Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 4, 1926 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

. SILENT had the blood of gamblers coursing fever- ishly through their veins. Iron filings, and a magnet, men were the filings, and Quartz City the irresistible magnet. . They came. From store and farm, fac- tory and ranch, the rush started. Over Cajon Pass and the Tehachipi raced the dwellers of civilization; from all points on the desert came the prospectors, men who had long followed the olden lure, the gold- en lure. New hope lighted their sun-etched faces; their inflamed eyes saw success at last. Quartz City became the Mecca of all such hot-blooded gamblers. That hard little mining settlement had leaped to fame overnight. For years its inhabitants had dug, antlike, into the mountain wall, lug- ging black-streaked quartz from the ar- . tificial caverns to dump into the maw of the huge crusher; long and hard they had labored for scarcely-remunerative gold. And now, by accident, came the discov- ery that the whole settlement and the mountains around were rich with scheelite. The greedy men of Quartz City, led by Pig Grabow, tried to keep the wonderful news from the world, but word leaked out. The desert air seemed to spread the mes- sage with the rapidity of a sandstorm. The human stampede began. ‘“ Tungsten at Quartz City! Easy fortune at Quartz City!” : Silent Jerry heard the news over his camp fire at Salal Wells. A Piute buck left the message in payment for a free sup- per. ‘Men all gone crazee,” the Piute said. ‘All run to Quartz City. All grow rich.” “ Gold?” asked Silent Jerry. At first he wasn’t particularly interested. Quartz City held only black recollections for him. “No, not gold. Richer than gold.” That was all the information the Indian could give. Soon he smiled silently and disappeared in the brush, to trail his way through the darkness to the borax works in Death Valley. . Long after his Piute guest departed, Si- lent Jerry sat staring into the flickering embers of his fire. He was deep in thought. The stampede for Quartz City meant wealth for a few, bitter disappointment for JERRY. 339 many; it meant desperate struggles be- tween man and man, between man and na- ture; it meant the reign of lawlessness; brutality, thievery and murder. In short, it meant a bedlam of greed- crazed, hot-blooded humans, reverting to the primitive. And over them all, of course, would reign Pig Grabow, until, perhaps, some well-aimed bullet ended his career. Silent Jerry sighed. Thought of Pig Grabow stirred somber recollections. He hated thought of Quartz City; he had no need of sudden wealth. Yet he knew he must take the trail for the desperate little mining town. of all classes were gathering there; he might be useful to some of them. Yes, he must turn back to the tough little mining town. “Tungsten at Quartz City!” The message reached old Mateo Chico in his two- roomed adobe house near Bars- tow. Mateo was old now; no longer was he a section foreman for the Sante Fe. His hair was white, but he was still a strong man, almost as strong as when Jerome Starley had worked for him, years before. Yes, surely strong enough to gain a claim in Quartz City, strong enough to hold it, and become so rich that he could turn southward, and spend his remaining years amid luxury and ease in Mexico City. “Come, Angelica,” he called. ‘‘ Get the four burros ready for a trip to Quartz City.” Angelica frowned her disapproval; her cameolike oval face expressed an obstinate refusal. _ Accustomed to being consulted, was Angelica, accustomed to being obeyed. Her beauty gave her that prerogative. In- deed, she was queenly. If her father had aged, she seemed to have become younger and more beautiful. Slender, flashing-eyed, impetuous, she reigned over all the neighboring young men of her race. Highly desired was Angelica Chico, loved and obeyed, and she had no wish to leave her kingdom while she was at the height of her power. f “Angelica! Do as I say!” Old Mateo’s blood was heated by thoughts of riches, and he would brook no delay. But his daughter ~_ OLLI People © JOO ; - a.