Argosy, Vol. 120, No. 1 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

" RESURRECTION DAY. picked out, slowly, the details of an irregu- | lar chamber. At first glance the chamber seemed to be . excavated from the sand. The floor was of beach sand, as also most of its walls. But there were timbers showing in the walls and roof—solid, heavily fashioned timbers that shored up the fluid sand and kept the space open. Here and there out of the sand pro- truded a broken end of planking, a twist of frayed rope, the corner of a metal ob- . ject that looked like an old stove, a piece of sail cloth, the end of a mattress. Dean held the lantern high while she looked. Except for one object the cellar- like room was empty. That was a stout - wooden box, its corners bound in iron. Marta glanced about her. with an inter- est vastly heightened by Dean’s mysterious . manner. Then she looked at him, a ques- tion in her eyes. Dean answered the question by opening | the lid of the wooden box.- It was not locked. He held the light so: she could see plainly. \ Not a-very large box, say a foot and a half by two and a half long, and probably: two feet deep. It was more than three- quarters filled with dull, yellow dust and lumps that varied in size, from the pea to the walnut. | Marta’s eyes began to shine with excite- ment. There was a higher color in her cheeks. Without asking permission she plunged her hand into the pile-and picked out a heavy, flat, dully shining lump. “Oh!” she exclaimed softly. “Oh, beau- _ tiful!” Dean watched her gloomily. Her fingers caressed the velvety surface | She tossed that back in . of the nugget. favor of another—and tried still others, ad- miring their sheen, their odd shape, their solid, satisfactory weight. She found a thrilling pleasure in stirring the finer dust—in sifting it through her fingers. For a few moments, so fascinating was this play, she forgot Dean. By an effort she recovered her poise. She breathed too quickly to keep her voice as matter-of-fact as she wished. “ There must be a—a fortune. Why, it must be _ worth—worth—” ‘Dean harshly. | denly. 37 ‘“‘T can give you a rough estimate,” said ‘Up to the present it has cost the lives of threescore men. How many women and children have suffered—how many have died miserably because of it, I can’t exactly say. Enough, you may be sure. You're right, it’s worth a great deal. Measuring its cost by the agony it has brought, I’d bevinclined to think it almost priceless.” His bitterness cooled her like an ‘icy wind. She drew back, a little frightened. “You don’t—seem to care—much for it,” she tried lightly. ‘““T detest it. The most useless, futile metal in the world. Too soft for any good purpose. You can make nothing from it— except tears, heartaches, violence and death. It’s yellow, yes—yellow all through, and whomever it touches it stains with its-yel- lowness. Greasy, rotten, wicked. It’s cursed with the curse of Cain. Shall we be’ going out?” He closed the door carefully behind them and hunting out a hammer and nails, re- placed the Navaho rug against it. This task done in gloomy silence, he walked rest- lessly back and forth across the room while Marta waited an explanation. She was puzzled and decidedly uneasy. | “ That stuff in there—” Dean began sud- ‘* Miss Kree, if I were to take it all and dump it into the sea, what would you think about me?”’ ‘Why, -I’d think that you were—well—” “Not right, eh? Brain upset by soli- tude? Insane?” “Yes, I would.” ‘7 knew it! You know, time and again I’ve been on the point of doing that very thing when that notion would stop me. I couldn’t help it—I couldn’t help thinking of what an outsider would think of me. And I’ve been just a little afraid that an out- sider’s judgment would be right. But let me tell you this ”—his gray eyes flashed— “if that were all the gold in the world and it was in my power to sink it out there—so deep it could never be found—I’d do it ina minute. In a minute! I’d do it without one sigh of regret, knowing that I’d done more for humanity than any other one man _ that ever lived. - comiclooolk CO