Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1919 — North of Fifty-Three [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

North of Fifty-Three

By Bertrand W. Sinclair

by LalUe, Brown * CoJ SYNOPSIS. ' CHAPTER I—The ztory openz fn tha town of Granville Ontario, where Mtaa Hasel Weir la employed aa a stenographer in the office of Harrington and Bush. She ta engaged to Jack Barrow. a young real estate agent, and the wedding day is eet. While walking with him one Bunday they meet Mr. Buah, Hasel’a employer, who for the first time seems to notice her at-, tractiveness. Shortly afterward, at his request. she becomes his private stenographer. After three months Mr. Buah proposes marriage, which Hasel declines, and after a stormy scene In the office Hasel leaves her employment, Mr. Buah warnfcig her ho would make her sorry for refusing him. CHAPTER 11-Bush makes an effort, by a gift of flowers, to compromise Hazel in the minds of her friends. She returns them. The next day Bush is thrown from his horse and fatally hurt. He sends for Hasel, who refuses to see him before he dies. Three days afterward it la announced that he left a legacy of 16.000 to Hazel, “in reparation for any wrong I may have done her.” Hazel recognises at once what construction will be put upon the words. Bush had his revenge. CHAPTER Hl—Jack Barrow, in a fit of jealous rage, demands from Hazel an explanation of Bush's action. Hazel's pride is hurt, and she refuses. The engagement is broken and Hazel determines to leave Granville. She sees an advertisement for a school teacher at Cariboo Meadows. British Columbia, and secures the situation. CHAPTER IV—Cariboo Meadows is In a wild part of British Columbia and Hazel. shortly after her arrival, loses her way while walking in th» woods. She wanders until night, when, attracted by the light of a campfire, she turns to ft, hoping to find somebody who will guide her home. At the fire she recognises a character known to Cariboo Meadows as “Roaring Bill Wagstaff." who had seen her at her boarding house there. He promises to take her home in the morning, but she is compelled to spend the night in the woods.

CHAPTER start next day. Hazel supposes, for Cariboo Meadows, hut Wagstaff finally admits he Is taking her to his cabin in the mountains. He lai respectful and considerate and Hazel, though protesting indignantly, is helpless anfl has to accompany him. CHAPTER Vl—At the cabin Wagstaff provides Hazel w«h clothing which had been left by tourists. There they pass the winter. Wagstaff tells her he loves her, but in her indignation at her "abduction” sift refuses to listen to him. CHAPTER Vn—With the coming of «pring Hazel Insists that Wagstaff take ar out of the mountalna He endeavors to persuade her to marry him and stay, but on her persistent refusal, he accompanies her to Bella Coola, from where she can proceed to Vancouver. CHAPTER VHI-On gives Hazel a package which she discovers later contains 11.200 and a map which will enable her to find her way to the cabin If she desires to go back. At Vancouver Hazel plans to return to Granville, but on the train realizes that she loves Wagstaff, and decides to g o to him. She leaves the tialn at the first stop. CHAPTER IX—With the aid of Bfll’s map she finds her way back, and the pair travel to a Hudson Bay J 0 ’? married After some months they decide to go farther Into the mountains to a spot where Bill Is confident there Is gold. CHAPTER X—After an arduous trip, which severely tries Hazel s strength, they arrive at their destination and settle down for the long winter. CHAPTER Xl—Wagstaff builds a cabin and a stable for the horses and cuts and stacks sufficient hay to last until Food there Is In plenty. Hazel, forgetting the danger, allows sparks from the chimney to set fire to the stable, which Is consumed, with all the stored hay-To keep the animals from death by starvation Bill is compelled to shoot them. CHAPTER Xll—With the first «P rin s days they start prospecting for gold and are lucky. With the gold, and packs of furs, the product of Bill’s trapping during the winter, they start back to the cabin they call home. CHAPTER xni—Without the horses thetrip Is severe, but .they arr*Y®, 8 and find they have “neighbors, Jaae Lauer, a German from Milwaukee, with als wife and children. x

CHAPTER XIV. j The Dollar Chasers. Gr&nvllle took them to its bosom with a haste and that made Hazel catch her breath. Tactfully none so much as mentioned Andrew Bush, nor the flvtf-thousand-dollar legacy —the disposition of which sum still perplexed that defunct gentleman’s executors. And once more in a genial atmosphere Hazel concluded to let sleeping dogs lie. She learned from various sources that Bill’s fortune loomed big, had grown by some mysterious process of Granville tattle, until it had reachel the charmed six figures of convention. . There had been changes. Jack Barrow had consoled himself with a bride. Moreover, he was making good, in the popular phrase, at the real-estate game. The Marshes, as she had previously known them, had been tottering *on the edge of shabby gentility. But they had come into money. And as Bill slangily put it, they were using their pile to cut a lot of social ice. Kitty Brooks’ husband was now the •head of the biggest advertising agency in Granville. Hazel was glad of that nfild success. She was inordinately proud of BIH, when she’compared him with the average Granville male —yet she found herself wishing he would adopt a little more readily the Granville viewpoint He fell short of it, or went beyond it, she cohid not be sure which; she had an uneasy feeling sometimes that he looked upon Granville doings and Granville folk with amused tolerance, not unmlxed with contempt. But he attracted attention. Whenever he was minded to talk he found ready listeners.

Once or twice she conjured up a Vision of his getting into sonje busl-

new titore, and utterly foregoing the North—which for her was already beginning to take on the aspect of a bleak and cheerless region where there was none of the things which daily whetted her appetite for luxury, nothing but hardships innumerable—and gold. The gold had been their reward—a reward wed earned, she thought. Still —they had been wonder- j fully happy there at the Pine river cabin, she remembered. They came home from a theater party late one night. Hasel kicked off her slippers, and gratefully toasted her silk-stockinged feet at the small coal grate. Fall had come, and there was a sharp nip to the air. “Well, what do you think of it as far as you’ve goneF be asked abruptly. “I think it’s fine,” she candidly admitted. ‘Tin enjoying myself. I like IL Don’t you?" “As a diversion," he observed thoughtfully, “I don’t mind it. These people are all very affable and pleasant, and they’ve rather gone out of their way to entertain us. But, after all, what the dickens does it amount to? They spend their whole life running In useless circles. I should think they’d get sick of it You will." * “Hardly, BHlum,”_ahe smiled. "We’re merely making up for two years of isolation. I think we must be remarkable people that we didn’t fight like cats and dogs. For eighteen months, you know, there wasn’t a soul to talk to, and not much to think about except what you could do If you were some place else." . “You’re acquiring the atmosphere,” he remarked sardonically, she thought “No; Just enjoying myself,” she replied lightly. “Well, If you really are," he answered slowly, “we may as well settle here for the winter —and get settled right away. I’m rather weary of being a guest in another man’s house,* to tell you the truth.”

“Why, I’d love to stay here all winter,” she said. “But I thought you Intended to knock around more or less.” “But don’t you see; you don’t particularly care to"* he pointed out; "and It would spoil the fun of. going any place for me if you were not interested. And when it comes to a showdown I’m not aching to be a bird of passage. One city Is pretty much like another to me. We’ll take a run over to New York. I want to get some books and things. Then we’ll come back here and get a house or a flat I tell you right now,” he laughed not unpleasantly, *Tm not going to renlg on this society game. You can play it as hard as you like, until spring. Til be there with bells on when it comes to a dance. And Hl go to a show — when a good play comes along. But I won’t mix up with a lot of silly women and equally silly she-men, any more than is absolutely necessary.” *Why, Bill!” she exclaimed aghast “Well, ain’t it so?” he defended lazily. “There’s Kitty Brooks —she has certainly got intelligence above the average. That Lorimer girl has brains superimposed on her artistic temperament, and she uses ’em to advantage. Practically all the test that I’ve met are intellectual nonentities—strong on looks and clothes and amusing themselves, and that lets them out. Shucks, there Isn’t a real man In the lot. Maybe Til run across some people who don’t take a two-by-four view of life if I stay around here long enough, but It hasn’t happened to me yet. I must say that the habitual conversation of these people gives me a pain. That platitudinous discussion of the play tonight, for instance.” “That was droll.” Hazel chuckled at the recollection, and she recalled the weary look that had once or twice flitted over Bill’s face during that after-theater supper. Bill snorted. '’’Droll. Perhaps,” he said. “Blatant Ignorance, coupled with a desire to appear the possessor of culture, is sometimes amusing. But as a general thing it simply irritates." “You’re hard to please,” she replied. He shrugged his shoulders and remained silent. “Well," he said presently, “we’ll take that jaunt to New York day after tomorrow.” He was still sitting by the window when Hazel was ready to go to bed. She came back into the room in a trailing silk kimono, and, stealing

softly up behind him, put both hands on his shoulders. “What are you thinking so hard about, Billy-boy?” she whispered. “I was thinking about Jake Lauer, and wondering how he was'making it go,” Bill answered. "I was also picturing to myself how some of these Worthy citizens would mess .things up

if fhby bid to follow in nw stepfi. Hang It I don’t know but we’d be better off if we were pegging away foe a foothold somewhere, like old Jake.” “If we had to do that.” abe argued, *T suppose we would, and manage to get along. But since we don’t have to, why wish for it? Money makes things pleasanter." “If money meant that we would be compelled to lead the sort of existence most of these people do," he retorted, ’Td take measures to be broke as soon as possible." “You’re awful I" Hazel commented. Bill snorted again. “Tomorrow, you advise our hostess • that we’re traveling,” he instructed. “When we come back we’ll make headquarters at a hotel until we locate a place of our own—ls you are sure you want to winter here." ■ Her mind was quite made up to spend the winter there, and she frankly said so—provided he had no other choice. They had to winter somewhere. “Oh, yes, I suppose so. AH tighti; we’ll winter here," Bill acquiesced. “That’s settled." , * And. as was his habit when he had come to a similar conclusion, he refused to talk further on that subject, but fell to speculating idly on New York. . In which he was presently aided and abetted by Hazel, who had never Invaded Manhattan, nor, for tha matter, any of the big Atlantic clt,BS * New York, she was constrained to admit, rather overwhelmed her. She traversed Broadway and other worldknown arteries, and felt a trifle dubious amid the unceasing crush. Bin piloted her to famous cases, and to equally famous theaters. She made sundry purchases In magnificent shops. The huge conglomeration of sights and sounds made an unforgettable impression upon her. She sensed keenly the colossal magnitude of it all. But she felt a distinct wave of relief when they were Granville bound once more. In a week they were settled comfortably In a domicile of their own—five rooms in an up-to-date apartment house. And since the social demands on Mrs. William Wagstaff’s time grew apace, a capable maid and a cook were added to the Wagstaff establishment. Thus she was relieved of the onus of housework. Her time was wholly her own, at her own disposal or Bill s, as she elected.

But by Imperceptible degrees they came to take diverse roads In the swirl of life which had caught them up. There were so many little woman affairs where a man was superfluous. There were others which Bill flatly refused to attend. "Hen parties,” he dubbed them. More and more he remained at home with his books. Sometimes Hazel caught herself wondering if they were getting as much out of the holiday as they should have gotten, as they had planned to get when they were struggling through that interminable winter. She was. But not BHI. If she ventured to give a tea, he fled the house as if from tbe plague. He made acquaintances of his own, men from God only knew where, Individuals who occasionally filled the dainty apartment with malodorous tobacco fumes, and who would cheerfully sit up all night discoursing earnestly on any subject under the sun. But so long as Bill found Granville habitable she did not,mind. She wished fervently that Bill would take up some-business that would keep him In touch with civilization. He had the capital, she considered, and there was no question of his ability. Her faith in his to encompass whatever he set about was strong. Other men, less, gifted, had acquired wealth, power, even a measure of fame, from a less auspicious beginning. Why not he?

But she could never quite bring herself to put it in so many words to Bill. The cycle of weeks brought them to January. They had dropped Into something of a routine In their daily lives. Bill’s Interest and participation In social affairs became negligible. When he was not absorbed in a book or magazine, he spent his time In some downtown haunt, having acquired membership In a club as a concession to their manner of life. Once he came home with flushed face and overbrlght eyes, radiating an odor of whisky. Hazel had never seen him drink to ex ' cess. She was correspondingly shocked, and took no pains to hide her feelings. But Bill was blandly undisturbed. “You don’t need to look so horrified,” he drawled. “I’m going straight to bed, little person. Scold not, nor fret. William will be himself again ere yet the morrow’s sun shall clear the horizon. Let us avoid recrimination. Good night.” A week or so later he became suddenly and unexpectedly active. He left the house as soon as his breakfast was eaten, and he did not come home to luncheon —a circumstance which irritated Hazel, since it was one of those rare days when she herself lunched at home. Late in the afternoon he telephoned briefly that he would dine downtown. And when he did return, at nine or thereabouts in the evening, he clamped a cigar between his teeth, and fell to work covering a sheet of paper with interminable rows of figures. “What is all the clerical work about?” she inquired. “Reckoning your assets and liabilities!” Bill smiled and pushed aside the paper. “I’m going to promdte a mining company,” he told her, quite casually. “It nas beep put up to me as a business proposition—and I’ve got to the stage Where I have to do something, or I’ll sure have the Willies.” I She overlooked the latter. statement; It conveyed no snecial significance at

the time. Bat hie flrat statement opened up possibilities such as of late she had sincerely hoped would come to pass, and she was all Interest “Promote a mining company?” she repeated. “That sounds extremely businesslike. How —when —where?" “Now—here h» Granville,” he replied. "You see,** he continued, warming’up a bit to the subject, "when I was prospecting that creek where we made the clean-up last summer, I ran across a well-defined Quarts lead.

I packed *t>ut a few samples In my pockets, and I happened to show them as well as one or two of the nuggets to some of these fellows at the club a while back. Lorimer took a piece of the Quartz and had It assayed. It looms up as something pretty big. So he and Brooks and n couple of other fellows want me to go ahead apd organize and locate a group of claims In there. Twenty or thirty thousand dollars capital might make ’em all rich. Of course, the placer end of It will be the big thing while the lode is being developed. Getting the start Is easy. These fellows I’ve talked to are dead anxloys to get in.” “But"—her knowledge V>f business methods suggested a difficulty—"you can’t sell stock In a business that has no real foundation —yet. Don't you have to locate those claims first?” “Wise old head; you have the Idea, all right." He smiled. “But this is riot a stock-jobbing proposition. I wouldn’t be in on It if It were, believe me. It's to be a corporation, where not to exceed six men will own all the stock that’s Issued. And so far as the claims are concerned, I’ve got Whitey Lewis located in Fort George, and I’ve been burning the wires and spending a bundle of real money getting him grub-staked. He has got four men besides himself all ready to hit the trail as soon as I give the word.”

"You won’t have to go?” she jpt In quickly. “No,” he murmured. “It isn’t necessary, at this particular stage of the garner But I wouldn’t mind popping a whip over a good string of dogs, just the same.” “B-r-r-r!” she shivered involuntarily. “Four hundred miles across that deep snow, through that steady, fleshsearing cold. I don’t envy them the journey.” She came over and stood by him, playfully rumpling his brown hair with her fingers. “I’m glad you’ve found something to loose that pent-up energy of yours on, Billy-boy,” she said. “You’ll make a success of it, I know. I don’t see why you shouldn’t make a success of any kind of business. But I didn’t think you’d ever tackle business. You hqve such peculiar views about business and business practice.” "I despise the ordinary business ethic,” Jie returned sharply. “But I can exploit the resources of, nature.’ And that is my plan. If we make money it won’t be filched by a complex process from the other fellow's pockets; it won’t be wealth created by shearing lambs in the market, by sweatshop labor, or adulterated food, or exorbitant rental of filthy dealing with. I’m not overly anxious to get into it with them. But it promises action of some sort —and I have to do something till spring." In the spring! That brief phrase set Hazel to sober thinking. With April or May Bill would spread his wings for the North. There would be no more staying him than the flight of the wild goose to the reedy nesting grounds could be stayed. Well, a summer in the' North would not be so bad, she reflected. But she hated to think of the Isolation. It grieved her to contemplate exchanging her beautifully furnished apartment for a log cabin in the woods. Still she had hopes. If he plunged Into business associations with Jimmie Brooks and Paul Lorimer and others of that group, there was no telling what might happen. His Interests might become permanently identified with Granville.

Bill Informed her from time to time as to the progress of his venture. The company was duly Incorporated, with an authorized capital of one hundred thousand dollars, five thousand dollars’ worth of stock being taken out by each on a cash basis—the remaining sev-enty-flvg thousand lying in the company treasury, to be held or sold for development purposes as the five saw fit when vyork began to show what the claims were capable of producing. In* early March came a telegram from Whitey Lewis saying that he had staked the claims, both placer and lode; that he was bound out by the Telegraph Trail to file at Hazelton. Bill showed her the message—wired from Station Six.

"I wish I could have been In on it — that was some trip," he said —and there was a trace of discontent in his tone. “I don’t fancy somebody else pawing my chestnuts out of the coals for me. It was sure a man’s job to cross the Klappan in the dead of winter.” The filing completed, there was ample work in the way of getting out and whipsawing timber to keep the five men busy till spring—the five who were on the ground. Lewis sent word that thirty feet of snow lay in the gold-bearing branch. And that was the last they heard from him. He was a performer, Bill said, not a correspondent. So in Granville the affairs of the Free Gold Mining company remained at a standstill until the spring Hoods should peel off the winter blanket of the North. Ultimately, spring overspread the eastern provinces. And when the snows of winter successively gave way to muddy streets and then to clean pavements in the city of Granville, a new gilt sign w’as lettered across the windows of the brokerage office In wlilch Paul Lorimer was housed. FREE GOLD MINING COMPANY P. H. Lorimer, P. J. L. Brooks, Sec.-Treas. William Wagstaff, Manager. So it ran. Bill was commissioned in the army of business at last. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

“What Are You Thinking About So Hard, Billy-Boy?"

"What’s All the Clerical Work She Inquired.