The Man from the Bitter Roots

nds News in t

tunates were somewhat more numerous than usual. Those who remained complained that they saw the sun so seldom that when it did come out it hurt th

imber without suspecting any settlement there, unless perchance the aeronaut was flying low enough to see the

fe for hours; but at the least cessation the inhabitants came out like prairie dogs from their holes and scuttled through their tunnels, generally on borrowing expeditions: t

le to get in, and in summer as to whether when it did get in it would bring a "live

very mine owner had one of his own in tow, but this was when the Mascot wa

ew ankle-deep on the Mascot hill because there were no longer three shifts of hob-nailed boots to keep it down. The California

had sunk to a plaintive whine and ceased altogether in winter. Machinery rusted and timbers rotted while the roof of the Hinds House sagged like a sway-backed h

ge deals were constantly being conceived and promulgated-although they got no further. Each inhabitant of Ore City

ng wire and whose seats had been highly polished by the overalls of countless embryo mining magnates. On one side of the room was a small pine table where Old Man Hinds walloped himself at sol

gilt mugs beneath a gilt mirror gave the place a metropolitan air, although

lf, while the cabinet-organ, of Jersey manufacture, with its ornamental rows of false stops and keys, which was the distinguishing featu

and it indicated correctly, for out in the kitchen was Mrs. Alonzo Snow, and elsewhere about the hotel

the Hinds House, for the entertainment they frequently furnished was as f

ward tremor. Whether it was that Old Man Hinds was not sufficiently sensitive or was too busy at the time to be cognizant of inward tremors, the fact is he was not con

ople, the food, the scenery-and the climate which was doing Mr. Snow such a lot of good-so well that they stayed on. There were so many

trying to figure out how he could make three hams last until another wagon got in, a solution came to him which seemed the answer to all his problems.

d to assume the responsibility temporarily-at least while Pa wa

ugh there were those who held that it happened because he did not like the turn the talk was taking. At any rate the Snow family spread themselves around most advantageously. Mr. Will Snow, the tenor of the "Plantation Quartette," appeared behind the office desk, while Mr. Claude Snow, th

ed like the half-shell of an English walnut. By noon these puffs had sunk as far the other way, so it was almost possible to

an ungallant freighter to observe that they must be "throw-backs" to Percheron stock and adding that "they ought to work great on the wheel." Their hips stood out like w

ad been no impromptu concert and the cards had been running with unsensational evenness, while every thread-bare topic seemed c

ch for Yankee Sam, w

got anyth

n' or a hell-uv-a-lot of nothin'.

knife-point, screwing a glass into his eye to inspect

ke someth

mony over on the Skookumchuck it looked like somethi

erals." Yankee Sam hefted it judi

ng I ca

housand dollars easy wh

think I'd stuck the fell

n instant wrath. "It's cheap feller

doin' assessment work fifteen hundred feet above timber-line when the last Live One pulled out of Ore City. They ain't been one in sin

it till

e 1910 waitin' for spring, and I ain't seen nothin' yet except Capital

knockers like you? I 'spose if Capital was settin' right alongside you'd up an

replied t

if they

see us all sta

lief as

camp. Porcupine Jim turned over 'The Underdog' yesterday and Lannigan's finished eatin' on

ting both sides of the snow tunnel as he came. He fumbled at the d

exuberantly, "I thi

ed. It was like him, the ingrate, to get drunk alone. When he tried

n upturned at the corners like a "dry" new moon, as prom

your hearin'," said Yankee Sam sourly. "Sh

rnicy left over from that sprain. You oughtn't to feel hard toward me," he quavered, wi

said Lannigan, "makin' ye Jestice o

no-account enough to be a Forest Ranger. I aims to write to

up as though he

t. You kin call me a wolf, er a Mormon, er a son-of-a-gun, but, Bill, you can't call me no Forest Ranger! Bill," plead

s the trail to your cabin rather than stop and chop it out. You sleeps fourteen hours a day and eats the rest. The hardest wor

erent fist. "I'll remember what you said to me the longest day I live, and you've turned an ol'

etreated to the furthermost end of the office, where he c

d chamberwork upstairs sounded like six on an ore-w

omethin'," said Porc

of the dishes she was placing on the table in the dining-room-"We all like she-e-e-p-." Miss Vi's throaty contralto was wafted down the stairs-"We all like she-e-e-p." "Have gone" s

nounced when the strains died away. The entr

ave sharpened the Judge's hearing for the stage was fu

down like he is with Mungummery-Ward Catalogues and nails comin'

ike a man." Lannigan stretched his neck to catch a glimpse of them

cid edge to Uncle Bill

-night if the postmistress at

e stage driver urging his horses before they cau

e to elongate his neck like a turtle, cried excitedly before an

back seat-wearing a coon-skin cap and snuggled down into a coon-skin overcoat looking the embodiment of ready money! A Live One-in winter! They exp

population of Ore City was waiting like a reception committee, th

, quick-moving eyes. He nodded curtly in a general

hed like the effervescence from charged water, likewise their smile. He wore puttees! He was the prospectors' ancient enemy. He was a Yellow Leg! A

the tunnel, waiting in the freezing atmosphere to avoid the appearance o

page with many curlicues, while Ma Snow waited with a graceful wo

o our moun

extended hand he became aware that

ubbing his knuckles, and breaking the highly charged silence of the office

tactfully diverted his thoughts to the weather, hoping thus indirectly to draw out his reason for undertaking the hardship of such a trip in winter.

, Uncle Bill?" she asked k

nd quite hearty, an' I s

at every chance you got after a

soberly, as he produced his steel-rimmed spectacles and started to

proclaimed as sacred to the "transient." A white tablecloth served as a kind of dead-line over which

when, by that mysterious sixth sense which she seemed to possess, or the eye which it was believed she conce

ut to show the hardness of a Lucretia Borgia. Her voice, too, that quivered as though on the verge of t

what did

e had told him for he immediately jerked his han

with a look

don't kn

nd wash t

since it was a well-known fact that Lannigan had hands, so he he

e I never

for scoops to remove soot from a choked chimney. Also the demarcation lines of various high tides were plainly visible on his wrists and

nced up and co

ught she'd flag them hands whe

e splashed at the was

our on the Primeer and-" His mouth opened as a fresh headline caught his eye, and when he had finished perusing

ERFOOT SAV

ATH IN

DELL CARRIES E

EEP DRIFT

DEST

ished them deliberately. Then he readjust

and tears of gratitude rolled down his withered cheeks as he said good-b

vorite ejaculation and a gurgle, while his face wore an e

e paper on his knee and carefully cut out the story, which had been co