Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

THE SINGLE battery may be half a mile away. The murdering scoundrels!”’ Jane’s face went a shade paler to hear her own belief confirmed. ‘You mean it was the Unatika people at work again?” she asked. He nodded. “But they’re not the only ones,” he affirmed. “If they’d touched it off a day sooner the whole works would have gone up. There was enough dynamite in that shack a few hours ago to have blown all Katalak into the bay! Hoyt and I got a hunch that it wasn’t safe, and moved it just in time, but somebody knew it had been there and told. We've got a traitor in camp!” Peddar shook in his shoes. “Tf you’ve left it anywhere near the store still, Mr. Bowers, miss—my daughter sha’n’t go back there again, not if the—” “Father!” Jane interrupted warningly. ‘You don’t suppose Mr. Bowers is taking any chances on the whole plant, do you?” “Tm not, if I can help it,” the superin- tendent declared. ‘‘ But I’m going to get them with the goods yet, and when I do, there won’t be much work left for the mar- shal from Juneau except to take me up for manslaughter! They’re showing their hand pretty plainly, and if I can once catch them in the act,@t will be all up with them! But don’t you worry, Miss Jane. We'll take care of you all right, if you just keep clear of any racket you hear started.” Peddar wrung his hands as the harassed superintendent took his departure. “Tf you’d only give it up and come home!”’ he wailed. 3 “Home?” Jane’s eyes flashed. ‘‘ Home now, when I see for myself what those wretches are trying to do, and the lengths to which they will go to take everything from us? I’m ashamed of you! To think of Ollie away off there unable to do any- thing to protect the work, and then you think I would run away—” She broke off as Ma Heaney bustled into the room. “Well, there’s no harm done, thank the Lord!” she remarked cheerily. ‘“ That young squarehead will be out in a week and none the worse. I hear you’ve been look- # TRACK. 283 ing at that shack Mr. Hoyt was going to take for himself, Mr. Peddar. It’s the best one around here. Bud Sawyer built it for himself just before he got in that little argu- ment with the faro dealer at the Full Blast, and it ain’t been occupied since.’ ‘““ What is it like?” asked Jane eagerly. - Peddar shuddered. ‘Three rooms that would hardly be called closets, and you can see through the walls,” he responded gloomily. ‘No running water except what comes through a hole in the roof, tumble-down steps, no latch on the door, and the floor gives with every step. When I think of you in a place like that—”’ “Oh, Big Jim ‘ll lend you a couple of men to put that right, and you can get a stove and pans and some bedding over at the miners’ supply store,’’ Ma Heaney in- terrupted briskly. ‘“ I can lend you a table and-some chairs till you can order some up on the next trip of the Queen, and you'll be more comfortable than most up here. Time the flowers begin to grow—” “Oh, is there a garden?” cried Jane. ‘That settles it, father. When can we move in?” And it did settle it. In spite of Peddar’s shocked remonstrances a few days later found them more or less snugly ensconced in the little shack, and even he was bound to admit that it was an improvement over their former quarters. Big Jim Bowers had — fulfilled Ma Heaney’s prediction, and his men did the rough carpentering well; the new stove did not smoke unduly, and a lone Chinaman was found in the town who would come in now and then and help with the work, which neither the new settler nor his daughter were capable of accomplishing. In the warm sunshine which streamed out between the daily drizzle of rain, Jane’s straggling little garden throve amazingly, and more than one shy offer of help was made to her in varying dialects by the men who came to purchase their meager luxuries at the store. She noted one slight but significant fact in the days which immediately followed the explosion. She had ceased to be ‘‘ Miss Peddar.” From the general superintendent down to the lowliest of the bull gang she GEomichoo G S €O