41 Lure O Gold 1904

"
The Lure o
Gold
heads was already heard and planks were being pried
up, I insisted upon his going back into the sunshine.
He looked jaded and listless, and I felt guilty to think
that his friendship for me had kept him down in the
dreary lower hold so long,,
tor,
"
Well, I do feel a bit knocked about,"
said the Doc
"
and seeing that you insist, I ll
go up
for a while.
I can swing an axe at that deck-house; and it
might be,"
he added, "seeing
that the gold wasn t found in the
lower hold and may not be in this one, that it will be
just as well to keep a lookout up there after all."
You re right,"
said I, glad to think that his kindly
interest in my affairs should find practical expression
without discommoding him.
I do not know whether it was that the passengers
and crew had learned the trick of it and could work
with better expedition, or whether their lust for the gold
had grown stronger, but the planks of the freight -deck
on which they were now laboring were torn up much
more rapidly than were the others. I am inclined to
think it was as much due to one of these causes as to
the other.
I could see the eagerly peering eyes of some
of the nearer workers as they held their lanterns under
each plank that was being uplifted,
and I knew what
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