The evening world. Newspaper, March 15, 1915, Page 13

THE. WO _ A Mystery-Romance ‘The Evening World Daily of the Frozen North By Ss. CARLETON (Copsright, 1007, by Gtrest & Seith,) CHAPTER I. emai expedition for gold there. BAD tired, Hasard' was climbing the November desolation of the height of land between him and Lastiuck Lake. It was time to “det out of the wilderness that had been a nightmare to him ever sihce he had been fool enough to join an-utter stranger in a mad The camp nifight not be absolutely [3-ttarving when he got back to it after his fortnight’s absence of useless pros- Vypeeting, but there was no “might be” as to the men's hanging on the raw 20ge of mutiny. Uniess be wanted to be up against both things, and the bv Srinter, alone, it was time to go. evi! ‘Me gained the top of the ridge that overlooked Ridgeway’s luckiess min- ‘Wag camip in the houseless north, five hundred miles from anywhere, ' Haserd pulled himself together to be ready to see the camp de- Instead in Ridgeway’s cabin the usual smoke was rising from ae makeshift chimney, the usual light shining from its window, _ “He hasn't gone,” he said out loud; he foremost of three men who failed behind him calied out antagon- wiptionlly: “What say?” WHasard pointed downward. “I sald “Ridgeway must be here still, j all. Give me the ore bag, Nel- 3 let you know about it in the i “ as coolly as if he were not eertein there was nothing in it worth letting any one know. “You'd better home.” we jodded on alone, cursing at a orgs an Rinse was 10° prove. &. Dew but he said not o1 h when he remetnbered the river valle; Se eta at tal it 1 and dropped it on hureshold. ‘fhen he stared in tmare. here ‘ as no sen of ew ore was only one per- use, and she was a& Hazara led: off the cap he 2 forgotten, and, stood foolishly, as @ man sometimesAtands when he is jagrasa. He had Pe mad Pade eg . Cae ‘petore e spoke quietly. thought | you'd ven went.up to meet too early, J’'m giad way?” he de- father?” potas a i hae sownere's. Ms. pinere 7 ere here,” said the girl Ppt tone’. Sather went out and dogs; and y “Why didn’t you go with SAA teoasht of ev contingency cept this—it seemed to him that no ene but # crazy man would have im- ‘this—and-then he saw Sophy y sort mean was that I ft and 6 her eyes on a level with his though Hasard was a tall man. there wasn't any chance for me te do anything else, When. I came ‘owt here I promised father I'd never ry or @ drag on him; and I have been both if I'd gone him now. There was no Aviv c ere was only one = are had to go. His bust: no atock in Ridge- noes, At "Nnece wererthe Whe: you had three when Rider soqng Lg Pe ; One he couldn't fins G sie the thi Anger, made him very mee, fees fate # drown tt best to take no rieks’about T helped him start. uldn’t make any of she continued, no pkg ont understand about "mar Be had to go.” mind telling me what of mutiny ‘ad gone Th werd - “Ridgeway hasn't gone!” CHAPTER Il. OU’RE back,” said the fore- man thickly. He stared him; she bad been just plain thank- dasedly at Hasard with- out moving to let bim pass. “Well, I'm glad.” “You'd bave been gladder if you'd kept off drink till I did come, turned Hasard grimly. He pushed Rider aside and shut the door on the two of them. “You might have tried ‘to keep sober, anyway! Man, couldn't you even see you were ail the protec- tion Miss Ridgeway had?” Rider brushed his hand across his not drink,” he said vacantly, “i sleep. 1 guess you needn’t remind me about Miss Ridgeway—I done my best for her. Mr. Hazard, I haven't more than what you'd call dozed off for a week. I haven't dared to, be- cause of her, The men have been clean, stark crazy. had to i in here, and I guess you'll have excuse it. I couldn't intrude onto Miss Ridgeway, and I could keep an eye on her from here. Things went hard before that”—he let out a string of epithets without apology—“Ridge- ‘way left, and I didn’t know but what they might get harder; | was scared solid what the men might do. There’ two doors to the bunkhouse, and I couldn't be at both of them; so I kind of thought it might be best for Miss Ridgeway if I stopped here. I ruessed the gang would get along for a walle without any foreman. “I'm sorry, Rider; I ot “ “There was a kind of mix-up with the men, of course, but nothing to start a girl’s father off in the middie of the night with all the cance and Indians we had, and leave her in the middle of it, /But rd—just told me she helped him get to Tabeak, get back hi y Chr! mas? know he can't, First piace, we're late in November now, e'll be too late at Tabeak, what cratch dogs there are there will have been picked up long ago. And knows what provisions get there—d never saw any! have to go on to the nearest Hud. son Bay post.” “Which he can't, without dogs. Rider, trying fiercely not to nod, at the stove and missed it. tramp it on snow-shoes to save the lives of the lot of us. NO, sir; he'll settle down in Tabeak —if_ever he gets there!” “What d'ye mean?” The intention in the tired draw! arrested Hazard in a much needed change of socks, if the rags he put on deserved the name. : "I mean his three Indiana mayn't want to go to Tabeak. If they don't, they've onlygot to cut down the Jong still-wa‘ going out of Bear Lake and strike the other chain straight home to their own Pir Ridgeway won't know the get there—uniesa they wouldn' “Joe wouldn't dare,’ hotly. “Joe was the worst of all, I took it, -If ever I saw Indians rubbed up 5} the wrong way till they were dangerous it was yours and Ridge- ways. I tell you straight, Mr, Hazard, I was mad when Ridgeway guppy that girl here with only you and pe atts care of her, but when I'd '® chewed on it I was glad she hadn't them got yours— hat father ces about re I wint tier he Ride e men pacified, t haven't seen any of them, ‘haven't out of the bunk- * She moked wecdeniy ore _ rt ts ow W at a dead But what see Rider,” he muttered. “Both yaur Indians are sone, Joe— int With father. Won't you come ack here for dinner?” she sald iy, and Hazard turned quite Brn ie had thought no better of priét, “but Joe—his own tru Sas and.servant! That, if he had “SBeeted showing, showed ! iin how me 3 Lastluck Lake. i Je OY" see,” fie goturned grimly, “It's H ik king of Sou to ask me to din- ™44 I can't finish the ates _ nd bag Host at the snaky thinga on the floor ne with him.” And a roar from fie bunk-house finished his period with no Lond emphasis, if staying were the better part. ‘What are they drinking?” asked sharp! “That stuff they make out of hem- lock—and the Lord knows It'd be Diessed funeral if it killed them; t! haven't obeyed one order I've given for a week. You d know the worst of the hole we're in, Mr. Has- ard. When Ridgeway left he as good as emptied our stores to take with him; all that wasn’t too bad for dogs to eat. The most he left was some barrels of hard bread-and truck he couldn't carry.” He prudently omit- ted a few bottles of rum. “We've flour—and no tea; rotten pork—-and no sugar! By the time I found out about the stores there was none of them left but the tobacco, and that Miss Ridgeway'd lugged up to her house with her own hands. And the men are crazy with fear of the pla before they know about starvation. Fear? What of?” b were not hiv idea of sandbags, | »- keep the wind my_ fee But, it's, not the bags I want ua for; I've pomething to say tc you ic chat!" Sho pointed to the bag UE faluywos brought home to be a les. P Tygon to Ruigeway, and Hozard actually 4 Anced, Ree como, with pleasur £6 ut-once outside It was not unre that fined his face, He raced 7 to his own vic, shouting ‘for jer ae ho, ran, and pulled uy fy. There had been no need ¢: idor himself was opening Hasari \sbaky door from inside, and standing bere as if it belonged to him. And ot only was, the foreman absent from Duakhouse, in face wee tallow, srallaw wf hard drinking; evea cM We on the door post, he swayed -f . ‘ 1 ‘aver’ pt Ai S tonnraws fe es ry y *% . * he stam- Pt t human nor yet a beast Rot!” grunted Hazard, and he went back to Sophy. He found her paring dinner, ‘You're late,” she said. “I hope I ven't spoiled things—though I may as well tell you I haven't much to spoil. Hard biscult and fried hare— and hard biscuit and molasses; there you have your firat course and your second. But I've got half a bottle of volar and I'm sure you need a drink.’ Hasard did; more than thirst was drying his throat to ashes. But it would be drier before drank her last bottle of whisky. “I'd aooner have coffee,” he ven- all ngs are she watched him over the stove. He was unsultably tall and strong to be cooking biscuits. There was a fine- drawn look about his face that she liked, just as she liked the steadiness of ‘his gray eyes. He was always so businesslike and comfortable; even stuck out here with a girl on his hands he would never be anything but—reliable, Somehow the quality seemed odd to the girl, in a man as 00d looking as Hazard. The biscuit was good, and they ate it, 1f by common consent they shied off the second course of hard bread and molasses. Presently he said: “The! something the matter with 3 they're less, and worse. ther can't back by Christ- mas, not before February; he'll have to go too far for supplies. And by that time we'd be dead. we've just enough food to get out with; If we can make snow shoes and toboggans I think we can fetch the first settlement.’ “T'll never g0,' cried, “no mat- ter what you do! ing, to give up; it’ father. Ii T have.” ‘ve a duty to the man, too.” Has- ard’s eyes were cool on her angry ones. “You've a plan already for going?” “Yes. T! "Sophy drew a hard breath— “you can leave mo out of it. I won't go! Father put every cent he had in the world into this thing, and since he's had to go away we've got to it out." A sudden appeal in the “we pleased Hazard. “I said I had some- shee to say to you about the rubbish ‘ought in from prospecting, and If it's only saving our lives thinking of, I suppose it won't any difference, but it'’s—this!" d, drew a tin pan from un- and held it out. “It's ‘d jumped up as she over- the pan on the cleared table. Before him, dull in the common lamp- ight, lay nugget after nugget of smooth, water-worn gold. CHAPTER III. ZARD had once before seen auch gold, but only once, For a moment he stood over it with a queer feeling ef physical sickness. “Sophy,"* he got out at last, and never noticed he used her given name. “Sophy!” She godded. “It's here; I don't know how much. Now, does that make any difference to the plan you had ‘already?’ Will you take the men out now?” “Oh, Lord, I don't know!" Hasard was touching the stuff, smelling it, tasting it mechanicall: It's like the first Klondike gold,” he commented heavily, and a hundred things fought in his mind before he could go on. “Why didn't Ridgeway tell me? Where did he find it?’ “I found it. I'd no right to speak to you the way I did aocout leaving here, but—well, you know you didn believe in him, and | was furious. 1’ lied to you; why should h have? And finding the gold means to him-—or to { T was certain the gold aut % but I never could find any- 1 was too ignorant how to look. lent in the end. The day after father left I—got frightened; the men were fighting so in the bunk- house. I slipped out, up river.” “But there never wus anything e” know that; I only spoke about the river to ie you understand where I went, I crossed it, and climb- ed up the bank at the other side, and up the hill, till it began to iP into a As it is, Ste t dried-out pothole, that didn’ ‘ou don't know what & LF -MAN 7 Waiting for an Apology! 2h. ‘Was still solid in front of me, and west there was no break in cur cliff; but south there was a sort cf round Place,& deep depression without any outlet, There's a pretty high ridge between it and our dried river, for I found a bit of a brook still running, and the water went south. It was Seeing. hollow with guill raining into it all round, iike spokes cf a wheel, ‘tt 3 of gold; I was looking for a piace to stay in till Rider was sober and could manage the men; and I——Truly, Mr. Hazard, | thought it was an earth- Quake, but it was only the ground caved jn—just gone away from under m shell-ige, right in the middie of the hollow. I went down over my hea When 1 climbed out of the nd stuff I was all bruised and stupid at first—see my hands! And then—I saw these!” She pointed to the nuggets. “Everywhere—under my feet—sticking in the gravel.” “Were you hurt?” ing at the gold. never thought about it.” ‘You might have been killed,” said Hazard sternly; and then he thought of his trade, and his failure at it. “It's ie was not look- “t know,” quickly, “father ali kept worrying you to go north; must have got turned round about the Anyhow, this wasn't he river; I know you've never there. It was a sort, of big show till I fell into it. I meant to tell you as soon as I saw you to-night, but at first | was"—— She looked at him frankly, “Oh, I was too, glad to see ‘ou—and then, somehow I couldn't You'd been so far for nothing, ahd you were so cross about fathy You never really beileved kn about the gold here, and wasn't just guessing it, and I got—angry with you.” “If he'd known where to find it, I'd have believed,” said Hazard simply. “But you know—to come out here with @ man who says he knows the very spot to go to, and then doesn't— it couldn't help sounding like @ fabi “It been true,” almost And for a moment id could make even a girl for her own father had practically abandoned her, and suddenly caught her ee, “t know I'm a fool with joy about it,” she apologized. “But what are we going to do?” “It depends,” slowly because he was thinking like a millrace. “Supposing it’s an isolated ket, or perhay it 4 series of them, not worth while doing anything. couldn't carry out what we id it wouldn't be enough to re and die for.” ‘But if it isn't?” ‘Your father put in the mor declared abruptly. "I put in but my knowledge, and that have gone back on me." Th not a trace of bitterness in hi or his mind. “And my prom! atay here till spring. If the ore’s here, we'll o It steadily. can Ww not only father’s own he's borrowed—and other things, Ho's ruined if you don’t pull bim out!" It was Haszard’s opinion that Ridgeway deserved ruin, but he only looked at the gold consideringly. He jad seen muose tracks that very morning; Hider could take out couple of men who and they They had 9 flour, and enough mo- lasses if it were doled out as @ luxury —and suddenly knew he was building on luck and nothing else. They might over the winter, and they might Hazard dnswered 5) “Nobody's seen the gold,” she said, “not even Rider. I didn't know how pd men would take it, a0 I held my “Fost as well, till I see how much 8, It had dawned on him that for the sake of another man's gol: might not have much attraction for bis riffraft; for might refuse to work it. struck, and struck obstinately enough, there would be nothing for it but to go. And he was suddenly as stiff about staying at Lastluck Lake as he had been about leaving it. “When I know what your astrik romises I'll have a talk with Rider; o knows what stores there are better than I do. “Oh, th another thing!” Soph: exclaimed. “Mr, Hasard, father ne' could have taken all th: dt py 2 in that one canoe he had—it would have sunk! I was down at the store while he was loading, and I took what to- bacco there was because Joe, your Indian, was filling up his clothes with it; but I didn’t take a (eyed else. And when I went k ir father’d gone I seemed to miss a lot of things he hadn't taken, I don't see where they went to!” “More than you think would go in a canoe.” He either did not, or would not, see the tentative look she gave him. “Four men can use a good deal.” It would not have been past Ridgeway or Joe, who was ently his ally in the whole aff to build and cache a second canoe somewhere, but there was no need Sophy should ever find it out. “Oh, I guess we'll manage; we've had plenty all along, such as it was.” And this time he was bitter; Ridgeway’s stores had sickened him all summer. "It's no good to talk about it,” he amended hastily, “we've got to do we can do! But I want to know something, Miss Ridgeway.” His face, that was too hard for his years, flushed a little. “Do you trust me to be the judge of whether we go or atay? I mean, to decide whether or not you've struck ore enough to risk the men's lives for? I know T've got to risk them, and yours, any- how; but I've got to be ire, too, which way is the right one. And I want to know if you'll feel I'm doing my best, whichever way it goes.” “I don't think it's worth your while to ask. You know!” Her blue eyes were as steady as his gray ones, mething in them dazzled Hazard. He took the hand held out to him with a gelf- control that did him credit. “That's all, till to-morrow, then.” Perhaps he was tired, for he won- dered how he could ever take care of the girl all winter, and not let out he loved her. As he turned to go, something caught his nerves more than his hearing, It was just the noise a man might make who had been stoopin, to peer in a window, and had slip. e straightened up again; and un- leas he was dreaming he heard that man's feet as he stole away. “Put away the gold, and lock up after me,” he advised, with an ex- cellent carelessness, “Good night!" And was out of the house quite quickly enough to have seen any one lurking in the open round It in the light of the whit> was no one to Hazard gat in a window cabin, on guard, until dawn, But pernaps if he had opened his shut door and looked out in an op- ite direction he might felt leas secure; for would have seen &@ shadow detach itself bodily from darkness and melt silently of his CHAPTER IV, T wae e different Hazard who woke in the bunk where he bad flung last ho dared to sleep. The and Sophy 0 Cod 9. all he knew the men, Magazine, Monday, March 15. By Robert Minor|? his balf-roused brain, sang in his blood, sent him flying to the frosted window to peer through it on the new day—the day he had never thought ‘would dawn for Lastiluck Lake. After breakfast he and Rider went with Sophy to the spot where ahe had stumbled on the gold. Hasard’s ex- pert knowledge told him the value of the find. He said: “You're all right, Miss Ridgeway. ruck it! Here's luck to your shouted Rider scornfully. another Klondike—that's what He dropped on his knees and ecrabbied with both hands in the pay gravel. “It's not only the big bits, either; it’s every bit of it pay-dirt, right down to the bed rock—and Lord knows how far that ls! Book here”— beld out a handful of fine atuft hi ana blew into it carefully—“look at that!” fold; gor gold—and enough of it to keep us washing for two years, after we've Got out the big stuff; and’ “And what?” demanded “And no more good to much cheese,” said Ride: “We can't work it, Mr. men won't work it. They even turn out for me this morning, They mean going, and we can't do anything without them. Supposing we go, too, and come back next spring —where'll our gold be then? me- body'll have heard of it and got out ©: can't make out to hi before us, And we Pi dd it, either; it’s all come too this stuff'll have our bones lying in it; it's like laughing at us now,” cried the man unexpectedly. “For what'll be the good of it to any one but Ridgeway, when we've kept her"—he eonnies over his shoulder to the girl em and out of hear- to ‘You're goli ing—"hei death to get it?” s to stay—work itt” Sophie demanded. “I guess we' A get the claim staked,” returned Hazard dryly. “We'll get at it right after dinner.” on earth? We're a million m people.” “I dare say. But we'll stake her right now, all the same. Four-inch stakes, too, and we'll see they're ed lettered, Meantime, I'm go- ing to break into the debouches of a couple more gullies. You two go back to camp. He was an hour at his breaking-in, and he had not thought that when he climbed out of his third hole he would be shaking; but he was. If he was not a particularly unselfish person, ia first thought was that Sophy need ever have another care in this world hen once this gold was bullion; he was even willing that Kidgeway should be rich, too; nothing mattered, firet of all, but Sophy. As for him- weif, be could do with all that was coming to him. Rider should work re." en would only stay on the same basis, then that way he would bribe them to it—and trust to luck to fecd them. No hardships or hin- drances would matter, when once that gold was bullion, But it was odd that somewhere underneath his elation lay @ queer thought that it would not be bullion easily; and as he happened to lift his eyes to the hard rim of hills that was his only horizon, some- thing in the look of them amote Has- ard’s mind to dumbness. “The Lord knows I'll have plenty to fight without looking for trouble,” he thought, forgetting he had been gure that Sophy's was not the first foot on the gold, and for the first time he knew what Rider meant when he said the nuggets laughed at imeelt when st them. It was the terrible wil round him he had to fi men, oF ee a, 1913" Aran erabthy ota See os a ee with the sense of near him, the need of heavy; ‘or the first time the spy of last ni been 0: low when he reac! it, and was probably a reality had been too clever on ite feet for him. he thdugh swiftly, and turned ‘to Sophy. “Did you lock your door when yop went with ue?” “T lock€d it, and it was locked Rider and I got back, but the was gon She glanced at Hasard and was frightened. “I wish I'd never told you," she cried. “Don’t look Iike that, thi wf er ae I don't want you to asl men about It. I néver would have mef- tloned it if I hadn't known Rider would say it was gone.” “Tt t y_ gone, Hasard, “for I know who took {i that was one of the men! Even posing I ii’ gal to ete mine on @ 'ree-forsall it—whicl ion't the way I'd begin. Anyh lan't the mine; Ita your personal pert; o ors Tt It ian't, the y that got to be returned. man who keeps it will-find he's to pull the laboring oar. I know bg them.” “ * inpose #0,” she admitted. “But Ti 3 we'll you; iy juat when "t get on without _ wiwe, cant And if we cowldn't— , I'd deserve all I got it T began by Hiageway ‘hf to your Ri se “r wen ine Kpgenregh eald. flatly, an was no! wa: d'Hasard knew her int better than his, Now he only his head. “Got to straighten them out,” he returned. ‘Please go into the house." It was not said with any emp! even, but Miss ee ale 9 wes fended. She marched of wines looking at Hasard, which was a for he was rather @ sp! he strode over to the his canvas clothes that were for the weather. The one did look at him took in Hi abr brett plain t! the entering Sophy through a locked door: fis “Hold on, Mr. Hi acared look that sat uddly on him— ‘just one second! I don’t trul; any of the men took that “Then it must havesbeen you roughly. “There ien't any one olne. Rider looked up at t if loomed above them. he murmured, truck dumb, What!" exclaimed foresee. unk. CHAPTER V. = HERE were thinga in the bunk-house, besides the men, that might have given Hazard food for apeech, but at firat he did not see them. ‘The stuffy gloom was almost dark- ees, after the light outside; he could just make out the sheifilke rows of empty bunks round the walls, and the rough board table that ran down the centre of the place. By the red-hot stove the men were gathered bunches, all standing. Not a man spoke as Hasard came in, but every one of them looked at him, and some- thing in the direct gaze of the. many eyes he had been wont to see lowered sullenly struck him like the sudden snapping of a tension-screw. “Well,” he said, “I came down here to tell you men we'd made our strike at last—Rider can tell you what sort of one it is—and the only other thing I've got to say of it at this present minute is that the man who kn about it last night, before even. Rid did, and made bis own strike out of Miss Ridgeway's house this morning, had better hand over her gold—now!" Hie eyes had got used to the and they ran from one to an the shiftiess, stubbo: Some of the ut no one spoke. In the background @ boy sobbed chokingly. “Stop that!” suid Hasard si the sob had been pl the boy was quiet, w, Olean, cut out with bis glance the big Bwede he had at least found honest, verse always seamed to have a ‘head on your shoulders; tell ne what" his heel as on a pivot. “What's that?” he out. Nelson, who had sald “wi antagonill the even! with whom Hasard LU chances while he) pe ‘stolen it. It was”. at Masard ft FS 5 Hey i i fi Hh 5 3] it Po age ; tsb ais Hg I i 1 i belleve Cf & oF wi T wish had of the men knows, anyhow; but boy down the way he ‘Olaen batore Has back screaming; the mouth ‘and falls T was not any thought of Ye gold, f had Soc Phe Seal metas “Bo I should pose,” for Bernstein, all he saw f.4 and liver.” Hasard there Iwas aoe vas iran ba wet staying: there A What we've th ever thought to Ror payee you, ett T ntarvecwnlch 1 aoe! Any one who wants to mn work on iay: “Only before better hear she Ps ney. Even with tol wi cle Ustance ‘3 web see any ihgons, Taisen Zorn a sande t de a or tl dred miles, anyhow, ad any of you know the same Anding tt for yo ing paddled up by Ind Sg can think over it. who wants to stay with out the winter will have home with in the spring, © @ roof and a fra to bustle tor foo@.* ‘There's not one of i haps Olsen, who eae along for one night put of can count up how. m have did t say”