Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

284 was “ Miss Jane” to one and all except 45 Barney Hoyt, and her heart warmed at the inference. In all respect and deference they were taking her in, making her one of themselves, one of the outfit. That rash, unconsidered moment when she had, in all ignorance, rushed in where they had feared to go even to follow their chief, had placed her in their estimation where months of diplomatic kindliness in her store dealings with them would not have done, and she realized it vaguely but thankfully. She was beginning to recognize faces in the slouching crowd; to remember strange, hardly pronounceable names, and to greet some of her customers with a personal word that brought a flush of pleasure to many a swarthy, Slavic brow. Often as she watched them, awkward, silent, and furtive-eyed through sheer embarrassment, she wondered _ who the traitor could be; the traitor of whom Jim Bowers was so sure, who must have disclosed the location of the dynamite to their enemies. Back in the first days after her arrival, Jane would have unhesitatingly said that from appearances any of them might well have been capable of it; but she was learn- ing discrimination; learning, however slow- ly, to read the grim courage and kindliness and chivalry that lay beneath the rough exterior. It hurt her like an innuendo cast upon a friend to feel that any of the Northern Star outfit could betray his trust, and yet surely the superintendent’s suspicions must have been well founded or he would not have made so positive a declaration. The news of the higher grade stock and the importations added to it at the unheard- of prices had spread like wildfire, and had not Jud Pittinger carefully husbanded it and doled it out to her, it would all have been exhausted in the first few days, but save for that surreptitious visit of Malison, the superintendent of the Unatika Com- pany, Jane could not ascertain that any of their rivals had risen to the bait. A week passed with no further indica- tions of trouble. The wharf and ore pockets were well on the way to completion, the pile-driver and crane were still, and THE ARGOSY. work had begun in earnest on the road. The clearing gang toiled night and day, ex- cavating and grading; the steam-shovel chugged and rattled ceaselessly, and every afternoon when Jane, drawn by an irresis- tible fascination, stole out to see how the work was progressing, it seemed to her that the. narrow, trail-like path, shored up and reclaimed from the soft mud and tundra, was lengthening itself slowly but surely, and stretching out toward the foothills. The miracle was coming to pass! She saw little of Hoyt. He seemed to be on the job with every shift; sleeplessly, tirelessly vigilant, and lending his own strength in any emergency with a demo- cratic camaraderie which yet brought with it no lessening of the strictest authority. One afternoon on her return from watch- ing the clearing gang at work, Jane found a bright-eyed, dark-skinned laborer loitering about the door of the store, but not until Jud’s departure did he enter. Then he came deprecatingly up to the counter, and began fingering the sacks of tobacco. Jane watched him curiously. She was sure that she had seen him before; even in the maze of faces which rose before her, there was something familiar and _ patheti- cally appealing in the wistful smile and soft, dark eyes. He was an Italian, of course, and probably on the night shift; yet she wondered to which of the gangs he be- longed. Why had ‘he hesitated to enter when Jud was there? Could it be that he was one of the rival outfit? Then all at once she recalled him and smiled. ‘““ Did you like the silk handkerchief you bought last week?” she asked. The man smiled with a flash of white teeth in his thin face. ‘“'Yes-a, mees! I come for see-a de raze’, de raze’ in de little-a box.” He glanced over his shoulder and then eagerly back to her once more. ‘You mean these?” Jane displayed the new razors in their ornate boxes, and the man took them up in his hand with almost childish pleasure. ‘“‘ They are two dollars, but we have some cheaper ones.” He shook his head at the suggestion, and selecting one, pulled out a slender roll of worn bills. we on