41 Lure O Gold 1904

The Lure o 9
Gold
door was opened that
he could not make out what I
had come to tell him. At last, after kicking the noisy
animals all out of doors, he heard my story, told with a
quivering excitement akin to despair, and was instantly
sympathetic, though
hoped.
not so resourceful as I had
"
It s too bad too bad, John," said he, stroking his
shaggy beard. "Forty
thousand dollars in dust!
That s a big loss.
They worked it slick, didn t they ?
Let s see. What can be done ? You say you think it
was Pete Slattery, but you
hand, and not above such a game
don t know. Pete s a neat
as that.
He has the
mug for it, and was crooked at cards, they say, though
I ain t heard of his liftin
any
dust before."
"The little, round man with the pink face and the
red nose
the man who wore the dark-brown sweater,"
I suggested, my words running together in my anxious
haste to offer something on which instant action might
" "
be taken. Do you know who he is ?
Gus Clarke, assuming an official air, pulled his beard
and thought, while my
floor.
wet feet nervously
"No," he said, after a few minutes,
as I ever seen him.
Must be a chechako."
[52]
tapped the
"I don t know