41 Lure O Gold 1904

"
"
The Lure o
Gold
its identity destroyed, and it was being "packed"
on
dog-back to some far-away place.
"Oh, no," said the chairman of the Committee of
Safety very sagely, "the only way they can get out of
Nome City with that gold
is to take it aboard some ves
sel, and they won t try to do that to-night."
"
Why, they might have gone out to the Flying Mist.
They were friendly with the Captain.
been in league with him."
They may have
Onlikely, my boy, very said the
onlikely,"
judicial
Gus Clarke. I know Captain Transome and he s
square as that table, though he does gin up
a little too
heavy once in a while. It was them and their liquor
that kept him back until after dark, so they could have
the box throwed overboard; but they wouldn t
try any
of runnin off with it on his schooner. He
game
wouldn t stand for it and they know it. Your gold
is
here in the camp somewhere, and I ll hunt it
up for
you
to-morrow if it
s to be found, and land that chap
Slattery and his pal in the calaboose that is,
if it s
them that done it,
and you seem pretty positive it was."
"
And you
ll
get started bright and early ?
"
I insisted,
loath to give up all opportunity of a night search for
the gold, and yet convinced after a fashion that Gus
[54]