Cabin Fever

hole the size of a hogshead in a steep bank overhung with alders. Outside, the wind caught the smoke and carried streamers of it away to play with. A startled bluejay, on

fell from their high flight into t

e hole. "If you're a mind to go on ahead and cook supper, I'll stay a

chose the cooking, and went away down the flat, the bluejay screaming insults after him. He

out like that dang Burro Lode ledge. Look here. Best lo

re window through which the sun was pouring a lavish yellow flood of light before it dropped b

of an egg, and balancing it in his hands. "I don't know a lot

or he'd have uncovered enough of this, I should think, to show the rest what he had. Or maybe he died just when he had s

d on any claims here?" Bud dumped half a kettle of boiled beans int

e cooked. He sat down and ate, with his mind and his eyes clinging to t

ave it assayed. And we won't let out anything about it, Bud-good or bad. I l

mpedes so far," he pointed out. "Burro Lode never caused a ripple in the B

, and then the climate's against violent effort, either mental or physical. I was calm, per

bet this pans

mble." Cash pressed his lips together i

s. Been prospecting for fifteen years, according to you

" he said again. "Better than that placer ground down by the creek. That's all right, too. We can wash

here's hoping she's worth a million. You go ahe

too dark in the hole to see how much was uncovered. This may be just a freak deposit. There may not

Jose behind the wheel of a car like the one Foster had fooled him into stealing. And meet Marie, and her mother too, and let them get an eyeful. He guessed the old lady would have to swallow what she had said about him being lazy-just because he couldn't run an auto-stage in the winter to Big Basin! What was the matter with the old woman, anyway? Didn't he keep Maria in comfort

had not wronged her-unless it was by letting her go without making a bigger fight for their home. Still, she had gone of her own free will. He was the one that had been wronged-why, hadn't they lied about him in court and to the gossipy neighbors? Hadn'

Marie, calling up all the bitterness he could muster against her memory, did no more toward

d a convivial glass or two with his fellows-but he felt that day the need of a little push toward optimism. In the back part of the room three men were playing freeze-out. Bud went over and stood with his hands in his pockets and watched them, be

package of ore, but he had not spoken except to name the amount of postage required. The bartender had made some remark about the weather, and had

for the feeling it gave him of being one of the bunch, a man among his friends; or if not friends, at least acquaintances. And, such was his varying luck with the cards, he played for an hour or so without having won enough to irritate his companions. Wherefore he rose fro

nd at the last minute he hesitated, tempted to turn back. He hated moving pictures. They always had love scenes somewhere in the story, and love scenes hurt. But Frank had already bought two tickets, and it seemed unfriendly

t channels, the old habits of relaxation after a day's work was done. He laughed at the one-reel comedy that had for its climax a chase of housemaids, policemen, and outraged fruit vendors after

nths he had spent with Cash and the burros dwarfed into a pointless, irrelevant incident of his life. He felt that he ought to be out in the world, doing bigger things than hunting gold that somehow always refuse

sense of familiarity. Then abruptly he recalled too vividly the time and circumstance of his first sight of the picture. It was in San Jose, at the Liberty. He and Marie had been married two days, and were living in that glamorous world of the

n together, breathing the short, quick breaths of emotion focussed upon one object, excluding all else. Once, when Frank moved his body a little in the next seat, Bud's h

won-all gone for nothing, their slow anodyne serving but to sharpen now the bite of merciless remembering. His hand shook upon his knee. Small be

e knew how little the real Marie resembled the speciously amiable, altogether attractive Marie who faced a smiling world when she went pleasuring. He knew, but-he wanted her just the same. He wanted to tell her so many things about the burros, and about the desert-things that would make her laugh, and things that would make her blink back the tears. He was homesick for her as he had never

red just above his breath, when the screen was s

with the assured air of a connoisseur. "He didn't have the brains of

but he did not mean what Frank though

o more than a dusty roadway, to the saloon where they had spent the afternoon. Bud called for whisky, and helped himself twice from the bottle which

of pool or someth

urning his thumb toward the rear, where half a dozen men were gathered in

turned that way, Frank follow

g all night at the cards. Beneath his eyes were puffy ridges. His cheekbones flamed with the whisky flush. He cashed in a double-handful of chips, stuffed the money he had won into his coat pocket, walked, with that

d, his tongue forming the w

tel. My bed's clean, anyway." Frank l

ented gravely. "We'll