Adventure Magazine Cover — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

18 dream-city, still tingling with memories of Stevenson, Bret Harte, Mark Twain and the argonauts. Artists, musicians, sculp- tors and actors were starting world careers. Builders and artizans were laying the foun- dations for the great industrial world of the future. Down at the Portrero the world’s most powerful battle-ship was starting for sea. It was called the Oregon. The venturesome Spreckels had com- pleted the city’s only skyscraper. ‘‘Lucky” Baldwin was in from Santa Monica to build his luckless hotel, planned to rival the Waldorf. nates, merchant princes, globe-trotters, booted’ miners and tobacco-chewing cattle- men were meeting hourly at the old Palace or dining in restaurants whose viands they can still remember witha strange wistfulness. The city made Pete dizzy, and his foot hurt. He continued to have trouble with that foot for more than a month until it healed, but he let it interfere with his ac- tions as little as possible. His first task was to seek Pacific Street and turn himself loose. On the fourth day he landed in jail. The fifth day he sobered up... With his appropriation spent with proper sinfulness the old iner mbrushed his ruffled clothes and sallied forth from his temporary ‘abode in a cheap Mission Street lodging- house to seek Bill Elhott. He found El- liott’s office in a great business block filled with brisk men. Elliott was tall, slim, blond and natty. When the red-faced old desert-rat with the skewered eyes and ill-fitting store clothes announced himself as Fom Hall’s partner, Elliott’s aristocratic eyebrows raised, but he opened Tom’s letter without comment. “Tt seems to be a pretty rough country down there,” he observed at the finish. “'T guess the life must have roughened Tom quite a bit. Too bad! Tom used to be quite a dandy. Well “About this mine. It’s lucky you came straight here. Otherwise you'd have missed me.’ Pete’s face paled. “T’m sailing for China this afternoon, so I'll not be able to do much for vou; but sup- pose you let me see vour samples.”’ Pete took off his coat and vest and lifted up the tails of his shirt. Elliott looked excited. Financiers, railroad mag-. Adventure “‘Say—here—you needn’t go to all that trouble!”’ Pete groped under a red undershirt and produced a heavily laden money-belt which he threw with a thump upon a table. “Look into that,” he challenged. Elliott opened one of its pockets and drew forth a handful of rock. His eyes opened wide. “Ye gods! Do—do you mean to tell me you and Tom Hall discovered this?” é ‘Yep. >) “Ts much of it like this?” “‘Them’s our best samples. Some of the ae ain’t so good, but the average is pretty 1 g Ras Elhott was palpably stricken with the samples. “T’ve got to go to China. It’s business. But if your mine’s anything like this I want to share in it. You and Tom are right. Make it a corporation.” He picked a hat off a rack. “Get your clothes on quick. Come on.” ‘“‘Where to?” “We'll see Markum. He’s a big promo- ter. Mines and things. I’ve done him a favor or two. Hurry up!” wen MARKUM’S office was a high- awa tension establishment peopled by . ' Clerks, messengers and hawk-faced gentlemen whose clothes needed brushing. These latter congregated at a railing till a stout and lavishly dressed personage appeared from his inside office. Then their voices arose in clamor. The stout man laughed and winked at Elliott. 3 “‘What’ll I do with these wolves?” he asked “‘I can’t kill ’em. They’re all good stock salesmen.”’ He turned to the crowd and spoke to each one in a chaffing way that veiled cold business. “No, Charlie; what you need is black coffee. All right, Joe; here’s your five hundred. Get out of here, Ed, and don’t come back till you’re sober. Here’s a fifty, Steve. Enjoy yourself. “No, boys. There’s nothing doing to- day. Come around tomorrow.” When the last predatory supplicant left, the stout man turned to Elliott. ‘“That’s the trouble of bein’ a promoter. If I can’t find work for those sharks I’ve got to support ’em or else they quit me. It just keeps me on the jump, findin’ work COmiclbook CO