Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 5, 1928 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

602 The best that could be done by way of fighting the blaze was the forma- tion of a bucket brigade, which at- tempted to protect the buildings about the hotel. A long line of men was re- quired for this because the river, where they got the water, was nearly a block distant. With their possessions stored a safe distance away, Johnny and Allister as- sisted in this work. Allister fell in with all the enthusiasm of a small boy play- ing some new sort of game. Johnny noticed this, but ascribed it to a form of hysteria and feared for his companion. But when it was all over, after two hours of battling with wind and flames, and nothing remained of the hotel but smoldering embers, Allis- ter stood back and surveyed the ruins. “You know,” he, said to Johnny, “T suppose I shouldn’t feel as I do, but that was the most fun I’ve had in an age. A fellow gets a kick out of battling such irrepressible forces as fire and flood, wind and snow. I be- lieve I’d kind of like to rough it, John- ny, out in the wilds.” “Well, it’s wild enough here,” Johnny remarked. “ Life in this coun- try is a matter of the survival of the fittest in its most elemental form. It’s a fight all the way.” They took their things and spent the remainder of the night at the depot. Before daylight arrived Johnny did a lot of cogitating about what Allister had said, and an idea suddenly oc- curred jto him out of a clear sky. Or, rather, it seemed he had glimpsed the sun through what had seemed a mass of impenetrable clouds. On the top of Spruce Mountain, on the very site where he hoped some day to build the Spruce Mountain Sana- torium, was an old, deserted cabin. He had run across it on one of the Sunday jaunts he was in the habit of taking. It commanded an unobstructed view for miles in every direction. If he could only get Allister to live up there, he might possibly be able to stimulate © ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the man’s interest to the point where he would at least listen sympathetically to Johnny’s scheme. “Do you still want to rough it?” the station agent asked just as the sun crept up over the mountains. “ Of course I do,” Allister answered. “T’ve never lived like this before. I have never realized what I was miss- ing. Even when poor, I lived in a flat right in the middle of a town equipped with all modern conveniences. This is great!” “Do you see that mountain peak over there?” Johnny pointed to the top of Spruce Mountain. ¢é Yes.” “Would you like to live up there?” “ Could we?” Allister asked in sur- prise. “There’s an old deserted cabin up there,’ Johnny told him. “ Nobody has lived there for a number of years, but it could be fixed up.” “Oh, who owns it?” Allister wanted to know. “Oh, some farmer around there. But I don’t believe you could buy it without buying the whole tract too. Besides, I haven’t enough money to pay my share. Maybe we’d better rent it.” Allister shrugged his shoulders. “What's the difference? I have no other use for my money. It wouldn’t cost such a terrible lot even if we had to buy the whole mountain. You need not worry about your share; I couldn’t live up there alone, and I want you for my guest.” “ Are you sure you'll like it?” John- ny insisted. “We'll have to get up before daylight and build a fire in a cold stove with wood we’ve chopped ourselves. The only light we'll have will be kerosene lamps. We’ll have to carry water from a pump, and we'll have to thaw it out first at that. There isn’t even a bathroom.” “The sooner the better,” was Al- lister’s reply, “ I’d like to go to-day if we could.” (COL MUCE JOOKE (F@)