Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

) Re MP Ce bk ENE PRE ee) ete ee sey Wee in FE Gs a yy ‘ 1 ALY Rb) eA na Te ae yt {wit OR Suttb ah ae to the Gabin: gan and Evans. down the trail ‘steadily, and took ‘turns damning the Chinese. z It was early afternoon ‘when € Quone rode up the trail. ‘His face was gray under its dark skin, and his mouth was not so much sourly drawn down as drooping. His clothes were dirt-caked; he got stiffly. down from his horse, but the one he led was. full- packed with food. “ What’s the matter?” Evans ‘demented. : ~ The Chinese ignored the tall man and turned to where Dariel was coming — from the cabin. _ ““ Dam’ hoss fallum off blidge. Bimeby ketchum. Wet lika hell. tism—bad.” He rubbed one hip. -“ Get the horse unpacked and something for us to eat,” the diver said, and went back Leuma- Mid-afternoon found ariel ander weler again. An hour’s work got the new length of casing in place, and the can began to travel up and down through the water. He worked now in loose gravel that made his ~ task the simple one of filling { the can, send- _ ing it up, driving the casing down, ee 2 up another canful of gravel— . His mind did not go away from fis body to- -day; the thought of nothing except his immediate task. This oneness was paid for by full consciousness of the pains that racked his frame; his chest. burned with suffocating fire, his head spun, each muscle seemed to tear_as he used it. with a haste that. kept him panting. When he came up. to the raft, ‘the bare wooden cleats in the a were as tractor-prints in a golden road. That evening he found a change in Ho- ‘Their eyes still were bright, but some of their hilarity was gone; they didn’t laugh so much; thoughtful. Later he saw them walking to- gether, along the creek in twilight, talking, When they came indoors for the inevitable cribbage game he found speculation in their eyes. They glanced past their cards at him, surreptitiously. ‘Presently the fire in his match on his overalls, and held it over the ‘pipe. Go down. 1 himself, their hides, and ma He worked : they were — well for four hours. “ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ac Thanks.” » The diver ee no ge in he word. - All next. oe Hogan and yank fawned ‘upon their ‘employer, awkwardly trying to anticipate his desires, and between times they studied him with hard, bright eyes. ‘Dariel, understanding, ‘drove them with un- tempered harshness, gave them sneering thanks, or none, ae their courtesies, and | kept them silent. with. contemptuous aloof- ness. He understood them: they wanted more of his gold. Thee had bargained for more, Given ihe ak ceconavement, ey could come out with it: a wheedling sug- gestion that they be given a bonus for their worthlessness. ‘He knew them: greedy for the gold he was taking from the creek. — When he got the last of the find, when _ the basin’s po them their chance. He would listen to their. pleas; - and_ then he would speak for He would tell them all that” pocket was empty, he would give these bitter “months — had — told him. He would give them every cent he had _ promised. them, and not a cent more. He would brew out of his hatred an eloquence that. could burn through the thickness of ee them for once see themselves with honest eyes. Until then he fended them off. Meanwhile they took gold from the creek, took it out in a can that came up twisted id bulging around its burden; washed the gold, packed it in oil cans, and sank them in the stream below the raft, where they would be safe from chance prowlers. By the end of the third day, four cans were grouped on the stream-bottom; four cans that held more than a hundred pounds of ‘smooth-grained gold apiece. Over seventy thousand. dollars. His. Each day Dariel went down into his iron _Except when he dragged himself to fable he spent the rest of his days and nights. en his bunk. Toward the last he was but dimly aware of the others—the fawning fat Hogan, the fawn-— ing slender Evans, and the silent Chinese. pipe died, and he felt in his pocket for a match. - ‘Hogan dropped his cards, struck a- Only his hatred kept. him conscious of them at all. The world was bereft of -sounds—_ the ceaseless pulsation in his ears alone was _ audible—and he saw the men cas dim _ Oo <S m = comicboo CO