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J%ZZ%Z& rn R.B.Van Nice^
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By
Courtney Ryley
Cooper !
! lUtutration• by R.B. Van Nica [
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Oopjrlibt by Little, Brown * 00.
SYNOPSIS
CHAPTER I.—At Thornton Fairchild'*
death his son Robert learns there has
been a dark period In his father’s life
which for almost thirty years has caused
him suffering. The secret is hinted *t
in a document left by the elder Fair
child, which also informs Robert he Is
now owner of a mining claim in Colo
rado, and advising him to see Henry
Beamish, a lawyer.
CHAPTER ll.— Beamish tells Robert his
claim, a silver mire, is at Ohadl, thirty
eight miles from Denver. He also warns
him against a certain man, “Squint” Ro
daine, his father’s e-iemy. Robert decides
to co to Ohadi.
CHAPTER III.—On the road to Ohadi
from .Denver Fairchild assists a girl, ap
parently in a frenzy of haste, to change
a tire on her auto. When she has left,
the sheriff and a posse appear, in pur
suit of a bandit. Fairchild bewildered,
misleads them as to the direction the
girl taken.
CHAPTER IV.—At Ohadi Fairchild is
warmly greeted by “Mother” Howard,
boarding-house keeper, for his father’s
sake.
CHAPTER V.—From Mother Howard,
Fairchild learns something of the mystery
connected with the disappearance of “Sis
sie” Earsen, his father’s co-worker in
the mine. He meets the girl he had as
sisted, but she denies her identity. She
is Anita Richmond, Judge Richmond’s
daughter.
CHAPTER Vl.—Visiting his claim, Fair-
I child Is shadowed by a man he recog
nijcs from descriptions as “Squint” Ro
daine. Back In Ohadi, his father’s old
friend, Harry Harkins, a Cornishman,
aummoned from England by Beamish to
help Fairchild, halls him with Joy.
CHAPTER Vn.—The pair find the mine
flooded and have not sufficient funds to
have it pumped dry. Later In the day
"Squint” Rodaine announces that he
practically saw Harkins fall Into the
flooded mine, and evidently Is drowned.
CHAPTER Vlll.—Harkins being a gen
eral favorite, the entire population turns
out to clear the flooded mine. When
the work is practically done, Harry ap
pears, apparently Surprised at the tur
moil. It had been a shrewd trick on his
Part to get the mine pumped out without
cost to himself or Fairchild, and the men
take it as a good joke.
(Continued from Last Week!
"You’re not to be offended lfjj
I tel! you something?”
“Certainly not.”
"The sheriff eamfe along‘just after
you had made the turn. He was look
ing for an auto bandit.”
"A what?” She stared at him with
wide-open, almost laughing eyes. "But
you don’t believe —”
"He was looking for a man,” said
Fairchild quietly. "I — l told him that
I hadn’t seen anything but —a boy. I
was willing to do that then —because
I couldn’t believe that a girl like you
would —” Then he stumbled and halt
ed. A moment he sought speech while
she smiled up at him. Then out It
came: “I —I don’t care what It was.
I—l like you. Honest, I do. I liked
you so much when I was changing
lhat tire that I didn’t even notice It
when you put the money in my hand.
I—well, you’re not the kind of a girl
who would do anything really wrong,
h might be a prank—or something
dke that —but it wouldn't be wrong.
So-so there’s an end to It.”
Again she laughed softly, in away
tantalizing to Robert Fairchild, as
though she were making game of him.
‘What do you know about women?”
*ne asked finally, and Fairchild told
tne truth.
"Nothing.”
Then —” the laugh grew heartier,
nally, however, to die away. The
S r l put forth her hand. “But I won’t
sa - v wllal I was going to. It wouldn’t
annud right. I hope that I—l live up
0 your estimation of me. At least —
® thankful to you for being the man
•° u are. And I won’t forget!”
.T* l * nnc e more her hand had rested
ir |, s ~ a Bmall . warm, caressing thing
- spite of the purely casual grasp
tan Impersonal action. Again Rob
tr, alrcllll<l f elt a thrill that was new
‘ in, an( i he stood watching her un
. sie had reached the motor car
n 'ch had brought her to the big
T> T \ fa, l e d down the hill.
l n en " e went back to assist the sweat
g °rkn)en and the anxious-faced
Herbenfelder. The water was
°* n seventy feet.
a Robert Fairchild sought
ton ' IOUrs ’ sleep. Two days after the
u 811,1 divided its attention be
tween preparations for the Old Times
dance and the progress in the dewater
ing of the Blue Poppy shaft. Now
and then the long hose was withdrawn,
and dynamite lowered on floats to the
surface of the water, far below, a cop
per wire trailing it. # A push of the
plunger, a detonation, and a wait of
long moments; it accomplished noth
ing. and the pumping went on. If the
earthly remains of Harry Harkins
were below, they steadfastly refused
to come to the surface.
The water had fallen to the level
of the drift, two hundred feet down;
the pumps now were working on the
main flood which still lay below.
A day more and a day after that.
The water was now only a few feet
high in the shaft; It meant that the
whole great opening, together with the
drift tunnel, soon would be dewatered
to an extent sufficient to permit of
exploration. Again the motor cars
ground up the narrow roadway. Out
side the tunnel the crowds gathered.
Fairchild saw Anita Richmond and
gritted his teeth at the fact that young
Rodaine accompanied her. Farther In
the background, narrow eyes watch
ing closely, was Squint Rodaine. And
still farther—
Fairchild gasped as he noticed the
figure plodding down the mountain
side. He put out a hand, then, seizing
the nervous Herbenfelder by the
shoulder, whirled him around.
“Look !” he exclaimed. “Look there!
Didn’t I tell you! Didn’t I have a
hunch?”
For, coming toward them jauntily,
slowly, was a figure in beaming blue,
a Fedora on his head now, but witti
the rest of his wardrobe intact, yellow,
bump-toed shoes and all. Someone
shouted. Everybody turned. And as
they did so. the figure hastened its
pace. A moment later, a booming
voice sounded, the unmistakable voice
of Harry Harkins:
"I sye! What’s the matter over
there? Did somebody fall in?”
The puffing of gasoline engines
ceased. A moment more and the gur
gling cough of the pumps was stilled,
while the shouting and laughter of a
great crowd sounded through the hills.
A leaping form went forward, Sam
Herbenfelder, to seize Harry, to pat
him and paw him, as though in assur
ance that he really was alive, then to
grasp wildly at the ring on his finger.
But Harry w ? aved him aside.
“Ain’t I paid the installment on it?”
"What’s the Rumpus?"
he remonstrated. “What’s the rum
pus?”
Fairchild, with Mother Howard, both
laughing happily, was just behind Her
benfelder. And behind them was
thronging half of Ohadi.
“We thought you were drowned!”
“Me?" Harry’s laughter boomed
again, In away that was infectious.
“Me drowned. Just because I let a
’oiler and dropped my ’at?”
“You did it on purpose?” Sam Her
benfelder shook a scrawny fist under
Harrv’s nose. The big Cornishman
waved It aside as one would brush
away an obnoxious fly. Then he
grinned at the townpeople about him.
“Well," he confessed, “there was an
un’oly lot of water in there, and I
didn’t ’ave any money. What else
was I to do?”
*<You !” A pumpman had picked
up a piece of heavy timbering and
thrown It at him in mock ferocity.
“Work us to death and then come back
and give us the laugh! Where you
been at?” , TT „
“Center City,” confessed Harry
“And you knew all the time?’
Mother Howard wagged a finger under
his nose.
“Well.” and the Cornishman chuck
led, “I didn’t ’five any I. Jld
to get that shaft unwatered, didn’t I?”
“Get a rail!” An irate —but laugh
ing—pumpman had come forward.
“Think you can pull that on us? Get
a rail!”
Someone seited a smnll, dead pine
which lay on the ground near by.
Others helped to strip it of the scrag
gly limbs which still slung to it.
Harry watched them and chuckled—
for he knew that in none was there
malice. He had played his Joke and
won. It was their torn now. Shout
ing in mock anger, calling for all dire
things, from lynchings on down to
burnings at the stake, they drugged
Harry to the pine tree, threw him
astraddle of it, 'hen, with willing
hands volunteering on every side,
hoisted the tree high above them and
started down the mountuin side, Sam
Herbenfelder trotting in the rear and
forgetting his anger in the joyful
knowledge that his ring at last was
safe.
Behind the throng of men with their
mock threats trailed the women and
children, some throwing pine cones
at the booming Harry, juggling him
self on the narrow pole; and In the
crowd, Fairchild found someone he
could watch with more than ordinary
interest —Anita Richmond, trudging
along with the rest, apparently re
monstrating with the sullen, mean
visaged young man at her side. In
stinctively Fairchild knew that young
Rodaine was not pleased with the re
turn of Harkins. As for the father^-
Fairehild whirled at a voice by his
side and looked straight into the
crooked eyes of Thornton Fairchild’s
enemy. The blue-white scar had turned
almost black now, the eyes were red
from swollen, blood-stained veins, the
evil, thin, crooked lips were working
In sullen fury. They were practically
alone at the mouth of the mine. Fair
child with a laugh dying on his lips,
Rodaine with all the hate and anger
and futile malice that a human being
can know typified in his scarred, hawk
like features. A thin, taloned hand
came upward, to double, leaving one
bony, curved finger extending In em
phasis of the words which streamed
from the slit of a mouth:
“Funny, weren’t you? Played your
cheap jokes and got away with ’em.
But everybody ain’t like them fools!”
he pointed to the crowd just rounding
the rocks, Harry bobbing in the fore
ground. “There’s some that remem
ber —and I’m one of ’em. You’ve put
over your fake; you've had your
?augh; you’ve framed it so I’ll be the
bPtt of every numbskull in Ohadi. But
Just listen to this—just listen to this!”
he repeated, the harsh voice taking
on a tone that was almost a screech.
‘There's another time coming—and
that time’s going to be mine!”
And before Fairchild could retort,
he had turned and was scrambling
down the mountain side.
CHAPTER IX
Fairchild went back into the tunnel,
spun the flywheels of the gasoline en
gines and started them revolving
again, that the last of the water might
be drained from the shaft before the
pumps must be returned to their own
ers.
Several hours passed, then Harry
returned, minus his gorgeous clothing
and his diamond ring, dressed in min
ing costume now, with high leather
boots into which his trousers were
tucked, and carrying a carbine lantern.
Dolefully he looked at the vacant fin
ger where once a diamond had spar
kled. Then he chuckled.
"Sam took it back,” he announced.
"And I took part of the money and
paid It out for rent on these pumps.
We can keep ’em as long as we want
'em. It’s only costing about a fourth
of what it might of. Drowning's
worth something.” he laughed again.
Fairchild joined him. then sobered.
"It brought Rodaine out of the
bushes,” he said. “Squint threatened
us after they’d hauled you down town
on the rail.”
Harry winked Jovially.
“Ain’t it just what I expected? It’s
better that wye than to ’ave ’im snoop
in’ around.”
They chuckled together then; It was
something to know that they had not
only forced Squint Rodaine to show
his enmity openly, but It was some
thing more to make him the Instru
ment of helping them with their work.
Harry looked down the hole, stared
Intently at nothing, then turned to the
rusty hoist.
“’Ere’s the thing we’ve got to fix
up now. This ’ere chiv wheel’s all
out of gear."
“What makes your face so red?”
Fairchild asked the question as the
be-mustached visage of Harry came
nearer to the carbide. Harry looked
up.
“Mother ’Oward almost slopped it
off!” came his rueful answer. “For
not telling ’er what I was going to do,
and letting ’er think I got drownded.
But ’ow was I to know?”
Fairchild absently examined the en
gines and pumps, supplying water to
the radiators and filling an oil cup
or two. Then he turned swiftly, voic
ing that which was uppermost In his
mind.
“When you were here before. Harry,
did you know a Judge Richmond?”
“Yeh.” Harry pawed his mustache
and made a greasy, black mark on his
face. “But I don’t think I want to
know ’im now.”
“Why not?”
“ ’E’s mixed up with the Rodaines.”
‘How much?”
“They own ’Im —that’s all.”
There was silence for a moment. It
had been something which Fairchild
had not expected. If the Rodaines
owned Judge Richmond, how far did
that ownership extend? After a long
time, he forced himself to a statement.
"I know his daughter. She sold me
a ticket to a dance,” Fairchild care
fully forgot the earlier meeting.
“Tiion we’ve happened to meet several
times after that. She said that her
father had told her about me—lt
seems he used to be a friend of my
own father.”
Harry nodded.
“So ’e was. And a good friend. But
that was before things ’appened—like
they’ve ’appened in the last ten years.
Not.that I know about it of my own
knowledge. But Mother ’Oward —she
knows a lot.”
“But what’s caused the chnnge?
What—?”
Harry’s intent gaze stopped him.
“ ’Ow many times ’ave you seen
Judge Richmond?”
• “1 haven’t ever seen him.”
“You won’t —If Mother 'Oward
knows anything. ’E ain’t able to get
out. 'E’s sick —apoplexy —a stroke.
Rodalne’s taken advantage of it.”
“How?”
“ ’Ow does anybody take advantage
of somebody that's sick? ’Ow does
anybody get a ’old -on a person?
Through money! Judge Richmond
’ad a lot of it.. Then 'e got sick. Ro
daine, ’e got ’old of that money. Now
Judge Richmond 'as to ask ’lm for
every penny he gets—and ’e does what
Rodaine says.”
“But a judge—”
“Judges is like anybody else when
they’re bedridden and only ’arf their
faculties working. The girl, so Mother
’Oward tells me, Is about twenty now.
That made ’er just a little kid, and
motherless, when Rodaine got In ’ls
work. She ain’t got a thing to sye.
And she loves ’er father. If ’e don’t
die pretty soon, you’ll see a wedding I”
“You mean —?”
“She’ll he Mrs. Maurice Rodaine.
She loves ’er father enough to do It —
after ’er will’s broken.”
Again Robert Fairchild filled an oil
cup, again he tinkered about the
pumps. Then he straightened.
"How are we going to work this
mine?” he asked shortly. Harry stared
at him.
“’Ow should I know? You own It!”
“I don’t mean that way. We were
fifty-fifty from the minute you showed
up. There never has been any other
thought in my mind —”
“Fifty-fifty? You’re maktag me a
bloated capitalist!”
“I hope I will. Or rather, I hope
that you’ll make such a thing possible
for both of us. But I was talking
about something else; are we going to
work hard and fight it out day and
night for awhile until we can get
things clear, or are we just going at it
by easy stages?”
“Suppose,” answered Harry after a
communication with his magic mus
tache, “that we go dye and night 'til
we get the water out? It won’t be
long. Then we'll ’ave to work to
gether. You’ll need my vast store of
learning and enlightenment!” he
grinned.
“Good. But the pumping will last
through tomorrow night. Can you
take the night trick?”
“Sure. But why?”
“I want to go to that dance!”
Harry whistled. Harry’s big lips
spread Into p - n.
(To Be Continued Next Week)
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