HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1928-05-11, Page 7Moya.
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tOdOulhod freaad lit to
Cloud;in those rough .aa}d rap
days,.rran wide open bt was:evei4,'aF�f
er
pea than usual at that tdlcee
thaws to a bratty :hard a eni mt that
was en ng:its wayFest like a .loch'
®f to •feed Coln t'he Kloudilte
finis n nd ,lead's eyes widened . as -he
,;;abraed 40Inside .edge a the ci ov d.
A •yOnatg .rent 'with his hat far. back . where "pea was: `. Spud staked his
asst.hi', slaeain,,stood inside. a.:ltorah.:aunt ' dollar, and the c od went the limit
of biol. wt. in the t of ma 11, in fault - '—and' Spud, .pudde'niy experiencing a
of 31izn was a .sort of sitaall, lig'li leg in the pit of
god, folding table, covered with greengone and empty feeling
his stomach, saw that. the pea had
baize; On the table, quite carelessly vanished—also his d61Iar. But that
displaced, was a generous, wad of
Ibilis
and the young man manipulated
three walnut shells on the green baize
- cdver, and a little pea was busily en-
gaged in taking shelterunder first
one and then .another of the shells,
Spud had played craps --quite .,euc-
eessfully' to an audience of his own.
Maybe there Was something of an
.analogy in the present "situation; but
if>. so, Spud failed to see it—in time.
::He drew in his breath• --♦almost com-
a aseratingly—as Benny Horgan, who
:an the one dray the town boasted,
reached out and picked up a shell,
and paid for his lack • of insight., But
then, Benny Horgan wasn't rated very
high anyhow when it came to brains.
not much higher . than the pair of.
mules he drove. A blind man • could
have seen where the pea went. _ Spud
saw it. And .Spud saw the young
man lift the particular shell upon,
which hed Spud, - ad clamped his eyes
—and there the pea was, safe' enough
underneath.
Spud's fingers, itching at their tips,
went feeling through his pockets. He
had a little money. Be it 'said to his
credit, he had not very mueh.'Yester-
dayhad been pay day, and Mrs. Mac-
tGnllalghan never had to ask for than
pay check. Spud was possessed of
seventy-five cents.
-His heart began to beat like a trip
hammer. -He staked a quarter—and
/ won. He .• staked 'again -and won.
Likewise a third time. Spud's pulse
dropped backeto a sort of contemptu-.
our sub -normal. It was a softer thing
than tplaying craps with the young "I fire you, and I fire youtifor keeps,
blankets. All you had to do was to and I— --,�
watch the pea. But Spuddidn't -hear any mere.
The young Yeah`was a `good sport. Regan's voice wastoo shaky to carry
He didn't seem to mind losing. Some far—and Spud' hadn't stopped run -
of the crowd begin to chirp up, and `
bete -the same way Spud did. The$ nmg.
d he didn't stop running until,
bet ate a wad, and Spud went a on the utskirts of the little mountain
whole dollar—bait, somehow, the pea town, he sat down in the shelter of a
.- wasn't there, though the young man
let Spud lift the shell' butte and the darkness, to take stock
himself. Then of the situation: He 'vas both job-
the young man winked encouragingly less and penniless. He lay oilhis
ft.) at Spud, and Spud bet again—a guars back and stared up at the cloud
ter this time—and Benny Horgan, the wracks that were sweeping somewhat
only one who didn't appear to have
ominously across the moon,, as he
lost faith in Spud, bet too, and they
both won. It began to grow exciting. pondered this.• „Well, it doesn't matter," said Spud
Time went like the wind. The crowd complacently. "I can get another
chirped up again and came in, with
Spud playing bell -wether, though he jab."
This however, was by way of be -
collet know' ontsoba the young man ing a problem. And the 'More Spud
collected a pt on's rent.. really got to thinking about it, the
It , -and .epi_. . zigaagfing up and greater were the proportions that the
down, `ancl.stt the. d t1 .of cents an roblem assumed.'• to ii loll; to say
Hour pt Still had fifty: cents left. nothing of Regan's voice, which, for
He kept his eyes glued on the pea. Ile
n, all its shakiness had lacked nothing'
got a `.dollar ahead of the :game again, of fervor, assured Spud that he could
and'. tiler Swindled down to his last not get another railroad job. And
ggagi't ;h and up again to a dollar, there weren't any other kind of jobs
with the crowd's enthusiasm working in Big Cloud that he had ever heard
up:niceiy again along with him. Spud of to be got. Therefore, where was
had struck another winning streak. the job to come from? Logic came
And now he hesitated—+but the young to his rescue, and gave him a lift at
man's smile was encouraging, and be -
this point. If he couldn't get a job
sides Spud was • dead sure he knew
n Big Cloud, it would have to be out
of Big Cloud. That was perfectly
reasonable. But where?
"Iia doesn't matter," said Spud, sit-
ting up- and hugging his knees for in-
spiration.
The inspiration came. It came in
one magnificent, stupendous, over-
whelming flash. It took his breath a-
way. The Klondike! It was so con-
clusively, so obviously the solution
that the last thing 'to be thought of
was to question it for even a single
instant. Everybody was going to the
Klondike. He had heard them all
talking about it for months—from car
tinks to the billiard marker in Ike's
Emporium. It opened a vista that
prevented him from regaining his lost
breath for some time.
Furthermore, he would go at once.
There were reasons. He had an un-
easy feeling that Big Cloud wasn't
big enough for both himself and the
young man who shelled peas with his
hat on the back of his head, and that
the young man might possibly be lin-
gering around for. a day or so- yet.
Sure! The Klondike! But how?
He hadn'tany money. They hadn't
to give him at h either;
went home they
wouldn'tlethim
very much better -7 -safer,
concerned—if he
wrote a letter about it after ego
resolvedhimself into
means. But the
debate, however, though it lasted for
aer long time,didn't
t iklet : dot ryola
t r � and: i
ttrglio . tide da
iA ly 'ua lie "i'#
i p' vl lity,nd+p:
fr'aaaent1yea
tsars
In order to 4'w�
ford even thep�nsoss friss' anal abs
rewire VSe e ` con4'itiouss . �rrsrl&.
Cgitritist has recently /Wood
rand
1+417 ice 'tn+ent lied Sinc4
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on first `l o puur
Comic is D` •eta eeak4 kaages, Poli
taring two 't ek& segpply ` freat-
aneant--ai44 • you are invited to try
them at once without slightest risk of.
cost.]ess. Pleased.
tt11 lei
pro
E<ly t'hre hiWoad
oil,
f' a :, di:cad n -still
Spud„ 'Any ` one of
�t ss ` Spud . would
ave beetiluvited innto the caboose, of
r, :brat, it being' .Spud, Purdy left
r t ere.
At the age of fifteen, or thereabouts
one' sleeps with profound abandon, It
was light when Spud woke up; and
then it was neither the rattling, nor
the bouncing, 'nor the stops the. way
freight made that disturbed his slluin•-
bers-it was the rain, ICt was raining
steadily, and- with no,otheer promise
but rain.-a'aiF�ud squeezed 3inaelf ai
little more tightly into the 'corner of
the flat kart He was: already wet..;
and; added to this, he began to feel
wasn't all that Spud saw. He saw kungry--anti his enthasiasm for the
Tommy Regan plashing his way Klondike began to wane in direct ratio
through at the back of the crowd. as 'his 'discomfort increased --which
And upon Spud :there descended the was fast.
realizutiiont that 'possibly something.Ile,; stared out offer the.side of the
had.. delayed, the departure of Second
•car.: They were just passing Sprig -
No.' 73, and. that Sam-iaee!s train
of new got's Siding. There was no use jump -
would require abouting off here; it wasn't anything but a
orders, and some hard feeling, be siding, and ---
fore it got straightened out again. Spud whistled suddenly, low and
And temporarily Spud forgot about joyously.. The next station west was
his dollar. Mitre Rock rand Fred Blainey was at
As on a former_ occasion, Spud did Mitre Rock!
net stand upon the order of his going. Spud, hugged his coat more tightly
Spud bolted—and he chose the line of around hian, dug his hands into his
least resistance; and thereby, where pockets, and, as the, way -freight be -
before he had . been the medium tan to climb the stiff grade that lay
through which the crowd had•lost its in front of the pilot, he snuggled
money, he now became the medium down in the corner again and soaked
through which the crowd got it back upsome more rain water from the
—which was proper. Being hemmed flor of the ear because a little more
in by a phalanx -of humans every -
didn't ;matter, and he could get some
where except directly behind the protection for his head and shoulders
young man, Spud naturally bolted in that way. Spud began to whistle to
that direction, and the young man, keep his spirits up, but.it was pretty
man, and the bale of
green backs backs raw up there in the heart of the
went down in a heap, and the crowd range, and the ,whistle thinned out,
went to the rescue --of the money. and'by the time ;Mitre Rock was
There were some harsh words—but reached, Spud was shivering violently
all Spud heard . was -the panting of enough to add a little extra vibration
the, fat little master mechanic, as to the flat car, and his teeth were go -
Regan' came ge in pursuit. It wasn't in like castanets.
much of a chase, however. , Nature gut half an hour•later, Spud forgot
bad handicapped Tommy Regan. R' ail about that.
gen never had a chance.He stopped Toasting his flesh' in front of Fred
on the next corner, and fought to get Blainey's heater, and with his mouth
back -a little breath. full of the grub that Fred Blainey
"I. I fire you!" gasped pommy rustled for him, Spud got a grip on
Regan, 'articulating with difficulty himself again, and the Klondike be -
through rage and physical distress. gan to tool ripe enough for picking
once more. Spud told Fred Blainey
about it. •
Fred' Blainey wasn't very old,. but
he 6vas a whole lot older than his age.
I -le didn't say much of anything just
then. He just coughed and looked out
of the window, and said it looked as
though it were settling in for an ug-
ly spell of weather in the mountains,
and that there wasn't any hurry be-
cause there wasn't anything Spud
could do but stay where he was until
it cleared up. But later, off and"on,
recurring to the subject as though it
just happened to strike him at the
moment, Fred Blainey, in his quiet
way, drew a picture or two of how
many different kinds of a fool he
thought a kid of fifteen was who got
notions of that kind in his head, and
he wiped quite a bit of the glamour
off gold rushes in general, and the
one to the.Klpndike in particular,
Spud listened. Maybe it sank in
from the start, maybe it didn't; Spud
didn't do any afthe talking. But Spud
listened. There wasn't anything else
to do. Mitre Hock even under nor-
mal conditions, let alone Mitre Rock
in bad weather, didn't offer many at-
tractions. It was all right from the
observation platform of the Limited,
because about half a mile west of the
station the right of way, hugging the
mountain wall, made a great semi-
circle around a huge bluff of gray,
bare rock, and the passengers, by
craning their necks over the brass
railings on the other side, could get a
thrill out of the sheer drop of` some
five hundred feet to where the Moose-
head River swirled and tumbled along
below them. It was very pretty. They
called it Mitre Rock because that was
what it looked like on account of an
enormous fissure that, from a dist-
ance, appeared to split the rook bluff
from the top to about three-quarters
of the way to the base. That is, it
looked that way—from a distance. But
the road nnen claimed the fissure
went a whole lot deeper than that;
they swore never a year went by that
it didn't widen at the top, and they
backed up their argument by pointing
New , Discovery Limbers 'Em Up and
Even the Creaking Ceases.
Yes: It's true—the world progresses.
All you have to do nowadays to
limber up that stiff, rusty knee joint
-• is to squeeze a half inch of miracle
working substance from a tube.
Then rub it on the offending part
for about a quarter of a minute or
until it soaks through the skin and
disappears on its errand of mercy.
Then read the evening newspapers
and go to;bed. ,
The chances are that your misbe-
having knee joint will lose its "creak''
while you are dreaming about the high
faces -yoii' used to leap when you
*feral 'youngster.
"Add .iii trhe'1norning," says one Who ore — _
lies' trit the new-, discovery, "You'll any money
geoi . 96 happy ;thalt you'll • want to and besides, if he Sarong, Powerful Yet Safe, Surgeon's
jump into yaint.: sp:orties�t clothes and ' go at all—and he Prescription Called M, oene's
walk briskly, down the. street just to just had to go now. It would be Emerald edPhysicians.ias Astonish -
show the aieeghteral that you, are not d so far
{ as pld ne they" `think You are', as his Plans were —1.--L...-
1
1.-
1 Joint -hawse: They sail this wonder h t Here is a surgeon's wonderful p e-
itrt working in substance, res, ed etihe rlsto lusher
away scription now dispensed by p
• 'sfnhem ordinary rearms fai>t to piii>aiaar Spud h ]f a com- eists�at trifling cost, �ha�t �lddoo� re
lin-
er
the stiff, hallanma'1aiherrin,�tie joint, mittse on ways and m towards helping y g
slightly spots and skin diseases than
reduce the ®avelli�', Sa/it �' m sue- supply the anything you've ever used.
In -skin diseases its action is little
:� good Wane for � +�t� "4'2 -tut(' budget deficiency, There wasn't any
stainless lsr<eacrlptipai that in -r1Gl;~ - money in sight. It finally came down leas than magical. The itching of
foo i loaathli h'as 1Sroven to a'Yn�ttfltiiude' to gland solving the problem in his eczema is instantly steppeai inhe
eruptions dry up and scale o
jai' rpeaspla that lame, swollen ,•••distaatitt oto tiny. n,ery few days. The same is true of
p' i3iY jo$tn man speedily leave tl$e ltiailrA $aTt doesnt salatter, said Spud.
mato out of theitn and wont atl:
barb -ere itch, salt rheumand other
savi.o(Pdy tad eeigr. , e '4.":110' :front the ground, an.
•
'tinting and unsightly skin trmu-
it oidt� ae . 'or lGOthera t► : ,fit vt 4to'k ,ward the other end of bles.
*i' & @e, alga, No' ,t �,6ae ing in the direction of You can obtain Moone's ]Eanere,,4d
joint i S er rds• but, mindful of Oil in the original bottle at any anal-
-du
'ri Gee: fpr fir& . the ingje 1 ,
filo 3b ty base lt�''ii'�I(es�be:' 'the , �'�itbi�g '�►11at with the wrecked ern drug store. It is safe to last, 'nd
•L r4 V"R 1 0 Isis anpply of it table, Spud Made a wide detour and failure in any of the alienistnotell
T',1 3Vks`✓h'apa 'eaporG astank to tht T Olt t country and the above is next to i possiib e.C. s.
buttes. t didu►tcolt any money to erhart can supply yon
}.ICON .EXPOSITOR
out that the Rock had fteven•overhung
the -right of.way in the beginning the
way it did now. Thcy talked so
much about it, in fact, that the en-
gineers, the chaps with the college
alphabets after their named, went up
and looked it over.. , The -,.'engineers'
,report wasn't incorporatein the
;roads advertising literature; but it
through the mountains was rising ev-
erywhere.
,Spud . was the only one whom the
elements in uproar did not seem to
effect. Spud, toasting himself at the
heater, and eminently comfortable,
said i t and
matter.
All that second day it rained; and
all the third clay it rained. Matters
was an open secret that there were began to _look ugly—they had long
plans out to do some boring through ago begun to look serious. But -by
the mountain side, wheen the spring now, back at Big Cloud, though the
came, that would give Mitre Rock a strain grew hourly, they had buckled
wide berth, and this in :spite of an ,grimily down to see the thing through.
estimated cost that made the direc- Extra men were put out, the road
tors wonder where the next ones were gangs were doubled, trebled, and ev-
coming frann every time they pocket- en the construction bosses with their
ed their gold pieces at the Board crews were thrown into the fight to
meetings.
This, however, was -of no particular
interest to Spud. Neither ,; -was the
little hamlet, almost a anile, from the
station, that lay in the valley below.
There were only 'half a dozen houses
there. Spud was interestedonly to
the extent of learning ,that Fred
Blainey boarded in one of, them, but
that there wasn't any room there for
Spud himself, though there would be
no trouble so far as getting all he
wanted to eat was concerted—which
concerned Spud greatly. For the rest
there were bunks `in :the station, and
Spud could use one of those.
Not that Spud had announced any
intention of making a prolonged stay
—only it - was raining:: Not a thin,
measly, timorous drizzle; but raining
hold the leads. There weren't any
,more reports of just rising water.
The culverts were running a mill race,
the creeks had overflowed their banks
and the Moosehead River, wherever it
paralleled the right of way at any-
where near the same level, was lap-
ping greedily at the ballast and the
tracks. Three days of it, and there
wasn't any thought of holding down
schedules any more, it was a question
of holding Clown the roadbed and from
Carleton, growing weary around the
eyes for want of sleep, to the last bed-
raggled section hand who swung a
dripping pick, the Hill Division fought
with its back to the wall. Bridges
were watched, trestles strengthened,
culverts kept open—but no one
thought of Mitre Rock. Ewen with
pitilessly in a downpour that drove the water reported at the highest Lev-
in sheets against the window panes, el ever known in the mountains, and
and ricochetted off and swelled the even though it was still rising, Mitre
gathering pools on the-statio plat- Rock towered five hundred feet above
form into miniature lakes, and ,drain- any such consideration. No one
ed off again to make young divers thought of 'Mitre Rock.
• Fred Blainey was coughing pretty
badly on that third night. There was
altitude enough at Mitre Rock, but
there wasn't anything dry or crisp a-
bout it by that time, and the damp-
ness that permeated everything, in
spite of the heater, wasn't doing him
any good. But he talked to Spud
that night as the boy began undress-
ing, talked in a sort of peroration, as
it were, kind of summing up and try-
ing to drive home what he had been
saying off and on ever since Spud
had- landed in on him as his guest.
"I was hoping that some day you'd
get a jolt, Sud that would bring you
to some idea of a sense of responsi-
bility "
esponsi-bility," said Blainey pleasantly. "A
along the track side.
And all that day it rained. And by
the next morning the storm . only
seemed td have got its second wind,
and to be settling down to its jobas
though it really meant business. Thele
was no nightman at Mitre Reck, and
wasn't supposed to be, but , Fr ed
Blainey, after a glance outside his
boarding house door on the second
morning, got them to carry some pro-
vi§ions up to the station, and..gured
that a bunk there with Spud was pre-
ferable to what he'd have to walk
through to get home at night.
Nor was Fred Blainey the only one
who looked askance at the weather.
Down 'at Big Cloud the Big Fellows
Tomb e Eczema
Gies QuHy
for only one place, and if you don't
know what place that is, I'ii' tell yon.
—it's the junk heap.The-only ad-
vantage I can -see coming to you in !
tinyour wayto the Klondike is 'i']i➢onissands iess•;D.r, ?4aa rd
beating e
that, if you're dead suet en the,. junk I • Speeiiag'Sst 'hap 411acm yered, T
heap, that's 'the line to tam ?b'ecause C4iri'nein. ei',se Ittc41uToZt
you'll get a through schedule and no , ---• �•'`'
stop -overs to the terniinal:''But you're'. tff you think that the . -: ;- o
not going that way, are you, Spud— knife is., the only method sof est
at fifteen?" 1 from the misery of piles, it's bee>a!
Spud didn't answer. Already half you haven't ,heard of the
undressed, he was scowling at the .treatment known as Dr. Leoliha>'
3ID,
hearer.
Fred Blainey didn't speak again for
a moment. The sounder was cahtter-
ing like a woodpecker on the ramp-
age. •'BIainey's face lost its senile.
McCann, the construction boss, who
had been thrown into the Pass with
his men, was pleading hysterically
for reserves. Blainey's lips tightened.
It was a wild night, bitter wild in the
mountains. A gust of wind tore' at
the window sash and shook it as a
terrier .Haight shake a rat, and fol-
lowed the attack with a battery of
driving • rain that rattled fast and
thick as gatling bullets playing on
the glass: -
Blainey coughed—and turned in
to Spud.
"And then there's Mrs.. MacGallag-
han," he said. "How about the mother
back there at Big Cloud that you're
running away from?"
Spud's face flushed. That wasn't
fair. He wasn't throwing his mother
down. (Continued next week)
"I ain't running away from her!"
growing anxious as the rood ire.. 1 man with `it doesn't matter' as his
ports began to pile in. The water philosophy atf life is heading straight
J. S. Leonhardt, M. D., a. special-
ist, set at work same yearnago to ;''
find a real intenal remedy for piles.
He succeeded. He named this' pce^
scription "HEMI-ROID, : and tried it in
1000 cases before he was satisfied.
Now H113I-RAID . is sold by. drag--
gigs
rug `gists everywhere with money back
guarantee. It is easy to take, `and
Charles Aberhart will gladly vfun
the purchase price to any dissatisfied
customer.
thing else in the world, and you're: no
exception, and you know it. Show''_" .'
them you've got the makings of a
railroad man in you. Make, them In.
lieve in you.'A •
"My eye!" said Spud heavily, and
shook his head. "I guess I'd' have a
hot chance making any of 'em be-
lieve that! None of 'em ever did to
begin with.'n
he said belligerently. "But I can't •
earn anything for her there when I
haven't got a job, can I? I've told
you that often enough!"
"Well, then, why don't you get a
job there?" enquired Fred Blainey.
Spud eyed the other suspiciously.
"Yes, why don't IC" he choked sar-
castically. "That's why!"
"Yes, why don't you?"
Blainey softly.
"Because they wouldn't give me one
—any more," snapped Spud.
"Why not make them?" Blainey
was staring out through the window.
"Heh?" Spud enquired with a gasp
—and again eyed Blainey suspicious-
ly. Fred Blainey was having fun
with - him. "Say, cut it out! How'd
I make 'em—eh?"
"By making them believe in you,"
Blainey answered. "There's no kid
that was ever born in Big Cloud that
wouldn't rather railroad than do any=
insisted
•
;a.
•
tPi
lIIIIIiIiIllumfhu1
__�C
•
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Let Scarfe's endow your old surfaces with youth and
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For Sale By
T. G. SCOTT
SEAFORTH, ONT.
Marl
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