Part 2 (1/2)
”'Don't let me kill him, Billy.'”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Don't let me kill him, Billy.”]
”Struthers spit, and picked splinters forth from his complexion.
”'I told you for your own good. It's common gossip,' says he.
'Everybody is laughing at you, an--'
”Then I done a leap for life for the kid, 'cause the murder light blazed up white in his face, and he moved at the man like he had something serious in view.
”'Run, you idiot!' I yells to Struthers as I jammed the youngster back into the cabin. All of a sudden the gas went out of him and he broke, hanging to me like a baby.
”'It can't be,' he whispers. 'It can't be.' He throwed hisself on to a goods' box, and buried his face in his hands. It gripes me to hear a man cry, so I went to the creek for a pail of water.
”I never heard what Struthers said, but it don't take no Nick Carter to guess.
”That was the fall of the Fryin' Pan strike--do you mind it?
Shakespeare George put us on, so me and the kid got in ahead of the stampede. We located one and two above discovery, and by Christmas we had a streak uncovered that was all gold. She was coa.r.s.e, and we averaged six ounces a day in pick-ups. Man, that _was_ ground! I've flashed my candle along the drift face, where it looked like gold had been shot in with a scatter-gun.
”We was cleaned up and had our 'pokes' at the post when the first boat from Dawson smoked 'round the bend.
”Now, in them days, a man's averdupoise was his abstract of t.i.tle.
There was nothing said about records and patentees as long as you worked your ground; but, likewise, when you didn't work it, somebody else usually did. We had a thousand feet of as good dirt as ever laid out in the rain; but there was men around drulin' to snipe it, and I knowed it was risky to leave. However, I saw what was gnawin'
at the boy, and if ever a man needed a friend and criminal lawyer, that was the time. According to the zodiac, certain persons, to the complainant unknown, had a mess of trouble comin' up and I wanted to have the bail money handy.
”We jumped camp together. I made oration to the general gnat-bitten populace, from the gang-plank, to the effect that one William P.
Joyce, trap, c.r.a.p, and snap shooter was due to happen back casual most any time, and any lady or gent desirous of witnessing at first hand, a shutzenfest with live targets, could be gratified by infestin' in person or by proxy, the lands, tenements, and hereditaments of me and the kid.
”'Well, we hit the Seattle docks at a canter, him headed for the postal telegraph, me for a fruit-stand. I bought a dollar's worth of everything, from cracker-jack to cantaloupe, reserving the local option of eatin' it there in whole or in part, and returning for more. First fresh fruit in three years. I reckon my proudest hour come when I found, beyond peradventure, that I hadn't forgot the 'Georgy Grind.' What? 'Georgy Grind' consists of feeding rough-hewed slabs of watermelon into your sou' sou'east corner, and squirting a stream of seeds out from the other cardinal points, without stopping or strangling.
”I et and et, and then wallered up to the hotel, sweatin' a different kind of fruit juice from every pore. Not wis.h.i.+ng to play any favourites, I'd picked up a basket of tomatoes, a gunny-sack of pineapples, and a peck of green plums on the way. Them plums done the business. I'd orter let bad enough alone. They was non-union, and I begin having trouble with my inside help. Morrow turned in a hurry-up call for the Red Cross, two medical colleges, and the Society of Psycolic Research. Between 'em they diagnosed me as containing everything from 'housemaid's knee' to homesickness of the vital organs, but I _know_. I swallered a plum pit, and it sprouted.
”Next day, when I come out of it, Justus had heard from Denver. His wife had been gone a year, destination unknown. Somebody thought she went to California, so, two days later, we registered at the Palace, and the 'Frisco police begin dreaming of five thousand dollar rewards.
”It was no use, though. One day I met Struthers on Market Street, and he was scared stiff to hear that Morrow was in town. It seems he was night editor of one of the big dailies.
”'Do you know where the girl is?' says I.
”'Yes, she's in New York,' he answers, looking queer, so I hurried back to the hotel.
”As I was explaining to Morrow, a woman pa.s.sed us in the hall with a little boy. In the dimness, the lad mistook Justus.
”'Oh, papa, papa!” he yells, and grabs him by the knees, laughing and kicking.
”'Ah-h!' my pardner sighs, hoa.r.s.e as a raven, and quicker'n light he s.n.a.t.c.hed the little shaver to him, then seeing his mistake, dropped him rough. His face went grey again, and he got wabbly at the hinges, so I helped him into the parlour. He had that hungry, Yukon look, and breathed like he was wounded.
”'You come with me,' says I, 'and get your mind off of things. The eastern limited don't leave till midnight. Us to the theatre!'
”It was a swell tepee, all right. Variety house, with moving pictures, and actorbats, and two-ton soubrettes, with Barrios diamonds and hand-painted socks.