Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1912 — BURNING DAYLIGHT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BURNING DAYLIGHT

By Jack LONDON

Authop Of m r/iifALvmpfFMit Illustrations By Dearborn Mkvnl -

(Copyright, 1910, by the New York Herald Company.) (Copyright. 1910, by the MacMillan Company.

SYNOPSIS. .CHAPTER I.—Elam Harnish, known JOl through Alaska as "Burning Day- ’ celebrates his 30th birthday with •;,f rten dly crowd of miners at the Circle ; City Tivoli. He is a general favorite, a [fiaro and a pioneer In the new gold fields. [The dance leads to heavy gambling in Which over SIOO,OOO la staked. Harnish [loses his money and his mine but wins the mall contract of the district. CHAPTER ll.—Burning Daylight starts on /iis trip to deliver the mail with dogs He tells his friends that the big Yukon gold strike will soon be on and he intends to be in it at the start, j) Ith Indian attendants and dogs he flips over the bank and down the froren Yukon and in the gray light is gone. CHAPTER m.—Harnish makes a' sensationally rapid run across country with the mail, appears at the Tivoli and there jls another characteristic celebration. He [has made a record against cold and exIhaustion and is now ready to Join his friends in a dash to the new gold fields. CHAPTER IV.—Harnish decides where ;the gold will be found in the up-river district and buys two tons of flour, which ;h9 declares will be worth its weight In iffold before the season Is over. CHAPTER V.—When Daylight arrives (with his heavy outfit of flour he finds :the big flat desolate. A comrade discovers gold and Harnish reaps a rich iparvest. He goes to Dawson, begins IniTaatlng in corner lots and staking other miners and becomes the .most prominent [figure in the Klondike. i CHAPTER Vl.—Harnish makes fortune i vi r One lucky investment enables him to defeat a great combination of capitalists in a vast mining deal. He determines to return to civilization gnd jjrlves a farewell celebration to his friends (that is remembered as a kind of blaze of [glory. VTL—The papers are full Jfif The King of the Klondike,” and Daylight is feted by the monev magnates of She country. They take him into a big .copper deaj and the Alaskan pioneer Pflnds himself amid the bewildering comjpiications of high finance. CHAPTER Vlll.—Daylight Is buncoed by the moneyed men and finds that he has been led to invest his eleven millions M 1 A manipulated scheme. He goes to meet* his disloyal business partners at jtheir offices in New York City. CHAPTER IX.—Confronting his partners with a revolver In characteristic [frontier style, he threatens to kill them '« his money is not returned. They are (cowed into submission, return their stealings and Harnish goes back tc San FraniCisco with his unimpaired fortune. . CHAPTER X.—Daylight meets his fate in Dede Mason, a pretty stenographer (with a crippled brother, whom she cares' lor. Harnish is much attracted towards iher and interested in her family affairs. „ CHAPTER Xl.—He becomes an element Jn large investments on the Pacific coast ■and gets into the political ring. For a Jest he goes to inspect one of#iis nroper[yes In the country and momentarily is attracted hack to the old life on the lonepome trail. CHAPTER XTl.—Daylight gets deeper amd deeper Into high finance in San FranWiseo. He makes freouent runs into the ■country thus getting close to nature, but his mind is still tn the speculation trend. Very often, however, the longing for the Simple life well nigh overcomes him. CHAPTER Xlll.—Dede Mason buys a horse and Daylight meets her in her Saddle trips- He begins to indulge In horseback riding and manages to get Into her company quite often. CHAPTER XlV.—One day Daylight (asks Dede to go with him on one more aide, his purpose being to ask her to marfry him. and they canter away, she trying to analyse her feelings. , CHAPTER XV.—Dede tells daylight that she likes him but that her happiness could not lie with a money manipulator. J3he suggests the vast good he could do With his wealth If so inclined. i CHAPTER XVII—For the sake of his Rove. Daylight undertakes the scheme of [building up a great Industrial community among the hills. He wins her regard by [lnteresting himself In her crippled brothCHAPTER XVIT.-Dede finally tells [Daylight she does not dare marry a man Iwho Is so engrossed with the business game. He Is Insistent and yet hopes to iwin her. _ _ CHAPTER XVIII. When the ferry system began to run, and the timo between Oakland and San Francisco was demonstrated to be cut in half, the tide of Daylight’s terrific expenditure started to turn. Not that it really did turn, for he promptly went Into further investments. Thousands of lots in his residence tracts were sold, and thousands of homes was being built. Factory sites also were selling, and business properties in the heart of Oakland. All this tended to a steady appreciation in the value of Daylight’s huge holdings. But, as ,of old, he had his hunch and was riding it. Already he had begun borrowing from the banks. The , magnificent profits he made on the land he sold were turned into more land, into more development; and instead of paying off old loans, he contracted new ones. As he had pyramided In Dawson City, he now pyramided in Oakland; but be did it with the knowledge that it was a stable enterprise rather than a risky placer-min-ing boom. Work; on Daylight’s dock system went on apace; yet it was one of those enterprises that consumed money dreadfully and that could ndt he accomplished as quickly as a ferry systeih. Not content with manufacturing electricity for his street railways in the old-fashioned way, in pow-er-houses, Daylight organized the Sierra and Salvador Power Company. This immediately assumed large proportions. Crossing the San Joaquin Valley on the way from the mountains, and plunging through the Contra Costa hills, there were many towns, and even a robust city, that could be supplied with power, also with light; and It became a street-and-house-lighting Project as well. As soon as th£ pur-

chase of power sites fn the Sierras was rushed through, the survey parties were out and building operations begun. And so it There were a thousand maws into which he poured unceasing streams of In the spring of the year the Great Panic came on. The first warning was when the banks began calling in their unprotected loans. Daylight promptly paid the first of several of his personal notes that were present-

ed; then he divined that these demands but indicated the way the wind was going to blow, and that one of those terrific financial storms he had heard about was soon to sweep over the United States. How terrific this particular storm was to be he did not anticipate. Nevertheless, he took every precaution in his power and had no anxiety about his weathering it out. And in the end, when early summer was on, everything began to mend. Came a day when Daylight did the unprecedented. He left the office an hour earlier than usual, and for the reason that for the first time since the panic there was not an Item of work waiting to be done. He dropped into Hegan's private office, before leaving, for a chat, and as he stood up to go, he said: — “Hegan, we’re all hunkadory. We’re pulling out of the "financial pawnshop in fine shape, and we’ll get out without leaving one unredeemed pledge behind! The worst is over, and the end is in sight. Just tight rein for a couple more weeks, just a bit of a pinch or a flurry or so now and then, and we can let go and spit on our hands.” For once he varied his programme. Instead of going directly to his hotel, he started on a round of the bars and cases, drinking a cocktail here and a cocktail there, and two or three when he. encountered men he knew. It was after an hour or so Of this that he dropped into the bar of the Parthenon for one last drink before going to dinner. By this time all his being was pleasantly warmed by the alcohol, and he was in the most genial and best of spirits. At the corner of the bar seveval young men were up to the old trick of resting their elbows and attempting to force each other’s hands down. One broad-shouldered young giant never removed his elbow, but put down every hand that came against him. Daylight was interested. “It's Slosson,” the barkeeper told him, in answer to his query. “He’s the heavy-hammer thrower at the U.

C. Broke all records this year, and the world’s record on top of it He’s a husky all right all right” Daylight nodded and went over to him, placing his own arm in opposition. '

*Td like to go you a flutter, son, on that proposition,” he said The young man laughed and locked hands with him; and to Daylight’s astonishment it was his own hand that was forced down on the bar. "Hold on,” he muttered. “Just one more flutter. I reckon I wasn’t just ready that time.” Again the hands locked. It happened quickly. The offensive attack of Daylight’s muscles slipped instantly into defence, and, resisting vainly, his hand was forced over and down. Daylight was dazed. It had been no trick. The skill was equal, or, if anything, the superior skill had been his. Strength, sheer strength, had done it. He called for the drinks, and, still dazed and pondering, held up his own arm and looked at it as at some new strange thing. He did not know this arm. It certainly was not the arm he had carried around with him all the years. The old arid? Why, it would have been play, to turn down that young husky’s. But this arm—he continued to look at it with such dubious perplexity as to bring a roar of laughter from the young men. This laughter aroused him. He joined in it at first, and then his face slowly grew grave. He leaned toward the hammer-thrower. “Son,” he said, “let me whisper a secret. Get out of here and quit drinking before you begin. The young fellow flushed angrily, but Daylight held steadily on. “You listen to your dad. and let him say a few. I’m a young man myself, only I ain’t. Let me tell you, several years ago for me to turn your hand down would have been like committing assault and battery on a kindergarten.” Slosson looked his incredulity, while the others grinned and clustered around Daylight encouragingly. “Son, I ain't given to preaching. This is the first time I ever come to the penitent form, and you put me there yourself—-hard. I’ve seen a few in my time, and I ain’t fastidious so as you can notice it. But let me tell you right now that I’m worth the devil alone knows how many millions, and that I’d sure give it all, right here on the bar, to turn down your hand. Which means I’d give the whole shooting match just to be back where I was before I quit sleeping under the stars and come into the hen-coops of cities to drink cocktails and lift up my feet and ride. Son, that’s what’s the matter with me, and that’s the way I feel about it. The game ain’t worth the candle. You just take care of yourself, and roll my advice over once in a while. Good night.” He turned and lurched out of the place, the moral effect of his utterance largely spoiled by the fact that he was so patently full while he uttered it. , Still in a daze, Daylight made to his hotel, accomplished his dinner, and prepared for bed. “The damned young per!” he muttered. “Put my hand down easy as you please. My hand!” He held up the offending member and regarded it with stupid wonder. The hand that had never been beaten! The hand that had made the Circle City giants wince! And a kid college, with a laugh on his face, had put it down—twice! Dede was right. He not the same man. The situation would bear more serious looking into than he had ever given it. But this was not the time. In the morning, after a good sleep, he would give it consideration. (To be Continued.)

His Arms Went About Her and Held Her Closely.

“We’re Pulling Out of the Financial Pawnshop in Fine Shape.”