in the days be- fore men came to riflethem. And near the cabin where the two old partners were sleeping it lay very thick and white like a sign of peace and reconciliation. ipts as he desires, but no Vi 00000000000000000000000002 ¥