Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

CHEAP = into a can, which some one on the raft pulled up-and emptied into the sluice box. The first section of the casing sank into the ground until less than a foot of it pro- truded. It had been five feet in diameter. On an improvised anvil you bent an iron — plate into another length of casing, just suf- ficiently less than five feet in diameter to slip down inside the first. You lowered that in place, bit by bit, scraped the creek bed from beneath it, aud forced it down. When you had sunk it until only three or four inches of its upper edge were within the first length, - you were still not down to bed rock, and the can had not carried so much as one flake of gold to the surface. You fashioned another piece of casing still smaller in diameter, to fit inside the second — one, dug a way for it, hammered it down. And came to nothing. Meanwhile you wasted ey after day, while your scant store of food shrank with- in its containers. Quong blended an emer- eency pint of brandy with spirits of am- monia and Jamaica ginger from the medi- cine supply, into a spree that lasted a day and a half. Toward the end of that day and a half he fell into the ereek; the immer-_ sion awakened the tTheumatism that was never altogether absent from his thin hips, and for two more days he was useless. No diving could be done with less than a full crew, so three and a half days were wasted there. The shaky pump fell apart; repairs that should have taken an hour occupied your bungling crew for half a day. And all the while the sacks that held your food erew looser around their contents, and more wrinkled. You lengthened your stays under water, trying to offset the time you had lost. You. stayed down too long day after day, and you paid for it. Your body became a thing of infinite pain: an agony sat in each mus- cle, breathing became a feat accomplished only with conscious effort, your heart pounded. against the walls of its prison. Working below the ee the ground, driving lengths of casing d patiently srumbling bowlders of slate—you- were never fully conscious. The weight and — velvet-blackness of the water drugged you: ae pains were such as an elemental be- two whites remained amiable and ee bloated sea toad you resembled— i might feel: a vague aching that could not be traced to any particular part of your body. But when you came up out of your well to rest and eat and sleep, you came as if from an anesthetic—with augmented Ca- - pacity for suffering. You were a quivering, tingling lump of flesh; you wondered that the blood did not spring oes Boas. pores each time you moved. Your brain, too, awakened to pain. You saw your second-hand equipment with mi- croscopic clearness: the rattling pump, ‘the treacherous water wheel, the worn air line, the rubber suit, with its patches, its frayed spots, and its insecure seams. You shud- dered, and knew you would never have the courage to trust your life to these things again—until it was time to go down on: the morrow. — You came to hate your three Saas assistants with a bitterness ‘that was not - sane. You tried to ignore them, and failed. You studied them for hours on oak spying upon them between apparently closed lids, listening: to their talk, even to their breath- ing when they slept. You had had no illv- sions when you first en nployed them, you had taken them because no other labor was _to be had on your terms. You laughed and clapped them on the back when they made their early blunders. You shrugged and said: “ Things like that will happen,” when Hogan lost a horse and two weeks’ food crossing the South Fork bridge. Whe Quong’s drunkenness and resultant rheuma- _tism held up the work for three and a half days you were not able to laugh, but you kept most of your rage to yourself. Gradually your restraint left you; these three men took it away with their careless inefficiency, their half-hearted laboring, and their ingrained habits of time wasting. You. bellowed at them, nagged them, cursed them; all to no advantage. The Chinese 1 re- mained glum, secretive, and shiftless; the | shiftless, You stopped speaking to them except when _ something had to be said, and you learned : to hate them. You despised dea at the more = hee rad not deserted you after the first few days’ labor killed their dreams of find- Ss Eomicboo Eom: