Klondike Kit's Chum, or, A Hot Strike on Vulture Hill — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

7 .* ae A ‘ =) on ‘ 6 - e 4 ‘ a fo “7S 4 ey »| > i =4 ™ = “a «, ‘74 Opry rd Ss c enderson would box a few rounds with | ame and then Bumin would put Hen- derson to sleep, and put him througha lot of tricks that never failed to draw a big audience. ‘That is how they became acquainted. But J’im at sea regarding one thing.’ | ‘What's that, Phil ?’’ ‘““The whereabouts of the little girl. When I met Bumm she wasn’t with him.’? : “Did Bumm havea patent rocker when you saw him ?”’ | “Yes, Said he was trying to introduce it on the Klondike,”’ ‘*Did you ever see him wash out any gold with it?’ “CNo.? ‘“Did any one else ever see him?’’ ‘Not that I know of.”’ “*Well,’’ said Kit, ‘‘let us once come up with the professor and his patent rocker again, and I'l] produce the little girl.’ ‘“You’re a phenomenon if you do,”’ ‘Oh, no; merely a good guesser. But look here, Phil. I’m at sea, too, in re- gard to one thing. Have you made a plunge into the sleuth business ?”’ *fHardly.”’ ‘“What do you get for finding the little gir] ??’ ** Not a soo.”’ **Nothing in it at all for you ?”? “T didn’t say that,’’ and Courtenay ~ coughed and looked embarrassed. ‘Well, waiting.’ go on,’’ urged Kit. ‘I’m ‘You see, Kit,’? went on Courtenay, slowly, ‘‘I took a liking to a young lady down at Helena, and she’s a cousin of this little Clara Bradley, and she told me 1f I would bring Clara back she would— er— become Mrs. oe: So, now, you have it.” lo GLORY BAL = ih es & bk PE BY ed ee MD “a OP ge gl Go ee s*« KLONDIKE KIT WEBKLY. 21 ‘‘Good boy!’’ said Kit, catching his chum’s hand. Now that Courtenay had unbosomed himself, he wanted to go on, but a weird sound, at this juncture, came echoing toward them through the gloom and both the friends started to their feet. The sound was a wail, a groan, a spasm of concentrated distress mixed up witha whole stave of discords. ‘Great blazes!’’ muttered Kit. ‘‘That’s a regular tom-cat chorus with a few coy- ote yelps thrown into help it out.’’ ‘*Do you wonder the Chinamen struck when their overseer is capable of a thing like that?’ queried Courtenay. | ‘‘But where does it come from ?”? ‘From every possible direction. Did you ever tun up against such chunks of melody before ?”’ Kit did not answer, but caught Courte- nay swiftly about the neck and dragged him down until both were lying flat on the rocks. ‘“What’s up?’ whispered Phil. ‘*Are your eyes good in the darkness ?”’ returned Kit in the same low tone. -“‘T can see fairly well.’ ‘Then look ahead—watch and listen!’ Low, gibbering voices fell on their ears. At the same instant, the dark forms of two coolies upstarted from behind a fringe of rocks, less than a dozen feet away. Boliver’s bass-viol had an attraction for the Chinamen as well as for Kit and Phil. Standing near the base of the cliff, the celestials stopped their chattering and looked upward. Then they put up their hands and one of them could be seen to rise into thie air above his companion’s head. “What's he doing ?’’ whispered Phil. ‘“Climbing a rope,’’ replied Kit. cos es see any rope.’”’ GES AS PREMIUMS—SEE PAGE 32, d et oe = “ae 7 > _o — . ty ‘ - ae a ont > « - ae) ss, Jet) - aa e ™4 LL eS el