41 Lure O Gold 1904

"
Look
"
My
Burden Grows Heavier
exchange for over-polite bows and smiles from them,
and walked up the plank to the deck of the lighter with
a feeling of relief that was quite restful after the strain
of waiting ashore.
here, young feller," said the lighterman in a
deep-breathed, throaty undertone as I dropped my
rifle butt on the box where it lay amidships of the flatboat
and stretched one arm comfortably.
"Do
you
know why I went out with that there line, an why I
brought yer
box aboard? It s on account o them
chaps you was talking with. They ain t no good. That
one-eyed feller is Pete Slattery,
at the Monte Cristo saloon till
they
that used to deal faro
run him out fer
false play; an his side partner is a crook, I know,
though I ain t seen much o him. They ain t no good.
I saw they was a-takin too much interest in yer box,
so I fetched it aboard here, out o their way. Don t
have no truck with ary one o em. They
ain t no
good."
But he was in the Cuban War," said I,
"
and lost
his eye there, so he says."
"That there eye was lost in a gamblin
row over in
Juneau that s where it was lost,"
said the lighterman.
"Don t have no truck with such trash, my boy."
[35]